being raised from the deep sleep of sin were turned from darkness to light from the power of Satan unto God. This Light of Life dispersed throughout the Gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ 't is the design of this little Tract to collect for instruction in the true Spirit and Genius of Christian Religion For since to be a Christian is to put on Christ i. e. to imitate him by copying out the Excellencies of his Spirit and Holiness of his Life it is necessary we should have the true Idea of his Mind and Spirit and the true Characters of his holy Conversation in intimate knowledge and constant remembrance as well as in highest veneration and love Our profession obliging us to walk as he walked and the efficacy of Example consisting much in being acted before our Eyes it is highly necessary that we look unto Jesus form to our selves such an exact Idea of his Life that seeing him as it were walking before us in every path of Vertue we may follow him more accurately treading in his steps In this consists the true study and use of the holy Gospels not in learning to make or defend Systems and Scheems of Orthodox Opinions but in receiving the light of Life or as the Apostle calls it in 1 Cor. 2.16 the mind of Christ i. e. the imbibing the true sense and tincture of his Heavenly Doctrine and partaking of his Spirit therein lively express'd that beholding as in a Glass the glory of the Lord we be changed into the same image from glory to glory by the spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 In order hereunto it must be ever remembred that Jesus was manifested to destroy the works of the Devil to rescue Religion from that depravation which was the dishonour of God and reproach of Man and to restore Men at once to Truth and Happiness The Mind therefore and Spirit of his Doctrine will be best conceived as opposite to those pernicious Errours which had depraved Religion debauched the Lives and enslaved the Spirits of Men which had brought them to become Vassals of Satan the Author and Abetter of such false Opinions and wicked Practices Christianity is to be considered as a supplement to natural Religion restoring it from depravation adding a new light authority and sanction to the truths and precepts thereof and by confirming what was doubtful through the ignorance and prejudices of Men clearing what was dark rectifying what was abused or mistaken reducing Men to the true knowledge of God and rendring them true Worshippers of him To this restauration of Religion and of Man it was necessary first to set them upon a firm basis and foundation by enlightning their darkness satisfying their doubts and helping their infirmity and then to prevent their falling again which they are extreamly prone to do into these pernicious conceits by which they had departed from God were captivated unto Satan and enslaved in his Kingdom of darkness In order to the first viz. the fixing Mens Minds upon a solid foundation by satisfying their important Doubts relieving their Ignorance and helping their Infirmity 't was necessary for the Saviour of the World 1. To reconcile God to Man by a propitiatory Sacrifice 2. To demonstrate the Immortality of the Soul the certainty of a future Life and Judgment 3. To reveal the object of Worship 4. To set a perfect Example of Life 5. To succour Men with supernatural Grace a strength Divine First A propitiatory Sacrifice and the most solemn Declaration that could be of God's being reconciled to returning Sinners was necessary to pacify Mens guilty Consciences to satisfy their diffident and doubtful minds to make an end of all that anxious busy and fruitless Religion of Expiations which could neither purge the Conscience nor improve the Man which by becoming the chief subject of religious solicitude jostled true Religion i. e. Wisdom and Goodness out of the World. Natural Religion knows no Sacrifice but Eucharistical 't is a service of Love and Gratitude but guilt is diffident and anxious sin begets dread of God as well as alienation from him and he that knows himself sadly in arrears to the Divine Justice and obnoxious to Almighty Anger must first be satisfied that that Justice and Anger appeas'd and God reconciled before he can be prevail'd with to love and thankfulness and holy imitation that is before he can be made to repent and return unto God. 2 Co. 5.19 Rom. 3.25 1 Jo. 4.10 God therefore was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself setting him forth a propitiation for the sins of it declaring himself reconciled and publishing an Act of Oblivion and Patents of Grace and Pardon ratified and seal'd with the bloud of that most inestimable Sacrifice By the most solemn sacred sensible and affectionate pledges of his love he hath assured us that he wills not the death of Sinners but his will is their return and happiness that he will communicate himself to his Creatures according to their capacity and that Repentance is a sure Capacity for his greatest Blessings but impenitence the only accursed thing that separates from God and that because it renders uncapable of those blessed streams which are ever flowing from the inexhaustable Fountain of Divine Goodness And as by the bloud of Jesus he hath pacified the Conscience of Sinners so by the revelation of his divine Mercy and Goodness by the Promise of the holy Spirit and of Eternal Life he hath revived their desponding Hearts he hath begotten them again to a lively hope that they may be filled with joy and peace in believing 1 Pet. 1.3 Rom. 15.13 and abound with hope through the power of the Holy Ghost that they may return with humble Confidence and chearful readiness to him who waits for that happy opportunity to shew them mercy and being reconciled to God by Faith and Repentance may be inseparably united unto him in love and hope and the participation of his holy Spirit Secondly To the Restauration of true Religion 't was fundamentally necessary to banish all doubtfulness about the immortality of the Soul and to render the future Life and Judgment indisputably certain Men lost with their Innocence their hope in God and the sense of those immortal Capacities the divine goodness had bestowed upon them They corrupted also that Tradition which should have supported their hope and forgot both what their Reason and their Fathers had told them from God concerning his design to make them Eternally happy And the Arguments of Philosophy were too fine and artificial to encounter the prejudices of Lust and jealousies of guilt and to perswade minds that knew very little of God or of themselves that rather dreaded the presence than desired the enjoyment of the Divinity and whose secular Religion taught them to look for no other rewards than the averting a misfortune or a plague or the procuring the comforts and emoluments of this Life Vt averteretur imminens ira vel
to be built upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Isid Osir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simpl. in Epictet c. 34. whether there were two first Principles the one of good the other of evil which was the most ancient and universal opinion as Plutarch tells us or whence else those lapses and errours of the humane Soul should proceed whence it was that the brutish part had enslaved the rational and the sensitive appetite broke loose from the governing power They knew not the head of this over-flowing Nile but found themselves involved in the Inundation whilst their understandings reasoned tolerably well of Vertue their inclinations engaged them powerfully in Vice So that either despairing of liberty they tamely yielded to the torrent of inclination and custom or else with great perplexity but little success strove against the mighty stream and in so great a streight as was natural look'd up to God Plutar. de superstit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is the hope of Vertue but not the Patron of Sloth and Cowardize Although they sometimes magnified humane nature yet experience of their own infirmity at other times extorted this confession from them that a divine impulse was necessary to make a Man truly great and good Nunquam vir magnus sine divino afflatu Cicero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag Aur. Carm. and that there is something divine in holy men that informs and guides them Which differs but little from that of St. John 1 Ep. c. 2.20 Ye have an unction from the holy one and know all things But the knowledge of their remedy was not equal to the sense and pressure of their Disease they could cry out with St. Paul Oh wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me but could not answer with him I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the Redeemer of the World who by a divine strength hath relieved the weakness of Man and by the law of the spirit of life Rom. 8.2 made them free from the law of sin and death The Sun of Righteousness just before his rising upon the benighted World had emitted some twilight Rayes into the darkness of it by raising up some eminent Philosophers Preachers of Righteousness to check the superstition and madness of the Priests and to scatter some rayes of knowledge among the people thereby to prepare the way to the Eternal Word who was to bring with him the treasures of divine Knowledge and Wisdom But when this glorious Sun was risen he not only shed a divine light but quickening heat and influence upon the benummed and frozen World. He revived the dead restored the languishing redeem'd the Captive and enabled Slaves to break off their Fetters Joh. 8.36 and those whom the Eternal Truth set at liberty were free indeed He plentifully poured out that Spirit that rested on himself even the Spirit of wisdom and understanding Isa 11.2 of counsel and might of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. By the miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost he awaken'd the stupid World and called them into his Church an unconquerable never-failing Principle of Eternal Righteousness By the abounding of this grace he hath provided Rom. 5.21 that as sin hath reigned unto death so righteousness may now reign unto Eternal Life The Gospel preached in the demonstration of the Spirit made a speedy and wonderful reformation in the understandings tempers and lives of Men and yielded a most powerful conviction that God was both able and willing to restore his lost Image in them And all the treasures of this divine Spirit are promised to those that humbly ask and are willing to receive them The Conscience therefore awakened by the light of Truth is no longer amazed or distracted but confiding in the divine aids and strengthened with his Heavenly Grace pursues its conflict with the Flesh to a compleat Victory Every good motion is from the same Spirit of Truth and Grace which hath made such admirable Conquests over Ignorance and Lust and he that hath the same Principle in himself can't but have a good hope of the same blessed Fruits The Soul that feels a divine strength cannot but expect from the same Fountain a constant supply and thus united to God in the same design of restoring his Image and animated with the holy Spirit can't fail to master all opposition for greater is he that is in us than he that is in the World. This therefore is the Foundation on which Christs Kingdom of Righteousness and Grace is built viz. Faith establishing the heart by a full and certain perswasion of these Fundamental Points viz. That God is Reconciled and Pardon and gracious acceptance sure to returning Sinners That a future Judgment and Eternal Life and consequently the difference of moral good and evil are indisputably certain and unquestionable realities That there is but one God the Creator of all things and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the only object of worship and Fountain of Blessing whom we must glorify in and worship through as he blesseth us by the Eternal Word and Spirit That the true service of God consists in the imitation of him of which the Life of Jesus is our Pattern that such Holiness is indispensibly necessary certainly practicable and can never fail of the divine acceptance That the corruption of nature and the power of inclination and custom are infallibly conquerable by the grace of God and God most ready to prevent and follow us with his grace and that he will never fail to assist and prosper our endeavours till they are crowned with Everlasting Success This is the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon these fundamentals of religious Belief must the Superstructure of Holiness and Happiness be raised and built Now Christians even of the meanest Capacities believing Jesus to be the Son of God and receiving that account the Evangelists give of him have thereby most evident demonstration lively perswasion and certain knowledge of these fundamental truths such as the most learned Philosophers could not attain unto and the generality of the World were extreamly far from This Foundation being laid sure God having made Faith of these truths to all men in a most easy and certain way and most powerfully and solemnly attested them by the miraculous effusion and demonstration of the Spirit that which remains for restoring Religion and Man for perfecting the Kingdom of Christ is to build upon this holy Faith the true Image of God and Spirit of Holiness to pluck up those prejudices that debauched Mens minds the Sources and Tap-roots of false Religion and to inculcate those truths which contain the true Spirit and Genius of pure and undefil'd Religion With this design the Doctrine and Life of Jesus travail viz. to introduce amongst his Followers that excellency of Spirit that was in himself which is the true Image of God the glory and the perfection of Man. And as this spirit
for spiritual ends and purposes for the help of Faith Devotion and Resolution and the more effectual uniting the heart unto God in fervent love in thankful and dutiful affection Rom. 14.17 The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost for he that in these things serveth Christ is accepted of God and approved of men But he that has a mighty opinion of bodily labour that values a Ceremony before a Vertue his opinion about a Rite before Charity or Peace that acts his fancy more than his understanding is more nice and curious about the bodily than the spiritual part of worship such an one is departed from the genuine spirit of Christianity entred in at the gate of Superstition in danger of all the extravagance and dotage thereof and thereby of Apostatizing into the Kingdom of darkness Thirdly 2 Tim. 1.7 A dark and servile dread of God is the temper and spirit of false Religion but the Spirit of Christianity is light and love and a sound mind When Men become alienated from God by wicked works and serve him chiefly with their vain imaginations then they lose the true and amiable notion of him they consider him only as terrible and dreadful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarc de superst who is the supream good and only happiness of his creatures They conceive of him altogether as arbitrary power who is Eternal mind and wisdom and the glory and perfection of whose nature it is that as he can do whatever he will so he can will nothing but what is wise and good The Dreams of such dark and timorous minds are very frightful wild and extravagant they worship the Idol of their own brains express their own ill nature and disturbed imaginations in that worship which should be a confession of the excellency and perfection of the Deity Hence Men came to place Religion in solemn darkness in cloud and mystery venerable because hidden or unintelligible Rites obscure Oracles sacred Paradoxes and Arks and Clefts full of divine and wonderful secrets of which the Priest and the Devil taking advantage made themselves absolute Masters of the belief and reverence of the people and by these of their Estates and Fortunes But this is the Message which we have heard of Christ 1 Joh. 1.5 that God is light and in him is no darkness at all That the Principles of his Service are Knowledge and Love and he regards not the Religion of those that worship they know not what nor why That we direct our Service and Obedience by what we clearly know of him and that the more we know the better we shall please him who will not be served with a blind submission nor with unintelligible mysteries but with our best understanding not with a servile Flattery and Court-like Address by many Intercessors with a ritual niceness or a pompous Pageantry or any such devices of ignorant and superstitious Minds but with purity of Heart and Life with a spirit of Love and of a sound Mind not with Terrour and Melancholy but with Hope and Alliance not with scruple and perplexity but generous Resolution not as an Arbitrary Tyrant but as a wise and loving Father Fourthly The Devil is the God of this World and the Spirit of errour is an earthly and secular one but the Kingdom of Christ is Heavenly and such is the spirit and genius of his Religion The love of the World and an inordinate estimate of the goods thereof was ever a mighty source of Superstition and Pillar of Satan's Empire With such Worldly-minded Men Interest is always more ponderous than Truth and that Religion best that most effectually provides for their temporal concerns To such secular Spirits 't was a very agreeable conceit to imagine that every business of theirs was under the especial care of some Patron Deity whose Rites if they carefully performed their affairs should succeed according to their wish The multitude of such Tutelar Gods for Cities Families and particular affairs the superstitious regard to Oracles and Prodigies the observation of times and all the Arts of divination and augury which made up the Pagan Superstition plainly shew the spirit of its Votaries viz. that their hopes and fortunes were Embarqued in this World and that they regarded the good and evil thereof as the sole reward of their labour or punishment of their negligence in Religion This principle the Idolatrous Jews plainly avowed to the Prophets Head when he expostulated with them concerning their sorsaking of God Jer. 44.17 that they would burn Incense to and serve the Queen of Heaven as their Fathers had done to good purpose for then they had plenty and saw no evil whereas since they had left off their service all things had gone to ruin Nor was this a vulgar conceit but the best defence the greatest Men among the Pagans could make for the worship of those many Lords Caecilius in Minut. Felic Orig. c. Cels l. 8. Jul. Ep. 51. that by their singular care the good things of life are distributed to men so Caecilius Celsus and the Emperour Julian defend the Cause of Daemon-worship It is also a mighty temptation unto Men to imagine that God must needs love such Riches Magnificence and Glory in his Service as they find themselves to be extreamly delighted withal that the long flourishing of a Religion is a demonstration of the truth of it and the misfortune and calamity of Men an argument against their way of serving God. Thus they are apt to conclude who mind Earthly things and over-rate the concerns of this Life and judge every petit affair thereof worthy of a divine decision But Christianity teacheth us to consider our selves as Strangers and Pilgrims here whose estate and interest doth not lye in sublunary things but in spiritual Promises and Immortal Hopes We are Citizens of Heaven and only travelling through this World thither Upon this our Heavenly Relation and Interest only we may value our selves and ought to love our Religion because it secures these to us and designs the improvement of our Spirits for the eternal Vision and Enjoyment of God. We are instructed therefore to have our affections very moderate and cool towards Earthly things but warm and tender towards Heavenly Objects This is the finishing Lesson and most excellent effect of the Christian Religion which is a Heavenly Philosophy and to make it truckle to the affairs of this Life or turn it into Maxims of secular Policy is the greatest abuse and subversion thereof Lastly The spirit and genius of false Religion is selfish narrow and stingy but that of Christianity Charitable and generous and large as the Kingdom and goodness of God. Superstition converts Religion into a private Commerce imagining God to gain by the service done him and expecting the return of that service only in personal and private Blessings And no wonder if they who conceive God to seek himself
in the homage he exacts from his Creatures imitate the Deity they worship and centre in themselves in every thing they do or that they who serve an arbitrary Deity should expect to oblige and render him partial to their interest by the multitude of their services Hence arose the conceit that the divine favour and beneficence might be monopolized by certain persons was appropriated to particular places or annexed to the performance of peculiar Rites and happy they that had the secret of that Monopoly the mystery of engrossing the divine protection and care Hence every Family had its tutelar Gods and singular Rites and they changed the Shrine the Rite or the place when any ill success defeated their expectation Fugiuntque penates quisque suos sua cuique domus funesta videtur quia causa latet locus est in crimine notus Ovid. Met. l. 7. So Balaak repeated the Sacrifice and shifted the place in hopes at last to make the God he supplicated favourable to his request Numb 23.13 He said unto Balaam Come I pray thee with me unto another place and Curse me them from thence So the Syrians having fought unsuccessfully with the Israelites upon the Hills resolve to change the place and to have recourse to the Gods of the Vallies in hopes of better success 1 Kings 20.23 Their Gods are Gods of the Hills therefore they were stronger than we but let us fight against them in the plain and surely we shall be stronger than they Hence such who found by success that their interest in their Gods was great boasted this reward of their Superstition and trampled upon such who seem'd neglected of the Deity or greatly fallen from his favour and protection Whom God had forsaken either for their neglects of his service or for the arbitrariness of his own will casting them out of his protection they look'd upon as abandoned to neglect and contempt and cruel treatments If kindness were due to any it was only to those whom God distinguished by his Favours or who served him in the same manner with themselves and that kindness too was arbitrary and precarious as well as partial and ever gave place to the efforts of a narrow stingy and selfish Spirit Hence also the Spirit of Persecution became an ingredient of false Religion the Friends and Favourites of God as they thought themselves conceited they did him service in destroying his Enemies or at least that they had right to use as they pleased to crush and ruin those despicable Wretches who were reprobated and out-law'd and fallen from the protection and care of Heaven But Christianity teacheth us to serve God not as if he needed such service but for the reasonableness and excellency thereof because his service is perfect freedom and true Religion the perfection of Man. It teacheth us to seek our improvement and happiness in subjection to those laws of God which are the transcript of his most perfect and blessed nature and are design'd for the perfecting and felicitating ours and contains in them the true Elements the certain principles and necessary means of such felicity It teacheth us to consider God not as a respecter of persons but as God both of the Jews and Gentiles the universal Father of the whole Family of Heaven and Earth governing by the eternal measures of Wisdom and Goodness and by Laws that respect and provide for the welfare of the whole As the inexhaustible Fountain of Goodness ever communicating himself to all his Creatures according to their Capacities and requiring only such service as capacitates for the enjoyment of him It directeth us to seek the glory of God not in the triumphs of his Arbitrary Power but in the consummate effects of his infinite wisdom and goodness the perfection of his works and especially of that grace he hath bestowed on Men in the most perfect communication of himself to them which is life and happiness everlasting And as our God so our Religion is love Charity is the summ and substance of it generous goodness the most courteous gentleness the most perfect humanity the truest greatness of Mind and largeness of Heart are the genuine and excellent fruits thereof It obligeth us to consider our selves but as stones in the great building of God disposed by the wisdom of the Almighty Architect with regard to the whole Fabrick and that we become useless and insignificant by centring in our selves and minding only our own things without respect had to the common interest Rom. 12.3 4 5. Just as the members of the body are beautiful in conjunction and considerable in their operations conspiring to the common welfare for the Eye doth not see for it self but looks out for the whole Body and the hand is useless whilst it grasps to it self but its ministrations to the Body are necessary and excellent It obligeth us to account all the gifts of God as designed to render us useful to others not to make us glad and full of our selves In short the whole oeconomy of the Gospel travels with this design to better the Societies of Men and perfect the Communion of Saints to edify the Body of Christ in the Spirit of Love ruling in all its Members to render Believers of one Heart and one Soul as their God their Faith and their Hope their Profession Business and Interest are one that they may be one as the Father and his Son Jesus Christ by a Communication of the same excellent nature and communion in the same divine riches and treasures And the Christian thus instructed values himself and expects his approbation from God not by his enjoyments but by his usefulness not by the number of his talents but by the improvement he makes of them This is the true spirit of Christ's Religion and excellent proceed of his Kingdom the true Members whereof being by a right and lively Faith fixed upon a solid Foundation firmly perswaded of the mercy of God and of Eternal Life of the necessity of Holiness and the efficacy of the divine Assistance are built upon this Faith into a most excellent temper inform'd and govern'd by the spirit of sincerity and purity delighting in the spiritual worship of God united to him in filial trust and affection placing their Happiness and seeking their Interest not in the things of this World but those of a better pursuing them with tender and warm affections having their spirits enlarged by the knowledge of God and fill'd with generous goodness in imitation of the divine beneficence do seek their own felicity in the perfection and consummation of the Kingdom of God. For the effecting hereof Christ hath left with us the Record of his Doctrine and Life that we beholding therein the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 may be changed into the same Image from glory to glory by the spirit of the Lord. To minister hereunto is this Tract designed First By exhibiting the true Principles of Christian Doctrine levelled
reasonably be affirm'd of more than one most perfect Essence But understandings depressed by sense and depraved by Worldly Lust first sought God in a Symbol and chain'd him to a place for the better resort to him on all emergencies And when they had framed in their imaginations a local God their Fancy multiplied Deities as their Superstition did Shrines and 't was a pleasure to think they had so many Patrons of their persons and affairs Gods to address themselves unto or to go before them upon all occasions This gross but pleasing delusion could not be sufficiently detected but by a light from Heaven God from thence revealing and asserting the perfection and unity of his Essence letting the World know assuredly that there is none beside him nor any other Image or Symbol of his Divinity but the Eternal Son who is the brightness of his Glory and never to be conceiv'd of without the Father nor any other Minister of his Providence worthy of divine honour but that the Holy Ghost the Author of all divine gifts is so being the Eternal Spirit of the Father and the Son. Upon this Basis he hath fixed the wandring minds of Men determined and directed their worship condemning the conceit of many Gods and many Lords or Mediators as false and wicked for that there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him 1 Cor. 8. 5 6. This one God that made the World and all things therein is Lord of Heaven and Earth and dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is worshipped with Mens hands as though he needed any thing but he it is that giveth unto all Life and Breath and all things Acts 17.24 Fourthly To restore true Religion 't was necessary to redeem Men from their vain conversation received by tradition from their Fathers by setting them a perfect pattern of Life both to demonstrate what is the service agreeable to God and that such holy living is practicable by Man. False Religion was not only wrong in the object but also in the matter and instances of worship it lost the true God amongst the croud of lesser Deities and his true worship amongst the heap of childish and unprofitable Ceremonies Its Votaries were very busy and its service full of noisy labour of pomp and pageantry but the Rites some of them were unreasonable and foolish much below not only the Majesty of God but the dignity of Man others lewd or cruel magical and unnatural contrary to humanity a reproach and provocation to the Author of our Beings but singular symptoms of reprobate minds and badges of slavery to wicked Spirits And whilst their Gods were represented as Patrons of Vice and their most sacred mysteries were shameful works of darkness their Religion ingaged them in lewdness and inhumanity what could be expected in common conversation but such a deluge of wickedness as is described Rom. 1.29 filled with all unrighteousness fornication covetousness maliciousness envy murder deceit malignity void of Piety Charity Mercy Faith yea even of natural Affection This vain conversation was received by Tradition and confirmed by custom and better Examples were very rare and those extreamly defective and the Discourses of Philosophers whom the vulgar regarded as a few singular and odd men and suspected of Atheism were of little force against the torrent of custom in which themselves too were not a little involved Tradition Law and Custom had made Religion to consist in performing the wonted Rites but solid vertue as no part thereof but a needless and impracticable theory was abandoned to the speculation of the Learned Jesus therefore came to restore Religion not only by the light of Heavenly Doctrine but by the Lustre of a great Example His Life demonstrated wherein the Kingdom of God consists the Works that are acceptable and the Persons that are dear to him His Example exhibits an invincible conviction of the necessity the beauty and the practicableness of a holy Conversation of a Life wise and good and useful of a Spirit unbiass'd by the interests of the Flesh and the World deaf to their solicitations and unshaken by all their terrours He demonstrated to the World that the Servants of God must not be slothful or idle but busy Ministers of his Providence and Grace and be shewed too that their business did not consist in operose Ceremonies Bodily exercises In operosis Ceremoniis ritibus ad digitos tantum pertinentibus Lactant. or trivial Rites but in doing good and distributing the gifts of Heaven in watching over our selves and others in a persevering practice of Godliness Righteousness and Sobriety in charitable and humble ministrations unto men and a professed service and constant imitation of the true God. By his own Example and that of his immediate Followers as so many concurring Lights making a path to shine after them he described the way to Heaven and the enjoyment of God demonstrated beyond exception the necessity of holiness to the Vision of God and the possibility of that purity which qualifies for the enjoyment of him Lastly To the restauration of Religion and of Man 't was necessary to quicken those who were dead in trespasses and sins not only by a great Example but with a divine Principle and supernatural strength Instruction and Example were proper to awaken the understanding and to excite the Conscience but the Law in the Members is not so easily subjected to the Law in the Mind Inclination and Passion is too strong for the efforts of naked Reason beloved Lust and enslaving custom will not give place to wiser emulation so that this struggle between the Flesh and Spirit doth but demonstrate the power of corrupt inclination and the strength of vitious habit They who with the mind served i. e. approved and consented to the Law of God were still by reason of the Flesh subjected to the Law of Sin. Though the Conscience was awaken'd the Will was enslaved and whatever feeble desires and imperfect choice Rom. 7. an inlightened understanding might produce yet they that were accustomed to do evil could not find how to perform that which is good the good they would they did not but the evil they would not that they did Their judgment condemned their practice but though an awaken'd Conscience set the Man against himself yet inclination and custom mastered the judgment and carried all before them and held them in Captivity to Sin and thereby to the powers of darkness Under this wretched Slavery the generality of Mankind was insensible and harden'd but those that felt their yoke were nevertheless subjected to it and whilst they disputed about the origine of Sin submitted to the dominion of it They could not tell whether Man in his present state were the ruins of somewhat that had been great or whether his nature had only the Rudiments and Foundation of some greater excellencies
obtains so his Kingdom comes with effect and when it shall rest universally upon his Followers then shall come salvation and strength the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ Rev. 12.10 c. 11.15 for the Kingdoms of the World shall become his and he shall reign for ever and ever This is the Summ and Accomplishment of all these glorious Prophecies concerning the Kingdom of the Messiah That the Knowledge of the Lord shall fill the Earth as the Waters cover the sea Isa 11.4 The plentiful effusion of this spirit upon the primitive Christians made them hope for the speedy accomplishment of these Predictions and speak of the perfection of Christ's Kingdom as near at hand But so great a Reformation was a work of time and Christ had foretold not only a failing of the spirit of Christianity but a reviving of the Kingdom of darkness an Apostasie from the Faith such a return of the ejected prejudices and depravation of Religion as should undermine the very Foundations 1 Tim. 4.1 c. and subject men again to the ignorant infidelity anxious Superstition abominable Idolatry and foolish Lusts of the benighted Pagans But that himself in due time will again set up his Kingdom and restore to his Followers 2 Tim. 1.7 the spirit of power of love and a sound mind make truth righteousness and peace to reign and so break the Empire of Satan that he shall never be able to erect it more In the mean while he hath left with us his Heavenly Doctrine and holy Life as an Antidote against those delusions which are the passages to and the very Sinews and Strength of Satan's Kingdom whether Pagan or Antichristian and powerfully to inculcate the contrary truths which constitute the genuine Spirit of Christianity building men up into the Image of God and into the Glorious Kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ First Sensuality and the Love of Sin is the inlet of errour the root and sap of false Religion but Purity and the Love of Righteousness inculcated in the Doctrine and Life of Jesus is the Friend of Truth and Wisdom and the way to be filled with the knowledge of God. They who love their Lusts cannot love the truth that is contrary to them nor endure the light that discovers their vile deformities An impure mind is unmeet to receive the knowledge of a pure and holy God and a guilty mind cannot bear it The effect of such knowledge upon impure spirits is dread and that quickly converts into Superstition For a guilty Conscience like a drowning man that catches hold of every twig embraces every expedient offered to compound with an offended God and will do any thing to please save only the rendring that holy obedience that he requires of him If atonement may be made by Sacrifice the Altars shall flame and smoke continually their Flocks and Herds be all devoted they will make if possible Rivers of Oyl to run from the Sacrifices yea they will not spare their own Bowels but give the fruit of their body Mich. 6.6 an expiation for the sin of their Soul. They will not fail to build Temples and adorn Shrines nor to visit them devoutly nor think much of a costly and painful devotion if they may have but hope to fatisfy God for the arrears they are in to his Justice And when they have labour'd it hard they begin to hope it may do and that God will surely be pleas'd that they have done so much to gain his favour 2 Thess 2.11 And just it is with God to send them strong delusion and give them over to the belief of lies who loved not the truth nor were obedient to it But the Spirit of Obedience is the Spirit of Children to be followers of God makes us dear to him and the doers of his will shall know the Doctrine this is the Lesson which Christ inculcates A pure mind hath a lively perception of truth is very apprehensive of Errours dishonourable to God and that deface his Image and such purity it is that the Doctrine and Life of Jesus travel to produce all Knowledge is of no further value than as ministring to proceeding from or accompanied with it All the Sacrifices of the wicked are declared an abomination but the delight of God is in those that love him and do his Commandments for they shall be loved of God he will manifest himself unto Joh. 14.21 22 23. and make his abode with them Secondly Sense and Imagination Fondness for external shew and pomp is the way of Superstition and false Religion but the love of spiritual worship and a rational service is the spirit of Christ and that way of his Kingdom God is a Spirit and chiefly to be worshipped with ours And although so long as we are cloathed with Flesh our Religion must have a Body as well as Soul yet by an uninstructed fondness for the Bodily part Men have ever departed from God into dotage and superstition and rendred themselves a prey to the powers of darkness This is the mistake of the vulgar especially or of Souls as mean and unimproved as theirs though hang'd with better trappings By this fondness for representation pomp and solemnity the Patriarchal Rites which were few and grave grew up at length into a theatrical and magnificent Religion that required a great Ministry and a huge body of Rubricks for the exact performance of it For now the height and magnitude and shape of the Altar the number of its steps and horns and innumerable things of like sort entred into Religion and exercised the servile Superstition of the Worshipper At this door came in Images with all their train of Foppish and Idolatrous Ceremonies and became stumbling blocks to the souls of men and snares to the feet of the unwise the singular diligence of the Artificer helping forward the ignorant to more superstition This devising of Idols was the beginning of spiritual Fornication the invention of them the corruption of life Wisd 14. The proneness of the Jews to revolt unto the way of the Heathen the fondness of those that became Christians for their old Rites whether of Paganism or Judaism the great multitude of these early obtaining in the Christian Church together with the necessity that the Apostles and first Reformers found of indulging for a time the accustomed Rites and Ceremonies these are convincing demonstrations of the power of this Childish fondness for somewhat sensible and pompous in Religion and of the danger of falling into false Religion by multiplying Rites to the subverting of spiritual worship or laying the stress of Religion on such bodily service But Christianity teacheth a spiritual worship and rational service viz. that of the Mind illuminated with true Knowledge and quickned with a lively sense of God and referring all unto him And the very bodily part is either the spiritual Sacrifice of Prayer and Praise or the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments
him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth 1 Joh. 1.6 If we walk contrary to his Example we frustrate the design of his appearance we reproach the Wisdom of God that sent us from Heaven this Light of Life and if he had not come and spoken to us it had been far better for us for then we had had no Sin in comparison of that heavy load of guilt that will sink and crush every ungodly and wicked Professor of the Christian Name But if we would adorn our Profession and honour the Author and reap the Fruits of it we must walk as Children of the light Ephes 5.8 or as we are exhorted Rom. 13.12 Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the Armour of Light let us walk honestly as in the day not in Rioting and Drunkenness not in Chambering and Wantonness not in Strife and Envying but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fullfil the Lusts thereof And that to enforce the Apostle's Exhortation with his own Argument knowing the time Rom. 13.11 that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our Salvation nearer than when we believed That the time is coming when the Members of Christ shall be universally filled with his Spirit and our Blessed Lord be more worthily imitated by and glorified in his Saints is an Article of the pious Belief and hope of good Christians The Prophecies concerning the excellent effects of his holy Religion have not yet had their accomplishment in any tolerable sense and yet are too plain to be any other ways evaded than as the Jews may equally avoid the Predictions from whence we prove that the Messiah is already come For it is not enough to say with them that our selves are in the fault that the Prophecies cannot be accomplished and hinder the production of that beautiful Issue which Christianity according to the Divine Predictions labours and travels withal For those Prophecies are express that it shall be delivered of that happy Birth and bring forth by the Power of God. Who will set his hand to this work and cause the Branch of Righteousness to grow up and cleanse the iniquity of his people and cause the Captivity of Judah and Israel to return and bring them health and cure by revealing unto them the abundance of peace and truth Jer. 33.6 7 8 14 15 c. For behold the days come saith the Lord that I will perform that good thing which I have promised and this Prediction as it follows is sure as the Covenant of the day and night firm and irreversible as the Ordinances of Heaven and Earth This Epiphany of the Branch and Reign of Righteousness Truth and Peace the New Testament-Prophecies teach us to expect at the close of the Christian oeconomy as the Consummation and finishing Scene thereof When Christ shall plead his own Cause against the powers of darkness against Sin and Satan which have hitherto reigned and so break their Empire in pieces that it shall never be able to erect it self more And now to infer the Conclusion this Salvation is nearer than when we believed Rev. 14.15 18 19. the night of Pagan and Antichristian darkness is far spent the Harvest of the Reformation is already past and we have encouragement to hope the Vintage is approaching when all the Grapes of Sodom shall be gathered and cast into the Wine-Press of the wrath of God when Christ shall intirely purge his holy Religion from all depravation and inspire all that profess it with the true Spirit and fill them with the genuine Fruits thereof Hebr. 10.24 Let us therefore consider our selves and one another to provoke to love and good works so much the more as we see that day approaching By a diligent conforming our selves to the mind and life of Christ shewing forth the Excellencies of his Spirit and Conversation we shall prepare the way of the Lord and walk as those that look for and love his appearance By this we shall verify our Prayers that his Kingdom may come and confirm in our selves and others the hope of its approaching For when the Spirit that rested on Christ shall abide on the generality of his Followers and his Life be manifested in theirs then shall our blessed Saviour be satisfied concerning the travel of his Soul and glorified in his Saints Then shall his Kingdom come as we daily pray and his Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Amen Even so come Lord Jesus for thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever FINIS