to live in the practise of all Christs institutions if we cannot enjoy them in one place upon Christs Terms his Command and tenderness to our own souls oblige us to seek out where we may enjoy them better cheap § 4. He that cannot perform all that the Laws require of him may forbeâ—… judging them that do the man of a Tender Conscience finds it enough to judge his own actions This is a most excellent Rule and Dissenters desire no more liberty Let them but judge of their own actions and they leave all others to stand or fall to their own Masters And it seems hard if they may not be indulged this priviledge since the silliest Creature that ever was is presumed to have so much wit as to come out of a shâ—…wr of Rain rather then to be wet to the skin § 5. The truly tender Conscience that is the Fool all this while will freely part with money nay of all the men in the world there 's none so free as he for a Fool and his money are soon parted Well! But if he cannot conform to the Laws he can pay the penalty I promise you that 's a great Question whether he can or no. Where nothing's to be had the King must lose his Right But if this be the grand qualification of a Tender Conscience to be made a Begger I wonder what his Priviledge can be unless it be to succeed old Clause the King of Beggers For his satisfaction if the penalty be moderate such as I can pay without ruine to my self and family though I be not satisfyed in the justice of it yet herein I may lawfully depart from my own Right and shall esteem it a great mercy if my coyn may compound for my Conscience 3 Readers you have heard the qualifications of a Tender Conscience be but now Masters of so much Patience as to sit out the Priviledges and that last Scene will make you ample satisfaction â—… Every private Christian is bound in Charity and compassion towards such a Man to deny himself of some part of his Liberty to gain him that is in those things that are matter of no Law where you have first a Bit and then a knock or the fair Concession and the wary Revocation § 1. The Concâ—…ssion Every private Christian is bound in Charity to such a Man to part with some of his Liberty to gain him wherein there are several things to be advised upon 1. The subject of the Proposition Every private Person 2. The nature of the obligation Bound in Charity and compassion 3. The matter of the duty To deny himself of some part of his Liberty 4. The end to gain him In few or none of which particulars can I arrive at any clear satisfaction 1. Every private Person And are not all publick Persons bound by the Law of God to walk charitably not to destroy souls I doubt we forget that God is here the Legislator with whom is no respect of Persons Charity is the fulfilling of the Moral Law And if any Person be so publick as not to be obliged by it we must leave those Commands Thou shalt do no Murther Thou shalt not commit Adultery to exercise the small fry and hamper the vulgar The Apostle Paul was a publick Person and one as well qualified to discern and impose things indifferent as any that have made the fairest pretences that way and yet he Professes with more then ordinary servency 1. Cor. 8. 13. That he will eat no flesh whilst the world stands least he should make his Brother to offend And who shall venture to make that the matter of an Ecclesiastical Canon which the Apostle durst not venture to practise They that assume a greater Authority had need give greater proof of greater Charity And yet greater was the importance of Flesh to the Health and life of Paul then a Ceremoâ—… can possibly be to the peace of the Church For. 1. Flesh is Disjunctively necessary to the health and life of Man that is either flesh or some other food but neither this nor that humane Ceremony is necessary either to the glory of God the peace of the Church or Decency and order in the worship The Church has served God decently lived peaceably and glorified God eminently without them and in his time may do so again 2. Flesh was a thing perfectly indifferent in it self and owned so by all that were well instructed in their Manumission from the Mosaical servitude but the more we are faithfully instructed in the Doctrine of Christian Liberty the more are we satisfied that we are at Liberty from all other Ceremonies of men as well as from those that were once of Divine Institution 2 Bound in Compassion and Charity I am not well satisfied that a Debt of meer Compassion or free Charity is all we owe our Brother in this case However we owe our God a Debt of Iustice It 's he that says Destroy not him with thy mâ—…at for whom Christ dyed 14. Rom. 15. And that there is no comparison between the Law that enjoins Ceremonies and that Law that commands us not to offend our Brother I thus prove 1. The Law that forbids scandal is Negative but the Law that commands Ceremonies is but Affirmative Now Gods own affirmative precepts may have their outward acts suspended in some cases for some time but Negatives admit of no relaxation He that says thou shalt not do says thou shalt never do unless dispensed with by a power aequal to his that gave the Prohibition 2. The Command of not scandalizing is purely moral the heart and life of the sixth Commandement For he that says thou shalt not Kill primarily intends I shall not destroy the soul but the Command of Ceremonies but positive And positives ought to give place to Morals If there be any Truth in that Doctrine of the Enquirers That Godlays little stress upon Circumstantials that his own positive Laws give place to the Moral Law much more ought Mans Ceremonial Law give place to Gods Moral Law Thou shalt not Kill 3. The Command of not giving offence because Moral is therefore perpetual but the Command of Ceremonies Temporary and may be momentany for the Church of England 34. Art Asserts a power in every National Church not only to ordain but to change and abolish Ceremonies 4. The Command of not scandalizing the weak not destroying the soul is in Materiâ Necessarâ—… the thing it self is good in it self and for it self though no positive Command had interposed in the case but Ceremonies have no other Goodness but what is breath'd into them by the breath of Man which if it were measured by the good effects would be found very little 5. The Command not to offend is unquestionably obligatory but that Command for Ceremonies is at best questionable whether it be so much as lawful 6. The Command to avoid offence has a direct and natural tendency to beget and preserve Amity and unity amongst
is their real Glory Baptismal water may be had a thousand times cheaper then the Popes Holy water shall that be it's crime when 't is a thousand times more useful 2 Nor are we to judge that God lays little stress upon his institutes because he does not immediately avenge the contempt and neglect of them upon the Violaters And yet such is the unworthiness of Reprieved sinners that they have formed one of their strongest Arguments for the Continuance of Corruptions in Gods worship because he breaks not out upon them with present Destructions 8. Eccles. 11. Because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil whereas 1. Such an Argument would equally conclude that God lays very little stress upon Murder Idolatry Sacriledg nay Schism itself 2. God will find a time soon enough to reckon with all those who bolster up themselves in these presumptions and take an unworthy occasion to be therefore Bad because God is so Good All the threatnings that are upon Record will certainly find out and lay hold on the Despisers of his sacred institutions And who to Accommodate their Doctrines to the Genius of the age and humour the People with a Religion agreable to their Customs must remember 5. Math. 29. whosoever shall break one of the least of Christs Commandements and teach men so shall be called lease in the Kingdom of Heaven 3. God has not left himself without a witness that he is a Iealous God in the matters of instituted worship for though Nadad and Abihu might plead that it was a small matter a meer trifle what fire they used so long as they kept close to the substance of the Command yet God let them know that he that offers strange fire to the Lord may be consumed with strange fire from the Lord And under the state of the Gospel he has given such evidence of his displeasurâ—… herein as may justly Alarm us out of our security 1 Cor. 11. 30. For this cause many are weak and sick among you and many sleep 3 We are not to conceive that God lays very little stress upon his institutions because we see a prophane and contemptuous generation of men lay little weight on them except it be a Load of Reproach and contumely for this were to measure God by the world as those prophane wretches did 50. Ps. 21. These things hast thou done and I kept silence and thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self As we must not think that God appretiates whatever men set a high value upon so neither are we to judge that he disesteems any thing because it 's grown out of fashion and thereby exposed to contempt by the Atheistical wits of Mercenary writers Our Saviour has told us 16. Luke 15. That what is highly esteemed amongst Men is Abomination in the sight of God And on the other side what is of high account in the sight of God may be depretiated by men If any of Christs institutions seem necessary to be broken it will be first necessary to decry them as poor low inconsiderable Circumstantials and then to fill the peoples heads with a Noice and dinâ—… That Christ lays little stress on them and in order hereto to call them the Circumstantials the Accidentals the minutes the Punctilio's and if need be the Petty-Johns of Religion that Conscience may not kicke at the contemning of them 4 Nor may we conclude that God lays little stress on his positive Laws because he is ready upon unfeigned repentance to pardon the violation of them for thus we might conclude also that he laid little stress upon Murder and Adultery in that â—…oon as David had said I have sinned against the Lord the Prophet delivers him a sealed pardon The Lord hath also put away thy sin then shalt not Dye 2. Sam. 12. 13. 5 Nor yet ought we to form such conclusions that God lays little stress upon his positive precepts because he lays a greater stress upon moral precepts in themselves As it would be an injury to conclude that any Church lays little weight upon the observation of the Lords day because when one of its own instituted festivals is coincident with that Day the ordinary service thereof gives place to the proper service of that festival when all that can possibly by the wit of man be inferred thence is but this that the Church may have a Less respect for the one then the other so would it be injurious to conclude That God has very little respect to his own institutions because he may suspend their exercise pro hic nunc rather then the duties imperated by a Moral precept Mint Anise and Cumine are inconsiderable things compared with the weightier matters of the Law judgment Mercy and Faith and yet our Saviour tells them 23. Math. 23. These ought ye to have done and not to have left the other undone 6 As absurd would it be to conclude that God lays little stress upon positives because he disrespeâ—…s the performance of a duty in Hypocrisy for at this rate we may conclude that he lays little upon preaching his word 50 Ps. 1â—… What hast thou to do to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy Mouth seeing thou hatest instruction And the Consequence is as Natural that God Regards not prayer because he hears not the petition of him that regards Iniquity in his heart 66. Ps. 18. And that the prayer of him that turns away his ear from hearing the Law is an Abomination 28. Prov. 9. 7 Nor may we gather that God makes little account of a positive precept because he sometimes sees Reason to indulge the omission of its practise for a season What weight he laid upon Circumcision is well known that he threatned excision to the Malechild that was uncircumcised at eight days old And yet for fourty years in the wilderness the Act of circumcising was suspended for the Acts of an Affirmative moral praecept may be forborn for some time by our own prudence and much more and longer by divine warrant and yet the precept itself all the while stand firm in Gods regard and in full force power strength and virtue to us 8 We are not to conclude that God lays little stress upon an Institution because he sometimes commands an Act which were it not for that particular and special Command would by virtue of a General Command be a most horrid impiety Thus God laid a great stress upon Killing much greater upon a fathers Killing a child and yet greater upon offering Humane Blood in sacrifice And yet he commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only Son and by his Command made that most acceptable and rewardable service which otherwise had been most abominable to the Divine Majesty To borrow and not to pay again is one of the Characters of a wicked person 37. Ps. 21. And yet God by
Temple and Synagogue worship How punctual God was in his directions about the former how more laxe in those about the latter And his Reason is Because there was nothing Symbolical but Natural Religion which the Nations they had of God and the Common sense of Mankind was sufficient to guide them in Which discourse of his well improved would give a notable shake to the ground-work of this whole Chapter for all the Religion of Christians is either instituted or Natural If it be instituted it depends wholy on the will of â—…od to make it known to us and to make it our duty and therefore so much of it as is of this Nature will plead the priviledge of the Temple Man has nothing to do with it If it be Natural then the Notions we have of God and Common sense are sufficient to guide every particular Church in it nor shall they need any Dictatorship to supply the defects As Christ has cleared up to us the Moral Law so he has prescribed us a Ceremonial Law And as it would be a bold affront to the Divine Majesty to pretend to add one Commandment to the former so is it no less an usurpation upon the Legislative power of Christ to superadd one institution to the latter He that may make three or four Humane Sacraments may with equal pretext make eleven or twelve Humane Moral Commandments There is a Command 12. Deut. 32. What thing soever I command you observe to do it thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it And under whatever dispensation we are we areunder the restraint of this prohibition This is granted by all in the general only the Question is what Constitution or Institution will amount to an Addition to Gods Commandment To which I answer 1. Negatively It can be no Addition to a Commandment to determine of such Natural Circumstances which are necessary to the executing the particular duties commanded either by a Ceremonial or Moral precept God has commanded me to Relieve the widow and the Fatherless with part of that which his bounty has graciously given me he has not determined on what day or what hour of the day or in what particular place or to what persons by Name I shall extend my charity and therefore every person to whom the Command is given and it is given to every man to whom God has given ability must determine these and other Circumstances without which 't is impossible that Law should enure and take effect Thus has he commanded some to Baptise with water but he has not told us whether that water shall be brought from a River or Spring and therefore he that is commanded to baptise is thereby Commanded to determine and he is necessitated to it if he will discharge his Duty nor can such determinations be Interpreted any Addition to the Law because they are included in the Law unless we will suppose the Law-Nugatory and to be vacated by every forward Caviller 2. Affirmatively whoever shall instâ—…ute any Ceremony which is not necessarily required to the performance of any of Gods Commands such as is not comprehended in any general Law of Christ must necessarily be adjudged to have added another Law or institution to the Institutions and Laws of Christ. To illustrate this I shall use a very familiar Instance I will suppose a standing General Law in a Nation That no person except the Legislatour shall add to the Laws of the Land I will suppose also a particular Law promulgated by the Legislatour That every subject shall sweep his dore once a week with a Beesom Now to sweep my dore with a Beesom of Birch or Broom cannot possibly be any Addition to that Law because 't is necessarily required to the putting of the Law in practise that I do it with the one or the other and therefore they are both comprehended virtually in the Law by way of disâ—…unction that is either with this or that or some other Again to sweep my dore on the third day of the week and at the ninth hour of the day can 〈◊〉 no Addition to the Law because I am commanded to do 〈◊〉 upon some day in the week and at some hour of the day and the Law not having defined the precise day and hour 〈◊〉 it indifferent to the Lawgiver which I chuse but one or other I must chuse unless I will obstinately disobey the Law But now If I will not only sweep my dore but over-Officiously will needs make a Cross over it this is an Addition to the Law being neither Compehended under the Command of sweeping nor necessarily required to the reducing the Law into Act. Let us suppose yet further that the Mayor of some of our Enquirers Petty corporations with the Advise of his Brethren shall put forth an Order or Edict that Non-obstant the Law De non Addendâ—… every person within the limits of that Burrough shall be obliged to Cross as well as sweep his dore and that unless he will Cross it he shall not sweep and that every man shall subscribe to this Order and Edict and whosoever shall contravene the same shall be disfranchised This must needs be interpreted an Addition to the Law with a witness A most express and daring violation of it But now to mend the matter we will suppose the Mayor with his Brethren shall solemnly declare that though they do Command Crossing as well as sweeping yet they do not here by intend in any wise to make any Addition to that or any other Law such an Explanatory declaration would be of little Credit among the more Considerate sort of men as being contrary to the fact But Mr. Mayor will plead that though he has added something for the greater solemnity and decency of the Action yet he pretends not to make a Law for the Nation his is only an order of the Court for his own corporation and therefore he ought not to be charg'd with Adding a Law to the Systeme of the Laws But his worship is hugely out for the General prohibition caution'd him not only against Adding a Law to the Law but against Adding any thing to the Law The Reader has often observed our Distinction of Natural and Moral Circumstances Now a Natural Circumstance is such a one as arising out of or adhaering to a Natural Action adds no Goodness nor Evil to the Action but a moral Circumstance is such as always renders the Action either better or worse Thus Baptism is neither better nor worse more nor less pleasing to God whether it be administred at ten a clock or eleven but every Symbolical Ceremony must either render the Ordinance to which it is added or with which it is used more or less acceptable Thus the sign of the Cross instituted to signify a persons dedication to the Lord Christ as his faithful Soldier must either add to or detract from the Moral Goodness of that Institution to which it is annex't or with which it is used
his special Command authorised the Israelites to borrow of the Egyptians Iewels of silver and jewels of Gold with no intent I am perswaded to repay them either use or principal God is the soveraign and Absolute Legislatour who may suspend rescind alter his own Laws at pleasure and yet he has said such a stress upon the meanest of them that no Man may nor any man but the Man of sin dares presume to dispense with them much less to dispense against them 9 Nor are we to think that God lays little stress upon a Commandement because he little regards those observances which superstition folly Tradition Custom have ascribed to it which were never comprehended in it yet such is the process of our Enquirers Arguments He instances in some superstitious Additament to the Command which God never required and thence concludes very learnedly that God lays very little stress upon the Command let him therefore have leave to infer God laid little weight upon the observation of the Sabbath day because the supperstitious Jews were halter'd with an erroneous opinion that they were bound tamely to sit still and offer their Naked throats to their enemies Naked swords upon that day which folly indeed God little regarded 2 Whence then ought we to take the measures of that stress God lays upon his institutions 1 The true measure of that respect which God has for a Commandment is to be taken by us from the Authority of God If the thing be small yet we are to regard his authority in it for this God regards And therefore he has back't of old both the positive and the Moral precepts with this I am the Lord and the greatest Instances of his Royal Praerogative are given us in those Mandates which have only his soveranig pleasure to recommend them to our observance 2 The measure of that regard God has to an institution is to be taken from the greatness of that glory which we give him in our obedience The great tryal of our sincerity and subjection to God lies in giving Deference to his will as the Rule and Reason of our obedience and then do we recognize his Absolute power to dispose of us when his will whatever be the Reason of it is the Reason of our Compliance Thus Abraham gave God the greatest testimony of inward Honour when he praepared himself to sacrifice his only Son upon his only Command 3 We may take the measure also of the weight of a Command from its designed usefulness to his great ends for seeing the smallest and seemingly weakest of his injunctions are attended with his blessing upon the Holy and due use thereof we are thence to instruct our selves in the weight and worth of it The Enquirer tells us from Maimonides that there were some things in the Iewish Law that were primae intentionis such as God required for themselves as being intrinsically good others that were secundae intentionis only required for the sake of and in order to the former Now his own judgment herein he acquaints us with in these words The first kind that were essentially good were absolutely necessary and could never be otherwise such we call Moral duties the latter kind were of so indifferent a Nature as thâ—… they might not only not have been commanded but also insome cases having been Commanded they may not be a duty but either he or his Mr. Maimonides are quite out For. 1. The Acts of Affirmative moral praecepts may in some cases become no duties the Command it self abiding in it's full force yet none will say that God lays little stress upon the Acts of affirmative Moral precepts Thus the Acts of affirmative positive precepts may become no duty yet none can say that God lays little stress upon the Acts of obedience to a positive precept 2. If this wil prove that God lays little stress upon positives because they are required only for the sake of and in order to the former Then it will evince that God lays little stress upon all the means which he has appointed for his great ends for the means as they are means are only valuable for the sake of and in order to the end 4 What stress God lays upon his positive precepts we may judge from those severitiis which God has threatned against and sometimes executed upon the Violaters of them It was for the violation of a Ceremonial Law the eating of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil that God ejected Adam out of Paradise It was for the neglect of a Ceremonial affirmative Command that the Lord sought to kill Moses 4. Ex. 24. And yet he had this to plead that he was upon a journey and about Gods Errand It was matter of meer institution that was the Israelites security against the Destroying Angel 12 Exod viz. The sprinkling the blood of the Paschal Lamb upon the lintle and posts of the dore That many do escape Gods vengeance at present notwithstanding their not obeying what God has instituted and instiâ—…uting what God has not commanded will prove the admirableness of Gods forbearance towards them who turn this grace into Lasciviousness and embolden themselv's to sin from his patience but not in the least that he lays little stress upon his own precepts whereof he will find a time to satisfy the Sons of men from whence § 1. It follows That he argues himself a pittiful Sophister who concludes the least Command may be broken because God turns not men to hell as oft as 't is broken § 2. He proves himself a notorious Hyprocite that from either Gods grace in waiting or pardoning shall encourage himself in sinning And flatter his soul that he may curse God and live when the Devil was more modest to suggest curse God and dye § 3. Whosoever shall openly preach this Doctrine that God lays little stress upon the Circumstantials of Religion has open'd a floodgate to let in a Deluge of prophaness upon the world for seeing no Command of God is small in respect of the Authority of the Law-giver which is the formal Reason of our obedience 〈◊〉 that Law so no Command of God will be Great but that Command paramount de non-separandâ—… And then if every command that is less then another may be said to have little stress laid on it seeing there is such a Gradation in the weightiness this is in order to that and that for another there will but few perhaps but one of which it may not be said God lays very little stress on them § 4. Although the Acts of positive Commands may give place to the Acts of Moral precepts when both cannot consist yet when ever we can possibly perform both we can omit neither without sin § 5 To forbear the practise of an affirmative precept when Circumstances do not conspire is no violation of such a precept Though no evil may at any time be done yet some good may at some time be forborn § 6. In all Laws
was chosen to be an Apostle and preferred to Barnabas by the Decision of the true 4. I will add that it appears that this Determination of David was not made Iure Regio but Prophetico Divino Because when that Holy Prince Iosiah set about Reformation he Regulates the Priests and Levites according to the order of David 2. Chron. 35. 2. He set the Priests in their Charges v. 3. And he said unto the Levites prepare your selves by the houses of your Fathers after your Courses According to the writing of David King of Israel Which was that writing no doubt which he mentions 1. Chron. 28. 19. By which God made him understand all those things Now I would gladly learn what need this good and pious Prince had to have recourse to Davids pattern to Davids writing had he been acquainted with our New Doctrine that God lays very little stress upon Circumstantials in Religion and might have determin'd that small Matter Iure Regio And this is farther evident in that Solomon a Prince of great power and wisdom yet was so punctual and precise in this very thing to order the Courses of the Priests and Levites according to Davids Rubric 2. Chron. 8. 14. He appointed also according to the Order of David his Father the Courses of the Priests to their services and the Levites to their Charges to praise and Minister before the Lord as the Duty of the Day required for so had David the Man of God commanded Where we may observe first that what David commanded herein was not as King but as the Man of God a Prophet or one Commissioned by God for that service and secondly that David could not bind his Successors by any Determination of his own meerly as a Prince and therefore their obligation to follow that pattern did arise from the Authority of God 5. Whereas our Enquirer has searcht it seems but can find no Commission for instrumental Musick I have sued out a Melius Inquirendum and he may read it exemplified 2. Chron. 29. 25. Hezekiah set the Levites in the house of the Lord with Cymbals and Psalteries and with Harpes according to the Commandement of David and of God the Kings Sâ—…r and Nathan the Prophet for so was the Commandement of the Lord by the Prophets where we have a Commission express 1. From whom The Lord by whom The Prophets To whom King David About what Instrumental Musick 6. And lastly supposing David had ordered all these particulars of his own Head yet will it not follow that God lays little stress upon either the omitting what he has commanded or the Doing what he has prohibited seeing he supposes that the things ordered were neither Commanded nor prohibited All that with Modesty could be drawn from hence would be no more then this little That a meer Circumstance undetermined by God and yet necessary to be Determined to the executing what was determined might be determined by a Prophetical person And even for this also He had an express and punctual warranty from the Lord. § 3. A third instance is from Sacrifices which says he though God had with great solemnity instituted as the means of propitiating his Divine Majesty towards sinful men and had with great accuracy prescribed the Laws thereof yet he puts a great slight upon all of that Nature as a thing he regarded not in comparison of the substantial points of virtue and obedience We have hence a great help to understand a little of our Authors mind about those Circumstantials in Religion which he says God lays so little stress upon And Sacrifices the means of propitiating the Divine Majesty towards sinful man are of that Number And hence we may also satisfy our selves why Iesus Christ has no more stress laid on him in some mens Divinity for seeing He is the Means of propitiating the Divine Majesty toward sinful Man he may prove a Circumstantial in Religion and upon the Matter an insignificant or at best but a significant Ceremony But for his Answer I shall say these things 1. It is a falshood very opprobrious to the great Law-giver of the Church that he ever instituted and yet slighted what he had instituted whilst it continued in forâ—…e 'T is true indeed God always slighted Hypocrites who offer'd those Sacrifices and they became vain oblations as to any benefit they had from or by them but his own Ordinance he never slighted till Christ the Grand Propitiation had answered all their ends and pretensions 2. God never slighted Sacrifices in comparison of virtue and obedience for to offer Sacrifices aright was virtue and obedience but in opposition to sincerity to virtue and obedience just as he would have slighted the most splendid outward Acts of virtue and obedience without the Heart which is the life and soul of all To give Almes to pray were and are duties of moral virtue and obedience and yet when the Pharisees performed both to be seen of men to hunt for popular applause God not only slights but abominates them not the Acts themselves but the persons that perform'd them not what they performed the outward work but that they kept back the Heart or if the things yet not as commanded in specie but as sinfully done in individuâ—… Thus he that commanded All men to kiss the Son slighted and abhorred Iudas his Kiss when made a cloak to hide his traiterous design to deliver up his Lord and Master Sacrifices had a threefold use 1. A typical use as leading to Christ and in this respect God was so far from slighting them that he laid the greatest stress imaginable on them 2. A Political use to set the Transgressor of the Law right in the Court of Justice and to satisfy for the temporal punishment 3. A moral use might be accidentally made of them too they served well to represent some moral virtue or duty And I will not deny that God might slight this symbolical use of them 1. Because that use had no institution and we never find that God had any esteem of Symbols that were not of his own appointment 2. Because no Ceremony or Symbol could represent the Moral duty or virtue to that advantage which the precept it self with those encouragements and rewards propounded by God himself were able to do Yet he will prove from Scripture that God slighted Sacrifices 50. Ps. 8. I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices v. 14. Offer to God the Sacrifice of righteousness as if he had said let me have the latter and I shall not much complain for defect of the former This is his gloss this his proof wherein I only blame two things 1 The falshood of it The words may be interpreted as spoken either by way of concession or commination 1. By way of concession I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices q. d. Quantum ad externa Sacrificia satis estis occupati says a learned Person I have no cause to rebuke you on that account