Church and the Rights of his Brother how infamous must the way of Balaam be in the opinions of men who said he would not curse Israel for an house-full of Silver and Gold crying out how good are thy Tents O Jacob and thy Tabernacles O Israel Praying that there might be no Divination against Jacob or Inchantment against Israel yet all this holy Discourse and heavenly Resolution was but a Varnish to a deceitfull heart that was Brib'd with filthy Lucre and the Wages of unrighteousness can a Dogs neck more desecrate an Altar or the image of an Adonis a Temple then for a man to fling out his Invectives against sin and yet to indulge those that are contributary to his Lust and Avarice what are the Prayers of these men but so many Practical Lyes told to heaven who while they pray with a tacite Blasphemy defie God and when they sin by open Atheism deny him and the Votaries are as certainly the Captives of the Devil as they are the creatures of God Avoid those sins that are inconsistent with a Form of Godliness which may be reduced to a tripartite Division Some hinder the Assuming of a Form others Blast it whilst it is Professed and others do Renounce it and Cast it off The sins that hinder the Assuming of a Form are Prejudice and Fear Prejudice against the Precepts that command us to cut off the Right hand which is interpreted the Mutilation of the Body as Fervency of Spirit is the Calenture of the Soul the Communicating and Doing good the Wasting the Estate and being Evil spoken of for the Name of Christ the Wounding the Reputation these are the Grievous Commandments of an Hard Master to which in stead of Binding them to mens Fingers they give them a Manumission and with the Young man in the Gospel Go away and with Orpah salute and forsake together Fear if with Scylla they could see a Crown on the Liver of the Sacrifice the Wages of Godliness the Divinations of Riches and Honour they would become Disciples but when they Observe all that will live Godly in Christ must suffer Persecution and through many Tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of heaven they are offended at the Cross of Christ they think there is a Lyon in the way that affrightens them from any Essay of walking in them These sins hinder men from being Catechumens but which is worse some that are Baptized blast their Profession by a Flagitious Life live without God in the world that it had been better for them they had never known the Way of Truth Such are they that think it below a Brave Spirit to tremble at a Threatning but stifle the Warnings of their own Bosom and live in Chambering and Wantonness Rage and Riot Swearing and Uncleanness that a man without the Breach of Charity may say they have no Faith But Apostacy from Faith and Obedience does Obliterate all the Characters of a Form and makes Shipwrack of Profession and renounceth Communion with the Visible Church There were three sorts of these Apostates in the times of St. Cyprian the Traditores that gave their Bibles in stead of their Bodies to be burnt the Thurificati that offered Incense to Idols and the Libellatici whose Denials of Christ were more Private and Auricular but bought Tickets from the Magistrates to preserve them from that Bloody Inquisition Now an Apostate cannot be an Hypocrite for he is gone out of the Precincts of the Church They went out from us because they were not of us saith St. John they have broken themselves off from that Body into which they were implanted by Baptism and are Strangers to the Covenant of Promise Thus we see the Dignity and Defection of a Form how it is to be exercised suspended and moderated and how to direct its course between a Rude and Rigid Zeal and a loose and Sceptical Profession we see the Grounds and Gradations of its Dishonours and Decays how that it departs from some men as the Glory of the Lord did from the Temple and Altar and Threshold of the house in the Vision of Ezekiel and when the Leafe thus falls and withereth the Tree is Barren and Corrupt for that is the Climacterical time to shew its Disease is Mortal and therefore it must not cumber the Vineyard but be cut down or plucked up by the Rootes But it is high time for us to come to the Power of Godliness which hath so much Goodness in it that it should not be accounted an Offence and so much Wisdom that it should not be accounted Foolishness the Necessity of it is so great that it should not be Delayed and the Excellency so Glorious that it should not be Denied therefore as all men should acquire it for Salvation so our Present Duty is to inquire wherein it Consists and Discovereth it self I have already explained the Phrase that the Reducing of the Habits and Vital Principles of Grace into Act is the Power of Godliness the Philosophy of which Leads us to the Consideration That Habits of Grace are those Divine Qualities infused into the Soul by the Spirit of God which incline the Heart and sway the Conscience to an actual Obedience to the Will of God with Facility and great Delight They are therefore called by the Fathers and Schoolmen the Springs and Fountains of Grace not like the Fountain in the midst of Paradise that flowes with continual waters but like the waters of Siloam that spring from the foot of mount Sion qui non jugibus aequis sed certis horis diebusque ebullit whose Streams are not alwayes Current but in the due seasons of time The musical knowledge of a Lutanist in his Quavers Rests and Motions whereby he is able on all occasions to play those delightfull Airs that commend his skill is the Habit of the Artist but suppose the Hand of the Lutanist be wounded he hath still the knowledge and Habit of his Faculty although the Exercise be prevented by the Indisposition of that necessary Instrument of his musick so the Godly man that hath these principles of a Celestial Original hath upon all occasions his sences exercised by reason of use sutable to those commands the law of God requires and those Emergencies the Providences of God expose him to and although the Acts of Grace may be suspended sometimes by Natural or Civil actions sometimes by inevitable Infirmities yet still he hath a New Nature the Unction of the Holy one and the seed of God abiding in him for our clearer understanding of which we are to consider 1. The Plenty of Godliness consists in the Habits of Graces The Righteous are said to be Trees Planted by the Rivers of water and the Trees of the Lord are full of Sappe The Radical moysture of these noble Vines may Retire to the Root in Winter yet at the return of the Sun they send forth their Grapes in Clusters and their Perfume as the smell of Lebanon as a
it seems not to work by Love in the feeling of Communion by casting Beams on the Members of that Body whose Head is Christ a Form then is acceptable to God being serviceable to the Communion of Saints and instrumental to the Honour of his own Name God requires the service and subjection of the whole man the Life and the Language the Mind and the Mouth the Faculties of the Soul and the Organs of the Body to glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Gratitude to God and Charity to our Brother engage us to a Form of Godliness the first makes us speak Honourable things of God the second thing Necessary for Man Instruction to the ignorant Reproofe to the vicions Comfort to the disconsolate when the Channels of the divine spirit are as open as the Fountaine is free and Festival As the Beneficence of God to the body and soul requireth the integrity of the whole man who hath created and blessed both So he hath created and blessed the Body in that Dependance on and Communion with the Soul that while there is Humility in the Heart it will bend the knee in adoration where there is desire in the Reines it will lift up the Hands in uncessant Supplications where there is Joy in the Mind it will open the Mouth to shew forth its praise Our Baptismal Vow doth oblige us to confess the Faith of Christ crucified which in the dayes of Persecution was an eminent act of Fortitude and resolution Christ crucified was to the Jewes a Stumbling Block and to the Greeks foolishness yet Lactantius tells us that the Primitive Christians had the signe of the Cross drawn on their Fore-heads in most orient Blood to perswade Infidels to beleive that they were built upon the Jewish Stumbling stone and dignified with the Grecian obloquy The beauty of a Form is commended to us by these Perswasions as the Glorious Attire of Godliness yet this Attire is to be fitted and adapted to the power I shall therefore superadde Rules to direct the Form by the Power Have no collateral Respect or Sinister Design at thine own honour advantage or reputation in thy Professions and Forms of Godliness It is an Argument of a low and a loose a mercinary and a disingenuous spirit for a man to pretend Gods Glory when he intends his own God will have it all to himself that no flesh should glory in his presence we are to lay down our Carnal Excellencies when we take up a Spiritual Profession St. Paul gloried not in his own Labours but in the Love of God I laboured more then they all yet not I but the grace of God that is in me I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me much like that Expression when he tells us that when he doth what he hates it is not I but sin that dwelleth in me So that as to his personal condition when the sum total is cast up as to Grace and Concupiscence it amounts but to two Ciphers set one against another as he doth justly excuse his Infirmities so he doth modestly refuse the honour due unto his Graces Avoid all conceited Tones affected Accents and Antick Gestures in thy Profession and Form of Godliness these Ridiculous things are sufficiently confuted by a mimical Derision for there is a Behaviour becoming Holiness when we Profess as Saints we should Act as Men some move in an higher Sphere and place Religion in the frequent Repetitions of Jesus Christ and the holy Spirit of God when they have lusciously ingeminated these names which are onely to be mentioned with Reverence and Trembling they think they have witnessed a good Confession but some are paramount and vilifie all things that are not a pretence to Revelation and a Lofty Language as the Valentinians in Irenaeus despised the usual Dialects of other men using Exotick Idioms the bold and boasting phrases of Barbarians such we meet with in the discourses of Jacob Behman and Van Helmont in the inscriptions and pages of the books of Quakers which they call the bosom of God the outward openings of inward shuttings Godded with God Christed with Christ beams of approaching glory These swelling words of vanity are unknown to the Scripture and contrary to the simplicity that is in Christ Let not the Form exceed the Power or be as the Shadows of the Evening Longer then the substances on which they do depend Virgil gives several signs of an approaching night That then the Toads begin to croak and crawl about The Shepherds return home and the Shadows of the Mountains grow Long. Have we not had these ill Symptoms that our day is far spent doe not Sectaries meet together in Numbers Are not some Pastors suspended from executing their Charge is not the Kingdom of Darkness highly advanced we may guess it to be Midnight by the Dreams and Illusions and pretended Visions of some Enthusiasts Our Saviour condemned the Generation of the Pharisees that curtail'd the Law and made broad their Phylacteries who when they Fasted disfigured their faces by distorted Mouths and pensive Countenances as if deformity were the Form of Godliness Suffer not the form to be of equal Extension with the power because it is apt to Degenerate and become Excessive There are some eminent Devotions that are as the Sun in the Meridian the Shadows are small and they enter into a Closet as a Recess from humane Observations and there are Humiliations wherein we are to anoint our Faces to make them Shine and when they shine as Moses did we are to veyl them though it be by an Irradiation from God We are instructed to this by the Windows of Solomons Temple that were narrow outwards but broad within and Receptive of light by the Temple it self that was conspicuous indeed without but the Guildings and Magnificences were internal by the Sanctuary that was Veiled but within were the Altar and Oracle the Propitiatory and Mercy-Seat the Cherubims and God that dwelt between them by the Heavens whose Appearance to the Earth is an azure Canopy emboss't with Clouds and glittering stars but within there is God and Jesus the Mediator of a new Covenant an innumerable Company of Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect that reign with him in immortal and everlasting Glory Let thy form keep a constant Tenour in heavy as well as Halcion dayes when Jerusalem flourished in the dayes of Alexander the Samaritans worshipped at her Temple and came to warm themselves at the High Preists fire but when Antiochus had Ransackt the City and Sacred Treasuries then they blessed themselves at mount Gerizim in the Denyal of the God of Israel when Christ multiplyed the Loaves he multiplyed his followers who would have taken him by force and made him King They thought his Territoryes would be Opulent his Feilds and Vineyards fertile that his Jewish Subjects needed not to travel to Egypt in the dayes of Famine but that his Monarchy would infinitely exceed that of
Solomons in Peace and Plenty They thought that the Roman Eagles would be gathered as Chickens under his Wings and that his Gleanings would be better then the Vintage of all the Kingdomes upon Earth But when he told them his Kingdome was not of this World that his Crown must be of Thorns how few did bear his reproach to follow him without the Camp to honour him in the indignities of his passion What is this but the Artifice of filthy Lucre to make a Gain of Godliness to assemble for Corn Wine and Oyl to bake Cakes to the Queen of heaven not to be consumed with famine to court the Kings Daughter because she is an Inheritrix of temporal Blessings and not for the Beauties of her Holiness but they that are affraid or ashamed of the Profession of Godliness before Tyrants Tribunals Flames and Faggots of them will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of the Father with all his holy Angels Let thy Form have such an inviting Modesty as to allure others to a Love and Participation of the Power of Godliness Musitians observe in the Sympathy of sounds that if two Viols be tuned to a Consonancy and the String of one be struck the same string of the other will sound though laid at a Distance such an Harmony there is of Souls that if a well-tuned Heart be struck with the Finger of God it will send forth such a Melody that will work in others an Unison and Concord with it self Dauid went up with the Tribes to worship Andrew brought Simon Philip Nathaniel the woman of Samaria the City of Sychar to the presence of the Messiah The Apostles did triumph in the Myriads of the Jews the Kingdoms of the Gentiles the Numberless Accessions of the World to the little Flock of Christ A Form well ordered in all things by a sweet and gracious Conversation doth powerfully and placidly insinuate it self to produce this Effect which I shall demonstrate thus The Word is the great Instrument of Faith it hath a Moral and Suasive Power to propound Arguments to the Understanding and Objects to the Will Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God But this Cause is not irresistible for we find the Apostle taking up the Complaint of the Prophet Who hath believed our report But where the Word is deficient the Form of a good Conversation may be Efficient of Faith in Christ St. Peter exhorts Wives to be in subjection to their own Husbands that if any obey not the Word they may without the Word be won with the conversation of their Wives while they behold their chastity coupled with fear It seems the Eye is a better Organ then the Ear sometimes to conveigh Light and Happiness to the Spirit and good Works are better Orators then good Words For so we read in Story that Theodolinda Queen of the Longobards converted both her Husbands the First from Gentilism the other from Arianism an auspicious Lady to espouse them both to the great Bridegroom of Souls but the Story is still Big with greater Wonder for her Virtues were so Exemplary and Eminent that they executed an Apostolick Office and converted the Nation of her Subjects to be baptized into the Catholick Faith If thou seest a beauty in the Form of Godliness and wouldst preserve it from decay avoid the sins mentioned in the Catalogue The Enemies of a form are those of her own house no Sins make her more Odious then those that are Shrowded and Sheltred under her Protection All sin hath such an abhorrence to the powers of holiness that they hate the Form and Fringes of her Garment as is commonly observed of the Panther that he so abhors the person of a man that he tears in pieces his picture For a Form extorts from Seducers and Sectaries those Actions that are against the Bent and Inclination of their hearts They are Covetous and yet the false Apostles at Corinth preached freely to get Occasion of Glory and disgrace St. Paul who was there forced to live by his Mechanick Labours that he might not be Burdensom or Chargeable to that Opulent and Censorious City They are Self-lovers in their Benificence and Good Will towards men I need not mention anymore seeing Self-love is so Prolifical a Parent of all the other Sins that they must have a Commixture and Co-incidence with it as Branches in the Stem from whence they grow So that the Form is a Restriction to and Contradiction of their Villanies though they use it as an Artifice to palliate their sweet and secret Sins and to make way for an open Dissolution The sixth verse calls them Creepers while they creep into houses unawares and privily sow their Tares and are Despicable they insinuate themselves with Pretences of Strictness and a Tender Conscience of Modesty and Meekness of Condescentions and Philanthropy but when the Creeping Party becomes prevailing they soon forget their formal Complements and break the Bonds of their former Restrictions asunder and cast away their Cords from them they are Blasphemers and fill heaven with Reproaches Traytors and fill Kingdoms with Seditions the Tender Conscience soon betrayes it self in Searedness and unnatural Affection is incontinent in all Excesses and fierce in all Errors with a Rage reaching up to heaven how contrary is this to the Light of the Gospel that is altogether Serene and Pacifical to the Tongues of Fire that descended on the Apostles that by all-powerfull words did create those Miracles that were all like his that sent the Comforter the instances of mercy new light soon turns into Wild-fire and the Tender Conscience Ravens as a Wolfe to make havock of the Church The Arians and Donatists of old and Anabaptists in Munster and Sectaries of England of late have been sufficient Arguments to make this manifest to all men and Alarms to Princes whose security consists in the Preservation of Religion In this vigilancy Babilon exceeded Zion for Nebuchadnezar made a Decree that what ever Nation spake against the God of Shadrach should be made a Dunghill but of Judah where God was known the Prophet complains according to the Number of thy Cities so are thy Gods O Judah to return An Hypocrite Loves not freely and heartily his Reigning Sin because it exerciseth a Tyranny and Co-active Power over him it restraines him from swallowing the sweet Morcels he tacitely hungers after therefore he Dethrones it and takes away the Scepter of Authority from it when he can have his other Lords to Reign over him and exposes his Form when he hath cast of its Yoak to the greatest Odium and Contempt what cheap thoughts must men have of a Form of Godliness when it 's infected with Dishonesty the feigned Saint is manifestly a real Knave and all his Humiliations and Prayers wherein he deprecates the Evils of Covetousness are apparently but feigned words to make merchandise of the Inheritance of Orphans the Houses of Widdowes the Patrimony of the