which we have shewed they have not as Jews and he will undoubtedly conclude against their antiquated Religion and Innovated Superstitions CHAP. VII The Christian Religion described The General Ground thereof The Revealed Will of God The Necessity of Gods Revealing himself AFTER the consideration of Religion in General and the reasonableness thereof with the Exclusion of the principal false pretenders of worshipping the true God it follows to treat of the Christian Religion and the Reasonableness and several incomparable Prerogatives thereunto proper And first it is to be known what we mean by Christian Religion and what it is Christian Religion is the worship of the only true God in the unity of nature and trinity of persons through one Mediatour between God and man the Man Christ Jesus according to his Will and Laws revealed in his holy Word commonly called the Scriptures This description whether artificial enough I will not contend but full enough I suppose it is to declare as well What it is in it self as Wherein it is distinct from others And therefore omitting to treat of the more curious and formal part thereof we shall here shew briefly What great advantages it hath above any other to the obliging us to a more faithful and devout observation thereof and that this only and no other can truly please God and lead us to him and crown us hereafter with eternal bliss and glory And it having been proved that by the consent of all Nations there is a God and it following more strongly upon that ground supposed that such a Supream and Infinite being is to be worshiped and that this worship is that which we call Religion and that of the Religions pretending to be divine the others have been found vain and deficient the Right of being received as the only proper worship of God must of necessity devolve upon the Christian Religion as that which is least obnoxious to the same or like exceptions and hath many more sober and rational inducements to perswade the same to any equal judgment Which argument might well be drawn from the very Body of this Religion and the several parts whereof it consisteth together with manifold Pregnant Circumstances attending the same But because this would ask a far longer time and more tedious labour both to Writer and Reader then can consist with this intended Compendium it may abundantly suffice to give such probable and credible proofs of the Scriptures That they are the revealed will of God as Christians do believe without question For the summ and substance of all Christian religion so far as it is truly so called and professed being founded on the Holy Scriptures and there expresly contained if it be evinced that they are of divine Original it will follow That what they deliver is so likewise and consequently the Religion built upon them But because it is one Principle which Christian Religion is built upon in common with all Religions that somewhat must so be believed that no natural reason or Mathematical can invincibly demonstrate And the reason hereof is because the ground of all such demonstations is setled upon the order of Nature between Cause and Effect in point of right rather than matter of fact But that the Scriptures are so the word of God as to be revealed by his Holy Spirit to certain select Persons to that end is altogether matter of fact and that not proceeding from such a necessary and natural Agent as that according to the course of Causes and Effects it could be no otherwise but from a free Agent which certainly might have suspended such acts of Revealing his Will And the same Reason holds against all proper Demonstration from Effect For as it cannot be demonstrated that such a Cause must necessarily have such an Effect it cannot be infallibly proved that such an Effect must have such a Cause For unless it could be proved that fire must necessarily burn it could not be proved that what we see burnt must necessarily proceed from fire For before this can be don it must be shewed that nothing in the world has the same virtue but fire and this supposes that we have a perfect and exact knowledg of every thing and the nature of it in the world Take we an instance yet nearer to our present subject It is a common Maxime amongst the Schoolmen That no Creature can work a Miracle of it self but it must have the Supernatural power of God either immediately or mediately and That whatsoever Effects are wrought by any Spirit inferiour to God deserve not the name of a Miracle And yet it is confessed withall that diverse such works which appear to us as extraordinary and above nature are not of God but some perhaps evil Creature Must it not then first be known what those extraordinary acts are and how they are wrought before it can be concluded that they are of God And how can this infallibly be discern'd but by another miracle and this by a third a third by an infinity of which there can be no knowledg So that in truth the received doctrine of the Schools being thorowly examined the contrary will appear the more reasonable of the two and that we must rather first of all acknowledg a Divine Power precedent and effecting this extraordinary stupendious work before we may call it a Miracle than first admit this to be a Miracle and then and thence infer a Divine Power So that it seems very difficult and dubious to make scientifical conclusions of any thing divine And that after all there may be sufficient presumptions to render a thing credible without lightness and rashness yet the Arguments perswading shall not be so pressing and cogent but due place should remain for a Faith or assent which may not be properly humane and natural which it must needs be if it proceeded simply from sense or reason natural but divine and an admirable temperament be found in that we call The true Christian Faith wherein the Grace of God inwardly moving and inclining the Will to embrace that to which it might notwithstanding all reasons to the contrary not altogether unreasonably have dissented and yet with reason doth assent the Grace of God pulling down 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledg of God and bringing into Captivity every thought unto the obedience of Christ As St. Paul excellently saith speaking of the carnal warfare of humane ratiocinations either for or against Divine Faith and Doctrine which have no might but through God as he suffers by his justice the reasonings and eloquence of men to take place against his doctrine or to prevail towards the receiving of the truth by the superadded Power of his Holy Spirit as to this end St. Paul speaks in his first Epistle to the Corinthians thus And my speech and my preaching was not 1 Cor. 2. 4 5. with enticing words of mans
faithful 2 Tim. 2. 11 12. saying If we be dead with him we shall also live with him If we suffer we shall also raign with him And is it not certainly implied that we shall receive the promises of God which are as well of Eternal and Spiritual things if we do the will of God by Faith and works of Faith when it is said Ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye might Heb. 10. 36. receive the promise And I should wonder at the subtilty of Perverters of divine Writ if they shall be able to draw any other sense from the words of Christ expressing his Rule of proceeding at the day of Judgment thus Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Mat. 25. 34 35 36. foundation of the world For I was an hungred and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in Naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me How can any thing be spoken more plainly to make Eternal Life the reward They falsify our Tenets saying That we hold that Good works are not means of Salvation Francis White Epist. Dedie of Good works than is here spoken Or how can any man affirm that all things necessary to salvation are plainly taught and easily to be understood in Scripture and shall denie this to be plain and such good works as are here specified necessarie to salvation For to bring in any Scholie which shall elude this will do them much more mischief in other cases as leading to the corrupting all places of Scripture which they allow to be plain and rendring them altogether useless to the ends for which they are alleadged For to say only that Faith must be here understood is most true but insufficient to make the testimonie void because otherwise they were not good works And this must alwayes be retained in memory which we have before laid as a foundation That they are not the good works of natural Reason or humanity nor the good works of the Law now voided which we here in this dispute contend for but they are the works of Faith qualified with all the due conditions of the Gospel of Grace and actuated by the Spirit of Grace And here it may be useful to instance in some of those principal adjuncts which make our works truly evangelical and leading to that blessed end spoken of And here I do not make Faith so properly a condition as a cause and a common Essential foundation supposed to all Evangelical Acts as the root is not aptly termed a Condition of the fruit but the intrinsique Cause thereof But others there are very necessarie though not in the same degree such as these First that they be done in obedience to the will and command of Almighty God ordaining Good works Anew commandment John 13. 24. saith Christ I give unto you that ye love one another And how far this extends St. Paul tells us saving He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law Rom. 13. â— Ephes 2. 10. And yet more expresly to the Ephesians he saith We are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them And again to the Thessalonians he saith This is the Thes 4. 3. will of God even your sanctification Secondly the merits of Christs Passion whereby we are redeemed to God and sanctified according to St. Paul to Titus speaking of Christ Who gave himself for us that he might redeem Tit. 2. 14. us from all iniquitie and purisie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of Good works A third thing requisite to constitute a work Good according to the Gospel is that it proceed from a Person adopted or made a Child of God by Grace For this is required of all true Christians That they be born again of John 3. 5. Joh. 3. 9. water and the Holy Ghost And as the same author elsewhere hath it Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God A fourth is the inward Grace of God working and moving the mind to holy works and this preventing us so that we are first excited of Gods Spirit without any natural inclination of our own to do that which is the good and acceptable will of God For to this end make our Saviours words in the Gospel where he saith Without me ye can do nothing that 1 Joh. 15. 5. is no Good work answerable to the perfection of the Gospel and the promises thereof A fifth is the outward Grace of God remitting and passing over the several Omnia mandata facta deputantur quando quicquid non fit agnoscitur Aug. Retract defects and blemishes adhering to Good works even of the Regenerate For then saith an holy Father truly is the Law fullfilled when what is committed amiss is pardoned And to this relate the words quoted in the Epistle to the Hebrews as an ingredient into the Covenant of the Gospel viz. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will Heb. 8. 12. I remember no more Sixthly Perseverance in good is likewise necessarie though not to the essence of the Act done to make it Good for perseverence doth not of it self add good or evil to an action but supposes the same and continues it as it finds it yet to the reward it is absolutely necessarie Forasmuch as Gods Judgement as mans likewise is alwayes passed according to what a man actually is found to be whether good or evil and not to what a man hath been or possibly afterwards might have been For saith the word of God Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life And Revel 2. 10. 1 Cor. 7. 8. elsewhere Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall also confirm you unto the end that ye may be blameless unto the day of our Lord Jesus Last of all to make a good Work rewardable is requisite the freeness of Gods promises made to accept the same and to reward it not for its own sake but for his sake and Christs sake And that God hath promised blessed rewards to those that work according to the tenour of the Gospel as now described doing it as his children under the protection of Christs mediation and merits to the glory of God through the operation of Gods Spirit persevering therein till God shall call them off resting not upon themselves but his promises is most undeniable and a Principle necessary to be maintained and practised by all faithful Christians doth appear from what is before alleadged And what if any thing may be is yet more cleerly asserted by Christ saying He that receiveth Mat. 10. 41. a
7. 1. Eph. 5. 21. place The Psalmist saith They have no fear of God before their eyes St Paul saith Perfecting holiness in the fear of God and elsewhere Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God All which with many more places import as much as Religious worship of God And so doth the Love of God also as in St. Luke our Saviour saith to the Pharisees Wo to you Pharisees for ye tithe Mint and Rue and all manner of Herbs and pass over Judgment and the Love of God where Love of God stands for the Luk. 11. 42. true Service of God and duely to him as Judgment insinuates our duty towards our neighbour And so St. Paul to the Thessalonians The Lord direct your hearts into the Love of God And St. John most frequently in 2 Thes 3. 5. all his writings Leaving therefore this general consideration let us in this order inquire farther into 1. The Parts 2. The proper States of serving 3. The special Kinds of Divine Worship CHAP. II. Of the two parts of Divine Worship Inward and Outward The Proof of outward worship as due to God and that it is both due and acceptable to God Several Reasons proving bodily worship of God agreeable to him Wherein this Bodily worship chiefly consists Certain Directions for Bodily worship Exceptions against it answered BY what is expressed in our General description of Worship it may appear that there are two Principal Parts of it The one consisting in inward affection and the other in the outward Actions The inward disposition of the mind or soul of man is that on all hands is agreed upon as most justly due and proper to God alone in the supreamest manner God calleth for the heart so often in his holy word as his proper portion and the Spirit as that which draweth nearer to the nature of God as purely spiritual and incorporeal For God saith Christ is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth Though if we should take these words according to the prime intention they would be found not to aim so much if at all at diverse manners of worship under the same kind but at several kinds such as were the Judaical and Christian the meaning of Christ being this that the hour or time was coming when there should be no longer use of those corporal services and Sacrifices under the Law but in lieu of them the spiritual and true worship of the Gospel should succeed But no question can be made of the excellency of that true spiritual inward devotion of the heart and mind to God as the most absolute most required most accepted and in comparison of that all outward worship being no better without it than gross Hypocrisie rather incurrs the displeasure of Almighty God than pleases him Therefore leaving that which all Christians are in their judgements sufficiently satisfied in and hold themselves obliged unto we shall take up the defence of the outward worship in great manner opposed by too many And truly They that argue so contemptuously and wildly as the vulgar custome doth against outward worship of God shall not need to go far to see their own folly For to say God is a Spirit and 'T is the heart that God calls for and 'T is the zeal of the Soul and such like loose sayings what do they but cut the throat as much of vocal prayer and Preaching as of any thing else For if God will accept the heart and looks no farther than the purity and good dispositiâ—n of the mind Audible Prayer and Preaching must together with the rest be excluded as impertinent in Gods service We know that the prayer of the heart as in the Case of Hannah is accepted of God at some times and in some places as the true Love and Charity to our Neighbour inclining us to do him good and relieve him when it lies not in our power but St. James looks on them and censures them as meer uncharitable mockers and not relievers of their neighbours who shall only pretend they mean them well inwardly and say unto them Depart Jam. 2. 16. in peace be ye warmed and filled notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body Even so Faith and so the will and the heart and the Spiritual worship without works are all dead and are a meer mockery of the divine Majesty a corrupting and perverting of his holy word and a bitter Sarcasm turning it against himself and as much as if it should be said Seeing you will needs have the heart you shall have it that is so as to have nothing more It were superfluous and shameful to cite the many misunderstood and misapplied texts of Scripture to delude the most ignorant and at the same time most presumptuous of Scripture None speak more after the phrase which hath deceived so many than that not long since quoted Wo be to you Pharisees for ye tithe Mint and Rue and Luk 11 42. all manner of Herbs and pass over Judgment and the Love of God Doth not the Scripture here seem to condemn and that under a curse such litle services as are there expressed It seems so indeed and really doth as much as any outward worship of God But it doth but seem so For undoubtedly it was most agreeable to it that such minuter services should be perform'd but that so performed as studiously and superstitiously to neglect the other more weighty was it which incensed God against them And here comes in that general argument also above touched Fast from sin say they and for outward fasts it matters not Wisely and profoundly said like able Divines indeed And so fast or abstain from sin and ye shall never need to pray nor hear Sermons nor to feed the Hungry nor cloth the Naked no nor to believe in God which is all such persons have left them of Religion starved into an unactiveness Would it not make a mans Hair stand upright to see and hear what precipices of Heathenism and follies Men dispute themselves into And so they may as they suppose enjoy their lust of contradiction and contempt of others strike through the loins of all Reason and Religion at the same time Reason which they set by such sophistry as this to fight against it self For Serving of God in Spirit and in truth and abstinence from all sins as well of Omission as Commission is the very perfection and end of all Religion And if there were no more required but a simple command to do it on Gods part not directing us to the way and no more on our part but presently and immediately to become holy and perfect without the proper means conducing to such high and not easie ends then forsooth these Disputants were the best Councellors but if there be outward means ordained in general by God and applicable many times by humane prudence to the effecting such ends and