Worship so there is not any just fear of falling into that Will-worship which St. Paul cautioneth his Colossians against For beside that he cannot in any Propriety of Speech be said to add to the Worship of God who represents not what he so adds in the same condition with it but onely as subservient to it so which shews it yet farther to be no Will-worship he doth what he doth by vertue of the Divine Command even of that and other such like which prescribe That in the Worship of God all things be done decently and in order If therefore what is so added be grounded upon a Divine Command it is no longer the result of the Wills of Men at least as distinct from that of God but a just compliance with his which is a Will-worship which I hope none of us but will think our selves obliged to perform Having thus shewn at large not onely that our Worship ought to be suited to the Nature of God but also agreeable to his Commands it remains onely for the compleating of our Design that we instance in one or two Commandments by which our Worship is especially to be regulated Whereof the first that I shall assign and let that pass for 3. My third Rule is The Worshipping of God in Christ For that so we are to do God hath expresly declared by that Son of his in whom he hath commanded us to adore him Is Faith or Trust a part of Divine Worship Our Saviour's Merits are to be the ground of it there being no other Name as the Apostle speaks whereby we can be saved Is Hope a part of Divine Worship The same Jesus is to be the ground of that also as by whom alone we are obliged to expect the Object of it Is Prayer a part of Divine Worship That also is to pass by him as being to ask what we do in his name and for his sake Is Thanksgiving a part of Divine Worship We are to give thanks unto God and the Father by him Col. 3.17 In fine Whatsoever we do in relation to God or even our selves is to be done with reference to him as God's Instrument both in Governing and Redeeming us For wherefore else should God no less than twice declare from Heaven That he was the Person in whom he was well pleased and once of that twice moreover oblige his Disciples upon that account to hear him but to let us know as St. Paul speaks that whatsoever we do in word or deed we should do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus That we should do what we do in obedience to his Commands and with respect to that Authority which God vested in him That we should do what we do with respect to his Example and have an eye to his most holy Life as well as most excellent Precepts That we should do what we do with respect to the great Obligations he hath laid upon us by humbling himself to the death even the death of the cross for us That we should do what we do in confidence of his Assistance and not relie upon the strength of Nature or any Moral Acquisitions lastly That we should do what we do in confidence of Acceptance in and through the Merits of his Passion For as each of these is sometime or other the meaning of acting in his Name and therefore not lightly to be excluded so we have great reason to believe them all included in that fore-mentioned Text because all tending to his Honour and elsewhere expresly requir'd of us to make our Worship acceptable 4. That to Worship after a due manner we are to worship him in Christ hath been already declar'd together with the full Importance of such a Worship The next and indeed onely thing that I shall need to subjoyn is That we worship him in Spirit and in Truth according as was before insinuated For the evidencing whereof though it might suffice to tell you That this if any is the Affirmative part of the Precept because the Negative strikes at the worshipping of him by a corporeal and sensible Representation yet because it is a matter of importance and indeed one of the great Duties of the Gospel I shall allot it a more full Probation In order whereunto I shall lay for my Ground-work that known Saying of our Saviour which establisheth such a Worship with the proper Ground of it God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth Joh. 4.24 Now there are two Senses wherein those Words are to be consider'd and which therefore are to be distinctly handled 1. A Natural or Moral Sense And 2. An Evangelical one The former because grounded upon a Natural and Eternal Reason The latter because as I shall afterwards shew the Precept of Worshipping God in Spirit is oppos'd to that Worship which was in use under the Law 1. To begin with the former Sense even that which I call the Natural because grounded upon a Natural Reason where again I shall consider the Reason upon which it stands and then the due Importance of it For the Reason upon which it stands it will cost us little pains to evidence it to be a just Foundation of such a Worship For inasmuch as all things naturally are most affected with such Things and Operations as come nearest to their own Nature it must needs be that if God be a Spirit they who would serve him acceptably must present him with such a Worship as approacheth nearest to his own spiritual Nature The onely thing worthy our inquiry is What the Importance of such a Worship is which therefore I come now to resolve In order whereunto the first thing that I shall offer is That it is not meant to exclude wholly the Service of the Body For beside that That is God's by right of Creation and Preservation yea by all other ways by which the Soul is and consequently to pay God an Acknowledgment of its own Subjection and Obedience it is the distinct Affirmation of St. Paul That we are to glorifie God with our Bodies and with our Spirits that are his I observe secondly That as the Worshipping God in Spirit is not to be understood to exclude wholly the Worshipping him with our Bodies so neither to exclude all Worshipping him by Rites and Ceremonies For as the Christian Religion it self is not without such Rites even of God's own appointment witness the Sacrament of our Initiation into it and that other of our Continuance in it so it is much more evident that under the Law a great part of the Worship of God consisted in such Rites and Ceremonies But so it could not have done had a spiritual Worship excluded all worshipping him by Rites and Ceremonies because God was no less a Spirit under the Law than under the Gospel and therefore no less so to be ador'd It remaineth therefore That by worshipping God in Spirit we understand first of all the worshipping him with our
Spirits and that too in an especial manner For as it is but requisite that he who is a Spirit should have the worship of ours because most agreeable to his own Nature so also that we should for that reason intend that Worship especially and make it the chief of our Study and Design And accordingly though under the Law for the grosness of the Jews God appointed them a Worship which consisted much in Rites and Ceremonies yet he gave them sufficiently to understand that the spiritual Worship or the Worship of the Soul was that which he principally requir'd Witness one for all that of the Prophet David Psal 51.16 17. For thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it thee thou delightest not in burnt-offering The Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou shalt not despise The result of the Premises is this That to worship God in Spirit and consequently to worship him after a due manner is especially to intend the worshipping him with ours that is to say by entertaining honourable thoughts of him by endeavouring to conform our Wills to his most holy one and lastly by suiting our Affections to his several Attributes by fearing and loving and trusting in him But beside the Worshipping of God with our Spirits and that too in a more especial manner to worship God in Spirit doth also imply the worshipping him without an Image or any Corporeal Representation For beside that this is the very thing here forbidden and therefore in reason to be suppos'd to be excluded by worshipping God in spirit and in truth to worship God by an Image is so far from being consistent with a spiritual Worship that it is but a dishonouring of him because resembling him to things to which he is no way like and which indeed are infinitely below the Excellencies of his Nature 2. Of the Natural or Moral Sense of Worshipping God in Spirit I have spoken hitherto and shewn both the Ground and Importance of it Let us now consider the Evangelical one according as was before insinuated For that such a one was also intended is evident from that Story to which this Passage is subjoyn'd If you please to consult the Verse preceding that which I have chosen for the Ground-work of this Argument you will there find a Woman of Samaria demanding of our Saviour whether Mount Gerizim by Sichem where the Samaritans sacrific'd or Jerusalem were the true Place of Worship In answer to which after our Saviour had told her That that Question was not now of much moment because ere long they should neither worship in the one or the other for a farther proof of that his Assertion he adds that the time was coming and even then was Mr. Mede on Joh. 4.23 that the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth Which being compar'd with the foregoing Words and the State of the Controversie to which they do relate will shew that by worshipping in spirit and in truth is meant no other than the worshipping of God with a spiritual Worship as that is oppos'd to the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Law For the Question being not whether Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem were the place of Publick Prayer because both Jews and Samaritans had particular Places for them but which of the two was the proper Place to send their Sacrifices to and our Saviour making answer That in a little time neither of them should be because the Father sought such to worship him as should worship him in spirit and in truth he thereby plainly shews his meaning to be That to worship God in spirit and in truth was not to worship him with Sacrifices and other such Figures but in spiritual and substantial Worship such as are the Sacrifices of Prayer and Praise with other the like Natural Expressions of our Devotion But from hence it will follow not onely that we are to worship God without those Legal Rites wherewith it was before sufficiently clogg'd but also that we are not to clog it with other Rites than Decency and Order shall require For our Saviour not onely excluding the Rites and Sacrifices of the Law but affirming the Worship which his Father sought to be a spiritual one he doth thereby cut off the affixing of all other Rites as being alike contrary thereto save what Decency and Order shall require But so the Church of England hath declar'd it self to understand the Worshipping of God in spirit and in truth telling us in one of its Prefaces to our Liturgy That Christ's Gospel is not a Ceremonial Law as much of Moses Law was but it is a Religion to serve God not in bondage of the Figure or Shadow but in the freedom of the Spirit contenting it self onely with those Ceremonies which do serve to a decent Order and comely Discipline and such as be apt to stir up the dull mind of Man to the remembrance of his Duty to God by some notable and special signification whereby he might be edified In conformity whereto as she her self hath proceeded injoyning neither many nor trifling ones so what she hath done is sufficiently warranted not onely by that Solemnity which Experience shews Things of that nature to add to all Matters of Importance but which is of more avail from the Institution of our Saviour and the Practice of the Church in the Apostles days For if all Rites are to be excluded what shall become of the Sacraments themselves But how shall we any way excuse the Apostolical Church for that holy Kiss wherewith they were wont to conclude their Prayers the laying on of hands in admitting Ministers to the Church or shaking off the dust of their feet against those that should not receive them in testimony of their rejection of them For that all those things were then in use even with the allowance of the Apostles themselves the Scripture is our Witness to which therefore if Men will exclude all things of that nature they must first oppose themselves Such is the Practice of that Church to which we relate such the Grounds upon which she proceeds but as farther than that she neither goes nor pretends to do so if she did there is no doubt she would offend against that Precept which requires the worshipping of God in spirit and in truth For how can they be said to do so whose Devotion spends it self in outward Ceremonies Which as they are of no value in themselves so have this ill property of the Ivy that where they are suffer'd to grow too luxuriant they eat out the Heart of that Religion about which they twine PART II. A Transition to the Negative part of the Precept and therein first to that part of it which forbids the making any Graven Image or other Corporeal Representation That all Images are not forbidden but such onely as are made with a design to represent the Divine Majesty or to bow down to and
only arguing as S. Paul there doth from a Ceremonial Precept to a Christian duty but affirming expresly concerning that Precept that it was written for the times of the Gospel he thereby plainly shews that though the force thereof were evacuated as to the Ceremony yet it is obligatory as to the Moral which it was chiefly designed to consign and intended by God so to do And therefore if I were to prove in like manner the necessity of purifying our souls before we betake our selves to the solemn Worship of God as it is evident from this of S. Paul that it were enough to alledge a Precept out of the Law because written for us as well as for the Jews so particularly from Gods frequent enjoining the Jews to wash themselves and their clothes before they appeared before him for doth God take care of clean attire or a smooth skin any more than he doth of Oxen and if not may not I as well conclude that for our sakes no doubt this was written that he that presents himself before the Lord should appear with a clean heart with a soul no way stained by any unrepented sin Now if even Ceremonial Precepts were some way intended for us much more those of a higher rank the second thing to be demonstrated For the further evidencing whereof the first thing that I shall alledge is that of the same S. Paul Eph. 6.1 and so on Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father and thy Mother which is the first Commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth For pressing upon the Ephesians not only the duty of honouring Parents but also upon the account of the fifth Commandment he thereby plainly sheweth that it was intended to oblige them also and in them because they were Gentiles all other Christians In like manner the same Apostle dehorting the Romans from the avenging of themselves inforceth that dehortation from the Law of Moses Deut. 32.35 for it is written saith he Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord. And not contented with that he backs it with another out of the Proverbs c. 25.21 where it is written in like manner If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head and the Lord shall reward thee To all which if we add the same Apostles affirming that whatsoever was written aforetime by way of comfort was written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 as in like manner that what is storied of Gods judgments upon the Israelites was written for our admonition to the intent we should not offend as they also did so we shall not need to doubt but that the Precepts of their Law were intended for our direction and obedience For if Gods mercies and judgments upon them were written for our learning no doubt but his Precepts were as which the other were designed to inforce Fourthly and lastly though the Law of Moses did not oblige us by being given to the Israelites though in the primary intention thereof it were designed for the Israelites only and consequently could not so induce an obligation upon any other yet as it was secondarily intended for the Gentile world so soon as God should bring it into the Church so which excludes all doubt of our obligation to it it was adopted by our Saviour into his Law and by him both confirmed and fulfilled But because that is too copious as well as too important an argument to find a room here I will respite the handling thereof to the following Discourses where I will fully and distinctly consider it These two things only would be added here to prevent all mistakes concerning our obligation to the Law of Moses 1. That when I say it was intended to oblige us and accordingly adopted by our Saviour into his Law we understand it so far as it had no peculiar reference to Gods dispensation under the Law or the Polity of the Jewish state For as upon the account of the former I have discarded all ceremonial Rites as which were intended only to serve to the administration of the Law so I must also upon the account of the latter discard all those Precepts which concerned the regulation of their State 2. Again when I say the Law of Moses was though secondarily intended to oblige us and as such adopted by our Saviour my meaning is not to affirm an obligation to a perfect obedience but to a sincere and earnest endeavour and where we fail a due repentance and amendment For though the first Covenant left no place for repentance and pardon yet the Gospel doth and hath accordingly as hath been elsewhere * Explication of the Apostles Creed shewn made forgiveness of sins one of the capital Articles of our Belief DISC. III. That Christ came not to destroy but to confirm the Law of Moses This evidenced in part in the Ceremonial Law from Christs confirming of that which was the main intendment of it and from his retaining some of its usances and transferring them into his own Religion The like in the Moral Law from Christs Sermon upon the Mount and from the evidence there is both there and elsewhere of Christs establishing and inculcating the great Precepts of Piety Sobriety and Justice WHat may seem to have been our Saviours fear concerning himself and Doctrine where he so studiously averts * Mat. 5.17 any design of destroying the Law and the Prophets in process of time came to be fulfilled The Jews representing the Author of it as a friend of Publicans and Sinners as the Heathen did the Religion it self as a Sanctuary of all impious persons For whereas saith Celsus * Vid. Orig. contr Celsum l. 3. p. 147. that great Enemy of Christianity all other Religions were wont to use such addresses as these when they invited men to initiate themselves in their respective Rites Whosoever is pure in hands and wise in tongue and again Whosoever is pure from all impiety that hath a soul conscious to it self of no evil and hath lived well and justly let him come and initiate himself in these mysteries but procul ô procul este profani Christianity on the contrary bespeaks the world after this manner Whosoever is a sinner or a fool childish or any way unhappy let him come for the Kingdom of God stands open to receive him the unjust and the thief the breaker up of Houses and the Wizzard the sacrilegious and the defacer of the monuments of the dead Indeed these are the men whom our Saviour came chiefly to call For I came not saith he to call the righteous but sinners Mat. 9.13 But it was as he himself there telleth us because those had more need of a Physician and to invite them not to continue in their impieties but to
chooseth to insist on Look upon the words he immediately premiseth and you will easily acknowledge he meant the Moral Law when he said he came not to destroy but to fulfil it the purport of those being to recommend good works to them even the works of piety and charity For let your light saith he so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your father which is in heaven that is to say the works of humility and meekness the works of purity and peace these and such like being the only things recommended to them in the beginning of that Sermon of his upon the mount The same is no less evident from the words immediately following this declaration of his intention concerning the Law and the Prophets for Verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfill'd This being not to be affirmed of the Ceremonial Law which was to receive its period at our Saviours death Lastly the precepts he chooses afterwards to insist on shew manifestly that he meant principally the Moral law those being precepts against murther and adultery against perjury and revenging of injuries and not against plowing with an oxe and ass or wearing linsey-woolsey garments Whatsoever else therefore may be thought to be included under the name of the Law or the Prophets the principal thing intended was no doubt the Moral law or the law of the Ten Commandments But not to content my self with this only proof when both the nature of this Law and the particular precepts of Christianity give a farther attestation to it I shall in the next place remind you of what hath been before at large confirm'd that this law is unalterable for being so it is unreasonable to think our Saviour would go about to destroy it or free us from the obligation of it And indeed so far was he from going about to do it whatsoever some weak or evil disposed minds may fancy that we shall find him expresly to confirm it in the matters of piety sobriety justice and charity into which it is usually divided Though it were a strange Religion which should not teach men to worship God which is the thing here meant by piety God being both the Author of religion and the principal object of it yet because we have undertaken to shew that Christ came not to destroy the Moral law in any part of it I shall begin with that and shew how far our Saviour was from abrogating it And here not to insist because that would be endless upon the several precepts in the new Testament to fear and love God to believe in him and to obey him I shall content my self with that which he return'd to a certain Lawyer that demanded of him what he should do to inherit eternal life Luke 10.26 c. For what saith he is written in the law how readest thou To which when the other had made answer Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy self Our Saviour subjoin'd immediately This do and thou shalt live thereby plainly shewing that he taught no other way to eternal happiness than by a strict piety and veneration of the Divine majesty Neither will it suffice to say as I think it is said by some that our Saviour in that answer of his doth rather shew what the Law prescribes us toward the attaining eternal life than what he himself did for beside that that would make our Saviours answer impertinent the question being not what the Law but what he himself prescrib'd besides this I say it is manifest from S. Matthew c. 19.16 that our Saviour gave the like answer where he cannot but be thought to speak his own sense and the conditions upon which he came to offer it for when a certain young man there demanded of him What good thing he should do to inherit eternal life his answer was that if he would enter into life he should keep the commandments And again after he had told him that he had kept all these from his youth and was importunate to know whether he lack'd any thing yet that if he would be perfect he should go and sell all that he had and give to the poor and then come and follow him From which words it is evident that he as well as Moses did require the observation of Gods Commandments in order to the attainment of everlasting life and that the young man could not be his follower without it But it may be piety would not be so much stood upon amongst the present professors of Christianity there being not a few of those who yet are none of the greatest ornaments of it that can make long prayers and listen to those that do That which galls them most is that they must renounce their lusts and animosities that they must be sober and just and charitable which is to them a yoke far more grievous than the Ceremonial law and from which therefore they are willing to believe that Christ came to set them free But how little ground there is for such a surmise we may soon inform our selves if we reflect upon the doctrine of our Saviour in these particulars For hath not he in the Sermon so often referr'd to forbidden the adultery even of the heart and eye Hath he not told us that the not plucking out of such an offending eye will endanger the casting the whole body into eternal fire Hath not one of his Apostles said that without holiness or purity no man shall see the Lord and another that pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is to keep our selves unspotted from the world Again hath our Saviour deliver'd ought in prejudice of what is spoken by the Law and the Prophets concerning Intemperance or the promoters of it any thing in prejudice of that wo which is denounced against those that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink that continue until night till wine inflame them Isa 5.11 Or of that other which is level'd at those that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink v. 22. of that chapter Nay hath not one of his Apostles told us that the grace which bringeth salvation teacheth to deny all ungodly and worldly lusts and to live godlily righteously and soberly in it Tit. 2.12 That neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards shall inherit the kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.10 Lastly for it shall suffice rather to hint at these things than to give you a just discourse concerning them hath our blessed Saviour deliver'd ought in favour of that covetousness which the Law and the Prophets do so vehemently decry Nay hath not he himself forewarn'd
death Lev. 20.10 But I say unto you That whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart and that my Law forbids as well as the outward act and shall be both tried and sentenced at my Tribunal If your Law judges no man before it hears him and knows from sufficient witnesses what he hath done which shews that it hath respect to the outward action only if it be made not for the righteous but for the lawless and disobedient for murtherers of fathers and murtherers of mothers for manslayers for whoremongers for them that defile themselves with mankind for men-stealers liars and perjur'd persons that is to say for manifest and open sinners my Law as being a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart reaches to the impieties thereof and censures those seeds of murther and adultery which are there But by this means we may easily avoid the imputation of charging the Law of Moses with imperfection as forbidding only sinful actions and not sinful purposes it being no imperfection at all in the Common Law of the Jewish Nation whereof we now speak to forbid sinful actions only because those who were to give sentence by it could not take cognizance of any other Again 2. Whereas that part of the Law which was the Common Law of the Jewish Nation took notice only of grosser offences such as that of adultery and murther in the mean time permitting others of a lower rank lest too severe a restraint upon them should make them throw the yoke from off their neck the Gospel of our Saviour the Christian Law forbids all deviations whatsoever the smaller aswell as the greater offences They are Christs own words in the 19. verse of the forequoted Chapter For whosoever saith he shall break one of the least of these Commandments he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven They are his sense and meaning in what he opposes to the forementioned instances Our Saviour to that crime of Murther opposing the calling of our Brother Raka or Fool as to that other of Adultery a wanton look or an immodest dalliance which are certainly far inferiour to the other II. I have considered the Law of Moses as to that part of it which was the Common Law of the Jewish Nation and shewn you how our Saviour added to it I come now to speak of the same Law as intended for a rule of manners and as a guide to the Jews in walking with God In which sense it is taken when it is stiled a Law converting the Soul or represented as a means to inherit eternal life Now in this sense it is chiefly that question is made concerning it whether Christ added thereto and wherein that addition consists And first of all 1. Negatively we are not to think that Christ added to it by exacting the obedience of the heart as well as the outward man for that this Law of Moses did no less than the Precepts of our Blessed Saviour And hence as was before intimated it is by the Psalmist said to be a law converting the Soul Psal 19.7 and by S. Paul affirmed to be spiritual Rom. 7.14 yea that if there had been a Law which could have given life the Law of Moses had been it Gal. 3.21 Neither do the Precepts of this Law enforce any thing less than those Elogies which are given of it by David and S. Paul Not the Precepts of Piety or those which taught the Jews their duty toward God For hear O Israel saith the Law the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might Deut. 6.5 As in like manner Deut. 10.12 And now Israel what doth the Lord require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in his ways and to love and serve him with all thy heart and with all thy soul Not the Precepts of Charity for as our Saviour doth here forbid the malice of the heart as well as killing so did this Law also for thou shalt not saith the Law hate thy brother in thy heart nor bear a grudge against the children of thy people Lev. 19.17 18. Lastly not the Precepts of Chastity and Justice as they are couched in the Law and the Prophets For as our Saviour forbids here the adultery of the heart as elsewhere the desire of that which is anothers so do also the Law and the Prophets The words of the Proverbs of Solomon being Thou shalt not lust after the beauty of a strange woman in thy heart Pro. 6.25 Of the Law Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife servant cattel or any thing that is his Exod. 20.17 But as our Saviour added nothing to this Law by calling for the piety of the heart because that did so as well as he so neither Secondly by forbidding lesser as well as greater sins because this Law did no less For thus as our Saviour forbad a wanton look as well as the act of Adultery a slanderous tongue as well as a killing hand so did also the Law and the Prophets For what man is he saith the Psalmist Psal 34.12 that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good let him keep his tongue from evil And yet more particularly Psal 15.1.3 Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill He that backbiteth not with his tongue as well as he that doth no evil to his neighbour he that taketh not up a reproach against him The like severity we may observe in the Proverbs of Solomon against that lustful eye of which our Saviour forewarns us Prov. 6.25 Where to the former caution of not lusting after the strange womans beauty in the heart he adds neither let her take thee with her eye-lids which implies a watchfulness over our own But neither Thirdly doth our Saviour require any new vertue of us which the Law and the Prophets did not before him for the kind I instance in the love of enemies because that seems of all others most peculiar to the Gospel and most opposite to the Precepts of Moses Concerning which for the kind I mean the Law is as express as the Gospel can be supposed to be Thus Exod. 23.4 5. If saith Moses thou meet thine enemies ox or ass going astray thou shalt surely bring it back to him again And if thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burthen and wouldst forbear to help him thou shalt surely help with him For as the Apostle spake in another case Doth God take care for Oxen or Asses or said he it not rather for this even to enjoin them to lay aside their animosities and shew their enemies all acts of benevolence And accordingly Vatablus renders those words in the 5. verse Thou shalt surely help with him by exonerabis asinum cum eo qui te odio habet
perhaps it may be that many of those execrations relate to the enemies of Christ particularly those last mentioned For beside that it is evident enough from the Psalms themselves that they were also designed against Davids enemies the story of the Gospel shews that our blessed Saviour who ought rather to be our pattern prayed even for those very enemies for those that gave him gall to eat and vinegar to drink His own words as S. Luke tells us being Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luke 23.34 In conformity to which example as no doubt we ought to proceed who are so often required to set it before our eyes so if we take a view of his Precepts we shall find them to injoin us the same tenderness wherein he went before us by his example Thus Mat. 5.44 we have his own express command to bless those that curse us his Apostle S. Paul's Rom. 12.14 that we should bless and curse not Lastly thus we find him himself checking his Disciples for having a desire to imitate Elias his zeal in calling for fire from Heaven upon the Samaritans and moreover insinuating to them that the Spirit of a Disciple ought to be far different from that of Elias Luke 9.55 And accordingly saving that Prayer of S. Paul concerning Alexander the Coppersmith The Lord reward him according to his works 2 Tim. 4.14 and that other of S. Peter's concerning Simon Magus That his money might perish with him Act. 8.20 which yet he seems afterwards to recal when he admonishes him to repent and pray to God if perhaps that thought of his heart might be forgiven him saving I say those prayers the former whereof was against one who had greatly withstood S. Paul's preaching the later against him who offer'd the Apostles money for the Holy Ghost I think we shall hardly meet with any of that nature throughout the whole New Testament Which is to me an evident argument that the loving of enemies and praying for them that curse is at least required of us in a greater degree than it was under the Law But not to confine my self to this single vertue when there is appearance enough that the like is required in all I shall desire any man that doubts of it to consider with me these 3. things 1. That the Precepts of Christ are much more clear and explicit than those of Moses 2. That the promises are more clearly proposed and 3. and lastly That God hath eased us of the yoke of the Ceremonial Law Of the first of these as there cannot well be made a doubt by any that shall compare the Law and the Gospel together so neither hath it I think been actually done by any and therefore instead of insisting upon the proof of it I shall make this inference from it that God exacts of us a more perfect conformity than he required of those under the Old Testament For as the publication of a Law makes it obligatory to those to whom that publication is made so consequently the more clear the publication is the greater the obligation must be Of the second particular there can yet less doubt be made even of the promises of the Gospel being more clearly proposed by it it being harder to find that there were any such then than any so clear and express And therefore as the Socinians do now generally deny it so we find the like to have been done by the Sadducees of old wherein though it is true they have erred and that grosly yet some of the texts they alledge do sufficiently prove that there is a clearer manifestation of them than before Witness that known affirmation of S. Paul 2 Tim. 1.10 where speaking of the Gospel he tells us that it is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light by it In fine the same S. Paul tells us 2 Cor. 3. that there was a veil upon Moses writings as well as there sometime was upon his face but that that veil is done away in Christ and we may now with open face behold the Glory of the Lord and that Glory which he hath laid up for us Now if the promises of the Gospel as well as the Precepts thereof were more clear than those of Moses the motives to obedience as well as the rule of it our conformity thereto is in reason to be proportionably greater than that to which the Jews were tyed To all which if we add that God hath now eased us of the yoke of the Ceremonial Law which the Jews though they were not able to bear yet were forced to stand under so no doubt can remain of a stricter obligation upon us to those most excellent Precepts of the Moral gratitude it self requiring that we who are eased of a heavy yoke should the more quietly submit our necks to a light and gracious one Now though what hath been said doth sufficiently evidence that Christ came not to destroy but fulfil the Law and the Prophets in the most proper notion of the word yet because it hath been thought by some that the granting of that would inferr the Law of Moses to have been imperfect before I put a period to this discourse I will free my doctrine from that imputation and so much the rather because the charge of imperfection would in fine fall upon the Author of it In order whereunto the first thing that I shall offer is that it is no crime at all to affirm it to have been imperfect if compared with the doctrine of our Saviour that which is less perfect being sometimes as seasonable as at other times a more perfect one But 2. I say that Law is not presently â—o be thought imperfect which doth not enjoyn the highest pitch of vertue It is enough if it be suited to the ability and temper of those for the regulation of whom it was devised And therefore as one made answer when it was demanded of him whether he had given such Laws as were absolutely the best that he had given the best Laws he could find out for those who were to be governed by them so shall I say concerning the Laws of God by Moses If they were the very best that people was capable of to whom they were given if they were the best for that time and State they were as perfect as any Law need to be because wanting nothing that was required But doth any thing that I have said charge the Law of Moses with not being the best that people was capable of nay have I not already shown that in regard to the hardness of their hearts God was fain to remit something in the matter of divorce For whereas at the first God tyed man and wife by a bond which nothing but Adultery could dissolve for the hardness of the Jews hearts as our Saviour tells us he was forced to remit of that severity and suffer
his person So doing we shall be so far from dishonouring the Great God of Heaven that we shall on the other side do him actual Honour in it because he is not onely the perfect Image of the Father but of the same Divine Nature with himself Having thus shewn from the Scriptures the unlawfulness of worshipping the True God by an Image and that too as well from those of the New Testament as of the Old I should now according as the Superstitions of the Church of Rome lead me proceed to consider the Worship of the Images of Christ as also of the Images of his Saints Onely to shew the Worship of God by an Image to be as much a breach of the Law of Nature as of that of Scripture and the better to plain my way to that which follows I shall subjoyn a Reason drawn from Natures Law concerning the Worship of God by an Image It is commonly suggested by the Papists when they know not what else to say That though they pass their Worship through the Image yet they terminate it not there and do what they do to the Image not for it self but in Honour of him whose Image it is I will not now say because I have said it often enough already That such Images of God are unlawful in themselves and a dishonour to the Divine Majesty which they are intended to represent From whence it will follow not onely that they ought not to have any Respect whatsoever for his sake whom they represent but that for his sake they ought to be rejected and condemn'd That which I shall insist upon is That * See Dr. Taylor 's Ductor Dubit ubi supra the Worship which is given to the Image is either different from and so less than it or the same numerical Worship with that of him it represents If the Worshipper gives a different and consequently a less Worship he doth not worship God in the Image but his Worship such as it is is terminated in the Image and then cometh not into this Inquiry as being no more than loving a Picture for Lesbia 's sake or valuing a Pendant for her sake that gave it me and must be estimated according to its excess or temper and according to the Will of the Person it relates to For as if the Person I respect should signifie her dislike of that which I set a value upon and particularly of some Picture wherein it may be she hath little right done her as I say in that case I should shew but little respect to her by prizing that which she professeth to dislike so must they be thought to shew little regard of God who set any value upon his Image both because all Images do but dishonour his most excellent Nature and because he hath declar'd his own detestation of them But if by the Image a Man means to worship God as the Papists both profess and practise and pass his Worship through that to what it represents then he gives to both the same Worship and consequently is guilty of Idolatry because giving that Worship to an Image of God which is truly and properly Divine Neither will it suffice to say as I find it is by the Papists That what is done to the Image is for the sake of him it represents and consequently doth still set God above them according to that known Maxim in Logick Propter quod unumquodque est tale illud est magis tale For first of all still it will remain for certain that Divine Worship is given to the Image which is downright Idolatry and expresly forbidden by the Almighty where he saith That he will not give his honour to another neither his praise to graven images I say secondly That though by giving worship to the Image for the sake of him it represents they may seem to set him above the Image yet they do he challengeth to himself alone to that which is confessedly but an Image of him I say thirdly That when it is affirm'd Propter quod unumquodque est tale illud est magis tale it is to be suppos'd to hold onely where there is a magis minus which is not in the present Case the Divine Nature and consequently the Divine Worship which is but a just esteem of it and expression of that esteem admitting of no Degrees for if it be less than the Highest it is not Divine Either therefore let them say or rather shew by their Practice that they give not Divine Honour to an Image or let them confess withal that they are guilty of downright Idolatry which is that we are endeavouring to prove For as for their assigning their doing of it to be for the sake of him it represents it makes nothing at all for the clearing of them For as he who thus answers confesseth he gives Divine Honour to an Image and onely tells us in what manner he doth it so either that Manner doth destroy the Thing and then it is not Divine Worship that is given or it doth not destroy the Thing and then for all the distinctions it is idolatry Lastly If as they say there be but one Motion of the Soul to the Image and that of which it is one it must consequently be granted That more cannot be given to the one than the other by it because one Act cannot be susceptible of both and therefore also either that God must have less Honour than he should or the Image have the same Divine Honour with the Almighty But concerning this matter as I think I shall not need to add more to prove the Worshipping of God by an Image to be Idolatry so if any desire further satisfaction I shall refer them to Dr. Taylor 's Cases of Conscience where this Question is so fully and accurately handled that no Man unprejudic'd can go away in the least unsatisfied To go on now according to our proposed Method to entreat of the Worship of other Images and first of all because he stands between both or rather is both God and Man of the Images of Christ Concerning which I shall no way doubt to affirm 1. That such Images may be lawfully enough made because he assum'd a Nature into the Unity of the Divine Person which is capable of being depicted or engrav'd 2. I shall not stick to grant secondly That an Image of Christ especially as hanging upon the Cross may serve to excite in us a just apprehension of his bitter Sufferings and by that means of his immense Love who stoop'd so low as to undergo them Nor yet 3. But that they may be so far regarded for his sake whom they represent as not onely not to be defac'd where they are not abus'd by Idolatry but have a place where they are admitted among our choicest things of that nature All these things I say no sober Man ever did or can deny to be free from offending against this Law of God or any other The onely
taking God's Name in vain which is the very thing forbidden in this Commandment 3. Thirdly and lastly As the Matter of a Vow ought to be something good or conducing to it so it is highly expedient at least that it should have some relation to that Blessing in consideration whereof we make it For thus we find Hannah vowing That if God would give her a Man child she would dedicate not some of her Possessions or it may be of her Servants but that very Child unto the Lord as in like manner Jacob That if God would be with him and give him bread to eat and raiment to put on and in fine bring him back to his fathers house in peace and prosperity he would out of the Plenty which God should afford build a Temple to his Honour and moreover give the tenth of all to him Both which Vows as they had very eminent Persons for their Authors and such whose Example alone might invite us to the imitation of them so they have this farther to commend them that they are more clearly expressive of our intended Gratitude to the Almighty because obliging the Parties vowing to make that very Blessing in consideration whereof they are made to become a Testimony of their Thankfulness unto God 3. But lest all that hath or shall be said concerning Vows should fall under the censure of Impertinence as there is no doubt it would justly if Christians had no concernment in them I will now according to my proposed Method demonstrate our own Obligation to the making of them In Order whereunto I shall shew them 1. To be a Part of Natural Worship and 2. Of the Evangelical one That they are a part of Natural Worship is evident first from the Nature of a Vow according as before describ'd For it being but reasonable we should do what in us lies toward the pleasing of him from whom we either expect or have receiv'd any signal Favour it is no less reasonable if we are not at present in a capacity to do it that we should go so far towards it as to oblige our selves by Promise to the performance of it he that cannot do all he would being to do what he can or at least express a readiness to perform it Which as it is best done by a Vow or Promise because that leaves no place for the omission of it so that Vow or Promise goes a great way toward the pleasing of the Almighty because consigning the Will of the Vower which is that God looks chiefly after to the Will and Pleasure of him to whom it is made Again Forasmuch as a Vow supposeth him to whom it is made to be conscious to our Wants and the Author of those Blessings in consideration whereof we make them what should hinder us or rather how can we excuse our selves from giving God this Testimony of our Adoration and vowing what may be acceptable to him The same is no less evident from the Scripture which not onely joyns it with Prayer and Praise but opposeth it to Ceremonial Worship as you may see Psalm 50.8 and so on where having at large decry'd the Offerings of the Law in the fourteenth Verse of that Psalm the Psalmist calls upon Men instead of that to offer unto God thanks giving and pay their vows unto the most High Which Passage is so much the more to be remarqu'd because it affords us a Proof not onely of Vows being a part of Natural Worship but also of the Evangelical one Mede Serm on Psal 50.14 For if as Mr. Mede shews that Psalm be also a Prophecy of the Times of the Gospel and the Service which should be offer'd up in them the making of Vows is properly and strictly Evangelical and the first Service as St. Paul speaks in a like Case taken away that the second might be the more firmly established Neither will it avail ought to say That that is not to be thought Evangelical of which there is not the least mention in the Gospel For as the great Design of the Gospel was to re-establish Natural Worship and free it from those Incumbrances wherewith the Ceremonial Law had clogg'd it so the Nature of Vows was so well known both from Reason and the Scriptures of the Old Testament as not to need to be insisted on by the New Upon which account also it is that we find so little therein concerning Oaths unless it be as to the sparing use of them Beside when as was before insinuated the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper are on our part Vows of Obedience unto God when we are initiated into and confirm'd in our Religion by them when the Law and the Prophets speak much and often concerning Vows and our Religion professeth to establish all that is not Ceremonial in them lastly when we our selves stand in need of Vows to confirm our wavering Minds and establish us in that Course of Life we have undertaken what can be more apparent than that we should vow Obedience to God's Commands and the use or forbearance of all such Means as are apt either to promote or hinder it And who knows whether the omission of this be not one principal Cause why oftentimes we speed no better in our Requests For though we are importunate enough in asking we are more than cold enough in promising any Returns of Gratitude if ever it should please God to grant the Petitions we ask of him 4. Having thus shewn our own Obligation to the making of Vows proceed we according to our proposed Method to the Qualification of those that make them the next thing propos'd to be discours'd of Where first I shall reckon as a necessary Qualification in those that make them That they be of years of discretion For a Vow being a matter of importance and so much the more because it is transacted between us and God they are in reason to abstain from the making of them who by reason of their want of Discretion understand not the Nature of it nor the Obligation which it induceth lest haply in stead of honouring God thereby they dishonour his Sacred Name by vowing such things as are either no fit Matter for them or such as afterwards they will not care to perform The same Reason will infer That as the Persons that vow should be of Years of Discretion so those that are should come to the making of them with all requisite consideration it being all one as to the purposes of Religion to be without Discretion and not to make use of it Lastly A Vow as hath been before shewn being an Act of Religion and a part of God's Worship and Service they that vow are to take care that God's Glory be their End in making them and not as it too often happens the gratifying of their own peevishness and discontent A thing not unusual with the Papists whom the loss of a Mistress the disappointment of a Place or other such like Cause is
Commemoration of the Resurrection of our Saviour it is in reason to begin when that Resurrection did which we find to have been when it began to dawn towards day All therefore that can be meant in respect of us must be the Observation of such a portion of Time as their Day amounted to which is the space of Twenty four Hours or the Natural Day But even here it will be a hard matter to find any thing in Nature to evince our Obligation to it For though Nature it self perswade that a competent time be appointed for the Publick Worship of God yet that the Time so appointed should consist of just so many Hours this no Principle in Nature teacheth so far as I have been acquainted with them The onely thing that can found the Observation of such a Time is that Positive Law which is now before us But as I have already shewn the Letter thereof not to concern us as to the Day here requir'd so Christianity being apparently not so nice as to the observation of Circumstances we are in reason to measure our own Obligation as to the time of our Worship rather by the Equity than Letter of the Commandment which what that is I shall in due place declare Now though from what hath been said a Judgment may be made what we are to think of the Observation of a Seventh day and particularly of that Seventh day which was the Jewish Sabbath yet to make my Discourse so much the more compleat and because there want not particular Arguments to propugn my Opinion in those Particulars I will make it my Business to shew That there is no Obligation upon us Christians either from the Law of Nature or this particular Precept to observe either a precise Seventh day or that Seventh day which the Jews observ'd To begin with the former of these even the Observation of a Seventh which hath by some Men been pleaded for with so great earnestness concerning which I shall shew first That it hath no Foundation in the Law of Nature and secondly That it hath as little in this if consider'd in respect of us That it hath not in the former this one Character of the Law of Nature may suffice any sober Man to conclude For the Law of Nature prescribing onely such things to our Observation as are in their own Nature good before the superinducing of any Positive Law it would follow that the Observation of a Seventh day had a peculiar Goodness in it and that it ought to be observ'd though God had by no Positive Law enjoyn'd it But what Goodness can even they who profess to believe it Moral shew in a Seventh day more than in a Sixth or Eighth or any other Day whatsoever unless it be that God rested upon it from the Works of the Creation which is the Reason here alledg'd for its observance But first of all if God's resting upon it gave it any peculiar Goodness what need was there of his adding his Blessing and Command to oblige Men to the Observance of it For the Day being Holy without and before it it would have suffic'd to have declar'd That that was the Day on which he rested Again Forasmuch as Blessing and Sanctifying supposeth that which is so blessed and sanctified to have been before in the common condition of Things God's so blessing and sanctifying of the Seventh day supposeth that to have been of the nature of other Days and consequently not to be consecrated by his bare Resting on it Lastly Forasmuch as whatsoever Goodness there is in any thing it must be suppos'd to descend upon it by the Influence of the Divine if we suppose the Seventh day to have had any peculiar Goodness and Holiness we must also suppose it to have receiv'd it from the same Influx which cannot be affirm'd in the present case because that to which it is ascrib'd is not any Influence of the Divine Goodness but onely the Suspension of it I conclude therefore That God's Rest upon it did not give the Seventh day any peculiar Holiness and consequently because that is the onely Reason alledg'd that there is nothing of Morality in the Observance of it From Nature and Morality therefore pass we to the present Precept and inquire whether that induceth any Obligation upon us to observe it Give me leave onely to premise That the Question is not as is commonly deem'd Whether One in Seven be of necessity to be observ'd but Whether a Seventh day after Six days of Labour For though it be true that he who requires a Seventh day requires One in Seven yet requiring it with reference to God's Rest from his Six days of Creation he determines it to the last of those Seven because no other beside the last can answer it Which said I shall not stick to affirm That there is no Obligation upon us as to a Seventh because the Precept so considered related onely to the Jews For the evidencing whereof I will alledge that of Exodus chap. 31.16 17. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed For as it is sufficiently known that the Covenant between God and the Israelites left no place for any that was not of their Nation or Religion so the Sabbath being for a Sign of that Covenant was consequently to extend no farther than the Covenant did and therefore also to no other than themselves The onely difficulty is Whether what is affirm'd of the Sabbath in particular be to be understood also of a Seventh day in the general For the resolution whereof we shall need to go no further than the close of that Place we have now before us For affirming the Sabbath whereof he speaks to be a Sign between him and the Children of Israel as it was an Image of his own Rest after his Six days work of Creation he thereby appropriates to them though not the Remembrance of the Creation yet the keeping such a Memorial of it and consequently of a Seventh day And indeed however some Men contend eagerly for a Seventh day as supposing thereby to advance the Authority of that which we Christians think our selves obliged to observe yet the granting of it to them would serve onely to discredit that Day for which they so contend For though the Lord's-day be One of Seven yet it is the First of those Seven and is not preceded by Six days of Labour but followed By which means it holds no analogy with the Design of the Institution because intended to commemorate the Six days of the Creation and that Rest which followed Neither will it suffice to say as perhaps it may be That the Analogy between it and that Rest it is propos'd to imitate may be salved
a less Time incumbent upon Christians to observe as Holy who have both a much greater Obligation to the Almighty and a much more weighty Service to intend Again Forasmuch as it is no less necessary under the Times of the Gospel than it was under the Law that a Time be set apart for the Publick Worship of God forasmuch as it is but reasonable that under the Times of the Gospel an equal portion of Time if not a far greater should be allotted for the Performance of it the same Reason requires that since God exacted a Seventh part of the Jews we are not to content our selves with a less or imagine that God himself will be For though there be no Morality in the Observation of a just Seventh though the specification of a Seventh proceeded from a Reason which was never cogent in it self but to be sure is not now obligatory yet as whatever the Reason thereof was it is certain God requir'd a Seventh part of the Jew in order to his own Service so it is both Moral and Christian that they should not go less than a Seventh who have much greater Obligations to the Almighty And indeed well may we think so when we find the Primitive Christians in the Acts meeting every day to worship and not onely giving God a Seventh part of their Time but the greatest Lastly If the Creation of the World Acts 2.46 and God's Rest from it were a just Motive to consecrate that Day into a Holy-day wherein God so rested from the Creation to be sure that is no less upon which the Hopes of a Christian do so much depend even the Resurrection of our Blessed Lord and Saviour So that thus much may be inferr'd from the Equity of this Commandment That as much less than a Day and a Seventh day cannot be thought necessary to be set apart for the Christian Worship so that which is set apart by us even the First day of the Week had a juster Motive to the Consecration of it than that which was sanctified under the Law But because what hath been hitherto or may be inferr'd from this Commandment doth rather perswade than necessitate the Observation of that particular Day which we observe and I have promis'd a farther strengthning of its Authority therefore to give the greater force to it I will produce the Practice of the Church from the Apostles days and when I have done so shew the Obligation it induceth That it had the Observation of a Christian Festival in the Apostles days that of St. Luke shews Acts 20.7 where we find the Disciples met together upon the first day of the week to break bread that is to say one Species being put for all the rest to communicate with each other in the Publick Exercises of their Religion The breaking of bread not onely referring either to the Lords Supper or the Love-teasts that clos'd it but joyn'd by this very Author with doctrine and fellowship and prayer Acts 2.42 The same is no less evident from that of St. Paul to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 16.1 2. where according to an Order he had before given to the Churches of Galatia he enjoyns those of Corinth That upon the first day of the week every one should lay by him in store that so there might be no collections when he came For wherefore as St. Chrysostom observes * Chrysost in 1 Cor. Hom. 43. should St. Paul appoint that day to the Churches of Galatia and Corinth for the laying by of what God had prospered them for charitable uses but that that day by the rest it afforded gave them opportunity to do it and moreover by the Blessing which it remembred and the Sacred Offices that were perform'd in it was apt to incite them to a more chearful and liberal distribution To all which if we add the Title which St. John gives it Rev. 1.10 so no doubt can remain of the Churches observing it as Holy For as it is evident from the Consent of Interpreters and the Language of the succeeding Age that what St. John there calls The Lord's-day was no other than what we now stile so so the least that can be made of that Appellation is That it was set apart by the Church in memory of the Lord Christ's Resurrection and dedicated to his Honour and Service The Lord's-day importing his having a peculiar propriety in it which must be either by his own Institution of it or the Consecration of it by his Church From the Apostles days pass we to those that immediately succeeded where we shall find yet more clear Testimonies of the Observation of it For thus Ignatius the Contemporary as well as Successor of the Apostles in his Epistle * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ed. Voss p. 35. to the Magnesians doth not onely make mention of the Lord's-day but exhort them that laying aside the Observation of the Sabbath they would keep the Lord's day for a Festival wherein our Life rose also To the Testimony of Ignatius subjoyn we that of Justin Martyr ‖ Apol. 2. pro Christianis p. 99. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as nearest to him and to the Apostles where we have not onely an Account of the Christians assembling on the Sunday but the Business of those Meetings at large declared to wit the reading of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament Preaching Praying and other such Religious Exercises And though in that known Passage of Pliny †Plin. Epist li. 10. where he gives an Account to the Emperour Trajan concerning the Assemblies of the Christians though I say in that Passage there be no express mention of the Day wherein they were held yet affirming from the Mouth of some Christians whom he had examin'd that they were wont upon a set day to meet together before the Morning-light and sing a Song unto Christ as unto God it is but reasonable to think that day was meant the Observation whereof we are now establishing What should I tell you of Tertullian's affirming in one place * De Idololatr cap. 14. Si quid carni indulgendum est habes non tamen dies tantùm sed plures Nam Ethnicis semel annuus dies quisque festus est tibi octavus quisque dies c. That the Christians had every Eighth day for a Festival and in another ‖ Apolog. cap. 16. Aeque si diem Solis Laetitiae indulgemus alia longe ratione quam religione Solis secundo loco ab eis sumus qui diem Saturni otio victui decernunt exorbitantes ipsi ab Judaico more quem ignorant That the Sunday was the Day For as that is so certain that as the same Tertullian intimates the Heathens accus'd them for it as Worshippers of the Sun whose Name that Day bore so in and after his Time there is so little doubt to be made of its Observation that I must but light a Candle to the Sun if
ordinary enjoyn'd even as to their not stirring from their Habitations Now concerning each of these Rests I shall not stick to affirm that according as before-stated they are not onely not obligatory to us Christians but superstitious That they are not obligatory will appear if we consider that the Sabbath it self is not For the Sabbath as was before-shewn being peculiar to the Jews to whom it was given as a Sign of the Covenant between God and them that Rest which gave it its Name and a great part of its Nature must be look'd upon as in like manner peculiar to them and consequently not obligatory to us But neither is it less evident that such a Rest would be superstitious if either impos'd or observ'd as Religious because placing Religion in that which however it might have some place in the Jewish yet is no part of the Christian because exhibiting that better Rest of which the other was a Type If therefore there be any Obligation upon us from the Rest here commanded it must be either to the Observation of that Spiritual Rest of which it was a Type or to such a Bodily one as is requisite to the Solemn Performance of God's Worship each of which I come now to consider Of the former of these Rests there is not the least doubt to be made that is to say of a Spiritual one or Rest from Sin For it being evident on the one hand that the Law of Moses was written for our Direction and Obedience as well that which is * See the Discourse concerning the Positive Laws of God c. Ceremonial as that which was Moral and Substantial and it being no less evident on the other that that of it which was Ceremonial was not written to oblige us to the Ceremony it self it follows because it was written for our Direction and Obedience that it was intended to oblige us to those Spiritual Duties of which the other were Types and Shadows Now forasmuch as the Rest enjoyn'd the Jews was a Type of some Christian Duty forasmuch as there is no Duty in Christianity which can better answer it than a Rest from Sin it follows that though we look not upon our selves as concern'd in the Rest enjoyn'd the Jews yet we look upon our selves as concern'd in that Rest of which it was a Type and accordingly cease from our Sinful Works as they did on the Sabbath from the Works of their several Employments Again Though the Rest enjoyn'd the Jews oblige us rather to the Thing signified by it than to the Rest it self though in the Circumstances in which it was enjoyn'd it was apparently Legal and consequently one of those Bondages from which Christ came to set us free yet so far forth as that is requisite to the performance of God's Worship there is no doubt it doth oblige us even as to the thing it self Because as was before shewn * See Part 1. of the Explic. of this Commandment a part of the Moral Law and subordinate to the main End of this But from hence as was there observ'd it will follow that we are to rest from our Employments both in and some time before the Time of God's Solemn Worship the Mind of Man being neither able to intend them both at once nor yet the Service of God alone with that freedom which it ought where the Cares of this World press too near upon it Which though it amount not to the strictnesses of the Jewish Sabbath yet will oblige us to such a Rest as will leave little leisure for other earthly Thoughts than what the Necessity of our Affairs or the Conveniences of Life will take up But as farther than this I neither shall nor dare press upon you the Rest enjoyn'd the Jews so even they who are more severe will not know how to free themselves if they should be press'd with their own Actions For who of them thinks himself a Sinner for gathering a few Sticks on the Christian Sabbath or going about to kindle a Fire on it The * Exod. 35.3 latter whereof was yet expresly forbidden the Jews as the ‖ Num. 15.36 former punish'd with death 2. Having thus shewn what kind of Rest was impos'd upon the Jews and withal how far we our selves are concern'd to observe it inquire we in the next place To whom and in what manner it appertain'd or rather into the latter onely the Commandment being express not onely for the resting of all sorts of Persons but also of the very Beasts themselves And first of all if the Question be concerning those who were sui juris or permitted so to be as to the Rest here enjoyn'd so there is no doubt that Rest appertain'd to them not onely as a Privilege but a Duty the Rest here spoken of being the Matter of a Command and consequently intended to oblige all those who were in a capacity to yield obedience to it On the other side if the Question be concerning Cattel which by the Tenor of the Commandment were to have a share in it so there is no doubt the rest here spoken of appertain'd to them onely by way of Privilege For being uncapable either of understanding or giving obedience to Laws they must be suppos'd to have been free from this and consequently what is said concerning their Rest to have appertain'd to them onely by way of Privilege Setting aside therefore both the one and the other as whose Case admits not of the least difficulty we will consider first of all the Case of Parents and Masters 2. Of Children and Servants And 3. and lastly because there is something particular in his of the Stranger that was within their gates For the first of these again there is no great difficulty in explicating their particular Concerns because the Commandment is clear not onely that they should rest themselves but oblige those who were under their Power to do so For those being more in their Parents and Masters Power than in their own the Command is in reason to be suppos'd to have appertain'd chiefly to them in whose Power their Labour or Resting was From Parents and Masters pass we to Children and Servants and inquire into their particular Concerns Where first of all there is no doubt for the Reason before alledg'd that it was no less their Duty than Privilege to rest from their Labours where they might be permitted so to do The onely doubt is whether it were incumbent upon them so to do though their cruel Masters should have us'd Threats or Chastisements to constrain them to their ordinary Labours For the resolution whereof I shall desire you first to consider that of Deut. 5.15 For it being manifest from thence that the great Design of the Rest enjoyn'd was that Servants should have ease from their Labours it is hard to suppose God would oblige them so to rest when a far greater Evil than their Labour impended on them For by this means God should
Case is no less plain as to the Duty of Prayer which is one of the most proper Acts of Divine Worship St. Luke not onely telling us of a Place built for Prayer but of certain of the Jewish Women also resorting to it on the Sabbath-day and St. Paul taking occasion from thence to open his Doctrine to them Acts 16.13 Which Passage is the more to be noted because where there were no Synagogues yet they had their Places * Grot. in Act. 16.13 of Prayer which shews they look'd upon that as one of the more especial Parts of God's Worship and such as ought not to be neglected though the Reading of the Law and the Prophets should 4. Again As Prayer was a Part of the Business of the Sabbath so also Praise and Thanksgiving even by the Directions of God himself For as we find it to have been the Office of the Levites to stand every Morning and Evening to thank and particularly * See the Septuag Version of that place and Thorndike of Rel. Assem c. 7. p. 219 c. upon the Sabbath-days 1 Chron. 23.30 so the Title of 92 Psalm proclaims it to have been made for the Sabbath-day as you may see if you please to peruse it And indeed well may we think Praising God a part of the Business of the Sabbath when the Sabbath it self was instituted in remembrance of the Creation and therein both of their own Being and the Means which that furnish'd for their Support Such were the Offices by which the Jewish Sabbath was to be sanctified and not unlike it is probable was their way of Sanctification of it in private But because we have not the like Evidence for it we will leave Men to their own Conjectures and pass to the Sanctification of the Christian one for my more orderly Explication whereof I will consider it 1. As to the Publick And 2. Then as to more Private Concerns 1. And first of all if the Question be concerning the Sanctification of it in Publick for which both the one and the other Sabbath were chiefly separated so we shall find the Reading of the Scriptures to have had a place in it as well as in the Jewish one It is true indeed if we look no farther than those slender Narrations which the New Testament gives us of the Lord's-day Service we shall not be able to discover any thing which may warrant us to affirm that the Reading of the Scriptures had any place in it But as that is not much to be wondred at when we see so little there concerning the Observation of it at all so there want not Reasons to believe however there be no express mention of it that the Reading of the Scriptures had a part in it even then For as it is not easie to suppose especially when there were so many newly converted Jews that they would lightly depart from the Custom of the Synagogue where the Scriptures were constantly read so it is probable they did not because there was the like necessity of Reading them that there had been in the Jewish Synagogues For though since Printing came in use the Scriptures are become more common yet anciently they were in few Persons hands and consequently if they had not been read in Publick the generality of Christians would not have had Knowledge enough of them to have guided them in their Opinions and Actions Since therefore it was but necessary they should be read it is but reasonable to conclude they were especially when we know our Saviour to have exhorted to the search of them and St. Paul to represent them as able to make a man wise unto salvation But it is not onely Probability we have to ground our selves upon as to the Scriptures being made a part of the Lord's-day Service For though as I said there be no mention of Reading them upon that Day yet there is mention of Reading them in their Assemblies which that Day was set apart for the holding of For thus Col. 4.16 we find St. Paul giving in charge that when that Epistle of his had been read amongst them they should cause it to be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and in like manner read that from Laodicea themselves And thus too though with much more earnestness he gives a Charge to the Thessalonians that that Epistle of his should be read unto all the holy Brethren 1 Thess 5.27 But because Customs like Rivers are beheld with the greatest advantage at some distance from the Springs from whence they flow from the Practice of the Church in the Apostles Times pass we to those that immediately succeeded where we shall find clearer Expresses of it For thus it is the Affirmation of Justin Martyr * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apol. 2. pag. 98. one of the Ancientest Writers the Church hath That upon the day call'd Sunday there was an Assembly of all that abode in the Cities and the adjacent Countries where the Commentaries of the Apostles or the Writings of the Prophets were read so far as Time and other Duties would give leave Agreeable hereunto is that of Tertullian in Chap. 39. of his Apologetick where speaking of the Business of Christian Assemblies which is principally to be understood of those of the Lord's-day because the Chief he hath these Words ‖ Coimus ad literarum divinarum commemorationem siquid praesentium temporum qualitas aut praemonere cogit aut recognoscere We come together to the repeating of the Divine Scriptures according as the condition of the present Times enforceth either to forewarn or look back In like manner the same Tertullian †De Animâ cap. 9. Jam vero prout Scripturae leguntur aut Psalmi canuntur aut Adlocutiones proferuntur aut Petitiones delegantur ita inde materiae Visionibus subministrantur speaking of a certain Virgin who had Revelations during the Solemn Service of the Lord's-day affirms That the matter of her Visions was ministred as the Scriptures were read or Psalms sung or Exhortations produc'd or Prayers preferr'd Which shews the Reading of the Scripture to have been a part of the Publick Service and particularly of the Day of the Christian Sabbath Now though what hath been said be sufficient to shew the Reading of the Scriptures to be a part of the Publick Service and as such to be diligently attended to yet because some have rejected it as of none or of little Edification and others as more proper for the Closet than the Church I will before I proceed obviate each of these Opinions and shew the groundlesness thereof For be it first that the main Design of the Scriptures is to teach us how to live and particularly in reference to God upon which account the Reading of them may seem rather a Means to instruct us in than any Part of the Worship of God yet if it be with a regard to the Author of them so we shall find both
the Reading and Hearing thereof to be no improper Parts of God's Worship He that reads or listens to them as to the Word of God no less acknowledging his Authority over us than he who either prays to or praises him And accordingly as Prayer and Praise as being immediate Parts of God's Worship were always accompanied with some outward Testimony of Respect so we find also that the Reading of the Law and the Prophets sometime was as is evident from a Passage in each Testament The former giving us to understand that when Ezra opened the Book of the Law not onely he himself but all the People stood up Nehem. 8.4 5. the latter that our Saviour us'd the same Posture at the Reading of the Prophet Isaiah and sate not down till he clos'd it both the one and the other thereby declaring their Acknowledgment of his Authority by whose Spirit each of those Books was dictated Whilst therefore the Scriptures are thus attended to we do no less worship God than learn how to do it and the Reading and Hearing of them is not onely the way to but a part of that very Worship to which it leads But because there are some who though they question not the Reading of the Scriptures upon that account yet reject it either as unedifying or at least not very proper for the Publick Assemblies in stead of prosecuting the former Argument we will consider each of these Pretensions and first that which excludes it as no way proper for the Publick For be it which is commonly alledg'd that Men may read the Scriptures at home as well as at the Publick Assemblies yet as there are a great number of Men who cannot read at all and others who have no leisure for it though they could by means whereof they must have been ignorant of the Scripture unless God had provided for them by the Publick Reading of it so it is apparent that they who both can read and have leisure for it are too apt to omit it and consequently were it not for the Publick Reading of it would have had no farther knowledge of it than they should have receiv'd from the Discourses of their Instructers By which means they might not onely have suck'd in their Infirmities together with it but sometimes also their Errours and Extravagancies Again If the Scriptures had been confin'd to Closets and no more of them produc'd in Publick than what might serve either for the Subject or strengthning of a Sermon it had been no hard matter especially before Printing came in use to have corrupted the Scriptures without remedy as to the Common sort and made them speak not what they ought but what every perfidious Heretick would have had them for so those that are unlearned would have had no means to inform themselves whether that which was suggested to them as Scripture were genuine or no. But when the Scriptures were not onely in the hands of Private Persons but preserv'd in Churches and which is more publickly read in them as there was not the like encouragement to evil Men to corrupt private Copies as knowing that their Corruptions might be detected by those Books which were in the custody of and publickly read by the Church so if they had been so bold what was read in the Assemblies would have help'd Men to have discover'd the Fraud and preserv'd them from the Attaque of it This onely would be added That though there be not the like danger since Printing came in use and Men were appointed by Authority to preside over it yet there would be danger enough if the same Custom were not continued of Reading the Scriptures in the Assemblies For as corrupt Copies may come abroad notwithstanding all the diligence of those who have the Charge of the Press so if they should the Common sort of Men would have nothing left to fence themselves against them if the Reading of the Scriptures were banish'd out of the Assemblies Add hereunto which though but an Argument ad hominem may perhaps prove more prevalent than those that speak to the Thing it self and that is the abhorrency that even they who would not have the Scriptures publickly read profess to have for the Papists robbing the People of it For what do they less who would have them banish'd from the Publick Assemblies where alone the Ignorant sort are in a capacity of receiving them So slight or rather so dangerous are the Pretensions of those who would have the Reading of the Scriptures appropriated to Mens Closets How much more then the rejecting of the Reading of them as if when onely read they were not able to convert a Soul unto God For as whatsoever force there is in Sermons is for the substance of them deriv'd from the Scriptures and therefore the Power of converting Souls to lie chiefly there so if those Scriptures have not lost their credit as well as their converting Faculty the bare Reading of them through God's Blessing may be a means to convert Souls unto God Otherwise why should God as he did command the Reading of the Law that the children of Israel might hear and learn and fear the Lord their God and observe to do all the words of this Law Deut. 32.11 12. or St. John affirm of his Gospel that it was written that we might believe and that believing we might have Life through his Name For if it was written that Men might believe there is no doubt it is able to effect it when read because that is enough to let Men into the Sense of it And indeed as if Sermons prove more effectual it is oftentimes because they are more attended to their novelty and spruceness engaging our attention whilst the plainness of the other makes it less regarded so if they have any advantage in themselves it is not so much for the Arguments they alledge which are the same in both but by the order wherein they are dispos'd and the manner of application Having thus shewn the Reading of the Scriptures to be one part of the Publick Service and thereby asserted it from that Contempt into which it is now fallen I proceed to inquire Whether as in the Service of the Jewish Sabbath so also in the Christian the Explication of the Scriptures is to have a part Now that so it is will appear if we look into the Service of the Church as it was in the first Institution of it And here not to tell you that the first Account we have of the Publick Service presents us with the mention of the Apostles Doctrine I shall begin my Proofs with that of Acts 20.7 because speaking of the First day of the Week or Sunday For there we are told That among other the Exercises of that Day the Disciples had a Sermon from that excellent Preacher St. Paul All the difficulty is what kind of Sermon that was and whether it were not made rather in regard to his being to depart the next day than
there is not the same reason where the thing commanded is not evidently against the Law of God but only doubted of whether it be so or no. For it being certainly a duty to obey the Magistrate in all things not forbidden and but uncertain whether the thing commanded by him be forbidden reason would that that which is the more certain should be preferr'd before that which is uncertain and consequently a clear and express Command before an uncertain scruple But as where the thing commanded by Princes is apparently against that of God there cannot be the least pretence of yeilding Obedience to it so other limits of our Obedience I know none saving those before-mentioned * Vid. Part 2. of the Explic. of this Commandment where we entreated of the Obedience due to Parents and which are no less appliable here unless it be where the Prince hath set bounds to his own Power by Laws or accepted of them when tendred by others In which case because the Princes Laws are the most Authentick declarations of his Will it is to be presum'd that he wills not my obedience in any thing which is contrary thereto and consequently that in those things it is no sin to refuse it Now though what hath been already said concerning the measure of our Obedience may suffice any reasonable man in civil matters yet because Princes do also challenge to themselves an Authority in Religious ones and we of this Nation in particular are oblig'd under an Oath to acknowledge it it will be necessary to enquire farther whether they have any such Authority and what obedience is due from us to it Now the Authority of Princes in Religious matters may be two-fold indirect or direct by the former whereof we are to understand that which pretends to have an oversight of them only in relation to the State by the latter that which pretends to have an Interest in Religious matters as such If the question be whether Princes are invested with such an Authority as pretends to an oversight of them in relation to the State so no doubt can be made by those who shall consider the influence Religious matters may have upon the State For inasmuch as on the one hand the powers of the world were before the Church and the Church it self is by the command of God oblig'd to revere them and on the other hand the things of Religion according as they are constituted may be profitable or hurtful to the State which is committed to their custody those Powers must of necessity be invested with such an Authority therein as may preserve the peace of the State entire But from hence it will follow That Princes have a power so far of calling or limiting Religious Assemblies of appointing who shall serve at the Altars in them or putting by those that are For inasmuch as the Peace of the State may be concern'd in all these particulars they are of necessity so far to fall under the cognizance of those to whom the Government of the State doth appertain And accordingly as all Princes of what perswasion soever in Religion have in Profession or Fact arrogated such an Authority to themselves so provided they do not entrench upon the Laws of Christianity they cannot in the least be faulted for the exercise thereof nor be disobey'd without a violation of the Ordinance of God that constitutes them Because what they do is no more than necessary for the preservation of that State which God hath committed to their charge Thus for instance inasmuch as by means of the Assemblies of discontented Persons there may arise great prejudice to the State no man in his right wits can deny but it may be lawful for a Prince to retrench the number or appoint the manner of the holding of them For though Christianity enjoin upon Christians the assembling of themselves for Religious Worship yet no Law of Christianity appoints that they should meet by Thousands but on the contrary assures them that where even two or three meet together in his name there Christ is in the midst of them From the indirect Authority of Princes in Religious matters pass we to that which we call direct which interests it self in Religious matters as such For the establishing whereof I shall desire you in the first place to reflect upon that of St. Paul to Timothy 1 Tim. 2. from Verse 1. to 4. I exhort therefore first of all that supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men For Kings and all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth From which words as it is evident that it is acceptable to God that Kings become Christians this as will appear by comparing the first Verse and the fourth being the thing he instructs Timothy to beg of God for them so also that being made Christians they should by their Authority procure to other Christians a peaceable exercise of that Religion whereunto they are called The reason assign'd by the Apostle for praying for their Conversion being that under them and by their Arbitriment they might lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all godliness and honesty From the exhortation of St. Paul pass we to that of David which will both lend light to the former Exhortation and more clearly discover to us that Authority wich we seek Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the Earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little For herein as St. Augustine observes do Kings serve the Lord as Kings if in their Kingdom they command those things that are good and forbid evil and that not only such as appertain to Humane Society but such as appertain also to the Religion of God And elsewhere Wherein then doth Kings serve the Lord in fear but by forbidding and punishing with a Religious severity those things which are done against the commands of the Lord Jesus For one way doth a King serve the Lord as a man and another way as a King And a little after to the same purpose though yet more closely Herein therefore do Kings serve the Lord as Kings when they do those things to serve him which they could not do unless they were Kings Add hereunto that known Prophecy of Isa 49.23 where speaking of the times of the Church he affirms that Kings should be its nursing Fathers and Queens its nursing Mothers Which what other is it than that the Church should be taken care of by them and consequently that it should be committed to their trust But from hence we may collect what the Authority of Princes in Religious matters is and wherein