save men but they will not be saved So the year of Jubilee was a true Type of our deliverance by Christ whosoever was in bondage might then go out free wherefore I conclude as sure as we are lost by the first Adam so sure we are redeemed by the second Adam So sure as we are created by God the Father so sure we are redeemed by God the Son and Whoever will believe in him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life Vulgar Errors CONCERNING Praying by the SPIRIT Removed THere hath nothing of late years been more mistaken than those Scriptures which speak of praying by the Spirit or the Spirit helping our Infirmities and God's pouring out the Spirit of Prayer and Supplications upon his People Which places have been wrested against a set Form of Prayer as if it were nothing but cold breathings and Lip labour to use their own words and a man in praying such a Prayer could not be assisted by the Spirit of God Their first mistake lieth in this that they do not distinguish between the gift of Prayer and the Spirit of Prayer Many men have a very good gift of Prayer and a very fluent Tongue who yet may be very formal as to their hearts not every one that hath the best gift of Eloquence prays most by the Spirit nor he that hath the meanest gift of Elocution prays least with the Spirit We may instance in Moses and Aaron the one of a stammering tongue the other God gives him this testimony that he could speak well Yet in the famous fight between Israel and Ameleck God makes not choice of Eloquent Aaron but of slowspoken Moses to get the victory by Prayer Though Aaron speak better than Moses yet certainly he could not pray better than he Prayer is a great part of Gods Service and Worship and our blessed Saviour tells us God is a Spirit and must be worshipp'd in Spirit Yet when the Apostles desired him to teach them to pray he did not teach them to pray by the Spirit in their sense who think speaking extempore without premeditation whatever comes into their mind on a sudden is the only praying by the Spirit but he prescribes them a set Form saying When ye pray say Our Father which art in heaven c. So that a set Form certainly may be prayed by the Spirit else it had never been commanded to be used by our Saviour Christ If it be said the Lords Prayer is a pattern to frame our Prayers by rather than a Prayer it self My answer is As some Weights and Measures which are so exact in their kind being kept as Standards to make other Weights and Measures by do not lose the nature of Weights and Measures upon that account but rather are warranted in their kind So the Lords Prayer by being made a pattern for our Prayers doth not lose the nature of a Prayer but rather is thereby commended to us to be the most absolute Form of Prayer in the world In Numb 6.23 God bids Moses speak unto Aaron and his Sons saying on this wise ye shall bless the people the Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face shine favourably upon thee c. If any able of themselves to conceive a Prayer we may well suppose it should be the Priest whose Lips should preserve knowledge yet they are prescribed a set Form of blessing the People If it had been prescribed for the simple and ignorant sort it might have been objected They that have not gifts of their own are permitted to make use of other mens gifts but seeing it is prescribed the Priest himself nay even for Aaron the Eloquent High-Priest it strongly concludes for a set Form of Prayer and Benediction to be used in publick by the most able and eloquent Divine Moses a great Prophet who prayed so earnestly that God said Let me alone as if he tied Gods hands yet did he use one set Form of Prayer when the Ark set forward and when it rested Numb 10.35 When it set forward he said Arise O God let thine enemies be scattered let them also that hate thee flee before thee and when it rested he said constantly Return O Lord to the many thousands of Israel Let us not seek to seem better than he in new Forms every day whose gifts without question were unspeakably greater than ours The 92. Psalm was usually sung in the Church of the Jews every Sabbath day it was penned for that purpose as appeareth by the Title of it Seeing therefore a set Form of Prayer and Praise have been the practice of the ancient Church of God among the Jews and of Christian Churches to this very day let us give them the right hand of fellowship to have a Unity and Uniformity in Publick Worship Our blessed Saviour of whom it was said truly never man spake as he spake yet he useth three times together the same words in his Agony Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me He wanted no variety of words yet he confines himself to the same words the Prophet Joel prescribes the Prayer for the Priest and bids them say Spare thy people good Lord c. St. Paul the great Doctor of the Gentiles used the same Salutation in the beginning of most of his Epistles Grace mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and the same Prayer at the end of them The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen These examples plainly refute the error of those that are against the Liturgy or set Form of Prayer in the Church it is a ridiculous thing to think that as a nice and squeamish stomach is delighted with change of Dishes so God is delighted with variety of words and novelty of matter and method and that unless we have a new stile or a new trope or a new figure or a new flourish every time more than other we have not the Spirit of Prayer nor shall be excepted Every good Christian is not able to conceive a Prayer many have weak Capacities to conceive them want Order and Method to compose them yet even these if they meet with a Prayer framed to their hand can pray fervently and heartily A set Form must needs be a great help to those that are weak and yet willing to pray nay even they that are strong ought not to despise them for Prayers in publick are bounded by authority To pass over those bounds then must needs be offensive to that Authority that prescribed those bounds If any do they foment as it were a Worship distinct and apart from what is authorized by the Church but more reason that the spirit of a Minister should be regulated by the spirit of the Church representative than the spirits of the whole Congregation by the spirit of the Minister If he that was sick of the Palsie that was born of four
is the first mention in the Scripture of any House to be built to the honour of Gods Name Afterwards God bid Moses and Aaron build him an Ark and told them it should be the Covenant and Pledge that he would go along with them and that they should have his presence amongst them and so it was performed accordingly When the Philistines had taken it it plagued them their God Dagon fell before it then they returned it and when Obed-Edom had it the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite and all that appertained to him because of the Ark of God After this David seriously considered with himself that he dwelt in an house of Cedar but the Ark of God was only under a Tent and he vowed a Vow unto the Lord that he would prepare a place for it The very instinct of nature told him it was a shame that his own house should be handsomer than the Publick place of Gods Worship and so it should teach us at this day He prepares with all his might a stupendious quantity of materials for the House of God 1 Chron. 29.4 Three thousand Talents of Gold of the Gold of Ophir and seven thousand Talents of refined Silved to over-lay the Walls of the House withal and Brass and Iron without weight and Marble stones and other Materials without number for he considered that the House was not for man but for God Peaceful Solemon builds this House and consecrates it and God accepts of it and heard the Prayers of his People that were put up in it against Plague Famine Mildew blasting or when the Enemy afflicted them within the Gates when Nebuchadnezzar burnt this house and carried away all the goodly Vessels belonging to it to Babilon Nehemiah rebuilds it and God stirreth up the spirit of Cyrus the Persian to send back again to this Temple five thousand four hundred Vessels of Gold and Silver which Nebuchadnezzar had taken away and put them in the House of his Gods so the Temple was built and beautified and reverenced as Gods Sanctuary as it ought to be But in our Saviour's time men were grown to that height of prophaneness that they brought Sheep and Oxen into that holy place to be sold they made a Market place of it to sell Doves and to change Money but the zeal of Gods House did even eat our Saviour up that is made him seem to forget his mild and gentle nature and use a Rod instead of the spirit of meekness he with a Scourge drove out the Oxen overthrew the Tables of the Money changers and said to them that sold Doves Take these things hence and would not suffer any to carry a Vessel through the Temple because it was an holy place and left a lasting Lesson to us highly to esteem of places dedicated to Gods Worship But here three Questions may arise 1. How comes one place to be more holy than another 2. What kind of holiness is a place capable of 3. Whether if it be granted that a place was so under the Law it be so still under the Gospel To the first I answer a place comes to be holy by being separated from common use and dedicated to the service of God Exod. 13.12 Thou shalt set apart all that openeth the Matrix unto the Lord. Now St. Luke speaking of the same thing in Chap. 2.23 renders it thus Every Male that openeth the womb shall be called holy unto the Lord So that if a thing be set apart for the Lord upon that setting it apart it becomes holy The Israelites were called a holy people because God separated them from all other Nations to be his own peculiar 1 Kings 8.53 And when he would consecrate the Levites to his service from among all the Children of Israel He says thus to Moses Thou shalt separate the Levites from among the Children of Israel and the Levites shall be mine Num. 8.14 so that when a place is separated from common use and dedicated to the service of God that place is a Sanctuary a holy place and till the relation it hath to God for his service is abolished it is to be accounted Sacred So that the notion of Holiness consists in this in being separated and set apart for God The Religious person whilst he is separated from sin and sinners from the allurements of a wicked world and the sinful lusts of the flesh he makes his Soul and Body a Temple for the Holy Ghost 2. If demanded what kind of holiness a place is capable of I answer a place is not capable of any inherent holiness as mans Soul is but only of a Relative holiness and if you will shew so much reverence to a Prince as to be uncovered in his Presence Chamber certainly you ought to shew as much to God to be uncovered in his Sanctuary If it be said true under the Law we grant things had a Relative holiness but how do you prove they have so under the Gospel I answer Time and Place are receptive of holiness alike We know that all times are his for he makes all our days all things are his for the Earth is the Lords and the falness thereof But now if under the Gospel some time may be more peculiarly his than as all time is his and some things may be more peculiarly his than as all things are his then those things which are so peculiarly his may have a Relative holiness in them under the Gospel as well as under the Law for the Relative holiness consists in this peculiar separation to Almighty God Now that some Times may be peculiarly his is plain by St. John's calling the first day of the Week the Lords Day Rev. 1.10 that is set apart for his service by the Apostles and the Church instead of the Jewish Sabbath and some Things may be peculiarly his as doth appear by St. Peters speech to Ananias Whilst it remained was it not thine own c. Acts 5.4 but to keep back what was dedicated to God was a robbing of God A lying unto God and not unto men so that you see God may have a peculiarity in things under the Gospel as well as under the Law And if it be in a Day ye ought to keep it holy if in a House God would have you keep your foot when you enter into the house of the Lord. We have a Generation amongst us that cry up the holiness of the Sabbath and the strict observance of it as if in its minute Appendages it bound us almost as much as it did the Jew and yet these very men will cry down the holiness of the Sanctuary and account themselves very holy in so doing Whereas in Lev. 19.30 God joyns them both together saying Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary If the fourth Commandment of the Decalogue bind us now according to the Letter as they contend why doth their practice in kindling their fire in dressing their food contradict their
to love God and to give him thanks to hate God is so intrinsically evil that it is impossible but that it should be forbid If it were possible for this not to be forbid it were possible for this to be lawful for where there is no Law there is no Transgression but it is utterly impossible it should be lawful therefore it must be granted there is an evil in order of nature before the prohibition of it and so some things must needs be good in their own nature as bearing a resemblance of the Image and goodness of God before any external Law pass upon them These things premised my answer is Although the Will of God be a rule of justice to us yet it is not a rule of justice to himself but his justice is rather a rule of his Works and of his Will and he works all things according to the Counsel of his Will and that Counsel adviseth nothing rashly or unmercifully unreasonably or unjustly but according to the greatest Equity and Chancery in the world and therefore cannot without the greatest violence to Reason and Religion be thought to make irrespective Decrees to torture for ever the greatest part of mankind chiesly for the pleasure of his Will Again they say Omnipotent Power authorizes all actions Now if God will make Vessels of wrath what hath any one to do with it May he not do what he pleases with his own Creatures My answer is we must not magnifie Gods Power so much as to eclipse his goodness or his truth which doth assure us that he is loving unto every man and that he delights not in the death of any sinner These men make God a Tyrant rather than a King and attribute such Prerogatives to God as are broadly inconsistent with his nature Acts of Power are not good in themselves but as they are accompanied with Justice and Mercy otherwise they are bad and lay a mans honour in the dust we must not so magnifie one Attribute in God as to justle out all the rest The Lord proclaimes his name to Moses Exod. 34.6 after this manner The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Now Gods name is every ways agreeing to his nature which is rather than his Creature should perish to forgive iniquity transgression and sin and not to decree everlasting fire to it without the intuition of sin Let us not therefore entertain any hard thoughts of Almighty God Rev. 20.12 13. when the earth and the Sea gave up their dead they were all judged according to what was found in the Books and those Books were written only according to their works Conscience is one of those Books which shall be opened at the last day and it will acquit God of all hard dealing towards men that perish When Moses prayed thus Exod. 32.32 Either forgive this People or blot we out of the Book which thou hast written The Lord said Whosoever sins against me him will I blot out of my book Where you see sin only blots out of Gods Book and not any Fatal Decree If it should happen to men according to their Lots to be under such or such a Decree and not according to their Works there would nothing be remaining for us to do but only patiently to obey Fate for if an irrespective Decree do shut up the most of men under Condemnation can any one of those men by all his industry alter his Destiny Surely no unless he were stronger than he that made that Decree To what purpose then were all his endeavours or to what purpose should we beat the air and persuade him to impossiblities Yes to good purpose say the Abettors of such a Decree because no particular man knows under which Decree he is I confess this answer is the best they have to give but it nothing enervates the Argument for it is not the knowing of a Decree or the being ignorant of a Decree makes any thing to the altering of a Decree for neither if I know it will it be repealed neither if I be ignorant of it will it cease to be accomplished Now then although no particular man knows under which Decree he is yet he must needs know he is under one of them if there be such Decrees and under which soever he be he is bound with an Adamantine Chain unto it and his end is fixt by reason of it as unalterably as the Laws of the Medes and Persians Who then believing this can believe that his fasting weeping or mourning renting heart or garment can avail any thing to the altering of that Decree under which it was his Lot to be born So that he that hath imbibed this Doctrine hath cut the Sinews of all industry if he acts consequentially to what he himself doth believe Nay but the means are ordained as well as the end may some say True they are so But to the far greatest part of men if their opinion were true God should command them to seek his face in vain for those means could never attain the end for which men should use them namely the Salvation of their souls For never any man from the foundation of the world under that Decreo was sav'd neither indeed can be though Moses and Samuel should pray for him or an Angel from heaven preach unto him he could not believe To what purpose now was the means ordained to these or the use of them Nay to what purpose should God wish the conversion of such sinners send his Embassadors to intreat and beseech them expostulate the case with them Why will ye die swear unto them As I live I had rather you should live if in the mean while he hath decreed their death before they did good or evil and in order to that Decree was resolved never to afford them power to perform any one act of saving grace Now whether there be insincerity in these Expressions or in their Opinions judg ye Nay let God be true and every man a liar Let us heartily believe that every mans destruction is wholly from himself and not from any fatal Decree of God Lastly it is objected the seventeenth Article of the Church of England says God hath decreed before the foundations of the world were laid by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from Curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind From whence they thus argue Before the foundations of the world were laid no man could do good or evil but even then some were chosen and consequently some not therefore those that were not chosen were rejected before they had done good or evil To this I answer as some were chosen in Christ and consequently others not chosen before the foundations of the world were laid so known unto God were all things before the foundations of the world were laid He knew the first man would fall
opinion Have they never read that when it was in force according to the Letter a man was stoned for gathering sticks on the Sabbath day But if the Equity only of that Law be in force at this day why are we accounted as Transgressors by them whilst we keep it according to the Moral Equity and the Precepts of the Church The truth is they are superstitious in the one and prophane in the other Can these men see that a Day may be holy because set apart for the service of God and can they not see that a Place likewise may be holy which is consecrated to his Worship Even the light of nature taught the Heathen if once a Thing was dedicated to God if it were a gift to devour that gift was Sacriledge and brought a Curse with it witness their Proverb concerning the Gold of Tholoss if it were a Place to prophane that place was sinful Procul hinc procul este prophani Conclamat vates and that they think so still I call the Morocco Embassadour to witness If it be said those times for Publick Worship are appointed by Gods immediate command as Moral and so are not publick places and in that respect we honour one more than the other I answer it is one thing to say it and another thing solidly to prove it for the set times appointed by God in the fourth Commandment were the seventh days from the Creation which on all hands is confest we keep not Again in what time soever the Church began to omit the last day of the Week and keep only the first that Week there was no seventh day Sabbath which could not lawfully have been done if one day of seven be moral and of perpetual Equity for what is Moral is unchangeable The truth is the fourth Commandment enjoyns us to set convenient times apart for Gods Service and that is a moral duty but our Lords Day is not appointed by that but by the Traditions of the Apostles and the Precepts of the Church Now we have not only the Precepts of the Church to esteem reverently of Gods House but the Precepts of the Apostles to do all things in Gods service decently and in order and when they did not St. Paul chides them thus What have you not houses to eat and drink in If any man hunger let him eat at home The dishonour that is done to God's House reflects upon God himself When Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel they brake down the house of Baal and made it a draught-house And so it must needs tend to the dishonour of Almighty God when we dishonour the place dedicated to his publick Worship Learned Mr. Mead did believe the instinct of nature taught the very Heathen that the Worship was dignified by the peculiarness of the place and the Magnificence of the Temple appointed for it It is likewise a Vulgar Error that possesseth the minds of many that to hear Preaching is the chief end of coming to God's House whereas joyning together in Prayer is to be preferred before it that which carries the denomination of a house is certainly the chief thing that is to be done in that house Now Gods House is not called the house of Preaching in Scripture but the house of Prayer I confess Preaching is a great Ordinance yet Prayer is a greater how meanly soever it is esteemed by many If there were nothing but Preaching they would come but if nothing but Praying they will not come But blessed Hannah was not of their mind she never refused to come to the Temple when there were Prayers there Surely the Error in this point is very great and one main cause I conceive is this people are lazy in the duties of Christianity and will not strive to enter in at the streight Gate now to hear a Sermon puts them to no great labour Nay happily the novelty of the Matter the variety of the Phrase may deceive that little toil of sitting and listening to it But Prayer is a lifting up of the Soul to God and our Souls are naturally tending downwards so that we may find it a weighty matter to lift them up long together and we are quickly weary of that work A righteous mans Prayer doth not avail much unless it be fervent now fervency cannot be unless our Hearts pant after God as the Hart after the Rivers of waters And to bring our hearts to this will cost us some pain unless we sigh and groan and so Gods Spirit helps us to do unless we mourn and weep so David often unless we wrestle with God as Jacob who wept and made his supplications unto him which things since they are so no marvel though a carnal heart had rather come to Preaching than to Praying 't is a great deal the easier duty take heed the Devil don't perswade you 't is in a manner the only duty lest he keep you with a form of Godliness without the power of it all your days When Joseph brought his two Sons to Jacob to be bless'd he thought his Father had been mistaken in preferring Ephraim before Manasses and he went to remove his Fathers hands saying Not so my Father this is the Elder lay thy right hand upon his head but he answered and said I know it my Son I know it he shall be great but truly his Brother shall be greater While some people think we are mistaken in preferring Praying before Preaching they are mistaken themselves and we may answer them We know not what we affirm we know it Preaching shall be accounted a great Ecclesiastical Ordinance but truly Prayer shall be a greater And as Publick Prayer hath a more especial promise to be heard than Private so likewise Prayers put up in Gods House have a more peculiar promise than if put up elsewhere Exod. 20.24 In all places where I record my name I will come unto thee and will bless thee All Objections to the contrary are but like those made against the waters of Jordan by Naaman Are not Abana and Pharphar Rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel may I not wash in them and be clean No the Promise is made to the waters of Jordan and not to those Now as the waters cleansed not the Leprosie by any Physical operation but by way of blessing so neither do our Prayers prevail for their worthiness but are heard for his Promise sake and his gracious goodness The Jews when they prayed at home were wont still to spread forth their hands towards the Temple 1 Kings 8.38 So Daniel his Windows being open towards Jerusalem he kneeled on his knees three times a day and prayed Dan. 6.10 Neither are people less mistaken concerning their Praises than concerning their Prayers in Gods House whilst they cry out of the Organ the Lute or the Harp as if it were sinfully ceremonious to sing Praises after that manner The Ceremonial Law was given by Moses but this was not given by Moses therefore