them only leaving the inside of them full of all filthiness and nastiness Thus do ye Pharisees wash your Bodies whilst your Souls and Spirits remain full of all Uncleanness of Malice and Wickedness If you would obey and please God you must cleanse that which is within as well as that which is without then he adds the Words of my Text But rather give Alms of such things as you have and behold all things are clean unto you There are several Meanings given of these Words by Interpreters with which I shall not now trouble you but only propound that which I shall choose to insist upon It is very ordinary in Scripture to express the whole of our Duty or Religion by some one part or eminent Instance of it as very frequently by Charity so here by one principal part of Charity giving of Alms. So that the Sense ought not to be restrained to this single duty of Alms-giving to the exclusion of the rest but all other Duties that are of the same weight and necessity are here understood as well as that one which is mentioned And then the Sense is this Mind chiefly the great and moral and substantial parts of Gods Laws study those Duties that are of eternal and indispensable Obligation be most zealous and sollicitous for the matters of Piety Righteousness and Charity and behold all things are clean unto you that is ye need not then be so anxious or concerned about these little things nor so strictly tye up your selves to such Formalities and external Rites If you be but seriously diligent about your main and undoubted Duty you will be more indifferent about Meats and Drinks nor will you lay so great a stress upon any Singularities or Affectations in Religion Be but exactly careful to avoid every thing which God hath forbid to do every thing which he hath expresly commanded and then trouble not your Consciences about eating with unwashen hands Thus as Grotius upon these Words observeth they signifie the same with what St. Paul saith Titus 1. 15. Vnto the pure all things are pure They who keep themselves unspotted from all sinful Pollutions who strictly abstain from unlawful Freedoms may with a safe Conscience use any unlawful Liberty and eat any kind of meats with washen or unwashen hands In short the sense of the Words seemeth to be this Mind your plain and necessary Duty and trouble not your selves with Scruples about little and indifferent things Whence I shall take occasion to discourse of what is usually called a scrupulous Conscience which I have chosen to do not out of a design to expose or upbraid the weakness of any but rather charitably to contribute what I can towards the healing and curing of it and this I take for granted That we cannot do greater Service either to the Church of Christ or Souls of Men than by all prudent means to root out those needless scruples out of their minds which hath been the occasion of such unchristian Separations and dangerous Divisions amongst us at first begun and still maintained generally upon the account of such things as I verily believe a well instructed Conscience need not be concerned or disturbed about I shall first shew you what I understand by a scrupulous Conscience then observe some few things concerning it and lastly offer some plain Rules and Means by which we may best get rid of it First What is a scrupulous Conscience Now Conscience as it is a Rule of our Actions is nothing else but a Man's Mind or Judgment concerning the moral Goodness or Evil Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of things and as this Judgment is either true or false so is our Conscience either good and well grounded or erroneous The Divine Law made known to us either by the Light of Nature or plain Scripture or direct consequence from it such as any honest man may understand is the rule of Conscience or of that Judgment we make of the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of things So that our Conscience is a safe Rule and Guide of our Actions no farther than as it self is directed and warranted by the Law of God 1. A good and well grounded Conscience is when we carefully abstain from whatever God hath forbidden don't neglect doing any thing which he hath commanded and as for other matters left indifferent and at Liberty we do them or forbear doing of them according as the Rules of obedience to Superiours Prudence and Charity do require This is the Health and sound State of the Mind 2. An erroneous Conscience is when we judge that to be evil or unnecessary which God hath expresly commanded and is our Duty or that to be good and necessary which he hath plainly forbid and is really sinful Now our Consciences cannot alter the nature of things that which is our Duty remaineth so and we sin by omitting it notwithstanding we in our Consciences think it unlawful to be done and what is really Evil continueth such and is Sin in us however our Consciences tell us it is our duty to do it and the fault is more or less compassionable and pardonable as the causes of the Error are more or less voluntary and avoidable This is a grievous Disease and deadly Sickness of the Mind when we thus grossly err in our Judgments and act according to our mistaken Opinion of things 3. A scrupulous Conscience is conversant about things in their own Nature indifferent and it consists Either in strictly tying up our selves to some things which God hath no where commanded as the Pharisees made great Conscience of washing before they did eat and abundance of other unnecessary Rites and Usages they had of Mens own inventing and devising which they as religiously nay more carefully observed than the indisputable Commands of God himself Or in a conscientious abstaining from some things which are not forbid nor any ways unlawful Touch not taste not handle not doubting and fearing where no fear is thinking that they should as much offend God by eating some kind of Meats wearing some Garments as they should do were they guilty of Murder and Adultery Which is the case of many amongst us who by such Scrupulosity about little matters seem more precise and austere than other good and honest Christians are or themselves need or ought to be For be it from me by any thing I shall now say to discourage the greatest and tenderest care any Christian can take to keep himself from all Sin from all Occasions and Temptations to it from the least appearance of Evil of what is really such and to do any thing that is in it self sinful out of confidence that it is lawful is far worse and a more grievous offence than to abstain from many things which are truly lawful out of an Opinion that they are sinful Notwithstanding this I cannot but reckon it the chief Policy of the Devil the grand Enemy of all that is good when he cannot persuade us that there is
nothing at all sinful or unlawful then to make us suspect every thing for such or at least that there is great danger of displeasing God by the most indifferent and innocent Actions by these means ensnaring and entangling Mens Consciences and rendring Religion a most troublesome burden to them A scrupulous Conscience therefore starts and boggles where there is no real Evil or Mischief is afraid of omitting or doing what may be omitted or done without Sin Which I know not how better to illustrate than by those unaccountable Antipathies or Prejudices that some men have against some sort of Meats or living Creatures which have not the least harm or hurt in them yet are so offensive and dreadful to such Persons that they fly from them as they would from a Tyger or Bear and avoid them as they would do the Plague or Poyson Just thus do some Men run out of the Church at the sight of a Surplice as if they had been scared by the apparition of a Ghost I. proceed to the second thing I propounded to observe to you some few general things concerning this scrupulous Conscience as 1. That this is a very sickly crazy temper of mind a great indisposition a state of weakness and infirmity It ariseth from Ignorance and want of right understanding our Religion from undue timerousness or unsetledness of mind from melancholy or unreasonable prejudices and mistakes about the nature of things Such scrupulous Persons are like fearful Women that wander in the dark who seeing nothing to affright them yet fancy many things which make them tremble every step they take or like those who see only by an uncertain glimmering twilight their Imagination once abus'd and prepossess'd transforms every Object into a Monster or Gyant Thus this Scrupulous is the same with what in other Words some call a tender Conscience so tender that every thing hurts and wounds it like a tender Eye which the least Dust or Smoak grievously offends or a tender constitution of Body which the least Air or Wind mightily disorders and discomposes Now this is far from being any Vertue or Commendation in us this is no desirable Qualification nor a matter of Ambition to be thought men of such tender Consciences no more than it is for a man's Reputation to be sickly and often indispos'd A good Conscience is firm and steady well setled and resolved and such needless Scruples about things lawful are at the best a sign of an ungovern'd Fancy and a weak Judgment As the niceness and squeamishness of a mans Stomach that distasts wholsom Food is a simptom of an unsound and unhealthy Body This doth not argue any extraordinary holiness or purity above others as the Pharisee conceited of himself stand off come not ' nigh me touch me not for I am holier than thou because he washed himself so often No we are yet in a childish state and whilst we are frighted with such Bug-bears and Phantasms we have not yet arrived to the Understanding or Resolution of a Man 2. This Scrupulosity about little matters may be and is often a sign of Hypocrisie I take not upon my self to judge any Persons Let every man look to himself but thus certainly it was with the Scribes and Pharisees of old They strained at every Gnat stumbled at every Straw would starve sooner than eat their Meat with defiled hands would not for the World wrong a man of a Cummin-seed or a spear of Mint and by this wonderful exactness and strictness in some instances they easily gained the Reputation of the greatest Saints so that it is said to have been an ordinary Proverb among the Jews That if but two persons in the World went to Heaven one of them would be a Scribe the other a Pharisee Yet for all this if we will believe our Saviour's account of them they made nothing of swallowing Camels living in the greatest and most known Wickedness Alas their Consciences would not give them leave to enter into the Governours Hall to go amongst the Heathens for fear of being polluted by them yet at the same time they stuck not at suborning false Witnesses against the best and most innocent Person that ever lived They blamed the Disciples for plucking the ears of Corn on the Sabbath-day as if they poor tender-hearted men were offended and grieved to the Soul at such Prophaneness and yet they thought it nothing to deny relief and succour to their own Parents when in Want or Distress they made no Bones of Rapine and Extortion oppressing the Poor or devouring Widows Houses By their curiosity about these external Observances they hoped to make amends for their gross Transgressions in other cases of far greater weight and moment Since they denied themselves many things which God had allow'd them they hop'd he would readily forgive them tho in some other things they took a greater Liberty than he had permitted them Had any of us been present when Mary St. John 12. 3. took the Ointment of Spikenard very costly and anointed the Feet of Jesus and had heard Judas's Rebuke Why was not this Ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the Poor He scrupled such a profuse expence tho about our Saviour himself He thought it might have been better employ'd to more useful purposes Should we not from this have strait concluded him the most charitable and conscientious of all Christ's Disciples and yet this over-great care for the Poor was only a pretence and covering for his theevish Intention They therefore who are so scrupulous about little indifferent matters ought to approve their Honesty and Sincerity by the most accurate Diligence in the Practise of all other Duties of Religion which are plainly and undoubtedly such They who pretend to such a tender Conscience above other Men must know that the World will watch them as to the fairness and justice of their Dealings the calmness of their Tempers their behaviour in their several Relations their Modesty Humility Charity Peaceableness and the like If in all these things they keep the same Tenor use the same caution and circumspection and be uniformly conscientious then it must be acknowledged that it is only Weakness or Ignorance that raiseth their Scruples not any vicious Principle and the condition of those who are under the power of such Scruples is much to be commiserated But when I see a Man scrupling praying by a Book or Form and yet living without any Sense of God or Fear of him afraid of a Ceremony in God's Worship and not afraid of a plain damnable Sin of Covetousness rash censuring his Brethren of Hatred and Strife Faction and Schism and disobedience to Superiours when I see one that out of Conscience refuseth to kneel at the Sacrament and yet dares totally neglect the Communion who takes great care not to give offence to his weak Brother but can freely speak evil of Dignities and despiseth his lawful Governours it is not then
God hath not commanded and yet never think to flatter God by it nor place any Religion in it but he may do it only out of obedience to his Superiours for outward Order and Decency for which end our Ceremonies are appointed and so there is no Superstition in them But now a man cannout out of Conscience refuse to do what God hath not forbid and is by lawful Authority required of him but he must think to please God by such abstaining and in this conceit of pleasing or humouring God by indifferent things consists the true Spirit of Superstition Have great and honourable Thoughts of God and behold all these things will be clean to you 2. Which is the particular Rule of my Text Lay out your great care and zeal about the necessary and substantial duties of Religion and this will make you less concerned about things of an inferiour and indifferent Nature As on the one hand our fierce Disputes and Debates about little things and circumstances are apt to eat out the Heart and Life of Religion so on the other side minding those things most in which the Power of Religion doth consist is the best way to cure our Scrupulousness about little things This was the Apostle's Advice to the Romans cap. 14. amongst whom eating or not eating some Meats observing or not observing some days had occasioned as much trouble and Scruple as forms of Prayer and Ceremonies do now amongst us ver 17. The Kingdom of God is not Meat or Drink but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost What needs all this Stir and Bustle This censuring disputing and dividing about Standing or Kneeling these are not the great matters of our Faith they are not worth so much Noise and Contention The great stress and weight in our Religion is laid upon the Duties of a righteous and holy Life and a peaceable Spirit and Conversation and then he adds ver 18. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of Men. Thus when you betake your selves to your Prayers let it be your greatest care to fix in your Minds a due sense of God's Infinite Majesty of your own Vileness and Unworthiness of your manifold Wants and Necessities and the greatness and goodness of the things you petition for and his readiness to grant them upon your humble Request and the more you do this the less sollicitous you will be about the form or words of your Prayers He that minds those things most on which the efficacy of his Prayers for Christ's sake doth depend will not stand in need of nor require new Phrases every time to stir his Attention or to raise his Affection Thus let Men be very diligent and conscientious in preparing themselves for the Holy Communion let them come thereunto with lively apprehensions of Christs Love in dying for us with hearty Resolutions of Amendment and true Charity towards all Men the more concerned they are about these necessary things the less afraid will they be of offending God by kneeling at the Administration or coming up to receive it in one part of the Church rather than another for they will find that they are quite other things in which true Religion consists in a new Nature in a divine temper of Mind in the constant Practise of Holiness Righteousness and Charity which make a Man really better and more like unto God He that places any Religion in not putting off his Hat or sitting at the Sacrament or not standing up at the Creed or Gospel as I before shew'd you hath no worthy Thoughts of God so neither hath he any right Notion of Christianity which consists only in unfeigned Piety towards God and sincere Love to our Brother not in any external Rites or Observances which are in their own Nature variable and mutable and are different in several Churches 3. It would greatly contribute to the removing these Scruples which hinder the blessed Union of Christians amongst us if men were but really willing to receive satisfaction This alone would go half way towards conquering them But when they are grown fond of and nourish their Doubts and Prejudices and converse only with those Men read only those Books and hear those Discourses which are made of their side which serve to heighten and strengthen their Jealousies and Suspicions when they avoid the means of Conviction as dangerous Snares and Temptations and look upon this tenderness or aptness to be offended as a sign of Grace and extraordinary Conscientiousness there can be but little hopes of recovering such Persons to a right apprehension of things Whereas would they come once to distrust their own Judgments to suppose that they may perhaps be all this while mistaken would they calmly and patiently hear faithfully and impartially consider what is said or wrote against them as eagerly desire and seek for satisfaction as Men do for cure of any Disease they are subject unto would they I say thus diligently use all fit means and helps for the removal of their Scruples before they troubled the Church of Christ with them it would not prove so very difficult a Task to convince and settle such teachable Minds If therefore any Man be possessed with Doubts or Scruples against any thing practised or required in our Church let him first read some of those excellent Books that are written with all the fairness and evidence imaginable on purpose to explain and justifie those things that are most usually excepted against let him consult with some of our Church before he leaves it Let him honestly repair to the Minister of his Parish or some other whom he hath in greater estimation and ingeniously open his Mind to him declaring what it is he most stumbles at and hear what can be offered for the Resolution of his Doubts If consulting with one Person will not do it let him advise with others and try this often before he condemns us and divides from us Would men do this seriously with earnest desire of instruction without doubt we should have far fewer Separatists and they who after this did still dissent from us would be far more excusable in it than otherwise they are and this is no other than what men ordinarily do in their temporal affairs When they have any fear or suspition about their worldly concerns they presently repair to those who are best skill'd and most able to resolve them and in their judgment and determination they commonly acquiesce and satisfie themselves Hath any man a scruple about his Estate whether it be firmly setled or he hath a true legal Title to it The way he takes for satisfaction is to advise with Lawyers the most eminent for Knowledge and Honesty in their profession If they agree in the same opinion this is the greatest assurance he can have that it is right and safe Thus is it with one that doubts whether such a custom or practise be for his health the opinion of
Scripture Who hath required these things at your hands Now here I only ask Where our Saviour or his Apostles have forbid us doing any thing in God's Worship which is not by himself commanded or where in the New Testament we are told that God will be angry with us for doing any thing which he hath no where forbid either by general or particular Laws For unless this can be shewn there can be no colour for this Pretence and we are sufficiently sure that no such place can be produced out of the Bible It is acknowledged by all that the Holy Scriptures as to all that is necessary to be believed or done in order to Salvation as to all the essential and substantial parts of Divine Worship is a plain and perfect Rule but it is as certain that the outward circumstances of Time Place Habit and Gesture are not determined in the New Testament as they were by Moses's Law and yet God cannot be at least visibly and publickly worshipped without them If therefore these be not determined in Scripture and it is unlawful to do any thing in Gods Worship but what is so determined it follows that God cannot be worshipped at all unless we could worship him in no Time Place Habit or Gesture nor indeed can I learn how a Christian can with a good Conscience perform any part of God's Worship if this Principle be admitted for true that whatsoever is not commanded is forbid since the external Circumstances of religious Actions without which they cannot be performed are not prescribed or determined in Scripture and so he must commit a Sin every time he prays or receives the Holy Sacrament Besides this Reason would oblige us to separate from all the Churches that ever were or are in the World there being no constituted Church in which there are not some Orders and Injunctions for the regulating the publick Worship of God no where commanded in Scripture We could never upon this Principle have held Communion with the Primitive Churches which undoubtedly had their instituted significant Ceremonies nor is there any Church at this day that hath not by its own Authority determined some of the circumstances of Divine Service for the more decent and orderly performance thereof Nay those very Persons that make this Exception do themselves practise many things in the Worship of God without the least shadow of a Divine Command to which they oblige their Hearers and Communicants for conceived Prayers sitting at the Eucharist sprinkling the Infant at Baptism the Minister's officiating in a black Cloak or Coat are full out as unscriptural humane uncommanded as any Gesture Habit or Form used in our Church 2. That is said to be unlawful which hath been abused to sinful Purposes to Idolatry or Superstition so that nothing ought to be retained in our Worship tho it be not forbid by God which was used in times of Popery Hence the ordinary Objection against our Parish Churches is that they are not sufficiently purged from Popery that our first Reformers were indeed excellent and worthy Persons for the Times they lived in that what they did was very commendable and a good Beginning but they were forced to comply with the necessities of the Age which would not bear a compleat Reformation They left a great deal of Popish Trash in the Church hoping by degrees to reconcile the Papists to it or at least that they might not make the Breach too wide and too much prejudice or estrange them from it But we now live under better means have greater Light and Knowledge and so a further and more perfect Amendment is now necessary Thus the Order of Bishops is decried as Popish and Antichristian our Liturgy as taken out of the Mass Book and our Ceremonies as Relicks of Idolatry But the truth of the case is this We must consider that those of the Church of Rome do hold and maintain all the Essentials of Christianity but then by degrees as they found opportunity they have added a number of impious and pernicious Doctrines to the Christian Faith the Belief and Profession of which they equally require of all that are in their Communion Besides this they have introduced several idolatrous and superstitious Rites and Practises into the Service of their Church never heard of for the first four hundred Years by which they have miserably defaced and corrupted the Worship of God and made it necessary for all those that love their own Salvation to separate from them Now our first Reformers here in England did not go about to invent a new Species of Government to devise new Rites and Ceremonies and a new form of Worship such as should be least excepted against and then obtrude it upon this Nation as was done at Geneva and some other places but they wisely considered that if they did but reject what the Romanists had added to the Faith and Worship of Christians lay aside their novel Inventions Usurpations and unwritten Traditions there would remain the pure simple Primitive Christianity such as it was before the Roman Church was thus degenerated nor have we any thing of Popery left amongst us but what the Papists had left amongst them of Primitive Religion and Worship As we must not receive the evil for the sake of the good so neither must we reject the good for the sake of the evil In our Church we pray neither to Saints nor Angels nor the Virgin Mary our Liturgy is in a known Tongue we deny the Laity no part of the Sacrament nor the reading of the Scriptures we offer no Mass sacrifice nor worship Images or the consecrated Bread We have not one Doctrine or Ceremony in use amongst us that is purely Popish But we must be obliged to part with the most sacred venerable and usefullest things in our Religion if this be a sufficient reason of our forbearing any thing because the Papists abuse it This therefore I conclude to be the best and plainest rule for the governing of our Consciences not wilfully to omit any thing that God hath commanded to avoid to the utmost of our Power what God hath forbid and what ever else we have no particular Divine Law about to guide our selves by the general rules of Scripture the commands of our Superiours and by the measures of Prudence Peace and Charity This one rule and it cannot but seem a very reasonable one would soon put an end to our squabbles and janglings about Formes and Ceremonies and other indifferent things 5. In order to the bringing men to a complyance with the Laws of our Church we must desire them to consider that there never was nor ever will be any publick Constitution that will be every way unexceptionable The best policy whether Civil or Ecclesiastical that can be established will have some flaws and defects which must be borne and tolerated Some inconveniences will in process of time arise that never could be foreseen or provided against and to make