ill Effects 1. It maketh differences unreconcileable 2. It disadventages their Cause and Persons that use them with sober men 3. It exposeth Religion it self to the derisiof Atheists and increaseth such More of this evil with a Concluding Counsel to use more Temperance Prudence and Moderation in Contests about the Circumstantials of Religion p 20. 21. The Contents of the Additional Testimonies 1 THe Lord Bacons words in his Advertisement of the Controversies of the Church of England 2. His words in his Considerations for better Pacification and Edification of the Church of England Lest the Reader accuse me of omitting any part I had rather he would read all those two Treatises himself than those Scraps 3 Animadversions of the Transcriber 4. Some passages of Doctor Isaack Barrow PART I. OF RELIGION The Ends and Uses of it and the Errors of Men touching it TRUE Religion is the greatest Improvement Advantage and Priviledge of Humane Nature and that which gives it the noblest and highest Pre-eminence above other visible Creatures We may observe in many Bruit Beasts and Birds admirable Instincts Dexterities and Sagacities and in some of them some dark resemblances of Reason or Ratiocination But Religion is so appropriate to the Humane Nature that there are scarce any sort of Men but have some Religion Nor do the most subtle or sagacious Bruits afford any signs thereof as communicated to their Natures It is one of the chiefest Mercies and Blessings that Almighty God hath afforded to the Children of Men and that which signally manifests his Providential Care towards and over them that in all Ages and among all Nations he hath given to them some Means and Helps to discover unto them though in different Degrees some principal Sentiments of true Religion 1. By the secret Characters and Impressions and Structures thereof in their Minds and Consciences 2. By his Glorious and admirable Works commonly called the Works of Nature 3. By signal Providences and Providential Regiment of the World 4. By raising up Men in all Ages of great Wisdom Observation and Learning which did instruct the more ignorant in this great Concernment the Rudiments of Natural Religion 5. By Traditionary Transmission of many important Truths and Directions of Life from Ancestors to their Posterity and others Though in process of time evil Customs and evil Men did in a great measure impair and corrupt the Sentiments and Practices of Men notwithstanding these helps Therefore the same Mercy and Goodness of God for the preservation and propagation of the true Religion was pleased to substitute a more fixed and permanent means namely the Holy Scriptures or Divine Revelations committed to Writing in the Books of the Old and New Testament Though the Religion delivered in both Testaments be in substance the same yet the true Religion was more fully and plainly and distinctly delivered by Christ and his Apostles in the New Testament together also with some additional Instructions for the better preservation and propagation thereof to Mankind and divers additional Evidences to prove and manifest the truth of this Religion to procure its belief and acceptation As the Birth Miracles Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ Jesus the great Reformer of the Jewish and great Institutor of the Christian Religion so called from Christ that taught and asserted it The Christian Religion is the most perfect Rule of our Duty to God our selves and others and was designed principally for these Great Ends. 1. To restore to the Glorious God the Honour Duty and Obedience of his Creature Man teaching him to Know to Glorifie and Serve his Creator to be Thankful to him to submit to his Will to obey his Law and Command to be thankful for his Mercies to acknowledge him in all his ways to call upon him to Worship him to depend upon him to walk sincerely in his sight to admire and adore his Greatness and Goodness in all his works especially in the great work of the Redemption of Mankind by his Son Christ Jesus 2. To inable Man to attain everlasting Happiness the perpetual Vision of the Glorious God and to fit and prepare him to be a partaker of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light and Glory 3. To compose and settle Mankind in such a decent and becomingrectitude order and deportment in this World as may be suitable to the Existence of a Reasonable Nature and the Good of Mankind Which consistsprincipally in a double relation 1. To a Mans self Sobriety 2. To others which consists in those two great Habits or Disposition beneficent to Mankind viz. Righteousness or Justice and Charity or Love and Beneficence These three Great Ends are succinctly delivered Tit. 2. 11 12. For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World Here we have these three Ends of Christian Religion 1. Godliness or our Duty to God 2. Salvation or our own everlasting Happiness 3. Sobriety Righteousness which also includeth Charity a part of Evangelical Righteousness And because Christian Religion was intended and instituted for the good of Man-kind whether Poor or Rich Learned or Unlearned Simple or Prudent Wise or Weak it was fitted with such plain easie and evident Directions both for things to be known and things to be done in order to the attainment of the End for which it was designed that might be understood by any Capacity that had the ordinary and common use of Reason or Humane Understanding and by the common assistance of the Divine Grace might be practised by them The Credenda or things to be known or believed as simply necessary to those Ends are but few and intelligible briefly delivered in that Summary of Christian Religion usually called the Apostles Creed The Agenda or things to be done or forborn are those few and excellent Precepts delivered by Christ and his Apostles in that little Book of the New Testament and yet even the tenth part of that little Book will contain all the Precepts of Christian Duty and Obedience contained in that Book And in brief the Baptismal Covenant as it is contained in the Liturgy and Explanation thereof in the Church Catechism used among us together with the Precepts of the Decalogue contain in effect a Summary or brief Epitome of our Christian Duty And certainly it was necessary and becoming the Wisdom of the most Wise God that that Religion and Doctrine which equally concerned Men of all Kinds and Capacities should be accordingly accommodated as might be useful for all If the Doctrine or Precepts of Christian Religion should have been delivered in over sublime or seraphical expressions in high Rhetorical Raptures in intricate and subtile Phrases or Stile or if it should have been surcharged with multitude of particulars it would have been like a Sealed Book to the far greatest part of Mankind who yet were equally concerned in the Business and
The Judgment of the late LORD CHIEF JUSTICE Sir Matthew Hale Of the Nature of TRUE RELIGION THE CAUSES of its CORRUPTION And the Churches Calamity by Mens ADDITIONS and VIOLENCES With the desired Cure In three Discourses written by himself at several times Humbly Dedicated to the Honourable Judges and Learned Lawyers who knew and honoured the Author because in their true Sentiments of Religion and its Depravations and the Cure the wellfare of England under his Majesty as well as their own is eminently concerned By the faithful Publisher RICHARD BAXTER To which is annexed the Judgment of Sir Francis Bacon Lord Verulam St. Albans and Chancellour of England And somewhat of Dr. Isaack Barrows on the same subject Mat. 5. 9. Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Rom. 14. 17 18. The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the holy ghost For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men LONDON Printed for B. Simmons at the three Cocks near the West-end of S. Paul's Church 1684. A PREFACE With some Notes on these Discourses by the Publisher THe Publishing of these Discourses sheweth the great mutability of such weak understandings as my own Till very lately no Price could have hired me to Publish them lest it were a Violation of his Testament which saith that he would have no Writings of his Published but what in his Life Time he gave to be Published And he delivered not these in his Life Time to me In my ignorance this satisfied me But lately opening the Case to some Lawyers of known Eminence Honour and Integrity they have convinced me that I cross his Will and the Common good by my Suppressing them The Case is this When he was gone from us in great Weakness to the Place of his Death in my last Letter to him I told him how much good the Lord Bacon's Book called Considerations of Matters Ecclesiastical had done with many that too justly suspect Clergy Contenders of Partiality and that the Honour and Just Esteem that God had given him with all sorts of Men he owed to the Service of him that gave it And therefore knowing the doleful Case of this Land as div vided and striving about Religion I intreated him that he would Write his Judgment briefly and freely of the Cause and Cure The rather because his Contemplations were so acceptable to many In his last Letter answering this He professeth that those Contemplations were Printed without his Purpose Knowledge or Consent but thanks God if they did good though beyond his intent But though the rest be full of kindness I will not Publish it lest really it should violate his Will But when he was dead he who Published his Contemplations shewed me a Bag of his Mannuscripts small occasional Tractates and gave me out these three saying that They were directed For Mr. Baxter By which I knew they were by him given me in answer to my foresaid Letter which Craved the Publication of his Judgment of our Divisions But I conjecture they had been long before written by him at several Times and much to the same purpose and so I suppose that he gave them me and left the use of them to my Discretion Now say these Learned Lawyers A man may have several Wills in Writing in reference to several Things not repugnant but consistent and all shall stand and be taken as his last Will and may make several Executors and give them several distinct Powers And clausula generalis non porrigitur ad ea quae Specialiter nominantur And this Direction to you on that Occasion maketh it a Legacy bequeathed to you And the answering your Letter by it sheweth to what use And his after likeing of the publishing his Contemplations sheweth that he was not utterly against appearing in Print By this and much more they Satisfie me that it was my Ignorance that made me resolve to Conceal them I confess the Deliverer thought it best for me to make one Treatise out of them all Because being not intended for Publication at the Writing of them the same thing is repeated especially in two of them And that Repetition and the Brevity made me long undervalue them But I take it as an intollerable piaculum to put any altering hand of mine to the Writings of such a Man which I profess I have not done in adding expunging or changing one Word save some false spelling of the Scribe for only the Latin Verses and an enterlining or two are his own hand which I know by many a Sheet that I have had from him And as long as the Occasion of the Writing them is known I think it no dishonour to them to have these Repetitions At least not so much as my alterations would be Yea it is useful first as sully shewing the Readers that these are no hasty crude conceptions but matters that long and deeply dwelt in his heart 2. And Great matters specially to dull or unwilling or negligent Readers or hearers must be oft repeated for a Transient touch passeth away from such without any Effect O that the matter of these three Papers were Written and spoken an hundred times if it would make Rulers and Teachers and People once truly to consider and receive them as they deserve Yet upon oft perusal I find that the Repetition is joyned with variety of inference and Application And he hath too Queasy a Stomach that will Nauseate them in so short discourses on so great a Subject so necessary to a People dissolving by wilfull Divisions by the delusion of Abaddon that is commonly Painted with a Cloven Foot I shall add the Contents for the Readers help But I shall not presume to animadvert on the matter save in these few Notes 1. Tract 1. pag. 3. I suppose by Common assistances he meaneth not that which All men have But which is not Miraculous and all that rightly seek may hope for P. 7. Some of the Controversies which he Judged undeterminable I have Cause to think he at least came nearer to satisfaction in after the Writing of these Papers as he signified to me on some Discourse specially after the reading my Catholick Theology Ib. Among the Points not distinctly knowable without more Revelation than we yet have of it one is what is the Real Consequence of the Baptism of Infants or its Omission But the Act of Vniformity Ejected all the Ministers of England that would not publickly declare that they Assent and Consent that It is CERTAIN BY THE WORD of God that Infants baptized dying before actual Sin are VNDOVBTEDLY saved none excepted Had the Convocation but cited that Word of God that saith this this Good man might have been kept from taking that as unknowable which every Conforming Minister in the Church is Certain of as an undoubted Article of Faith And it would have been a great kindness to the silenced
their Traditions and Distinctions So that Religion towards God and all Righteousness and Sobriety is so thin and narrow and subtile that by their Doctrine of Probability and Casuistical Distinctions all the Bones thereof are loosned It would be too long to give Instances in particular The late Velitations in France between some of the Popish Priests and Jesuites furnish the World with instances enough of this kind 2. The Second Instance is this The turning of the greatest part of Religion into Politick Contrivances for attaining or upholding Power Wealth or Interest There have been Instances many in this kind among Secular Princes and States This was the act of Jeroboam to set up Idolatrous Religion in Samaria for preventing a return of the Ten Tribes to the House of David And we may observe it in most of the Religion established by Heathenish Princes which was so ordered to accomodate their Interest though to the extreme corrupting of Natural Religion But there is not so eminent an Instance thereof in the whole World as that of the Ecelesiastical State of the Church of Rome who have corrupted as much as in them lies the most pure and innocent Religion that ever the world knew namely the Christian Religion by distorting it to Ends of Wealth and Power and appendicating to it certain new Doctrines and Practices meerly to those Ends. And not only so but have laid the greatest weight of Religion in the Observation of these Politick Appendicatims so that a man that either questions or not observes these Politick Additaments runs as severe a Censure and Danger among them as he that denies the most unquestionablePrinciples of Christian Religion Such are their Doctrines of the Popes Supremacy the Popes Infallibility the necessity to Salvation to be of the Romish Church the Adoration of Images Saints de parted and Angels the Veneration of Reliques the Doctrine of Purgatory Indulgences and the Church Treasury of redundant Merits the Doctrine and Practice of Dispensations and Indulgences their Canonization of Saints their Pilgrimages numerous Ceremonies Theatrical Spectacles their Doctrine of Transubstantiation and divers other Superadditions and Appendications to Christian Religion which any person not captivated by them may with half an eye perceive to be invented and continued meerly for the support of the Grandure of an Universal Monarchy which they miscall The Church and for the amassing of Wealth and Power for the support of it as might most easily be evinced by the particular Examination of all those Politick Appendixes And yet let any man observe it he shall find as great a fervour for the upholding of these Doctrines and Practices and as great a jealousie of the least breach made upon them as if the whole Concern of Christian Religion and the Salvation of Souls lay in their Belief and Observance 3. The third Instance is in relation to the Forms of Church Government and Ceremonies That Ecclesiastical Government is necessary for the preservation of Religion is evident to any reasonable and considerate man and that the Episcopal Government constituted in England is a most excellent Form of Ecclesiastical Government and exceeds all other Forms of Ecclesiastical Government may be easily evinced and that it is the best adapted to the Civil Government in this Kingdom is visible to any intelligent person And yet I do not think that the Essence of Christian Religion Consists in this or any other particular Form of Government It is a great help to the preservation of it in its Purity and Unity and may be well called Sepimentum Religionis Christianoe as the Jews call their Oral Traditions Sepimentum Legis the Fence of the Law But a man may be a good and excellent Christian under this or any other Form of Ecclesiastical Government nay in such places where possibly there is no settled Form of Ecclesiastical Government established But if we observe many persons in the world we shall find some so highly devoted to this or that particular Form of Government as if all the weight of Christian Religion lay in it Though the wise and sober sort of Conformists know and profess this yet there be some rash people that will presently Un-church all the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas which are not under Episcopal Government That if they see a man otherwise of Orthodox Principles of a Pious and Religious life yet if scrupling some Points of Ecclesiastical Government though peaceable they will esteem him little better than a Heathen or Publican a Schismatick Heretick and what not On the other side if they see a man of great fervour in asserting the Ecclesiastical Government observant of External Ceremonies though otherwise of a loose and dissolute life yet they will be ready to applaud him with the Stile of a Son of the Church and upon that account over-look the Miscarriages of his life as if the Essence and Life of Christian Religion lay in the bare asserting of the best Form of Ecclesiastical Government On the other side there is as great an Extremity of the other hand there are many indiscreet persons as well Divines as others that having either by their Education or by Conversation with Dissenters or possibly to gain a Party taken upon them the Patronage or Asserting of some other Form of Church-Government either Presbyterian or Independant or some thing fram'd by their own invention presently cry down the Established Government of the Church as Antichristian or Popish and cry up that which they have thus espoused as the only true Christian Regiment instituted by Christ and presently among them and their Followers this is made the discriminative Mark of a True Christian. If they see a man Conformable to the Established Government tho' he be pious sober and truly Religious yet they despise and neglect him censure him as a Formalist and without the Power of Godliness But if a man will but revile the Established Government and be bold against it cry it down and cry up the New Institution into which they are listed tho' the man be Covetous Uncharitable Hard-hearted Proud Impetuous and possibly otherwise Loose in his Conversation yet such a man shall be cherished applauded and cryed up for a Saint a Precious Man and Zealous for the Truth And although Decent Ceremonies that are for the Preservation of the Dignity of Religion and to keep due Order and Regularity are not Essential Parts of Christianity nor were ever so esteemed by wise and sober men and yet are of use and convenience in the Church nevertheless we may easily observe among men the same Extremes as are before noted some placing the whole weight of Religion in their strict Observance and making them the principal if not the only Badge of a Son of the Church hateing and despising those that scruple any thing in them or that do not come up in every punctilio to their Observance though they be otherwise sound in the Principles of Faith pious and strict in their lives just and honest
business of many men Consists in Velitations and Defences and Invectives about them The Pulpits and the Press is ingaged about them Love and Charity and even common Humanity and mutual Conversation between Man and Man Church and Church Party and Party is broken by the Mutual collisions and animosities concerning them So that the Lord be merciful to us and forgive us there is as little love and as great distance and animosity between many of the Dissenting Parties among Protestants touching these Matters as there is between Papists and Protestants or between Christians and Infidels And by this means the true Life of Christian Religion and that which was the great End of its Institution and the true genuine and natural Effect of it upon the heart and soul and course of life is lost or neglected by them that profess it or disparaged among those that either have not entertained it or at least entertained it as they do the Customs of the Country wherein they are educated These men when they see so much Religion placed by Professors of Christianity in these things which every intelligent man values but as Forms or Inventions or Modes or Artifices and yet as great weight laid upon them as great fervour and animosity used for or against them as almost for any Points of Christian Religion they are presently apt to censure and throw off all Religion and reckon all of the same make But when all is done true Christian Religion is a thing of another kind of Make and is of another kind of Efficacy and directed unto and effective of a nobler End than those things about which as above is said men so much contend and that makes so great a bustle and noise in the world As the Credenda are but few and plain so the Facienda or things to be done are such as do truly ennoble and advance the Humane Nature and brings it to its due habitude both to God and Man It teacheth and tutors the soul to a high reverence and veneration of Almighty God a sincere and upright walking as in the presence of the Invisible All-seeing God It makes a man truly to love to honour to obey him and therefore careful to know what his will is it renders the heart highly thankful to him both as his Creator Redeemer and Benefactor It makes a man entirely to depend upon to seek to him for guidance and direction and protection to submit to his Will with all Patience and Resignation of Soul It gives the law not only to his Word and Actions but to his very Thoughts and Purposes that he dares not entertain a very thought unbecoming the sight and presence of that God to whom all our thoughts are legible It teacheth and bringeth a man to such a deportment both of external and internal sobriety as may be decent in the presence of God and all his holy Angels It crusheth and Casts down all Pride and Haughtiness both in a mans heart and carriage and gives him an humble frame of soul and life both in the sight of God and men It regulates and governs the Passions of the Mind and brings them into due moderation and frame It gives a man a right estimate of this present world and sets the heart and hopes above it so that he never loves it more than it deserves It makes the Wealth and Glory of this World high Places and great Preferments but of a low and little value to him so that he is neither covetous nor ambitious nor over sollicitous concerning the advantages of it It brings a man to that frame that Righteousness Justice Honesty and Fidelity is as it were part of his Nature he can sooner dye than commit or purpose that which is unjust dishonest or unworthy a good man It makes him value the love of God and peace of Conscience above all the Wealth and Honours in the World and be very vigilant to keep it inviolably Though he be under a due apprehension of the love of God to him yet it keeps him humble and watchful and free from all presumption so that he dares not under a vain confidence of the Indulgence and Mercy and Favour of God turn aside to commit or purpose even the least injury to man he performs all his Duties to God in sincerity and integrity and Constancy and while he lives on Earth yet his Conversation his Hopes his Treasure and the flower of his Expectation is in Heaven and he entirely endeavours to Walk sutably to such a Hope Insum it restores the Image of God unto the Soul in Righteousness and true Holiness Compositum jus fasque animi sanctosque recessus mentis incoctum generofo pectus honesto These and the like to these are the Ends Design and Effect of True Christian Religion truly received and digested in the Soul And certainly any man that duly confidereth will find that they are of another kind of Nature and Value than those sublime Speculations Politick Constitutions Forms or not Forms affected Singularities upon which many lay the weight of Religion and for and touching which there is so much Contention and Animosity in the World So that methinks men in this regard are like to a Company of foolish Boys who when the Nut is broken run scrambling after the pieces of the Shell and in the mean while the Kernel is neglected and lost Now touching the Reasons or Causes of these Misapprehensions touching Religion they are various some deserve compassion and others are more or less excusable according to their several kinds 1. Some persons truly Conscientious and zealous of any thing that they judge to be displeasing to God as not agreeable to his Will and observing the many Corruptions that the Romish Church have brought into the Worship of God are very suspicious of any thing that may look as they think that way and therefore though they are otherwise men of sound and Orthodox Principles and of a truly righteous sober and pious Life yet perchance are transported somewhat too far in scrupling or opposing some Ceremonies or Forms And possibly their Education and Conversation with men of such Perswasions have confirmed them in it so that they do not oppose out of a frowardness or peevishness of Mind or out of Pride or a Spirit of Opposition but in the sincerity and simplicity of their hearts and out of a tenderness for the Honour of God These though they are or may be mistaken in their Perswasions yet certainly deserve Compassion Tenderness yea and Love also much rather than Severity or Contempt 2. Others again observing that certain Modes and Forms and the rigorous Observations of them are the common road for attaining Preferments or Favours of great Persons upon that account exercise a marvellous fervour of mind for them and a vigorous opposition of all that come not up to them in every punctilio that they may thereby be taken notice of and imployed as useful and fit and vigorous
sin with presumption can drink excessively swear vainly or falsly commit Adultery Lye Cozen Cheat break his Promises live loosely though he practise every Ceremony never so curiously or as stubbornly oppose them though he cry down Bishops or cry down Presbytery though he be re-baptized every day or though he disclaim against it as Heresie though he Fast all the Lent or Feasts out of pretence of avoiding Superstition yet notwithstanding these and a thousand more external Conformities or zealous Oppositions of them he wants the Life of Religion PART III. OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION The Superstructions upon it and Animosities about them THe Christian Religion and Doctrine was by the Goodness and Wisdom of God designed to be the common Means and Method to bring Mankind to their Chief End namely to know and to serve and obey and glorifie and everlastingly to enjoy Almighty God the Chiefest Good And to that end it was given out with all the Plainness and Perspicuity with all Evidence and certainty a Doctrine and Religion containing Precepts of all Holiness and Purity of all Righteousness and Honesty of all Longanimity Benignity and Gentleness Sweetness Meekness and Charity of all Moderation and Patience of all Sobriety and Temperance in brief it is a Religion that is admirably and sufficiently constituted to make a man what indeed he should be Pious towards God Just and Beneficent towards Men and temperate in himself fitted for a life of Piety Honesty Justice and Goodness and Happiness heareafter Such is the Christian Religion and such the men must be that are truly conformable to it and if any man professing Christianity be not such a man it is because he comes so much short of his due Conformity to Christian Religion and the most excellent Doctrine and Precepts thereof The Profession of this Religion is that which is and for many Ages hath been commonly made by a very considerable part of the known World as the only true Religion given to the world by Almighty God through his Son Jesus Christ wherein and whereby they may expect everlasting Salvation But yet together with this Christian Religion the Prosessors thereof have in several Ages and Places chosen to themselves various adventitious accidental Superstructions Adtions Opinions Modes and Practices which they have as it were incorporated into the Christian Religion by them professed or appendicated unto it And these Superstructions or Appendixes of Christian Religion have been introduced and entertained by various Means and by various Designs and to various Ends Some by the Authority of great Names Some by insenfible graditions or long customs some by a supposed congruity or incongruity some for Order or Decency Some for Discrimination of Rarties Some for Political Ends appearing in themselves or secretly carryed on some upon emergent occasions either continuing or now ceasing Some by Civil some by Ecclesiastical Sanctions Some by traditional Observations either continued or interrupted and revived Some for Ornament Some for Vse Some as supposed necessary consequents upon the Christian Doctrine Some to be quasi septa munimenta doctrinoe religionis Evangelicoe as the Jewish Traditions were supposed to be the Sepimenta Legis Some for one end and some for another And although these are not truly and essentially parts of the Christian Religion yet as the humours in the body are some good some noxious some innocent though they are no part of the true vital blood yet they mingle with it and run along in it so these Superstructions and Occasions and Additions have in various Ages Successions and Places mingled with the true radical vital Doctrine and Religion of Christ in mens Opinions and Practices and Professions And yet it is visible to any man that will but attentively observe the Courses of men professing Christian Religion that the greatest fervour and animosity of the Professors of Christian Religion is not so much with respect to the subftantials of Christian Religion either in things to be believed or practised as touching these Additions and Superstructions some as fervently contending for them as if the life of Christianity consisted in them some as bitterly and severely contesting against them as if the life and soul of Christian Religion were not possibly consisting with them And by these means these unhappy Consequences follow 1. That whereas the main of Christian Religion consists in the true belief of the Gospel of Christ Jesus and the Practice of those Christian Virtues that he lest unto his Disciples and Followers both by his Example and Precept namely love of God Holiness and Purity of life Humility and Lowliness of mind Patience Meekness Gentleness Charity a low and easy Value of the World Contentation of Mind submission to the Will of God Dependance upon him Resignation unto him and other excellent Evangelical Virtues that perfect and rectifie the Soul and fit it for an humble Communion with Almighty God in this life and a blessed fruition of his Presence in the life to come the Christian Religion is not so much placed in these as in an entire Conformity to Modes and Circumstances or an extream Aversion from them And according to the various Interests or Inclinations of Parties those are made the Magnalia of Christian Religion and such as give the only Character or Discriminative Indication of the Christian Religion 2. And consequently all the greatest part of that stress and fervour of mind which should be employed in those great weighty Substantials of Christianity runs out and spends it self in those little Collaterals and Superstructions and Additaments some placing the greatest earnestness and intention contension of mind to have them and some placing the intension and fervour of their mind to be without them not unlike those old Contentions between the Eastern and Western Churches touching the time of the Paschal Observation one Party excommunicating the other for their dissent as if the whole weight and stress of the Christian Religion lay in those little Additaments 3. And hereupon there arise Schismes Factions and personal Animosities Discrimination of Parties Censoriousness and studied estrangings of Professors of Christianity oftentimes one Party declining those Practices which are good and commendable in the other to keep their distances the more irreconcilable and each Party espousing some odd Discriminating Habits Modes and sometimes also by Opinions in matters of Religion that may estrange and discriminate them each from the other and these Opinions though of little moment or consequence it may be whether true or false are advanced up into little less than Articles of Faith for the sake of this Discrimination when possibly they are of little moment whether they be assented unto or not of less certainty and have little or no influence or concern in the Substance of Christian Doctrine 4. And hereupon it oftentimes comes to pass that not only the common Bond of Charity and Christian Love is broken between the Professors of the same substantials in Christianity but there is
Assertors and Instruments for this purpose 3. Many times Gain and Profit is the End and Design of many Practices and Positions appendicated to Christian Religion as is before observed in the Romish Church and it is easily observable that Interest Profit and Temporal Advantage have a strong byass upon Mens Affections and are dearer to them than the Truth of Religion and carry men more vigorously in their upholding and maintenance than Religion it self doth And because the presence of zeal for Religion carries a fair Plausibility with all men therefore those very things that are but Engines of Gain and Profit are Christned with the specious Name of Religion It was the making of Silver Shrines for Diana the Art whereby the Artificers got their living that made the Out-cry Great is Diana of the Ephesians 4. Again it is very certain that mankind hath a huge kindness and partiality for matters of their own Invention and set a greater rate upon them than upon other matters handed over to them by others And hence it comes to pass that a new Fancy or Opinion a new Form of Worship Discipline or Government that any man hath invented or studied out is to such a man ordinarily of greater value and moment than it deserves and shall be maintained with greater zeal Fervour and Animosity than Points of greater truth and moment as if the great moment and weight of Religion and Christianity lay in it which is in truth nothing else but the Effect of Self-love and Self-conceit 5. Again though by Nature Man be a sociable Creature yet there is in most Men a certain Itch of Pride which makes them affect a Discrimination from others and to become a kind of separated Party more refined than the rest of the same Common Profession I do remember in the beginning of our late Troubles the only Party that visibly appeared were some that desired some Reformation in Church-matters And when that Party had obtained under the Name of the Presbyterian Party in a very little while there arose a more sublime Party of men called the Independant or Congregational men which much despised the former as not arrived to a Just Measure of Reformation Shortly after that there arose a kind of Lay Party which as much undervalued the Independant and indeed the Ministry in general After that there arose a Party discriminating it self from all the former viz. the Quakers These various Parties were as so many Subdivisions and Rectifications of what went before Now the Means of holding up this Discrimination of Parties are certain select Opinions Practices or Modes which are like the Badges or Colours that give each Party his Denomination Distinction and Discrimination And consequently these Discriminative Badges have as great a rate set upon them as each Sect sets upon it self and therefore must be upheld under the very Notion of the life of Religion and must be maintained with the greatest fervour imaginable for otherwise the Distinction of the Sects themselves would fall to the ground and become contemptible both among themselves and others because otherwise there would appear very little and inconsiderable reason upon trifling or small reasons to Separate and Divide from others and to un-Un-Church and Un-Christen them that are not Their Company or Society PART II. CONCERNING RELIGION The life of it and Super additions to it THe Truth and Spirit of Religion comes in a a narrow compass though the Effect and Operation thereof are large and diffusive Solomon comprehended it in a few words Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole Duty of man The soul and life of Religion is the Fear of God which is the Principle of Obedience but Obedience to his Commands which is an act or exercise of that life is various according to the variety of the Commands of God If I take a Kernel of an Acorn the Principle of life lies in it the thing it self is but small but the Vegetable Principle that lies in it takes up a less room than the Kernel it self little more than the quantity of a small Pins head as is easy to be observed by Experiment but the exercise of that Spark of life is large and comprehensive in its Operation it produceth a great Tree and in that Tree the Sap the Body the Bark the Limbs the Leaves the Fruit and so it is with the Principle of True Religion the Principle it self lies in a narrow compass but the activity and energy of it is diffusive and various This Principle hath not only Productions that naturally flow from it but where it is it ferments and assimulates and gives a kind of Tincture even to other Actions that do not in their own Nature follow from it as the Nature and Civil Actions of our lives Under the former was our Lords Parable of a Grain of Mustard under the latter of his Comparison of Leven just as we see in other things of Nature Take a little Red Wine and drop it into a Vessel of Water it gives a new Tincture to the Water or take a grain of Salt and put it into Fresh Liquor it doth communicate it self to the next adjacent part of the Liquor and that again to the next until the whole be fermented So that small and little vital Principle of the Fear of God doth gradually and yet suddenly assimilate the actions of our life flowing from another Principle It rectifies and moderates our Affections and Passions and Appetites it gives Truth to our Speech Sobriety to our Sences Humility to our Parts and the like Religion is best in its Simplicity and Purity but difficult to be retained so without Superstructions and Accessions And those do commonly in time Stifle and Choke the Simplicity of Religion unless much Care and Circumspection be used the Contemperations are so many and so Cumbersom that Religion loseth its Nature or is strangled by them Just as a man that hath some Excellent Simple Cordial or Spirit and puts in Musk in it to make it smell sweet and Honey to make it taste pleasant and it may be Cantharides to make it look glorious Indeed by the Infusions he hath given it a very fine Smell and Tast and Colour but yet he hath so clogg'd it and sophisticated it with Superadditions that it may be he hath altered the Nature and destroyed the Virtue of it The Superadditions and Superstructions in Point of Religion are very many and from very many and various tempers in men that add them As for Instance 1. There is one common Superaddition that naturally all men are apt to bring into it viz. that it may Gratifie the Sense for in as much as the most powerful and immediate influence upon us comes from and through our Senses and that spiritual and internal apprehensions have not so strong or constant an Impression upon us they seem things at a distance flat and the Soul is weary of bearing it self upon them men are apt to dress up Religion
so as it may be grateful to the Sense Make us Gods that may go before us And this is the chief original of Idolatry and also of Superstition 2. There are other Superadditions that come even from the accidental Inclinations of men to some special matter which they value and love and that they carry over into Religion and many times mingle with it As for the purpose take a man greatly admiring natural Philosophy he will be apt to mingle and qualifie Religion with Philosophical Notions Many of those things of Aristotle that are harshly and dishonourably asserted concerning the Diety are from his tenacious adhering to certain Philosophical Positions that he had fixed upon Behmen who was a great Chymist resolves almost all Religion in Chymistry and frames his Conceptions of Religion suitable and conformable to Chymical Notions Socinus and his Followers being great Masters of Reason and deeply learned in matters of Morality mingle almost all Religion with it and form Religion purely to the Model and Platform of it Many great Phisicians that have much observed the Constitutions of Mans Body have figured to themselves Notions of the Soul conformable to the Results of their Observations in the Body And as thus in these sorts of men so again men of Metaphysical and Notional Brains and Education as the Schoolmen they have conformed Religion and their Notions concerning it to Metaphysicks and indeed have made that which is and ought to be the common Principle for the actuating of all men yea even of the meanest Capacities to be a meer Collection of Subtilties far more abstruse than the most intricate and sublimated Humane Learning whatsoever Again take a Polititian or States-man and he shall most easily conform Religion to State Policy and make it indeed a most excellent and incomparable Engine for it and nothing else And if we narrowly look upon the Method and System of Religion as it is formed by the Romish Hierarchy it is a most exquisite piece of Humane Policy and every thing therein suited with most exquisite Art and Prudence for the support of the Grandure and Interest of that State This hath mingled with the Christian Religion the Popes Infalliability and Supremacy his Power of Pardoning and Dispensing his Keys of Heaven and Hell his Purgatory and Indulgences and Images and Adorations of them his Reliques and Pilgrimages and canonizing of Saints and a thousand such kind of stuff most incomparably fitted to mens Passions and Affections and so to support that most artificial and methodical Fabrick of the Popish State for indeed it is no other And if we look into other Kingdoms and Places we shall easily find that Religion is so stated and ordered as may best conduce to the peace order wealth and amplitude of every Kingdom for wise Politicians finding that Religion hath a great impression on mens minds and therefore if it be not managed by the Policy of state may prove an unruly Business if it be contemperated with Mixture prejudicial to the State and that it may be a most excellent Engine if it can be managed and actuated for the Benefit of the state do add to it much of their own that it may be managed upon occasion and they dress up Religion with State Policy whereby in truth it becomes nothing else but a meer piece of Humane Policy under the Name of Religion And on the other side those either politick or discontented Spirits that would put a Kingdom into Blood and Confusion do mingle Discontents and Fancies and Imaginations Suspicions and Frowardness with Religion and call this confused mixture of Phancies and Passions Religion and manage and brandish this Weapon with mighty disadvantage to that State which they oppose For it is most apparent that as nothing hath so great an impulsion upon men as that which comes under the apprehension of Religion in as much as it concerns the greatest good even their Everlasting Souls and Happiness so nothing is of so universal Concernment as this and therefore like to attract the most Followers for every man hath not an Estate to care for but every man hath a Soul to care for and hence it is that scarce any great Contest between Princes hath happened in these latter years nor scarce any Commotion in a State but Religion is owned on all sides and God and his Cause and his Church owned on on all hands and therefore still the scramble is for Religion and who shall keep the Opinion of Religion most firm to them and therefore they on all hands infuse into the thing they call Religion those things that may most probably and politickly hold to their Party Again in Contest among Clergymen every one Trims and Orders Religion in that Dress that may most make it their own and secure it to themselves Take the Popish Clergiemen hold what you will if you hold not the Supremacy and Vicariot of the Pope all the rest of your Religion is not worth a rush Come to the Reformed Episcopal Clergy as to the Popes Supremacy they disclaim it but if you acknowledge not Episcopal Government if you swear not Canonical Obedience to your Ordinary if you submit not to the Liturgie and Ceremcnies and Vestments and Musick used in the Church you are at best a Schismatick Again come to the Presbyterian Clergy they will tell you Episcopal Government is Romish and Superstitious and their Ceremonies and Usages Antichristian Usurpations but if you mean to be of a warrantable Religion you must submit to the Presbyterian Government as truly Apostolical Come to the Independent he declaims against both the former and tells you that the true Conformity to Apostolical Order is in the Congregational way Take the Anabaptist and he tells you all the former are vain and irreligious unless you will be rebaptized and listed in their Church Again in Points of Doctrine as well as Discipline it is most plain that Tenents are professed or decryed for distinction of Parties witness the Contest between the Arminian Party and the Calvinistical Party which are only used as Methods on either side to attract Proselytes and distinguish Parties And in these and the like distinctions of Parties and Professions the Superstructions and Additions are in a manner incorporated and grafted into Religion and in effect give the only Denomination to it according to the various Interests and Affections of Parties when in truth the main business of these and the like Additions and Superstructions are but Policies to distinguish and fortifie and increase Parties 3. The re are some Superadditions to Religion that though I do not think they are to be condemned yet are carefully to be distinguished from the true and natural Life of Religion and so long as they are kept under that apprehension they may if prudently applyed and managed do good But if either they are imprudently instituted imprudently applyed or inconfiderately over-valued as if they were Religion they may and many times do harm and such are
decent and inoffensive Forms in the External Worship of God appointed by the Civil Magistrate by the advice of those that are deservedly eminent in the Church for their Piety Learning and Prudence And there seems to be very good Reason for it 1. Because if every man should be left to himself there would Confusion ensue because no man knew anothers Mind or Rule of his external Deportment 2. All men have not that equal Prudence to Judge what were fit to be used the Magistrate is like to make choice of those persons that are fittest to advise and their Recommendations would be of greatest authority with others 3. It is most certain that Man being composed of Soul and Body cannot so regularly and well fix himself to his Duty without some justifiable help to his Devotion such are vocal Prayers Kneeling and other Gestures proper for the Matter of Worship which he intends And this may be one Reason why the Lord though he strictly forbad all Idolatry and Superstition and Heathenish Practice to the Jews yet did appoint Sacrifices Priests a glorious Tabernacle and the Ark which was not only a diversion from the Egyptian Idolatry which they had seen but also a help to their natural infirmity for the excitation of their Devotion And although our Lord Jesus came to abrogate even that Indulgence and foretold that those that worshipped the Father should worship him in Spirit and in Truth under the Gospel yet it is certain that the immediate Apostles of Christ did set certain orderly Observances in the Church for decencies sake and it was justly allowable As concerning the order of the exercise of their Supernatural Gifts Concerning Womens speaking in the Church concerning mens being covered in the Church and Women vailed concerning the manner and order of receiving the Sacrament and the like But as there be Reasons for it so there be Cautions to be used in it 1. That they be not too numerous for their Multitude will rather oppress than secure Religion 2. That in their Natures they be not Superstitious but keep as much distance from it as well may be otherwise they will be in Religion as the dead Fly in the Apothecaries Oyntment 3. That they be clean and decent not too full of Pomp or Ostentation Ceremonies should be used as we use a Glass rather to preserve the Oyl than to adorn it Too much Pomp causeth Jealousies even in good men of a degeneration either to Jewish Ceremonies or Popish Vanities 4. That though such are not to be rejected because they are Ancient so if they become Vnseasonable they are not to be held meerly because they are Ancient It is with Ceremonies as with some other things that are fit to be changed when they become unuseful or offensive as the Love-Feasts Extreme Vnction and some other things possibly practised and fit enough in the Primitive times Many Ceremonies were at first invented and practised to win over unconverted Heathens to incourage weak Christians especially the Jews who were not easily to be drawn from their Legal Ceremonies But when People become a Knowing People that see beyond those Ceremonies and understand when and why and how they came in then it were Prudence to dispense with or change them 5. That they be not urged with too much rigour or severity upon such as conscientiously refuse them Charity to a weak Brother in things indifferent in their own Nature is then to be exercised when my Brother is offended therewith or never And if it be said it is his duty to submit to the Church and not the Church to him I do think that answer will not serve in this case for surely though a Child owes a Duty to a Father yet his neglect thereof especially if it be upon a conscientious account will not excuse the neglect of a Fathers Duty to his Child The Apostle professed he would abstain from things lawful rather than offend his weak Brother 6. And especially that we be careful to remember that Religion is another thing from these Ceremonies These are of use i. e. for Ornament They are the Dressings and the Trimmings of Religion at the best but the Fear of God is of a higher extraction It is a pitiful thing to see men run upon this mistake especially in these latter times one placing all his Religion in holding the Pope to be Christs Vicar another placing Religion in this to hold no Papist can be saved One holding all Religion to consist in holding Episcopacy to be jure divino another by holding Presbytery to be jure divino another in crying up Congregational Government another in Anabaptise one in placing all Religion in the strict observation of all Ceremonies another in a strict refusal of all One holding a great part of Religion in putting off the Hat and bowing at the Name of Jesus another judging a man an Idolater for it and a third placing his Religion in putting off his Hat to none and so like a company of Boys that blow Bubbles out of a Wall-nut-shell every one runs after his bubble and calls it Religion and every one measures the Religion or irreligion of another by their agreeing or dissenting with them in these or the like matters and at best while we scramble and wrangle about the pieces of the Shell the Kernel is either lost or gotten by some that doth not prize any of their Contests Believe it Religion is quite another thing from all these Matters He that fears the Lord of Heaven and Earth walks humbly before him thankfully lays hold of the Message of Redemption by Christ Jesus strives to express his thankfulness by the Sincerity of his Obedienue is sorry with all his soul when he comes short of his Duty walks watchfully in the denial of himself and holds no confederacy with any Lust or known Sin if he falls in the least measure is restless till he hath made his Peace by true Repentance is true in his Promise just in his Actions Charitable to the Poor sincere in his Devotions that will not deliberately dishonour God though with the greatest security of impunity that hath his hope in Heaven and his Conversation in Heaven that dare not do an Unjust Act though never so much to his advantage and all this because he sees him that is invisible and fears him because he loves him fears him as well for his Goodness as his Greatness such a man whether he be an Episcopal or a Presbyterian or an Independant or an Anabaptist whether he wears a Surplice or wears none whether he hears Organs or hears none whether he Kneels at the Communion or for Conscience sake stands or sits he hath the Life of Religion in him and that life acts in him and will conform his soul to the Image of his Saviour and walk along with him to Eternity notwithstanding his Practise or Non-practise of these Indifferents On the other side if a man fears not the Eternal God dares commit any