his Son for he owns himself our Father in no other Name and if he will hear our Prayers and answer our humble Petitions only as a Father then he will hear only those Prayers which are made to him in the Name of his Son How great Favourites soever the Blessed Virgin and other Saints may be if God hear Prayers only as a Father it is to no purpose to pray to God in their Names for he hears us not 3. To Worship God as a Father signifies to pray to him with the humble assurance and confidence of Children This is the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father For because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father A dutiful Son does not question his Father's good will to him nor readiness to hear and answer all his just requests he depends upon the kindness of his Father and his interest and relation to him and seeks for no other Friends and Favourites to recommend him And upon this account also the Invocation of Saints is a contradiction to the gospel-Gospel-Spirit of Prayer to that Spirit of Adoption which teaches us to cry Abba Father for surely those have not the hope and assurance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Children who dare not go to their Father themselves but must send their Petitions to him by the hands of Favourites and Intercessors To pray to God in the Name of Christ is onely to pray to him as Sons for it is in his Name only that he owns us for Sons and this is the true Spirit of Adoption in the Name and Mediation of Christ to go to God as Children to a Father but to pray to him in any other Name how powerful soever is not to go to him as a Father but as to our Lord and King who must be Addressed to by the Mediation of some great Favourites To pray to God in any other Name which does not make us his Sons is to distrust our Relation to him as our Father in Christ and this is contrary to the Spirit of Adoption which teaches us to call God Father and gives us that assurance of his Fatherly goodness to us in Christ that we need and desire no other Advocates Thirdly To Worship God in Spirit is to Worship him with our Mind and Spirit for that is most agreeable to the Nature of God who is a Spirit God cannot be Worshipped but by a reasonable Creature and yet a Beast may Worship God as well as a Man who Worships without any act of Reason and Understanding or devout Affections To pray to God without knowing what we say when neither our Understandings nor Affections can joyn in our Prayers is so absurd a Worship of a pure Mind that Transubstantiation it self is not more contrary to Sense than Prayers in an unknown Tongue are to the Essential Reason and Nature of Worship I suppose no man will say that to pray to God or praise him in words which we do not understand is to Worship God in Spirit unless he thinks that a Parrot may be taught to pray in the Spirit What difference is there between a man 's not speaking and speaking what he does not understand Just so much difference there is between not praying and praying what we do not understand and he honours God to the full as much who does not pray at all as he who prays he knows not what and I am sure he affronts him a great deal less However if Christian Worship be to worship God in Spirit Prayers in an unknown Tongue in which the Mind and Spirit cannot be concerned is no Christian Worship SECT IV. Concerning the Reformation and Improvement of Humane Nature by the Gospel of CHRIST 4. ANother principal end and intention of the Gospel was to cure the Degeneracy of Mankind and to advance Humane Nature to its utmost Perfection for as Man fell from his original Happiness by falling from the purity and integrity of his Nature so there was no restoring him to his lost Happiness much less no advancing him to a more perfect state of Happiness not to an earthly but to an heavenly Paradise without changing and transforming his Nature and renewing him after the Image of God. And therefore our very entrance into Christianity is a new Birth Except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit And such a man is called a new Creature and a Christian Life is a newness of Life and living after the Spirit and walking after the Spirit and this new Nature is the Divine Nature the Image of God the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him So that there are two things wherein this new Nature consists Knowledge and Righteousness or true Holiness and I doubt it will appear that the Church of Rome is no great Friend to either I. Knowledge Now I suppose neither the Church of Rome nor any one for her will pretend that she is any great Friend to Knowledge She is so horribly afraid of Heresie that she endeavours to nurse men up in Ignorance of their Religion for fear they should prove Hereticks and indeed she has some reason for it for the Church of Rome was never so Triumphant as in the most ignorant and barbarous Ages but as Knowledge broke in upon the World so men turned Hereticks apace If there be any knowing Papists and it would be very hard if there should be none they are not beholding to their Church for it which deprives them of all the means of Knowledge for she will not allow them to believe their Senses which is one way of knowing things and the most certain we have and yet she commands us to believe Transubstantiation which no man can do who believes his Senses and if I must not believe my Senses in so plain a matter as what is Bread and Wine I know no reason I have to believe them in any thing and then there is an end of all Knowledge that depends on Sense as the proof of the Christian Religion itself does for Miracles are a sensible proof and if I must not trust my Senses I cannot rely on Miracles because I cannot know whether there be any such thing as a real Miracle The Church of Rome also forbids men the use of Reason in matters of Religion will not allow men to judge for themselves nor to examine the Reasons of their Faith and what knowledge any man can have without exercising his Reason and Understanding I cannot guess for to know without understanding sounds to me like a contradiction She also denies Christians the use of the Bible which is the only means to know the revealed Will of God and when men
all these Jewish Rites and has Instituted nothing in the room of them excepting the two Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper which are of a very different Nature and Use as we shall see presently He did not indeed while he was on Earth blame the Observation of the Law of Moses which till that time was in full force and which he observed himself but he blamed the External Superstitions of the Pharisees in washing Cups and Platters and making broad their Phylacteries and thinking themselves very righteous persons for their scrupulous observation even of the Law of Moses in paying Tithe of Mint and Cummin c. while they neglected the weightier matters of the Law judgement mercy and faith 23 Mat. 23. But when our Saviour was Risen from the Dead and had accomplished all the Types and Shadows of the Law then the Apostles with greater freedom opposed a Legal and External Righteousness and though they did for a time indulge the Jews in the Observation of the Rites of Moses yet they asserted the Liberty of the Gentile Converts from that Yoke as we may see in the first Council at Antioch and in St. Paul's Disputes with the Jews in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians and elsewhere And indeed whoever considers the Nature of the Christian Religion will easily see that all those ends which such External Rites served either in the Jewish or Pagan Religion have no place here and therefore nothing that is meerly External can be of any use or value in the Christian Worship As to show this particularly 1. There is no expiation or satisfaction for sin under the Gospel but only the Blood of Christ and therefore all External Rites are useless to this purpose Him and him only God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Death was the punishment of sin and Death is the only expiation of it and none else has died for our sins but Christ alone and therefore he only is a propitiation for our sins and yet we know how great a part both of the Pagan and Jewish Religion was taken up in the expiation of sin all their Sacrifices to be sure were designed for this purpose and so were their Washings and Purifications in some degree and many other voluntary Severities and Superstitions this being the principal thing they intended in their Religious Rites to appease God and make him propitious to them since then Christ has made a full and compleat satisfaction and atonement for sin and there is no expiation or satisfaction required of us all external Rites for expiation and atonement can have no place in the Christian Worship without denying the atonement of Christ and this necessarily strips Christian Religion of a vast number of external Rites practised both by Jews and Heathens 2 ly Nor does the Gospel admit of any legal Uncleannesses and Pollutions distinction between clean and unclean Meats which occasioned so many Laws and Observances both among Jews and Heathens so many ways of contracting legal Uncleanness and so many ways to expiate it and so many Laws about Eating and Drinking and such Superstition in Washing Hands and Cups and Platters but our Saviour told his Disciples Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth the man but that which cometh out of the mouth this defileth the man. For whatsoever entreth into the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast out into the draught but those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false witnesses blasphemies these are the things which defile a man but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. And this also delivers Christian Religion from all those Rites and Observances which concerned legal cleanness which were very numerous 3 ly Nor is there any Symbolical Presence of God under the Gospel which puts an end to the legal Holiness of Places and Things God dwelt among the Jews in the Temple at Jerusalem where were the Symbols and Figures of his Presence it was God's House and therefore a holy place and every thing that belonged to it had a legal Holiness for the Holiness of Things and Places under the Law was derived from their relation to God and his Presence this was the only place for their Typical and Ceremonial Worship whither all the Males of the Children of Israel were to resort three times a year and where alone they were to offer their Sacrifices and Oblations to God the very place gave Virtue to their Worship and Sacrifices which were not so acceptable in other places nay which could not be offered in other places without sin as is evident from Jeroboam's sin in setting up the Calves at Dan and Bethel for places of Worship and the frequent Complaints of the Prophets against those who offered Sacrifices in the High Places and therefore the Dispute between the Jews and Samaritans was which was the place of Worship whether the Temple at Jerusalem or Samaria but Christ tells the Woman of Samaria that there should be no such distinction of places in the Christian Worship Woman believe me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the father But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth Not as if the Father should not be Worshipped neither at Jerusalem nor Samaria but that neither the Temple at Jerusalem nor Samaria should be the peculiar and appropriate place of Worship that God's Presence and Worship should no longer be confined to any one place that the Holiness of the place should no longer give any value to the Worship but those who worshipped God in spirit and in truth should be accepted by him where-ever they worshipped him Such Spiritual Worship and Worshippers shall be as acceptable to God at Samaria as at Jerusalem and as much in the remotest Corners of the Earth as at either of them for God's Presence should no longer be confined to any one place but he would hear our devout Prayers from all parts of the World where-ever they were put up to him and consequently the Holiness of places is lost which consists only in some peculiar Divine Presence and with the Holiness of places the external and legal Holiness of things ceases also for all other things were Holy only with relation to the Temple and the Temple Worship For indeed God's Typical Presence in the Temple was only a Figure of the Incarnation Christ's Body was the true Temple where God dwelt for which reason he calls his Body the Temple Destroy this Temple and I will raise it up in three days And the Apostle assures us that the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ Bodily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really and substantially in opposition to God's Typical Presence in the material Temple and therefore
Sins The principal of them are Fastings that is abstaining from Flesh and other Acts of Penance as Whippings Pilgrimages and some Bodily severities or Prayers that is saying over such a number of Ave-Maries or Alms that is to pay for Indulgencies or to purchase Masses for themselves or their Friends in Purgatory or to found some Religious Houses or to enrich those that are which are much more satisfactory and meritorious than common acts of Charity to the Poor All which men may do without the least sorrow for Sin without any true devotion to God without mortifying any one Lust. They mightily contend for the Merit of Works but what are their Meritorious Works Whoever reads the Lives of their Canoniz'd Saints will easily see what it was that made them Saints their Characters are usually made up of some Romish Superstitions of their Devotions to the Virgin Mary and their familiar Conversations with her the severities of their Fasts and other external Mortifications their frequenting the Mass the great numbers of their Ave-Maries pretences to Raptures and Visions and such wild Extravagancies as made them suspected of Madness while they lived and Canoniz'd them for Saints when they were dead Other things may be added to fill up their Stories but these are the glorious Accomplishments especially of the more Modern Saints for no man must be a Saint at Rome who is not a famous Example of Popish Superstitions Monkery is thought the most perfect State of Religion among them and has even Monopolized the Name for no other persons are called the Religious but those who belong to one Order or other And wherein does the Perfection of Monkery consist 1. In the Vows of Caelibacy Poverty and Obedience to the Superiors of their Order which are all External things no Virtues in themselves and very often the occasion of great Wickedness 2. In the strictest Observance of the External Rites and Ceremonies of their Religion of Masses and Ave-Maries and Fastings and Penances and many of them would be glad if they could go Pilgrimages too These things are in perfection in their Monasteries and Nunneries with such additional Superstitions as are peculiar to particular Orders As for other true Christian Vertues they may as soon be found without the Walls of the Monastery as within Now when such External Rites and Observances shall be judged Satisfactions and Expiations for Sin shall be thought the most highly meritorious shall be made the Characters of their greatest Saints and the most perfect state of Religion I cannot see how any true thorough-paced Romanist can aim at any thing but a Ceremonial Righteousness Indeed the true reason why any thinking men are so fond of an External and Ceremonial Righteousness is to excuse them from true and real Holiness of Life all men know that if they mortifie their Lusts they need not afflict their Bodies with Fastings and other severities that if they have their Conversation in Heaven they need not travel in Pilgrimages to Jerusalem or Loretto that if they take care to obey the Laws of the Gospel they need no satisfactions for their Sins nor no works of Merit or Supererogation which are nothing else but meritorious and supererogating satisfactions for all men know that in the Offices of Piety and Vertue they can never do more than is their Duty and therefore as nothing can be matter of Merit which is our Duty so the true intention of all Merits and Works of Supererogation are to supply the place of Duty and to satisfie for their Sins or to purchase a Reward which they have no title to by doing their Duty but a good man who by believing in Christ and obeying him has an interest in his Merits and a title to the Gospel-Promises of Pardon and Eternal Life needs none of these Satisfactions Merits or Supererogations Now would any man who believes that he cannot be saved without mortifying his Lusts be at the trouble of Whippings and Fastings c. not to mortifie his Lusts but to keep them and to make satisfaction for them Would any man travel to Jerusalem or the Shrine of any Saint who believes he shall not be forgiven unless he leaves his Sins behind him which he might as well have parted with at home The true notion of Superstition is when men think to make satisfaction for neglecting or transgressing their Duty by doing something which is not their Duty but which they believe to be highly pleasing to God and to merit much of him Now no man who believes that he cannot please God without doing his Duty would be so fond of doing his Duty and doing that which is not his Duty nor pleasing to God into the bargain 3. And yet these meritorious and satisfactory Superstitions are very troublesome to most men and though they are willing to be at some pains rather than part with their Lusts yet they would be at as little trouble as possibly they can and herein the Church of Rome like a very indulgent Mother has consulted their ease for one man may satisfie for another and communicate his Merits to him and therefore those who by their Friends or Money can procure a vicarious Back need not Whip themselves they may Fast and say over their Beads and perform their Penances and Satisfactions by another as well as if they did it themselves or they may purchase Satisfactions and Merits out of the Treasury of the Church that is they may buy Indulgencies and Pardons or it is but entring into some Confraternity and then you shall share in their Merits and Satisfactions This is an imputed Righteousness with a witness and I think very External too when men can satisfie and merit by Proxies 4. And I think it may pass for an External Righteousness too when men are sanctified and pardoned by Reliques Holy-water Consecrated Beads Bells Candles Agnus Dei's c. And how unlike is all this to the Religion of our Saviour to that purity of Heart and Mind the Gospel exacts and to those means of Sanctification and methods of Piety and Vertue it prescribes Whoever considers what Christian Religion is can no more think these Observances Christian Worship than he can mistake Popish Legends for the Acts of the Apostles II. Let us now consider what kind of Worship Christ has prescribed to his Disciples And the general account we have of it 4 John 23 24. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Now there are three things included in this description of Gospel-Worship 1. That we must Worship God under the Notion of a Pure and Infinite Spirit 2. That we must Worship him under the Character of a Father 3. That we must Worship him with the Mind and Spirit First We must Worship God under the Notion of a Pure
Image So that if a peculiar and appropriate place of worship be contrary to the notion of an infinite Spirit the worship of Images is much more so for besides that they are gross and corporeal representations of a Spirit they are Divine Presences too and appropriate places of worship Secondly As God must be worshipped under the notion of a Spirit so under the character of a Father as our Saviour expresly tells us The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him and therefore he taught his Disciples to pray Our Father which art in heaven Under the Law God was worshipped as a King and that not so much as the King of the whole world but as in a peculiar manner the King of Israel The Lord reigneth let the people tremble he sitteth between the Cherubims in his Temple at Jerusalem let the earth be moved The Lord is great in Zion and he is high above all people But under the Gospel the peculiar character of God is a Father and that not only as he is the maker of all men and so the Father of all but as he is the Father of Christ and in him the Father of all Christians Now this makes a vast difference in our worship from what is daily practised in the Church of Rome For 1. When we pray to God as our Father we must pray to him as dwelling in Heaven as our Saviour teaches us to say Our Father which art in Heaven For as a Father Heaven is his House and Habitation in my Fathers House are many mansions that is in in Heaven which is his House as a Father as the Temple at Jerusalem was his Palace considered as the King of Israel and this is one reason our Saviour intimates why the presence of God shall no longer be confined to any particular place or Temple because he shall be worshipped as the universal Father not as the King of Jury Now when he is to be worshipped as a Father from all parts of the world he must have such a Throne and presence to which all the World may equally resort and that can be no other then his Throne in Heaven whither we may send up our Prayers from all Corners of the Earth but had he confined his Presence to any place on Earth as he did to the Temple of Jerusalem the rest of the World must have been without God's peculiar Presence could have had no Temple nor place of Worship but at such a distance that they could never have come at it for though God fills all places it is a great absurdity to talk of more Symbolical Presences of God than one for a Symbolical Presence confines the unlimited Presence of God to a certain place in order to certain ends as to receive the Worship that is paid him and to answer the Prayers that are made to him and to have more than One such Presence as this is like having more Gods than One. So that all our Worship under the Gospel must be directed to God in Heaven and that is a plain argument that we must not Worship God in Images on Earth for they neither can represent to us the Majesty of God in Heaven nor is God present with the Image to receive our Worship there if God must now be Worshipped as dwelling in Heaven it is certain there can be no Object of our Worship on Earth for though God fill all places with his Presence yet he will be Worshipped only as sitting on his Throne in Heaven and then I am sure he must not be Worshipped in an Image on Earth for that is not his Throne in Heaven This the Mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies was an Emblem of for the Holy of Holies in the Jewish Temple did signifie Heaven and the Mercy-seat covered with Cherubims signified the Throne of God in Heaven whither we must lift up our Eyes and Hearts when we pray to him for though it is indifferent from what place we put up our Prayers to God while we have regard to the External Decency of Religious Worship yet it is not indifferent whither we direct our Prayers for we must direct our Prayers to the throne of grace if we would obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Now the Throne of Grace is only in Heaven whither Christ is ascended to make Atonement for us for he is the true Propitiatory or Mercy-seat And therefore if to direct our Prayers to God to his Picture or Image or to the Images of the Virgin Mary or any other Saints did not provoke God to jealousie yet it would do us no good unless such Images are God's Throne of Grace for all other Prayers are lost which are not directed to God on his Throne of Grace where alone he will receive our Petitions If a Prince would receive no Petitions but what were presented to him sitting on such a Throne all men would be sensible how vain a thing it were to offer any Petition to him else-where And yet thus it is here A Sinner dare not must not approach the Presence of God but only on his Mercy-seat and Throne of Grace for any where else our God is a Consuming Fire a Just and a Terrible Judge now God has but one Throne of Grace and that is in Heaven as the Mercy-seat was in the Holy of Holies which was a Type of Heaven thither Christ ascended with his Bloud to sprinkle the Mercy-seat and to cover it with a Cloud of Incense which are the Prayers of the Saints as the High-Priest did once a Year in the Typical Holy Place Which is a plain proof that all our Prayers must be immediately directed to God in Heaven where Christ dwells who is our true Propitiatory and Mercy-seat who has sprinkled the Throne of God with his own Bloud and has made it a Throne of Grace and where he offers up our Prayers as Incense to God. 2. To Worship God as our Father signifies to Worship him only in the Name and Mediation of his Son Jesus Christ for he is our Father only in Jesus Christ and we can call him Father in no other Name By the right of Creation he is our Lord and our Judge but he is the Father of Sinners only by Adoption and Grace and we are Adopted only in Christ so that if Christian Worship be the Worship of God as a Father then we must pray to God in no other Name but of his own Eternal Son The Virgin Mary though she were the Mother of Christ yet does not make God our Father and then no other Saint I presume will pretend to it which shews what a contradiction the Invocation of Saints is to the Nature of Christian Worship and how unavailable to obtain our requests of God. If we must Worship God only as our Father then we must Worship him only in the Name of