God and were divinely moved in their dreams when they were but the vapours and reeks of their own flesh which their aspiring minds agitated them withall And Epiphanius applies the place to the Gnosticks whose fables and dotages the Apostle he saith reproves which were more like the talk of a man in a dream then well awake 2. Cap. 17. n. 7. And it is likely that both the Jewish and Christian dreamers have faln into this spiritual phrensie by that same heat which I before spoke of whereby they perswaded themselves too early that they were Saints When this meets with a melancholy temper and a selfish disposition it is no hard matter to beget in them an opinion of near converse with God or Angels For when that fierce humour works and boils up all experience tells us that it puts men into high and big conceits if they be of a proud nature And then their religious inclinations and affections determine the workings of this melancholy fancy to matters concerning God and his Son and Holy Spirit These motions they may take to be from a divine power because they are so great and because they are so much different from what they feel when in their ordinary temper And this self-love may make them conceit likewise that none are like to receive from God such inspirations sooner then themselves who have such a love to him and presuppose that they are so much in his affections Now I hope there are not many at this time of this conplexion in Religion but when there are you have two remarkable characters given of them by Saint Jude in that verse They are given to the grossest sensualities and are likewise turbulent and seditious persons By which they make it plainly appear that Christ is not in them who was holy meek and peaceable and makes all those to be so on whom his Spirit breaths 3. But there are others of a lower form who confidently talk of the mind of God likewise made known to them and are altogether busied in their fancies about the glorious times that are ensuing The Jews do not more expect their Messiah and think to be made great men by him then these wait to see Christ come to reign or at least themselves advanced to sit upon thrones to govern the Nations They take themselves to be the candles that are to enlighten all the darker places of Holy Writ They are as familiarly acquainted with Daniel as others are with the Proverbs of Solomon They understand St. Johns Revelation as well as they do his three Epistles And I shall not much disbelieve them in this particular for their Religion hath nothing to do with that love and sweetness that charity and humility which he commends While they fancy themselves Kings with Christ they neglect his government in their souls which should keep under all their head-strong passions quell their rebellious affections tame their wild natures and restrain their brutish desires which would indeed make that new world of things which all good Christians pray for They conceit a gorgeous pompous scene of things a secular and worldly greatness an overflowing tide of prosperous events while they neglect that poverty of spirit that lowliness of mind that meekness patience long-suffering and such like Royal graces as make Christians conquerours over the world and victors of all their enemies And therefore they are to be accounted among those whose religion is only words and great brags arising from an high conceit of favour with God who loves those that will be guided by his will and ruled by his Laws better then those that would fain fulfill prophecies and pour out some of his vials upon the earth 4. This religion is indeed Filia vocis as the Jews called their last kind of Revelation the daughter of a voice yet not of Gods but of their own They thunder and rattle in the world as if they would bring the heavens about our ears and pour down the clouds upon us but it is a tempest of their own raising and a storm which their blustering passions and boisterous affections make in themselves No whisper nor thunder neither from heaven nakes men irreligious proud contemptuous disobedient bitter cruel and full of black zeal These are the breathings of the evil spirit the belches of the bottomless pit These inspirations smell of Sulphur they stink of fire and brimstome The true Religion leads a man to a solicitous enquiry after that which God hath revealed for the reforming of himself and erecting the Government of Christ in his soul And the ruling over himself keeping dominion over his lusts is more desirable to him then reigning in pomp and state a thousand years upon the earth The power of Religion makes a man to know the certainty of those words of truth which lead him to the life of God but never makes men talk like infallible Prophets what scene of things must next take its turn and what piece of the Revelation must next come upon the stage All these pretences to expounding Revelations and Prophesies and Secrets of Providence may be but a fancy and the licourish desire that is in men to be medling with them may be but such a thing as Eves appetite to the Tree viz the fruit of Pride and curiosity But the Doctrine of Christ is plain full and certain and the desire in a mans soul after the knowledge of it and being acquainted with it must be the fruit of the good spirit of God which leads a man to the life and power of godliness giving him a great command over himself and all worldly affections making him to be good not in word and notion but in deed and truth 5. But it is time to leave this sort of men who are meer talkers of God and who only give him their good word as we ordinarily speak commend him and speak well of him but care not to be so well acquainted with him as to be made like him who complement with him and speak him fair to his face who pretend to friendship with him and to be of his secrets and will be as near him as he pleaseth so be it that he will do them no good nor make any alteration in their souls Let me only annex to this another False Religion very near of kin to it which consists in a great out-cry against Antichrist and all his adherents This word Antichrist is of that nature that it may be prest to serve any design and it is become such a Mormo to vulgar people that their hairs stand up an end and they run away from the face of it as if they were out of their little wits The more too blame they who upon every occasion fright them with it as unadvised people do their children with bugbears which makes them of such a timerous nature that they fear all things which they never saw before though never so good and necessary for them But in the ordinary sense
as they did to cause their voice to be heard on high not regarding either their mournful howlings or their clarnorous petitions whereby they thought to stir him up to help them And by the Prophet Jeremiah he tells them cap. 14. 12. that when they fast he will not hear their cry For he that turns away his ear from hearing the Law even his prayer shall be an abomination Prov. 28.9 If men will not hear God he will not hear them yea he cannot give ear unto them For the things that they love and embrace are such necessary causes of the evils under which they groan and so inconsistent with the mercies that they desire that unless God alter the nature of things or change the method of his proceedings in the government of the world he cannot hearken to their petitions Either he must change his mind or they must change theirs or their prayers be unanswered And therefore unless they heartily renounce their sins and throughly discharge their iniquities all their prayers for sending mercies and for removing miseries are a piece of meer non-sense incoherent ignorant stuff which will be returned with such shame upon them as if he had thrown the dung of the sacrifices in the face of those that brought them 4. When men bear a love to those sins the evil consequents of which they desire may be prevented or remedied that they may not ruine them they are as ridiculous and unsuccessful as if a man should beg health while he continues in his riotous and intemperate course of living It is as if we should desire that the effect may cease while the cause remains in act that God would not be angry though we continually provoke him and that he would not hate us though we do not love him Let a man raise his confidence by what arts he pleaseth and speak with a boldness in his prayers as though he would command heaven and have what he would of God yet he cannot have a true faith that he shall be heard unless he utterly abandon in heart and resolution whatsoever is incompatible and cannot stand with the things that he desires We may call our Fasts by the name of dayes of prayer as we commonly do but though we should pray from morning until night though the whole Nation should cry to God that he would bow the heavens and come to save us though it should be with a voice that would rend the clouds and seem to make way for him to come down to our rescue yet if we be in love with our sins the causes of our trouble we have put in such a strong Caveat such a barr to our suits and petitions in the Court of heaven that we can obtain no audience And therefore some Heathens were wiser then these sottish children of Israel as Jer. calls them 4.22 for when Niniveh was afraid of Gods Judgements they not only proclaimed a Fast and cryed mightily to the Lord but they turned every one from their evil way and the violence that was in their hands Jonah 3.5 8. It is a prudent saying of Cyril of Alexandria Fasting is a choice thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prayer is profitable and of great benefit In Isa 58.3 it is to humble our souls in Gods eyes but it is most absurd for those that come in this manner to obtain mercy to provoke the divine Law-giver in another way by not loving to do his commands 5. But so willing are men to deceive themselves that though sometimes they go a little further yet they suffer their prayers to fall short of heaven When men have made their faces sour with fasting they begin sometimes to look angrily upon their sins and to take up some resolutions to be revenged on them And therefore they beg the divine grace to destroy them and beseech him to send his Spirit to purge their souls from them But then as if they had no mind to be heard they resolve to be at no trouble nor pains themselves about this great business They leave all to the care of God whom they would have so far to concern himself in our affairs as not to expect that we should be such creatures as he made us They sit still and wait for an unheard of power from above as if divine Faith were a relyance on God to carry such by force to heaven who have no list to walk in the way thither Such prayers have a perfect likeness to the requests of the man in the Fable to Hercules when his cart stuck fast in the mire who would neither prick forward his Oxen nor lay his own shoulders to the wheels nor unload the waggon but cast all upon the strength of his God expecting that he should come and draw it out And such an answer as was returned to that silly swain will very well befit such petitioners O bone disce pigris non flecti numina votis Praesentesque adhibe quùm facis ipse Deos. Learn Good Sir that God is not moved by lazie desires and sluggish wishes but that thou shalt then find thy God present when thou thy self art busie about thy work It is help that we beg and that supposes we are active though infirm Assistance we crave and that implyes our endeavours though ineffectual unassisted They are in all regards therefore idle prayers which careless sinners put up for divine aid and strength seeing they cannot speak common sense nor know the meaning of their own language They ask succour against their enemies but either they mean nothing or else victory without fighting and if that be it they mean it is as if they asked nothing because there is no such thing to be granted O that all men would at last learn to labour for that after which they seem to long and not make a perpetual trade of praying much and doing little or nothing Let us not meerly run from one Church to another from private Fasts to publick from common to extraordinary devotions for this was the manner of the heathen people who when they could not prevail by their daily sacrifices and prayers betook themselves to more laborious but unsuccessful devices We read of Moab in Isa 16.12 that when he was weary in the high places he came to his sanctuary to pray but he could not prevail i. e. when they had tired themselves with petitions for deliverance after the ordinary form that was used they went to the most holy place in the Land where their great god Chemosh was worshipped and there they doubted not but to speed But as they prevailed not because they did nothing at all but pray no more shall we of whom they are a perfect picture while we have confidence in our repeated prayers without a real reformation This kind of faith which men cherish in themselves is the most horrid infidelity greater then which the worshippers of Chemosh or Baal could not be guilty of For they believe not him at all who
many c. Or if we render it with others Did not be who is one make it i. e. the covenant of marriage and he hath abundance of spirit still to breath into our seed And wherefore did that one make that order that a man should cleave to his wife but that he might have a godly seed and therefore take heed what you do in putting away your wives and taking others for hereby you offend him that breaths the spirit of life into us Or if we take it as others interpret it their wickedness is still argued to be the greater because they boasted that they were the children of Abraham Now Did that one i. e. the first of your family do so of whose spirit we are the residue and what did that one he sought a godly seed he put not away Sarah though she was barren which to you would seem a just cause nor matched with an Idolater that he might have issue Or if we receive that rendring of the words which the learned De Dieu prefers above all the rest it argues them of great inhumanity and that they had not common good nature in them which makes the sin still greater No one would do thus that had but any reliques of the spirit of God in him and therefore much less they that seek a godly seed as you pretend to do You see that he might well call this covering violence with his garment ver 16. because it was such a wrong to those that by the Laws of God and nature deserved better at their hands To spread ones garment or ones skirts over a woman is a phrase in holy writ for to marry her Ruth 3.9 Ezek. 16.8 By taking therefore of a strange woman into their society which was engaged before to another they did as it were marry to violence and contract a relation with injustice Or as the forenamed author thinks it should be translated Violence covered their garments i. e. when as they ought still to have cast their garments of love and protection over their wives violence and wrong did cover those garments their marriage was an act of injustice and their skirts which they spread over strangers were all over stained with cruelty hard-heartedness and oppression 5. And Zachary tells us by way of prophesie what should be in after times toward the end of this Nation and what manner of Rulers should be over the people He compares their Shepherds i. e. Governours as I have shewn before unto young Lyons who do not use to protect but to devour the sheep Zach. 11.3 And he calls the people the flock of slaughter ver 4. whom he is bid to instruct either because they were to be destroyed by the armies of their enemies or because they were a prey unto their Governours According as it follows ver 5. Their possessors slay them and they hold themselves not guilty Yea to such a confidence were they arrived in these sins that they Bless God for the riches which they had got in this sort They had some devotion you see left though no honesty nor goodness God is intituled to all wicked possessions and acquisitions that he may make them good and defend them against all the clamors of men and the suits of their own conscience And it seems the people were very bad also for ver 6. he threatens them that he would have no more pitty on them then their Rulers had but let them destroy one another by seditions and at last deliver them all into the hands of the King that oppressed them who should be so far from taking any pastoral care of them that he should only slay and devour them as you may read v. â—6 6. And some understand by that King the Roman Caesar to whom they made themselves a prey by such sins as those I have been treating of That long Captivity which indures to this day had its way prepared by their avarice and cruelty as those acquaint us upon whom the spirit of prophecy was again poured forth For our Lord coming and reproving the chief of that generation when he lived for devouring widdows houses for extortion rapine and blood for covetousness and oppression for being without natural affection and the like sins while they made long prayers and pretended a great deal of sanctity and religion He declaring also that faith judgement mercy and the love of God were more to be regarded then their strict observation of dayes and the multitude of sacrifices They out of a great zeal for their religion which they thought he did not speak honourably enough concerning most shamefully put him to death I believe they took themselves to be very religious persons and were zealous in what they did only their zeal was not equally dispensed nor conveyed alike through the whole body of duties that God commanded Their heat was like the flushing in mens faces or the burning in their hands which we do not take to be an argument of a good temper but rather a sign that there are obstructions as the ordinary language calls them in the body so that there is not a free motion of the vital blood in all the parts I mean they spent so much zeal in a few things that they left no warmth of affection for other most necessary duties In those things their heat was staid and stopt which made them of an extraordinary high colour and to have the repute in the world of very great Saints and most vertuous persons Yea they themselves gazed so much upon this flame that they took no notice how cold they were in matters of common honesty but they committed all iniquity in a comfortable belief that they were good men and most beloved of God Their great zeal for the Sabbath and such like matters made them take themselves for pious and devout persons but the partiality and particularity of it whereby it remained there confined made them really to be such as our Saviour calls Hypocrites which appellation they took in such disdain that they conspired his death who would not let such as they pass for godly men 7. And are Christians to this day more reformed who have inherited their promises I wish I could say that we are as free from covetousness rapine and unmercifulness as the Pharises were from Sabbath-breaking and Idolatry R. D. Kimchi upon Hos 2.19 20. hath confessed a great deal of that truth which I have endeavoured to illustrate but I can only wish that the latter part of his gloss were found as true as the former part hath proved He saith those words cannot have a compleat sense till the time of the Messiah and that God uses the word betroth three times because of the 3. captivities after which God doth as it were marry them to himself but in the dayes of the Messiah after a more excellent manner then in former times For when they came out of Aegypt he did not betroth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they did not bear it moderately and use it with a humble mind but were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and behaved themselves in an injurious contumelious manner towards those who were shipwrackt in the storm 10. That God is the avenger of all such the Jews you have seen are a notable example though they stood in a nearer relation to him then the rest of the world And by often woful experience it seems some of them grew so sensible of it that there is a saying upon record of some wise men among them to this sense When Gods eares are shut against all mens praiers he will hear the cry of the poor needy and oppressed Quando vastata fuit domus sanctuarij omnes portae clausae fuerunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excepta porta oppressionis i. e. when the Temple was destroyed there was no gate open for the prayers and petitions of any to enter but only the gate for the petitions of the oppressed which they say is never shut V. Lex Talmud Vocah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This they prove as Buxtorf hath noted out of Amos 7.7 which they render thus And he shewed me and behold the Lord stood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the wall of defraudation or oppression i. e. I suppose of Samaria or Jerusalem Cities full of violence and in his hand were defraudations i. e. prayers against defrauders petitions of those who complained of oppression and unjust dealing of which we have heard they were extreamly guilty And then God saith ver 8. that though he had spared them twice upon the petition of Amos ver 3.6 yet now that these petitions of the poor came to him he would not again pass by them any more And seeing the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in this place only they have some colour for this interpretation I conceive they took the signification of it from a word that is of near sound and differs but in a letter viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denotes sighing and groaning which oppression you know causes Even in Israel you see if this interpretation be true where they had faln from God he would not exclude the suits of such persons but take their request into his hands and let them have a favourable answer See Ecclesiast 21.5 and 35. ver 13 14 15 17. c. in the former of which places there are these remarkable words A prayer out of a poor mans mouth reacheth unto the eares of God and his judgement cometh speedily But I am not much concerned to dispute the truth of this gloss seeing the thing it self which it asserts is otherwise put out of all doubt and this very Prophet Amos presently after saith as we noted before that these are such works as God cannot forget to punish Chap 8.7 and there is such particular notice taken also of the shedding innocent blood as an iniquity that he will not pardon 1 Kings 24.3 4 And therefore leaving this to obtain what credit it can get with those that are better skilled in that language then my self I shall conclude this chapter with a brief relation of those causes which are assigned by the Greek historians of the destruction of their Empire and delivery of them unto the power of the Turks 11. And I shall go no further then Mart. V. Pag. 55. Crusius his notes upon that political history of Constantinople which he set forth where he observes these causes as most notorious amongst others 1 the Injustice and Oppression of their Emperors as he instances in Michael Parapinatius Anno 1075. and Alexius Comnenus Anno 1084. who thought himself not to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the Father as we speak but the Lord of the common wealth He there notes several unjust acts of his which gave his people such discontent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that when the Turks came into Asia many chused rather to submit to them then bear the oppression of the Emperor any longer So Choniates saith in his life whose words are these The cruel and inhumane Barbarians seemed to be fuller of compassion kindness and humanity then our selves 2 He takes notice of the Idleness and voluptuousness of the same Princes which commonly is fain to maintain it self by rapine and violence from whence it came to pass that when the Turks broke in with their forces they were more fit to sit and spin with girls at home then take their arms into their hands and fight with enemies in the field as the same Choniates saith 3. The perversity covetousness of those that chose the Emperor who minded only their own profit and made no reckoning of a valiant and ancient Roman spirit So that an infant as the same author speakes in his swadling bands was as good as any else to be promoted if it would promote their own private designes 4. Civil-wars and the ambitions of great men which made them sometime fall off from the Emperors 5 the malice of some men against their private enemies made them invite the Turks to come and take their revenge who were easily allured by the goodness and riches of the country to imbrace such motions 6 Covetousness and the love of riches which made them that they would not pay garrison soldiers and so the places were quit The very navy was neglected through parsimony and so the Islands were lost And he or some other observes that the Citizens in the last siege would not give a supply of necessary charges for the defence of the City complaining of their poverty when as there were vast treasures found in their houses when it was taken 7 The insolencies and wrongs that the souldiers were luffered to offer to their friends which made the Historian say that they were not like to atchieve any thing who went to the war loaded with curses and tears for their Viaticum in their march 8. Treachery and perfidiousness to their enemies for they kept not faith with the Turks which much incensed their anger against them 9 A general neglect of Government in so much that he saith no care was taken to punish vice antient Fabricks fell to the ground the coyn was adulterated and false money stamped and a great loosness there was in their apparrel which one thing he saith wise men lookt upon to fignifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the alteration of the Government and dissolution of the Kingdom I may add the 10th though not so near to my present subject and that was the dissentions and differences that were among other Christians so that they could not give them relief But how should such differences have been and still remain in the world if there were that love to mercy kindness and justice that God by his Prophets and his son called for Let all Christians consider how they are concerned in these things and let them learn both by antient and later stories of indubitable
did in their example And the Apostle tells us in Tit. 1 ◠6. that they of the circumcision for of them he speaks ver 10. did profess to know God though in their works they did deny him By their very name they of the circumoision we may learn that their Religion consisted in outward not in inward things and that it was in the flesh and letter not in the heart and spirit But yet for all this they were great professors of the most excellent skill in divine matters and of the highest sanctity and purity above all other men For the word know signifies an insight into the deepest mysteries and also a piety beyond the common strain According as Clemens Alexanarinus often uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or knowers for the most spiritual and holy persons in opposition to fleshly and brutish men and for persons of more recondite and abstruse learning in sacred writ in opposition to those that are but of a vulgar apprehension In short they are in his language men of a perfect vertue and knowledge Now this great and illustrious name many vile men arrogated to themselves taking upon them to be the most pure and refined of all other whilest they lived in a sensual manner And some of the Jews it seems were of this party who though they were like other of the people of Crete lying lazy and gutling sots Crete ver 11. yet they gave out that they above all others were acquainted with God and had his secrets committed to them Yea so zealous they were that they made a considerable party in the world and by their clamour and noise decrying all others they made many weak Christians doubt whether they were not in the right way and maintained the best religion For they were a very confident sort of men and those that looked with a kind of disdain and scorn upon the rest of the world so that the humble and meek servants of Jesus Christ lest they should be out-braved by impudence and taken for a company of silly sneaks were fain to rebuke them sharply ver 13. and to use some severity toward them You may see this more plainly if you read but Rom. 2.17 18 19 20. where the Apostle tels us what the boasts and braggs of the Jews were concerning their knowledge and how they lookt upon all others as children and fools that must be taught by them 2. But the best of these mens Religion was only big words and loud talk concerning God as the Apostle tells us in the same Tit. 1.10 where he calls them Vain talkers Though some of them knew much yet they did nothing but tell others of it with a mixture of their own idle dotages And a great many of them knew the meaning of nothing they said but right or wrong poured out Texts of Scripture as fast as they could 1 Tim. 1.7 and others amused the vulgar minds with a great deal of mystical stuff and Cabalistical conceits which the Apostle calls Jewish fables Tit. 1.14 Men of large imaginations and wide mouths of quick fancies and nimble tongues to the former of which their Religion owed its procreation and begetting to the latter its birth and exclusion to the sight of the world 3. Such a Wordy religion there is still in the world and it makes the greatest noise of all others because it is a Sound The men who profess it hold no gift greater then that of talking and they had need be thankfull that they are not dumb for if they were there would appear no more of Religion in them then in an old Statue of some antient Saint But though their religion be but wind yet they are blown up with their own breath into a conceit of Sanctity And though they have not so much as some Jews viz. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a form of knowledge Rom. 2.20 an exact draught of the Bible in their minds yet these smatterers in Christian Doctrine can make a shift to babble others and themselves into a belief of their great attainments It is ordinary to hear men talk so long of the beauty and glory sweetness and preciousness of Christ that they beget in themselves as well as their hearers a perswasion that they are mightily in love with him There is nothing but glory and lustre and splendor and such shining language when they speak of God they gild him with beams and rayes and have none but golden and silver and other rich expressions concerning him which makes them think that they are rapt in admiration of his excellencies If they speak of Christ they paint him in Solomons language White and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousands with a head of fine gold Cant. 5.10 11. locks bushy and black as a raven c. If of the Church you shall have a discourse set with all the gemms and pearls and pretious stones that can be found in the twenty first chapter of the Revelation If of communion with God then you may hear of the bed of Solomon that is paved with love Cant. 3.10 and covered with purple and sustained with pillars of silver for the daughters of Jerusalem Who would not be ravished that hears of all these delicate fine things what heart can chuse but be taken with all this beauty and bravery And how can we think that it is not enough to transport the man himself into heaven to see others so moved and drawn by him And yet all the while this goodly do is made the man may not know himself what he means by all these expressions They make a fine noise and run smoothly off the tongue but they are little better as they handle the matter then non-significant expressions to themselves and others I shall not now add how many new words are minted and huddled together to supply the want of solid matter Nor how many mens tongues are tipt with good words which they have heard from the discourses of others but shall only say this that these men talk of God either in such words as have no fulness of sense in them but are devoid and empty of all true life or else in such words whose sense and life they have no feeling of in their souls 4. And yet I have told you of the best that can be found of this sort of religion There are others that mind not so much this fluency and abundant language but their greatest care is to speak so that they may not be understood but admired by the rabble as great Sophi's and men of a more then ordinary elevation I wish this had been the religion only of some in the first times who made a great deal of stir about the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the fulness the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the depth and as Irenaeus saith scraped up many Scripture phrases many holy words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that were scattered here and there and made up a body of nonsense
out of them Alas this is one of the diseases of our Age also wherein many men have affected unintelligible language and believed they were Eagles that were courted to look upon the Sun because they could soar aloft into a cloud of words When they had taken abundance of Prophetical expressions and carelesly jumbled them into a confusion they seemed to themselves like men inspired and that spoke oracles when they did but slaver out their own transcendent non-sense 5. And if these men can but arrive to the confidence of prating saucily to their betters this is reputed a singular gift and they take themselves to be indued with an extraordinary measure of zeal for God and his cause But if they can perk up into the Pulpit and take the boldness to be Preachers and Instructers to others this is an infallible mark and now they cannot doubt but they are full of the Spirit of God This is the thing that tickles them more then all the rest and their forefathers the Scribes and Pharisees never loved more to sit in Moses his chair Mat. 23.2 then their fingers itch to be laying the Law before the Ignorant people 6. But let such men who delight to hear themselves talk consider if they have not lost that Faculty whereby we are men that there may be twenty times more Religion in humble learning then in this bold teaching of others and that there is a thousand times more in hearty doing of what men learn To that let them bend their studies and observe how greedy they are of riches how they scramble for high places how worthy they think themselves of what others enjoy how they love to rule and command over them how impatient they are of contradiction how ambitious to be thought some body in the world how censorious of their neighbours how fiery hot against dissenters how fierce and violent for their Opinion more then for Godliness And then if they believe the Scriptures let them judge whether the leaven of Hypocrisie have not sowred them And let us all remember That true Religion is a transforming sense of God that which changes and alters the temper of mens souls that which seasons and leavens the whole man with Goodness It is not a new Tongue but a new nature It consists not in reformed language but in a reformed life Not in talking concerning God but in an imitation of him and being conformed to him And then a well-seasoned Heart will make all the words savoury and without affectation though with good affection CAP. XIX 1. Of the love the Jews bare to Moses 2. When as they hated that which Moses chiefly aimed at and had only a fancy to him as a gallant person 3. The same love now men think they have to Jesus Christ 4. But no better then the love men have to persons of desert and that do them kindnesses 5. Such men therefore like the Pharisees They love Christ now he is dead and never saw him better then if they had lived with him 1. BUT some may say to me Can you think that such people as you have described have no love to Jesus Christ of whom they speak so much I will give an Answer to this by describing another piece of Jewish Hypocrisie and that was their extraordinary love to Moses Moses What a great and sacred name was that and never out of their mouths It was a wonder the Aegyptian charmers did not put it into their forms of incantation as they did the name of Abraham and others Epiphan Haer. Melchisid seeing they boasted no less of it The Arabians who held him for a God could not give him a greater veneration then his Countreymen did They professed themselves Moses his Disciples and say that they are sure God spake by him but esteem our Saviour a sorry fellow in compare with this great Master John 9.28 29. In Moses they trusted John 5.45 and blasphemy against him they would prosecute with the same revenge that they did blasphemy against God Nay Moses was first in their mouths when they accused St. Steven and they said that he had spoken blasphemous words against Moses and against God Act. 6.11 There is no Question to be made but that they would have spit in that mans face who should have told them that they did not love Moses They would have defied his words and given him the lye a thousand times and you might have as soon perswaded them that there was never such a man as that they did not bear an affection to him And for this very cause it was that they killed our Saviour because they thought he contradicted this grand Teacher of their Religion and imagined they did God high service in so doing 2. And yet if you make a little farther search into the business you shall find that they loved Moses no otherwise then as vulgar people love Queen Elizabeth as a brave man and one who did great things for that Nation and in whose dayes there was a good world If Moses had lived in our Saviours time and told them of their sins as he did they would have loved Moses no more then thieves and traitors loved the Queen who would not let them steal or betray their country If Moses should have risen from the dead and told them that he allowed divorces only because of the hardness of their hearts they would have given him a bill of divorce though so much wedded to him If he had said the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs of their promises they would have looked upon him as an heathen and a publicane And he should not have escaped to have been ranked among the sinners if he had dropped a word against their legal righteousness Nay if he had said to them but one of the Ten commandments Thou shalt not covet those Pharisees would have been ready to cast stones at him for not receiving their glosses whereby that command was evacuated They had an high esteem of him and affection to him as he had been a great Benefactor to their Nation but the best of his Laws his Spirit and qualities they perfectly hated And therefore our Saviour tells them that though they did beautifie the Sepulchres of such righteous persons as their Fathers had slain and thought they should not have done such a thing for all the world yet they had the same murderous affections against those holy men and would have dipt their hands as soon in their blood had they lived in those times For they hated such men then as their Fathers hated heretofore and so all the blood that had been shed in former ages did light upon them because they inherited their Ancestors sins as well as their lands 3. Even so it is now with many in the Christian world The name of Jesus is so dear unto them that they have it in their mouths as much as the Jews had the name of Moses It is so full of honey and sweetness and they
but be glad they might think that such good friends of his grew rich on any fashion seeing he was not like to lose but to get by it For if you look into Matth. 23. you cannot but observe that they were monstrous extortioners and as full of covetous desires as a drunkards cup is full of drink Besides they were abominably proud undervaluing all men in compare with themselves And so many wayes also they had of disanulling all Gods commands as if by their prayers they had obtained a power from God to wipe and cross what they pleased out of his Law They took God to be so much beholden to them for their pains and sweat in praying to him that they thought he was bound to let them make themselves an amends some other wayes And because it cost them much to be so devout they thought their labour was as pretious with him and that he put the same value upon it In short so little there was in all this devotion that if a man had had a mind to deny himself in little or nothing his best way had been to have put himself into the garb of a Pharisee and buy a grant of God to do what he list by many prayers Which was just as if a man should think by giving his neighbour many good morrows to make him overlook the breaking of his hedges and the stealing of his goods or as if a man should beseech another not to be offended with him though he beat his children and took upon him to do what he listed in his house 4. And such there have been in the Christian world who have delighted in praying and offering up continual petitions to heaven whom the earth could not bear because of their vile and wicked lives As John Basilides Duke of Muscovy whom Dr. Casaubon instances in who loved to be continually upon his knees and lifting up his hands to God when they were not employed in some butcherous and bloody action or other And Hacket here in England in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth of whom Saravia saith that he seemed to have a divine heat in him when he prayed though it is known to all the world with what wild fires he was acted For there is a natural ardor may do much this way as that Doctor speaks or rather a Religious melancholy as Mr. More hath shewn in his excellent Treatise of Enthusiasm For that humour will work and boil up even to an Exstasie and where it meets with some spice of Religion it may do strange feats by way of devotion Ignatius the Jesuites tell us was sometimes lifted up four cubits above the ground when he was at prayer and he might possibly seem to himself so to be if that be true which Eunapius reports of Jamblicus how that when he was a praying Eunap in vita Jambl. V. etiam in vita Aedesii he was heaved up from the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above ten cubits and his rayment seemed to shine with a brightness like to gold But above all I desire the Reader to take notice of what Theodoret saith of the Mossaliani or Prayers that they used to do nothing else and would not follow any calling but when they did not pray they fell asleep L. 4. Eccles hist cap. 10. L. 4. haeret fab cap. 11. And then they thought that they beheld Visions and could prophesie and saw the sacred Trinity with their eyes They said that there was an evil spirit in all men which must be cast out by prayers and then the holy Spirit of God comes in after which there was no need of fasting for to humble the body nor of any doctrine or teaching which bridles and guides the motion of the body but the Spirit doth all One egg is not more like another then those men were like them among us who say they are above all Ordinances They feel some heat in their hearts when they pray and they are lifted up in some kind of pious thoughts by the strong workings of their own melancholy fancies and then they think that this is to them instead of all other things so that the Lords Supper is but a carnal Feast and the Scriptures themselves are but dead letters and Ministers are but School-masters for children and fools 5. So much of the Pharisee is still among us that it would make any godly soul blush to see what foul things are done by those that make very fair pretences to God in their prayers The measure of which many times is length and loudness many words and much heat whilest there is no true spiritual life and sense of God which breaths forth their souls unto him Men care not to be as long in confessing of their sins as they intend to be in leaving of them if it will but pass current for Religion They will pray for forgiveness of their sins as often as God pleases so they may but have leave when they see occasion to commit them They will call for that strength and power which they never mean to use for that Spirit of holiness which they would not have so kind as to come and trouble them in their enjoyments They pray for that light which they would not have to look too broad in their faces for that purity and sanctity which they will bestow no more upon then a prayer to obtain and if they knew what they prayed for they would be loth to have an Answer They beg that comfort the spring of which they would be loth should dwell within them that righteousness of Christ which they would have to cover all their filthiness and keep them warm in their sins that blood of Jesus which should quench the fiery indignation which they say but think not that their sins do deserve 6. And yet I have told you the best of this sort of Religionists for there are that think they shall be heard for their much babling and are little better then heathenish worshippers They are rude and sensless in their Tautologies without any real and unforc't affection Their prayers are a confused indigested heap of words rash and bold expressions irreverent and unbecoming addresses to the glorious majesty of heaven fulsome and nauseating language savouring of an unprepared though hasty careless though confident mind They are measured by the glass and must be stretched though by heathenish repetitions i. e. without any order or handsom zeal to such a certain length And if a childish tone like that when they say their lessons can help out these devotions it is accounted a great token of good affection and a sign that a man is more then ordinarily moved If the voice likewise be loud sonorous most people are apt to think the heavens will hear those prayers sooner then others as coming from the greatest zeal and fervency of Spirit But all good Christians whose hearts are in their prayers feel that the sence of Gods Glory as well as his
Goodness fills their souls Which makes them modest and humble blushing and bashfull before his face reverent and composed solemn and sedate in their speech unto him Serious in their zeal and zealous in their repetitions understand in what they ask and earnestly desirous to receive it And above all they know that an holy life is most pleasing unto God whereby they do continually bespeak his favour and are alwayes sending up Orators to the throne of grace to bring down more blessings upon them 7. And if any one have a list to enquire into the bottom of this deceit I believe he will find that many mens prayers are but a piece of Art which they have learnt by imitation of others whose language and affection they most admired from whom they have borrowed such feeling expressions as won their souls to some endeavours to be like them I have sometimes thought that an hypocrite is rather a counterfeit of a Christian then of Christ for he doth not so much shape himself according to what he reads of him as what he sees in them He is but their Ape and never more discovers himself then when he labours to imitate their zeal and to come up to the height of their piety As Apes are never more like themselves then when they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Lucian somewhere speaks put on the face and garb of Noble men so the higher strains of devotion they endeavour to personate the more their affectation and fulsome forcedness appears Or as the deeper any women paint the more plainly is their dissembled complexion seen so the more colours these men lay on and the greater ruddiness of zeal they would attain unto the more is their ugliness revealed and the false beauty of their holiness laid open to the world As it is in those Meteors which they call parelia when two Suns appear together besides the great light of heaven Cap. 13. nat quaest the one saith Seneca is simulacrum Solis the picture or image of the Sun the other is simulacrum imaginis the picture or image of the eimage so it is in this case a good man is the image of Christ the Sun of righteousness but an hypocrite is only the image of the good man not of Christ having only a picture of his righteousness And yet these pictures and images of Christians may seem to some to excell the coppy and be more admired then good and religious people As a picture in a room is by Art so drawn that it seems to look upon every one in it on whatsoever side you stand whereas a living man doth look but one way so these artificial pieces have a more notable way of looking graciously upon the multitude then real Christians have who appear most lovely to those that have the spirit of life ruling in them 8. And if these Artists have an active fancy and a natural heat it will much promote their good opinion of themselves because their devotions will be beyond the vulgar strain For a quick fancy can administer very apt words and fluent expressions that shall not justle one against another but run off very smoothly and there is a kind of charm in dainty words well put together which roll off the tongue without any rub in their way The natural heat also when it makes the animal spirits boil and leap up to a great height can produce some affections and passions answerable to that sreedom of language which will have still more of ravishment and transportation in it By the power of Imagination likewise being thus heated and chafed unusual thoughts may be raised up and the mind may be filled with new notions which men may take to be an argument of their being under the power of the Spirit and their praying without a form may seem to them to be a token of the power of godliness But when this heat abates and they cease to be tickled with such affections then these men grow pittifull creatures and have no religion at all unless they can comfort themselves with what they hear others also talk of that they are under desertion and make this as much a sign of grace as they did their former enlargements 9. It must likewise be considered that the beginning and continuance of this devotion is to be imputed to the natural conscience which men have of some duty owing unto God and of some recompense that they stand bound to make him for their neglects of it Though this conscience when it is once awakned cannot be satisfied unless they do something to please him yet it rests commonly in that which is easie and agrees best with their natural dispositions and least contradicts their inbred lusts and desires Now where there is that nimble fancy which I spoke of and that voluble tongue and spirits that can soon take fire by any motion there is nothing more accommodated to the end of giving them satisfaction then prayer because such people are naturally forward to talk and can both with ease and pleasure make long speeches unto God And when they have prayed themselves into a good opinion of their holiness and favour with God then as soon as their morning devotions are past they may securely lie all day long in hatred malice covetousness injustice and such like sins as though they had consecrated and craved a blessing upon all their Actions Lib. 1. Essayes chap. 56. And so Mount aigne tells us that there was a young Prince who when he went about any leud and unchaste design would alwayes go into that Church which was in his way both as he went and as he returned from his filthiness this was told him by a great person as an instance of special and singular devotion But let any impartiall man tell me saith he to what purpose he invoked and called on God for his divine favour having his mind wholly bent to sin and his thoughts set on lasciviousness And yet thus it is every man calls upon God it matters not for what the covetous the ambitious the theef all pray God to succeed their enterprises which is just as if a Cut-purse should call in justice for his aid and as if we should call God to witness to a lie And there he adds this golden saying Verily it seemeth that we make no other use of our prayers then of a company of gibberish phrases or as those that imploy holy and sacred words about witchcraft and magical effects and that we magine their effect dependeth on the contexture or sound or succession of words or on our countenance For mans soul being full fraught with lusts and nothing touched with repentance they headlong present unto him those heedless words that memory affordeth their tongue by which they hope to obtain an expiation of all their offences 10. I shall hereunto annex briefly another way of deceiving mens selves which is by a whining puling kind of religion that many have taken up I
yielding to temptations to covetousness deceit and unlawfull gain or on the contrary very fearfull to fail in a ceremony but worshipping the flesh and living loosely An Hypocrite is much imployed in little things and busied about the shadow and bark of religion be it what it will If religion be pompously gloriously cloathed then he will strive to be most ceremonious costly and chargeable in his devotion so that we may say of him as the Philopher said of a finical but empty Lawyer homo in causis agendis bene vestitus a neat man in his Religion one that pleads with God in gorgeous apparrel But on the contrary if men take to a side that loves to be sordid and slovenly and as careless as they can in all outward decencies none shall more fiercely decry all ceremonies nor more prophane all that was before accounted holy And so in all other matters the most inconsiderable among them exercise their zeal and the weightiest exercise only their fancies and tongues 5. A Sixth thing to be noted in them is that they would be just in one thing that they might be unjust in another v. 23. They would pay their tithes to the Priests that this might cover all their acts of rapine and covetousness among the people And they did not only pay them but were very scrupulous to pay them exactly as if they would not wrong one of a Cummin seed or a Speer of mint or as we say of the hair of one head when as they neglected judgement if any causes came before them they shewed no mercy to the poor and kept no faith in their Covenants and promises It concerns a man to be very punctual with some persons and in his ordinary intercourse to keep to rules of justice else he would be hissed out of the world and he would have no opportunity to deceive a simple or unwary soul Much less would he be able when he stretches his conscience to do a base action to take himself still for a godly man if he did not at other times deal fairly And therefore he is fain also to imitate the Pharisee in a Seventh quality and that is to do some great act of Charity to excuse himself from a constant exercise of it It is like that these hypocrites which our Saviour speaks of paid the tythe which was due every third year for the use of them that were in need Deut. 14.28 as well as the yearly dues to the Ministers of God in the Temple And this great and expensive charity they thought perhaps so highly of that they never reproved themselves for their miserable and wretched covetousness at all other times As many men now whose fingers are very stiff may chance to draw their purse-strings at some solemn time or when they are much moved with a good Sermon of Alms-doing who at other seasons have hearts as hard as flints to the crying necessities of their Brethren Much of the Religion of men and their charity also knows its times and daies if they be observed God lends them they think the rest of their lives to dispose of as they please themselves 6. And lastly they would not stick to do more then they were commanded that they might neglect Gods express Commands For many think that the tythe of every herb which they paid Luke 11.42 was not due by the Law but they could be content to over-do in this case that they might do nothing in others to give these free-will offerings that they might have their own wills in greater matters so false is the heart of men that they think an excess in what pleases them will satisfie for all their defects in that which is most pleasing unto God As to keep whole daies of prayer is far more grateful to some then to keep a continual watch over themselves in all their dealings and converses with others and in all their own inward thoughts and desires They will leave no stone unturned to find out an Art or device to save themselves from the trouble of Mortification and self-denial They will wriggle every way rather then be strait and upright as God made them Any labour or pains they will take to shift off the great Commandments of loving God with all their hearts and souls and strength and loving their neighbours as themselves 7. The more need there is that men should be earnestly urged to search into their hearts and examine them well about these things lest there lie hid any of this leaven under many seeming actions of Godliness Take heed lest you wink at some evil affection which you bear a particular respect unto and let it scape untouched when you profess to cleanse your selves Beware lest you cast only a favourable look upon some duties of Religion and look asquint upon the rest or take no notice of them Labour to remove all obstructions that Zeal may have a free passage through the whole frame of your souls and that you may be equally spirited to every duty of Religion And I shall commend these two things as of singular use and advantage to keep our hearts from self deceit First Let men suspect themselves when they are moved with an extraordinary heat and feel a great zeal agitating of them in some one thing which they undertake upon the account of Religion Let them presently begin to ask themselves how they stand affected to all the rest and to feell how their pulse beats in all things especially in the most spiritual actions Or else it is a thousand to one that this zeal will betray them into hypocrisie and they will place all their religion in it And therefore search well if there be not some externall inducement which thou dost not observe some corrupt end at the bottom some willingness to spare a foul and nasty desire which makes thee so zealous in that particular thing which may be as a covering for thy coldness in other matters Be not cheated by thy self into a belief that thou art religious when thou bearest not a love to all Gods Commandments but labour impartially and conscienciously to carry thy self to every duty alike and then thou maist be well perswaded of thy sincerity in Religion 8. And Secondly Let every man observe what it is that he is most in danger to neglect when his Spirit is forwardly carried towards one thing There is alwaies some one duty more then others that a partial zeal is apt to devour Be sure therefore to take heed and beware of covetousness while you cry out against profaneness Be as carefull to maintain love in your heart to your Brethren as you are to observe them reprove them or to make them of your mind Be as humble lowly and poor in spirit as you are ready to distribute to relieve the poor or despise the world Labour to be in as great charity with your enemies to love them pray for them and bless them as you are willing and perhaps forward
to hazzard your selves in a good cause Be as consciencious in following the Ministers Doctrine as in paying of him his tithes and speaking well of him As zealous in doing as you are in hearing as carefull to use Gods grace as to beg it to live to God as to pray to him And Saint James gives us the reason Jam. 1.22 That we shall otherwise deceive our own souls We shall have only so much religion as will serve to cozen our selves as many a man doth who hears Gods word and prayes and is much affected but makes no conscience of laying it to his heart by serious consideration and working of it into the frame of his spririt that he may live according to it CAP. XXIV 1. The distinctions which the Pharisees had to elude Gods commands 2. One more notable then the rest that if they kept one precept well they need not keep all others 3. The fleshly Christian hath his jugling tricks He distinguishes between the letter and the Spirit of a duty 4. Or saith he follows Providence 5. Or that he hath an Impulse 6. Or he pleads Necessity 7. Or that he doth it for Gods glory 8. Or hath liberty from Free-grace 9. Or from the Examples of good men 10. We must not believe every pretender 11. Observe how they change and turn about 12. Especially how loth they are to suffer and how impatient under it 1. BUT you may well wonder how men so knowing as they were should overlook the most necessary things which are so legible in the Book of God and perswade themselves that they were pious notwithstanding such palpable neglects Sure these men had a most notable wit which could invent such cunning distinctions as should allow them to break all Gods Commandments while they seemed to keep them And so they had as our Saviour tells Mat 23 16 17 c. where you may see that they did absolve men even from their oaths that were made by holy things viz the Temple and the Altar if they were not made by that which they most loved the Gold and the Gift It is so senseless a distinction whereby they freed men who had solemny sworn as our Saviour plainly proves to them that we cannot but think it was invented by gross covetousness and yet with a shew of devotion to God in preferring the Gold that was brought to his treasury and the gifts to his Altar above all other things in sacredness And so they defeated another command concerning the giving of honour to our Parents by making a vow that all they got should be as a Sacred thing to their parents i. e. it should be as unlawfull for them to have any of their goods as to enjoy that which was devoted to God For so they that are best skilled in the Jewish learning do expound that place V. J. r Coch. in duns Tit. Talmud cap. 7. Sanhedr Mat. 15.5 though some of the Fathers as I have already said think that it speaks of consecrating their goods to the treasury of God This was a rare way to be rich by vowing not so much as to give their parents a mite of their goods and a great piece of religion no question they thought it to keep such a vow when they had made it This was a subtile Art to be covetous and under a religious tye both together 2. But these are no more then trifles in compare with that transcendent trick which absolves a man at once from as many duties as he pleases That rare device was this That if a man observed but one command well it was not absolutely necessary that he should keep the rest Vid Tit. Maccoth cap. 3. So R. Chanania saith that God would have Israel increase in merits and therefore it was that he multiplied so many precepts It was not absolutely necessary that they should observe them all but they should merit exceedingly if they did For so Maimon observes in his Comment upon that place cited in the margin If any of Israel keep one of the six hundred and thirteen precepts as he ought out of love and without a mixture of worldly designs he shall have a portion in the world to come Many evasions will mens own lusts and desires suggest to them for the casting off the weight of any duty that lyes upon them but this is such a notorious gloss that by it they might slip their necks from the yoke of every command but that which they could be content to practice 3. And you must not think the fleshly Christian is at a loss for the like distinctions interpretations and glosses for to serve the dear interest of his sins Loth he is to break a Law unless he seem to himself to keep it and therefore here his wit steps in and offers its help to salve his conscience and his profit or pleasure both together I shall take the liberty to instance in a few which are easie to observe because I doubt men will make a shift to understand nothing that concerns them by all that I say unless I descend to particulars First therefore if a man have use for a sin as suppose the breaking of an oath he can distinguish between the Letter and the Spirit of it He can easily perswade himself that he keeps the prime meaning which is according as he pleases to have it though he go contrary to the sound of the words and the sense in which men commonly understand it And thus those persons in New England who made so great a disturbance See Mr. Welds relation An. 1636. evacuated and blotted out the whole body of Christian precepts and did not leave so much as the Pharisees who thought obedience to one precept at least to be necessary saying That the letter of all the Scriptures were for a Covenant of works but the Spirit of them held forth a Covenant of free grace This was a rare answer when they were urged with several places of Holy Writ that proved the necessity of Sanctification and inward righteousness which they turned out of doors under the pretence of letting in Christ If it were said that we must become new creatures the Answer was ready that by the new creature is meant Christ and therefore we must only get into Christ If it were said we must be holy as God is holy this was the return that Christ is our sanctification and that there is no inherent righteousness in us but only in him And whereas the Scripture saith Blessed are the poor in Spirit c. they said a man might have all grace and yet want Christ This was the secret sense the Spirit of the Scriptures That we need do nothing and Christ hath done all This was holding forth naked Christ as they called it so naked indeed that it is a shame to speak of it 4. If men cannot attain to this height of secret intelligence which the old Gnosticks likewise boasted of but they must acknowledge that