all unjust Prejudice and causeless Iealousie all Hatred and Malice and desire of Revenge and whatsoever may hinder us from discerning the things that belong unto our Peace And by the power of thy holy Spirit do thou dispose all our Hearts to such meekness of Wisdom lowliness of Mind Patience Gentleness and long-suffering and forbearance of one another in Love and such Honour and Reverence of those whom thou hast set over us as becomes the Sons of Peace that so the God of Peace may be with us Give us grace O Lord seriously to lay to heart the great Dangers we are in by our unhappy Divisions and the great Obligations which lie upon us to godly Vnion and Concord That as there is but one Body and one Spirit and one Hope of our Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of us all so we may henceforth be all of one Heart and of one Soul united in one holy Bond of Truth and Peace of Faith and Charity and may with one mind and one mouth glorify thee O Lord who with thy Father and holy Spirit livest and reignest oâ—â— God world without end Amen The Use and Abuse of APPAREL In Two Sermons occasion'd by the present Excess in that kind 1 TIM II. 8 9. I will that Women adorn themselves in modest Apparel with Shame-facedness and Sobriety Not with broidered Hair or Gold or Pearls or costly Aray IF you impartially view the general Practice of this Age you cannot but look upon these Words as one of the most Seasonable Portions of Scripture that can be offer'd to your Consideration For among the many Follies and Vices which prevail amongst us the indulging of an Extravagant Way of Attire is not the least Wherefore I reckon it part of my Office and Function to chastise this Reigning Excess and in order to the Reforming of it if I may be so happy as to Influence upon any of you by this Discourse I will undertake these Three Things I. To shew the True and Proper Vse of Apparel II. To discover the Abuse of it and to let you see how it becomes Unlawful and Vitious and unworthy of sober and modest Christians III. To make some Practical Deductions from these Things and to disswade you from that Excess which is now grown so Common by setting before you the Evils and Mischiefs of it which you will find to be so great and so many that I hope you will be prevail'd with to abandon that undue Practice There is a fourfold Vse or Design of Apparel The First whereof is to hide aâ—d shrowd our Nakedness For though in tâ—e State of Innocency when the Image of God shined bright in the Soul of Man the very Nakedness of his Body was Beauty nor needed he any other Covering than his Original Integrity and Righteousness with God had adorn'd him yet when he offended against Heaven and defaced the Image of his Maker and became a guilty Creature he was ashamed of the Nakedness of his Body and accordingly made himself a Garment of Fig-leaves 3 Gen. 7. Afterwards God himself was pleas'd to instruct him how to make a more substantial and solid sort of Cloathing viz. Coats of Skins v. 21. i.e. of the Skins or Hides of Beasts And ever afterwards among the Civilized Nations of the World Garments have been in use for the same End that they were at first that is for Modesty sake About the Middle of the Fourteenth Century there arose an Heretical sort of People call'd Adamites who gain'd that Name because they imitated Adam's Nakedness in Paradice for they contended that since the Restauration wrought by Christ the Pristine Nakedness should be resumed and Men and Women being now reduced to the Primitive State of Innocency ought to go without Cloathing But this silly Sect who divested themselves of Sobriety and Reason before they stript themselves of their Apparel were justly exploded by wise and sober Men and their Practice voted to be unlawful because the Fall hath left a great Depravity in Men and the best of them are not perfectly healed of it So that we now have the like Reason to be ashamed of our Nakedness that our first Parents had to be of theirs and consequently we have need of a Covering as they had Secondly Garments are for Distinction sake Different Habits are not only for the differencing of the Sexes and therefore the Old Testament makes the promiscuous Use of Men and Womens Apparel unlawful but for making a Discrimination between the Qualities or Ranks of Persons Accordingly in all Ages except the very first when there were but few People in the World and there was not such an occasion for discriminating of Persons from one another the Qualities of Men were distinguish'd by their respective Garbs Not only Kings and Queens were differenc'd from their Subjects by their Royal Apparel 6 Est. 8. but there were Vestures proper and peculiar to other Orders and Dignities Offices and Degrees of Men 1 Sam. 18. 4. 1 Iob 20. 4 Lam. 5. 15 Luk. 22. 16. 19. Ioseph refus'd not to wear Pharaoh's Ring that he put upon his Hand nor to be aray'd in Vestures of fine Linnen and to wear a Gold Chain about his Neck 41 Gen. 42. Mordecai and Daniel were cloath'd with rich and stately Ornaments suitable to the Degree they were advanc'd to 8 Esth. 15. 5 Dan. 29. We read of precious Cloaths or according to the Hebrew Cloaths of Freedom 27 Ezek. 20. i.e. such Garments as became free and ingenuous Men such as those of the better Quality were cloath'd with Among the old Romans the Rank of Persons was known by their Habits The Purple Embroider'd Vesture with large Studs like broad Nail's Heads thence call'd Laticlavia was used only by the Senators and Noblemen Divers kinds of Shooes were worn at Rome according to the different Quality of the Inhabitants And the like Distinction of Garbs hath been among All Nations When our Saviour tells us That they who wear soft Rayment are in Kings Houses 11 Mat. 8. he doth not condemn the Use of rich and goodly Attire which are meant by Soft Rayment but he intimates this Distinction which I am now speaking of And so it is as much as if he had said By their Habit you may know them to be Courtiers He allows Men to be attir'd according to their Place and Degree Christianity doth not disrobe Men of their Distinctive Garments For this was one Design of Apparel viz. To discriminate between Persons of an higher and a lower Degree Yea we read that the immediate Ministers of Religion among the Iews were according to God's Command distinguish'd from the People by a peculiar Manner of Garb Which was imitated by others afterwards and would it is likely have been practis'd by the Apostles and first Ecclesiastical Persons in the Christian Church if their Conspicuousness of the Cloathing would not have made them too much known to their Enemies and so would have been
must needs say I had not dealt thus with you but that I saw no other person would undertake this work Or if any hath attempted it it is evident that their Undertaking hath proved successless Wherefore it was requisite to urge this matter afresh and freely to set before you your Fault and your Danger that you may seriously reform the one and happily avoid the other This is the grand design of my present Enterprize and I hope it will not be altogether void of success To which end I will conclude with an Exhortatory Address to those who are most concern'd in this Discourse because they are generally the most Criminal Let it be your chief study to deck your selves with those Ornaments that embelish the Soul and adorn the Life and Conversation Put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ as the Apostle is pleas'd to express it Rom. 13. 14. Put on bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-susering and above all these put on charity which is the bond of perfectness which is as it were the rich gridle that ties all your spiritual Attire together Col. 3. 12. More especially be exhorted in the same Apostle's Words to adorn your selves with shamefacedness and sobriety and in the language of another Apostle Let your adorning be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit 1 Pet. 3. 3 4. Which Words as I told you before do not exclude all Ornaments of the Body If they exceed not Christian Modesty and Gravity and offend not against the other Rules before laid down and in a word if they are not unbecoming women professing godliness as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 2. 10. you may lawfully use them But then you must be sure that you do not by means of these or in the use of them forget and neglect the Inward and Spiritual Adorning Nay you must be Chiefly concern'd for this latter for this is the sole Ornament of the Spouse of Christ who gave himself for his Church that he might sanctiâ—ie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a Glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Eph. 5. 25. c. This is the Beauty and Finery which you are to be solicitons about and let the Care which others take in beautifying and garnishing the Bodies remind you of a much Greater Concernedness which you ought to shew for your Immortal Spirits It was a Specimen of a great Devotion and Religion in that Good Father who one time observing a Harlot and minding how curiously she had trick'd up her self and how elaborately she had made her self fine stept aside and retired into his own breast and there sharply chid himself because he had never taken half so much care in adorning his Soul for the entertaining of the Holy Iesus as that vile Curtezan had done in trimming of her body for the pleasing of her lewd guests Thus we may make the Vanity and and Sinfulness of others administer to our Pious Thoughts and Reflections Let him who beholds the utmost gallantry and splendor of the most Polished Creature presently turn his eyes inward and look upon his Naked Soul and blush at his neglect of it How nice and exact are Vain persons in accoutring and furbishing themselves And that their Bodies may not be disproportionable to their Apparel what cost are they at to repair and beautifie those houses of clay What little Arts and Methods do they use to set off themselves They are not ashamed to borrow the Beauty which they boast of from a Drug or a Dark Spot Some of them are at the trouble every day of putting on a New Complexion But be not you of the number of these Gaudy Fools let your principal design be to beautifie your Minds in adorning of which you cannot spend too much time or take too much pains To this purpose think seriously of the Excellency and Worth of your Souls remember that this is your Better Part and therefore you ought to be solicitous above all things to have this adorn'd with Divine Vertues and Graces And consider likewise that these are the only True and Valuable Ornaments these alone deserve that Name because they have an intrinsick worth in themselves and convey an inward and substantial Excellency to those that have them and which is the highest commendation of them they are in the sight of God of great price as the Apostle informs us These Rich Jewels and Diamonds carry a commanding Lustre and Splendor along with them and even sparkle in the â—yes of Heaven These therefore must be esteem'd by you as the True Christian 〈◊〉 as the Genuine Bravery which outshines and at the same time darkens and sullies all the most exquisite Embelishments of Art And therefore these are to be infinitely preferr'd in your wishes desires and affections before them Lastly These will fit you for those Shining Robes of Glory those Garments of Light and Everlasting Happiness which you shall be cloathed with in the highest Heavens Christianity Mysterious A Sermon shewing the true Meaning and Acception of the Word Mystery in Scripture And why the Christian Religion is call'd a Mystery Occasioned by some late Socinian Writings which explode all Christian Mysteries 1 TIM III. 16. And without controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness THAT there are Fathomless Depths in the Gospel which none can arrive to the full knowledge of that there Profound Abysses in the Christian Religion which utterly surpass our conceptions and are above the comprehension of all Humane Reason be it never so exalted is a Truth as bright and manifest as perspicuous and illustrious as the Writings of the New Testament can possibly make it Here the kingdom of heaven is compared to an hidden treasure Mat. 13. 44. Here we read of hidden wisdom 1 Cor. 2. 7. of the wisdom of God in a Mystery in the same Verse of the deep things of God v. 10. of things hard to be understood 2 Pet. 3. 16. of things which have not enter'd into the heart of man 1 Cor. 2. 9. Finally if a Mystery be a Religious Secret as will appear afterwards then there are many Mystical things in the Gospel and Christianity it self is a Mystery and a Great one as the Apostle here assures us The Reasons of which Denomination if we particularly enquire into I conceive this Account may be given of it It is stiled so upon this double ground 1. In way of Comparison 2. On a Positive and Absolute consideration As to the former I will prove that the Christian Religion is a Mystery as it may be compared with or distinguish'd from Other Mysteries viz. Iewish Pagan Heretical or Antichristian First It is stiled a Mystery in opposition to the Iewish Rites and Observances which it is well known were Mystical and Obscure
as the One thing Necessary in Religion and assure their Proselytes that this alone is sufficient to conduct them to Eternal Happiness Which is not unlike the Attempt of those late Iesuites who would teach the people of China and Siam the way to Heaven by the Mathematicks These men whom I am speaking of pretend to effect every thing in Christianity and to climb Heaven it self by meer Natural Strength and Humane Accomplishments as appears from the express words of the Racovian Catechism That there is no need of the inward gift of the Holy Spirit that we may believe the Gospel no not at all They have another way of Believing viz. by a strength of their own by the natural conduct and improvement of their Faculties And if True Faith then such a Knowledge as accompanies Salvation is to be acquir'd after the same manner and no other for a man need not be beholding to the Holy Spirit for it It is no wonder that those who talk thus find no Mysteries in Christianity 2. This gives an account of that Scarcity of true Divine Knowledge and Religion which is observable in the world There are Secrets in the Christian Faith which are known but by a few and therefore True Christians must needs be Rare There is indeed an Equivocal sort of Christians in the world who boldly assume the Name but are strangers to the Thing it self they boast of that Honourable Title but are regardless of the True Import of it and to use the Apostle's words though they think they know something they know nothing as they ought to know 1 Cor. 8. 2. These are very Numerous and every place swarms with them but the number of those who have a Practical Knowledge and Sense of Gospel-Truths is very mean and low The Multitude of those who derive their denomination from Christ have not attain'd to this Accomplishment and the reason is because it is by their own default hidden from them they are unwilling to receive the Divine Supernatural Light into their minds Let us implore the assistance of the Holy Spirit the Great and Heavenly Mystagogue the Effectual Interpreter of Divine Secrets and who alone can discover them to us that he would vouchsafe to enlighten and irradiate our souls in such a manner as shall be really beneficial to us Let us beg the aid of the Spirit of Truth to lead us into the Advantageous Knowledge of all Evangelical Truths and to enable us to feel them as well as know them Thus much of the First Branch of the Proposition founded on the words Christianity Mysterious A Sermon shewing that there are Mysteries properly so call'd in the Christian Religion With the True Reasons of it and the Natural Consequences from it Preached before the Vniversity at St. Mary's in Cambridge Iune 29. 1697. And since much Enlarged 1 TIM III. 16. And without controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness HAving in a former Discourse shew'd that Christianity is a Mystery to some more especially now I will pass to the Second thing I undertook viz. to prove that it is such even in a general way unto every one There are several Great Truths in the Gospel which the Spiritual Man can no more arrive to a full knowledge of than the Natural man can With relation and respect even to All persons whomsoever the sublime Truths of the Christian Religion still retain and ever shall the nature of a Mystery And I choose the rather to treat on this Subject because I verily believe it is of that nature and influence that if it were duly entertain'd it would be serviceable to put an end to all the Disputes and Cavils against the Doctrine of the Trinity and other Important Points that relate to it There would be no farther Contest about these if the abovesaid Proposition did but take place in mens minds This must needs be so at least in the nature of the thing it self because when it shall appear that there are Fathomless Secrets in Christianity and that they were design'd to be so yea and to be so to all as well as to some this cannot but supersede all Controversies about 〈◊〉 This with ingenuous and rational Spirits solves all Difficulties this with religious and pious minds answers all Doubts and fully satisfies all Scruples This thereâ—ore is the thing which I will evince that â—here are such Secrets as these in our Reliâ—â—on that there are many things in this Holy Institution which we have but a Dark and Imperfect notice of and it is impossible for us to attain to any other and these are properly stiled Mysteries That one Text alone 1 Cor. 13. 9 12. is sufficient to prove this We know in part saith the Apostle which refers to the knowledge mention'd in the foregoing verse by which as it is agreed by all is to be understood the knowledge of Divine and Evangelical matters and then it follows by way of natural consequence We prophesie in part for our instructing of others must be answerable to our own knowledge which is but in part He superadds Now we see through a glass that is either as men looking through a Perspective on an Object a great way off and therefore made Obscure by its great Distance from the eye or as persons beholding themselves in a Glass or Mirror which manner of expression St. Iames uses to signifie a Slight View 1 Iam. 23. and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But this Apostle thinks not this sufficient to set forth the Meanness and Deficiency of our Knowledge of Sacred matters but he adds another Emphatick expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a riddle i.e. in a very Obscure dark and intricate manner and therefore our Translators render it darkly The sum of what the Apostle saith is this that we have but a Partial discovery of some Divine Truths our Sight of them is very Imperfect there are certain Points of Christianity which are not within the sphere of our Capacities but are in themselves Aenigmatical and Abstruse And these passages are the more considerable if we call to mind the peculiar quality of the Person who writes thus It was that Apostle who was famous for his Knowledge he who among all the Apostles was the only man that was brought up a Scholar for we read that he was educated in the School of Gamaliel a Celebrated Hebrew Doctor and Professor and thence was stock'd with all the Iewish Literature And he that was well skill'd in the Heathen Poets as his Quotations in the New Testament let us know was questionless not defective in other parts of Humane Learning which he had the advantage of furnishing himself within his own Native City that of Tarsus which was at that time a famous Vniversity And these Excellencies joyn'd with his own Natural Parts and Endowments which as we may gather from his Acute Reasonings and Arguings on all occasions were of the highest
we are and which part of the World is our Situation It is another proof of our Ignorance yea of the defectibility of our Senses that we dispute whether the Earth moves or no. A great many Learned and Wise Men of late and some profess'd Mathematicians not the worst Judges in the case hold it doth and yet ten thousand of Considerate heads before this never thought of it And our Senses tell us no such thing but the contrary viz. that the Earth stands Still and is Immoveable This is certain that the Sense and Feeling of all men in the world are mistaken and about their Proper Object and that Continually which is somewhat hard to digest or else the Earth is not moved is not a Planet hath no diurnal Revolution That the doctrine of the Earth is Obscure and Difficult we have a Remarkable Proof in the late Theorists and others that have appear'd on the stage They have been pleas'd to thrust very Harsh and Incredible things upon us and to speak freely there are some of them that are so far from explaining and giving a rational account of the Phâ—nomena of the Earth that they have rendred this doctrine more obscure and perplexed than ever it was besides that they have entrench'd upon the Mosaick Verity and have abandon'd that Account of the Creation and particularly of the Earth which the Inspired Writer hath delivered This is certain that seeing they run a tilt against one another they cannot all of them be in the right about their notions of the Earth and it is a question whether any of them have light upon the Truth excepting what One of them hath deliver'd as matter of Fact and built upon Clear Experiment and Observation which we owe to his Indefatigable Industry and Great Sagacity In brief it must be acknowledg'd that they are very Ingenious and Learned Conjectures but some of their respective Hypothesis and Solutions are loaded with such Difficulties for on that account it is that I mention these things they are loaded I say and oppress'd with such Difficulties as are able to stifle and choak not only the restif and hide-bound Faith of a Socinian but the ordinary belief and assent of a Plain Philosopher be he never so Credulous Then if we come to Particulars belonging to this Terrestrial Globe with what Perplexities are we beset Are not only the Old but the New Opinions concerning them every day quarrell'd with and their Celebrated Authors and Founders turn'd out of the Schools And what is the Reason Because of the Uncertainty Difficulty and Mystery in every thing How unsearchable are the most common and obvious Operations of Nature Who can by any Material Cause solve the Cohesion of parts in bodies Who can assign the True Principle of Gravity or the Cause of the Flowing and Ebbing of the Sea or of the Attraction of the Load-stone or of several other things of that nature To instance more particularly in a Plant tell me if you can the Pedegree of this poor Vegetable blazon the Coat of its Seminal Form Say wherein consists the Life and Death of this sort of beings Shew me exactly how a few Seeds buried in the Earth and entomb'd with clods have so flourishing a Resurrection Give an account of the whole series and progress of their Motion the gradual and successive process of Vegetation in the root fibres pith stalks branches blossoms flowers leaves fruit and by what Rules they direct their course so methodically How is it that they stop at such a Stature and just Proportion What causes the Diversity of their Shape and Figure of their Colour and Smell what produces the excellent variety of their Qualities and Vertues There is no man upon earth whatever pretences he may make is able throughly to resolve himself or others about all or any of these Queries If I should pass to the Mineral Regions there a Celebrated Vertuoso tell us 't is acknowledg'd by a Great Naturalist That it is impossible for one man to understand throughly the nature of Antimony and how then shall he know all the rest of the Subterraneous World And then in the Animal Kingdom there are yet more Puzzling Enquiries the Remarkable Rarieties in the contexture of a despicable Insect are enough to entertain a Man's study all his days if he had nothing else to do and at last he would have cause to complain that he hath found out but little For as a Judicious Enquirer tells us Never was the man yet in the world that could give an accurate account of the nature of a Flie or a Worm in its full comprehension It hath pass'd for current doctrine that Insects are frequently begot of Putrified matter as well as by Univocal Generation but several late Vertuoso's of the First Rate pour in upon us abundance of Experiments to prove that there is not the most Minute Animal that is by Equivocal Production Cochenile hath been thought to belong to Plants but an Inquisitive Author of late hath discarded that Vulgar Notion and tells us it is not a Plant but a Living Creature it is not a Grain but a kind of Insect for thus his Microscope hath taught him to determine In many other Instances it might be proved that most of our late Learning in Natural Philosophy hath been to shew that what hath been formerly said is false And as for Our selves who are Perfecter Creatures we are Walking Problems we are Talking Wonders we carry about with us even in our Bodies a Complication of Mysteries But if we speak of the Incorporeal part of us then we are environ'd with much greater Darkness and Wonders It is an undeniable demonstration of our Ignorance and Weak Conceptions that we know so little of our Souls the things by which we know all that we know A mans Mind is the Inmost thing he hath nothing is so Near to him and Intimate with him and yet the many disputes and contests of Learned Writers about its Nature and Functions and the manner and method of its Operations acquaint us how obscure and uncertain mens notions are concerning it Especially we are yet to seek how a being that is wholly Bodiless is able to lay hold on Matter to actuate and inform it No man can tell how the Soul causes Motion by Thought or how by the same way it is able to put a stop to bodily motion We experience this to be true but it will puzzle us to give an account of the Manner of it It is no more to be explain'd and apprehended how the Humane Mind can think or will the Animal Spirits into Action than that a man should by his Thoughts or Will command the Winds to blow or the Flames to burn for the Spirits of the body being Material are no more capable in themselves of being thus actuated by the Soul than the others are And lastly though we know we have a Soul and are as certain of it as any