than can be contained in one Church The complaint is too true and worthy of the care of publick Authority to redress it but this is no just reason for Separation though it be a reason for such persons who are shut out of their own Parish Churches to go to others where they can be received for where publick Authority has not made sufficient provision for Parochial Communion men who love their souls must provide for themselves in the Communion of the Church CHAP. II. Concerning Irreverence in Worship ANother great miscarriage which many professed Christians are guilty of is an irreverent performance of Religious Worship if that may be called Religious Worship which is not attended with all the solemn expressions of reverence and devotion There are so many instances of this that the very naming of them will be thought sharp and satyrical There are but few Christians who put on that true gravity and seriousness of looks and behaviours as becomes the presence of God and the solemnity of Religious Worship You shall see some gazing about them with a roving and wandring eye as if they came only to see and to be seen to observe every new face or new dress and garb and therefore too often set themselves out with that fantastick gaiety which more becomes a Play-house than a Church You shall see others talk or whisper or laugh to the great offence and scandal of all serious and devout minds Others instead of worshipping God sleep away the Prayers or Sermon or both as if they were not concerned in either It is possible indeed for very devout men sometimes to be surprized with sleep but it is a great indecency when ever it is so and requires great care to prevent it in our selves and others and is a great contempt of God and of his Worship when it grows into a custom and men as naturally dispose themselves to a sleeping posture as if it were the design of their coming to Church You shall see others sit all the time of Divine Service which would be thought a very great rudeness when we put up a Petition to an earthly Prince this was unknown in the ancient Church wherein for some Ages they did not so much as sit either while the Scriptures were read or expounded and Eusebius relates a famous Story of Constantine the first Christian Emperour that when he made a Speech to him in his own Palace concerning the Sepulchre of our Saviour he heard it standing though it were very long and would not be perswaded to sit down saying That it was not fit to consult our ease while we hear any discourses concerning God and that it was more agreeable to piety to hear Religious discourses standing And what would that Religious Emperour have thought to have seen Christians in publick Assemblies pray sitting And indeed I have often thought what should be the reason of that universal practice of sitting when we sing Psalms for Psalms of praise and thanksgiving are as much the worship of God as Prayer and therefore equally require a posture of Devotion Thus uncovering the head has at least among Christians been alwayes accounted an act of Reverence as pulling off the Shooes was among the Eastern Nations and therefore becomes the presence of so great a Majesty But I shall not take notice of every particular instance of such miscarriages but endeavour to convince you of the great evil and undecency of such irreverence in Worship and that from these two considerations 1. The nature of Religious Worship especially considered as publick 2. From the peculiar presence of God and holy Angels in Christian Assemblies 1. From the nature of Religious Worship especially considered as publick Now Religious Worship consists in a great awe and reverence for the Divine Majesty when we are possest with a great sense of that infinite distance which is between God and us and our constant dependence on him which makes us approach his presence with great humility of mind with a profound admiration of his infinite perfections with thankful acknowledgments of his many and great blessings bestowed on us and with souls devoted to his service and obedience hence Religion is so often called the fear of God because Religion is founded in a great awe and reverence for God So that where there is no true reverence of God there is no true Worship of him and where ever the mind is thoroughly affected with this religious fear it will discover it self in our words and looks and actions Our souls have the government of our outward man and our passions discover themselves in our looks and behaviour It requires very great art either to conceal those passions which we have or to counterfeit those which we have not for there is such a sympathy between our souls and bodies that they powerfully affect each other and our wise Maker so contrived our frame that though the secret motions of our minds cannot be seen yet they discover themselves by those external and visible impressions they make on our bodies without which mankind could never know one another nor have any pleasure or security in mutual conversation For no wise man cares to converse with those who can so artificially diguise themselves that you can never know what their inward resentments are Which shews that according to the frame of our natures an inward reverence for God will shew it self in external actions and therefore that it ought to do so for as God has united the soul and body into one man so he has united their motions and actions too without which there can be no one perfect act of Religion or Vertue to worship God with the body without the soul is hypocrisie to worship God with the soul without the body is either impossible because our inward passions will discover themselves by some external signs when we have no design nor interest to conceal them or is very lame and imperfect and unbecoming this state of life We must glorifie God both with our bodies and with our spirits which are Gods he made them both and united them for his service and for the same reason redeemed them both with the blood of his Son But we shall better see the necessity of this by considering the nature of publick Worship for publick Worship consists in publick signs of honour no man has a Window into our souls to discover the secret devotion of our hearts and therefore visible Worship must be expressed in visible actions in the external reverence of our words and gestures and behaviour that is in such actions as express the great humility of our minds that great sense we have of the infinite Majesty of God and our own meanness and worthlessness and all those passions and affections which become Divine Worship and therefore rude and unmannerly approaches to God such as would not become the Majesty of an earthly Prince whatever inward devotion we may pretend to is not external and
greatest concernment Pag. 104 CHAP. II. COncerning Publick Worship Pag. 110 Publick Worship to be preferred before private tho it were not expresly commanded by God Pag. 111 Publick Worship a greater honour to God than private Devotions Pag. 116 External Worship must be publick Pag. 118 God is a publick Benefactor and therefore publick Worship is due to him Pag. 120 Publick Worship instituted by God under the Law Pag. 122 And by Christ under the Gospel the true Notion of a Church requires it Pag. 125 This proved from the nature of Christian Communion and Sacraments Pag. 126 The same proved from the Institution of the Gospel-Ministry and the power of the Keys Pag. 130 And from the publick profession of Christianity Pag. 133 And from the Duty of Princes to encourage and propagate Religion Pag. 134 CHAP. III. Section 1. COncerning those who plead Conscience for Separation and set up distinct Communions of their own Pag. 138 Some Inquiries with reference to their honesty and sincerity in this Matter Pag. 139 1. Whether they separate upon true Principles of Conscience the difference between private Opinion and Conscience and the use of this Distinction ibid 2. Whether they consider the great Evil of Schism Pag. 151 3. Whether they believe our Communion to be unlawful Pag. 156 4. How they came to think our Communion unlawful Pag. 156 5. Whether they ever impartially examined the Reasons of their Separation Pag. 170 6. How they behave themselves towards their Governors Pag. 184 Section 2. Some general Considerations in order to remove those Prejudices which some have entertained against the Worship of the Church of England Pag. 188 1. From the Nature of God Pag. 190 2. From the Nature of Christian Religion Pag. 193 3. From the Example of our Saviour Pag. 207 4. From the practice of the Apostles and the first and best Churches Pag. 208 Section 3. An answer to some popular Cavils Pag. 215 Concerning Will-Worship Pag. 216 Concerning Superstition Pag. 222 The Church of England charged with Idolatry Pag. 235 And with Popery Pag. 236 PART II. CHAP. I. COncerning Parochial Communion CHAP. II. Concerning irreverence in Worship 267 CHAP. III. Concerning the neglect of the publick Prayers of the Church 281 CHAP. IV. Concerning the publick administration of Baptism 289 CHAP. V. Concerning the publick instruction of Youth 296 CHAP. VI. Concerning the great neglect of the Lord's Supper ERRATA PAge 6. line 26 read Apollos P. 9. l. 13. r. and that none P. 18. l. 15. r. that they either P. 50. l. 14. f. we r. be P. 105. l. 18. r. you 'l P. 124. l. 26. r. who P. 164. l. 9. r. fell P. 185. l. 2. r. them P. 208. l. 6. r. so P. 212. l. 11. f. if r. that P. 219. l. 24. r. now though P. 224. l. 12 13. r. difficult P. 230. l. 5. r. had P. 331. l. 18. f. rule r. rite P. 346. l. 28. f. truth r. faith A Practical Discourse OF Religious Assemblies The INTRODUCTION 1. Containing a short Account of the nature of Christian Assemblies for Publick Worship 2. A Scheme of the Design of this following Treatise 3. The seasonableness of such a Discourse 1. RELIGION is the greatest Concernment of Mankind both with respect to this life and the next and the Worship of God is the most excellent part of Religion as having GOD the most excellent Being for its immediate Object This is the Work and constant Imployment of Angels and blessed Spirits in Heaven who see the Face of God dwell in his Presence admire his essential Glory and infinite Perfections and sing Eternal Hallelujah's to Him When we come to Heaven we shall have no unruly Passions and Appetites to govern and tho our Souls shall be transformed into a pure Flame of Divine Love yet there will be no place for the laborious exercise of Charity in pitying and relieving one another where all the Inhabitants shall be perfectly happy in the enjoyment of the most perfect Good Indeed in this World Temperance and Charity are no Christian Vertues but as they are acts of Worship that is as they flow from a great sense of God and veneration for him for God is the sole Object of Religion and to be sober and to be charitable upon some meaner Considerations without any respect to God as the last end of all is to serve our selves or our Friends or to follow the inclinations of our nature but is not properly the Service of God Whatsoever we do out of a just sense of God is in some respects an act of Worship for it is to honour the Deity which may as effectually be done by actions as by words verbal praises are of no value with God are meer lip-labour and formal complements when they are alone and produce no answerable effects in our lives This is what the Apostle calls a form of Godliness without the power of it Religion is nothing else but such a vital sense of God as excites in us devout affections and discovers it self in a divine and heavenly Conversation But yet that which we more strictly call Worship is the most visible and solemn expression of our Honour for God when we lift up our hearts and our eyes and hands to God in Prayers Praises and Thanksgivings and when it is sincere and hearty has a powerful influence upon the government of our Lives For what sincere Worshipper can be so void of all fear of God as to break his Laws and contemn his Authority and despise his Judgements and therefore that vain and hypocritical semblance of Religion wherewith some bad Men deceive themselves and flatter God is called the form of Godliness without the power it being only an external imitation of Religious Worship without that powerful sense of God which governs the Lives of truly devout and pious Men. And as the Worship of God is the most excellent part of Religion which has the most universal and most powerful influence upon our Lives So publick Worship is the most excellent Worship as you shall hear more hereafter Indeed the right and power of holding Publick Assemblies for Worship is the fundamental right of the Church whereon all Church-Authority depends as has been well observed and proved by a Learned Man of our Church The Power of the Keys signifies no more than Authority to take in and to shut out of the Church the first is done by Baptism the second by Church-Censures the highest of which is Excommunication which debarreth Men from all parts of Christian Communion And therefore the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews makes forsaking Christian Assemblies either to be an Apostacy from Christianity as it was in those days or at least a fair step towards it he exhorts those to whom he writ to hold fast the profession of their Faith without wavering that is to continue firm and stedfast in the profession of Christianity and in order to this gives them this Caution Not
forsaking the assembling of themselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching Which at least supposes that to forsake the Assemblies of Christians does greatly dispose Men to a final Apostacy as appears from the following verses wherein he urges the great danger of Apostacy which had been nothing to his purpose had not separation at least been the beginning of it But if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledg of the Truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sin but a certain fearful looking for of Vengeance and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversary He that despised Moses ' s Law died without mercy under two or three Witnesses of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy that trampleth under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace The truth is whoever carefully examines the state of the Apostolical-Churches according to that account we find of them in the Writings of the Apostles and I may add of the succeeding Ages from the report of the most Primitive and Apostolical Fathers will find that none but Apostates from Christianity by Apostates not meaning those who wholly renounced the Name and Profession but those who renounced the Truth of Christian Doctrine actually separated from the Communion of the Church There were Schisms and Divisions in the Church of Corinth which S. Paul reproves them for but we do not find that they actually separated into distinct Communions but contended amongst themselves about the preference of several Apostles which of them was greatest Every one of you saith I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas or Peter and I of Christ. And this seems to be the Case in the second Schism of Corinth in the time of Clemens Romanus who writ a Letter to them in the name of the Church of Rome perswading them to Peace Unity and Order But besides these Schisms in the Church which S. Paul makes a great sign of carnality For are ye not carnal for whereas there is among you Envying and Strife and Divisions are ye not carnal and walk as Men For while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos are ye not carnal There were also Schisms from the Church as we learn from St. Paul's Epistle to Timothy For of this sort are they who creep into Houses who kept Secret and Clandestine Meetings and lead captive silly Women laden with Sins led away with divers Lusts ever learning but never able to come to the knowledg of the Truth Now as Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the Truth that is they opposed themselves against the Apostles of Christ who were the only Teachers of the true Religion and were that to the Christian Church which Moses was to the Iews Which plainly signifies that they set themselves up against the Apostles and gathered Churches in opposition to them Of such Separatists St. Iohn speaks whom he calls Antichrists they went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that it might be made manifest that they were not all of us Where the Apostle expresly affirms that they went out from them that is forsook the Christian Assemblies by which he proves that they were not of them i. e. that they did not belong to the same Body and Society but had entertained such Doctrines as were destructive to the Christian Faith for otherwise they would not have separated from the Christian Church Now this necessarily supposes that Christian Communion is so indispensible a Duty that no Man can causlesly separate from the Christian Church without at least bringing his Christianity into question that nothing can reasonably tempt Men to a Separation but their renouncing some great Article of the Christian Faith nor can any thing justify a Separation but such Corruptions as destroy the Faith once delivered to the Saints for otherwise there had bin no force in the Apostle's Argument to prove that they were corrupt in the Faith from their Separation They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us no doubt they would have continued with us So that tho we should grant that Schism as Dr. Owen earnestly contends signifies no more than Divisions and Contentions among the Members of the same Church without the breach of Church-Communion and therefore Separatists are not properly Schismaticks I know not what he gains by this when Separation in the Apostles days was looked upon as a much greater evil than Schism and yet none but Hereticks or Apostates from the Truth of Christian Doctrine were in those days guilty of it and if the Apostle's Argument holds good a sinfull and causless Separation can never be own'd without some degree of Apostacy It is to no great purpose to dispute the signification of words when the difference between things is plain and notorious But yet there seems to be a manifest difference in Scripture between Schism and Heresie the first being commonly applied to signifie those Divisions which were among Christians in the same Communion the second if not always yet chiefly applied to signify Separation from the Church for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies a Sect or Party and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sectarian Thus Christianity it self when the Christians united into a distinct Church-Society was called Heresy or a new Sect and the Sect of the Nazarens Thus we read of the Sect of the Sadduces and the Sect of the Pharisees where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Heresy is always used Now tho these different Sects among the Iews did not separate into distinct Assemblies for Worship but all worshipped at the Temple as even the Christian Iews did while the Temple stood as appears from what happened to St. Paul at Ierusalem the last time he went thither yet they were distinguished by different Opinions Rites and Usages and Schools and which is usually the effect of such Distinctions by different Interests and Affections And in allusion to those Jewish Sects these Differences amongst Christians which did not break forth into open Separation but occasioned great sidings and Parties and Heats and Animosities were indifferently called Schisms or Heresies Thus St. Paul joyns Hatred Variance Wrath Seditions Heresie But then there were another sort of Heresies which always ended in Separation for such Men were always either cast out of the Church or separated themselves Such are those which St. Peter calls Damnable Heresies whom he compares with the fallen Angels and the old World which was destroyed with a Deluge of Water and Sodom and Gomorrah whom he calls presumptuous self-willed and that are not
afraid to speak evil of Dignities that is who did wilfully and obstinately oppose the Apostles of Christ who were invested with his Authority answerable to the Sin of those in the Jewish Church who set themselves up against Moses and Aaron and reproached the Rulers of the People and it is expresly called doing presumptuously not to hearken to the Priest that standeth to minister before the Lord. And therefore these Men are said to have forsaken the right way and are gone astray And whoever compares this Chapter with St. Iude's Epistle will find that St. Peter and S. Iude speak of the same Men for their Characters do exactly agree and of them S. Iude tells us these be they who separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit And thus in the first Ages of Christianity no Men ever separated from the Communion of the Church but such gross Hereticks the several Sects of Gnosticks of whom Irenaeus and Epiphanius give us a large and particular account and for this reason the name Heresy which properly signifies a Sect or Separation came to be applied to corrupt and Heretical Doctrines which in those days were the only cause of Separations And we may find some remains of this ancient and original use of these words in after-ages for though Schism commonly was used in Church-Writers to signify Separation from Church-Communion and Heresy to signify false Doctrine yet separation from the Christian Church though it were only ocasioned upon a Dispute about Discipline without any other error in matters of Faith was called Heresy Thus St. Cyprian I remember calls the Schism of Novatianus Haereticam Pravitatem Heretical Impiety and in answer to that question of Antonianus Quam Haeresin Novatianus introduxisset What Heresy Novatianus was the Author of he alledges nothing but the breach of the Peace and Unity of the Church and says That we ought not curiously to enquire what he teaches who is out of the Church for whatever he be he is no Christian who is not in the Church of Christ. And thus Felicissimus and his adherents are called Haeretica Factio an Heretical Faction though the Schism was occasioned only by a Dispute of Discipline concerning the restoring the Lapsed to the Peace and Communion of the Church So that in St. Cyprian's time Separation from the Church without any other Error in the Fundamentals of Faith was called Heresy And though Heresy did most frequently signify corrupt Doctrine yet a meer error in Doctrine was not thought a compleat formal Heresy without such Wilfulness and Obstinacy as ended in Separation And therefore St. Austin describes Hereticks to be those who hold some false and corrupt Doctrines and when they are reproved in order to reduce them to truth and sobricty of Iudgment do obstinately resist and refuse to correct their poisonous and damnable Opinions but persist in defending them Thus they become Hereticks and going out of the Church become its enemies c. And this I take to be the meaning of this Father in that famed Saying Errare possum Hereticus esse nolo though he might err yet he would not be an Heretick that is that he would not so obstinately persist in the defence of any private Opinion in opposition to the received Doctrine of the Christian Church as to break the Communion of the Church upon that account Now if this were the Case that besides those Divisions among Christians in the same Communion which are called Schisms by St. Paul there were formal Separations from the Church of a much more heinous nature which none in those days were guilty of but those who renounced the purity of the Christian Doctrine if such Separations were always condemned in the Primitive Church as Heresy and Apostacy from Christianity though such Separatists were not guilty of any fundamental Error in Doctrines of Faith I see not what Dr. Owen gains by proving that Separation is no Schism when it appears to be a much greater evil And indeed if the Doctor will allow Schism to be a great evil when it signifies no more than Contentions and Quarrels in a Church any one would reasonably think that Separation from a Church should be a much greater Evil for Contentions and Quarrels are then come to their heighth and perfection when they make Friends Brethren and Confederates part company and it seems strange that less Quarrels should be a greater Evil than greater Quarrels unless he thinks it is with Schism as under the Law it was in the case of Leprosy that when the whole Body was over-spread with it the Leper was pronounced clean But the most material Inquiry here is What is a Publick Assembly for Religious Worship for our Dissenters meet as publickly now as the Church of England and therefore cannot be charged with forsaking Christian Assemblies and in times of Persecution the Primitive Christians met very privately in small numbers or in the night or very early in the morning to avoid the discovery of their Persecutors and yet such private and clandestine Meetings were not really Conventicles but publick Church-Assemblies Which is a plain Proof that it is not numbers nor meeting openly and publickly which makes a Church-Assembly but holding such Assemblies by the Publick Authority of the Church and in union with it As in the State when a great many People meet together without Publick Authority it is a Riot not a Legal Assembly Publick Places of Worship allowed by the Publick Authority of the Church is one thing which makes the Assemblies of Christians publick For the Primitive Christians allowed no separate Assemblies no Congregations but what met in the publick Church and therefore we find an express Canon in the Council of Gangra That if any shall take upon him out of the Church privately to preach at home and making light of the Church shall do those things which belong only to the Church without the presence of the Priest and the leave and allowance of the Bishops let him be Accursed So that Publick Worship is that Worship which is performed in Publick Churches or in case of necessity in other places by the allowance and appointment of the Publick Authority of Church and State and Separate Meetings which have no such allowance and authority must be Schismatical Conventicles unless they can prove the lawfulness and necessity of such a Separation for indeed nothing can make a Separation lawful but what makes it necessary II. This following Treatise consists of two Parts the first concerns those who wholly or for the most part absent themselves from the Publick Assemblies of Christians and these are of three sorts 1. Those who forsake Religious Assemblies out of prophaneness for want of a due sense of any Religion or in contempt of it 2. Those who forsake Religious Assemblies for want of a due sense of the necessity and advantage of Publick Worship who do not go to Church because they think they
of external Worship with a safe Conscience how we can pray either with or without a Form since neither of them is commanded in Scripture as the external circumstances of no one Duty are that I know of I say while Men have such wild unpracticable Notions in their Heads which when they are pursued to their last Issue overthrow all manner of external Order and Government in the Church and end in all the Confusions of Quakerism it is a vain thing to talk of Comprehensions and Concessions And while Men have no sense at all of the evil of Schism and Separation but think it as innocent a thing to set up Church against Church as to go from one parish-Parish-Church to another it is evident that they will never desire to return to the Union of the Church who have no sense what a necessary duty Christian Communion is and what a damning Sin Schism is and therefore whoever does sincerely and cordially desire to see all sober Christians united in the same Communion must earnestly exhort perswade and convince as well as yield and comply The common Danger we are all in from the growing Power and secret Conspiracies of the Popish Faction makes all Men acknowledge the necessity and call aloud for Union Our Dissenters who never did nor are ever likely to unite in any thing but their Cries against Popery and their Designs of pulling down the Church of England think this a convenient opportunity to accomplish their Ends and have been very busy to libel Church and Church-men to say nothing now of the State this hath put many worthy Sons of the Church who are impatient to hear their Mother reviled and slandered upon the defensive part to vindicate the Reformation of our Church from their rude Calumnies and yet to express their readiness to comply and unite upon such Terms when ever Publick Authority shall see fit as would not utterly destroy our Constitution The first they have done beyond the possibility of a sober Reply and how fruitless their Charity is in attempting the second the Dissenters themselves will convince all men who cannot patiently hear of any other terms of Concord but the extirpation of the corrupt and Antichristian Church of England I am not ambitious to thrust my self into this Scuffle and therefore do not appear as a Disputant but make a close and serious Application to the Consciences of Men which I hope when the heat of Disputation is a little over may prove a more powerful conviction to all well-meaning Men than the best and most unanswerable Reasons have hitherto done PART I. Concerning those who wholly forsake Religious Assemblies CHAP. I. Containing an Address and Exhortation to those who have no sense at all of Religion or that Obligation which lies on them to worship God and take care of their Souls SECT I. Some Proposals made to the Speculative Atheist 1. That they would once more consider what strong and almost invincible Inclinations there are in Humane Nature to the Worship of God 2. That they would not publickly affront Religion 3. That they would not wholly forsake Religious Assemblies 4. That they would not intermeddle in the Disputes and Controversies of Religion FIrst I shall begin with those who withdraw themselves from Christian Assemblies out of profaneness for want of any due sense of Religion or that Obligation which lies on them to worship God and to take care of their own Souls And there are two sorts of these Men first the Speculative secondly the Practical Atheist First The Speculative Atheist who denies the being of God and therefore must of necessity despise his Worship for that which is not cannot be the Object of our Love or Fear or Religious Adorations Those indeed who do not believe that there is a God may in prudence conceal their Atheism and comply with the custom of their Country in performing all the External Acts of Worship but yet few Atheists have so much Wit or good breeding as not to affront the universal Belief and Practice of Mankind Now I shall not at present dispute the Case with these Men nor attempt to convince them of their great Folly and Madness in not worshipping God by proving that there is a God who ought to be worshipped This requires a larger Discourse than my present Design will allow and has been already done more than once with all the advantages of Reason and Learning by much better Pens and therefore I shall only make three or four very fair and reasonable Proposals to them First That they would once more seriously consider what strong and almost invincible Inclinations there are in Humane Nature to the Worship of God I do not argue now from Natural Notions and Anticipations or those common Maxims and Principles of Reason which are found in all Man-kind because the Atheist tells us That these are only the Principles of our Education and we should never have had such Conceits and Fancies in our Heads if we had not been taught them though it is a hard thing to give an account how these Principles should first come to be entertained in the World who taught them the first Man and how he came so readily to believe them and so carefully to propagate them to Posterity and it seems strange how Man-kind should so universally assent to such Principles as the Being of God and a Providence c. if at least they are not extreamly agreeable to the Make and Frame of our Minds though we should suppose them not to be Natural Notions But I say to let pass this now I shall only desire these Men to consult a little with the Inclinations of Nature which are not the Effects of Reason and Discourse but Natural Impressions the necessary Efforts Impetus and Tendencies of Nature as a Stone naturally falls downward and the Fire as naturally ascends Now it is impossible that any Education should put new Inclinations or new Passions into our Minds Education may direct our Natural Inclinations and Passions to Unnatural Objects but it can no more make new Inclinations and Passions than it can make a new Soul Now among all the Inclinations of Humane Nature there is none more strong and invincible than the Inclination to Religion to worship something or other as a God Though the Heathens were greatly mistaken in their Notion of a God and some worshipped the Sun Moon and Stars the Earth and Seas and Rivers and the meanest and most contemptible Creatures for Gods yet they all agreed in this universal Inclination to Religious Worship which is a plain Argument that this Universal Consent in Religion was more owing to the impulses and tendencies of a Reasonable Nature than to the clear and distinct Principles of Natural Reason for Reason always joins the Act and the Object together but Natural Inclinations are a blind and confused Principle of Action which thrusts forward to such an Act without a clear perception of its Object just as the Appetite
that I need not insist on the proof of it Their several sorts of Sacrifices were to be offered at the Tabernacle or Temple by the Priests who were publick Persons even those particular Sacrifices which were offered for particular Men either Expiatory or Eucharistical to make atonement for their Sins or to be an oblation of Praise for particular Mercies were yet offered at the Temple and besides this they had Sacrifices for the whole Congregation as on the great day of Expiation which was not for any particular Man but for the whole Body of the People and therefore considered them all as united in the same Religion and Worship God appointed also a publick Place of Worship viz. the Tabernacle or Temple at Ierusalem and a publick place for Worship can be of no use if there were no obligation to publick Worship God also instituted publick Times of Worship the Seventh day Sabbath their New Moons and Annual Festivals when all their Males were to appear three times a Year before the Lord And such Times as these are described by calling Assemblies and solemn Meetings because then they met together for publick Worship for indeed it seems to be a contradiction to appoint publick and solemn Times for private Worship If Men are bound only to worship God in private there is no need of publick Days of Rest dedicated to God's Worship for every Man may take his own Time for it as he finds most convenient and useful but fixed and stated Times of Worship do necessarily suppose publick Worship and evidently prove that Solemn and Publick Days for Worship are not sanctified meerly by private Acts of Worship And therefore we may consider further that God entred into Covenant with the Children of Israel not as particular Persons but as the Seed of Abraham as a People and Nation whom he had chose for himself to be his peculiar Inheritance and therefore every part of his Covenant and the institution of Religious Worship is none of the least parts of it concerns them as a Nation So that this was a National Covenant and a National Religion and Worship and I need add no more to prove that according to God's Institution it was a publick Worship for God was the King of Israel and therefore required as publick Homage from them as other Princes expect from their Subjects as publick I say tho he can Challenge more divine Regards than earthly Princes because he was their God as well as their King And therefore the Children of Israel themselves are frequently called the Congregation of Israel and the whole Congregation as consisting of such Persons as used to meet together for publick Worship how had a right to Worship at the Tabernacle of the Congregation Let us then thirdly consider the Religion of our Saviour and what Obligations that lays on us to all the Acts of Publick Worship Now I need not tell you that Christ has instituted a Church which is so often in the Writings of the Apostles called a Church and the Church of Christ. Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies a Meeting and Assembly which is called together and so acquaints us what the Nature of a Christian Church is that it is a Society of Men united and combined together in the Faith and Worship of Christ For the Church of Christ is purely a Religious Society Our Saviour had no Temporal Kingdom as the Jews expected his Kingdom was not of this World and therefore his Church is nothing else but a Society of Men for the Worship of God through Christ which is a plain demonstration that every Member of the Christian Church is bound to join in all the Offices of publick Worship for there can be no Christian Church if there be no publick Worship because the Christian Church is a Religious Society that is a Society instituted for Religious Worship nor can he be a Member of the Christian Church who wholly neglects or despises publick Worship for he can at best be only a nominal Member of an Assembly who neglects to assemble with them especially when it is essential to our Membership to frequent such Assemblies Now we may safely conclude that Christ would never have instituted a Church or Religious Assembly for publick Worship had not publick Worship been much more acceptable to God than our private Devotions had it been so indifferent as some Men presume whether we worship God singly or in a Body and Society whether at Home in our Closet or in the publick Congregation And we may observe farther That this Church is called the Body of Christ and the Apostle tells us that there is but one body and one Spirit even as you are called in one hope of your Calling Now to be one Body as all good Christians are if Christ have but one Body signifies a very near and intimate union between all the Members of the Body this is agreed by all but then the Question is wherein this Unity consists Some place the Unity of Christians in one Faith in believing all the Articles of the Christian Faith or in having a mutual Kindness and Charity and it must be acknowledged that these are absolutely necessary to unite Christians to make them the one Body of Christ. But yet this is not all for there may be great Dissensions and Schisms where there is but one Faith as it was of old in those fearful Schisms of the Novatians and Donatists who differed not in Matters of Faith but Discipline and as our own sad Experience convinces us at this Day and Men may exercise a Christian Charity and Forbearance to each other without being Members of the same Body and therefore we must consider that this one Body is one Church and the Unity of a Church or Religious Assembly must of necessity consist in one Communion and therefore he who separates himself from Christian Communion who forsakes the Publick Assemblies for Religious Worship destroys the Unity of the Church which is a sufficient Argument that publick Worship when we can enjoy the Opportunities of it is essential to the Notion and Being of a Christian Church And therefore we find that this was the constant practice of Christians from the very first Foundations of a Christian Church Thus we read of those new Converts That they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers And they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and in breaking Bread from House to House did eat their Meat with gladness and singleness of Heart Here you see the Example of the first Christians they continued in the fellowship of the Apostles in the communion of Doctrine Sacraments and Prayers which is the true description of the Unity of the Christian Church and therefore the Christian Church is called a Communion or Fellowship That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you may have fellowship with us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you may become Christians and enter into our Society and truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ. And therefore the Sacrament of Baptism is our admission into the Christian Church that is gives a right to all the Priviledges of Christian Communion for we are baptized into one Body and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is expresly called the Communion it is that common Table which all Christians have a right to The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ the Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread It is essential to the nature of the Lord's Supper that it is a common Feast of which all Christians partake for it signifies not only our Union to Christ but our Union to one another in the same Body for which Reason the Reformed Churches universally condemn the private Masses of the Church of Rome where the Priest receives by himself and truly private Devotions when they thrust out publick Worship are much of the same nature So that the very Institution of a Church the Example of the Primitive Christians and those Sacraments of our Religion which our Saviour has instituted as the Badges of Christianity and the Conveyances of Spiritual Life and Grace may convince us how necessary Christian Communion and Publick Worship is if we will be the Disciples of Christ and we are expresly commanded by the Writer to the Hebrews Not to forsake the assembling of our selves together But we may consider farther that Christ has instituted an Evangelical Priesthood the publick Ministers of Religion whom he has commanded to instruct his Church to feed his Flock to pray for his People and to bless in his Name to whom he has committed the Power of the Keys to let in or to shut out of the Church Now what use could there be for publick Ministers unless publick Worship were a great and necessary Duty If it were so indifferent a thing whether Christians frequent the Religious Assemblies and continue in their Doctrine and Fellowship breaking Bread and Prayers it does not seem worth the while to have invested Men with such Power and Authority which is of so little use especially since Christianity is so much known and so far spread in the World whereas our Saviour promises to be with his Apostles unto the end of the World which could not be meant of the Persons of the Apostles for they are long since dead but of their Successors who retain their Office and Power as far as is necessary to the present state of the Church And the force of this Argument from the Apostolical Office will be better understood if we consider wherein the Power of the Keys consists which Christ committed to St. Peter and the rest of the Apostles or what is the true ancient Discipline of the Christian Church Now the Power of the Church which is truly Spiritual consists only in letting into the Church or shutting out The admission into the Church is by administring Baptism which they are made the external Judges of who are fit to be received into the Church by Baptism and who not shutting out of the Church is by exercising Censures upon Offenders which consists only in this in removing such Men from Christian Communion either in part or wholly for a time or for ever according to the severity of the ancient Discipline Some were not permitted to come into the Christian Assemblies but lay at the door lamenting their wickedness and begging their Prayers Others were admitted to publick Instructions but not to the Communion of Prayers or at least if they were admitted to the Prayers of the Catechumens those who were publickly instructed and catechised but not yet baptized were not allowed to be present at the Prayers of the Faithful Others were admitted to Prayers but not to the Supper of the Lord. Now all this supposes that Christian Communion is not only a necessary Duty but a great Priviledg since they had no other way of punishing Offenders but by denying them the liberty of Worship in their Assemblies but what would those Men value Church-Censures who make so slight of publick Worship as daily to excommunicate themselves Certainly these Men are greatly mistaken or else the very Office and Authority of an Apostle is a very inconsiderable thing and that dreadful Sentence of Excommunication which was so formidable in the Ancient Church is a very innocent and harmless thing since Men may as well worship God alone as in Christian Assemblies and that they might do when excommunicated or shut out of Christian Assemblies And I observe farther That our Saviour requires of us the publick profession of his Name and Worship which necessarily includes publick Worship Whosoever therefore shall confess me before Men him will I confess before my Father which is in Heaven but whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven To confess Christ is to own him for our Lord and Saviour not only in words tho too many such there are whom our Saviour will not own will not confess before his Father which is in Heaven but by paying him such publick Homage and Worship as is a visible demonstration that we do own him for our Lord. For thus to confess Christ signifies With the mouth Confession is made unto Salvation for whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved The Christian Church was to be a Visible Society like a City that is set on a Hill or like a Candle placed in a Candlestick to give light to all that are in the House But the Church can never be visibly distinguished from the rest of the World without the publick and visible exercise of Religion and therefore our Saviour exhorts his Disciples Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven which must refer to all parts of Religion and therefore includes Acts of Worship as well as Acts of Mercy and Charity To conclude this Argument It is the acknowledged Duty of a Christian Prince to take care to encourage and propagate true Religion in his Dominions which can never be done without encouraging publick Worship correcting publick Abuses and punishing the neglect or profanation of it for if Mens Religion be confined to their Closets no Man can possibly tell what Religion they are of they may be Pagans Mahometans Papists or Infidels and no Man the wiser if they can but keep their own counsel And therefore if it be the Duty of Magistrates to encourage and reform Religion and yet nothing can fall within his cognizance or under his care but what is publick it is easy to conclude That publick Worship which is the Care of
and lay them aside again when they please but this seems to be a plain and easy way to satisfy our Consciences that since the Law of God is their Rule we must never scruple the lawfulness of any thing which is not either expresly forbid by God or by such evident and necessary consequence as every honest Man may discern without using any great skill and subtilty While Men do not judg of things by the Law of God but by arbitrary Rules of their own inventing or by Fancy and Humour Prejudice or Interest they may like or dislike just what they please and call it Conscience when they have done but the observing this one Rule would soon cure all Fanaticism and restore the Church to Peace and Unity To make the Scripture a perfect Rule not only of Faith and Manners and all the essential parts of Worship which we readily grant and prove against the Church of Rome but also of all external Circumstances Rites and Ceremonies when we find no such thing said in Scripture nor any such entire and perfect Form of Discipline and Worship prescribed in it is the true cause of all our Divisions and fills peoples heads with endless and infinite Scruples but to make the Commands and Prohibitions of Scripture the Rule of our Consciences and the certain measure and standard of what is lawful and unlawful so as neither to condemn nor scruple what is not forbid in Scripture would infallibly heal our Breaches and restore us to Peace with our selves and with one another Fourthly I observe further That neither a mistaken nor a scrupulous Conscience can justify our Disobedience to the Commands of our Superiors We may indeed oppose the Authority of God against any humane Power a Conscience informed and governed by the Divine Laws will not cannot ought not to stoop to the greatest Prince who commands any thing contrary to God's Law because the Power and Authority of God is most sacred and venerable absolute and supream but an erroneous mistaken doubting scrupulous Conscience in a word a Conscience which is not governed by the Laws of God is not armed with his Authority neither and therefore cannot justify our Disobedience to Princes for it is only the Opinion of a private Man and therefore cannot justify Disobedience to publick Authority Which shews us how necessary it is to inform our Consciences aright and to keep close to our Rule not to neglect any thing which God has commanded nor to do any thing which he has forbid and where God has not determined us by his Authority in those things which he has neither commanded nor forbid to submit our selves to our lawful Superiors for nothing but the Authority of God will justify our Disobedience to Humane Authority and where we cannot pretend God's Authority as we cannot in those things which are left undetermined it is a sin to disobey our Rulers though they be but Men. I shall not determine that Question now Whether a Man who is under some Doubts and Scruples ought not to obey his Governors notwithstanding those Scruples because he that doubts is only supposed not to be satisfied about the evil of the thing commanded but in the mean time he is certain that it is his Duty to obey his Superiors and therefore not being sure that he shall sin in obeying because he is not sure that what they command is sinful and being sure that he shall sin in disobeying them if their Commands be lawful and being withal under a necessity of doing one or t'other whether he ought not in prudence to take the sure side that is to wave his Scruples and obey his Prince I shall at present only observe this one thing without drawing any peremptory conclusion from it That Obedience to our Superiors is a plain and express Law and so the proper Rule of Conscience and therefore if what our Prince commands us be not forbid by as plain and express a Law as that is which commands our Obedience we seem to oppose our private and uncertain Opinions against the express Authority of God and chuse rather to follow our Consciences where they are not evidently directed by a Divine Law than where they are No Humane Authority must be set up against the Authority of God but a Divine Authority that is a Divine Law is a more certain Rule than private Opinions The sum of all is this That no Man acts out of true Principles of Conscience but he who keeps his Eye fixed upon his Rule who directs and governs his Conscience by the Law of God other Men live by their private Humors and Fancies are turned aside by every Novel and groundless Conceit And tho they may be pleased to call this Conscience yet it will not excuse them from the guilt of Schism if they divide the Church and rend themselves from the Body of Christ Conscience will never justify us but when we obey and observe our Rule Secondly Another Question I would propose to these Men is Whether they ever seriously consider the hainous nature of Schism Now there is great reason to ask this Question if we observe with what little consideration most Men engage themselves in it how wantonly they forsake the Communion of the Church as if it were perfectly indifferent whether they come to Church or go to a Conventicle as if it were no more than to leave their own Parish Church and go to another where there is a Preacher whom they like better It is plain that such Men as these never understood what Christian Unity is nor ever considered what the danger of Schism is that is that they have not acted honestly and sincerely in a Matter of such vast importance The Christian Church is represented in Scripture as one Body united to Christ who is the Head of his Church and the Saviour of the Body This St. Paul makes a powerful Argument to Unity endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace there is one Body and one Spirit even as you are called in one hope of your Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all What does this Bond of Peace signify but the external Communion of the Christian Church when Christians live together as Members of the same Body and united to each other as the Members of the natural Body are by Nerves and Sinews For Christians are called one Body with respect to their external Communion which is represented in the Lord's Supper by their eating of one Bread as St. Paul argues The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread So that we become one Body by external visible Communion by being united into one Religious Society for the Worship of God and our mutual edification But speaking the
Truth in love may grow up to him in all things which is the Head even Christ From whom the whole Body fitly joined together by that which every Ioint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh encrease of the Body to the edifying of it self in love The Christian Church is a House and Building and Temple of God but this House and Building is not raised with loose and incoherent Stones but all the Building fitly framed together groweth into a Holy Temple in the Lord. All those Expressions whereby the Scripture describes the Unity of the Christian Church signify one Communion as our Saviour prays for his Disciples that they all may be One and for all those who in after Ages should believe on him That they all may be One as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the World may believe that thou hast sent me From whence it appears that our Saviour speaks of an external and visible Union which may be seen and taken notice of in the World How frequent are the Exhortations to Christian Love and Unity Fulfil ye my Ioy that ye be like-minded having the same Love being of one accord and of one mind This was that new Commandment which Christ gave to his Disciples as the badg of their Discipleship A new Commandment I give unto you that you love one another even as I have loved you hereby shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another And wherein this mutual Love expressed it self we learn from the first Pattern of the Christian Church And they continued stedfast in the Apostle's Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and of Prayers that is in all the Parts and Offices of Christian Communion this is essential to Christian Love to continue in the Communion and Fellowship of the same Body that there may be no Schism in the Body but all firmly united by the common Bonds of Love and Peace and therefore in St. Iohn's Time those Hereticks who separated themselves into distinct Conventicles are said to go out from among them They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us that is in our Fellowship and Communion but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us Now if this Argument be good it necessarily infers that indispensable Obligation which lies upon all Christians who will be owned for Members of that one Body of Christ to live in Communion with each other The Unity of Mind and Spirit of Love and Affection and the Unity of the same Faith is necessary to Christian Union but this Union is made external and visible by Christian Communion and our daily experience tells us how impossible it is for Men to love like Brethren like Members of the same Body who are not of the same Body but divide themselves into distinct separate Churches under different Laws Government and Discipline Now if Christian Love and Union be so necessary a Duty of Christianity consider what the Evil of Schism is which rends the seamless Coat of Christ and divides his Church into so many little Parties and Factions Christ has but one Body and those who separate from the Body of Christ are no longer of his Body and the Ancient Christians did believe Schism to separate Men from Christ and to put them out of a state of Salvation It was an acknowledged Principle among them That there was no Salvation out of the Church and that Schismaticks were out of the Church I dare not judg any Man's final State as not knowing what merciful allowances a merciful and compassionate Lord may make for the Errors and Mistakes Frowardness and Peevishness of his Disciples but yet I wish that all Persons concerned would seriously consider that St. Paul makes all other Attainments whatsoever of no value without Charity that this is that Divine Principle which unites us to God and to one another that he makes Schism a Work of the Flesh and when he reproves the Corinthians for that Schism which was among them though it was not broke out into actual separation yet he calls them Carnal For are ye not carnal for whereas there is among you envyings and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as Men So far is Separation from being an Argument of more perfect and excellent Christians that it is a Work of the Flesh and the Symptom of a Carnal Mind But I do not intend to discourse this fully but it is a certain Argument that that Man does understand nothing of Christian Religion who makes light of Schism without so much as considering what guilt he involves himself in nothing could be a more effectual Cure of Schism than a serious consideration of the evil and danger of it That pain we feel in tearing one Member from another and that mischief the whole Body suffers by it which becomes maimed and imperfect by the want of the least and most inconsiderable Member makes us careful to preserve our natural Bodies from any Rent or Schism and were we living Members of the Mystical Body of Christ had we that natural love sympathy and fellow-feeling for each other as the Members of the natural Body have we should find Schism and Separation as painful to us as it is to part with one of our Members and be as sensible of the want of Christian Communion and the discharge of these mutual Offices of Charity in exhorting admonishing reproving comforting praying for and with each other which cannot be performed in a state of Separation as we are of the want of the service of any Member which we have lost It is a certain sign that Member does not belong to the Body which feels not the pain of such Convulsions and Schisms Thirdly Another Question I would ask these Men is Whether they do in their Consciences believe that Communion with our Parish Churches is unlawful And there is some reason to ask this for it is easily observed that there are a great many who are Christians at large and as occasion serves can either go to Church or to a Conventicle Now if they make Conscience of any thing we may conclude that when they come to Church they do not think it a sin so to do or that there is any thing so unlawful in our Worship as is sufficient to justify a Separation for if they may lawfully communicate with us once they may do so always by the same Reason from whence it follows that there can be no necessity of Separation and then Separation must be a sin Some indeed say That it is a sufficient reason to separate even from a True Church and a lawful Communion to join in fellowship with a purer Church and to enjoy purer Ordinances
But I would desire such Men to consider First That this Notion of a purer Church and purer Ordinances varies with every Man's fancy as having no Foundation in Scripture Reason or Antiquity when you distinguish a purer Church from a pure Church I would desire to know what greater degree of purity they find in a Presbyterian or Independent Conventicle than in our Parochial Churches If this Purity consists in Doctrine Government or Worship that Doctrine and Government which is most Ancient and most Apostolical is purer than some novel and upstart Opinions Church Forms and Models and that Worship which retains all the Institutions of Christ and administers them with the greatest order and decency and most to Christian Edification is as pure a Worship as that which is slovenly and unbecoming the gravity and solemnity of Divine Worship That Church wherein Christians may enjoy all the means and conveyances of Grace without any corrupt Mixtures to spoil their Vertue and Efficacy is a pure Church such a Church wherein a Christian may communicate without doing any injury to his Soul is a pure Church and has all the degrees of purity which is necessary to External Communion If by a purer Communion they mean only the Communion of better Men and of greater Saints they ought to consider that it is impossible to exclude Hypocrites out of any Church unless they pretend to a Gift of discerning Spirits nor is it fit they should be excluded while they are not openly scandalous for to shut such Men out of the Church deprives them of the Means of Grace and all hopes of proving better Men. And I hope Christian Communion is not confined to any single Congregation but every good Christian who lives in the Communion of the Church enjoys the Communion of Saints in all the World is a Member of the same Body which consists of all the true Disciples of Christ. Nay I would desire them to consider that the Glory of the Christian Communion is this That our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ with the glorious and triumphant Church in Heaven as well as with the Church Militant on Earth But ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the First Born which are written in Heaven and to God the Iudg of all and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect and to Iesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than the Blood of Abel This is the Church-Fellowship which those enjoy who live in Communion with the Universal Church and which Schismaticks have no right to and those who think to meet with better Company at a Conventicle let them take it But must not the Christian Church consist of all ranks and degrees of Christians as our natural Body does of several sorts of Members of different honour and worth and is it fitting for strong and well-grown Christians to separate from the weak and imperfect as if the eye should separate from the Body as despising the Communion of the Foot and yet if St. Paul says true that Schism is a work of the Flesh and the sign of carnal Men we have no reason to look for the best Christians in Schismatical Churches But secondly it was never till of late days thought lawful to separate from a lawful Communion tho as the state of the Church in this World is it were subject to some defects and therefore the Brownists who separated from the Church of England pretended that her Worship and Government was Unlawful Idolatrous and Antichristian and the old Nonconformists who though they could not conform as Ministers yet very religiously conformed as Lay-men both in Prayers and Sacraments condemned this Schism and proved that Communion with the Church of England was lawful and therefore Separation was sinful and I dare challenge any Man to shew me from the first beginnings of Christianity that ever it was thought lawful to separate from a Church where we might communicate without sin And thirdly let these Men consider that this Notion of separating from a lawful Communion for a purer Communion lays the foundation of eternal Schisms for there being no certain rule for the degrees of this Purity every Man according to his own fancy may refine for ever Fourthly If they do indeed think the Communion of the Church of England to be unlawful and sinful I would desire them to enquire how they came at first to think so for this is a very material Enquiry if Men desire to know their honesty and sincerity in this Matter for if Men are at first by their own fault ensnared in an Error and drawn into Schism how firmly soever afterwards they believe their Separation to be lawful and necessary it will not excuse them It is impossible to know all the several ways whereby Men come at first to be engaged in Schism but I shall take notice of some few which seem to be most common Such are these 1. Education 2. Lightness and giddiness of Mind 3. Some distast at Publick Affairs 4. Some quarrel with the Ministers of Religion 5. Interest or the Perswasion of Friends 1. Education when Men have been nursed up in Schism from their infancy and have been taught to despise the Common Prayer before they could read and to call the Church Antichrist and the Ministers of it Baal's Priests as soon as they could speak Now it must be acknowledged that this is the most pitiable case and the fairest Excuse and Apology that can be made for any Man for we all know what the power of Education is and how hard it is to deliver our minds from the first Impressions of Childhood and Youth but yet this will not excuse a Man when he has attained to Years of discretion and has opportunities of being better informed for if it would Pagans Mahometans and Papists who labour under the same prejudices of Education have the same excuse We must offer up to God a reasonable Service and that requires the exercise of our Reason in the choice of our Religion as well as in the discharge of Religious Duties Nay Papists Mahometans and Pagans have a better excuse upon this account than our Dissenters because their Prejudices may reasonably be thought more invincible as will appear if we briefly consider three or four things First That theirs is the Religion of their Country which they have been in quiet possession of for many Ages and thus that reverence they pay to the wisdom and memory of their Ancestors adds to the prejudices of their Education whereas every one knows that this present Schism and the pretences whereon it is founded are but late Innovations a Novelty which is not yet grey-headed And tho Antiquity in it self considered is no Argument for an ancient Error nor Novelty any
Law of Moses For we may observe that the Apostles themselves in compliance with the weakness of the believing Jews did use a great many Mosaical Rites only stripping them of their Typical Nature St. Paul was a zealous opposer of Circumcision and yet did not scruple to circumcise Timothy not in token of God's Covenant with Abraham but to prevent Scandal And those Christians who lived at Ierusalem worshipped in the Temple kept their Religious Festivals and observed their Law but no Christian could do this according to the Original Institution of those Laws for that had been to renounce Christianity but they observed them in complyance with the custom of their Nation and to avoid giving offence to believing Jews And if the Apostles might lawfully observe those Jewish Customs when they were freed from their Typical signification it cannot be a Fault to use some such innocent Ceremonies and Circumstances in Worship as are no way prejudicial to the Nature of Christianity If the belief of Christianity made the Observation of those Jewish Ceremonies Innocent which in their own Nature and Original Institution are inconsistent with Christianity as signifying that Christ was not yet come How much more innocent is it to worship God in a white Garment to kneel at the Sacrament and bend our Knee to our Lord at whose Table we eat and to sign our Children with the Sign of the Cross in honour of our crucified Lord and as a visible Profession of a suffering Religion 3. Our Saviour rejects all Superstitious Observances which were not any part of Religious Worship and yet were thought to have an extraordinary Sacredness and Religion in them such as he calls the Traditions of their Elders and charges them with teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men such as washing Cups Platters and Hands before Dinner thus touch not taste not handle not are by St. Paul called the Doctrines and Commandments of Men which refer to their abstaining from certain sorts of Meats and the like So that these Doctrines and Commandments of Men which Christ flings out of his Religion were not any Ceremonies or Circumstances of Worship but some Customs they take up with a great Opinion of their Religion and Merit As the Papists have great numbers of them such as Pilgrimages and Penances c. And St. Paul tells us with respect to such Customs as these That the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Ioy in the Holy Ghost that is that Christian Religion does not consist in such sorry things as eating or not eating such and such Meats but Christ expects from us true and sincere Piety as the only thing that can recommend us to God Such Superstitious Customs as these are very different from the Circumstances and Ceremonies of Religious Worship unless we think it the same thing to hope to merit Heaven by going a Pilgrimage by professing Poverty Celibacy and blind Obedience by abstaining from Flesh in Lent and such kind of vain Superstitions as it is to wear a Surplice in the time of Divine Worship or to receive the Lord's Supper upon our Knees as an external Expression of Devotion not as meritorious Superstitions The Ceremonies of our Church have been often declaimed against under the Notion of the Doctrines and Traditions of Men but it is plain that neither our Saviour nor St. Paul meant any thing like them for they do not speak of any Circumstances or Appendages of Religious Worship but of such arbitrary Superstitions as they turned into formal Acts of Religion The fourth does not much concern our present Argument the difference Christ put between the Substantial and the Instrumental parts of Worship any otherwise than to mind us that we must not look upon any Ceremonies as parts of Worship but a decent manner of performing it That our acceptance with God depends upon nothing that is meerly external but on the Devotion of the Heart and Soul expressed in such becoming Words and Behaviour as may make it visible and exemplary to others and this is exactly the Doctrine of our Church and if any Men think that such external Expressions of Honour will please God without the Worship of the Mind and Spirit they must answer for themselves for she owns no such Principles but takes care to instruct her Children better And methinks this should be no small satisfaction to Mens Minds that the established Worship of our Church has nothing contrary to the nature and design of Christianity from whence it follows that Men may be very good Christians while they live in Communion with our Church and then I doubt they cannot be very good Christians when they forsake it for nothing but an apparent and manifest danger of sin can justify such a Separation 2. But let us now further consider how the Worship of our Church is justified by the Principles of Christianity We do not pretend that there is an express command to pray always by a Form or to institute and appoint significant Ceremonies in the Worship of God but there is enough in the Gospel of our Saviour to justify such Practices as briefly to point to some few things 1. Our Saviour himself taught his Disciples to pray by a Form Our Father which art in Heaven c. And if you will allow that it was lawful for them to pray in these words though you should suppose that they were not always bound to use it it plainly proves that the Christian Religion does not forbid praying by a Form for if it be lawful to pray by a Form even of Divine Institution then a Form as a Form cannot be unlawful 2. Our Saviour has no where prescribed the particular Circumstances of Religious Worship and yet no Religious Action can be performed without some Circumstances or other he has commanded us to pray to God in his Name to commemorate his Death and Passion in his last Supper and has commanded his Apostles to baptize all Nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost But how oft we must pray and celebrate this Heavenly Feast in what Place in what Posture in what Time he has not told us He has prescribed the Form of words in Baptism but not any one Circumstance and yet it is certain there must be some Circumstances for every Action for the more decent performance and greater solemnity of such mysterious Rites and therefore we may well conclude that our Saviour left all such to the order and direction of his Apostles and their Successors in all Ages as may tend most to the preservation of good Order and the edification of the Church For we must consider the difference between the Law and the Gospel Under the Law the Church was in an Infant State like an Heir under Age which is under Tutors and Governors and therefore every part of that Typical Temple-Worship was exactly framed according to the Pattern in the
Remains of its antient Piety and Devotion which was buried in the midst of Rubbish and Idolatrous Superstitions Consider then what the proper work of a Reformer must be to pull up Root and Branch to pull up the Wheat with the Tares This would be not to reform a corrupt Church but to make a new one This would be to cut off the sound with the rotten Members and is like pulling down a well constituted Government to correct Abuses I pray God preserve us from such Reformers as these In a Word if these Men who accuse the Church of England of Popery can shew any thing practised among us which is peculiar to Popery which cannot be justified by the Precepts and Examples of Scripture and the first and purest Churches I will heartily joyn with them in calling for a Reformation In the mean time I would desire them to consider that they do Popery too much Reputation by giving up the Church of England to it and make the name of Popery a less formidable thing when it is thus indifferently applied to a corrupt and to a reformed Church I wish with all my Soul they were half so free from Popish Principles and Practices in matters of Civil Government as the Church of England is from a Popish Worship PART II. Concerning those Disorders and Miscarriages which some men are guilty of in Church-Communion CHAP. I. Concerning those who ordinarily forsake the Communion of their Parish Churches HAving discours'd thus largely of those who wholly separate themselves from Christian Communion who either communicate with no Church or forsake the Communion of the Church of England I now proceed to correct those Miscarriages which some who profess themselves of our Communion are too notoriously guilty of And I shall first begin with those who ordinarily forsake the Communion of their Parish Churches This has been an old and inveterate evil of long use and practice especially in this great and populous City and it may be thought a daring and fruitless attempt to oppose it however I have this satisfaction that no man can reasonably suspect that I serve any other interest by this but the interest of Peace and Order and the better edification of the Christian Church which must reasonably engage all men the more impartially to consider what I shall now offer which shall be comprized under these two General Heads First Our Obligations to Parochial Communion 2. An Answer to some Objections against it First Our Obligations to Parochial Communion which will appear in these particulars 1. That Parochial Communion is in it self an excellent Institution for the more regular Instruction and Government of the Christian Church We do not indeed pretend that the division of an Episcopal Church into several Parishes with their distinct Pastors set over them is in a strict sense of Divine Institution for Christ and his Apostles did not by an express Law determine the Bounds and Extent of Bishopricks much less of Parochial Communions nor indeed was it possible to do it in those dayes when the greatest number of people were either Iews or Heathens Nor was there any need of this it being at last an acknowledged Principle among Dissenters themselves and those of the greatest note That the directive Light of Nature is sufficient to guide us in such things as these the times and seasons of Church Assemblies the order and decency wherein all things are to be transacted in them the bounding of them as to the number of their members and places of habitation so as to answer the ends of their institution And therefore if this Parochial Communion be of great use to the edification of Christians it not only justifies the Wisdom of the Church in the first Institution of it but severely condemns those who break and violate so useful an Institution The whole Christian Church is but one Body and Society of Christians united to Christ who is the Head of this Body and therefore were it possible should all worship their common Father and Saviour together but since the number of Christians and their great distance from each other will not admit this they are divided into less Societies for the more convenient Administration of holy Offices and the exercise of Christian Discipline and Government How can any thing in a Christian Nation be more useful for all the ends of Church Society than the distribution of Christians into Parochial Communions To enjoy the liberty of publick Assemblies near our own dwellings without being forced to seek for it at a distance would have been thought a great priviledge in former Ages like the Heavenly Manna falling round about the Tents of the true Israelites To have a fixed Pastor who is particularly entrusted with the care of your Souls to whom you may at all times freely resort and disclose your spiritual wants whose neighbourhood and conversation may contract a particular friendship and familiarity and beget a mutual confidence and endearment is quite a different thing from some publick and general exhortations and the reason why men do not more value the benefit and advantage of a Parochial Guide is because generally they make so little use of him This is the truest emblem of Catholick Unity when we hold personal Communion with those Christians who are our neighbours and so in the nearest disposition for it for our obligation to Christian Communion extends it self to all Christian Societies which live in the Communion of the Church and to pick up a Church for constant and Ordinary Communion here and there from stragling members who live in remote and distant places is to make a Schismatical difference between Christians as if all Christians were not of the same body nor fit for personal Communion and though forsaking our Parish Churches for other Churches in the same Communion be not so formal a Schism yet it has some tendency that way it being a forsaking the Communion of our neighbour Christians and Parochial Guide There is no other Rule that I know of for personal Communion but cohabitation or dwelling together in the same neighbourhood for then we communicate with the Catholick Church when we communicate with that part of it wherein we live but when without just cause we ordinarily forsake the Communion of Parochial Assemblies we disturb the most convenient Order of church-Church-Communion and make a Rent and Schism in the Church as total Separation makes a Schism from the Church Neighbour Christians have the most frequent occasions of conversing with each other and therefore many great ends of Christian Communion are best attained among them they may exhort and reprove one another and provoke unto love and good works they may watch over one anothers souls and when they observe each others miscarriages which they cannot avoid observing when they live so near and converse so often together they may apply such timely remedies as may help up those who fall or prevent the fall of those who trip and stumble and
and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me This is that bread which came down from heaven not as your Fathers did eat Manna and are dead he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever Where our Saviour gives the reason why those who eat him shall live for ever because he himself shall live for ever though he must die he was to rise again into an immortal life and an eternal Kingdom as the reward of his death and sufferings and therefore this holy Feast is a certain earnest of immortality to those who feed on him and we need not indeed doubt this since it conveys the holy Spirit to us as St. Paul tells the Romans But if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you But possibly some may object that all this which is attributed to the Holy Supper we receive at our Baptism the pardon of our sins the gift of the Spirit and the promise and earnest of immortality for so we are Baptized for the remission of sins and we are baptized as well as made to drink into one Spirit and those who are baptized into Christ have put on Christ and we are buried with Christ by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection Now all this I grant to be true and therefore Baptism not the Lords Supper is our regeneration or new birth we are raised into a new life are renewed and sanctified at our Baptism and have the Holy Spirit bestowed on us as the author and principle of a new life but the continuance of this grace and the daily assistances of the Holy Spirit especially when we have grieved him and made him withdraw from us by our sins depends upon our diligent attendance at the Table of our Lord. It is not enough that a man is born into the world unless he have constant food to preserve his life and thus it is with the new creature and therefore the Supper of our Lord is Bread and Wine the stay and support of life to signifie to us that these supplies of grace which we receive at this Feast are as necessary to our Spiritual life as our daily food is to the support of a bodily life and therefore our Saviour calls himself the bread of life which came down from Heaven of which the Manna was a type and figure now we know Manna was their constant food the only Bread they had which signified that this heavenly Manna is the daily support of our spiritual life and therefore we know the ancient Fathers by our daily bread in the Lords Prayer did generally understand the Sacrament of the Lords Supper which they called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Bread of God All which may convince us from the very nature and reason of the institution that frequent communione are as necessary to our spiritual growth and increase in holiness to repair the decays of our graces and to renew our strength and vigour in serving God and to procure the pardon of sin after a relapse and to call back the holy Spirit when he is withdrawn from us as bread is to keep our bodies in constant repair and did men love their souls as they do their bodies they would no more neglect the Supper of our Lord than their daily food 4. The Lords Supper is the principal part of Christian communion and therefore as necessary as the communion of the Church is to debar any persons from the Lords Table is to shut them out of the communion of the faithful and they are never restored to full communion till they are restored to the communion of this holy Feast while discipline was preserved in its glory and vigour in the ancient Church no Christian durst turn his back upon the Table of our Lord as nine parts in ten now often do indeed they could not well communicate as faithful Christian people without receiving the Lords Supper The Catechumens and Penitents were admitted to publick instructions and to such prayers as were proper for them but they were dismissed when that was done and not admitted to be present at the worship of the faithful who were in full peace and communion with the Church the principal part of which was the Holy Supper Indeed St. Paul attributes the union of Christians in one body to Christ to this holy Feast He calls the Cup the communion of the blood of Christ and the bread the communion of the body of Christ and assigns this as one reason of it for we being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread From whence it is plain that we are united to each other by partaking of the same bread for we are one bread as well as one body which places Christian unity in a joynt participation of this Holy Feast This also unites us to Christ makes us his body because we all feed on his body the Church is his body as being fed and nourished with his body which both shows us how necessary the peace and unity of the Church is to give us an interest in the Sacrifice of Christ for the vertue of his Sacrifice is contained in the holy Supper and this must be celebrated in the communion of the Church and withal how essential this holy Supper is to Christian communion as uniting us all to Christ in one body For shame then let not those men cry out against Schism and Schismaticks who separate themselves from the body of Christ in that part of Christian communion which is most essential to Christianity it is a much less evil not to hear a Sermon together nay sometimes not to pray together than to joyn in all other parts of worship but to break company at the Lords Table where if ever they ought to appear as one body and one bread to set up Altar against Altar is somewhat worse is a greater and more incurable Schism than to absent our selves from the Lords Table but for my part I cannot excuse those men from being Schismaticks who live in an habitual neglect of so necessary a part of Christian communion and could the ancient discipline of the Church be revived such men should know that Christian communion in any religious offices is a priviledge which they do not deserve and which they should not have Having thus explained our obligations to frequent Communion in the holy Supper of our Lord which I judge so plain and evident that no honest impartial Inquirer can resist the evidence of them and of such great weight and moment that no
worthy Communicants the pardon of their Sins and more firmly unites them to Christ their Head and to each other and intitles them to the powerful influence of that Divine Spirit which dwells in actuates and governs the whole Church and Body of Christ. Thus we are very ignorant and very unmindful of our Duty and God in great goodness has appointed a whole Order of Men whose Business it is to instruct us to teach us what we do not know and to mind us of those Things which we are apt to forget and has made it our Duty and a part of his Worship to attend their Instructions And though I hope in such an Age and such a Church as this there are a great many Christians so knowing that they need not be taught their Duty yet it is sad to consider how many very ignorant Professors there are that want to be instructed in the first Rudiments of Christian Knowledg and warm zealous and frequent Exhortations are of great use to the most knowing Christians And though a great many who have little other Religion are forward enough to hear Sermons yet it grieves me to think how many there are who will live die and perish for ever in their Ignorance because they refuse Instruction who can never be perswaded to attend either Sermons or Catechising or so much as reading the Scripture and yet these very Men could be contented to hear a large discourse of News or Trade or Merchandize or how they might order their Affairs to better advantage and are glad to be told of any Mistake or Error which might have been prejudicial to them in their secular Affairs And I need not tell you the Reason of this Difference they are in very good earnest to get this World but are very indifferent and unconcerned about the next So that all the parts of Religious Worship as they are expressions of our Reverence and Devotion for God so they immediately tend to the happiness of our Souls the Virtue of them is seen in transforming us into a Divine Nature in obtaining the Pardon of our Sins and the Supplies of God's Grace in making us Holy here and eternally Happy hereafter and therefore if we love our Souls let us constantly exercise our selves in all the Parts and Offices of Religious Worship And me-thinks it should be no such hard Matter to perswade Men to love and take care of their Souls for can any Man have a greater Concernment in the World than this For to love our Souls signifies no more than to love our Selves and to take care of our own happiness for the Soul is the Man the Body is only the Organ and Instrument of the Soul an earthly Tabernacle wherein it dwells in this state of its Pilgrimage but it is our Soul only that is capable of Joy and Pleasure or Grief and Sorrow and therefore as the Soul is either happy or miserable so is the Man and all Men desire to be happy this they seek with unwearied endeavours this makes all that busle and stir that is in the World that all Men are a catching after happiness and scrambling for it Why then you say What is the Dispute and Difficulty since all Men do love their Souls that is desire to be happy and it is only the Soul that relishes Happiness or is the Subject wherein Happiness dwells This is true and yet very few Men love their Souls for we must consider that the Soul of Man is capable of a two-fold happiness one as it lives in this gross Body of Flesh and Blood another as it lives without it in a separate state or receives it again refined and purged made a Heavenly and Spiritual Body Now as the Soul dwells in these Earthly Bodies it is apt to be mightily pleased with sensual Enjoyments and such Objects as are represented to us by our Senses and this is the Happiness which most Men are fond of in this World which tempts them to all those sensual Lusts which St. Iohn comprises under the Lusts of the Flesh the Lusts of the Eye and the Pride of Life but now this is not the greatest happiness of the Soul because dwelling in this Body is not its most perfect State it is to dwell but a little while in this Body and then can enjoy these bodily Pleasures no longer and therefore that is called the happiness of the Soul which is agreeable to its most perfect state of Life and commensurate to an eternal duration So that the Controversy in short is this Whether we will prefer an imperfect unsatisfactory momentary Happiness or such a Happiness which is the biggest our Souls are capable of and will last to Eternity and it is strange there should be any difficulty in this choice For can an Immortal Being who is to live Eternal Ages be satisfied with such perishing Joys as wax old and expire in half an Age It would be thought very strange that an Immortal Creature should grow weary of Life and be contented to fall into nothing after threescore or fourscore Years and yet this is a much more reasonable desire than to chuse such a happiness as will last but sixty or eighty Years when we must live for ever and therefore the Atheist is much a wiser Man than an irreligious and profane Worldling Every one contemns the folly of such a Prodigal who spends a fair Estate in a very short time and wasts away the rest of his Life in Poverty and Beggary and yet three or four Years pleasure bears some proportion to threescore or fourscore Years but threescore or fourscore Years have no proportion at all to Eternity Were there no other punishment of such Folly but to live for ever in a sense of our Want to find no sutable Objects to entertain our Minds but to languish perpetually with pining and unsatisfied Desires yet this were like the pain of perpetual Hunger and Thirst some-what worse than the delays of Hope even the torment of Despair And yet it is much worse still than this for such Men when they come into the other World will be convinced what Happiness it is they have lost when they shall see them come from the East and from the West from the North and from the South and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of God and themselves shut out when they shall see victorious Saints who have triumphed over all the Follies and Vanities all the Smiles Flatteries and Terrors of this World cloathed with Bodies of pure Light and rewarded with immarcessible Crowns of Glory singing Eternal Halelujahs to their God and Saviour and when all the toys and pleasures of this World are gone and past and nothing is present but the happiness of the next it will infinitely more afflict them to think they have missed of Heaven than it would do now to lose their Estates and Honours and let slip any opportunity they had to make themselves the Universal Monarchs of the
World And yet it is much worse than this too for such Men will not only miss of Heaven but sink into Hell a place of endless Torments where there is no ease and no hope So well might our Saviour ask that Question What shall it profit a Man to gain the whole World and to lose his own Soul Or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul And can any thing in the World deserve more of our care and industry than to obtain eternal Happiness and to avoid eternal Misery And yet this cannot be done without a sincere and devout performance of all the Acts of Religious Worship Those Persons do not deserve to be God's Friends and Favorites who do not worship him and those are not capable of the Joys of Heaven who cannot relish the Pleasures of Religion and the Worship of God CHAP. II. Concerning those who forsake Christian-Assemblies for want of a due sense of the Nature and Necessity of Publick Worship Several proofs of the Necessity of Publick Worship from the Nature of Religious Worship from the Nature of the Mosaick Worship from the Institution of a Christian Church and the Nature of Christian Worship and Discipline OThers there are who either wholly or in a great measure forsake our Communion for want of a due sense of the Nature and Necessity of Publick Worship They acknowledg it is their Duty to Worship God but they think they can worship God as well at Home as at Church that it is not the Place which makes their Prayers more or less effectual but God hears us where-ever we pray and is always pleased even with the single and private Devotions of good Men and the World is now so well stored with good Books that they can spend their time in reading at Home to as good purpose as if they went to Church to hear a Sermon And I need not observe how many there are who Act according to these Principles i. e. who seldom or never come to Church though how they spend their Time at home I know not but have great reason to suspect that with too many a warm Bed in the morning and a bottle of Wine in the Afternoon serves instead even of their private Devotions Now before I proceed to shew what a great and dangerous mistake this is I shall briefly expostulate the Case with these Men supposing it to be as they say That we may serve God very acceptably at Home without attending the publick Assemblies of Christians Supposing the Case to be equal in it self considered yet I beseech you Why should you prefer your own Private before the Publick Devotions of the Church Cannot you serve God at least as well at Church as you do at Home And Publick Worship having bin the universal Practice of the World in all Ages and under all Religions does it become a modest Man to affront so general a Custom which if it be not expresly commanded by God yet at least has no hurt in it And since the generality of Mankind have not only consented in such a Practice but have believed it to be their Duty to pay their joyn'd and publick Acknowledgments to their Universal Lord and Father and are apt to suspect these Men of Atheism and Irreligion who deny or neglect it What Reason can be sufficient to perswade any Religious Man to oppose so universal a Belief and to incur the publick censures of Insidelity and Irreligion Especially since the publick Exercise of Religion is enjoyned by Humane Laws and to neglect it is an affront to the publick Wisdom and Authority of a Nation which though other things were equal makes publick Assemblies a Duty and private Devotion when we ought and may attend on publick Assemblies to be a Sin And indeed we cannot imagine that God should take it well of any Man how devout soever he be in private who will rather affront the Universal Practice founded upon as Universal a Consent of Mankind will rather be thought an Atheist or an Insidel will rather trample upon all Humame Authority than joyn with his Fellow-Creatures and Subjects and Neighbours in the publick Acts of his Worship Put the case any of you were the Father of a very numerous off-spring and that without any express Command from you most of your Children should agree by a common consent to visit you together once a week to ask your Blessing and pay their thankful Acknowledgments for your great care of them in their Education and in that liberal Provision you have made for them but one or two of your Children should chuse to come alone to you in private when no body sees them and obstinately refuse to come with the rest of their Brethren though they were censured by them with undutifulness and ingratitude for such a Neglect I am apt to think there is none of you would accept of such private Acknowledgments from those who refused the more publick and solemn Addresses and we have as little reason to expect acceptance from God when we refuse to worship him in the Congregation of his Saints how devout soever we are alone Nay though we should grant that private Devotions were as acceptable to God as Publick supposing they were performed with equal Zeal and Fervency of Mind yet upon this account Publick Worship has much the advantage good Company in all Cases is apt to give us greater briskness and vigour of Mind the very presence of devout Souls who breath forth their ardent Desires to God is enough to fire our cold and chill Spirits and good Men receive warmth and quickness from each other and grow into greater ardours and transports Hypocrites have no other sense of Devotion but what they receive from good Company but good Men themselves who have a true and constant sense of God many times experience a great difference in this respect between their private Retirements and the more publick and solemn Acts of Worship Thus you see that tho we could produce no express proof of the necessity of publick Worship yet there are sufficient reasons to prevail with every wise and good Man not to withdraw himself from the Communion of Religious Assemblies and therefore indeed we shall never find that a truly wise and good Man does Private Devotion may be a pretence to justify the neglect of publick Worship but I dare appeal to these Men's own Consciences that it is never the true Cause for Men who do heartily desire to worship God will chuse to worship him in the best and most solemn manner that is in the publick Assemblies of Christians But yet to take away this very pretence from them I come now to consider our Obligations to publick Worship 1. And first I shall argue from the Nature of Religious Worship and the fundamental Reasons of it Now Worship signifies all that part of Religion which immediately respects God as it is distinguished from Sobriety and Righteousness and is commonly known by the
Mount But the Christian Church is arrived to a full Age and set at liberty by Christ from the Yoke of Bondage and therefore is not under servile restraints but has the Government of its own Actions according to the general Rules and Prescriptions of the Gospel Not that every particular Christian is at liberty to worship God as he pleases which could bring nothing but confusion and disorder into the Church but is to be under the Government and Direction of his Spiritual Guides and Pastors while they keep within the General Rules of the Gospel But the Christian Church enjoys that Liberty which the Jewish Church had not that they can institute and appoint change and alter the external Circumstances of Worship as the Necessities of the Church and the Edification of Christians require So muâ—â— are those Men mistaken who argue from Moses to Christ that Christ is as faithful at least as Moses was and therefore since Moses gave them an exact platform of Worship from which they must not vary in the least punctilio therefore they conclude that Christ hath done so too tho they cannot shew where he has done it that he has prescribed such an exact Form of Government Discipline and Worship in the Church as perpetually obliges all Christians whereas we must observe that there was no Christian Church formed in our Saviour's Days but he communicated with his Disciples in the Jewish Church while he lived and gave them Authority and Power to form Churches after his Resurrection But we must observe the difference the Apostle makes between Moses and Christ that one was faithful as a Servant the other as a Son Now a Servant must exactly follow his Rules and Orders but a Son Governs his own House with greater freedom and Moses being a Servant signifies also the servile State of that People whom he governed that they were in Bondage under the Rudiments of this World and had their task exactly set them but Christ who is the Son and Heir and Lord of all has made us Sons and Freemen too and therefore does not give such particular Laws about every little Circumstance but expects from us a more manly and generous Obedience And indeed there was great reason why the Jewish Worship should be exactly prescribed by God because it was typical of Christ and the state of the Gospel it was a visible Prophesy of things to come and therefore could be drawn by no other hand but that which was guided by an Omniscient Eye whence the Apostle observes that Moses was faithful as a Servant for a Testimony of those things which were to be spoken after But in other Matters the Jews themselves were not under such confinement their Synagogue-Worship where they performed the Duties of Natural Religion was ordered by their own prudence and directions They ordered the baptizing of Proselytes without any command or direction in their Law for it which our Saviour made the Sacrament of our Admission into his Church and that Bread and Wine which by the same Authority was added to the Paschal Supper was consecrated by our Saviour as a Festival Commemoration of his broken Body and his Blood shed for us and therefore we have little reason to doubt whether the Christian Church has the same liberty which the Jewish Synagogue had to appoint such Circumstances and Ceremonies as are most suitable to the several parts of Religious Worship 3. The Apostles who were authorized by our Saviour to make Disciples and to gather them into Church-Communion give general Rules for Order and Decency and enjoyn Obedience to our Spiritual Guides Let all things be done decently and in order and let all things be done to edifying which is even the Rule of the Apostolical Power which God hath given us for edification and not for destruction Now general Rules leave Men at liberty as to particular Instances because a general Rule may be complied with different ways which are supposed to be in his choice who receives such a Rule Thus we are commanded to obey our Spiritual Guides Obey them who have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief Which when there is no fixt and setled Rule of Government supposes that many things are left to the prudence and discretion of the Governours the natural Inference from which is that tho there be no express command for a Form of Prayers or significant Ceremonies yet when they are ordered and established by the united Wisdom and Authority of Church and State it is the Duty of every Christian willingly and chearfully to comply with them while they agree with the general Rules of Gospel-Worship 3. Let us now consider the Example of our Saviour while he conversed on the Earth which is a most admirable Pattern for all Christians to follow Now I observe that though our Saviour lived in a very degenerate Age of the Jewish Church when their Priests Scribes and Pharisees by those Characters which he himself gives of them appear to be very vile Persons yet he lived in the Communion of the Jewish Church tho he were the great Reformer of Religion yet the time of the Jewish Church not being yet expired he formed no new Churches but observed their Publick Assemblies of Worship preached in their Temple and in their Synagogues and observed all their Religious Festivals as punctually as any of themselves which Consideration ought to give some check to those Men who forsake the Communion of the Church under pretence that there are bad Men in it Thus our Saviour conformed to all those laudable and innocent Customs of the Jewish Church which were of humane Institution and were not founded on the Authority of a Divine Law He celebrated the Feast of Dedication which was appointed by Iudas Macchabeus and his Brethren and the Children of Israel to be observed annually for eight days in remembrance of the cleansing of the Temple from the prophanation of Antiochus and the regaining their liberty of publick Worship This Feast though it were of Humane Institution our Saviour no where reproves but graces and countenances the Solemnity with his own Presence Thus he conformed to the Synagogue-Worship which was all of humane Order and Appointment as you heard before Thus he who so severely reproved the superstitious abuse even of Divine Institutions who despised their Sacrifices and Oblations and all their external and solemn Hypocrisies their broad Phylacteries and their frequent and religious Purifications when they placed their Religion in the bare doing those things without attending to the end for which they were commanded does both practise and allow those humane Institutions which served a good end in Religion which is a plain Argument that our Saviour did not think it such a prophanation of Religion to appoint any Circumstances of Religious Worship not commanded by God as
that all external Things must be measured by their End and Use. Those are innocent and laudable Customs which serve a good End either help the Devotion of the Worshipper or make the Worship more grave and solemn provided it be not in forbidden Instances 4. The practice of the Apostles and the first and best Churches are a great vindication of the Constitution and Worship of the Church of England Where we have not a plain and express Rule Examples which are great and good Ones have the authority and face of a Rule and he must be a very unreasonable Man who will desire any better Examples than of the best and purest Churches Some are offended at the Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters and the Inferior Clergy which they say is expresly forbidden by Christ The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Benefactors But ye shall not be so but he that is greatest among you let him be as the younger and he that is chief as he that doth serve In which words it is plain our Saviour forbids such kind of Authority over one another as the Gentile Princes exercise over their Subjects but that it should forbid all kind of Superiority among the Ministers of the Gospel is contrary to the Example even of the Apostolick Age. The Apostles indeed were all equal had no superiority of Order or Power over one another and our Saviour in this Place speaks only to the Apostles not to exercise Superiority over each other for there was a strife among them which of them should be greatest But by our Saviour's own Institution the Office of an Apostle was superior to the Seventy Disciples whom he sent out to preach the Gospel And after the Resurrection of Christ the Apostles were supream Governors of the Church and if we believe the first Records we have of the Christian Church Bishops were the Apostles Successors in their Power in the Church and in their superiority over Presbyters and Deacons and so the Government of the Church continued in the hands of Bishops till the Reformation when the necessity of Affairs and the aversion some Men had against Popish Tyrannical Bishops perswaded some Reformers to lay aside the Order which has been made the most specious Argument against the Reformation and to say no more If Episcopacy be Antichristianism the whole Church was Antichristian for above fifteen hundred Years together from the very Times of the Apostles themselves But if it be an Apostolical Order I know not what Authority any Man had to alter it and for my own part think that Communion safest which is most agreeable to the Pattern of the Apostolick Churches Others except against Forms of Prayer Now not to take notice that Forms of Prayer were of old in use in the Jewish Church and that our Saviour himself gave a Form of Prayer to his Disciples we must grant that we have no certain Evidence what the practice of the Church in the Apostles Days was in this respect I am much of S. Chrysostoms Opinion That there were in that Age of Miracles extraordinary miraculous Gifts of Prayer as there was of Healing and Prophesying and working Miracles Not that every Christian had these Gifts any more than the Gift of Miracles but there were some Persons who had the Gift of inspired Prayer for the publick benefit of the Church which made it needless in that Age to have Forms of Prayer for Publick Worship and when I see that Age of Miracles return again I will gladly renounce Liturgy to join in inspired Prayers But as Miracles ceased so did the miraculous Gift of Prayer and then as the same Father observes the Church worshipped God in allowed Forms to be sure so it was in his days and a great while before him and if we cannot trace it to its first Original for want of early Records in those Matters yet I think he must be a very scrupulous Man who would refuse to communicate with the Church in Constantine's Days who composed Forms of Prayer for his Souldiers which it is not probable he would have done had not the Church at that time used Forms of Prayers And so it continued till the Reformation and the Reformation made no alteration in it for the Lutheran and Bohemian Churches the Church of Geneva France and Holland have their Lyturgies and Forms of Prayer and so has the Church of England since the first Reformation of it and if not only allowed but advised by Mr. Calvin himself till some Jesuites in Masquerade first set up that way of conceived and extemporary Prayers on purpose to break good Order in our Church as we well are assured by very credible Testimony Others scruple significant Ceremonies and yet in the very Apostles Days we find such in use which are now disused as the Holy Kiss and the Love-Feast which was an addition to the Lord's Supper much more obnoxious to censure than the Cross in Baptism and yet was retained for several Ages in the Church In Tertullian's and St. Cyprian's Times we find a great many symbolical and significant Ceremonies in use among them They frequently crossed themselves to shew that they were Christians upon all Occasions the baptized Person was cloathed in white and thence Whitsunday received its Name because that was a solemn Time for Baptism when those who were baptized were cloathed with white Garments It were easy to give you abundance of such Instances which are so obvious to any one who is acquainted with Ecclesiastical Writers that it is superfluous to mention them In St. Austin's Time Ceremonies were grown so numerous that he very much complains not of the significancy and symbolicalness but of the burden of them but never disturbed the Peace of the Church himself but adviseth others to conform to the Rites and Usages of any Church where they came though different from the Customs of their own As far as I have observed there never was any Schism occasioned in the Christian Church about significant Ceremonies till of late among us and it would a little startle a modest Man to separate from the Church of England for such Reasons as must have made him a Schismatick from all ancient and modern Churches in all Ages to this day These things carefully and impartially considered must needs tend to compose Mens Minds and reduce those who are gone astray into the Communion and Unity of the Church For my part I should rather venture erring with all the Churches of Christ from the Apostles to this present Age than break the Hedges of the Church and Christian Communion to follow some upstart new Lights tho it were possible they might lead me right SECT III. Containing an answer to some popular Cavils or a Vindication of the Church of England from the Charge of Will-Worship Superstition Idolatry Popery LEt us now consider some popular Cavils and Exceptions which too often
name has confined his more peculiar presence and favour to such Assemblies and one great reason of this is that he is pleased with the unity and uniformity of Worship for he hath expresly promised that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven for where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them This is the fundamental Charter of Christian Assemblies and the reason of it certainly is stronger the more universal the consent and agreement is for if Christ will be present with two or three who assemble in Christian love and charity and agree to put up the same Petitions to God much more when so many Christian Churches are confederated in the same Worship and offer up the same Prayers and Thanksgivings to God in the same words How powerful will the united Prayers of a whole National Church be to procure those blessings for us which we want For if unity and consent in Worship be so pleasing to God the greater this consent is the more pleasing it must be Especially considering that in this case we have not only the consent and agreement of private Christians in such acts of Worship but are confederated by the publick authority of the Church and therefore such publick Worship has the beauty and advantages of publick Order and Government If the Prayers of a particular Minister of Religion be so prevalent how much more those Prayers which have the stamp of Church Authority which are the Desires and Petitions of the whole Church even when they are offered up by a single Minister which cannot so well be said of any Prayer of his own and if we believe that God is the God of Peace and Order in the Church we cannot but think it very acceptable to him to observe good order in our Religious Worship Did men seriously consider these things they would be soon sensible of the great advantage of such publick Forms of Prayer and prefer the Prayers of the Church before any Prayers of a private composition or any suddain extempore effusions For publick Prayers prescribed by publick Authority and offered up by a publick Minister are alwayes in the Communion of the Church and virtually contain the Desires and Petitions of the whole Church CHAP. IV. Concerning the publick Administration of Baptism ANother great miscarriage of those who live in the Communion of our Church concerns the administration of Baptism Publick Baptism is now very much grown out of fashion most people look upon it as a very needless and troublesome Ceremony to carry their Children to the publick Congregation there to be solemnly admitted by Baptism into the fellowship of Christs Church They think it may be as well done in a private Chamber as soon as the Child is born with little company and with little noise As prevailing as this custom now is it is of a very late date even in this Church It seems to owe its original to the disputes about Ceremonies for when some men scrupled God-Fathers and God-Mothers and the use of the Sign of the Cross to avoid this they baptized their Children privately at home without either when they could meet with such a conscientious Conformist as could dispense with his Rule And when the Church of England was pulled down and the use of the Liturgy and Ceremonies forbid those who still retained their reverence and obedience to the Constitutions of the Church and would not partake in a prevailing Schism were forced to retire into private too and to baptize their Children at home and it is a hard thing to break a custome upon what occasion soever it was at first begun That which necessity occasioned is continued by some as a piece of State by others to save charge and trouble which might be much better saved by publick Baptism by others out of softness and tenderness a kind and indulgent Mother dares not expose a young Infant to the cold Air unless it be to send it to nurse I could never hear any thing pleaded for this practice that deserved an answer that which makes this custom prevail is that men do not consider the great decency and fitness and the many advantages of publick Baptism which I shall therefore now briefly represent By publick Baptism I mean that which is administred in the publick Congregation and in the publick place of Worship and the fitness and advantage of this will appear if we consider some few things 1. That Baptism is our solemn admission into the Christian Church and therefore ought to be administred in the publick Congregation Baptism makes us members of the body of Christ and unites us to the society of Christians and therefore is of a publick nature and therefore ought to be administred publickly For there is no other rule I know of whereby to determine the manner and circumstances of any action but to consider the nature of it there are some actions which are more proper to be done in private others which require some publick solemnities and it is as undecent to do a publick action i. e. an action of a publick nature privately as it is to do a private action in publick Now that is certainly of a publick nature which concerns a who'e society and such is the admission of Church-members and therefore ought to be done in the presence as well as by the authority of the Church The efficacy indeed of Baptism depends upon the Institution of Christ and therefore when it is rightly administred does not lose its vertue for want of some due circumstances but it is a great fault in those who wilfully and obstinately refuse to give all Christian offices their due solemnity 2. We may consider that Baptism contains a publick profession of our faith in Christ it is a publick owning of his Religion no adult person was ever admitted to Baptism without a profession of his faith in Christ in allusion to which as Learned Men think St. Peter calls Baptism not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God The person to be baptized being examined about his faith in Christ and resolutions of obeying him Now the profession of our faith the more publick it is the more agreeable is it to the nature of Baptism and the constitution of the Christian Church which is a visible Society professing the faith of Christ and though indeed Infants who are baptized are not capable of making such a publick profession of their faith yet their Sponsors and Sureties are who undertake for their education in the Christian faith and certainly the publick Church is the most proper place for such a publick profession To baptize our Children privately looks as if we were ashamed of the Christian profession and there is not a more effectual way to root out Christianity than to destroy
all the publick solemnities of Worship 4. Publick Baptism is very much for the edification of the Church It minds Christians of their Baptismal Vow which I fear too many are apt to forget it puts good thoughts into them when they see what a grave and serious thing it is to be a Christian it sets their consciences on work to review their past lives and to consider how they have kept their Baptismal Vow it minds Children and Servants of their duty who are seldome at private Baptism and are many times more affected with such a sight than with the best counsels It minds those who have been God-Fathers or God-Mothers what charge they have undertaken which they are to look upon as somewhat more than a complement to a friend or matter of ceremony even a trust and a trust of the highest nature an obligation to God and to his Church to take care of the Vertuous and Religious Education of such Children Which may convince all considering men of what great use it is that Baptism should be administred with all the aweful and publick solemnities that may be and not be huddled over in private as a thing that must be done though it matters not how 5. For this we have the example of the Primitive Christians who always administred Baptism in publick places and in the presence of the Congregation At first indeed they baptized in Rivers or Ponds as Iohn the Baptist did in Iordan where our Saviour himself was baptized which made many in the Primitive Church ambitious to be baptized there also as Eusebius reports of Constantine the Emperour though he was disappointed in it afterwards they built Fonts near the Church then in the Church-porch and at last in the Church it self and never allowed of private Baptisms but in danger of death And to make the action more solemn they had publick times for Baptism which in most Churches were Easter and Whitsunday when all their Catechumens who desired Baptism and were judged fit to receive it were admitted into the body of Christians and made members of Christ and of his Church And thus it continued in following Ages and so it ought still to be according to the Rubrick of our Church I mean as to the publick administration of Baptism though it be not now confined to such certain times which allows of no private Baptisms but in danger of death So that this is a plain transgression of the Rule and therefore such a disorder as no man should be guilty of who professes himself a member of our Church CHAP. V. Concerning the publick Instructions of Youth ANother great miscarriage is that few men are so ready and careful as they ought to be to submit their Children and Servants to publick Instructions Of what mighty concernment the Religious and Vertuous Education of Youth is I need not tell you for in a great measure their happiness in this World and in the next depends on it when Children are brought up in ignorance and folly it layes a foundation of Atheism and Debauchery in their riper years Unless they be tâ—ught to know and to fear God betimes they are in great danger of laughing at God and Religion and making a mock of sin as they grow in years and wickedness I doubt not but the Atheism and lewdness of this present Age has been as much owing to the miscarriages of Parents and Governours in the Education of Children and Youth as to any one cause besides How many Children have never been taught any other Catechism than some flattering Complements modish Oaths and obscene talk How many have been instructed in prophane and impious Jests and all the topicks of irreligious Wit and no wonder there are so many great Proficients who are wicked above their age and can as pertly and confidently laugh down God and Religion as the gravest and most studied Atheists Others are not so industrious to corrupt Youth but yet take no care to instruct them better to possess their tender minds with the knowledge and love of God and true goodness and then there is no great need to teach them to be wicked If the ground been't tilled and cultivated you can expect no good fruit but weeds will grow of themselves Others possibly do take care to instruct their Children in the Principles of Religion and to train them up to the practice of Vertue and I only wish there were greater numbers of these men we might then hope in time to see the World reformed and Religion grow into fashion and credit again at least the next generation might see the blessed effects of those seeds of Vertue and Piety which are sown now But there is one great neglect of very mischievous consequence easie to be observed among us and we can expect no great good till it be reformed and that is the neglect of publick Catechizing which may be sometimes the neglect of the Minister but is oftner the neglect of the people who cannot be perswaded to submit their Children and Servants to publick instructions nor to give any incouragement to it by their own presence and attendance That this is so is too evident and yet I cannot make any probable conjecture what should be the cause of this For 1. No man certainly can think it an indifferent thing whether his Children be thoroughly instructed in the principles of Christian knowledge for knowledge must be both the rule of practice and the motive of obedience the Laws of the Gospel must be the rule of our life and practice and no wonder men do amiss who know not what they ought to do the Articles of the Christian faith are the motives and principles of obedience to enable us to conquer the corrupt inclinations of our nature and the allurements and temptations of this World and no wonder men are conquered who understand not the use of their spiritual armour who are ignorant of those things without the belief and knowledge of which they cannot conquer Such as the being and nature and providence of God the incarnation death and sufferings resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God the influences and assistances of the Divine Spirit the Judgement to come and everlasting life after death Nor is it sufficient to be able to say over these words without some competent understanding of the sense and meaning of them the Articles of our Creed do not work like Spells or Charms by the Magical power or sound of words but as arguments and motives that is as they convey such a sense of things to our minds as govern our affections and subdue them to the obedience of Christ and therefore no man can be the better for his faith who does not throughly understand what he believes And though hearing Sermons may help somewhat towards the instruction of Youth yet this cannot be so effectual as Catechizing for the first principles of knowledge ought to be taught by few and plain words and instill'd
into them by degrees as they are able to bear it There is milk for babes and meat for strong men to understand the first principles of Christian knowledge is necessary to teach them to understand a Sermon which commonly supposes some competent knowledge in the principles of Christianity and the true reason why so few men understand Sermons or get any good by them is because they never well understood their Catechism The want of this careful instruction of Youth makes them so unstable and uncertain in their Religion when they come to be men This makes so many different Opinions and Sects of Religion that they are turned aside with every wind of doctrine that they are taken with every new phrase that they fall into such monstrous errors so destructive to the fundamentals of Christian faith for it is impossible a house should stand which has no foundation So that all men must acknowledge that it is very necessary that Children and Youth should be carefully instructed in the fundamental principles of Religion 2. I cannot suppose neither that any considering men should think there is no need of the assistance of the Ministers of Religion for the instruction of Youth this indeed is a duty which every Parent and Master of a Family is concerned in to instruct those who are under their care in the knowledge and fear of God but if they think their Minister able to instruct themselvs they cannot but think it reasonable to desire his assistance to instruct their Children They call in the assistance of men expert and skilful in several Arts to teach them those Arts which they profess though they have some skill themselves in them and there is nothing of such moment to them and nothing it may be more difficult than to be thoroughly instructed in Religion It requires great skill and such as every Learned Rabbi is not Master of to fit the principles of Christian knowledge to the capacity of Children and Youth The Articles of the Christian Faith contain the highest and most Seraphical Speculations that ever were taught by any Philosophy such as the Incarnation of the Eternal Son of God who was conceived in the womb of a pure Virgin and came into the world in our nature and wrought miracles and dyed as a Sacrifice for sin and rose again from the dead and is now ascended up into Heaven in our nature and invested with great power and glory having all power given to him both in heaven and in earth a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow both of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father That when these earthly bodies shall dye and rot in the grave they shall be raised again at the last day incorruptible and glorious These are great sublime stupendious Mysteries and it requires no small skill to know how to teach such great and mysterious Doctrines to Children and Youth that they may so by degrees discover these Mysteries as neither to blind nor dazle their eyes with their brightness and lustre nor yet to remain wholly ignorant of them The thorough knowledge of Christianity is not so easily attained as some men imagine nor is every one who knows something himself fit to be a Teacher of others And therefore though I would earnestly exhort you all to use the best skill you have to instruct your Children and Servants yet this is no reason to withdraw them from publick instructions nor can any man who understands his Religion think he discharges his duty to God and the Church meerly by his private instruction of his family when he neglects or refuses to bring them to publick instructions 3. For he must consider that his Children and Servants who are baptized are members of the Christian Church and therefore ought to be subject to the instructions and discipline of it as far as their age and capacity will permit They do not only belong to his private care but to the publick care of the Church who is to provide for the instruction of her Children and to deny the Church liberty to instruct her Children or not to interpose their own authority to make them submit to it is to withdraw their Children from the Communion of the Church after a solemn dedication of them to God No good man can with patience think of being guilty of so great a sin which is a kind of Sacriledge as it respects God a degree of Schism from the Church and very injurious to his Childrens souls Especially considering that there is a more peculiar blessing attends the publick instructions of the Church for the same reason that God prefers publick before private Worship and is more peculiarly present in Christian Assemblies than in the families of private Christians and blesses the publick administrations of his Word before private counsels 4. Which may further convince us that the publick Catechizing of Children and Youth is not needless whatever good instructions they may have at home for besides what I have already observed that God does more peculiarly bless publick Institutions there are several advantages in it which I shall briefly represent 1. This will make them more careful to improve in knowledge when they know they must give an account of such improvements to the publick Congregations there will be an emulation between Youth who shall give the most manly and reasonable account of their faith and as they grow in years they will be ashamed to continue Children in understanding we see the effects of this shame and emulation in other matters and when it may be improved to such admirable advantage in this case if there were nothing more to recommend it it were a sufficient reason to all good men who desire the improvement and increase of Christian knowledge in the World to encourage and promote it 2. By this means the Church may take notice of the improvement of Youth in Christian knowledge which is necessary to their regular admission to higher acts of Communion Those who are baptized when they are Children ought not regularly to be admitted to the Lords Supper till they have been confirmed and to qualifie them for Confirmation it is necessary they should in some competent measure understand their Religion and be able to give a reasonable account of their faith and though indeed the Minister and Bishop may be satisfied in this by private examinations yet this is no satisfaction to the Congregation with whom they are to communicate any otherwise than as they relye upon the authority of their Minister but such young men will be received with a more universal applause and sincere joy to the Table of our Lord who have given such publick testimony of their improvements in Christian knowledge 3. Another advantage is that this trains up Children and Youth in a just respect
he has put an end to Circumcision Sacrifices Legal Washings and Purifications and the like and has only instituted Baptism as the Sacrament of our admission into his Church which cannot be thought grievous and troublesome when it is administred but once to a man for his life and the Lords Supper as a standing Rite of Worship and to deny obedience to one easie Command when our Lord has delivered us from such a grievous and unsupportable yoke is a sign that as much as men talk of Christian Liberty they little value that love which purchas 't it at so dear rate Others there are who do not wholly withdraw themselves from the Lords Table but yet think there is no great reason to communicate often so they do it some times though very seldome they comply with our Saviours Institution who has commanded us indeed to eat the Sacramental Bread and drink the Wine in remembrance of him but has not appointed how often this shall be done In answer to this I grant that our Saviour has appointed no fixt and setled times for the celebration of this holy Supper but this seems to me a plain argument that he has instituted this Supper as an ordinary part of Christian Worship if he had intended that we should have received these mysteries only on some set and solemn times he would have told us so but having appointed no time for it we must conclude that this is part of that Worship which he expects from Christians in all their publick Religious Assemblies when ever they meet together to worship God and their Saviour And thus the Primitive Christians understood our Saviour for they never met together for Religious Worship but this holy Feast was part and alwayes accounted the principal part of it In the Apostles dayes this was done every day as is generally concluded from that short history we have of their daily conversation which was spent in the duties and exercises of Religion that they continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart praising God the proper work of the Eucharistical Feast and having favour with all the people and we have reason to think it was so in the Apostles dayes when it is evident this custom of receiving every day continued some Ages after So it was in St. Cyprian's time and so it was at Rome in St. Hierom's time and the Apostolical Canons and the Synod of Antioch denounce Excommunication against those Christians who come to Church to join in other Religious Offices but go away without receiving the Lords Supper afterwards as mens zeal in Religion decayed so they abated in the frequenâ— Celebration of this Feast and from every day it came to once or twice a Week or every Lords day till it grew so dis-used that the Church was forced to make provision by her publick Canons that every Christian should at least receive the Supper of the Lord three times a year on the three great Feasts of the Church Christmass Easter and Whitsunday But the Institution of our Saviour confining it to no time seems to make it an ordinary part of Christian Worship especially when it was thus expounded by the general practice of the Apostles and Primitive Christians who were most likely to understand our Saviours meaning that I confess I am so far from thinking it an excuse for communicating seldome that I want a fair Apology to make for our selves for communicating so seldome as once a Moneth unless the degeneracy of the Age the decay of Christian Piety and that little sense men have of the necessity and advantages of this duty be thought a good Apology 2. For we may consider farther that as Christ has instituted this holy Supper so he has instituted it as an act of Religious Worship It is a Sacrifice of Prayer and Thanksgiving to God and to our Saviour It is a commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross a shewing forth the Lords death until he come and therefore is a mysterious Rite of Worship as all Sacrifices were under the Law But to explain this more particularly though briefly I shall consider this holy Feast both as it respects God and as it respects our Saviour 1. With respect to God and so we may consider it as a Thanksgiving or as a Prayer 1. As a Thanksgiving to God for his great and unexpressible goodness in sending his Son Jesus Christ into the World and offering him up as an expiation and atonement for our sins Certainly it becomes us to admire and adore that Infinite Goodness which took pity on us in our low estate and provided a Ransome and Sacrifice and Redeemer for us Who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And when so proper to do this as when we celebrate this holy Feast when we commemorate the Death and Sufferings of our Lord which must needs affect our souls if we be not wholly stupid with a very passionate sense of the love of God and what more proper Sacrament of Thanksgiving and Praise can we use than to present him with the memorials of his stupendious love to let him see that we retain a fresh sense and remembrance of it that we never suffer it to slip out of our minds though it is so many hundred years since Christ suffered and perfected the work of our Redemption You cannot more effectually praise any man than to shew the visible remains and monuments of his Bounty and Charity as the Widows weeping shewed the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them Thus when we offer up to God the memorials of Christs Death and Passion it is a visible Sacrifice of Praise and speaks such kind of language as this Behold Lord here is the token of thy love to us thy own Son bleeding and dying for our sins thy eternal Son the Son of thy love in whom thy soul is well pleased dying upon the Cross a shameful accursed lingring tormenting death scorned and reproached of men and forsaken of God who delivered him up into the hands of his enemies and left him to struggle with the fears and weakness of humane nature without those divine and supernatural supports which he now needed most but least enjoyed We will never forget such love as this we will perpetually celebrate this holy Feast and offer up the memorials of a crucified Iesus as a sacrifice of praise to his Father and to our Father to his God and to our God 2. The Lords Supper may be considered as a Sacrament of Prayer for so the Sacrifices under the Law were alwayes offered with Prayer which were accepted in vertue of the Sacrifice and therefore though all men could not every day attend the Temple Worship especially those who lived at a great distance from the Temple
sober Christian can withstand their conviction I shall now briefly consider the second thing proposed What are the most common occasions of or excuses for such a neglect and though it were easie to think of a great many I shall but mention two very briefly as being I think the most universal and the foundation of all the rest 1. The first is of that nature that it is great pity it should have so ill an effect and that is a mighty reverence and esteem for this holy Feast Either they can never think themselves worthy to approach the Table of our Lord or that they can never be sufficiently prepared for it As for the first it looks like pride and folly to think that we must be worthy of the divine favors they must all be acknowledged to be above our deserts How came mankind to be worthy that the Son of God should dye for them and had God advised with such modest sinners they might have complemented away the death of Christ as now they do the benefits and advantages of it in his holy Supper How great a Saint soever thou art thou canst never merit such favours and priviledges as these for then there had been no need of Christ to merit for thee and how great a sinner soever thou art by complying with the Grace of God thou maist quickly make thy self a worthy Communicant Repent of thy sins and heartily resolve by Gods Grace to reform thy life and come to this holy Table with assurance to receive those supplies of Grace which may enable thee to do it And as for that great preparation which is necessary to fit our selves for so solemn an act of Religion I must say it is in this as in other acts of Religious Worship the greater the better but if we consider what I said before that the Institution of our Saviour plainly proves that he designed it for an ordinary part of Christian Worship we cannot suppose that it requires much greater preparation of mind than other acts of Religion This holy Supper is a sacred mysterious Rite of Prayer and Thanksgiving which gives vertue and efficacy to our prayers and makes them acceptable and prevalent with God Are you then when you come to Church fit to pray to God and to praise him if not you must neglect your prayers as well as the Sacrament if you are then you are fit to approach the Lords Table to give vertue and prevalency to your prayers This holy Supper conveys to us the vertue and efficacy of Christs Sacrifice upon the Cross the pardon of our sins and the assistances of the divine Grace and Spirit Now if you be truly penitent you are qualified to receive the pardon of your sins and therefore to approach this holy Table where it is dispensed if you earnestly desire the divine Grace you are prepared for the reception of it Come but with a sense of your wants and with such desires as a hungry man has of meat and here you shall be filled and satisfied and without such preparations as these we can neither pray to God to forgive our sins nor to bestow his Grace on us Yet I confess I cannot see how any man who is fit to pray to God should be unfit to approach his Table 2. Others think that there is much greater danger in approaching the Table of the Lord unworthily than in an unworthy performance of other parts of Religious Worship but for what reason they think so I could never learn The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord and his sacrifice is no more It is as unpardonable an affront to God to pray for the pardon of our sins in Christs name without true sorrow and contrition and serious resolutions of amendment as it is for an impenitent sinner to receive the Sacrament to praise God without a due sense of his Mercy and Goodness differs not at all from feasting at the Table of our Lord without any sense of his dying love I would not be thought to give encouragement by this discourse to wicked men to approach this holy Table such men ought to be carefully turned away from such sacred Mysteries when they are discovered but the whole design is to shew that those men who have such clear innocent consciences that they dare pray to God need not be afraid of receiving the Sacrament and those who have not I would desire them to consider what a case they are in they defile every holy duty they meddle with and are in perpetual danger of Gods wrath and displeasure they cannot ask his pardon but they provoke him the more for the interpretation of such mens prayers is only to beg a longer liberty and indulgence in sin and therefore this is no more an encouragement to neglect the Lords Supper than it is to continue in a state of sin and damnation But you will say does not the Apostle tell us that a man must examine himself and so eat of that bread and drink of that cup for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords body Very right but not to dispute the particular meaning of that place is not this true also of him that hears or prayes unworthily Does the Apostle say that there is any greater degree of worthiness required to receive the Lords Supper than there is to pray to God He who is fit to pray to God is fit to eat and drink at the Lords Table and he who is not fit for either I am sure is not fit to dye Our right to immortality is conveyed to us in this heavenly Feast as you have already seen and it is equally strange to me that men should content themselves in such a condition as makes them unfit to receive the pardon of their sins the assistances of Gods Grace or immortal life or if they be not in this deplorable condition that they should neglect that holy Feast which is the only ordinary instituted means of conveying all these blessings to them FINIS Books lately Printed by Richard Chiswel LOrd Bacon's Remains octavo Dr. Puller's Discourse of the Moderation of the Church of England octavo Dr. Edw. Bagshaw's Discourses upon Select Texts against the Papist and Socinian octavo Mr. Rushworth's Historical Collections The Second Volume folio His large and exact Account of the Trial of the Earl of Strafford folio Remarques relating to the state of the Church of the 3 first Centuries wherein are interspersed Animadversions on a Book called A View of Antiquity By I. H. Written by A. S. Speculum Baxterianum or Baxter against Baxter quarto The Countrey-Mans Physician octavo Dr. Burlace's History of the Irish Rebellion folio An Apology for a Treatise of Humane Reason Written by Ma. Clifford Esq twelves The Laws of this Realm concerning Jesuits c. explained by divers Judgements and Resolutions of the Judges with other Observations thereupon by William Cawley Esq folio Dr. Burnet's