as for other Ceremonies which are of latter date and humane institution let 's take heed likewise how we own them or have any thing to do with them I may say of the one sort and the other as Solomon did in another case Both of them are alike Abomination to the Lord. The former once were lawful but now are unlawful the latter never were lawful nor ever will be lawful and therefore as we desire to keep our selves pure let 's abstain from both of them and utterly renounce and disclaim them Now that I may the better hold forth to you the necessity of worshipping God in Truth and the unwarrantableness of worshipping him in the use of Ceremonies I shall offer to you these following Queries 1. Whether is there so much as one word or syllable in all the holy Scriptures for any such kind of Worship If you are Christians you take the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles for the Word of God and if you are Protestants you take them for a compleat and perfect Rule of Divine and Religious Worship The Holy Ghost hath there declared both to whom such kind of Worship belongs and the manner wherein it is to be performed If therefore you will act regularly and do nothing but what is just and warrantable shew us by what Prophet or Apostle he hath allowed you to worship in the use of Ceremonies In the old Testament he foretells the abolishing and ceasing of Them The Church of those times being afflicted with the burden of them prayes for support till the time of their ceasing should come Christ no sooner sets upon preaching but he invites People from them justifies them in the refusal of them and afterwards laying down his Life to redeem them from them he blots out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against them takes it out of the way and nails it to his cross The Apostles Elders and Brethren at Jerusalem directed by the Holy Ghost who sat President amongst them decreed against them And as if all this were too little Paul who had once such esteem and Zeal for the Rites and Traditions of his Fathers speaks of them with words of greatest contempt and indignation calls them all to nought terms them carnal Ordinances Rudiments of the World beggarly Elements and the like Thus I have shewed you that both Prophets and Apostles speak much against Ceremonies do you now shew where they speak any thing for them 2. Whether if the holy Scriptures have nothing at all for them is it not apparent superstition to institute them or worship God in the use of them If Tertullian be not mistaken it is Those Ceremonies saith he are vain which are used without any Authority of Divine or Apostolical Command and are to be accounted superstitious and even therefore to be repressed because they make us in some sort like the Gentiles And if Zanchy Vrsin Viret with other Orthodox and learned writers on the second commandment are not mistaken it clearly falls within the compass of it Nay if the very descriptions that the schoolmen give of superstition may pass it stands justly chargeable with it Aquinas places it in the excess of religion as when a man gives divine worship either to him it belongs not to or in that way it ought not to be given And speaking of four kinds of superstition he places the first in the giving of worship to the true God modo tamen indebito but after an undue manner It consists not only in the worshipping of a strange deity but in the worshipping of the true Deity in a strange manner such as he hath not appointed He that adds institutions to his institutions nay so much as a ceremony to the ceremonies he hath appointed is guilty of it And therefore as the Athenians were guilty of it in their ignorant worshâ—pping of their unknown God so likewise were some both of the ancient Jews and Christians the former in their washing of hands before meat the latter in their abstaining from certain meats and observing of dayes And what a great sin it is to be guilty of it we may gather from Gods proceedings against Saul upon his miscarriage in the business of the Amallkites For the injury they offered to the Israelites when they came from Egypt the Lord appoints Saul to go and destroy them both man and woman infant and suckling ox and sheep camell and ass And he accordingly went against them and smote them but did not fully observe his commission for to say nothing of other things he spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings and the lambs and all that was good And this he did if he himself say true and we do not find that Samuel charges him with falshood in it that he might sacrifice them to the Lord in Gilgal Saul then out of a superstitious humour would offer that to God which he would not have offered to him And what 's the issue of it why he is so incensed against him for it that he takes him and devests him of his royal ornaments deposes him from being King and casts him out of his favour for ever Saul committed several miscarriages before but God was not so displeased with any of them as he was with this We do not find that he ever smiled upon him or owned him after this time Now if it be superstition to do that in the worship of God that he hath not appointed and such a dangerous thing to be guilty of it you had best consider before you go any further whether you may either lawfully or safely use such Ceremonies in his worship as he hath not appointed but have been devised by men 3. Whether should you not imitate the primitive Church If ever the Church were worthy of imitation it was during her primitive state Then as Egesippus shews she was a pure and incorrupted Virgin So she continued for somewhat above an hundred years after our Saviours time so long she remained free from those superstitions and errours that after like a mighty flood brake in upon her Now during this space of her Virgin purity whether had she any of those Ceremonies that at this time are with so much heat contended for amongst us The learned Camero to mention no more is peremptory in the negative Besides saith he water in baptism bread and wine in the Lords Supper imposition of hands and anointing of the sick she had not any ceremonies at all Christians then contented themselves with the institutions of Christ and rejoiced in the liberty wherewith he had set them free without troubling themselves or others with the devising or imposing of any humane rites or ordinances 4. Whether ought you not to maintain your Christian liberty you think you ought to maintain your civil liberties and will venture at law all you have before you will let them go and ought you not to
The Scripture affords instances of both On the one hand Asa though a good King miss'd it in many things he executed not the Law upon his idolatrous Mother remov'd not the high-places and the like yet because his heart was right God accepted him On the other hand Jehu though a bad King did many good Works destroyed Ababs house slew the Worshippers of Baal with other good service yet because his heart was not right all was in vain The Jesuites indeed as if they were resolved to make themselves the laughing-stocks as well as the hatred of all good Christians speak so lightly of the Souls engaging in the service of God as if it were indifferent whether a man understand what he does or not nay whether he do it by himself or by another Hence they use as a learned Writer of our own tells us to cast the Die which shall say Prayer for the other Whether such Devotion as this be proper or like to find acceptance let any one that hath but one grain of a Christian Spirit left him judge 4. Whether do you not employ your Souls in far meaner and lower Offices than the service of God When you go forth into the World do not you take them along with you When you go out into your Shops into the Market into the Fields have you not them with you Do you not use their assistance in every Bargain advise with them in every Business and do what ever you do with their concurrence Do not you make them Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water cause them to attend on every vain and frivolous undertaking and prostitute them to the very Dunghils Nay do you not vex and grieve them with anxious and thorny Cares about the poorest and basest matters insomuch that you sometimes make them weary of their Habitations and long to be divorced from them And will you thus employ your Heaven-born Souls innobled with such rare and excellent faculties in things of this nature and yet think them too good to be employed in the service of God wherein the glorious Angels themselves so much delight What 's this but most wretchedly to debase your selves and provoke God that gave you your Souls to tear them away from you 5. Whether would you not have God to let you have his heart in all that he does for you When he bestows upon you Corn and Wine and such-like benefits would you not that he should do it with his Heart without designs of dereliction or obduration Would you be content that whiles he stretches forth his hand of bounty and fills your mouths with his outward blessings he should in the mean time with-hold his heart from you Alas what did it avail Cain to be Adam's first-born and Heir of all the World when God would not own him Or what did it avail Esau to be the first born of the wealthy Isaac and elder Brother to the Princely Jacob when the Lord hates him Upon these and such-like confiderations I cannot but think but you would have God whatever he does for you to let you have his heart with it Every good man saith Lord whatever thou dost for me let me have thy heart with it Though thou give me the Bread of Adversity and the Water of Affliction yet let me have thy heart with it Though I have never so little from thee let me have thy heart in it Now what you would that God should do to you the same do ye to him If ye would that he should let you have his heart in what he does for you let him have yours in what you do for him 6. Whether would you not have your service accepted of God If you would not what do you tender it for Do you think it worth the while to mock him or that you may do it with safety If you would have your service accepted then ingage your hearts in it for assure your selves do what you will all is in vain without it Simon Magus believed was baptized continued with Philip and wondered at the Miracles and Signs which were done and what was he the better for all this Thou hast neither part nor lot saith Peter in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God Observe here how far this man went he acknowledged the truth of the Gospel received the Seal of the Covenant associates himself with the Servants of Christ which others were afraid to do is affected with their wonders desires ability to do the like and that so earnestly that he offers money for it but his heart is not right and that mars all Had it been right though he had done less it would have been enough but that being wrong though he did more it was too little Faith and Holiness are so necessary to the acceptance both of our Persons and Services that without them all is in vain Herein the Scripture is most plain For one and the same Apostle shews that without the former it is impossible to please God and without the latter it is impossible to see him Now this being so be sure when ever you present your selves before the Lord to have your hearts and affections with you and engage them in his service and then your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord as the labour of Hypocrites and all such painted Sepulchres is but then you shall make your way prosperous and then you shall have good success 2. Let 's worship God in Truth Whiles Jews Pagans and such as symbolize with them do contrary to his Command worship him in the use of Rites and Ceremonies let us in obedience to it worship him in truth Let 's beware lest any man spoil us through Philosophy and vain deceit after the Tradition of men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ. The Jewish Ceremonies which we are mainly to look after as having been once of Divine Institution were crucified as you have already heard with Christ and died with him and the Christian Church did after a time decently as it were interr them and lay them in their grave and let not us now offer to dig them up again This in Augustines account were no less than to offer violence to the Diceased than which what can be more inhumane and barbarous Though there was a time when they were salutaria exercitia wholsome and useful Rudiments yet now it s not so now they are no better than foetida cadavera filthy Carcases fitter with those mentioned by the Prophet to remain among the graves and lodge in the monuments than abide among the living and therefore let 's not own them or have any thing to do with them God ordained in the Levitical Law which was the Jews Ritual that if any man touched a dead Body he should be unclean If then their Ceremonies are dead let 's beware of touching them lest we become unclean And
his to devise and that blasphemous tongue of his to utter but far different from what the Holy-Ghost dictaed to the Prophets and Apostles As God would not have us to worship him with the body only so neither would he have us to worship him with the soul only but with soul and body both together He is maker and Lord both of the one and the other and therefore he expects to be worshipped with the one as well as with the other When he calls so much for our worshipping him in spirit he doth not thereby exclude or discharge us from worshipping him with the body he never intended any such thing He calls upon us indeed to worship him with the spirit principally but not only Thus the Saints of old acted and guided by the Holy Ghost ever understood him and therefore did not only imploy their spirits in worshipping him but their bodies also To instance in the duty of prayer therein they bowed their knees lifted up their eyes voice hands smote upon their breasts and the like thereby teaching us that when we imploy our selves in the worship of God we must not only ingage the soul but the body likewise And Amyrald who writes against such quodlibetick spirits tells us that there never was any Nation that thought it enough to serve God in thought only without making demonstrations of their devotion by gestures and external actions And though bodily exercise as it is single and divided from the spirit doth as the Apostle saith profit little yet when it joyns with it it profits much It assists the spirit elevates the heart inflames the affections excites to devotion and makes us far more lively in the service of God than otherwise we should be What difference is there commonly in the intention of mens affections betwixt their praying only inwardly in the spirit and outwardly with the voice what deadness and straitness do usually attend the one and what life and inlargement the other Hence we find that the ancient Christians when they set upon the service of God did on purpose take in the body to assist the soul and further their devotion in it Witness that of Augustin by words saith he and other signes we greatly excite our selves to increase holy desire And upon this and such like grounds Aquinas teaches that prayer though secret may be vocal or that in our closet-performances when we have no spectators but God and Angels we may use the voice Anatomists say there are certain strings that come from the heart to the tongue so that the agitation and motion of the tongue doth stir and shake the heart and thereby awaken and affect it rendring it more vigorous and lively in its present services If therefore when we are waiting upon God in secret we find our hearts dead and liveless we may make use of the tongue for the quickning of them and rendring them more fit for the enjoyment of communion with him and better carrying on of his service The truth is such is the indisposition of our hearts to good that they are apt like Eutichus to drop asleep in the service of God and therefore we have need of something to awaken them and if we find the voice will do it we may use it If we find them lively and in good frame and fit for the service we are about we may then spare it and pray as Hannah did in her heart but if otherwise we may and ought to use it This I speak of the duty of prayer and that prayer which is secret the use of the voice is also necessary when one prayes in the person of many as the Master in his family or the Minister in the Congregation Those that are to joyn with them are to know what Petitions they make and say Amen to them which they cannot do except they use the voice And as the voice is thus to be used in the worship of God so must other parts of the body as the occasion serves and the nature of the duty requires And this is the common Doctrine of Protestants and therefore it is an unworthy slander of Maldonate the Jesuite that the Calvinists interpret worshipping in spirit a worshipping with faith alone as if they were Solifidians and against all external services Now what shall be done to thee thou false tongue sharp arrows of the Almighty and coals of Juniper This is even as true as that the Devil ran away with Luther that Calvin dyed blaspheming that Beza recanted that Junius had a cloven foot Nay this is as true as that their St. Patrick caused the stoln Sheep to bleat in the belly of him that had eaten it that St. Lupus shut the Devil all night up in a Tanckard that St. Dunstan held him fast by the nose with a pair of Tongs that St. Dominick made him hold him the Candle till he burnt his fingers with abundance of such ridiculous childish fables which yet their deluded vulgar take to be as true as the Gospel it self Let any man that hath eyes but read Calvin himself on the Text and he shall find him speaking not only for faith and purity of heart but likewise for prayer giving of thanks and innocency of life Nay their own Cajetan hath spoken as much if not more upon this Text for internal worship than Calvin hath done In spirit that is saith he not in the Mount not in Jerusalem not in any place not with temporal worship not with the tongue but with inward worship consisting in spirit that is in the mind as it bears the office of the spirit and layes out it self in spiritual matters What if Calvin had said all this then the angry Jesuite would sure have opened his mouth indeed But we may not wonder that the Jesuites carry it thus towards us Their friend Jarrigius hath told us what kind of dealing we are to expect from them It is saith he speaking to one of them your ordinary custome according to the secret and mysterious rules of the society to impose things upon the pastors of the reformed Churches in your injurious and treacherous refutations and make the world believe they say what never came into their thoughts A Jesuites tongue then is no slander but no more of this 2. Though it be our duty in these dayes of the Gospel to worship God in truth or without the use of Ceremonies yet we do not understand this to the exclusion 1. Of such Ceremonies as are of divine institution When Christ abolished the Jewish and Samaritan Ceremonies he instead thereof instituted some of another nature that were to continue Of this sort are water in Baptism bread and wine in the Supper with the several actions pertaining to them That these are Ceremonies both Papists and Protestants as Chamier shews grant and that they are of divine institution none but infidels will deny And these ceremonies notwithstanding what hath been