bread of life which came down from Heaven and his flesh is bread considered as given for the life of the world and therefore to eat his flesh and drink his blood must signifie the Sacramental eating of it as the memorials of his death and passion 3. Suppose we should understand this eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the son of man of feeding on Christ by faith or believing yet they could understand this no better than the other it is plain they did not and I know not how they should for to call bare believing in Christ eating his flesh and drinking his blood is so remote from all propriety of speaking and so unknown in all languages that to this day those who understood nothing more by it but believing in Christ are able to give no tolerable account of the reason of the expression Now if this place in St. Iohn be meant of the Lords Supper as I do not in the least doubt but it is our Saviour has made it as necessary to us as we think eternal life to be for he has expresly told us except ye eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you We must not indeed expound these words to such a sense as to make the Sacrament necessary even to Infants themselves as St. Austin did who therefore administred the Eucharist as well as Baptism to Children which was plainly contrary to the nature of it for it must be eaten with Faith or else it is not the body of Christ to the receivers and God does not make any ordinance necessary to those who are under a natural incapacity nay a moral impossibility will excuse this when men are desirous to communicate in all our Saviours institutions but have no opportunity to do it for God will dispense his grace in extraordinary ways to all well disposed minds when his providence denies those which are ordinary but those who wilfully neglect the ordinary means of grace have no reason to expect those which are extraordinary how God will deal with those who are guilty of such neglects not out of a contempt of his institutions but out of ignorance of their necessity or a superstitious awe and reverence for them I will not determine Having thus proved that we cannot in an ordinary way partake in the benefits and blessings which Christ hath purchased by his death but by a Sacramental eating of the body and drinking the blood of Christ to make you still more sensible of the infinite hazard and danger of this neglect I shall briefly consider what those blessings are which we partake of at the Lords Table and which we cannot expect any where else And I shall name but these 1. The pardon of our sins for this was the purchase of Christ's death he died for our sins and expiated them with his own blood and therefore we may observe that we do not only eat the body of Christ in this holy Feast but we drink his blood the blood of expiation the blood of the Covenant which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel now this was never permitted the Iews to eat any blood much less the blood of the Covenant which was sprinkled about the Altar to make Atonement nay we feed in this holy Supper on a Sin-offering nay that great expiatory Sacrifice whose blood was carried into the Holy of Holies which the High Priest himself was not allowed to eat of to which the Apostle alludes in the Epistle to the Hebrews We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the Sanctuary by the High Priest for Sin are burnt without the Camp i. e. no body was suffered to eat the flesh of the Sacrifice on the great day of expiation which was a general atonement for the sins of the whole Congregation not so much as the High Priest himself but their bodies were burnt to ashes Now the death of Christ upon the Cross was peculiarly typified by that great expiatory Sacrifice whose blood was carried into the Holy of Holies as he had discoursed at large in the ninth Chapter and plainly refers to here wherefore Iesus also that he might Sanctifie the people with his own blood suffered without the gate This is the Sacrifice we eat of to which he plainly refers in what he adds by him therefore let us offer the Sacrifice of praise or the Eucharistical Sacrifice which is the Lords Supper to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name but to do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased which refers to those oblations for the relief of the poor and other religious uses which were always made at the Lords Table Now what is the meaning of this that we are allowed to drink of the blood of the Sacrifice and eat the flesh of the great Sin-offering and Propitiatory Sacrifice which the High Priest himself under the Law was not allowed to touch I say what is the meaning of it but to exhibit and convey to us the full and perfect remission of all our sins in the blood of Christ. So that we eat the flesh of an expiatory Sacrifice and drink the blood of atonement and thereby partake of that pardon and expiation which was made by Sacrifice and if we were sensible what the guilt of sin is and what will be its punishment we should not fail frequently to come to this holy Table to renew the pardon of our sins in the blood of Christ. 2. Another fruit of Christs death which we receive at the Table of our Lord is the assistances of his grace and Spirit and the communications of a divine life to us Hence our Saviour tells us he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him which signifies such a close and intimate union whereby we receive the communications of his own life and spirit from him and therefore all Christians are said to be made to drink into one Spirit which signifies the communications of the divine Spirit at this Holy Table the whole Gospel administration is called the Ministration of the Spirit as being accompanied with a divine power much more this divine Feast wherein we become one with Christ eat his flesh and drink his blood as members of his body of his flesh and of his bones as St. Paul speaks and it is impossible the Spirit of Christ should be separated from such an uniting ordinance as makes us members of his body 3. By eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ in this holy Feast we have a pledge and earnest of immortality So our Saviour expresly tells us Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day As the living Father hath sent me
forsaking the assembling of themselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching Which at least supposes that to forsake the Assemblies of Christians does greatly dispose Men to a final Apostacy as appears from the following verses wherein he urges the great danger of Apostacy which had been nothing to his purpose had not separation at least been the beginning of it But if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledg of the Truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sin but a certain fearful looking for of Vengeance and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversary He that despised Moses ' s Law died without mercy under two or three Witnesses of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy that trampleth under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace The truth is whoever carefully examines the state of the Apostolical-Churches according to that account we find of them in the Writings of the Apostles and I may add of the succeeding Ages from the report of the most Primitive and Apostolical Fathers will find that none but Apostates from Christianity by Apostates not meaning those who wholly renounced the Name and Profession but those who renounced the Truth of Christian Doctrine actually separated from the Communion of the Church There were Schisms and Divisions in the Church of Corinth which S. Paul reproves them for but we do not find that they actually separated into distinct Communions but contended amongst themselves about the preference of several Apostles which of them was greatest Every one of you saith I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas or Peter and I of Christ. And this seems to be the Case in the second Schism of Corinth in the time of Clemens Romanus who writ a Letter to them in the name of the Church of Rome perswading them to Peace Unity and Order But besides these Schisms in the Church which S. Paul makes a great sign of carnality For are ye not carnal for whereas there is among you Envying and Strife and Divisions are ye not carnal and walk as Men For while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos are ye not carnal There were also Schisms from the Church as we learn from St. Paul's Epistle to Timothy For of this sort are they who creep into Houses who kept Secret and Clandestine Meetings and lead captive silly Women laden with Sins led away with divers Lusts ever learning but never able to come to the knowledg of the Truth Now as Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the Truth that is they opposed themselves against the Apostles of Christ who were the only Teachers of the true Religion and were that to the Christian Church which Moses was to the Iews Which plainly signifies that they set themselves up against the Apostles and gathered Churches in opposition to them Of such Separatists St. Iohn speaks whom he calls Antichrists they went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that it might be made manifest that they were not all of us Where the Apostle expresly affirms that they went out from them that is forsook the Christian Assemblies by which he proves that they were not of them i. e. that they did not belong to the same Body and Society but had entertained such Doctrines as were destructive to the Christian Faith for otherwise they would not have separated from the Christian Church Now this necessarily supposes that Christian Communion is so indispensible a Duty that no Man can causlesly separate from the Christian Church without at least bringing his Christianity into question that nothing can reasonably tempt Men to a Separation but their renouncing some great Article of the Christian Faith nor can any thing justify a Separation but such Corruptions as destroy the Faith once delivered to the Saints for otherwise there had bin no force in the Apostle's Argument to prove that they were corrupt in the Faith from their Separation They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us no doubt they would have continued with us So that tho we should grant that Schism as Dr. Owen earnestly contends signifies no more than Divisions and Contentions among the Members of the same Church without the breach of Church-Communion and therefore Separatists are not properly Schismaticks I know not what he gains by this when Separation in the Apostles days was looked upon as a much greater evil than Schism and yet none but Hereticks or Apostates from the Truth of Christian Doctrine were in those days guilty of it and if the Apostle's Argument holds good a sinfull and causless Separation can never be own'd without some degree of Apostacy It is to no great purpose to dispute the signification of words when the difference between things is plain and notorious But yet there seems to be a manifest difference in Scripture between Schism and Heresie the first being commonly applied to signifie those Divisions which were among Christians in the same Communion the second if not always yet chiefly applied to signify Separation from the Church for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies a Sect or Party and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sectarian Thus Christianity it self when the Christians united into a distinct Church-Society was called Heresy or a new Sect and the Sect of the Nazarens Thus we read of the Sect of the Sadduces and the Sect of the Pharisees where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Heresy is always used Now tho these different Sects among the Iews did not separate into distinct Assemblies for Worship but all worshipped at the Temple as even the Christian Iews did while the Temple stood as appears from what happened to St. Paul at Ierusalem the last time he went thither yet they were distinguished by different Opinions Rites and Usages and Schools and which is usually the effect of such Distinctions by different Interests and Affections And in allusion to those Jewish Sects these Differences amongst Christians which did not break forth into open Separation but occasioned great sidings and Parties and Heats and Animosities were indifferently called Schisms or Heresies Thus St. Paul joyns Hatred Variance Wrath Seditions Heresie But then there were another sort of Heresies which always ended in Separation for such Men were always either cast out of the Church or separated themselves Such are those which St. Peter calls Damnable Heresies whom he compares with the fallen Angels and the old World which was destroyed with a Deluge of Water and Sodom and Gomorrah whom he calls presumptuous self-willed and that are not
Sinners reasonably expect from God and much less challenge it as a right that he should redeem them from that state of Misery into which they had brought themselves by such an amazing stupendious and incomprehensible expression of his Love as the Incarnation and Death and Sufferings of his own Eternal only begotten and well-beloved Son Here is such a height and depth and length and breadth of the Love of God as passeth all Understanding this is Grace free Grace the Riches of Grace the abundant Riches of Grace And therefore this brings us under such Obligations of Love and Gratitude as infinitely excel all the Obligations of Natural Justice Now we are not our own but are bought with a price and therefore must glorify God both with our Bodies and Spirits which are God's We are now redeemed not with corruptible Things as Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as a Lamb without blemish and without spot who gave himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity and to purify to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works As the whole Oeconomy of Man's Salvation by Christ is the effect of meer Grace and Love so Gratitude is the only true Principle of Gospel-Obedience to serve God out of a prevailing sense of his Goodness to feel that constraining Love and Power of Christ's Love engaging us to live to him who died for us For those Men greatly mistake the Nature and Obligations of Gratitude who think that Gratitude leaves them at liberty to do or not to do it as they please whereas the Obligations of Gratitude especially in our present Case are infinitely more strong and forcible than those of Justice and the punishment of Ingratitude proportionably great For how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation if we refuse to hear him who spake from Heaven to us if we have troden under-foot the Son of God and counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith we were sanctified an unholy Thing and have done despite unto the Spirit of Grace Since then we are now under such powerful Obligations as the Love and Grace of God declared to us in the Gospel of his Son to love serve and worship him we should consider how unkind and ungrateful it is especially in those who call themselves Christians to slight or neglect the Worship of their God and Saviour certainly such Men cannot expect to be saved by Christ after all he has done and suffered for them when they will not thank him for it when they will not go to God in his Name As nothing is more infamous among Men so nothing does more provoke God than such rude Affronts of his Goodness to sin against the Grace of the Gospel and those surprising Discoveries and Manifestations of the Divine Goodness argue so brutish so diabolical a temper of mind such a perfect contrariety and contradiction to the Nature of God that such Men must naturally sink into the lowest Hell for those who have no sense of the Gospel-Grace who cannot be conquered nor affected with all the Charms of so powerful a Love are as incurable as Apostate Spirits Fourthly Another Aggravation of the Guilt of this Sin is That those who are baptized and professed Christians and I suppose I write to none else are under the Obligation of their Baptismal Vow to worship God and therefore to neglect his Worship is Perjury and breach of Covenant it is an Apostacy from Christianity though they still retain the Name of Christians And dost thou know what this is thou profane Wretch who thinkest it lost time to serve God who canst not spare so much time from worldly Cares or from thy Sports and Pleasure as to attend the Worship of God in the Assemblies of Christians Wast thou ever Baptized and dost thou know what the signification of Baptism is That thou art taken into Covenant with God and hast obliged thy self to serve and worship him that thou art incorporated into the Christian Church and therefore obliged to live in the Communion of the Church that is to frequent Christian Assemblies and to join in all the Parts and Offices of Religious Worship and art not thou afraid to deal falsely and treacherously with thy God For Vengeance is mine saith God I will repay it It is a dreadful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God To have our Portion with Hypocrites and Unbelievers signifies in the New Testament the greatest miseries of the next World Now as Unbelievers signifies such Infidels as obstinately refuse to believe the Gospel when it is fairly proposed to them So Hypocrites does not only signify as some Men mistake the word those who counterfeit Religion who make a fine external shew and appearance of Piety and Devotion when they are rotten at the Heart but it signifies those also who live contrary to their Profession who are suppose nominal and titular Christians who have been baptized in the Name of Christ and own his Religion as the Religion of their Country but live lewd and profligate lives make no Conscience of worshipping God nor ever think of saving their Souls These are the Men who are proposed as the Patterns and Examples of the severity of God's Judgments to deter any Man from imitating their wickedness lest they be punished with Hypocrites and Unbelievers Those who are baptized into the Christian Church into the Faith and Worship of Christ do not only forfeit all the Blessings of the Covenant by renouncing or contradicting their Baptismal Vow in an habitual course of a wicked and licentious Life but become obnoxious to all the Threatnings of the Gospel in their utmost severity which is a much worse state than the poor Heathens are in who never heard of Christ for they shall not be judged by the Gospel which was never preached to them and therefore shall not be condemned by the Gospel neither as St. Paul tells us That as many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law and as many as sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law And by the same Reason we may add As many as have sinned in the Gospel shall be judged by the Gospel Now to perish without the Law signifies a much easier punishment than to be judged by the Law and to be judged by the Gospel signifies a great deal more than that for as God hath increased his Grace to Man-kind so he has always annexed severer Punishments to the abuse of it Thus our Saviour tells us It shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorah in the day of Iudgment than for Capernaum Sodom and Gomorah were as vile infamous Places as were in the World and God destroyed them by very memorable Judgments by raining Fire and Brimstone on them from Heaven but yet they never enjoyed those means of Grace which Capernaum did where our Saviour himself preached in Person and confirmed the Truth of his Doctrine by many mighty Works and therefore they should
all manner of Wickedness and naturally tends to harden Men in Sin and very often ends in down-right Atheism Men who have cast off all sense and reverence for God have no other restraint from the greatest Villanies but what the Laws of the Land their own natural Tempers their Education and Converse and such-like Considerations lay upon them which can keep very few Men who have cast off the Fear and Reverence of God within any tolerable bounds and thus Men run into the wildest Excesses and wound their Consciences and stain their Reputations till they grow hopeless desperate and impudent Sinners Men who are very bad and yet will not neglect their Prayers nor absent themselves wholly from Christian Assemblies do what they can find great checks of Conscience and have a great many sober Intervals they cannot say their Prayers and confess their Sins to God and beg his Pardon and Mercy but their Consciences will reproach them and put them at least upon some imperfect resolutions of amendment and when they attend the preaching of the Word they often are so startled and scared and labour under such strong Convictions that they are not able to resist any longer and the good Spirit of God does not wholly forsake those Men who attend the Publick Ministries of Grace but sometimes works such miraculous Cures as are the triumphs of a Soveraign Grace and therefore the Case of these Men can never be so desperate and hopeless as theirs is who take care to think of him as little as possibly they can and withdraw themselves from Publick Instructions that they may sin on without disturbance till they drop into Hell Thirdly Let us now consider the folly of Irreligion and there is the more reason to do this because the Irreligious and Profane the Practical as well as the Speculative Atheist is very apt to boast of his Wit and Understanding and to think himself much above the ordinary level of Mankind But the Spirit of God calls them Fools The Fool hath said in his Heart There is no God which is not meant of the Speculative but of the Practical Atheist who though he professeth to believe that there is a God yet lives as if there were none And if Religion be the onely true Wisdom Irreligion must be the greatest folly and yet so we are taught in Scripture that the fear of the Lord that is the Worship of God which is the most natural expression of our reverence of him that is Wisdom The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom a good understanding have all they that do his Commandments The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom and the Knowledg of the Holy is Understanding Now what I have already discoursed of the Evil and Danger proves also the Folly of Irreligion for what can be more foolish than that which contradicts the best Reason of our Minds and our natural Obligations to worship God founded on the highest Wisdom What can be more foolish than to undermine our own Interest to lay Trains of Misery for our selves and to forfeit our present and future Happiness That is cursed contemptible Wit which will droll away a Man's Life and his Soul together But besides all this the Folly of Irreligion will appear if we consider these two Things 1. That it transforms a Man into a Beast and then though such a Man may have all the wild conceits of Apes and Monkeys and the craft and subtilty of a Fox yet he has not the Understanding and Wisdom of a Man He may have an inferior sort of Wit and may be reckoned the top and perfection of the meer Animal and Sensitive Life but is fallen vastly below the Attainments of Men for it is not Reason but Religion which is the Glory and Perfection of Humane Nature as every one must acknowledg who believes that there is a God for God is the noblest Object of our Minds and to adore and worship him is to act according to the most excellent capacity of our Natures I doubt not at all but brute Creatures have an inferior degree of Reason fitted to the low Attainments of their Natures and that they commonly reason more wisely and truly in their own Concerns than Irreligious Men do in theirs but they cannot know God nor worship him they cannot see nor adore his infinite Perfections their Reason is confined to a narrow compass to those things which concern the preservation of their own Being and the enjoyments of their Natures and such a kind of Being is an Irreligious Man whose Reason indeed is capable of higher and nobler flights but is pinnioned down and confined to present and sensible Objects and serves only to corrupt and deprave a more excellent Nature into a brutish State Now if that be the true Wisdom and Glory the specifical Difference of a Man which distinguishes him from all inferior Creatures then Religon as the Scripture tells us must be his Wisdom and whatever Wit Irreligious Men may pretend to being so much below the Attainments nay being no better than the Corruption of Humane Nature it may set them a degree above the Wit of a Beast but is no better than folly in a Man 2. There is not a more certain demonstration of folly than for Men to act foolishly especially in Matters of vast Concernment and this consideration impeaches the Irreligious Man of the most despicable Folly as to give you some Instances of this Some neglect to worship God out of a careless trifling humour they never consider what God is how much they owe to him how intirely they are at his disposal what the danger and punishment of Irreligion is and if it be folly not to use the wisest Thoughts and best Consideration we have in matters of the greatest moment then Irreligion is Folly Others neglect the Worship of God because it disturbs them in the secure enjoyment of their Lusts and puts a great many black and melancholy Thoughts into their Heads which is just as wise as to shut our Eyes and run down a Precipice because it makes us melancholy to open our Eyes and see our Danger whereas a wise Man would rather chuse to open his Eyes that he might see how to avoid it Others take offence at Religion because they see a great many Hypocrites zealous pretenders to Religion and they had as good never mind Religion as be Hypocrites but is this a good Reason not to mind Religion because Hypocrites pretend to Religion when indeed they have none Cannot they be sincerely Religious though Hypocrites be not Are there not a great many Religious Men who are no Hypocrites And is not that a better Reason to be Religious without Hypocrisy than to be of no Religion to declare to all the World that we are not Hypocrites Others are scandalized at the great variety of Religions which are as contrary to each other as Light to Darkness and conclude that it is to no
purpose to trouble their heads about any form of Religion for they may be mistaken after all and they had as good be of no Religion as not of the right But if these Men did but wisely consider of what infinite concernment true Religion is they would conclude quite otherwise that seeing there is so much dispute which is the true Religion they would use the greater diligence and honesty to find it out and hope that God would pardon those Mistakes which are meerly the Errors of their Understanding when they offer up to him a pious and devout Soul that an honest Man who is not byassed by Interest and does not chuse a false Religion upon a Design will be accepted for his Sincerity and Devotion by that God who is a merciful and compassionate Father and very ready to pardon all invincible Mistakes when they are not made invincible by our own Fault But to cast off all Religion because there is some difficulty in finding the right is just as if a Traveller when he meets with a great many cross Wayes should resolve to go no farther for fear he should mistake the right Road though he is sure that he shall never get home if he go no farther Others are so tired with their Secular Affairs and hard Labour all the week that truly they must make Sunday a Holy Day not for Devotion but for Rest and Pastime as a Holy Day commonly now signifies and therefore they cannot go to Church which will tire them more than all thir weeks Work did that is to say They feel the Wants and Necessities of their Bodies and must take care of them but their Souls must shift for themselves they cannot bear hunger and cold and nakedness but never consider Who can dwell with devouring Fire who can dwell with everlasting Burnings But more of this presently Such kind of foolish Reasonings as these make Men neglect the Worship of God and should any Man act or reason so weakly in his Worldly Affairs he would be beg'd for a Fool if he were worth the keeping Thus I have endeavoured to convince these Men of the Evil Danger and Folly of Irreligion I now proceed to the second Thing proposed to perswade them to take care of their Souls 2. Let me therefore earnestly exhort all Men to take care of their Souls for this is the true Reason why they neglect the Worship of God Because they are sottishly unconcerned what will become of their Souls after Death whether they shall be happy or miserable in the World to come For all Men who make it the great Business of their Lives to get Heaven who are impatiently desirous to see God and to enjoy him who are afraid of nothing so much as of being banished from his Presence I say these Men are serious and hearty in their Religion They seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness For tho Religious Worship be a Natural Debt which we owe to God as we are his Creatures yet God in great wisdom and goodness has so ordered all the parts of Worship that we may at the same time and in the same Act worship and glorify God and serve and supply the Wants and Necessities of our own Souls The Worship of Innocent Creatures consisted principally in praising that great wise and bountiful Maker and Governor of the World but the Religion of Sinners is fitted to a lapsed state to heal and recover our Souls restore us to the perfection and happiness of our Natures and to intitle us to new and glorious Rewards Since we are Sinners God hath made it one part of Religious Worship and given us great encouragement to confess our Sins and to ask pardon and forgiveness for them And can any Man who loves his Soul and considers that the Wages of Sin is Death be careless in suing out his Pardon Must thou die eternally Sinner unless thou obtainest thy Pardon from God and wilt thou not fall down upon thy Knees and lie prostrate in the Dust before him Dost thou think it sufficient to reserve this Work for thy last Breath when thou art so hasty to procure a Pardon from thy Prince when thou hast only forfeited a perishing Estate or a mortal Life Me thinks I should see thee run with all speed to Church for fear thou shouldest come too late to offer up thy Confessions and Prayers with the Congregation by the Mouth of God's Minister who is appointed to pray for thee and to receive that reviving Absolution which is promised to all humble Penitents confessing and praying Sinners And since our own unworthiness our manifold and great Sins might justly discourage us from approaching the Presence of so Holy a God God has in infinite Mercy provided a great High-Priest for us to offer up our Prayers to God and to intercede for us and has commanded us to come to him in his Name and shall we forfeit our Interest in our Saviour's Intercession by neglecting to beg pardon in his Name For the Work of our great High-Priest is to offer up our Prayers to God incensed and perfumed with his own Merits But this supposes that we must offer up our Prayers to God in his Name and therefore those who do not pray to God in Christ's Name have no part nor interest in his Intercession He is an Advocate for none but those who Worship God in his Name And since our Natures are greatly corrupted and we are very weak and unable to serve God in an acceptable manner in our own strength God has made it a part of his Worship to beg the supplies of his Grace and has promised to give his Holy Spirit to them who ask him and when we find by daily experience how liable we are to the Assaults of Temptations and how easily we are conquered by them and know how impossible it is ever to get to Heaven unless we be renewed and sanctified by the Holy Ghost Can any Man who loves his Soul exposes himself naked and unarmed to a tempting World and Devil without so much as begging the Auxiliary Forces and Divine Aids of the Holy Spirit which we may have for asking but shall never have without You are glad of any help and assistance to promote your secular Interest When a City is besieged by powerful and numerous Enemies they send Embassadors to their Allies and Confederates and will never want help for want of asking it and shall we be so foolish as to become the triumph and the scorn and a prey to our Spiritual Enemies for want of crying to God to save us For the same Reason our blessed Lord has appointed and instituted the Holy Feast of his Sacramental Body and Blood as a conveyance of new Life and Grace to us and have those Men any care of their Souls as well as any honour for their Crucified Lord who deny themselves so inestimable a priviledg of feasting on the Symbols of Christ's Body and Blood which seals to all
worthy Communicants the pardon of their Sins and more firmly unites them to Christ their Head and to each other and intitles them to the powerful influence of that Divine Spirit which dwells in actuates and governs the whole Church and Body of Christ. Thus we are very ignorant and very unmindful of our Duty and God in great goodness has appointed a whole Order of Men whose Business it is to instruct us to teach us what we do not know and to mind us of those Things which we are apt to forget and has made it our Duty and a part of his Worship to attend their Instructions And though I hope in such an Age and such a Church as this there are a great many Christians so knowing that they need not be taught their Duty yet it is sad to consider how many very ignorant Professors there are that want to be instructed in the first Rudiments of Christian Knowledg and warm zealous and frequent Exhortations are of great use to the most knowing Christians And though a great many who have little other Religion are forward enough to hear Sermons yet it grieves me to think how many there are who will live die and perish for ever in their Ignorance because they refuse Instruction who can never be perswaded to attend either Sermons or Catechising or so much as reading the Scripture and yet these very Men could be contented to hear a large discourse of News or Trade or Merchandize or how they might order their Affairs to better advantage and are glad to be told of any Mistake or Error which might have been prejudicial to them in their secular Affairs And I need not tell you the Reason of this Difference they are in very good earnest to get this World but are very indifferent and unconcerned about the next So that all the parts of Religious Worship as they are expressions of our Reverence and Devotion for God so they immediately tend to the happiness of our Souls the Virtue of them is seen in transforming us into a Divine Nature in obtaining the Pardon of our Sins and the Supplies of God's Grace in making us Holy here and eternally Happy hereafter and therefore if we love our Souls let us constantly exercise our selves in all the Parts and Offices of Religious Worship And me-thinks it should be no such hard Matter to perswade Men to love and take care of their Souls for can any Man have a greater Concernment in the World than this For to love our Souls signifies no more than to love our Selves and to take care of our own happiness for the Soul is the Man the Body is only the Organ and Instrument of the Soul an earthly Tabernacle wherein it dwells in this state of its Pilgrimage but it is our Soul only that is capable of Joy and Pleasure or Grief and Sorrow and therefore as the Soul is either happy or miserable so is the Man and all Men desire to be happy this they seek with unwearied endeavours this makes all that busle and stir that is in the World that all Men are a catching after happiness and scrambling for it Why then you say What is the Dispute and Difficulty since all Men do love their Souls that is desire to be happy and it is only the Soul that relishes Happiness or is the Subject wherein Happiness dwells This is true and yet very few Men love their Souls for we must consider that the Soul of Man is capable of a two-fold happiness one as it lives in this gross Body of Flesh and Blood another as it lives without it in a separate state or receives it again refined and purged made a Heavenly and Spiritual Body Now as the Soul dwells in these Earthly Bodies it is apt to be mightily pleased with sensual Enjoyments and such Objects as are represented to us by our Senses and this is the Happiness which most Men are fond of in this World which tempts them to all those sensual Lusts which St. Iohn comprises under the Lusts of the Flesh the Lusts of the Eye and the Pride of Life but now this is not the greatest happiness of the Soul because dwelling in this Body is not its most perfect State it is to dwell but a little while in this Body and then can enjoy these bodily Pleasures no longer and therefore that is called the happiness of the Soul which is agreeable to its most perfect state of Life and commensurate to an eternal duration So that the Controversy in short is this Whether we will prefer an imperfect unsatisfactory momentary Happiness or such a Happiness which is the biggest our Souls are capable of and will last to Eternity and it is strange there should be any difficulty in this choice For can an Immortal Being who is to live Eternal Ages be satisfied with such perishing Joys as wax old and expire in half an Age It would be thought very strange that an Immortal Creature should grow weary of Life and be contented to fall into nothing after threescore or fourscore Years and yet this is a much more reasonable desire than to chuse such a happiness as will last but sixty or eighty Years when we must live for ever and therefore the Atheist is much a wiser Man than an irreligious and profane Worldling Every one contemns the folly of such a Prodigal who spends a fair Estate in a very short time and wasts away the rest of his Life in Poverty and Beggary and yet three or four Years pleasure bears some proportion to threescore or fourscore Years but threescore or fourscore Years have no proportion at all to Eternity Were there no other punishment of such Folly but to live for ever in a sense of our Want to find no sutable Objects to entertain our Minds but to languish perpetually with pining and unsatisfied Desires yet this were like the pain of perpetual Hunger and Thirst some-what worse than the delays of Hope even the torment of Despair And yet it is much worse still than this for such Men when they come into the other World will be convinced what Happiness it is they have lost when they shall see them come from the East and from the West from the North and from the South and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of God and themselves shut out when they shall see victorious Saints who have triumphed over all the Follies and Vanities all the Smiles Flatteries and Terrors of this World cloathed with Bodies of pure Light and rewarded with immarcessible Crowns of Glory singing Eternal Halelujahs to their God and Saviour and when all the toys and pleasures of this World are gone and past and nothing is present but the happiness of the next it will infinitely more afflict them to think they have missed of Heaven than it would do now to lose their Estates and Honours and let slip any opportunity they had to make themselves the Universal Monarchs of the
Ages of the World and under all Forms of Religion Whatever Religious Rites are a Dishonour and Reproach to the Divine Nature or unbecoming the Seriousness and Solemnity of Worship natural Reason condemns as Idolatrous or Superstitious but whatever is no Dishonour to God and may be useful to Men is so far from being condemned that it is little less than the Law and Voice of Nature At least thus much we may certainly conclude that there can be no intrinsick evil in these things which are neither repugnant to the Nature of God nor the Reason of Man much less can it be Idolatry or Superstition to use a Form of Prayer and some significant Ceremonies in Religious Worship for Idolatry and Superstition are not made so by positive Laws and Institutions but to worship a false God or to pay such a false Worship to the true God as is a reproach to his Nature is Idolatry and Superstition consists in false Notions repugnant to the Nature of Worship and Men may be guilty of Superstition in using or not using very lawful and indifferent things when by an abused Fancy and ill instructed Conscience they imprint either a religious or sinful Character upon them either think they shall please God or fear they shall displease him by doing things in their own Nature indifferent and neither good nor bad but according as they are used And this is no small advance towards satisfying Mens Minds in the lawfulness of those Religious Ceremonies which tho indifferent in their own Nature yet are enjoyned by the Publick Authority of Church and State for the Order Decency and Solemnity of Worship For that which does not contradict the Light of Nature which has no repugnancy to the Nature of God nor is forbid by any plain positive Law is the matter of Christian Liberty and falls under the Government and Direction of our Superiors as will more evidently appear if we consider Secondly The Nature and Design of the Christian Religion which I shall discourse of only as it concerns the present Debate and if it shall appear that Liturgies and Ceremonies do no more contradict the Nature of Christianity than they do the Nature of God let us all seriously consider how we shall answer Disobedience to our Governours and Separation from the Church upon such accounts as these to our great Lord and Master when he comes to judg the World And here I shall do these two things 1. Shew you what that Worship is our Saviour instituted and how far it is from condemning the use of sober Liturgies or decent Ceremonies 2. What there is in the Christian Religion which countenances both 1. What the Worship is our Saviour Instituted Christ came into the World to reform Religion and there are four things he seemed principally to design 1. To Spiritualize our Worship 2. To strip it of all Types and Shadows 3. To deliver Religion from the Incumbrances of Superstitious Observances 4. To put a difference between the Substance Circumstances and Appendages of Religion between what is Natural and Moral and the Instrumental and External parts of Worship 1. Our Saviour's great design was to Spiritualize our Worship The Jewish Worship consisted in so many external Rites and Usages in Washings Purifications Sacrifices Oblations and the like that the generality of them placed the Worship of God in the Homage of the external Man If they did but worship God at the right place and with such Sacrifices and Ceremonies as he had appointed they took little care of inward Devotion But now our Saviour teaches the Woman of Samaria to worship God in Spirit and 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 Which our Saviour does not oppose to external and bodily Worship which is the only visible Worship God can have in this World but either to a typical Worship of which more presently or to such external Worship as is separated from the Devotion of the Mind when Men draw nigh to him with their Lips but their Hearts are far from him So that if we can offer up a devout Soul to God in a Form of Prayer if the external Ceremonies of Religion do not hinder the Devotion of the Mind and Spirit so far we do not contradict or oppose the nature of Christian Worship and if Men do sink down into an external Form of Religion and never raise up their Hearts to God the Fault is not owing either to Liturgies or Ceremonies but to a carnal and earthly Mind Extemporary and conceived Prayer has indeed usurped the Name of Spiritual Prayer but for what Reason I know not for I suppose few Men will pretend to pray by Inspiration and tho extemporary Prayer may more heat the Fancy there may be more serious Devotion and Piety in using a Form when we have nothing to do but to offer up our Souls to God without setting our Inventions upon the Rack what to say An extemporary Prayer is as much a Form and does as much confine and stint the Spirit in all but the Speaker as a Book-Prayer does and that is a very sorry Devotion at best which owes its Heates and Passions not to an inward Sense of God but to a musical Voice earnestness in the Speaker surprising Invention or popular Rhetorick 2. Our Saviour's design was to strip Religion of Types and Shadows He did not indeed do this while he was upon the Earth because the Jewish Oeconomy was not ended all things were not fulfilled which were necessary to put an end to that State till Christ died nor did his Apostles do it immediately at least not in all places but yielded to Jewish Prejudices and indulged Jewish Converts in their Observation of Circumcision and other Mosaical Rites Tho St. Paul the great Apostle of the Gentiles would not suffer the Gentile Churches to be brought under that Bondage which occasioned a great many Disputes with the Jews as you may see in the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians But the abrogation of Mosaical and Typical Ceremonies does not infer a prohibition of all significant Ceremonies in the Christian Worship because the Reason and Nature of them were very different The Mosaical Ceremonies were Types of Christ who was to come in the Flesh and therefore to retain them in their proper Nature Use was to deny that Christ was come in the Flesh for when the Antitype appears there is no longer any use of a Type But now a few innocent Ceremonies which are neither burthensome for their number to encumber Religion and clog and shackle our Devotions nor signify any thing contrary to the Nature Design of Christianity but add to the external Decency and Solemnity of Worship and may withal suggest pious and devout Thoughts to us are far enough from a Typical Nature and therefore cannot be presumed to be shut out of the Christian Church together with the
Communion very nauseous and unpleasant to honest minds or very dangerous As to name some of the hardest 1. The case of a vicious and scandalous Minister who like Eli's Sons makes the Sacrifices of God to be abhorred I am in great hope that the number of these men is not great though one were too much and yet it is not to be expected that in so great a body of men there should be none Let the enemies of God and of Religion triumph in this and encrease their numbers while we silently lament it But when this is the case I think every good man should apply himself to his Superiours and endeavour to remove him if this cannot be done or is too long delayed he must learn to distinguish between the man and his Office a bad man but yet a legal Minister and though he be unworthy of so holy a Profession yet the efficacy of his Ministry does not depend upon his personal qualifications but on the Institution of Christ. The lewdness of Eli's Sons though it gave great offence and scandal to the Israelites yet it did not make them forsake the Altar of God The Scribes and Pharisees in our Saviours dayes were a vile sort of people but yet he does not command his Disciples to withdraw from their Communion but not to follow their examples The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but do not after their works for they say and do not And upon these principles St. Austin disputes against the Donatists and will not allow the personal miscarriages of Ministers to be a just cause of Separation and yet if in such cases a serious Christian with prudence and modesty and with as little noise and scandal as may be preserving the Communion of the Church should joyn in Communion with a neighbouring Minister I should not see much reason to blame him for it is no Schism while he continues in the Communion of the Church and only forsakes the Communion of his Parish Minister upon too just an offence 2. The case of an ignorant Minister and I hope this case is not very frequent neither at least not such gross ignorance as shall make a man utterly uncapable of such a function and yet it cannot be expected that all the Parishes in England should be supplyed with Learned Preachers when there are so many Livings that will hardly find bread for a Family But we must consider that our Church has made excellent provision in this case has taken care that the instruction of her Children shall not wholly depend upon the personal abilities of the Minister Our Liturgy is the same whatever the Ministers abilities be which contains a very excellent form of Worship and Administration of Sacraments the Catechism which he is bound to teach the Children contains the substance of Christian Religion in few and plain words and the Homilies which are appointed to be read are very useful and pious Sermons upon most of the material heads of Religion that though the Minister be no great Scholar if he be but honest and diligent in observing the Rules and Directions of the Church his people cannot want sufficient Instructions And this one instance shews the great necessity and advantage of publick Liturgies and Homilies which secures the decent performance of Religious Worship and the instruction of the people in sound and wholsome doctrine notwithstanding the personal defects and inabilities of the Minister what case such poor Parishes were in when these provisions were cryed down as Popish and Antichristian I cannot guess 3. The case of an erroneous and heretical Minister who mixes poison with his doctrine and corrupts the plainness and simplicity of the Christian Religion and can any Christian who is bound to take care of his soul think it his duty to expose himself to the perpetual danger and temptation of erroneous doctrines In answer to which consider 1. That people are very ill Judges of errors and heresie the most antient and most useful doctrines of Christianity have sometimes been thought so and when we have so many men intent and zealous to seduce our people it is an easie matter to whisper the danger of being infected by a corrupt and heretical doctrine Some think every thing heresie but Antinomianism to perswade men to a good life to tell them that there are certain conditions annexed to the Gospel Covenant without the performance of which we shall not be saved that not an idle and notional but an active and working faith justifies that we are saved by Christ not as a Proxy who has done all for us but as a Priest and Sacrifice and Mediator who has expiated our sins by his death and sealed the Covenant of Grace in his blood and now powerfully intercedes for us with his Father and sends his Spirit into the World to be a principle of a new life in us these and such like doctrines are by some men reproached with the name of heresie and upon their authority believed to be so by others and yet if men must withdraw their Communion for the sake of such heresies as these they must forsake the most useful Preachers and most Orthodox Churches and therefore 2. The charge of heresie must be very plain and notorious before it can justifie our breach of Communion If men deny any plain Article of the Christian Faith it is dangerous to intrust the care of our souls with them for they are at best but Wolves in Sheeps cloathing but to suspect men of heresie when there is no evidence of it is it self a very great fault and difference of judgement and opinion about some less matters in Religion which we are alwayes like to differ about while we see in part and know only in part may exercise mutual forbearance but will not excuse men from the guilt of such causless Separations 3. Where the presumptions are very strong we must appeal to Church Governours to detect his errors and heresies if he have any and to secure the flock from such apparent danger Private Reformations usually prove more fatal than the mischiefs which they are designed to remedy and what I said in the case of an ignorant Minister is very applicable to this the publick Prayers and administration of Sacraments and Catechism cannot be corrupted by the greatest Heretick if he observe his Rule and this secures the purity of Worship and wholsome instructions and as for his Sermons it only concerns men to be wary what doctrines they receive from him to take nothing upon trust but to search the Scriptures whether such things be so Such a course as this will maintain good order in the Church without any danger to our faith 4. When the bounds of Parishes and the number of people is too large for Parochial Communion This has often been made a pretence to justifie separate Meetings because the number of people is much greater in many Parishes
visible Worship because it is separated from all external and visible signs of honour And therefore we may observe that good men in all Ages have not contented themselves meerly to worship God with devout thoughts and passions but with such external acts of Religion as either a Divine Institution or the Custom of their Countrey and the practice of the Church had made external signs of honour Such as uncovering the head or putting off their shooes or bowing the body or kneeling or prostration or lifting up eyes and hands to Heaven where God dwells For this we have the ancient Patriarchs the Jewish Church Christ and his Apostles and the whole Christian Church for many Ages for our example and it will be hard to find any sort of people in the World that pretended to any Religion but took great care of the exâ—eâ—nal solemnities and decent circumstances of Worship I know of no Age of the Christian Church till very lately wherein those men would have been allowed to be of any Religion or admitted to Christian Communion who should have betrayed such slight thoughts of God in a rude and slovenly Worship as too many among our selves are now guilty of and indeed this has insensibly crept upon us ever since those hot disputes about Ceremonies and the externals of Religion have troubled the Church for when men began to dispute down all good order and decent administration of Religious Offices they soon disputed away all external Worship and many who still pretend no great dislike to publick Constitutions are so far infected with this disease that they are not sufficiently careful of the gravity and seriousness of their devotion and some are so afraid of Fanaticism that they dare not look solemnly nor lift up their eyes and hands to Heaven for fear of being thought Fanaticks or hypocrites Thus while some men out of a groundless fear of Superstition strip Religion of all useful and decent Ceremonies and others out of as wild a suspicion of Fanaticism are afraid to appear grave and serious in their Religion the publick solemnities of Worship are either left to every mans fancy or performed in so careless and trifling a manner that the Name of God is dishonoured and his Worship profaned and scorned But my business at present is with those of our own Communion and possibly it may do them some good to tell them that they who appear so zealous against Fanaticism and are yet so trifling in their Worship are much the worst Fanaticks of the two For many of our Dissenters though they reject the use of our Ceremonies and neglect that external decency of Worship which has been in use in all Ages of the Church yet however they make a shew of great seriousness in their worship and seem to be very sensibly affected with it and therefore this looks like Worship though it want some external solemnities which may be thought needful but when men stare and gaze about them laugh or whisper at their prayers and betray great vanity and lightness of mind to say no worse instead of an awful sense and reverence of God this is so far from making any shew of Worship how exact soever they may be in their postures or responses that it is downright profaneness They are thus far fanatical in their principles that they must believe if they consider any thing that God does not much regard the Worship of the outward man for did they believe he did they would be more careful to pay it him for the bare doing any thing in Religious Worship such as kneeling at Prayers or standing up at the Hymns and Creed and the like does not make it so much as an external sign of Worship unless it be performed with that gravity and seriousness which is essential to all Religious Worship and if they believe that though God does expect the Worship of the body he matters not the Worship of the mind nor how carelesly external Worship is performed so it be done This is so wild a principle that it out-does all the Fanaticks that ever were in the World Those who were arrant hypocrites and yet very punctual in the externals of Religion such as the Scribes and Pharisees were in our Saviours dayes were withal very solemn and demure in those external superstitions and those who reject external Ceremonies of Religion yet pretend to great devotion of mind and rapturous ardours and transports of spirit but these men are for an external bodily Worship without so much as the least visible appearance of external devotion and if there be no other remedy I wish with all my heart that these men would make a Sect by themselves too and not reproach the Church of England by continuing in her Communion which has brought a greater scandal upon our Worship than all the arguments and cavils of Dissenters though the better way would be and that which I heartily beg of God and do earnestly beg all men to correct this fault and to wipe off that reproach of a cold formal Worship by expressing that grave and serious and ardent devotion which so much becomes all the true Worshippers of God is so essential to Religious Worship and so interwoven with all the publick Offices of our Religion which are admirably fitted to serve all the ends of a grave and serious Piety 2. Let us consider now the peculiar presence of God and holy Angels in Religious Assemblies Did we see God in a visible glory as he used to appear to Moses at the door of the Tabernacle every time we meet to worship him I am apt to think we should all express greater signs of Reverence and devotion and yet there is none of you but will pretend to believe that God is present in your Assemblies and that he takes a more particular notice of your carriage and behaviour when ye meet to worship him than he does at other times that is that he expects now that ye should take a more particular notice of his presence and behave your selves with a suitable reverence as those who believe that God is present in a peculiar manner though ye do not see him Under the Law God dwelt in the Tabernacle and Temple which was his house and therefore when the Tabernacle was finished God filled it with his presence and glory there was the Mercy-Seat covered with Cherubims which was a figure of Gods presence and the attendance of Angels and it was a constant opinion among the Heathens that their Gods dwelt in their Temples and Images consecrated to their Worship and though they were ridiculously foolish in thinking to charm their Gods by some Magical Rites and Mysteries and confine them to certain places yet the original of this was only a traditional belief that God was alwayes peculiarly present in all places of his Worship It is sufficiently evident that the Primitive Christians did believe that Angels who are Gods Retinue and Ministers do attend Christian Assemblies and are