Isralites for Blaspheming God upon the Hills that is in the high Places where God was Worshiped in a manner not commanded by God Therefore it remains a blemish upon the good Kings of Judah See this fully evinced by Mr Mede in his Com. upon Apoc c. 13. P. 624 625. who abolished the false gods notwithstanding permitted superstitious Worship in the high Places to the true God The Lord Jesus also tells the Woman of Samaria that the Samaritans Worshipped they knew not what 2 King 15.4.35 2 Cron. 33.17 Not because they worshipped a false God that was not their Crime but because they adored God by a Worship invented by Man and not appointed by God Joh. 4.22 't was therefore meer Superstition which could not bring to Salvation the blessed of End of true Religion Superstition is fitly called a colloguing with God Joh. 15.14 consequently the acceptance must be as diverse from that of Religion as flattery is from friendship For they only are the friends of Christ that keep his Commandments Religion is the rule of true Wisdom to bring Mankind to Eternal Happiness Religion by directing all his affections and actions to their proper Object according to the will and command of God God Isaiah 45.18 Acts 17.26 27. who made the World of nothing created it not in vain He formed it to be inhabited and made of one Blood all Nations of Men for to dwell on all the Face of the Earth that they should seek the Lord. Not as though he needed any thing seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things Neither is he worshipped with Mens hands nor dwells in Temples made with hands It is equally impossible for Man to be happy without Religious dependance upon his Creator And for the Worship or Service of any Created Being to be necessary unto God The whole world was made an Harmonious Scheme every Being from the least and lowest to the greatest and highest chiming into the Consort whereof Man was the chief Musitian Eccles 7.29 Man was made upright in a likeness of conformity to his Creator His mind will and affections replenished with Divine knowledg Righteousness and Holiness by which he was capacitated to exercise the Dominion bestowed upon him by God over all the Living Inhabitants of the Air Earth and Water Man therefore is justly defined to be a Rational Religious Creature therein consisting the formal ultimate difference from a Brute and the highest character of his Nature The Excellency of true Religion to be such as before represented will appear in all the due acceptations thereof by which also will be manifested the vanity and mischief of all false Religions Rectum est index sui obliqui for Truth presents the Rule and Indication both of it self and of what is false God who subjected all Creatures to Man bound Man to himself by the Law of Religion This was the Covenant of Life God vouchsafed to man as soon as Created which our Lord Jesus rehearsed to the Scribe in the Gospel Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy Soul and Mind and Heart and strength and thy Neighbour as thy self do this and thou shalt live Luke 10.28 This is the perfect Rule of true Wisdom the way to real Happiness when the Soul and Mind the understanding and Judgment know God as the only Infinite All-sufficient Good the Almighty Creator Ruler and Preserver of all Beings thence concludes there can be no happiness but in conformity to the will and enjoyment of the favour of God accordingly the whole Heart Will and Affections Fear Trust Hope Delight in God and the strength of all the Powers both intellectual and animal Serve Obey and Prays His Sovereign Lord in whom he lives moves and hath his Being This is vita frui To live indeed As the Eternal Power of the invinsible Godhead is clearly seen by the Creation of the World so all the Creatures we see have such evident Signatures of the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness as exact a behaviour converse and enjoyment according to the Law of intire Love for love is the fulfilling and Lust is the transgression of the Law Rom. 13.9 10. Therefore he loves not God who loves not Himself and his Neighbour in conformity to the Image of God in which Man was made Holy and Upright How Pleasant and Safe and Happy would Life be if every one did to another only what he would receive from another if every one were sincerely loved by every one This is Natural Religion for he only that doeth Righteousness is Righteous as God is Righteous 1 John 3.7 This was the felicity of innocent Man before his Heart was venomed with Lust and Vanity And even now the work of this Divine Law is Written in all Mens Hearts to which their Conscience bear Witness The Conclusion or summ of the whole matter of Religion is Eccles 12.13 Fear God and keep his Commandments This is the whole Duty of Man Therefore the second part of Religion called Instituted is therein necessarily comprised and from thence derives Evidence of Authority and Obligation being given before the fall to establish and direct natural Religion and since the fall to supply its defects This part of Religion is fitly called supernatural or Revealed and is known not by Reason but by Faith For though it be the highest Reason to believe the Word of God which is the only ground of Faith yet Faith is above Reason representing things not seen by Reason and evidencing Divine Objects more certainly then any Method of Reason can demonstrate viz. by the infallible word of God Instituted Religion is the Rule of Divine Worship both Moral and Ceremonial prescribed by God Instituted Religion Prayer by which the Heart powers out it self to God by which the Soul ascends to God Psal 62 8. is only such when animated with the Priviledge and Authority of Gods Word For only God can teach how he pleaseth to be prayed unto and worshipped Solus Deus docere potest ut se velet orari It is the Word of God that teaches we shall not be heard for our much speaking Tertul. de Orat c. 9. that we must not use vain Repetion as if prayers like Egyptian Bricks were to be delivered by Tale Mat. 6.7 or there were Efficacy and Interest in a Phraseologie of Devotion All Flesh is guilty and silent before God Psal 65.23 until the word of promise opens the lips Rom. 8.26 and teaches the Heart how to pray And this Tertul. p. 6.60 sine Monitore quia depectore Oramus saith Tertullian was the Practice of Primitive Christianity It is the Scripture that assures whoever calls on the Name of the Lord Rom. 10.13 14. shall be saved But it also saith How shall they call on him whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not
AN Humble Essay TOWARD The Settlement of Peace and Truth IN THE CHURCH As a Certain Foundation OF Lasting Union The Workman made it therefore it is not God Hos 8.6 Nec enim Fas est Cultorem Dei a Dei Cultore Violari Lactantius Lib. de Ira Dei cap. 14. LONDON Printed for N. Simmons at the West end of Pauls and T. Simmons in Ludgate-street 1681. AN Humble Essay Toward the settlement of Peace and Truth in the Church as a certain Foundation of lasting Union THE Dignity of Mankind above the sensual Brutes consists specially in the hope of Eternal Happiness the Direction and ground of which hope is Religion All Religions that ever were embraced pretended Authority from Divine Revelation and the Command of God the Truth and Certainty of Christian Religion hath alone this excellency to be a firm and evident ground of hope of Eternal Happiness For Christian Religion by undeniable proof is Authorized by the Command and Institution of God and in the Rules and Practice is both agreeable to the Simplicity Purity Righteousness of the Divine Majesty the Object and to the Rational Being of Man the Subject of Religion The universal Practice of all Ages and Countries acknowledgeth the necessity of Religion But Religion is not an Opinion Fansifully suggested or cunningly devised or powerfully Imposed all which can only erect a private or publick Superstition which is no more Religion then that Creature is a Man which in its odious resemblance is the reproach of Man and therefore the more contemptible Religion comes from a deeper root and higher cause It is connatural with every Rational Being upon which is indelibly Engraven the Fear Trust and Love of the Power Truth and Goodness of God The Blurring these Impressions cannot be attempted without essasing the Characters of Human Intelligence and sinking Man into the lowest form of Beasts Religion is the first born of Truth and as the Opposition to Truth is either from a downright Lie or a verisimilar Semblance so Religion is either affronted by Atheism or abused by Superstition An Atheist properly so called was hardly if ever found the sad Pretenders who have told their miserable Wishes that that there were no God have been the fewest in Number and the weakest in Argument of any sort of Fools ever appeared to disgrace Mankind There have been more Idiots and Franticks then ever there were Atheists and Bedlam it self without expecting a lucid Interval can afford as rational Discourses as Democritus and Epicurus with all their chance Medleys of Motes or Attems Atheistical Propositions are equally unworthy and destructive of Human Excellence The Glory of Man peculiar to him of all material Beings is that he is not only by unknown Instinct ledd to the end of his Being but he knows the reason of that End for which he was made and is capable to enjoy the felicity of that Knowledge We perceive by the Structure and Formation of those Beings with whom we converse what is their use and value The shape of the Laborious Ox and generous Horse prompt their service and end No less evident are the indications of Human composition That Man is made in the Image of God and that his ultimate End and Felicity is to glorifie and enjoy God for ever is no remote Notion or Speculation it is a truth touches every sence and when not clouded by malitious or stupid inadvertance draws conviction from every Member The profane contemners of Religion yet assert a use and proper End for everBeing and all its parts Permit then the Atheist the tryal by his beloved sence Let him tell for what End and Reason of all visible Beings Man only is formed to kneel upon his knees and support his Body erect to lift up his Hands to lift up his Eyes Was Nature wise in all other and foolish only in the construction of parts to these Postures without use No Nature which is nothing else then the will of the Almighty in the Order of the Creatures formed the Body to those Postures for that excellent End of Divine Worship The bended knees testifie humble Devotion to the great Creator from sence both of the Suplicants mean Original and infinite distance below the Heavenly Majesty The stretched out Hands evidence as the inability of the Petitioner to help himself so the earnest desires of Divine Assistance the up lifted Eyes signifie the hope and trust and engage the Love of Mind and Heart upon God Almighty who only can be our necessary and all-sufficent Good This is a truth so undeniable that should ten thousand Persons of so many different Nations and Languages fortuitously meet if any of that Assembly though every one a stranger to all the rest kneel stretch out his hands and lift up his eyes all present would conclude that Person by these Gestures performed Adoration to God There is not any in his right Wits can immagine those Characters of Devotion either the effect of vain Fear or the Infinuations of Politick contrivance for every Rational Mind must be conscious of the same awful Reverence and intire Dependance therefore with most freedom Addresseth to the performance of Religions Worship when Human help can least succour and Human Fear can least awe It is then most absurd that the Innumerable sober Inhabitants of the World should be fooled and scoffed out of their present and future felicity by a few profane Attoms bred in the shallow confines of Wit and folly Well matter it self the Epicurian Idol hath conviction enough to baffle an Atheist but passing through this House of Clay if we converse with what is within that which prompts the Tongue and acts the Eye Hand and Foot that which thinks and rules it will appear there is a Conscience of Good and Evil of Justice and Injustice always Witnessing there is a God This is no precarious conceit every Man sometime or other feels within himself the powerful accusation or acquital of Conscience This is the Verdict in every Mans brest which waits upon the Tribunal of God For it is silly as well as profane to pretend Reverence to God only for the Excellence of his Beeing without the fear of his Justice The Justice of God is the security of the World without it Human Society cannot safely subsist Only the fear of God can rule the Heart and oblige Conscience without which there cannot be either Order or Relation Commerce or Propriety The whole World being continually liable to the assaults of Fraud or Violence untill true Religion give Security and Peace Superstition is indeed the Apologie of Irreligion by which back Door Atheism sneaks into the World For Superstition having cankered the Mind with unworthy conceptions of God Atheism presumes to enrage it self against the Notion of the Supreme Beeing it misconceives and would not Obey and Worship Superstition devests the Deity of true Majesty and perfection dares to give it self Laws of good and Evil of Holy and Profane and so
'T is sadly a Lamentation and God in mercy grant it may not be so any more that the same signs are commanded by one Church as Symbolically significant and in testimony of Odoration and by another Church declared to be insignificant Mat. 2.24 and without any adorable respect yet in both Churches those Rites are Constituted Conditions of Communion though never made so by Christ But Servants that dare to turn their Ministry into Dominion Acts 17.31 and beat and kill their fellow servants must expect their doom designed them by the Lord when he comes to Judge the World in Righteousness The Authority of the Church is pretended for this That Name is highly venerable therefore to abuse it is the greater crime 'T is an Article of Faith to believe a Holy Catholick Church but heinous is the offence to subborn the Name of the Church to destroy the next Article The Communion of Saints without which the Notion of a Church is empty and unprofitable The Holy Catholick Church is the Body of Christ Col. 1.18 the Spouse of Christ Eph. 5.2 Gal. 4.26 't is the Heavenly Jerusalem which is free Heb. 12.22 which is the only Mother of us all Out of this Church there is no Salvation for whoever is a Member of Christs Body Eph. 5.23 to such and only to such Christ is a Saviour Of this Body every vissible Christian Church is an integral Part or Member Visible Church Act. 19. The Articles of Religion describe a visible Church to be a Congregation of faithful Men in which the pure Word of God is Preached and the Sacraments duely Ministred according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisit to the same Wich such a Church Christ hath promised to be alway even to the end of the World Rom. 3.2 the Authority with which our Lord invested the Christian Church being the same as before to the Jewish that unto them are committed the Oracles of God Mat. 28.20 that is according to his express Commission the teaching to observe all things whatsoever our Lord commanded This is the great Charter of the Churches Liberties and Power Here is no pretence for any Jurisdiction to make other conditions of Communion then of constitution The conditions constitutive of a Church are sufficient for Salvation the End and Perfection of every true Church therefore they are sufficient for the Title of every Member to admission and continuance in the Church This was all was required by Christ and his Apostles Acts 19.31 whereby the Churches were ed fied walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied The first trouble to the Church within it self was from the atempt to subvert the Foundation of Christianity by introducing other conditions of Church Communion then Christ appointed Acts 15.24 but that was remedied by the direction of the Holy Ghost in the first Council at Jerusalem The contrary Practice to which in after Ages hath been the great occasion of the confusion and ruine of most of the Christian Churches and still remains like the Womans bloody Issue that wasted all her substance an incurable disease So that it may be truely affirmed the impiety of the Nicolaitans and Gnosticks who reckoned and practised the grossest Immoralities as things indifferent proved less mischeivous to the Christian World then the rigorous exacting and imposing in different things as necessary Upon which account on one side sprang Separations and Schisms and on the other most bloody and inhumane Persecutions for it is convenient that commands not Authorised by right Reason should be enforced with rage and cruelty The conditions therefore and Articles of Peace as they are called in the Church ought not to be any other then such as as are necessary to Salvation Because the Belief and Practice of every Church most be as Homogeneal as are in all Beings Life and Operation According to this rule of Divine Truth the Church of England reformed it self from Popery and upon all occasions justifies the Reformation Because the Union of the Catholick Church depends upon the making the Foundaations of its Being and the grounds of its Communion adaequate So that only these things which ought to be owned by all Christian Societies as necessary to Salvation on which the Being of the Catholick Church depends ought to be the necessary conditions of Church Communion Consequently the proper cause of Schism lies in transgressing those Bounds which observed might through Divine goodness conciliat the universal Peace of Christendome That according to the same Evidence by which the Reformed Churches condemn the Romanists for imposing the Belief of things as necessary to Salvation which are not necessary to the Being of the Catholick Church There ought not be imposed conditions of Uniformity upon any Member of the Church which were not antecedently necessary for the Being and Unity of the Church the later Imposition being eventually Equivalent with the former because they exclude from the means of Salvation 'T is Murther to mix Poyson with the Diet of the Family and almost as cruel to constrain the Table to any Meat or Sauce against which there is Antipathy Must he starve that cannot Eat Champignons with his Capon Poyson and Famine determine alike How uncharitable then are they who abhor the Roman Poyson yet debar those of the same Houshold of Faith from the Bread of Life by the mixture of some unnecessary Rites their weakness suppose cannot digest They that like Champignons may Eat as they please but 't is inhospitable and barbarous to force them upon those that conceit them Toad-stools It is the Peace and Entertainment of every Civil Table to allow the indisputable Liberty of Tasts and Appetites and to require Uniformity in Eating and Drinking would be most slavish Imposition to disorder and confound Mankind How much worse may any presume to disturb the Table of the Lord the Freedom of which as well as the bounty is the Purchase of his own Blood Nor was there any such custome in the Church of God 1 Cor. 11.16 The Primitive Church continued stedfast in the Apostolical Doctrine and Practice according to which standing fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free only necessary things were commanded things indifferent in their Nature being as they ought left indifferent in use and Practice For it is only the Divine Prerogative and not in the power of any Creature to change the Nature of things to be practised in the Worship of God so as to require what is in it self indifferent to be used necessarily as condition of Church Communion The Divine Method to restore and preserve the Churches Peace is to command things necessary and to leave things indifferent to the Arbitrary description of every Christian to perform or not perform as shall seem conducible to present edification Thus Timothy was voluntarily Circumcised by St. Paul Acts 16.3