they are certainly right and well set for God but if to formality ceremony and exterior observations they are most assuredly wrong how right soever you may think them to be Secondly Examine and see how your will is inclined and this both to your selves and towards others First To your selves you see the will of God both negatively and affirmatively both in what you should and what you should not do herein that you should rent your hearts and that you should not rent your garments Examine then whether your wills be not cross and averse to this will of God that though God hath bid you rent your hearts and not your garments yet you will rent your garments and not your hearts you will be for formal and exterior observations rather than for that unfeigned repentance that is acceptable unto God It is said Psal 40.8 I delight to do thy will O God Examine then whether your will takes up a delight to be conformable to the will of God you pray every day Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven search therefore your own souls and see whether your will and heart be in that petition or whether you say it only by rote and custom if your will be well inclined to it then you will conform to the will of God here in the Text and not set up your posts against Gods posts nor your will against Gods will as you certainly do if you are for renting the garments before renting the heart and for formal observances before true and spiritual Worship Many a time in the Gospel you find our Lord answering supplicants Thus be it unto thee according as thou wilt O examine then your wills how they stand inclined for if they are not bent to God it were mercy to you if you miss'd your own wills So Saul found it before his conversion he would needs be going to Damascus while he was breathing out blood and cruelty to persecute the poor Christians there also but Almighty mercy prevented and made him miss his will in Acts 9. Among the many offerings which were in the time of the Law there was one which was called a free will-offering to which the Psalmist alludes Psal 119.108 Accept I beseech thee says he the free will offerings of my mouth O Lord and this offering above all the offerings seems to be most acceptable unto God it was purely voluntary because unconstrained therefore towards the place for the first publick Worship you find the people so liberal in this offering that Moses was fain to restrain them from offering any more Exod. 36.6 Now examine your selves whether your wills are thus bent for God whether you voluntarily and without any reluctancy or constraint so close with this holy pleasure and command of God nor to busie your selves about the many things of renting your garments and keeping a bustle about the formal ceremonious outward modes of Worship but have your wills taken up and wholly inclined to the one and only thing necessary the renting of your heart and if upon a thorow search you find your wills thus well inclined to your selves Then Secondly examine how they stand as to others for many are for that for themselves which they would deny to others they would be free themselves in their Worship but they would put a force on others Examine therefore how your wills stand inclined in this particular are you willing to give another the same measure that you would have meeted to you again do you love your neighbour as your self and are willing that he should rent his heart and worship God according to the perswasion of his Conscience though he do not rent his garments nor perform those formal and exteriour observations that you do as you your selves are willing to worship God according to the perswasion of your own Conscience are you willing to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace agreeable to that great exhortation Eph. 4.3 Or do your wills incline you to break all the bonds and tyes of unity love and peace which God and Nature have laid upon you because your neighbour doth not rent his garments and perform such formal and exteriour observations as you would have him In Mat. 13.14 our Lord put forth a Parable of a man which sowed wheat or good seed in his field and in the 25th an enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat in the 26th vers the tares appeared in the 27th vers the Ministers or servants tell their master of it in the 28th vers they ask the Master leave to root them out Wilt thou say they that we go and gather them up For they were willing to the work had he been so But now pray observe their masters answer and the reason thereof in the 29th vers But he said nay lest while ye gather up the tares ye root up also the wheat with them And in the 30th vers ye have the Masters express command Let both grow together until the harvest and this harvest our Lord himself tells you in the explanation of this Parable is the end of the world vers 39. And it is well we have our Masters mind in this matter for else here would be mad work in the world for you see that the very Ministers are for rooting up and pray whether would this go and where would be an end of it for we reckon the Dissenters tares and we would be a rooting up of them then the Papists reckon us the tares and they would be rooting out of us And 't is well if the Turk do not reckon both them and us all tares and would be a rooting up both them and us and the whole Christian name for tares So that all the bonds not only of Christianity would be broken but those of common society also Therefore try your wills by this command of your Masters for admit the Dissenters were tares which without a notorious breach of Christian charity you can never judg them to be for truly bate but their not renting their garments their conformity to a few formal and exterior Ceremonies they give as good an evidence that they are wheat and good grain as the best of us can do but I say admit they were yet here is the will and mind of your Lord concerning them and do you think that he did not know what was most fit and properest to be done in the field of his Church The Ministers you see then and I do not perceive that they have altered their temper yet were eager and hot to root them up Wilt thou say they that we go and gather them up Nay says our Lord lest while ye gather up the tares ye root up the wheat also He knew whither that zeal would tend and that though it pretended to root up none but tares yet it would fall upon the wheat too and therefore gives them a positive command to let them both grow together until the harvest Wherefore do you find your wills seconding the will of God in this command Or have you a rising of heart against it Examine well the matter for if your wills conform not to the will of Christ your Master even in this particular whatever opinion you may have of your selves you are the worst Nonconformists that the Church hath in it for your Nonconformity is of a cruel and a bloody nature and such as would make the Church a Shambles You see what work the Inquisition hath made in the world and all those murders and mischiefs that it hath committed have been perpetrated under the pretence of plucking up of tares Make a thorough inquiry therefore into your hearts and search the most inward recesses of your souls how the inclinations of your wills are in this point lest you also fulfill that dreadful Prophecy of our Saviour Of setting a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter in law against her mother in law and make a mans fees to be those of his own houshold Mat. 10.35 36. And lest under the pretence of Law you break all the Laws of God Nature Duty and Relation to the observance of which you are so strictly injoined But if you find your wills inclined to answer the will of Christ and will use no other force than Gospel arguments and an upright conversation to convert and turn the Tares to be good seed and are willing that others should live quietly that rent their hearts though they do not conform to such renting of the garments to such exterior forms and Ceremonies as you practice then have we ground to believe that God will accept us and turn away that deluge of wrath which threatens our King our Church our Princes our Nobles and all ranks degrees and orders of men in the Land for the aversion of which we do solemnize this day and which God of his insinite mercy grant for his dear Sons sake our Lord Jesus Christ Amen FINIS
Popery and Hypocrisy Detected and Opened FROM THE HOLY SCRIPTURES As it respects Magistrates Ministers and People IN A SERMON Upon the Occasion of A General Fast Kept Decemb. 22. 1680. By the Author of the Plotters Doom A True Son of the Church of England LONDON Printed for Richard Janeway in Queens-Head-Alley in Pater-Noster Row 1680. A Fast-Sermon Upon JOEL II. 13. Rent your Heart and not your Garments and turn unto the Lord your God BY the Commands of God and the Government we are here assembled to celebrate a Fast and I have chosen this Text as suitable to the Occasion because it instructs us how to perform our Duty herein both acceptably unto God and profitably unto our selves without which our present Fasting and all our Religious Performances are but a meer mocking of the Almighty and putting a Cheat upon our own Souls I shall not insist on the Context any farther then to give you a general scope of this Prophecy that you may see how this Command in the Text to rent our Heart and not our Garments doth arise The Prophet foreseeing sundry Judgments of God impending and ready to fall on this drousie stupid sottish People calls on them to awake Awake ye Drunkards Chap. 1.5 and weep and howl all ye drinkers of Wine And when he hath thus awakened them he gives them such a dreadful description of those Judgments that the Lord was a bringing on their Land that he declares the very Earth shall quake before them nay the Heavens themselves shall tremble at them in the 10th verse of this Chapter and certainly they must be notable Judgments that makes both Heaven and Earth to quake and tremble at them You read in many places such Judgments threatned that the Earth should tremble at them but here are such Judgments as shall make the Earth and Heavens too to tremble Well therefore might the Prophet after this amazing description of this great and terrible day of Judgment which he denounced was coming on them ask this question Who was able to abide it vers 11. For if the Earth quake and the Heavens tremble at it 't is no marvel that the Sinners in Zion are afraid and that fearfulness surprizeth the Hypocrites as Isaiah expresseth it Isa 33.14 The Prophet having thus declared the greatness and terribleness of their approaching Doom proposeth to them the one and onely way to prevent it and that is Repentance One branch of which Proposition is this of my Text for the whole runs thus Therefore also now saith the Lord Turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning vers 12. and rent your heart and not your Garments as here in the Text. To which thus briesly I have brought you and given you the occasion of these words Rent your Heart and not your Garments Which before I handle I must crave leave to give you these following Remarks upon the Context 1. That the Almighty seldom or never strikes a Nation with his Judgments but he gives them first a Warning of it 2. That the Warnings that God gives a Nation of his approaching Judgments ought to rouz and awaken them to their Duty 3. That nothing can avert Gods Judgments on a Nation for their Sins but Repentance 4. That it hath ever been the wont and practice of the true Prophets and faithful Ministers of God to preach forgiveness of Sins and aversion of Judgments upon no other terms but Repentance onely And now I proceed with the Text Rent your heart and not your Garments and turn unto the Lord your God Wherein you have these three particulars Two Duties enjoyned And One Practice forbidden The two Duties enjoyned are these 1. Rent your Heart 2. Turn unto the Lord your God The Practice forbidden is That they should not rent their Garments The whole Text is but a figurative Expression for it was a Custom amongst the Jews upon the hearing of any sad disaster that either had or was like to happen upon their Nation in general or upon their Families or themselves in particular to rent their Garments So upon the sight of Joseph's Coat the Patriark Jacob rent his Cloaths Gen. 37.34 through an apprehension that his Son was destroyed and so you sind King Hezekiah upon that invective and menacing Speech of Rabsheka rent his Cloaths Isa 37.1 Likewise Ezra upon hearing the enormous behaviour of the People rent his Garments and his Mantle Ezra 9.3 And you read that Tamar King David's Daughter being ravished by her Brother Amnon rent her Garment of divers colours 2 Sam. 13.19 But this external sign of Sorrow grew at length so into meer custom and formality that it signified no more the sence of their minds then our common wearing of Mourning does And therefore God that did accept it while there was any thing in it now it was grown to be a Ceremony only would have none of it but expresly forbids it saying Rent your heart and nâ—t your Garments As if the Lord should say Come don't ye think to cheat me with your pitiful feigned and formal Repentance of renting your Garments and tearing your Cloaths while you keep your sins whole But instead of all this ado of renting your Garments rent your Hearts 'T is not your Cloaths 't is your Wickedness and your Corruptions that I would have you rent off from you Wherefore rent your Hearts the Seat and Fountain of all your guilt and don 't ye think that the tearing your Coats shall explate your Sins or make an amends for your breaking my Commands and the defiling your own Consciences Wherefore the Text affords us this Proposition That true Repentance and such as is acceptable to God consists not in any formal exterior Observations but in the renting off of Sin from the Heart The terms of this Proposition are so plain that they need no explanation for the known and common acceptation of Repentance is the best that It is an Aversion from Sin and a Conversion to God And by formal and exterior Observations is meant such Religious Performances as Custom and Tradition not Divine Injunction hath deliver'd to and imposed upon us And therefore I proceed to the proof of the Proposition which is two-fold 1. Negative That true Repentance and such as is acceptable to God consists not in any formal outward Observations 2. Positive That it doth consist in renting off Sin from the heart But I doubt I shall not be able in this present opportunity to reach unto this second head of our Proposition Wherefore to the first or negative part thereof 1. That true Repentance and such as is acceptable unto God consists not in any formal exterior Observations For the proof of this part of the Proposition take ye the Pharisees who certainly were the greatest Sticklers for and Promoters of such Observations of any Generation of men that ever you read of either in sacred Writ or in prophane for they were so eaten
up with the rust and canker of Ceremonies and Traditions that Christ tells you that they made the Commandments of God of none effect by them Mat. 15. â— and yet you find these men for all their multitudes of formalities and superficial Observations were so far from true Repentance and such as is acceptable unto God that our blessed Lord accounts and calls them but Hypocrites who though they did draw nigh to him with their mouth and honour him with their lips yet their hearts were far from him vers 7 8. And therefore it is worthy your notice that our Saviour denounces more Woes against this Generation then against all the World bolides and testifies that for all their protended zeal and sanctity in their formal and outward demeanor that very Publicans and Harlots though they are but a brace of he most hateful 〈…〉 of People that the World has in it yet even those should go into the Kingdom of Heaven before them Matth. 21.31 In Isa 1.10 11. you meet with a Crew of Rulers and people so wickedly religious that they quite nauseated the Almighty with their Sacrifices insomuch that God forbids them bringing any more and yet for all this puther of Devotion you find that these mighty religious Rulers were but Rulers of Sodom and these bigotted people were but the people of Gomorrah vers 10. and therefore they and their Oblations both were but an abomination to the Lord. So that you see true Repentance consists not in exterior Observations The Prophet Jeremiah is commanded by the Lord in the beginning of Chap. 7. to go and stand in the Lords House and to proclaim there to all that go in at those gates to worship the Lord That they should amend their ways and their doings What Amend their ways and their doing when they are going into the Temple And going thither too to worship the Lord there Yes for you may go to Church and to Gods worship and yet go to the Devil too for all that if you are but such Worshippers as these were for in vers 9. you have this Character of them that they were Thieves and Murderers and Adulterers and perjured Persons and Idolaters which are but a pretty odd pareel of Worshippers of God And yet as odd as they are you hardly find any in all the Scriptures that cry up the Temple and God Almighties Church and Worship at a higher rate then these do vers 4. Insomuch that when the Prophet call'd for true Repentance from them to prevent that great Captivity was coming on them they had such a confidence in their Temple and their worshipping therein that they would not credit him in any of the threatnings and denunciations against them But for all their confidence in and crying up of the Temple pray see what a Resolution the Lord takes up concerning these wicked formal impious wretches for he commands his Prophet vers 16. that he should not so much as pray for them Pray not thou saith the Lord for this people neither lift up cry nor prayer for them neither make intercession to me for I will not hear thee What a Church and a Church that boasts it self so much in its Worship that pays so much Reverence and Respect to the Temple of the Lord that are such constant frequenters of Divine Service and of his Worship therein and that are every way so abundant in their Formalities and Religious Observations and yet to be such miscreants that neither Cry nor Prayer is to be lift up for them Yes such miscreants you see a Church may be Wherefore 't is not your going to Church no nor your performing Worship there that will ought avail you if you amend not your ways and your doings for these both went and worshipped too in the Temple and yet you see what vile Wretches nay very Castaways they were for all that From whence 't is manifest that true Repentance and such as is acceptable unto God consists not in any formal out-side Performance whatsoever And the Reasons are plain for if true Repentance that is such as is well-pleasing to God did consist in these customary external Compliances then the wickedest men and the worst of Hypocrites would be more acceptable to God than the sincerest Christians nay Papists would be more acceptable God than Protestants and Pagans then either for the worse the Worship is the more are the Ceremonies Balaam will have Seven Altars to Elijah's One for they are fain to supply the defects of their Worship by the multitude of exterior Performances and Observations Again If true Repentance and such as is acceptable to God did consist in such Observations then all the Scriptures were a falsity For why should the Lord command us to 〈…〉 Hearts and not our Garments if the renting of the Garments is that which is acceptable to him Why should the Lord profess himself to 〈◊〉 weary of their Sacrifices though a part of the 〈…〉 himself in the first of Isaiah and 〈…〉 to make our selves clean by putting away the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 before his Eyes and bid us cease to do evil and learn to do well In muttering over a few Prayers by rote and sorrowful faces â—â—c might serve the turn to what end are we told in the holy Word of God that the Lord is the Searches of Hearts and the Trâ—â—â— of Râ—â—ns and that he knows all our thoughts a far off it 〈◊〉 the work of Repentance and all our Religious Performances the formal and exterior Observations are that which are acceptable to him Nay why is Repentance why is Faith why is Love called Work and Labour in the Scripture Why is the way that leads to the Heavenly Kingdom called a narrow Way and 〈…〉 Gate and we commanded to strive to enteron and 〈◊〉 that many shall â—eâ—â— to enter in that shall not be able For all this labour and toil may be saved if formal and meer bodily Observations makes us acceptable unto God The first worship that we find performed unto God are the Offerings of the two Brothers Gain and Abelâ— in Gen. 4. and suâ—e 〈◊〉 manâ—â—â—â— render a reason why Caâ—â— and his â—â—â—â—ring should be 〈…〉 exterior Observations be â—â—â—ly required by 〈…〉 Wherefore let us now see what profitable Vse we may make from this 〈◊〉 of the Proposition That true Repentance and such as is accepâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 God consistâ— not in any formal and exterior Observation 〈…〉 the 〈◊〉 Use shall be for Instruction Is it so that true Repentance consists not in any exterior Observations Then hence we may learn how much and deservedly they are to blame that place 〈…〉 more in renting the garment then in renting the heart 〈…〉 to a Ceremony or some external Observation as an 〈…〉 of true Repentance Who instead of preaching up a good a virtuous and a Christian Life and of pressing their People to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance do lay out a deal of Dull Divinity in urging their Auditors to a
and renew a right Spirit within me Hence is it that King Hezekiah beseeched the Lord to remember for him how he had walked before him what in Ceremony and Formality No in truth and with a perfect heart Isa 38.3 and therefore the true Prophets of God have ever cryed out O Jerusalem wash thy heart from wickedness Jer. 4.14 They are pharisaical Hypocrites that cry up the washing of the hands and that place the total of Religion Divine Worship and Devotion in exterior Observations where Gods Word never placed it In the fifth of St. Matthew among those glorious Beatitudes of our blessed Saviour you will find one appropriated to the pure in heart ver 8. but you no where find a blessing appropriated to formal Ceremonies or bodily Gestures or lip Devotions wherefore those sowre and angry Gentlemen that are so mightily for the Gaityes of exterior Observances may do well to bethink themselves in time what answer they will give the Lord to that great question Isa 1.12 Who hath required this at your hands Secondly Let those that fall under this Reproof bethink themselves whether in their heat and zeal of preaching up Conformity to exterior Observations they have not fed their Flocks with husks instead of Bread And by reason of this may not your Hearers cry out with the Prophet My Leanness my Leanness Wo unto me Isa 24.16 In the Jewish Church there were many external Observances commanded and therefore had Divine Authority for their warrant and yet when these Externals were screw'd up to that height and grew so rank that Religion run all into stalk and had nothing but a bare appearance and mere outside in it the Lord loathed and abhorred them though they had his own Precept for them Pray will you see how that great and Evangelical Prophet Isaiah both opens and shuts up his Prophecy In his first Chapter you find him opening his Prophecy thus Thus saith the Lord Bring no more vain Oblations Incense is an Abomination to me the New Moons and Sabbaths the Calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meetings your New Moons and your appointed Feasts my Soul hateth they are a trouble unto me I am weary to bear them And now see how he shuts up his Prophecy in his last Chapter He that killeth an Oxe is as if he slew a man he that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck he that offereth an Oblation as if he offered Swines blood he that burneth Incense as if he blessed an Idol ver 3. Yet Sacrifices Oblations Incense New Moons Sabbaths their solemn Assemblies and their Festivals were all commanded by the Lord but when all Religion came to be put in these exterior Observations and that they eat up and usurped the place of the life and power thereof they became an Abomination to God and all good men and their Sacrifices Oblations and Incense were but as Murder Prophanity and Idolatay before the Lord. A mighty memorable and particular instance of this matter you have in the Second of Kings Chap. 18. ver 4. In the third Verse it is said that King Hezekiah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that David his Father did And the fourth Verse tells you what those right things were He removed the high Places he brake the Images he cut down the Groves and that he might make clear work it is added that he brake in pieces the brazen Serpent that Moses had made The occasion of making it you will find in the twenty first of Numbers which was thus The Children of Israel in their Journeyings in the Wilderness were grievously afflicted with fiery Serpents which bit and killed many of them Upon this the people besought Moses that he would pray unto God for them that he would take away those Serpents which Moses did And the Lord gave this answer to the prayer of Moses ver 8. Make thee a fiery Serpent and set it upon a pole and it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live And in the ninth Verse Moses made this Serpent of Brass and put it upon a pole and it came to pass that if a Serpent had bitten any man when he beheld that Serpent of brass he lived as the Lord had promised And you find that this brazen Serpent had the honour to be reckoned a Type of Christ even by our Lord himself John 3.14 As Moses lift up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so says our Saviour must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life How then comes it about that the breaking this brazen Serpent in pieces should be one of those excellent Acts which is said to be right in the sight of the Lord Why the Text tells you that the Children of Israel burnt Incense to it And when any thing becomes an Idol though it hath been honoured with never so great a Divine presence and hath performed never so many and mighty operations and have been never so much instrumental in the hand of God to work wonders in the world yet it must be removed and destroyed A Mind that is throughly set for God and a Magistrate that is resolved to discharge his duty aright must down with not only Images and Groves and those grosser parts of Idolatry and Will-worship but the brazen Serpent also when it not only ceaseth to propagate true Religion but is set up in opposition against it For though it have been never so useful and serviceable to heal and save the people formerly yet when it does degenerate and becomes instrumental to destroy them it should down too for 't is not their past excellency nor service should prevail with you to spare them when they are become a present damage Well then if exterior Observations of Gods own appointment and such as have had his express Commands to warrant them may become so abominable when it runs up into Forms and Ceremonies only and engages it self in a direct opposition to the power and life of Religion how abominably abominable must those Observations needs be that have no sacred Sanction and at best nothing but humane Precepts and humor to maintain them And are they to be reproved that exalt and cry up the formal and external Observations of Instituted Worship and give it the preference to the internal and Spiritual part of Religion as such as do but betray and undo their hearers And are they to be excused that magnifie and exalt the formal and exterior Observations of invented Worship to the eternal and everlasting Ruin of the Souls that credit them God forbid But I must go on Thirdly Let such as are included in this Reproof bethink themselves for whatever they may fancy they are but of the Devils side and are but doing this work for God calls for renting the heart 't is the Devil
would not break his own Precepts For 't is his Precept that you should only rent your Hearts but that you should not rent your Garments and do you think that the Lord would go against his own Will and against his own Word and if you think that he would not then why do you For God has not advanced you and set you in those high Stations and in his Stead that you should rule ad libitum and make your own Lusts and not his Laws the Standards of your Actions No Let who will teach you these Doctrines 't is but slight Crapedivinity and such as the Ancients and the Orthodox never knew Listen not therefore to those that put you upon such wild and Savage Notions to persecute all that are not for renting their Garments for every formal and exterior Observation and be not rode by those heady humerous persons to your own destruction You have seen how they have embroiled this Kingdom and that of Scotland too in a bloody and intestine War upon the Account of Ceremonies and exterior observations once already For this quarel of theirs has cost more English and Scottish blood than all the Ceremonies of the Roman Church and Ours too are worth though they were bound in one bundle both together Wherefore please to Remember that Exhortation in the second Psal and the tenth vers Bâ—â—â—â—se now therefore O ye Kings be Instructed ye Judges of the Forth And truly ye have need of Wisdom and Instruction 〈◊〉 you stand but in slippery places And if you trust your â—â—lves so wholly to the Conduct of others as that that yoâ— will see by no Eyes but theirs nor hear with no Ears but theirs nor will make use of no sence of your own but theirs you may soon slide For if so great a Man and so great a Magistrate as David was and one that kept such a diligent watch over himself tells you that his seet were almost gone his steps had well nigh slipped Psal 73.2 surely Governours ought to be very carefull of their footing and to see that they be not trapann'd neither by themselves no nor by the advice of others into precipitate Acts. How happy was it for King Ahasuerus that the followed his own sence and not Hamans and how happy had it been for Pilate if he had obeyed his own Judgment and not followed the hot and furious Clamors of that Corrupt Clergy Math. 27.20 21 22. Have a care therefore how ye are engaged by others to lay out your Power or else before you are aware you 'l miscarry in the Eleventh of Matth. and the Eleventh verse you read of one of the greatest men that ever the World brought forth For our Saviour testifies that among them that are born of Women there hath not rosen a greater than John the Baptist and yet this great man lost his Head to please a Miss For though King Herod feared him and knew that he was a just man and a holy nay though he observed him and when he heard him did many things and heard him Gladly Mark 6.20 yet Herodias's Daughter Danced off his Head for all that so that you had need look about you that you be not surprized and this in all Cases but especially in those that relate to Renting the Garments and exterior Observations because your Flatterers will perswade you in that Case that your sin is so far from being a sin that it is a Service to God and a Service to his Church according to that Prophecy of our Saviour Joh. 16.2 the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God Service and when men especially Magistrates are under that Mistake that they reckon their Sin to be their Duty they then play the Devil for Gods sake In the 66 of Isaiah and the 5 verse you will find a people that hated their Brethren and cast them out and yet said Let the Lord be Glorified they sang their Gloria Patri even while they were engaged in the Devils work But the Text tells you that God should appear to the joy of them that were Hated and Persecuted and their Enemies for all their Crying Let the Lord be Glorified should be ashamed 'T is not therefore your Crying Glory to the Father To the Son and to the Holy Ghost that will ought avail you or stand you in any stead while you hate and Persecute your Brethren because they cannot Conform to our exterior Observations Be admonished then to let your people alone and if they Rent their Hearts Live honest and vertuous Lives let it satisfy you though they cannot rent their Garments and Conform to every outward Ceremony or Observance And since the Lord hath Commanded them not to Rent their Garments let not your Commands run counter or contrary to the Lords lest you be found sighters against God and Advancers of your Laws in opposition to and above the Laws of the Almighty in the Prophecy of the Prophet Malachy you find the Lord displeased that they offer'd up to him such Blind and Lame and Sick Sacrifices that their Governours would not accept from their hands though they offer it unto them Mal. 1.8 And sure the Lord would be much more displeased if Governours should Punish their People for Offering such Sacrifices as are acceptable unto him and the Psalmist tells you that the Sacrifices that are acceptable to God are a broken Spirit For a broken and a contrite heart sayes he O God thou wilt not despise Psal 51.17 And therefore have we this Command in the Text to Rent our Hearts as the only Sacrifice that is Acceptable unto God and will you dare to contradict this Command and Oblige your people to Rent their Garments which the Lord hath expresly forbidden as that which is unacceptable to him God sorbid And thus much to the Governours Come we now to the second part of this Admonition to the Governed Is it so that true Repentance and such as is acceptable unto God consists not in any formal or exterior Observations Then be you admonished to two Duties First To Moderation Secondly To Peaceableness 1. To Moderation that 's a great Exhortation the Apostle gives us in the fourth of Philip. and fifth verse Let your Moderation be known unto all men and 't is an admirable Reason that the Apostle annexeth to enforce his Exhortation For the Lord says he is at hand You see here in the Text and from the plain Word of the Lord that 't is not renting your Garments nor any exterial observations but the renting of the Heart that is Commanded and Accepted of God Then be not immoderate for any external Observances for if ye are true Religion never will nor can take root in you In the fourth of St. John Christ met with a poor Samaritan Woman and discours'd her so long that at length she saw he was a Prophet and therefore resolved that she would improve the present Opportunity But how Not by enquiring after
for all our new fashioned Divinity is for the other Calculation and mightily dissatisfied if you don't put the Church before the State however I address my-self first to you Is it so that true repentance and such as is acceptable unto God consists not in renting the garments or exterial observations then be you exhorted to examine your selves whether you lay out your Magistracy consonant to and agreeable with this Doctrine The highest Character that was veer given to any Magistrate is that which we find given to David That he was a man after Gods own heart And indeed the heart and mind of a Magistrate should be agreeable to the heart and mind of God for he bears his Image and is his Deputy in the Earth Upon which account Magistrates are also stiled Gods in Scripture Now therefore examine your selves as to this duty before you and see how your hearts stand affected towards it God is all for renting of the heart for zeal and spiritual worship on such days and in such duties as we are now engaged in But are you not more or rather for renting the garment for vain Ceremonies and humane invented observations How then comes this discrepancy betwixt the heart of God and your hearts between Gods mind and your minds Inquire well into the matter for there must be a fault some where and it cannot be on the Lords part Hath not God told you by his own Son That he is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth and that his Father seeketh such to worship him Joh. 4.23 24. And will you seek such to punish them Examine your selves and do not think to shamm it off That 't is for the Church that you do this Pray turn to 1 Sam. 15. and you will there find one of the greatest Cheats that you meet with in the whole Word of God for 't was by a Magistrate and a Magistrate of the highest Order and 't was a Cheat that had a pretence for the Church too The business is this King Saul received a commission from God to go and smite the Amalekites for laying wait for Israel in their way when they came up from Egypt and the summ of the Commission you have in the third verse Go and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not but slay both man and woman infant and suckling ox and sheep camel and ass Pursuant to this Commission Saul gathers 210000 of the people together and goes up and smote the Amalekites but spared Agag their King and the best of their sheep and of the oxen and the fatlings and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them But every thing that was vile and refuse that they destroyed utterly vers 9. Upon this breach of his Commission the Lord sends his Prophet Samuel to meet Saul at his return and you find that Saul met Samuel in a very brisk humour vers 13. for Saul said unto him Blessed be thou of the Lord I have performed the commandments of the Lord. But Samuel replied What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear vers 14. And now pray see the Cheat that Saul would have put upon the Almighty and his Prophet for he saw he was run on ground and therefore observe his answer The people says he spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God ver 15. So he would have shuffed off and excused his sin upon the specious pretence of maintaining the Church and the Worship of God But this would not do for the Prophet reproves him in vers 22. thus Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams for Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft 'T is the disobedience of a King against his God is so stiled and therefore he proceeds and tells him his doom That because he had rejected the word of the Lord the Lord had rejected him from being King And that 's all that Saul got by this Cheat. Do not think therefore to palliate your faults with your esteems for the Church and the Divine Service of God for God had rather have no such Worship at all than a Worship that must be supported and maintained by the breach of his holy Commands In the 7th of St. Mark you may see a knot of Hypocrites and such as were of no inferiour rank neither So much for the Charch that they break not only the Law of God but the Law of Nature too for the Law of Nature as well as the Law of God obligeth us to honour our Parents and as a part of that honour to succour and relieve them in their necessities but they were so unnaturally Religious that they would give to the Church what they should give to their Parents and by their gift to the Church they were held absolved from the Law of God and Nature to do ought for their father or mother vers 11 12 so that let their father and mother starve if they would for them they were resolved to be superabundantly Religious But God bless us from such an unnatural and abominable Religion Well therefore might our Saviour conclude that Discourse with this remark That Traditional men and such as are so much for exteriour observations do ever make the Word of God of no effect vers 13. You were as good have no Bibles for they will suffer you to make no use of them for these Jews they had the Law of Moses and it was read in their Synagogues every Sabbath day as St. James assures us Act. 15.21 And though in that Law it was written Honour thy father and mother and that too with a promise of length of days yet you see when mens Traditions prevailed it had been as good they had had no Law at all And therefore by the way whatsoever Profession or form of Religion makes you barbarously sowre and unnatural to your Relations friend and neighbours which the Law of God and the bands of Humanity obligeth you to love respect and tender you may lay your life upon it that that Profession and form of Religion is but a false and counterfeit Christianity be what it will Wherefore you that are Magistrates had need examine and try your selves and to purpose too whether you are for that Religion which is acceptable to God the renting of your heart or whether you are for that only which consiâ—ts in renting the garments and trifling reservations And so much to the Magistrates The next Head is to the Ministers and would to God there were no cause to press the improvement of this Point upon us also But methinks I hear the Lord saying Physician cure thy self Luk. 4.23 We are called the Physicians of Souls and usually say the
up and espousing the interest of a Bigotted Popish Successor any demonstration of our zeal to the Protestant Religion The Prophet Zephaniah tells us of a strange odd kind of dappled people that lived in his Age that did swear by the Lord and that swear by Melcham i. e. by the true God and by a false God too Zeph. 1.5 somewhat too like many of the Ministers and Popish-Protestants that are for our Church and the Church of Rome too and indeed for any Church provided they are but for renting the garments and superficial observances and lip-labour only and can withal keep their Honours Preferments and Revenues You read in Exod. 12.38 That a mixed multitude went up with the children of Israel out of Egypt for we are but party-colour'd and mixt men at the best where I take mixed multitudes for men of mixed spirits But upon what grounds or inducements they went up we do not find but this we find that upon all occasions they were the forwardest to murmur and repine and for returning into Egypt again The like may be said of many that came out of the Roman bondage with us in the first Reformation upon what account they came with us we know not but this we know that these men of mixed spirits have always been for returning to old idolatrous Garlick and Onyons I mean to Rome again Let us therefore I say examine our hearts and upon a strict impartial disquisition it will be well if many of us of the Clergy do not find that most of our envy and passion against our dissenting brethren proceeds from this that they are for going forwards still and further Reforming whereas we are for going back or for staying where we are at the best And I doubt the truest Reason of our hatred to them is that they are for renting the Heart which is grounded on the Commands of God and that we are for renting the garments and outward Ceremonies which are founded on the fancies or superstitions of men wherefore the Lord grant that we may examine our selves thoroughly in this matter And so I pass to the Third and last Head of this Examination and with which I shall conclude and that is to the People 3. Is it so that true Repentance and such as is acceptable to God consists not in renting the garments c. then examine your selves whether ever you did truly repent or no whether in duties of this kind that we are now a celebrating you have not been like those in Isa 58. that fasted for strife and debate and to strike with the fist of wickedness that hung down their heads like a bullrush and spread sackcloth and ashes under them or like those hypocrites that the Lord speaks of in Mat 6. that put on sad countenances and disfigured their faces that they might appear unto men to fast But this is of no value but only to aggravate your condemnation 't is not your putting on your black nor your pulling off your Patches nor your Paint or laying aside your Russian Periwigs for a day that the Lord respects No no this amounts to nothing in his sight examine your selves therefore for if you have only rent your garments and performed the outward part of Religion think of your selves what you will you are but in a miserable condition That is a mighty word of our Lord in Matt. 21.28 29 30. A certain man says our Saviour had two sons and he came to the first and said Son go work to day in my vineyard he answered and said I will not but afterwards repented and went and he came to the second and said likewise and he answered and said I go Sir but went not His second son seems to pay great observance to his fathers pleasure and to be a perfect conformist to his fathers commands very ceremonious and reverential in his answer I go Sir says he but for all these good words and exteriour appearances of obedience he was of a wicked false deceitful heart and did but delude his father with his conformity for he never went to the work commanded Now examine whether of the sons you are for if you are not of the number of those that only refused to go yet afterwards repented and went you are certainly of the race of the second son that said I go Sir but lyed and went not But that you may be more faithful to your selves in the discharge of this duty of examination try your selves in these Two particulars 1. How your affections stand 2. How your wills are inclined 1. How your affections stand search your souls and see whether you are more in love with renting your garments or renting your hearts whether you are more taken with the new fashion'd modes and gaities of a glittering formal exteriour profession or with the old fashion'd plainness and sincerity of Gospel-worship In 2 King chap. 5. you have a great man coming to Elisha to be cleared of his Leprosie and he came in great state with his Horses and Chariots and stood at the door of the house of Elisha and Elisha sent a Messenger unto him saying Go and wash in Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall come again to thee and thou shall be clean vers 9.10 Now here was the end for which he came for his end was to be clean but because the means to that end was not so formal and full of ceremony as he would have them he went away in a huff vers 15. And Naaman was wroth and went away and said Behold I thought the Prophet would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over the place and recover the Leper And because the Prophet did not follow those methods in cleansing which he had fancied he turns and went away in a rage But you find that he had some wit in his anger and though he would not hear the Lords servant yet he would hear his own servant reason him out of his Choler and then he went into Jordan seven times according to the saying of the man of God and was cleansed vers 13 14. Now examine your selves whether this be not your case you would be cleansed but it must be by such gentle and ceremonial methods as you fancy or else you are wroth and going away in a chaff as mediums too mechanick and beneath your grandure try now your affections in such a case is not the simplicity and plainness of the Gospel an offence to you and are you not for Humane Trappings and Gauderies that may put a greater finery and pomp upon them so that you are wrath with all those that think sound Truths are the greatest beauties when they are most unarted and in their own dress Sound your affections therefore how they stand in this case Whether they be for inward work renting the heart or outward only for renting the garments and if they give the preference to heart-work
thorow Conformity to a few Humorous and Caprioious Ceremonies In the 15th of St. Matth. and the beginning of the Chapter you find the Scribes and Pharisees for want of other matter quarrelling our Saviour because his Disçiples transgressed the Tradition of the Elders in eating Bread without washing their hands A tidy crime and cause of quarrel was it not And yet you may see by our Lords reasoning that they were such Traditional and Ceremony-Fopps that they would quarrel him and his Disciples too sooner and fiercer upon this account than if they had broken a Commandment of God Would to God the Papists only had the Succession of this Pharisaical temper among them but the more is the pity we daily see and hear protestant Pharisees as well as Popish who had rather mix Heaven and Earth together and hazard the consusion of Church nay and State too than part with a dry and empty Ceremony what if I should instance but in Christening with the Sign of the Cross I doubt I am not uncharitable in thinking that many even of us Protestant Ministers would rather never Christen a Child at all than to Christen it without that Ceremony though they do acknowledge that Christening is a Divine Command and the Signing with the Cross is but a Humane and that the Child is never the better for it nor never the worse without it As for them indeed that do think that the Sign of the Cross hath some magical vertue in it that it is a spiritual Spell to drive away Spirits and Hobgoblins and a good guard against Jack o' th' Lanthorn and haunted Houses and that do believe it keeps the Devil in some better decorum towards us than otherwise he would observe they have some pretence to be tenacions of it but we that laugh at such fooleries and that deny these Popish and pious Frauds as sitter to be ridiculed than to have any Reverence done them for us I say to be so peevishly fond of it as that we will break all the bonds of Love and Peace rather than part with it does shew us rather of an obstinate and a passionate than of a Religious Mind I might instance in other Ceremonies also but this is sufficient to instruct us that our Conformity to formal and exterior Observations in Religious matters is no Essential part of a sound and true Repentance Secondly Is it so that true Repentance and such as is acceptable unto God consists not in any formal and exterior Observations then be instructed not to overvalue them there is a mighty propensity in our Natures to say of our exterior Observations as Micah did of his Consecrated Levite Judg. 17. last ver Now know I says he that the Lord will do me good seeing I have a Levite to my Priest But he was so mistaken that you find in the very next Chapter that this very Priest which he hugg'd himself so much for joyn'd with a company of Robbers to plunder his Masters House and steal away his Gods from him ver 20. So all your Confidence in the external parts of Religion will but serve you like this Levite Cheat and deceive you Nay of all the deceits in nature this is the most dreadful for it not only deludes you to the day of your Death but continues its delusion at the very day of Judgment for in the 7th of St. Matthew you find that these Confidents come with such a marvellous boldness to Christ that they argue the matter with him saying Lord Lord have we not preached in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful works vers 22. Nay the Evangelist St. Luke goes further and tells you that these mistaken Souls demand entrance into Heaven saying Lord Lord Open unto us For we have received the Sacrament eat and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our Streets Luke 13.25 26. Good Lord what a dreadful delusion is this that carries exterior Professors not only through Death but to the day of Judgment too and are never convinced of their mistake till they receive that final and eternal doom Depart from me ye warkers of Iniquity v. 27. And certainly it is from hence that St. John the Baptist thus chargeth the Pharisees and Sadduces that came to his Baptism Think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father Matth. 3.9 As if he should say Have a care for that thought will make you rest short of true Religion and make you miscarry at the last And as St. John bid them that they should not think to say that they had Abraham to their Father so I bid you do not think to say that you have the Church for your Mother for it is not your being Sons of the Church if you reckon your Sonship merely from your Birth or Baptism or outward Conformity that will profit you any thing for you may come to Church and perform all the Ceremonies and exterior parts of worship and yet be bid depart at last among the workers of Iniquity if the Power of Godliness as well as the Profession thereof be not found in you Wherefore be instructed not to overvalue any formal or external part of Religion whatsoever And thus much for Instruction Come we next to Rproof If it be so that true Repentance and such as is acceptable unto God consists not in any outside Formalities then be Reproved all ye of the Clergy that do so utterly pervert your Office and the Ends of your Ministry What were you sent of God to preach Repentance and remission of Sins to the Children of men Are you sent by God to cry out to men that they should Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matth. 3.2 And to awake them that sleep that they should Arise from the dead that Christ may give them light Ephes 5.14 What were you sent to bid men Rent their hearts and not their garments and to turn men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Matth. 26.18 And do you spend your Ministry about such tristing stuff such sorry things as you your selves acknowledge to be but indifferent Truly this is but indifferent Divinity and such as I doubt you will give but a very indifferent Account of when our great Lord and Master shall appear therefore pray bethink your selves For First Consider seriously whether ever God required this at your hands He hath required here in the Text you see that you should bid men Rent their hearts and not their Garments But where hath he required you to teach men to Rent their Garments and not their hearts to observe the formal and exterior parts of Religion more than the real and interior parts thereof For Religion is a heart work and consists not in Formality but Reality and therefore the good men of God have prayed in all Ages like David in the 51 Psal ver 10. Create in me a clean heart O God