the more we employ our bodies in decent expressions of gravity humility and apt affection to declare the inward intention of our minds which are full of all vigor and fervent desire and the most awful thoughts of that great Majesty whom we adore For this deportment gives to God a whole Sacrifice when others who in their prayers only hide their minds in their bodies as if they were confined as the Heathen Gods to an immovable and stiff Statue separating the inward actions of their souls from any correspondent gestures of their bodies if they worship God at all which they seem not very fond to declare Yet they devote only half of themselves and honor him in such a manner as other men can neither see nor know unless men had Casements in their Breasts that being opened others might look into them But that the worship of mens bodies ought to accompany the devotions of their minds is so apparent from Gods Injunctions under the Law that it cannot admit of any contradiction And if we argue for it under the establishment in the Gospel from those Commands we sind in the Law we have nothing returned but that the Jews were a dull and stupid people in comparison to our selves and men thus boast instead of having much cause of triumph For notwithstanding all the Invectives we have heard against the pitiful carnality and dulness of the Jews it appears too often to our great loss that they are as witty and more cunning than our selves We indeed having received helps and advantages by the Gospel and a greater proportion of the Spirit of Christ in whom they refused to believe are better instructed in the methods of a more spiritual Religion than they could be under the Law But yet what was then established which reason inforced being agreeable to the natures of mankind that was never yet repeated under the Gospel nor ever can I may confidently affirm may remain still without any check or controll for using it And therefore I cannot come to any damage in affirming that the worship of mens bodies in all their publick addresses unto God ought to accompany that of their minds till better arguments are brought against it than any which I have yet heard or seen 'T is true indeed our Saviour acquaints the woman of Samaria that the hour cometh and now is when those who are of the true Christian Church shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth because he seeks such to worship him John 4.23 Yet all this though when 't is interpreted according to the opinions of some men makes others stagger that are so weak as to desert their reason that they may become wise and go out of themselves to possess their souls and forsake the conduct of their own understandings guided by the rules of Gods Word that they may be frighted into the follies of others All this I say may when justly enlarged on rebuke Schism or Idolatry or false worship But this Text cannot authorize any detraction from external decency in the service of God nor abate from those orderly Rites and Ceremonies that promote Uniformity in the worship of him or tend to the sixation and establishment of true Religion under the Gospel nor such circumstances of devotion which are not in particular and directly abolished by the Messiah having been before Types and Prefigurations of him to come If any of that external worship of our bodies were of this kind which is injoyned by our Christian Superiors our practice would contradict our faith and deny Christ to be come in the flesh and justifie the Jews in the expectation of a Messiah But the truth is the conference betwixt our Saviour and the woman of Samaria is so far from prohibiting publick places of worship or external gestures of our bodies in devotion adapted to the inward reverence of our minds that it establishes a spiritual rational and Evangelical worship in opposition to the Mosaick Constitutions and the Samaritan Schism and Idolatry too and briefly declares that the Christian Religion was now to be established to abolish all other that were in the world that mankind being united in one faith and hope and consenting in one common principle and worshipping God through the mediation of their Redeemer having lived in this world with true devotion to the God that made them and in charity and peace among themselves might at last dye with comfort within their own breasts and then enter into the joy of their Lord. But if all this were largely controverted to a victory what shall we think of that Text of Solomon when he delivers points of a moral and perpetual establishment and of an universal concernment to mankind Eccles 5.1 Keep thy foot when thou comest into the Sanctuary of the Lord c. It was an usual custom amongst the Jews according to the fashion of those Eastern Countreys to signifie their reverence in a sacred place by putting off their Sandals before they entered that they might not prophane or which is all one render common by a defilement an holy place or what was separated from vulgar use to such as was sacred and related unto God From whence with reference to the reason of the thing was that Injunction more ancient than this Text Pull off thy shoos from off thy feet for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground Exod. 3.5 The place being before mean and inconsiderable a toft of ground on which bushes grew yet because God consecrated it by his own presence making it holy for Divine Offices to give Moses his Commission and to declare his Law therefore the signs of reverence were to be used there and external demonstrations of devotion to be exhibited Now this particular action of making bare the feet being an outward testimony of respect in those Countreys where this was commanded it sufficiently instructs all subsequent posterities of men that external signs of humility and submission must be given in the service of the Deity especially such in which we pretend to converse with him and in those places that are devoted to his honour And since divers Countreys use distinct modes of reverence and respect according to their customary signification and acceptance as the inhabitants of Japan salute by pulling off the Shoo when we do the same by pulling off our Hats and uncovering our Heads we may therefore fairly conclude that if Solomon in the forecited Text had spoken to persons used to our Customs and subject to the Constitutions of our Nation he would have said Pull off thy Hat when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evil And then the inference from this will be That we ought in all places dedicated to God on which his Name and Honour are inscribed where we pretend to offer our Christian Sacrifice to testifie the inward devotion of our minds by the outward
But notwithstanding all their pretensions to the Spirit of which I shall hint something before I end which advances their rudeness into perfect Blasphemy If praying extempore they are at any time methodical and faultless 't is owing to their good chance and fortune And they have an escape when they have taken no pains at all for it But when David was bartering for the threshing-floor of Araunah and for Oxen also for a burnt Sacrifice nay the very wood to kindle the fire all which he might have been presented with for nothing David refused so Royal a gift And his reason as himself expressed it was because he would not offer burnt offerings unto the Lord his God of that which should cost him nothing 2 Sam. 24. 24. But these bold men with whom to our sorrow we have to do confidently present to Almighty God that in which no pains were taken in the composure Only a tatling and talkative Service stuff'd with little besides gibberish and impertinency that others who consider what and to whom they offer it cannot without falshood and irreverence join with them in But the halt and the blind are their common Sacrifices and strong lungs the best Altar on which these oblations are made Yet all this they think to smother when they are kindled into passion and fury in the obscurity of those phrases and length of those sentences in which they pretend to offer their comon supplications unto God And they expect the joint consent of a Congregation to what they never heard of before Nor could they understand when it was uttered For their raptures so muffle up their notions and both are so mix'd with their petitions which they wrap in Clouds and obscure Metaphors that the meaner sort cannot understand them But sigh and groan they know not why And the more considering part that are not blind have just cause to suspect such Religion which the Patrons and promoters endeavour with so much care to secure from a more severe and strict examination All that I admire in it is how they can be dark at noon-day and mount out of sight on a sudden and extempore Unless whatever their pretensions are to quickness of invention they study such unusual expressions designedly to amuse but not to inform the judgements of men As Cotta in Tully speaks of Heraclitus de nat Deor. lib. 3. Quae diceret intelligi noluit That he would not have what he said to be understood But in prayer to God when 't is made vocal men are supposed to declare their wants and petition for relief And this especially when any Community joins in it ought to be managed with an honest plainness without any mysterious riddles or equivocal language or petitions wrap'd up in mourning Metaphors as if they were to be buried amongst the Dead or any other Coptical and Egyptian expressions that are difficult to decipher and much more to be understood For these are things that as well baffle the minds of the simple as too frequently vail the hypocrisie of him that makes the oblation Nay very often amuse those of better understanding so that they are not able with any judgment to say Amen at the close of all Nay it hazards also and too frequently destroys that faith which ought to be earnestly contended for and safety preserved pure and unspotted For it 's as easie and indeed attended with less difficulty to introduce a strange Creed by using this unbounded liberty in prayer as it is by an unstinted latitude in preaching and to insinuate into mens minds either old or new condemned Heresies by a frequent repetition of those things that tend to their promotion or establishment in our prayers to God When the souls of those that join in the devotions are very intent and open to receive what we say with greediness and desire Especially when men are busied in raising their affections to their utmost height There 't is not hard to introduce false Doctrine into the belief of others Which like a false story that by frequent relation comes at last to be received as true Not only by the hearers who are easily imposed on But he that tells it having so often related it forgetting that he once knew it to be false at last thinks it to be really true Nay in prayer where a false point in Religion is misted and wrap'd up in a petition 't is affected and swallowed with the petition And more easily digested than if it were declared in an Homily or Sermon Because in hearing Sermons men imploy their judgments more than their affections But in prayer the affections are usually more busie than their understandings And that it is very common with those extempore men that take upon them to conceive prayer in a Congregation to insinuate Doctrines in their petitions is so manifest to all observing persons who have been present at such meetings that a person of any judgment at all may certainly judge of the opinion of the gifted Brother that prayeth by his Confessions Petitions and Thanksgivings to God And then where people are led by the authority or examples of those whom they embrace for their Ministers which in many things the common multitude must and in most points it is notorious in many of our Separatists what they use in their prayers and speeches unto God must needs obtain a greater reputation with them than what is only address'd to men Because they then think their Ministers to be most serious cautious and devout too This therefore was warily and exceedingly well provided against after the extraordinary operations of the Spirit ceased by the Council at Laodicea Can. 18. where the Fathers Assembled injoined their Churches to use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same Liturgy or form of prayer both Morning and Evening And in the fifty ninth Canon of the same Council it was Ordained that the vulgarly composed Psalms which were the labours of persons who had not sufficient understanding in these things or any Books that were not Canonical should not be sung or read in the Churches Where also for mens satisfaction against the Papists in this matter you may find the Titles or Names of those Books which the Council then received as Canonical And in the Milevitan Council Can. 12. it was Decreed that those Prayers and Offices which were approved by an Assembly or Council should only be used excluding others in all their publick Administrations Lest any thing should either through inconsideration or ignorance be uttered before the people that might contradict the common faith received and continued among them And if the Governours of Churches in those daies were so Prophetical and cautious in their Establishments for the present and transferring the most Holy Christian Religion from their own Age to the succeeding so as nothing might be conveyed to Posterity but what was Orthodox and of Primitive constitution And to obviate that extravagant itch of men which since we have found increasing into a
may recover strength and retrieve their vigour by these smaller interruptions and not suffer too great a weakness to steal insensibly upon them by being alwayes bent to their utmost power Therefore the precepts and phrases in holy Scripture that seem to import continuance in prayer cannot be designed in the utmost latitude which the sound of words may usually imply but they must admit of limitation and restraint So that to be short in this We continue in prayer and pray without ceasing and the like 1. When we have such prepared and ardent love to our Maker our selves and the fellow creatures of our own species that the exciting causes of prayer and devotion are alwayes present when the opportunities of this duty offer themselves 2. When we keep our selves in a perpetual readiness and aptitude for devotion when ever we have time and occasion and the reasons for prayer return upon us For as we ought alwayes to be prepared for death because we know not how suddenly it may assault us so we must endeavour to preserve such a setled temper in our own minds that our intentions and affections may be ready to exert themselves in prayer upon any emergent or periodical occasion 3. When we perform the solemn duties of our devotion with the highest strains and fervours of our souls continuing instant in prayer when a longer protraction or a seeming denyal of an answer to our petitions does not discourage us to a relaxation or the omission of our duty but our diligence is renewed our supplications doubled and we add force and vigour to our prayers This we are taught by that excellent Parable of the unjust Judge and importunate Widow to the end sayes the Text that men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint Luke 18.1 Lastly We may be then said to pray without ceasing to continue instant in prayer to pray alwayes and the like when we make the returns of our prayers frequent and our supplications to God are willingly presented as often as times and opportunities are afforded us At least it cannot come short of this to make prayer our every dayes work So that nullâ die intermittantur certa tempora orandi we must not omit our stated times and hours of devotion And this will appear no less rational than prayer it self is pleasant and advantageous when we shall consider that we are dependent beings and daily need the influences of Heaven to supply our necessities and relieve our wants and the kind Providence of Almighty God to support and nourish us The continual casualties we are liable to and the frequent dangers we are involved in by our own inadvertency the snares of the world the nets which unfaithful or malicious men spread for us and the violence or insinuations of the Devil may call upon us for our daily prayers to him who has promised to hear and to deliver us The daily presenting our prayers to God is recommended to us by the daily Sacrifice and Offerings of the Law Numb 28. at the beginning These were Types of the Christian Service which being performed Morning and Evening becomes our solemn and reasonable devotion Evening Morning and at Noon too will I pray and cry aloud sayes David Psal 55.17 And Daniel thought prayer so indispensable a duty that rather than omit it he would endure the utmost severity even to be cast into the Lions Den Dan. 6.10 This is injoined in that prayer of our Lord which is to be both our form and our pattern where we are taught to petition our daily bread day by day Nor does he only by this prohibit too inordinate a care for the things of this life but injoins us to testifie our continual dependence upon our Maker commanding frequent and daily petitions And it is but reasonable that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies should now serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our lives Luke 1.75 of which comprehensive duties our prayers and devotions are necessary parts And thus much in relation to the second particular mentioned in the Scheme of this discourse to consider what may be the import of some phrases and precepts in the Scriptures which seem to set forth this duty of prayer as if it were to be continued without intermission CHAP. III. I Now proceed to the Third Head of this discourse of prayer to make some enquiry concerning the object of it and determine to whom we ought to address our selves in our religious devotions of this kind And this must without all peradventure be only to the Supream God the Creator and Governour of all beings inferiour to himself We honour as we ought the Graces and Vertues of Saints departed and the memory of the just is sacred to us we admire also the excellencies of Angels and praise God for the various and useful workmanship of his hands Nay we treat all things in our thoughts and discourses with that esteem which is suitable to their beings or that order which they possess in the Universe and we advance our contemplations when we think of Angels suitable to the purity and limited perfection of their beings and their honourable employment of being the messengers of the Lord of Hosts who has Legions of them at his disposal But there being from him neither command nor argument for invocation of them nor any reason to expect their aid otherwise than they are ordered by the King of Heaven we therefore make no addresses to them by solemn prayers and separate devotions because we are afraid to pay such services to a Creature which must necessarily detract from the honour due to our Creator only 'T is true indeed we pay our ceremonies and demonstrations of respect to men on earth suitable to their natural or acquired dignity And common Justice commands our internal value and esteem in some proportion to their excellency and vertues But we do not presently fall down and worship every one that is richly adorned nor petition those things that are not in his power to bestow Nay to proceed as far as we can without Idolatry or sin we should not refuse to pay such civil testimonies of our respects as the Patriarchs of old gave either to glorified Saints or innocent and ever blessed Angels should they at any time assume shapes and mix themselves among dust and ashes to negotiate any affairs with us and descend to the similitude of a humane conversation Provided that we have sufficient time to examine the truth of the Apparition that we may be assured we are not imposed on either by the Devil in the likeness of an Angel of Light nor the s lights and tricks of cunning Priests or any false appearance to our own imaginations or either subtile or roguish inventions of other men but might have good assurance that we are not deluded Yet it will not at all from hence follow that acts of Religion appropriated to God may be performed to
those to whom we acknowledge a civil respect to be just and due this being only an estimation expressed by outward signs and gestures suitable to their beings and degrees of perfection And however men of contrary perswasions especially the Romanists who pretend to proportion their practice suitable to the conceptions of their minds may save themselves in this particular from the imputation of Idolatry by stating curiously the termination of their worship yet they cannot free themselves in this particular from error and presumption from a voluntary humility and will-worship when they pay such acts of Religion to creatures in glory as approach so near to the worship of the Deity that betwixt it and Idolatry there hangs no more than a small cobweb a very nice and thin distinction But we dare not constitute Mediators of our own when God has appointed one for us One even as God is so and consequently must exclude others There is one God sayes the Apostle and one Mediator betwixt God and man the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 Nor will any distinction here serve because our Mediator intercedes in vertue of his Sacrifice and therefore if there are more Mediators for us in Heaven more must have shed their blood on earth We desire indeed the prayers of men living among our selves as S. Paul did when he beseech'd the Brethren to pray for himself but we do not invocate them by acts of Religion when we beg this charitable office from them Not do we intrench upon the great Intercessor in the highest Heaven when we desire these intercessions upon the earth but only that the incense of other mens prayers ascending through the Skies to the supream Palace of the Most High may be presented unto God by the hands of our High Priest resident there not only as a token of his triumphs and victories whilst he was upon the earth or reassuming the right belonging to his God head but on purpose also to make intercession for us If the Saints above could receive notices of our desires and we knew how to signifie our wants to them and present our grievances to their apprehensions as we do to those who converse with us here It is then probable that many men would think it reasonable to make that their desire to them though not by a religious act of prayer which now they conjecture to be vain and fruitless Because their own necessities themselves being not yet compleatly glorified might incline them to pray for men whom they left in this lower world in relation to those things especially that may tend to the fulfilling the number of Gods elect and the hastning that Kingdom which shall be compleated hereafter that all partaking in a glorious translation or resurrection they themselves may have the compleatment of that happiness which they now desire but shall not fully possess till the re-union of their bodies to their souls which death yet keeps in a state of separation Besides this seems reasonable to be allowed that the charity of souls now in Heaven cannot but be advanced and extended far beyond the possibilities of this world and therefore as it is very probable unless we suppose their understandings and memories to dye with them that they may be now so mindful of the necessities of men in general that are left behind them in a miserable world as to exert some acts in common that may be proportionable to prayer for us So could men who are yet resident on the earth know any method of signifying their particular desires to them they might perhaps insert them in their wishes and make such petitions their own For if the rich Glutton in Hell was so sensible of his Brethrens danger as to beg Abraham to send Lazarus to them to assure them of the truth of a future torment and to warn them to flee from the wrath to come much more may we suppose the Saints in Heaven to carry away with them such notices and remembrance of the hazards and miseries of mankind in this world that their enlarged charity may cause them in general to petition for their relief But it does not at all from hence follow that the Saints above can be sensible of all the particular accidents in this world which now happen since their departure Nor does Bellarmine's making a Looking glass of his Maker at all help the contrary assertion the viewing all things in God tanquam in speculo being as unintelligible by the reasons of men as it is invisible to those who have no eyes to see it 'T is true indeed God may reveal to them the necessities of the world and somethings which happen here and there is joy in Heaven for the conversion of a sinner Luke 15.10 But that he does these things to Saints departed we have no evidence but the contrary is asserted in Sacred Writ For Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledges us not Isa 63.16 And therefore nesciunt mortui etiam sancti quid agunt vivi etiam eorum filii sayes S. Austin in curâ pro mortuis The Saints that are dead know not what the living do nay their very Children In vain therefore would it be though it were not mixed with any impiety nor done in the way of prayer and religious invocation to desire any help from those who are not acquainted with our wants nor any where appointed to convey blessings to us Nay if we were assured that they knew all our particular needs as they have been acquainted with the infirmities of mankind it could not be an argument to incline us to implore their aid and assistance especially with such solemnity and devotion as is used in prayer Because God from whom we receive directions for the substantials and essential methods of our devotion has no where commanded such circular prayers that by the mediation of these we should at any time address our selves to him We are directed only by our Blessed Saviour to ask in his name and to this we have the promise of an answer Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name sayes Christ he will give it you John 16.23 And the Author to the Hebrews plainly exhorts that since we have so great an High Priest who is passed into the Heavens Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Heb. 4.6 Here is no need of similitudes from Courts below to teach us methods of address to him by whom Princes reign Or if there were what man that may himself present his petition to an earthly King and discourse his affair freely with him would use the mediation of a Master of Requests especially if the King himself had committed the care of this business to his Son We need not argue our selves to reverence and humility in our addresses to God when we consider the distance and disproportion betwixt him and our selves that he is our Creator and we the
workmanship of his hands and therefore he has a right of being petitioned in that method himself has appointed especially when he has been so favourable to us who are sinful dust and ashes that without his protection should be scattered by the wind and blown away with every storm And we must easily if we are not too obstinate be excited to exercise due affection with devout intention and an awful though brisk fervency in our minds if we reflect upon the dangers we are liable to when we are not guarded by the Divine Providence the wants and necessities of our own frail and weak beings the continual dependence we have upon our Maker who is the great preserver of men and the love and favour which he demonstrates to those who reverently adore him and call upon his name I shall therefore draw the conclusion of this particular by giving some reasons of the former assertion That God alone is to be the object of our prayers when we pretend to make religious addresses CHAP. IV. THe reasons why God alone is to be the object of our prayers are 1. Because that supream veneration which we demonstrate by our solemn and most intense devotion in prayer can be due to none but to him who has all possible perfection which none except the Supream God is endowed with For if there were any perfection or excellency seated in another independent of himself God would then be finite in his excellencies something being supposed of perfection to be inherent in another which is not in himself But all creatures are dependent and limited and could not be creatures if they were not so therefore whatever rayes of glory or perfection shine upon and adorn other beings to make them beautiful in their own kind are emitted from that glorious Sun which produces all things and rules them by his power Hence came that solemn acknowledgement of pious David before all the Congregation Thine O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heaven and the earth is thine Thine is the Kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted as head above all Both riches and honour come of thee and thou reignest over all and in thine hand is power and might and in thine hand is to make great and to give strength unto all 1 Chron. chap. 29. v. 11 12. This also is most devoutly acknowledged in that great and solemn Fast of the Jews Nehem. 9.6 Thou even thou art Lord alone thou hast made heaven the heaven of heavens with all their host the earth and all things therein the seas and all that is therein and thou preservest them all and the host of heaven worshippeth thee And therefore who shall not fear thee O Lord say the seven Angels and glorifie thy name For thou only art holy because all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgements are made manifest Rev. 15.4 The creation of all things gives God the soveraignty over all and from his dominion is infer'd his providence and his providence is an argument of our prayer and invocation as an honour due to him from mankind by reason of his own self-existent sufficiency and our dependence upon his eternal Being Because amongst the Gods there was none like him nor are any works like unto his Therefore sayes David all Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy name Psal 86.8 9. So that the foundation of mens worship being excellency and greatness and this being originally and independently in God and in him alone it follows that all honour and glory are due to him and none to others but for his sake and by his command and particularly that our divine acknowledgements such as are pretended in our prayers he alone is capable of and consequently must be the object of our devotions Secondly I argue the truth of this from the first notions men have of religion this having its prime relation unto God by this we enter into covenant with him and oblige our selves to be subject to him according to duty incumbent upon mankind by the Laws of their creation For whether the name be derived à relegendo or religando according to the opinion of Isidore or S. Austin it must still be referr'd to God Or if we had rather accept of Tully's definition that it is virtus quae superiori cuidam naturae cultum ceremoniamque affert a vertue that brings worship and ceremony to a certain superiour nature this superiour nature determined by cuidam is but one even the supream and most excellent being Now prayer being an eminent act of religion it follows that it is due to God only I know religion and prayer too are terms of an equivocal significancy and therefore capable of having many distinctions framed concerning them to evade arguments rather than answer them when they endeavour to confine Gods worship to himself when I treat therefore of religion here though in a larger sense it includes other things I intend only those proper acts of duty and worship due to the supream Being flowing from the nature and reason of mankind which our own obligations prompt us to or imposed on us by God himself which he has declared in Sacred Writ in general or particular injunctions and by the inferences that reason may most directly and justly draw from it And when I speak of prayer I suppose it to be a branch of this religion and a solemn part of divine worship Now whatever else besides God himself shares in this detracts from the honour due to him and joyns the Altar of God with Idols For whatsoever else we admit to partake in such religious worship so as to become an object of our prayers becomes a copartner with God himself and the Universe consisting of God and creatures what ever else we regiously invocate must be some of the work of the Almighties hands and then we give his glory to another and his praise to them that are not gods consequently we dispose the Creators honour to his own creatures and detract from the Architect to exalt his building An affront that he will never suffer who is a Jealous God though it be given to the most worthy creature because he has declared against and forbidden it but never signified the lawfulness of it either by his publick command or permission unless because he has suffered Idols till the worshippers sins were ripe for vengeance men will from thence conclude that he approved it And dare bold men make Idols to themselves which God so constantly forbids and hates Or take others into partnership with him when he has declared himself to be the great Jehovah such a Lord as besides him there is none other But further that God is only to be worshipped in religion seems a proposition so firmly rivetted in the natures of men that though many have mistaken their God yet few would
pray to that which they thought to be none at all and therefore when they supplicated such Images which they could not chuse but know were nothing but the carved work of mens hands yet they therefore prayed to them because they thought them to be inspired with divinity and that the Deity it self was confined to some residence in them and so they pretended to address themselves to their God within the Image and not unto the Block or Stone it self but through the case they pass'd to the divinity such little shifts do others also who should understand Religion better use to shelter themselves under the shadow of their Idols being so well instructed by the Pagans who were more ancient than themselves But to give the honour of God to a creature must needs appear unreasonable in Religion since no Subject can with Loyalty pay the homage due only to the King to any though the most noble Peer when it is referved to the King alone and therefore God having reserved divine worship such as solemn prayer of which I treat only to himself no man can lawfully give it to another and think it to consist with true Religion But of this more in my last argument for prayer to be made to God only Thirdly God alone is to be the object of our prayers because none but he can answer the end and design of our petitions Who amongst all the glories of the Creation is so capable of understanding or bestowing the things we petition for or endowed with such qualifications as may render him fit for rational creatures in all their exigencies to become devout petitioners unto Can any give us the pardon of our sins by his own authority or dispence with the breach of Gods Law but himself When he conveys this by the ministration of others they are only his substituted Delegates and he no more gives his glory to them than he will part with his praise to a graven Image Who can bestow grace or glory but he who has an infinite fulness of both whose treasure is inexhaustible whose spirit from whence our graces are conveyed is compared in Scripture not only to the Wind which bloweth where it listeth but also to a fountain of living waters always springing up unto eternal life And who can bestow the glory above but he whose presence makes it so whose right hand holds Stars and has all Crowns at his own disposal Who can rid us of many troubles especialy those that disquiet our minds but he that can rebuke tempests and storms dispel the clouds that hang over them and deliver the righteous out of all their afflictions There are three things necessarily supposed in a person qualified for rational creatures to make their religious addresses to 1. That he be capable of hearing and understanding our petitions 2. That he is able to bestow what we supplicate him for And 3. That he is willing to give what we beg if it may be consistent with his prudence and our welfare And whom can we find thus qualified but the great God whom we adore and worship Who is omniscient and can understand our petitions and knows our wants Omnipotent and therefore can answer our desires and of infinite goodness and so willing to relieve us in such things as may consist with his providence and our advantage If these things are wanting in the object of our prayers all our addresses will be rendred fruitless If he cannot hear or is not able to relieve or is very hard and not willing to be kind to us To what purpose then do we utter our wants and earnestly beg relief from him If beggars knew such men among our selves they would spare their breath whilst these passed by so that I may now propose Eliphaz's question in the Book of Job with better reason than that in which the Papists urge it Call now if there be any that will answer thee and to which of the Saints wilt thou turn Job 5.1 Angels themselves would be charged with folly should they attempt an answer to our religious petitions without a declar'd permission or command from their Maker how much more those who have dwelt in houses of clay whose foundation was in the dust who have been crushed before the moth and all their excellency and glory which we admired here went away when they were destroyed from Morning to Evening The dead for ought I could ever yet understand can no more hear us than Baal could his Prophets when they cryed to him from morning till noon they can no more answer to our call than they can praise God with the instruments of speech when their deferred carcasses lay rotting in a Grave But God himself has given testimonies of his audience and several waies convers'd with men He hears our prayers and understands our thoughts afar off He has three attributes that render him fit for our religious addresses For 1. he is omnipotent and therefore there is nothing we can petition from him but he is able to grant and to bestow it For power being only an ability so to exercise causality as to influence causes to produce their effects he that is the Author of causes being the origin of all things must needs be the fountain of all power and he that is so must be omnipotent and therefore is able to fullfil our desires 2. He is omniscient too and therefore certainly knows our wants For knowledge consists in an exertion of power as all actions proceed from an ability and are the exercise of some power he therefore that is omnipotent must needs be omniscient also For were there any thing that he could not know there would be something out of the compass of his power and the attribute of his omnipotence would be weakned and destroyed nor does the not knowing or effecting impossibilities or contradictions at all invalidate these glorious attributes because those are so far from being things in act that they are not capable of being such in power nor can any futurity give them being And what is and must remain nothing can neither be the proper object of strength or knowledge 3. God has infinite goodness essential to his being the creation of the world proceeded from it and that he now supports it is owing to his grace and favour and his goodness besides particular examples is visible to us in his daily providence without the two former attributes he could neither have made nor could he order and govern the world and to make him a Being with infinite knowledge and Almighty power without any goodness to allay the exercise of it surpposes him to be nothing else but an omnipotent Devil for what Beings are that have sufficient power without any good nature to restrain it they that are frequently oppress'd by others know by too woful and melancholy experience These glorious Attributes therefore of power knowledge and goodness being thus rationally fixed in the God whom we adore he becomes a fit
object of our prayers and one in whom we may confide and trust since under the shadow of his wings there is safety He has declared that he keeps mercy for thousands and the marks of it are visible in our beings living and our allotments in this world and especially it appears in his wonderful redemption of mankind when he gave his Son to be a Ransome for us all and received him into Heaven that he might fulfill his promises made on Earth and make continual intercessions for us in vertue of his bloody sacrifice upon the Cross To distrust the goodness of such a God would be both ungrateful and inhumane to be the most surly and vilest Pensioners in the world to provoke the utmost of his wrath and fury and we must unman our selves before we can thus ungod the Deity Lastly that I may urge a most concluding argument God alone is to be the object of our prayers because he has commanded us thus to worship him and has prohibited the offering our religious devotions to any other This is engravened upon the tables of the moral Law which is of a standing and perpetual establishment That we shall have no other Gods but himself And that we shall not make to our selves any Idol to worship nor the similitude of any thing religiously to fall down before it Exod. 20. and he backs the prohibition with an argument drawn from the Jealousy he has of being deprived of his honour and a solemn declaration that he will severly punish the guilty We find therefore that when Aaron to appease the multitude made a molten Calf which the people supposed to be a representation of their Deliverer and the God that brought them out of Aegypt rearing an Altar upon which they made their burnt and peace offerings though they seemed to terminate their worship in God transferring their oblations through this representation to him that was superiour to the offerings and the Idol making God the ultimate object of their devotions by proclaiming this to be a feast unto Jehovah yet we find that the fire kindled for this sacrifice made the wrath of God to burn nor could Moses's intercession expiate the crime but he blotted their names out of the book of Life there were immediately slain three thousand of them and God continued to plague the people scattering their carcases about the Wilderness and in their progress visited this sin upon them Exod. 33. Nay men are not only thus cautioned by many precepts and examples in the Old Testament that they approach not near the confines of Idolatry to give Gods glory to another or his praise to graven or molten Images too numerous for me to reckon up here and granted by all who have any knowledge of those Scriptures But God has sufficiently forbidden it under the New where he has appointed his worship more proportionate to his being and the service of Christians to be agreeable to his nature in spirit and in truth neither with the corporal representation of the Samaritans nor in their schism nor yet according to the worship of the Jews by bloody sacrifices or under types and shadows prefiguring any Messias to come nor yet as the Gentiles by any of their inferiour Daemons When Satan tempted our blessed Saviour with the same bait which others make a tender of to those whom they endeavour to proselyte All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me He presently repell'd him with disdain and scorn Get thee behind me Satan For it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Matth. 4.10 If God would have been worshipped by the mediation of any but the great Mediator of the New Covenant who is the Image of the invisible God he would not have left mankind in the dark but there would have appeared light in this as well as other things that seem not so considerable to have guided them to the performance of that which he expected in his solemn worship from them But no directions to this appear nor can the Scriptures at all patronize it unless corrupted by false glosses and forced interpretations Yet the contrary is as clear as the Sun and all eyes that are not blind may behold it Angels themselves those glorious creatures which are apt to draw the utmost of our civil respects to them refuse to share in the honour of their Maker and prohibit the Testimonies of Divine worship The Angel which appeared to converse with Saint John when this beloved Disciple prostrated himself to worship him suddenly replyed see thou do it not and urges two arguments to inforce his prohibition enough to deter all mankind from paying acts of Religion to a creature 1. sayes he I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren the off-spring of the universal Parent therefore such honour is not due to me 2. God being the object of adoration such homage is justly appropriated to himself and therefore sayes the Angel worship God Rev. 19.10 Nay worshipping God by the mediation of Angels beguiles Christians of the reward and Crown which they strive for Col. 2.18 And much more must they miss their recompence if they make their religious addresses to the Angels themselves begging of them what is part of Gods prerogative to grant Now as the invocation of these detracts so much from the glory of their Maker so much more do we derogate from his honour if we make religious petitions unto Saints For these are of an inferior classis their natures being not capable of those embellishments that adorn Angels Therefore when Cornelius fell down and worshipped Saint Peter he snatched him up and bad him stand upon his feet and forbear such signals of reverence to him which were usually paid in acts of devotion For sayes he I my self also am a man Acts 10.26 Thus also did Paul and Barnabas refuse the worship of the Lycaonians rending their cloaths at their publick blasphemy and intended Idolatry and stopp'd their Sacrifice with an argument that methinks should startle others We also are men of like passions with you Acts 14.15 This is the last argument therefore why God alone is to be the object of our prayers because we are commanded to worship him in sacred Writ and forbidden to offer our devotions to another And this may suffice for answer to my third Enquiry by shewing us to whom we ought to make our religious addresses CHAP. V. I Proceed now to enquire into the mode of our address to the great God whom for his infinite excellencies we adore and worship upon supposition that he only is to be the object of our religious devotions in which solemn prayer bears a great share In this some of the controversies among us raised by persons who are gone out from us will be something though not as much as I intend regarded And therefore I shall enquire into the manner in which we ought to pray And 1. with
expressions could not certainly be stopt by the Clouds but must dart themselves clear through them and ascend above the Moon Sun and more lofty Stars and lodge themselves in the highest Heavens Nay they themselves who by rubbing and chafing and other implements have been advanced to this height of carrying their souls out of their bodies like the Heathen Enthusiasts who divined in a fury have caused other men to believe that to be inspired from above which takes its original from mens own indisposition and madness Such things being the fruits of a warm constitution and the effects of an odd temperament in mens bodies pass frequently for the perfection of the mind and an airy soul when it breaths forth extraordinary fancy is supposed to be blown upon first by that which bloweth where it listeth And yet this may be the fruits of passion and the effects of an ill temperament of body that passes for the perfection of an inspired mind and many things are supposed to proceed from the communication of Spirits which are nothing but a disease of the body nay oftentimes the product only of craft and subtilty This may imitate some primitive inspired extraordinary worship when the Prophets spake by turns and others were to hold their tongues But though it resembles some kind of worship to God 't is now no more than an unreasonable service And 't is no wonder that error and falshood being fairly varnished with a shew of truth should be embraced by many Proselytes who either will nor or cannot give themselves time and retirement to consider and search diligently into causes and effects And this is too apparent and troublesom also to many men who find these things much operating on the weaker Sex who are usually more guided by affection than reason and so are led captive to divers lusts Yet that which causes error to be courted instead of truth is some resemblance it bears to it because it has as Plutarch reports of the Egyptian Fables 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some faint and obscure representations of truth and these things are very often promoted by a persons education predisposition and temperament of body in which a soul is imprisoned and locked up but at last breaks loose by the strength of the disease through the pores of the body and obtains an unusual vehicle to carry it We read of some in Tully de Divinat lib. 1. who affirmed and we need not go so far back for them ad opinionem imperitorum fict as esse religiones That Religion was fitted according to the opinions of those that were unskilful and not able to make inquisition into the nature and truth of things But if ever there were the Being and Attributes of God so stated as we consent in here and yet a worship given to that Being as unsuitable to him as it is almost possible which imposed a cheat upon mankind Then considering the principles the favourers pretend to be their conduct an odd sort of Dissenters among us apparently practise it Nay their way of worship is suited to the dispositions of the weaker and more infirm judgements and this appears in very many of the Proselytes to it who really believe what they profess and their Religion is not weighed by their advantage For we find by experience and more converse than they were willing formerly to have with us that Women are wonderfully devoted to Separation and though their Husbands are prevailed upon to come to Church the Wives are yet addicted to a Conventicle But few men who do not make secular interest their God of any briskness and strength of parts embrace those methods Yet some there are that permit themselves to be bound hand and foot with their wives apron-strings or follow the paths and allurements of a Mistress or the custom of their Trade or the advantage of an Office and the same Motives when Religion is so low will bring them back to Church again or equally incline them to Geneva or Rome And truly I have observed in my time though I wish not for the opportunity again that the numbers of Sexes are extremely disproportionable among them Which has created some wonder but no astonishment For I quickly found that it had been the method of the great Deceiver of mankind to gain an interest in the weaker Sex that he might the more easily entangle the stronger Thus the old Serpent began with Eve and proceeded afterwards by Miriam the Sister of Moses and still persisted by the wife of Job Nay after the Revelation of the glorious Gospel when his power and craft was ebbing and must abate the Jews by his instigation stirred up the devout and honourable women to expel Paul and Barnabas out of their Coasts Acts 13.50 Thus also Simon Magus that bewitching Father of the Gnosticks accomplished his designs by the help of Helena Montanus by Maximilla the French men by their Pucelle de Dieu and our English Anabaptists by their Maid of Kent I mention not these things to undervalue the glory of that Sex although it may serve to abate their pride and stop their mouths when they are troublesom and censorious since not only the sin of man but the propensity and inclination to it came at first by the means of a Woman But I urge this to abate our zeal and affection to such a worship in which the weaker sort become the great Devotionists and not to espouse wayes of Religion by the example of those whose airy thoughts will not settle long enough upon one object to consider it well And though this be not a sufficient argument to conclude against the worship of those with whom we have now entered into debate yet it is enough to raise suspition and make us inquisitive about such matters But if we approach nearer to the worship of our Dissenters we shall find their prayers many times to consist of such expressions as are too often unworthy of the Deity whilst they assume too great familiarity with God and the persons that utter them in their peoples behalf are more bold with him than a well bred person will pretend to even among such as are not much his superiours Cotta in Tully De natur Deor. lib. 3. having severely disputed against the Grecian and the Roman Gods says Omnis igitur talis à philosophiâ pellatur error ut cum de diis immortalibus disputemus dicamus digna diis immortalibus When we speak of the Immortal Gods let us speak things worthy of them The Heathen may here instruct the Christian or at least some that pretend to it who in spight of confutation would be accounted the best of that denomination that bold expressions uncouth clamours and loose incoherent and many times insignificant sentences which are the effects of inconsideration sudden inventions and the extempore raptures of a nimble fancy do not suit with the wisdom and greatness of that God to whom all our prayers are addressed nor the reason and understandings
well act as they who pretend to the most magnified inspiration And as the Swan was never used in Sacrifices under the Law So will an Hypocrite though he is never so subtil be rejected by God in the service of the Gospel Because like the Swan under the white plumes and pleasant voice their lies hidden a black Skin But notwithstanding this the Hypocrite in a seeming Zeal and Devotion may frequently exceed in external sweat and gesture too him that is most serious and cordial in his prayers Though when we see so much smoke we easily perceive that the flame does not ascend For although art may vye with nature it self and the cunning Hypocrite who trades in Religion may enable himself or his customers may inform him how he may outdo the rational acts of true devotion so as to entrap the multitude yet in this the cheat will be plainly discovered and his design will be written in open characters on the matter he utters with a fervency beyond the modesty of devotion and appear also to the most vulgar eye if the head in which it is fix'd is considerate Themistocles was discerned to be no right Athenian even by a plain and simple woman of the City because the great care he had in the pronunciation of his words caused her to perceive that he affected only but had not the proper phrase and accents of Athens And indeed unless extempore men worship one God and we another it will not be either a formal head exactly adorned nor a grave aspect nor either hard or soft expressions although attended with an affected tone No nor Zeal transported into Frenzy and madness nor all the effects of subtilty or art or the easie endowments even of nature it self that can be able to recommend our prayers to that God who searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins of the children of men for he if we have true notions of him loves an honest and good mind beyond either the complements of the Formalist or the cheats of the Hypocrite we know that the Pharisees were excellent scourers of the outside of themselves and very prying into the inside of others that they could make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter when yet their own inward parts were full of ravening and all manner of wickedness These could be very precise and strict in smaller matters to the paying tyth of mint and rue and all manner of herbs but passed over judgement and the love of God Luke 11. And the Epicures notwithstanding the luxury and irregularity of their lives could speak of God in the publick Schools of Athens with greater reverence than any other Sect of Philosophers And yet we find in Tully at the latter end of his first Book de Naturâ Deorum that Epicurus retollit oratione relinquit Deos That he could allow those Gods in his Speeches which in reality he denied And whilst there is such a thing as falshood in the world and men may make profession with their tongues of what their minds do not heartily assent to There can be no certain and infallible judgement made from wordy expressions or external gestures nor yet from seeming transports of devotion Tacitus informs us that the Malecontents in Galba's time tristitiam simulabant propiores contumaciae That they counterfeited sorrow when their minds were stubborn And although many men among our selves may have steady brows and fixed eyes and walk with a grave and upright deportment yet privacy may discover to one who observantly converses with them that they are either empty or else frothy and vain Far too many are guilty of that fault which Cicero pretends against Verres Frontem atque oculos mentiri Their foreheads and their eyes speak falshoods Boldness is a common shelter to these things and confidence is almost characteristical to those that are adversaries to our Church prayers so great and large that 't is a rare thing to find modesty enough to hold the tongues of those who have been apparently baffled much less to make their faces blush when their hands were all smeer'd with blood nay so much as to ascend to the Throne with Swords and Staves not to mention what they took thence and most barbarously butchered and after all an Hue and Cry is perpetually sent out after their repentance and yet they hide it that it cannot be found But instead of an acknowledgement of their own guilt they will in despight of the experience of mankind averr their piety to exceed the Religion of other men and from their fondness to themselves infer the kindness of God to them Like that bloody and cruel Tyrant Domitian who painted Jupiter in the Market place with pleasant colours and himself in his bosom though he should have been represented trodden under his feet Strabo indeed tells us that it is impossible to persuade women and the promiscuous multitude to Religion by mere reason and dry Philosophy but that for this there is need of Superstition and this cannot be advanced without Fables and Wonders Geor. lib. 1. Yet the great God whom all Christians pretend to adore never ushered in his Religion into the World but by such Miracles as were real and true But when such a Religion as ours is becomes planted and sufficiently by Miracles beyond all the abilities of natural Causes that we are acquainted with proved to be Divine the rational account that may be given of it it no wise contradicting natural Religion will sufficiently inforce its esteem and exercise without the addition of any new juggles or devices of our own And therefore the Romans that the Religion which they embraced though false in its self might neither suffer by flattery or fraud when the Soothsayers increased so fast in their City made an Order of Senate that none but Gentlemen should practise these matters left so exalted and Divine an art should be degraded from the Majesty of Religion to a baser trade of fraud and cousenage As Tully tells us in his first Book of Divinat And indeed it holds good and rational under the profession of a true Religion more than it could possibly under a false For where as in the daies of Jeroboam the Priesthood is formed out of the meanest of the people they will not scruple to carry wisps of Hay to feed Calves at Dan and Bethel But farther and besides all this we now find Secular interest a most prevailing principle in the minds of men and therefore is it that upon a late and more particular scrutiny we find mens particular Religion stoop to their own personal advantages and the rites and devotions which they ought to exercise in the true profession to be countermanded when injoyn'd by lawful Authority by the profit which attends mens particular Trades and occupations As if because Demetrius and others made silver Shrines for Diana it must presently be concluded that great is Diana of the Ephesians This is the main reason why our Sectaries
understand the meaning of what is in the Text forbidden either by what is translated vain repetitions or from the custom of those Heathens who are said to use them The word used by the Evangelist is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When ye pray do not speak as Battus did Now though Suidas explains it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking much yet the Text even in the prime signification of the word prohibits all frequent repetitions of the same sense and language as one Battus did from whose name part of the compounded Verb is taken and translated into the Text who made long Hymns full of Tautologies he being a very idle and empty Poet. As to what Maldonate mentions of another of the same name who had an hesitation or stammering in his speech delivering such thick and swift language that it was difficult to understand him this could be no cause of the prohibition of our Saviour For this being only a natural infirmity and not any careless or affected extravagance cannot be the foundation of this caution and it is rejected by the Jesuit himself Secondly We may more fully understand what is here forbidden by a brief reflection upon the custom of the Heathens in this matter For sayes the Text use not vain repetitions as the Heathens do Now the Heathens as may appear from their Tragoedians were wont many times in their worship to make repetition of the same words especially of the names of that God which they prayed unto And they conjectured also that by how much the louder and more shrill their speech was so much the more ready would their Gods be to give them audience and to return answers to their petitions To this custom does Elijah seem to allude when he speaks Ironically to Baal's Prophets 1 Kings 18.27 Cry aloud for he is a God either he is talking or he is pursuing or he is on a journey or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked Now the prayer of the Separatist being conceived extempore he delivering those things and words that a quick fancy and sudden invention prompts him to it must needs be that from the nature of such worship he will be necessitated to use these prohibited repetitions For where matter and method yea and expressions too are not before hand studied and composed and put into some decent order the memory cannot firmly retain what has been before uttered when the fancy and invention has all along been so strictly imployed which is evident from this That a gifted man who speaks extempore cannot afterward remember his own prayer or give any tolerable account to men of what he has before spoken to God So that 't is a thousand to one in this attempt but something both in matter and phrase will often be brought upon the stage again and several petitions escape from the mouths of such extraordinary pretenders that have more than once been presented before For their prayer being wire-drawn into one length or delivered in a continued and uninterrupted chain of language and expressions that must not admit of any large Chasms or long intermissions but one thing must follow close at the back of another how can it be considering humane frailties and indispositions but through the defect of present and ready invention there must be some large gaping silence or else barrenness must be supplied with the repetitions of what has gone before Nay how often have we heard Lord Lord and we pray thee and we beseech thee and the like expressions to supply the want of invention or to draw a covering over inadvertent and incoherent thoughts of the man who pretends to be much gifted in this affair So that then he is fain to stop gaps in stead of making a new hedge he coughs and spits in the room of a full stream of language and seems to be like a Pump when the water is going away with an hiss making a great hollow noise with little sense or signification And like the Heathen Priests that worshipped Baal who from morning till noon cryed out O Baal hear us 1 Kings 18.26 and very probably to as little purpose whilst there is no voice nor any that answers Or else like those mutinous Ephesians stirr'd up by the subtilty of a Silver-smith with an argument drawn from the defence of their Trade who for the space of two long hours cryed out with a loud voice Great is Diana of the Ephesians Acts 19.34 And whether such a worship when strong Lungs become the bellows to blow men up that they may vent themselves in tautologies and repetitions and broken sentences when they pretend to utter a continued prayer is fit to be offered to the Supreme God and to be presented in such loose petitions to him by the hands of a glorious interceding Redeemer let any that are not resolved to be prejudiced against any reasoning in this affair and are not stupid or wilful to a Proverb consider first and then in Gods name let them judge But lest we should meet with an usual recrimination in this particular I must observe here what is easily inferr'd from a transient reflection upon the former exposition that all repetitions are not vain nor such as are prohibited by our Saviour But as Maldonate expresses it he forbids supervacaneam inanem studio affectatam verborum copiam A superfluous and an empty affected plenty of words when we permit our language too much to overflow our sense and abound in expressions as the Heathen did because they thought to be heard for their much speaking They conjectured it seems that such plenty of words might cause the deafest of their Gods to hear them when they pelted them with vollies of thick language and that they would better understand the matter and substance of what they offered in their petitions and more easily remember all when things were so frequently inculcated by repetitions But alas the Heathens worshipped one sort of God but the Christians present their prayers to another And as mens notions concerning the God whom they worship vary so will their worship vary too if they act suitably to the arguments and inferences of their own reason If men therefore who so bustle in this world about the manner of addressing themselves to the Deity would but impartially state the nature of that Being to whom they devote their acts of Religion and then compare their worship which they give him with those Attributes by which they describe him and enquire diligently what is worthy of him we need not have so many divisions where all worship the same God about those things that are not reveal'd nor foment disturbances about those that are since it cannot without blasphemy be supposed that God would require worship from Christians that did not correspond to his Essence and Attributes when he hath declared that he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth and that he seeketh such to worship him But to let this pass and to return to the
treating of the Idolatry of the Gentiles acacquaints the World that by the mistake of the fundamental words in Religion it was of old turned into Mythology and Gentilism The same may we also say of those persons whose pretensions are the highest in understanding the deepest mysteries of Christianity That they cover the brightest Sun in a Cloud and render the plainest things obscure and find Mysteries in words that in themselves are most obvious to the minds of men easily representing their own meanings so that to discover the foundation of Religion needs no more than the removal of that rubbish which by mystical men is cast upon it Yet by such means some turn the Christian Religion into Gibberish and cause it to speak in an unknown tongue either by their own misapprehensions or an industrious veiling of those words that were at first designed to express it thus converting a plain Religion into more Mysteries than were to be found at Ephesus or Athens Such words as these are Prayer Conscience Faith Spirit Gifts Experience Predestination and the like But the matters of our Religion ought not to be obscure because Gods Service is a rational worship Rom. 12.1 And therefore we find this in Tully Haec si Deorum signa sunt cur essent obscurd He speaking of Signs and Wonders and Revelations from the Gods If these sayes he are notices from the Gods why should they be so obscure and dark And in his second Book of Divination he proves that things which are obscure want both Grace and Majesty Indeed it renders any the most holy System of Religion extreamly subject to the censures of men and liable to be accused for cheat and imposture when it seems to have two faces may easily carry a double name and is vâ—iled under equivocal or obscure Doctrines and the phrases by which it is exhibited to the world are misted and dusky if they are not quite dark as if the preservers of the Mysteries of Religion like the Keepers of the Liberties of the Commonwealth of England intended to keep them all unto themselves Thus Theodoret Hist lib. 2. reports of Leontius stained with the Arrian Blasphemy That he endeavoured with subtilty to hide his opinion under a dubious and equivocal language altering the sense of Gloria Patri by changing and interposing some little Prepositions and Conjunctions and by rehearsing a part softly to himself or what is more probable totally omitting it and another part with an audible voice that so he might although it was discovered avoid accusation among the Orthodox And though he lost his faith yet it seems he was not willing to lose the Bishoprick of Antioch I wish our Sectaries were free from such left-handed designs though I believe there is no danger of their advancing to Bishopricks unless we should conclude those to be distracted whom yet we suppose to be very wise And then their simplicity might a little stand in the room of the Ideot and either excuse them for mangling and spoiling Religious worship by making Mysteries where they cannot find them or for inventing folly in which there is no Mystery at all or at least excuse them if they refused to say Amen to all the Mysteries produced by others We are all I confess of the family of God But yet God does not pray with us though he is the Master of this great family and it would be absurd for him to pray unto himself But it may be that there is a Mystery in this too However strange words and uncouth phrases strike terror and amazement into the minds of Proselytes that they may by this method be softned and prepared the more easily to receive the impressions of those principles which otherwise upon retirement and consideration their free reason would never embrace And truly this is an honest plea because 't is open and without reserve Though I am afraid there is a little knavery in it because I find Eusebius informing us Hist lib. 4. that some of the Disciples of Marcus the Magician uttered many Hebrew names that they might affect those that were newly entred into their study and discipline with the greater admiration and amazement In a word our most exalted and obstinate Separatists are much of the temper and design too of those whom S. Austin blames in the beginning of his first Book of the Trinity who endeavoured to transcend all that was created but being kept down with the burden of mortality when they would seem to know what they were ignorant of and could not understand what they would by their bold and resolute affirmations of their own opinions they bar'd themselves from the means of knowledge chusing rather not to correct their own perverse opinion than to change that which they had assumed and were resolved to defend What should I trouble any Reader with what they prop and support what our Schismaticks call their Churches For since they cannot derive their own succession they boldly deny any to be necessary And yet Tertullian de Praescript Haeret. cap. 32. sent this challenge to the Hereticks then Edant ergo origines Ecclesiarum suarum c. Let them put forth the origine of their Churches let them turn over the Catalogues of their Bishops that so descending by successions from the beginning they may find that their first Bishop has had one of the Apostles or Apostolical men who hath conversed with and accompanied the Apostles his Author and Antecessor For by these means and in this method do the Apostolick Churches deduce and declare their Original I might to enlarge my Discourse also instance in many of the received Doctrines of the Separatists that are as currant as they are common among them which yet under the fair pretence of endearing words and Scripture proofs wound the Deity in his glorious Attributes disturb that blessed harmony and peace and the Politick Government of mankind which the profession and practice of the Christian Religion does very much help and conduce to and therefore is it by the most Wise God recommended and established in the World But I shall forbear these things at present and conclude all with the testimony that S. Cyprian bears to borrow an expression from the spawn of these men against all prayers that are rude and indigested more full of words than of sense and more abounding with long Periods than matter that may promote hearty devotion For the Father in the beginning of his Tract of the Lords Prayer does abundantly condemn such things as these by giving a quite contrary account of the practice of the Christians in this particular Because after he has given this advertisement That God is a God at hand as well as a God afar off and that where-ever a man hides himself he certainly discerns him because he fills Heaven and Earth and sees both the good and the bad This holy Father acquaints men that when the Christians were congregated to celebrate the Divine Offices with the Priest of