only means of grace though therefore the sole ministry of the word were insufficient to ingenerate virtue yet when in conjunction with prayer Sacraments c. there is no reason to argue it of such insufficiency especially when even those Scriptures themselves teach us that where all these outward means are vouchsafed that inward supernatural divine power which we call the Holy Spirit Accompanies if it be not withstood and by frequent quenching finally impeded to work the excellent effect we speak of It is then notwithstanding this suggestion most reasonable necessary and available to virtue to Worship God by hearing and searching Scripture Sect. 5 To those three offices specified if any other so purely of positive nature may be added amongst what we Christians pretend to be in strictness obligatory to all I take the most likely to be publick confession of Faith It is plain that upon occasion the Scripture doth require it And the laws and practice of our Church make it a daily part of our publick worship Now as to it we say that if the principles of Faith are in their own nature apt to oblige and incite to virtue as already declared then certainly inasmuch as every close and frequent view of premises more intimately imprints their conclusions the solemn repetition and owning those Doctrines must needs draw out that their influence and make them more fresh and livelily operative upon our minds to all virtue Besides what an eternal obligation to perseverance and constancy in the Christian Faith and so to all virtue consequent from it that is certainly all natural virtue whatsoever must this lay upon us that we have all so often before God Angels and men professed and avowed our serious belief and adhaesion to these principles Who can easily turn Apostate from what he hath so sacredly and so frequently upon so great evidence as all intelligent persons have of the Christian Faith given full assent and consent unto Plain then it is upon a particular view of all the offices of positive worship which Christians pretend to that besides the stamp of divine authority their conduciveness to virtue makes them most reasonable and necessary For a close then to this second part of our discourse Inasmuch as these holy offices spoken of are to be by all Christians some of them every day and therein more than once all of them except baptism often repeated nor doth any one pay the worship he owes according to the rule we hold to if he once or seldom pray meditate hear communicate and confess and Inasmuch as it is already evident every due iteration of each of them makes deeper impressions of or towards virtue it is I had almost said beyond contradiction proved that who so addicts himself to the due and orderly practice of the Christian positive worship that is is devout must thereby attain unto and grow in all natural as well as Christian virtue And then let them look to it who cry up natural virtue as the only true or necessary worship of the supreme God how they will approve themselves either friends to virtue which they pretend so much to admire or worshipers of God to whom they would seem the only true and rational devotes Surely the imaginary honour which they think they thus give to virtue is but a very unproportionable recompence for that real damage which it must needs sustain by having all those offices lifted out which God appointed the Church ever practiced and by long practice found to be the most sovereign means and preservatives of virtue and without which it would presently languish into an empty name having little footing or interest any where saving only in mens discourse And then as to God it is not easy to see how they can approve themselves worshipers Sect. 3 of him when they deny at least decry vilify and slight that worship which his infinite wisdom contrived and his sovereign authority enacted as most proper not only to express in a way acceptable to him the homage which we owe but to secure to us what only can constitute us happy holy and virtuous minds Chap. III. Of the third general head § 1. A positive worship certain from Scripture and Scripture certain from the truth of Christian Religion § 2. The truth of the Christian Religion evident from the History of it § 3. Before Christ § 4. Evident from the History of it in the time of Christ and his Apostles § 5. Evident from the History of its progress and state since § 6. A recapitulatory conclusion of the whole Sect. 1 THE sum of what we have hitherto cleared is that there must be some worship of divine institution and positive nature and that all those offices of such worship which Christians observe are most reasonable to be observed because necessary as so many means to the propagating virtue But though something hath been said above on the refutative part to vindicate the Holy Scripture or the Christian Oracles from those imputations and exceptions which are brought by some in common against all divine revelation which in the end asserts those offices which holy Scripture prescribes unto us to be of divine institution yet little or nothing hitherto hath been brought in a probative way to evince either the divine Authority of Scripture or of those offices from thence Now the divine right of the offices cannot I presume be doubted admiting the divine authority or truth of Scripture or in case it should we have made it sufficiently evident from Scripture as to each particular in another tract to Method for private Devotion which this discourse refers And then generally the truth of Scripture cannot be questioned admitting the truth of Christian Religion For if there be any such thing amongst mankind as a true Religion besides that Religion which is supposed natural as we have above proved there is that Religion must be the true one which the supreme God ordained So that to say the Christian is the true Religion is to say that it was ordained by God If therefore Christian Religion were ordained by God as it must be confest it was if it be the true Religion then must those Oracles or Records which do contain the particulars or offices whereof this Religion is made up contain such things as the supreme God enjoined to men which is all that at present we mean by the general truth of Scripture I have used the term of general truth to avoid what might be objected touching various readings which if various and so various as we know they are in both Testaments some must be false but this as above said prejudices not our cause So that in fine to say the Christian is the true Religion and to say holy Scripture is of divine authority or true in our sense is but one and the same thing For all Christians in common do agree that Scripture contains the essentials and body of their Religion and all who acknowledge
which he had been told Christian Religion was asserted he most acutely answers Se il mondo si rivuolse al Christianesmo Diss'io senza miracoli questo uno E'tal chegli alteri non sonoil centesmo Che tu entrasti pouero digiuno In campo a seminar la buona pianta Che fu gia vite hora è fatta pruno Which if we will transpose the Stanza's as will be more consonant to the order of our last argument we may not unfitly thus render Thou now blest saint then fisher poor forlorn Into the World as a large field didst go An Heavenly plant to sow A plant of old a Vine now turnd a Thorn And had the World prov'd convert and submiss Without miraculous proof to what was taught All miracles are wrought Would not have been the hundredth part of this In sum then if no person considering the progress and state of Christianity since the departure of Christ the great founder thereof can see how 't is possible it should have taken root so deeply and so wide spread its branches as we are by so much of the story of it as is undoubted convinc't it has except a divine power had as well supported and nourished as at first planted it and it be together granted as is supposed to be inconsistent with the goodness or divinity of that giver to uphold foster and propagate the greatest abuse of mankind as Christianity is except it be true that ever was we must then conclude Christian Religion is from God that is is the true Religion Sect. 6 To conclude then the whole Upon the view of the History of Christian Religion before under and since Christ it is plain that within each of these three periods there is so much of it certain and beyond all scruple and question to men who will believe any thing besides their own eyes as enforceth us to conclude Jesus Christ was sent from Heaven and did deliver unto the World the true Religion that is such a worship of the true God as that God blessed for ever approveth of and will accept A thing of this nature I mean matter of fact at so great a distance as it is that Christian doctrine was revealed from Heaven can be proved by no other means but either by visible Monuments of it or by the testimony of others to whom it was first imparted with a satisfactory or sufficient evidence of its being divine handed and delivered down to us This evidence to them must be either that it was delivered by one who they were sure came from Heaven or was confirmed by miracles wrought by Heaven to attest its own doctrine To which we may add as an eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or distinctive mark of any doctrine so pretending the consonancy of such doctrine to the supreme principles of reason sanctity and Justice Each of these evidences have we seen of the truth of Christian Religion There are still extant in the World Monuments of the truth of several points of the History Sepulchres Temples c. which prove there were such persons or Doctors as we pretend Then the testimony is not of one or a few but of many hundreds in the primitive Age of Nations and Ages and in a manner of the whole World since by a constant and invariant tradition The first witnesses had evidences more then can be uttered that the Authour of the Christian doctrine came from Heaven and they saw him return to Heaven and enter into that glory which he promised them and take possession of that power which he told them he was to receive things which befel not the founder of any other Religion no not Moses himself who only was buried no one knew where They saw great and various miracles wrought by him They wrought such themselves as was promised to them they should and all this confest even in the primitive Age by the very Enemies of this Religion The success of this Religion in the World was the greatest miracle of all Then as to those points which the precepts of this Religion impose they are either duties natural or positive The natural by being so are most consonant to reason and though the precepts which enjoin them are rules of higher sanctity and justice than meer reason would or could have given yet being given they are such as it must needs approve And as to all positive offices their reasonableness and conduciveness to virtue we have seen particularly There hath therefore as great evidence been given of the truth of Christian Religion as any matter of this nature can at such distance from its first entrance into the World receive and far greater than of any other past matter of fact whatsoever which we believe Wherefore if we will be just to our reason we must conclude it true And if it be true as above made out Holy Scripture is true also And if that be true then we are obliged as much as by divine Authority we can be to Prayer Sacraments Hearing reading or meditating holy Scripture the particular offices of Christian positive worship And then that opinion which pretendeth it sufficient men live honestly nor need they concern or trouble themselves about going to prayers frequenting Sacraments and Sermons and such devotions is not as it would be thought a more free and generous strain of Christianity but a plain principle of impiety directly injurious to God in breeding men to the neglect of paying him what is his due that is what he requires and subversive of Christian Religion the positive precepts of which of no less divine Authority then the natural it flatly contrariates and lays a Foundation for the neglect or not performance of natural duties while it destroys or lifts out those means and helps which divine wisdom prescribed to further and secure such performance I mean positive offices of worship the great mean to virtue And so we have proved what we undertook the Necessity and Reasonableness of a Positive Worship and particularly of the Christian The End ERRATA NOte the discourses are transposed and the second was intended first Therefore p. 27. l. 12. read discourse following p. 29. l. 7. read primitive p. 33. l. 12. r. two p. 51. l. last r. created p. 53. 19. r. thee p. 65. l. 4. r. maddest p. 77. l. 17. r. run on one p. 105. l. 14. r. game p. 112. l. 2. r. in other p. 118. l. 12. r. plainest p. 121. l. 3. r. mean p. 141. l. 9. r. of emploiment p. 144. l. 12. r. affects p. 148. l. 4. r. act p. 163. l. 7. r. vein p. 167. l. 9. r. persist p. 172. l. 12. r. in six p. 212. ult r. pretendedly
TWO DISCOURSES For the furtherance of CHRISTIAN PIETY AND DEVOTION The former asserting the Necessity and Reasonableness of a Positive Worship and particularly of the Christian The later considering the common Hinderances of Devotion and the Divine Worship with their Respective Remedies By the Author of the Method of Private Devotion LONDON Printed by J. M. for John Martyn at the Bell in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1671. IMPRIMATUR Ex Aedib Lamb. Dec. 5. 1670. Tho. Tomkyns Reverendissimo in Christo Patri ac Domino Domino Gilberto divinâ Providentiâ Archiepisc Cant. à Sacris domesticis TO THE READER An Account of the Occasion Design and Nature of the Work THE true and sole occasion of the two following discourses was the desire of a Reverend and Exemplarily Pious person to me upon the third Edition of the Method of private Devotion that I would insert some thing thereinto briefly and by the by to caution many otherwise devout of frequenting Plays and spending their time in such Vanities which too often prove not only Impediments to Devotion but as the generality of them are ordered the bane of good minds This when I had a little thought upon I did not at the first see a place to my mind for such insertion Then I conceived not the stage to be the only nor perhaps most common Impediment of Devotion And farther I judged that should I only have briefly touched the subject intimated two Editions of that Book being then but lately bought off those which were by them furnished would scarcely buy Books of the third for the addition of a few lines and possibly others but slightly remark so brief suggestions Besides lastly I soon saw that to enumerate and remove the common hinderances of devotion would take up more room and pains then was consistent with such an insertion I resolved therefore on a distinct treatise And remembring that I had met with some pieces by men of highly pretended reason and learning which allowing a natural Religion comprised in a few principles that run through all Religions boldly assert all the doctrines and offices particular to each to be only of humane and Politick institution and consequently no Christian Positive Worship of divine Authority nor any point by Christianity a Duty which is not and was not such by the law of nature And withal reflecting on the usual discourses of the Hectorly Rationalists of our Age who greedily lick up and as rashly vent those others spittle I thought this plausible suggestion of the sufficiency of a general fairness or imaginary virtue to be the most malignant and pestilent prepossession against all Devotion and Divine Worship as being a plain subversion of its several offices and therefore resolved first and by it self to accost it as requiring more of discourse and then those other more vulgar Impediments each in their Order Thus came one intended tract to be broke into two pieces Now as to what I have done in my attempts on both my Reader is to be advertised that he expect not first higher notions or style than such which it is fit to address to popular or middle capacities The Philosopher has told us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And I handle these subjects for the benefit of men of moderate attainments Men of truly high learning are above being imposed upon by such opinions as I engage Nor secondly stricter demonstrations than is possible to be given of such subjects The substance of Christian Religion is made up of articles Historical Doctrinal or Moral and the Evidences of each different according to the nature of each Of the Historical points as the Birth Life Crucifixion and Resurrection of our Saviour c. we have not nor pretend to have greater Evidences than Tradition or Testimony both Divine and humane and that not only consigned in writing but attested by many visible events and Monuments Of the doctrinal Articles such as the Creation the life everlasting and different estates therein we have first the same evidences as in the former case and we have besides for some of them the demonstrative or most highly probable Ratiocinations of our own minds and others of them which are not thus demonstrable are evident consequents of those that are Thus From the course of nature and generation we are enforced to conclude a first cause or a Creator of all From the first and experienced actings and properties of our Souls we cannot but conclude their immateriality and thence their incorruptibility or immortality From the Creation nature and constitution of things follows the infinite goodness of the Creator his justice and providence And from Providence Justice and the immortality of humane Souls considering the different lives and manners of men and how here they carry all away is consequent a difference of estates in that future immortal life that is an Heaven and Hell I might run the Chain to a far greater length But lastly as to the moral points of Christianity We have for them first the common evidence of both the former Tradition and Testimony that they were instituted by God We have besides an intrinsical evidence for them founded in the nature of the Duties and their congruency to the principles of our own reason whence ariseth that approbation which natural Conscience cannot but give unto them We are not able but to commend and approve Temperance Chastity Meekness Mercifullness Justice and Piety though possibly by reason of carnal custom or interest we have no great stomach to practise them And hence if we do not conclude that the laws which enact these are the laws of our Creatour as methinks we should yet we must acknowledge them fit to be enacted by him and worthy of him and then this together with the testimony which they otherwise receive will enforce their reception Now as to those Christian Duties which are of a positive nature their singular conduciveness to virtue will speak them most meet and proper for observation so that if the Holy Creator would enact any outward worship it is fit these should be it as so highly tending to the natural and eternal part of morality and then the testimony of Scripture and inviolable tradition of the Church that is almost the World superadded thereto will make up a Plea beyond all rational contradiction for our embracing also this part of Christianity By all which it may soon be perceived what Necessity of the Divine positive worship I assert in the parts of the former following discourse In the first Chapter having supposed the being of God and providence and the justice of both which are granted even by the worst who acknowledge any Religion I assert a sufficient Revelation of the Divine Will and therefore a determining of the offices of Divine Worship to be if not a necessary yet most highly probable consequent from thence In the second admitting that so highly applauded principle and if rightly stated truly worthy Heroical and Evangelical that Virtue is the great
and to God most acceptable worship I assert the positive offices of Christian Worship to be necessary as most natural proper means for the implanting growth and security of Virtue In the third supposing none who admit the truth of Scripture or of Christian Religion can deny or doubt the particular offices of Christian Worship to be of Divine Institution from the irrefragable evidence of Christian Religion and so of the substance of Scripture I assert the aforesaid offices of Christian Worship necessary as being prescribed or matter of particular precepts And being I apprehended very reasonable evidence was given for making good all these assertions I added that these offices were Reasonable as well as Necessary In the second discourse though my design may seem to engage me more with the affections and Will than Understanding yet being I judged the best mean for swaying them to be dealing effectually with Reason and Judgment I have therefore endeavoured that the particular processes in each case might carry such weight of reason in them as might approve them to any considerative and intelligent mind and so in a manner enforce their practice or at least leave the neglectour unexcusable They consist therefore of particulars all or most of them supposing us Christians in our own power and besides natural and proper to the cases for which they are prescribed as remedies and lastly enforced by the common and most demonstrable principles of Religion I do acknowledge I often herein proceed upon particular foundations which Holy Scripture Administers proper to the respective design I prosecute But I take that to be little less legitimate proceeding when it is argued from propositions before evinced as the truth of Revelation and Scripture is supposed to be by the former discourse than if it were argued from principles self evident This is all the recommendation of or Apology for my following work which I had or thought necessary to make I have therefore now only to beseech of God that it may be as successful as I wish't it and of the Reader that it may be as honestly and innocently entertained as I meant it and I doubt not much of the happy event of either where it shall be read with an honest design of practice more than Censure A PRACTICAL DISCOURSE Of the more common IMPEDIMENTS OF DEVOTION AND THE CHRISTIAN WORSHIP With their respective REMEDIES 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Musonius Philosoph apud A. Gellium LONDON Printed by J. M. for John Martyn at the Bell in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1671. THE CONTENTS Of the several Chapters of the First Part. Chap. I. Sect. 1. THE design of the Discourse § 2. The mischiefs arising from the neglect of Devotion briefly touched § 3. Whence the Impediments of it Spring § 4. The method of the discourse p. 1. Chap. II. § 1. The Devil one Authour of the Impediments of Devotion § 2. 1. By prepossessing mens minds with Atheistical sansies Such as 1. that of the Vanity or uncertainty of Religion § 3. Remedies against this prepossession § 4. 2. Of the needlessness of so much Religion § 5. Remedies against this conceit § 6. Of the hindrances the Devil gives us in divine Worship 1. By extravagant thoughts injected § 7. Their Remedies § 8. 2. By instilling spiritual pride § 9. Its Remedies p. 7. Chap. III. § 1. Impediments of Divine Worship from the World 1. Cares and business § 2. Remedies herein § 3. 2. Pleasures in general § 4. A general Remedy § 5. Pleasures particular first City Pleasures 1. Company § 6. Remedies § 7. A necessary caution in society touching evil communication § 8. 2. The entertainments of the Stage § 9. The case of going to Plays determined § 10. Advise for Remedy § 11. Of more private Masques and Balls § 12. 2. Country Pleasures Hunting § 13. Advise for remedy § 14. Hawking Horseracing c. when immoderate § 15. Gaming too much though at home § 16. Remedies § 17. Intellectual pleasures when Impediments temperated § 18. Worldly Vanities Impediments § 19. Vanity in Apparel stated § 20. Remedies by way of disswasion p. 46 47. Chap. IV. § 1. The sum of Impediments arising from corrupt nature § 2. Sloth and Sensuality § 3. Remedies hereof § 4. Perswasives to the former practice § 5. Vnsetledness of mind and imployment Impediments § 6. Their Remedies § 7. Passion and Inordinate affection Impediments § 8. Their Remedies p. 141. Chap. V. § 1. The former generals useful in particular cases not named § 2. Schism prejudicial to Piety and a grievous sin § 3. Remedies thereof § 4. The conclusion of the whole discourse p. 200. THE CONTENTS Of the several Chapters of the Second Part. Chap. I. A Fuller proposal of the first Sect. 1. point viz. That some positive worship there must be and three propositions to evince it § 2. The first proposition proved § 3. An objection answered § 4. A second answered § 5. An illustration of the insufficiency of reason to bring men generally to virtue out of History § 6. A third objection answered § 7. The second proposition proved § 8. The third proposition proved § 9. Objections in common against revelation and divine records answered p. 235. Chap. II. § 1. That the Christian positive worship is reasonable and necessary as a mean to Virtue § 2. The proposition made good touching Prayer in all its parts and kinds § 3. The same made good as to the Sacraments § 4. As to the Ministry of the word § 5. And Confession of Faith p. 292. Chap. III. § 1. A positive worship certain from Scripture and Scripture certain from the truth of Christian Religion § 2. The truth of the Christian Religion evident from the History of it § 3. Before Christ § 4. Evident from the History of it in the time of Christ and his Apostles § 5. Evident from the History of its progress and state since § 6. A recapitulatory conclusion of the whole p. 333 A PRACTICAL DISCOURSE Of the more common IMPEDIMENTS OF DEVOTION And Divine Worship with their REMEDIES Chap. I. § 1. The design of this discourse § 2. The Mischiefs arising from neglect of Devotion briefly touched § 3. Whence the Impediments of it spring § 4. The method of the discourse Sect. 1 AS in other points of our Christian Duty so especially in Devotion and Divine Worship that we meet with many lets and diversions there is none but is apt to complain though haply very few so circumspect against them as is behoveful for their prevention or removal The discovery in particular what the usual Impediments of Devotion are and what their respective Remedies is the design of this discourse Sect. 2 The mischief which accrues unto us by being diverted or taken off from the more constant and devout paying Divine Worship is both various and of great weight First we are hereby debarred or deprived of the vast and manifold goods which are the fruits and proper consequences of such
holy Duties such as are a tender Heart a watchful and resolved Conscience the preventions and assistances of Grace Joy and Peace through Hope besides those which are more common blessings preservation success of our affairs and the like all which he who thinks not an unvalueable loss is uncapable to value any thing and utterly devoid of Christian sense And secondly we are hereby involved in as great a guilt as the negligence of God and our greatest concernments can carry in it together thirdly with the dismal consequents of that negligence disorder of mind decay of our spiritual estate an heedless and senseless spirit fit for any yea the most outragious temptations to fix upon together with other evils not easie to be reckoned up The consideration of all which so great and various mischiefs as it should awaken and excite us to a diligent search and examination what hinderances we commonly meet with and to all conscientious care and diligence to lay aside every weight to remove or prevent every impediment or disturbance so it may suggest to us whence all these come and be in some degree helpful to us not only to discover what in particular are our proper lets and impediments but also more generally to take a survey what may be obstructive in common to us and others For could we at once see each Numerical let which we and others have been infested with it is certain we might say of every one an Enemy hath done this None but such who design our ruin would wilfully hinder us in the greatest means of our safety Sect. 4 In order then to the taking a full and impartial view of the common and more frequent hinderances of Devotion and Divine Worship though to each particular man his own Conscience is the best guide and the search and examination of that the surest mean to find out his peculiar Plagues in this Case yet to us who must search as neer as we can for all it seems likely to be the most successful and comprehensive method to enquire what each of our spiritual Enemies contributes to keep us off or divert us from our duty in this behalf And according to the discovery we can make of any particular evil we shall forthwith endeavour to apply its cure or proper redress Chap. II. § 1. The Devil one Authour of the Impediments of Devotion § 2. 1. By prepossessing mens minds with Atheistical Fansies Such as 1. that of the Vanity or uncertainty of Religion § 3. Remedies against this prepossession § 4. 2. Of the Needlessness of so much Religion § 5. Remedies against this conceit § 6. Of the hindrances the Devil gives us in divine worship 1. by extravagant thoughts injected § 7. Their Remedies § 8. 2. by instilling spiritual pride § 9. Its remedies Sect. 1 OF our Spiritual Enemies the first is the Devil touching whom it is certainly true that men ordinarily in the estimating the Original of their own sins are apt to give the Devil more than his due and as if they would pay him in his own Coin turn false accusers even of him Though therefore we must beware of this Injustice yet is it most justly resolved that there are some hindrances of Devotion of which the Devil is the Authour As an Argument of which it is observable that the Prophet representing Joshua the high Priest standing Zach. 3. 1. before the Angel of the Lord or addressing himself to God brings in Satan also standing at his right hand And the same enmity that brought him thither to resist him was not undoubtedly wanting what it could to hinder him Now of these impediments of Devotion which we may with justice impute unto the Devil there are two sorts the one precedent by which he hinders us from it the other concomitant by which he hinders us in it Sect. 2 Of the first sort as far forth as I can see is his possessing us with incredulous and Atheistical Fansies and Notions Such as first Of the Vanity or uncertainty of Religion He suggests to us that all Religion is but a crafty design upon credulous Mankind for some secular and politick respect or at least that it may be such and that it is not evident it is not such And then why is all this wast of good time and pains Why this retrenching our selves of freedom and pleasures And on the contrary macerating our selves with devotional and mortifying endeavours and continual watchfulness and sollicitude of mind Why should I abuse my self into vexation and exchange real delicious enjoyments for the Dreams of a future and imaginary bliss These things though we hear often from some of degenerate mankind yet came they originally from the great father of lies and he it is who both often suggests them to our remembrance and imploys many agents to disseminate and vent them in the world under the most taking methods Sect. 3 Of this poyson the most proper and effectual Antidote or remedy will be a solid and rational satisfaction and conviction of our own minds touching the great Foundations of Religion particularly Of the being of a God the reality of what we call good and evil virtue and vice the immortality of the Soul and different estates in that immortal life I confess my self not at all of their minds who think it needless or nugatory by natural reason to demonstrate such common principles of all Religion I love dearly to find my reason baffled into Faith and enforced to conclude either Religion real or contradictious propositions together true This takes from none the advantage of a freer or as some may please to style it a nobler Faith Any may believe on other inducements who can or will but secures such whose natures are more averse from credulity in a firm perswasion of the truth of Christianity which perswasion thus founded may stand unshaken in a thousand shocks as well of temptation as opposition when the credulous Faith may either totter or undermined sink Possibly what I direct to may by some be thought unpracticable by the common sort who are presumed unable to conclude these fundamentals upon principles of meer natural reason a thing which they so little understand But to that I say there are very few or none to whom this temptation is incident and consequently whom I direct thus to oppose it who have not natural Logick enough from such premises as I would have them propound to conclude what I would have them rationally satisfied of Though I could not artificially make Syllogisms yet in a serious and considerative state of mind I could in a silent Evening walk forth and view the Earth adorned with Herbs and Flowers and Trees and Fruits furrowed with Channels wherein run Rivers and Brooks and Springs to water its best and most needy parts inhabited by variety of living Creatures for all which its fruitful Womb brings forth proper nourishment I could after behold in the vast empty over mine head a multitude of
Souls with the beauty of holiness and replenish our Consciences with serenity and glorious joy We shall be able to see Heaven though not with St. Stephen opened yet with St. Paul prepared for us and bless God not so much for making it as making the way thither piety and virtue We shall so transform our lives as well as our selves that to live will be but to Conquer and we only seem to pass as it were from one Heaven to another The End THE REASONABLENESS AND NECESSITY OF A POSITIVE WORSHIP And particularly of the Christian Worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocl LONDON Printed for John Martyn at the Bell in St. Paul's Church-Yard M DC LXXI A DISCOVRSE OF THE Necessity and reasonableness of a Positive Worship and particularly of the Christian Worship The Introduction propounding the general heads of the discourse REmembring that all conclusions beget so much the fainter perswasion by how much in their deduction we have proceeded to a greater distance from first and necessary principles I shall endeavour in the cause undertaken to keep as near to indubitable or allowed foundations as I can And if I shall make it evident upon the admitting the justice of providence that we are enforced to believe some such revelations as Christians pretend to must have been and by them the institution of a positive worship and further upon view of the supposed positive worship if it appear in all its parts to be such as that the supreme God proceeded not arbitrarily and by a meer Sovereign power or humour in its institution but therefore appointed this or that rather than another Office because aptest to secure the good of man that is to plant and radicate virtue in him between which and humane happiness there is according to the order of nature which himself before such institution had framed a necessary connexion I conceive I have done enough to perswade any rational person that he ought in all reason to pay such positive worship which by such institution and its own natural conducency to his happiness he perceives to oblige him that is I have evidenced the necessity and reasonableness of a positive worship and of such an one as we pretend to And more particularly as to the Christian doctrine and worship if it shall appear that the very frame of its History lies so that we cannot with any tolerable sobriety disbelieve either the History or the doctrine which it implicates the very tradition it self carrying in it self so convictive evidence of its truth I may then conclude that we have the greatest reason to receive and practice particularly every such particular office of worship as that Christian doctrine prescribes and none other And though I shall not adventure to call these demonstrations yet I hope by such time as I shall have done they will be found for the most part to come as little short of such as the nature of my subject will admit Briefly and distinctly I suppose it will be allowed that positive worship is to be paid if there be any such by the supreme God instituted and commanded Now I pretend that first the institution of some positive worship follows admitting the justice of Providence That Secondly in that positive worship supposed by Christians obligatory there is such conducency to virtue on all hands acknowledged the principal necessary as renders that worship most fit to oblige us and every way most just and reasonable That Lastly besides this the Divine institution of this particular Worship de facto is irrefragably evident from the certainty and undeniableness of the History of Christianity and of the Scriptures Chap. I. § 1. A fuller proposal of the first point viz. That some positive worship there must be and three propositions to evince it § 2. The first proposition proved § 3. An objection answered § 4. A second answered § 5. An illustration of the insufficiency of reason to bring men generally to virtue out of History § 6. A third objection answered § 7. The second proposition proved § 8. The third proposition proved § 9. Objections in common against revelation and divine records answered IT is not unusual for stubborn dogmatists when forced from some beloved principles by their detected absurdity to seem liberally to grant what they are no longer able to deny and notwithstanding all their concessions in common appearance to the prejudice of their cause to pretend their cause no whit enfeebled and their perswasions as unshaken as ever Thus to omit the tracing this practice in men of other interests than those we have to deal with many pretended Masters of reason who a long time would fain have perswaded themselves and the World that the Being of a God or provident Creatour and Governour of all things the Difference of good and evil the Immortality of the Soul and different Estates in that immortal life were but the frauds of Priests or stratagems of some deeper Politicians seeing now that they can no longer maintain their doctrines against that convictive evidence which enforceth their contraries are content at last to admit a Creed consisting of these Articles named and generously allow what against their wills they see demonstrated But in the mean time they stifly contend that the only worship of this God and sole condition of such immortal happiness is virtue Nor do men need Prayers or Sacraments or Priests or what they would be content to have named appendant Cheats And then as to the name of virtue that they will be sure so to explain as to leave a Latitude for their own vices So that in fine though some of the outworks of this Troy be yielded upon constraint yet the body of the City is kept strongly the Helena still held in fast embraces they may be as pretended by the Warranty of Reason as profane and scornful of Religion at least of the Christian Worship and so in the end of all virtues purely Christian such as mortification Self-denial c. as ever they were Against these we say that if they will be reasonable and impartial and admit the same evidences in this case as they do in others of like nature besides that Natural Worship of God which consists in virtue and purely natural acknowledgments of him both they and all men must confess Offices of Divine Worship by Positive right such as in Christianity are Prayer and the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments Which thing we trust to make out by these following propositions 1. That it is but Reasonable to believe that God hath revealed his will to man touching such things which he requires of him in Order to his happiness 2. That it is but Reasonable to believe such revelation should determine the Offices of Divine Worship 3. That holy Scripture or that revelation which acquaints us what God requires of us in order to our happiness pretends to prescribe to us by what acts God will be worshiped and it is but reasonable to
but is reducible to the head of Intellectual Pleasures If to Habit to the head of Vanity in Apparel If to Diet or bodily Ease to Sensuality and so of many others Sect. 2 Only one thing offers it self not yet touched because an Evil not so much from a single Enemy as from a complication of their joint malice and poison and that is Schism a notorious Impediment of publick and blasting of private Devotion And this I say though chiefly sown in the World by the Devil at first whose work from the beginning it hath been to divide yet now propagated by a World of his Agents and would seem even innate in the proud pragmatical tempers of some men It could not therefore so fitly be referred to any of the three Classes mentioned as here spoken of by it self because deriving from all the originals of the other three Now by Schism we know is meant a separation from the common body or Church of Christ by Doctrines practices or modes of worship of our own contrariant to its determinations laws or customs But as this sin is common amongst us in this Nation it signifies nothing else but a separation from the Communion of our Church a modelling little Congregations according to rules different from the publick policy of the Church or holding with these so modell'd in a singular and novel kind of Worship Now this I say as it is evident by plain experience and matter of fact that it takes off great numbers from the publick Worship of God so is it certain from Scripture that it very much blasts their private Devotions both by debarring the persons peccant of those blessings of Heaven which otherwise they would have received and many times bringing upon them heavy judgments and calamities Dreadful is that which we read of Nadab and Abihu who but for burning the incense upon common fire were themselves burnt up before the Lord. And that of Vzzah who out of a good intent as would seem supporting the Ark which belonged not to his place and function but only to consecrated hands was struck dead in the same moment We read not that in any other points these deviated from the common laws and if so small violations of order brought such dismal wrath upon these persons what may those expect who at once reject in a manner all the Orders and Laws of the Church I know the persons chiefly guilty of this sin will pretend their cases different from those of these men because they violated Order evidently instituted by God whereas themselves only offend against humane Constitutions I answer hereto first the publick worship of God is certainly no humane but divine constitution And secondly those laws which are made by the Church of Christ for preservation of order peace and unity in the said Church being not contrary to any written law of Christ are not to be esteemed purely humane being that the Church was invested by Christ what is this but to prefer our own opinions before the confessed commands of Christ The present separation then from the Church of England by her Non-conforming Sons if yet some of them may be called Sons is not justifiable and therefore as by what hath been before touched appears mischievous and a great hinderance and bane to true piety Sect. 3 For remedy then of this evil Let every person tainted herewith first endeavour to satisfie himself of the real sinfulness of Schism as being a plain violation of the Order and Institution of Christ directly contrary to the Doctrine of his Apostles especially St. Paul 1 Cor. 1. 11 12 13. and Chap. 11. 18 19 20. and in many other places but most pertinent to the present practice of our Schismaticks 1 Cor. 14 26. Being thus seriously convinced of the sinfulness of Schism proceed we secondly to the consideration of the danger and mischief thereof first to our selves in particular As long as we live in any known sin and such an one is Schism now to us we cannot expect from God the pardon of our other sins his favour or the acceptance of our persons and Duties Not only the plowing or common works of the wicked are sin but even their Prayers and holy duties an abomination Besides what unspeakable benefits do we lose hereby The influences of Gods Spirit are always most plentiful in the publick Assemblies The administration of Divine Ordinances there most solemn and affecting The presence of so many serious and devout persons whose Prayers may fetch down blessings on them whose own Prayers would not be heard the united supplications Devotions and consent of all by the promise of Christ more prevalent the interest in the Prayers of the Vniversal Church of Christ or all the faithful every where which while we hold Communion therewith daily are presented before the Throne of God in our behalf all these are of great efficacy and considerableness both to our secular and eternal weal. Shall we then for the humouring a peevish nature or proud conceit of our own forfeit so great benefits and run headlong into so dreadful danger But then secondly as to the mischief Schism doth publickly to the Church of Christ and Christianity it self that also ought to be considered though it be so various as that it is not easy to comprehend all points thereof First it administers proper scandal unto others How many plain honest persons are turned out of the plain and certain way to Heaven others intangled and hindered with scruples injected by the continued and multiplied Schisms of such whom they converse with some induced to do what they think unlawful others to reject that which being in it self innocent and enjoined them and quietly it may be before by them used they cannot refuse without sin Thus hereby we destroy not only our selves but even our Brethren for whom Christ died Further secondly doth it not beget contentions envy wrath and implacable hatreds which the very Scripture specifies to be a proper part of the Heathenish Life Are there any fewds so irreconcilable as those whose grounds are pretendly Religious dissents And then thirdly can there be any other such disgrace to the Gospel of Christ as that it should promote and foment what it came to overthrow the Kingdom of the Devil Heathenism strife malice railings bloudshed and the like Hath it been so long in the World to no better purpose What then may Atheists and wicked men say of it and how justifiable through our practices seem their Blasphemies Again fourthly may it not be observed that Schisms still have ruin'd those Churches where they have prevailed Nay lastly do they not destroy common Christianity and induce Atheism and Irreligion Is it not plain that men having once departed from the Church make no end of swerving from the truth till they come to plain Atheism Being seduced to think their first Faith false they espouse a second and as they advance in novel speculations they are tempted to suspect their second
perswasions and then take up third ones contrary to both the former and so onward till reflecting upon themselves and seeing or imagining they have been deceived so often they conclude all Religion to be but a deceit and accordingly cast it off Is any thing more observable amongst our present Schismaticks than this To conclude then this point of the mischievousness of Schism if the peace of the Catholick Church which we by Schism rend or interest of the Gospel which we hereby dishonour and expose to the Blasphemies of its Enemies by us justified if the prosperity or quiet of this our native Church which as far as in us lies we embroil be at all dear to us nay if we have any belief of or respect and tenderness towards Christianity or any Religion at all if we are touched with any regard to the Souls of our Christian Brethren or wear any love and concernment for our own Souls by these and all these as we would not have Religion driven out of the World nor our selves shut out of Heaven are we engaged and conjured to leave off Schismatical practices to mortify all inclinations thereto in our hearts and to live in Communion with and Conformity to our Mother Church Being thus cordially sensible of the sin and danger of Schism for the surer reconciling our minds perfectly to the Church thirdly let us study and endeavour to inform our selves of the reason intent and use of those things which most offend us in the Church practice For it is most certain the ignorance of these is the greatest ground of disaffection to them A great multitude of people were born and bred up in places and times wherein the disuse of the present Orders of the Church hath made the use strange to them and again usages contrary preoccupated their minds with strong prejudices against these These prejudices must be laid aside for it is very unreasonable to condemn a law or practice of the Church of God because it hits not our humour or we understand it not and the things in question be considered with a calm and equal mind and the Churches design the nature of the injunction the liberty otherwise left honestly and evenly ponderated And if there should still remain one or two small things touching the reason and meaning whereof we are yet to seek we are not to be so unreasonable as to decline all because we understand not some little point but to proceed in an honest and devout Conformity and Communion so far as we understand expecting quietly and being ready to receive satisfaction in the rest And the practice hereof will not only otherwise bring the divine blessing upon us but especially fill our hearts with Joy and Comfort from the sense of our own minds being satisfied and peevish humours mastered and a sweet Communion maintained with the full Assemblies of our Christian Brethren yea with all the faithful throughout the world Lastly For as much as it is certain that Schisms generally arise from particular mens pride and opinionativeness of their intellectual Abilities he that would throughly root this evil out of his heart must study humility modesty and meekness And truly that man who shall upon serious consideration with himself recollect how often he hath erred what a multitude of opinions he now hath in which he is not sure he doth not err by reason they have not or are not capable of demonstrative proofs and again how innumerable things there are of which he is now ignorant many sorts and points of different learning which possibly if known would detect to him many an errour which he now embraceeth for a truth evince many things to be truth which now he judges errours and finally disentangle him from manifold scruples he I say who shall weigh attentively all these things will not so peremptorily lean to his own judgment but that he will be willing to hear other men submit to elder graver or in this or that particular better informed judgments than his own but especially to that which all good men believe sacred the judgment of the Church In fine the two first considerations propounded may be supposed sufficient disswasives from Schism these two last means to undermine and root it out of the Soul And as to what else remains on our parts for its extirpation it is in our own powers to wit that we tolerate not our selves in Schismatical converse discourse and society the bane of honest plain devotion that we break off such acquaintance that we resort not to nor maintain Covenant with schismatical Congregations that on the contrary we return into the bosom of our deserted Mother and maintain devout Communion with her Nor need it trouble us if we have entred into Covenant as they call it with this or that Schismatical Congregation to break with them for that Covenant which took us off from Communion with the Catholick Church being in it self unlawful that I say not abominable sinful and damnable it is a sin not to reform that is not to break it with sorrow of heart and prayer for forgiveness that ever we made it And thus if we do there is no doubt by the blessing of God we shall be delivered from Schism nor with that hinder us in our Heavenly course Sect. 4 In sum and for a conclusion to the whole it is apparent that there is no Impediment of Devotion which is not by care and diligence through divine grace removeable nor indeed any difficulty in Religion which is not easily superable any lust which is not mortifiable by a resolved and seriously devout Christian Whatever there can be imagined of pain and troublesomness herein is only in the first attempting the evil habit we are to deal with when we have once broken our selves of the bad custom holiness will be easier to us than vice at least I may say we shall have less trouble to answer the sollicitations of the flesh and repel the attempts the Devil and wicked World make upon us than we had formerly to lay or keep asleep Conscience or procure from our selves leave that we might sin Let our our loins therefore be girt about and our lights burning Let us stir up the gift of God in us and be true to our selves in a faithful employing both natural powers and divine grace and no doubt our enemies will fall before us all the Chains and weights they would cast upon us shall fall off all their Cords drop asunder and their machines miscarry nor will there any thing of molestation remain but only the sweet memory of having overcome it The pleasure of devotion and a clean brest kept thereby will sweetly constrain us to a strict observance of it nor shall we be in a manner able to impetrate from our selves a dispensation for its neglect And this daily faithfulness in holy duties and converse thus maintained with God shall not so much with Moses's make our faces to shine as embellish our