the more we employ our bodies in decent expressions of gravity humility and apt affection to declare the inward intention of our minds which are full of all vigor and fervent desire and the most awful thoughts of that great Majesty whom we adore For this deportment gives to God a whole Sacrifice when others who in their prayers only hide their minds in their bodies as if they were confined as the Heathen Gods to an immovable and stiff Statue separating the inward actions of their souls from any correspondent gestures of their bodies if they worship God at all which they seem not very fond to declare Yet they devote only half of themselves and honor him in such a manner as other men can neither see nor know unless men had Casements in their Breasts that being opened others might look into them But that the worship of mens bodies ought to accompany the devotions of their minds is so apparent from Gods Injunctions under the Law that it cannot admit of any contradiction And if we argue for it under the establishment in the Gospel from those Commands we sind in the Law we have nothing returned but that the Jews were a dull and stupid people in comparison to our selves and men thus boast instead of having much cause of triumph For notwithstanding all the Invectives we have heard against the pitiful carnality and dulness of the Jews it appears too often to our great loss that they are as witty and more cunning than our selves We indeed having received helps and advantages by the Gospel and a greater proportion of the Spirit of Christ in whom they refused to believe are better instructed in the methods of a more spiritual Religion than they could be under the Law But yet what was then established which reason inforced being agreeable to the natures of mankind that was never yet repeated under the Gospel nor ever can I may confidently affirm may remain still without any check or controll for using it And therefore I cannot come to any damage in affirming that the worship of mens bodies in all their publick addresses unto God ought to accompany that of their minds till better arguments are brought against it than any which I have yet heard or seen 'T is true indeed our Saviour acquaints the woman of Samaria that the hour cometh and now is when those who are of the true Christian Church shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth because he seeks such to worship him John 4.23 Yet all this though when 't is interpreted according to the opinions of some men makes others stagger that are so weak as to desert their reason that they may become wise and go out of themselves to possess their souls and forsake the conduct of their own understandings guided by the rules of Gods Word that they may be frighted into the follies of others All this I say may when justly enlarged on rebuke Schism or Idolatry or false worship But this Text cannot authorize any detraction from external decency in the service of God nor abate from those orderly Rites and Ceremonies that promote Uniformity in the worship of him or tend to the sixation and establishment of true Religion under the Gospel nor such circumstances of devotion which are not in particular and directly abolished by the Messiah having been before Types and Prefigurations of him to come If any of that external worship of our bodies were of this kind which is injoyned by our Christian Superiors our practice would contradict our faith and deny Christ to be come in the flesh and justifie the Jews in the expectation of a Messiah But the truth is the conference betwixt our Saviour and the woman of Samaria is so far from prohibiting publick places of worship or external gestures of our bodies in devotion adapted to the inward reverence of our minds that it establishes a spiritual rational and Evangelical worship in opposition to the Mosaick Constitutions and the Samaritan Schism and Idolatry too and briefly declares that the Christian Religion was now to be established to abolish all other that were in the world that mankind being united in one faith and hope and consenting in one common principle and worshipping God through the mediation of their Redeemer having lived in this world with true devotion to the God that made them and in charity and peace among themselves might at last dye with comfort within their own breasts and then enter into the joy of their Lord. But if all this were largely controverted to a victory what shall we think of that Text of Solomon when he delivers points of a moral and perpetual establishment and of an universal concernment to mankind Eccles 5.1 Keep thy foot when thou comest into the Sanctuary of the Lord c. It was an usual custom amongst the Jews according to the fashion of those Eastern Countreys to signifie their reverence in a sacred place by putting off their Sandals before they entered that they might not prophane or which is all one render common by a defilement an holy place or what was separated from vulgar use to such as was sacred and related unto God From whence with reference to the reason of the thing was that Injunction more ancient than this Text Pull off thy shoos from off thy feet for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground Exod. 3.5 The place being before mean and inconsiderable a toft of ground on which bushes grew yet because God consecrated it by his own presence making it holy for Divine Offices to give Moses his Commission and to declare his Law therefore the signs of reverence were to be used there and external demonstrations of devotion to be exhibited Now this particular action of making bare the feet being an outward testimony of respect in those Countreys where this was commanded it sufficiently instructs all subsequent posterities of men that external signs of humility and submission must be given in the service of the Deity especially such in which we pretend to converse with him and in those places that are devoted to his honour And since divers Countreys use distinct modes of reverence and respect according to their customary signification and acceptance as the inhabitants of Japan salute by pulling off the Shoo when we do the same by pulling off our Hats and uncovering our Heads we may therefore fairly conclude that if Solomon in the forecited Text had spoken to persons used to our Customs and subject to the Constitutions of our Nation he would have said Pull off thy Hat when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evil And then the inference from this will be That we ought in all places dedicated to God on which his Name and Honour are inscribed where we pretend to offer our Christian Sacrifice to testifie the inward devotion of our minds by the outward
understand the meaning of what is in the Text forbidden either by what is translated vain repetitions or from the custom of those Heathens who are said to use them The word used by the Evangelist is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When ye pray do not speak as Battus did Now though Suidas explains it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking much yet the Text even in the prime signification of the word prohibits all frequent repetitions of the same sense and language as one Battus did from whose name part of the compounded Verb is taken and translated into the Text who made long Hymns full of Tautologies he being a very idle and empty Poet. As to what Maldonate mentions of another of the same name who had an hesitation or stammering in his speech delivering such thick and swift language that it was difficult to understand him this could be no cause of the prohibition of our Saviour For this being only a natural infirmity and not any careless or affected extravagance cannot be the foundation of this caution and it is rejected by the Jesuit himself Secondly We may more fully understand what is here forbidden by a brief reflection upon the custom of the Heathens in this matter For sayes the Text use not vain repetitions as the Heathens do Now the Heathens as may appear from their Tragoedians were wont many times in their worship to make repetition of the same words especially of the names of that God which they prayed unto And they conjectured also that by how much the louder and more shrill their speech was so much the more ready would their Gods be to give them audience and to return answers to their petitions To this custom does Elijah seem to allude when he speaks Ironically to Baal's Prophets 1 Kings 18.27 Cry aloud for he is a God either he is talking or he is pursuing or he is on a journey or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked Now the prayer of the Separatist being conceived extempore he delivering those things and words that a quick fancy and sudden invention prompts him to it must needs be that from the nature of such worship he will be necessitated to use these prohibited repetitions For where matter and method yea and expressions too are not before hand studied and composed and put into some decent order the memory cannot firmly retain what has been before uttered when the fancy and invention has all along been so strictly imployed which is evident from this That a gifted man who speaks extempore cannot afterward remember his own prayer or give any tolerable account to men of what he has before spoken to God So that 't is a thousand to one in this attempt but something both in matter and phrase will often be brought upon the stage again and several petitions escape from the mouths of such extraordinary pretenders that have more than once been presented before For their prayer being wire-drawn into one length or delivered in a continued and uninterrupted chain of language and expressions that must not admit of any large Chasms or long intermissions but one thing must follow close at the back of another how can it be considering humane frailties and indispositions but through the defect of present and ready invention there must be some large gaping silence or else barrenness must be supplied with the repetitions of what has gone before Nay how often have we heard Lord Lord and we pray thee and we beseech thee and the like expressions to supply the want of invention or to draw a covering over inadvertent and incoherent thoughts of the man who pretends to be much gifted in this affair So that then he is fain to stop gaps in stead of making a new hedge he coughs and spits in the room of a full stream of language and seems to be like a Pump when the water is going away with an hiss making a great hollow noise with little sense or signification And like the Heathen Priests that worshipped Baal who from morning till noon cryed out O Baal hear us 1 Kings 18.26 and very probably to as little purpose whilst there is no voice nor any that answers Or else like those mutinous Ephesians stirr'd up by the subtilty of a Silver-smith with an argument drawn from the defence of their Trade who for the space of two long hours cryed out with a loud voice Great is Diana of the Ephesians Acts 19.34 And whether such a worship when strong Lungs become the bellows to blow men up that they may vent themselves in tautologies and repetitions and broken sentences when they pretend to utter a continued prayer is fit to be offered to the Supreme God and to be presented in such loose petitions to him by the hands of a glorious interceding Redeemer let any that are not resolved to be prejudiced against any reasoning in this affair and are not stupid or wilful to a Proverb consider first and then in Gods name let them judge But lest we should meet with an usual recrimination in this particular I must observe here what is easily inferr'd from a transient reflection upon the former exposition that all repetitions are not vain nor such as are prohibited by our Saviour But as Maldonate expresses it he forbids supervacaneam inanem studio affectatam verborum copiam A superfluous and an empty affected plenty of words when we permit our language too much to overflow our sense and abound in expressions as the Heathen did because they thought to be heard for their much speaking They conjectured it seems that such plenty of words might cause the deafest of their Gods to hear them when they pelted them with vollies of thick language and that they would better understand the matter and substance of what they offered in their petitions and more easily remember all when things were so frequently inculcated by repetitions But alas the Heathens worshipped one sort of God but the Christians present their prayers to another And as mens notions concerning the God whom they worship vary so will their worship vary too if they act suitably to the arguments and inferences of their own reason If men therefore who so bustle in this world about the manner of addressing themselves to the Deity would but impartially state the nature of that Being to whom they devote their acts of Religion and then compare their worship which they give him with those Attributes by which they describe him and enquire diligently what is worthy of him we need not have so many divisions where all worship the same God about those things that are not reveal'd nor foment disturbances about those that are since it cannot without blasphemy be supposed that God would require worship from Christians that did not correspond to his Essence and Attributes when he hath declared that he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth and that he seeketh such to worship him But to let this pass and to return to the
object of our prayers and one in whom we may confide and trust since under the shadow of his wings there is safety He has declared that he keeps mercy for thousands and the marks of it are visible in our beings living and our allotments in this world and especially it appears in his wonderful redemption of mankind when he gave his Son to be a Ransome for us all and received him into Heaven that he might fulfill his promises made on Earth and make continual intercessions for us in vertue of his bloody sacrifice upon the Cross To distrust the goodness of such a God would be both ungrateful and inhumane to be the most surly and vilest Pensioners in the world to provoke the utmost of his wrath and fury and we must unman our selves before we can thus ungod the Deity Lastly that I may urge a most concluding argument God alone is to be the object of our prayers because he has commanded us thus to worship him and has prohibited the offering our religious devotions to any other This is engravened upon the tables of the moral Law which is of a standing and perpetual establishment That we shall have no other Gods but himself And that we shall not make to our selves any Idol to worship nor the similitude of any thing religiously to fall down before it Exod. 20. and he backs the prohibition with an argument drawn from the Jealousy he has of being deprived of his honour and a solemn declaration that he will severly punish the guilty We find therefore that when Aaron to appease the multitude made a molten Calf which the people supposed to be a representation of their Deliverer and the God that brought them out of Aegypt rearing an Altar upon which they made their burnt and peace offerings though they seemed to terminate their worship in God transferring their oblations through this representation to him that was superiour to the offerings and the Idol making God the ultimate object of their devotions by proclaiming this to be a feast unto Jehovah yet we find that the fire kindled for this sacrifice made the wrath of God to burn nor could Moses's intercession expiate the crime but he blotted their names out of the book of Life there were immediately slain three thousand of them and God continued to plague the people scattering their carcases about the Wilderness and in their progress visited this sin upon them Exod. 33. Nay men are not only thus cautioned by many precepts and examples in the Old Testament that they approach not near the confines of Idolatry to give Gods glory to another or his praise to graven or molten Images too numerous for me to reckon up here and granted by all who have any knowledge of those Scriptures But God has sufficiently forbidden it under the New where he has appointed his worship more proportionate to his being and the service of Christians to be agreeable to his nature in spirit and in truth neither with the corporal representation of the Samaritans nor in their schism nor yet according to the worship of the Jews by bloody sacrifices or under types and shadows prefiguring any Messias to come nor yet as the Gentiles by any of their inferiour Daemons When Satan tempted our blessed Saviour with the same bait which others make a tender of to those whom they endeavour to proselyte All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me He presently repell'd him with disdain and scorn Get thee behind me Satan For it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Matth. 4.10 If God would have been worshipped by the mediation of any but the great Mediator of the New Covenant who is the Image of the invisible God he would not have left mankind in the dark but there would have appeared light in this as well as other things that seem not so considerable to have guided them to the performance of that which he expected in his solemn worship from them But no directions to this appear nor can the Scriptures at all patronize it unless corrupted by false glosses and forced interpretations Yet the contrary is as clear as the Sun and all eyes that are not blind may behold it Angels themselves those glorious creatures which are apt to draw the utmost of our civil respects to them refuse to share in the honour of their Maker and prohibit the Testimonies of Divine worship The Angel which appeared to converse with Saint John when this beloved Disciple prostrated himself to worship him suddenly replyed see thou do it not and urges two arguments to inforce his prohibition enough to deter all mankind from paying acts of Religion to a creature 1. sayes he I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren the off-spring of the universal Parent therefore such honour is not due to me 2. God being the object of adoration such homage is justly appropriated to himself and therefore sayes the Angel worship God Rev. 19.10 Nay worshipping God by the mediation of Angels beguiles Christians of the reward and Crown which they strive for Col. 2.18 And much more must they miss their recompence if they make their religious addresses to the Angels themselves begging of them what is part of Gods prerogative to grant Now as the invocation of these detracts so much from the glory of their Maker so much more do we derogate from his honour if we make religious petitions unto Saints For these are of an inferior classis their natures being not capable of those embellishments that adorn Angels Therefore when Cornelius fell down and worshipped Saint Peter he snatched him up and bad him stand upon his feet and forbear such signals of reverence to him which were usually paid in acts of devotion For sayes he I my self also am a man Acts 10.26 Thus also did Paul and Barnabas refuse the worship of the Lycaonians rending their cloaths at their publick blasphemy and intended Idolatry and stopp'd their Sacrifice with an argument that methinks should startle others We also are men of like passions with you Acts 14.15 This is the last argument therefore why God alone is to be the object of our prayers because we are commanded to worship him in sacred Writ and forbidden to offer our devotions to another And this may suffice for answer to my third Enquiry by shewing us to whom we ought to make our religious addresses CHAP. V. I Proceed now to enquire into the mode of our address to the great God whom for his infinite excellencies we adore and worship upon supposition that he only is to be the object of our religious devotions in which solemn prayer bears a great share In this some of the controversies among us raised by persons who are gone out from us will be something though not as much as I intend regarded And therefore I shall enquire into the manner in which we ought to pray And 1. with
signifie and convey to us spiritual grace And in general the prayers and praises in our publick worship are such as besides their fulness to represent the wants and gratitude of men are uttered and performed with decency gravity and solemn devotion unless we chance from one party or other to get a knavish Priest among us both the Minister and the people bearing their proportionable shares in them that every mouth may pray unto and praise the Lord. Due and comely gestures of our bodies are enjoyned according to those customs that are significant being commonly known in that Countrey in which we live and also due affections and intentions of our minds Besides all is done in our Native Language that we may not kneel like Camels to our burden but Gods service may be perfect freedom and we may not depart from our own manhood but act rationally and ingenuously in all our devotions when by saying Amen we give our consent to what being a form in our common Language we do or may sufficiently understand before 't is uttered And where there are some repetitions they are not vain which will be proved in the handling my last Inference but either they are in distinct services or else altered by invoking every person in the Trinity apart The Responds are justifiable both from the ancient Service of the Jews and by the practice of the primitive Christians which has frequently been maintained and enlarged on by several Writers of our own Church And the Rites and outward Circumstances of our devotion as Ceremonies attending are but few and therefore cannot be burdensom and as few as may be that concern the people which are abundantly justified in Bishop Morton's Defence of the three innocent Ceremonies usually bound up with the Conference before King James at Hamton-Court which is a Treatise that may satisfie any impartial person that will without prejudice read and peruse it with judgement without putting a bar to his own satisfaction by a previous resolution never to be convinced These things therefore being only circumstances that attend our devotion relating to habits or gestures or signs of our profession cannot be Sacraments because the institution of our Saviour is wanting but being in their own nature indifferent they are only made necessary by the command of our Superiours whom in such things the Scripture enjoyns us to obey and they may by the same authority be either abated or taken on by which they are now commanded and their being symbolical is so far from being an argument against their imposition that if they were not so they would be insignificant and not fitting to be enjoyned at all And thus I have in the general only presented to the consideration of impartial men the publick Service and Devotion of our Church which is enough to make it plainly appear that we worship God in such a manner as is acceptable to him and that we offer him a Sacrifice with which he is well pleased if his Word be true the practice of other Churches are to be at all exemplary unto us and Christianity it self has been fairly handed down through the several Ages that have passed before us If any one would see this more particularly justified let him read Dr. Comber on the Services of our Church or at least Dr. Beveridges Sermon at the opening of his Church CHAP. X. THe second Inference from the former Discourse of prayer is That the Church of Rome must needs offend God exceedingly in their publick worship and usual prayers which appear openly to be impious and abominable to all true and sober Protestants and all mankind who judge of things by Scripture and just reasoning from it or indeed by their own natural sentiments Nay they are offensive to Jews and Turks so much that they hinder the conversion of many to common Christianity and cause them to keep themselves divided from such men who worship God after so undue and irrational a model and joyn Saints and Angels with him whilst they petition such things from them as are reserved to Gods prerogative to bestow not only temporal advantages but spiritual and eternal even grace here and glory hereafter And certainly such things with the Types and Pictures which they fall down before and worship too thinking like Heathens to transfer their honour they give to these through them to the Antitypes and Originals must needs be as offensive to God as they are to the eyes and ears of those who being Christians are soberly religious or such who worship Almighty God as an infinite living Spirit I need not now enter upon the debate whether what I shall presently charge them with includes plain Idolatry in it This they have frequently been accused of and I find their evasions for I cannot well call them answers to be very nice and thin so that if they escape they have good luck to come so near the brink and yet not fall into the ditch They usually quarrel about the definition of Idolatry till people are weary of writing to them concerning a description which they will not allow nor return another or else they retire to their old hole guarded by two words that scare the people though they understand them not In this they are like some persons among our selves who as they think separate from us upon hope of more high enjoyments and purer administrations and yet when they see an absurdity following them they presently take shelter in a cloud and like Fish in a River mudd themselves But when men shall consider how jealous God is of his honour and the greatness and unpardonableness of such monstrous crimes when they are persisted in that give away Gods glory to another and place a Creature in his own Throne whilst in the mean time they debase his Majesty to the low degree of some of the works of his hands when rational men shall reflect on such things as these if they have any love or fear of God and believe that they must account for their actions certainly they will not approach so near the limits and confines of Idolatry as to communicate in the worship of the Roman Church when the most subtil evasion which the most acute among them have to free themselves from the guilt of Idolatry consists only in a nice distinction betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a bold pretension that they offer their service ultimately to God though they make some as they think glorified creatures the more immediate objects of their prayers and adoration through whom they will have all to pass to the great Maker and Creator of all And yet he has no where appointed this but directed all who pretend to his service to make their addresses immediately to himself only through the merits of Christ But before I quite dismiss this charge which has occasioned learned Books and seems to be a great Controversie with the Papists in our times I must acquaint the
in the midst of the waters Especially over such Fish as carry mony in their mouths If they did not in plain terms endeavour to make parties in the Church that their own may at last appear to be the greatest by whatever under the pretext of Religion conveighs delight by that variety which pleases the generality of mankind Why should they not as well Preach extempore as pray so In their Sermons I am sure they were wont to use all the art and study that they could accommodating their Doctrines and expressions too that their pains might bear proportion to their Auditory and the fashion and example of those who were in greatest repute amongst them And I cannot divine what might be the cause of this different regard to prayer and Preaching unless they had more care in those speeches they directed unto men than they took about those which they presented unto God For they seem to me to have no greater promise of an assistance from Heaven in relation to the one than they have also with reference to the other Do they think that Text in the Eighth to the Romans proves effectually that the Holy Ghost assists them in their prayers because the Apostle has delivered that likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities because we know not what we should pray for as we ought c. If it be well weighed and considered with the Context it will only evidence our Saviours most earnest and wise Intercessions for us in Heaven by the holy Spirit which alwaies accompanies him The support of our minds under the greatest pressures we meet with in this world Or most that the Scripture being dictated by the Spirit has given us directions for the proper heads and â—â—â—â—er of our prayers and resolves still by some benign and secret influence which we are not able to describe to others to proportion our affections and elevate our minds to the importance of the concernments we pray for and the greatness of that Majesty to whom we petition And because if I were the greatest Critick in the world I should alwaies abhor the founding any necessary Doctrine upon the signification of a word in Scripture which words we know as in prophane Authors are frequently equivocal and restrain'd according to the compass of that matter in which they are Therefore I say nothing of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no nor concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither But if men are resolved for ends that will not serve them at the day of Judgement to which they refer many things that may be ended here to make these words against their own will in contradiction to the reason and experience of all thinking men that are not either knavish or mad to express a promise of some extraordinary assistance from the Spirit now in our inventions of matter and words in prayer unto God They may as well rely if they are pleased with such waies of interpreting Scripture upon that promise of our Saviour made to the Apostles to enable them to preach and write the Doctrines of the Gospel John 16.13 Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth And because there were Divine inspirations at the first which were necessary if God would deliver a Law by the mouths or writings of any selected out of the race of men Our gifted Brethren may if they please take occasion from the 10th of St. Matthew vers 19th and 20th to attempt any thing without premeditation or study and then to be sure we should be hard enough for them Since our Saviour there informs his Disciples that they need take no thought what or how the should speak because it should be given them in that hour i. e. when they might have occasion And he uses an Argument to raise and to confirm their belief of it For it is not ye that speak saies he but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you And yet I fancy that if our extempore men were in the same circumstances and put under those conditions which this Text supposes and were accused of something Capital before a Magistrate they would not only study all waies of clearing themselves to avoid the punishment what ever at last became of the guilt And this they would endeavour by all the means that a close consultation with their own thoughts could possibly suggest and not only with seriousness prepare an answer to any accusation of this nature But I believe too they would condescend to advise with the learned in the Law that they might if possibly avoid the Sentence of the Judge Nay in such cases whether they would fee bribe or make the greatest friends they could I leave to their own Consciences and experience that I may say nothing of making publick commotions to save themselves And as in business of this nature gifted men are inclined to think that such promises of assistance were only intended for a shorter time and not to reach this present age So though the Apostles Acts 2. Being fill'd with the Holy Ghost began to speak with divers languages as the Spirit gave them utterance they will submit their Spirits and condescend to the contrivance of heads of matter and modes of expression when they preach the Gospel though they are to speak in no other than their Mother Tongue Now why should this great care be had in their Sermons to the people when they usually have so slender a regard to what they utter in their prayers to God if there were no distinctions of times and seasons in relation to the promises and assistances of Gods Spirit For surely Preaching as well as praying is an ordinance to continue 'till the Elect are gathered and that will not be till the end of the world Unless they will affirm and give us too apparent an Argument to believe that the Spirit has so ordered matters that less pains and diligence are to be used when we address to God than when we speak only to the people And if any are so bold to talk thus I hate to refute such nonsence and blasphemy both together For it plainly appears that such men must be liable to the same rebuke which the chief Rulers of the Jews received from our Saviour recorded in the Gospel of St. John Chap. 12.43 Who though they believed on him did not confess him because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God And let their ears be never so much circumcised they render themselves opposite to the true circumcision whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2.29 And how far such contrivances may comport with sincerity and be distant from that Hypocrisie which has so many woes attending it I shall leave to those who are concerned to adjust and content my self with that direction which the great Authour of our most excellent Religion has
able to blast us in a moment and destroy us with a word and scatter abroad dust and ashes with the breath of his nostrils and can when he pleases cause an hasty word uttered before him to choak the person who is bold to speak it nay without pointing the arrow backward cause either it self to perish upon the string or him that is shooting it to drop down dead before him And is this God with a ruder confidence to be address'd to The Egyptian Gods were figured with their fingers in their months to command awe and forbid clamours to those who came nigh to worship them And shall the true sensible and living Being who is infinite in all glorious perfections be more confidently dealt with by those who pretend to a pure worship than the deportment of men durst testifie before those who indeed were no Gods Shall the common nature and reason of men in a land of darkness give rules to render devotion strict and no limits be imposed to the rudeness of Gods creatures in a land of light When a society of men agree together to desire any boon or favour from one that is their superiour on Earth how cautious are they in wording their Address How do they chuse such as they are able to confide in to draw it up With what a critical seriousness and grave consideration is it afterwards review'd by the whole body How strict are they in the most minute circumstances And when they have passed it through many objections and amendments how choice are they in pitching upon one that has a good tongue a quick apprehension and is most powerful both in Argument and Rhetorick to present it in writing and if need be to speak in relation to the heads of it And shall the great God of all the World in comparison to whom the tallest Cedars are but shrubs who can drive all mankind before him like dust before a storm who can cause Kings and Emperors too to vail their Crowns and lay their Scepters at his feet Shall this infinite Majesty be address'd to so carelesly and inconsiderately as if he were our familiar Companion Cannot he discharge the Artillery of Heaven and cause his Lightning to consume the World or the voice of his Thunder to make us afraid Is not he able to recall our breath in as short a moment as that in which he first gave us life and make us a prey to rottenness and Vermin The great Maker and Preserver of the World is not certainly so small a thing as the hasty and rude devotions of some men might cause others to believe that he is Nay that we may not conjecture that because he needs not adoration and homage from any even his most rational creatures because he wants nothing to render him eternally happy neither the outward respect of the bodies of men nor their internal acts of reverence and devotion to make additions to his own glory he neither regards the one nor minds the other See himself attesting his own Dignity and declaring what he expects from those who being the workmanship of his hands he has caused by his favour to become related to him and rebuking those Priests that were too bold either with himself or such things as were dedicated to his Service A Son saies he honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master If then I am a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Master where is my fear unto you O Priests that despise my name And when they confidently ask wherein have we despised it His answer is Ye offer polluted bread upon mine Altar and say that the Table of the Lord is contemptible And for that they offered the blind and the sick and the lame Offer it now saies he to thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person first Chap. of Malac. That lofty one who inhabiteth Eternity whose we are and whom we serve will not accept of such services to himself as are not worthy enough to be given to men And how indeed is it possible that he can either in justice or honor Unless he should relax the reins of Government and cast things into an eternal confusion by a voluntary departure from his own Glory which yet he has resolved not to give to another But yet omitting other Arguments if our own reason when divorc'd from passion will conclude that we ought to pay deference to others either distinct from or of the same natures with our selves suitable to that dignity they obtain in the universe or the several degrees that some of our own species are justly advanced and exalted to by any regular and commanded motion and if we are when we depart not from our own Inferences obliged to be cautious in our-deportment to other men rendring honour to whom honour is due Certainly if we have a true notion of the Deity and that the God whom we worship is self-existent and includes all possible perfection There is much more reason that we should be very circumspect about the actions and homage which we devote to him The Apostle informs us that the worship that is expected under the Gospel must be such as comports with the principles of right reason and therefore he does exhort when he might have commanded and beseech the Romans when he might have Canonically injoin'd them I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable Service Rom. 12.1 And as he draws an Argument for such an invitation from the mercies of God in this place So he infers in another from the price of our redemption that we must glorifie God in our bodies and our Spirits which are his 1 Cor. 6.20 And since both were Created and Redeemed by him 't is but equal that he should have the Services of both And because we with faith and hope expect that future Glory should as well reward our Bodies as our Souls it is but reasonable that both should join in the discharge of those duties which our Creator and Redeemer too has commanded for us not only as testimonies of our gratitude for all but as conditions too to qualifie us for the possessions of Eternal life and prepare us both to enjoy and relish the Glorious and everlasting refreshments above which are only to be had in such a gracious and transporting presence as the great God in his Glorious Trinity makes accompanied with his trains of Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect CHAP. XII NOw from all the foregoing Discourse at large we may without prejudice or severity charge our Brethren who upon the false pretence of greater Reformation separate from us and become our Adversaries with these following particulars in which they are either defective in or over-do those rational and Divine acts of worship to God which discharging our Tribute and Homage to him become a service acceptable and well pleasing Whilst
in the mean time these wilful or at least ignorant Separatists pretend still with the greatest confidence to be the best if not the only worfhippers in Spirit and in truth But this assertion is vain and fond Because First They usually separate what the great God has joined and accepts together Nor do they worship him or at least they account it not necessary with their outward man as well as with the hidden man of the heart 'T is true indeed bodily worship profiteth little yet something it does but nothing at all when it is divorc'd from the intention and affections of the mind because it is a perfect demonstration of Hypocrisie which is very odious both to God and man But yet men cannot well pretend the devotion of their minds especially so as to convince others when it is not accompanied with humble and suitable deportments of their bodies For if there were no regard to be had to mens bodily gestures when they pretend to pay homage and worship to God then if we argue like men that have reasonable souls given them to discern betwixt good and evil it must be because our Maker knowing the designs of our hearts does not expect external demonstrations of what he concludes to be lodged within us But then we need no other pains to address our selves but only to raise our conceptions to the strongest and most fixed thoughts nimble apprehensions would be enough to compose a prayer and it would be utterance sufficient if we did but only temper our lips cough and raiseflegm into our throats nay without any action of our bodies at all if our prayer were composed or rather intended within our selves without the delivery of our own inventions or any signification of the purports of our hearts by the language of our tongues And if this were right Women themselves might bring forth too without any travail or pains to them if they could but keep their own counsel But alas such notions as these in those prayers which are in common do not signifie so much as a man that gapes when he ought to speak For even words in prayer serve only to utter our minds and are no more than an external sign and representation of what we had before inwardly conceived And since this is by all men of sence accounted to be a service acceptable to God why may he not receive the signatures and impressions of our souls by any other corporal demonstration Why cannot the lifting up of our hands to our mouths and kissing them as in old time be proper adoration Why cannot inclining our heads or bowing our bodies still continue to be a certain token of reverence and submission and of worship too Why cannot kneeling or prostration upon the ground Religiously signifie the humility devotion and the most profound lowliness of our minds Especially since 't is as old as David to worship and fall down and to kneel also before the Lord our Maker But if such reasoning may not be admitted by those who account all reason carnal from the experience of their own especially when it contradicts themselves If men can at all be brought to themselves nay but so far as not to think that Adams Fall has not beaten out the brains of his Posterity If we approvedly use words in our devotions to God although he knows our conceived petitions when no expressions are uttered by our mouths discerning our thoughts a far off Nor do I desire that even this plain position may be precarious or granted by Adversaries without proof since if they will but yield God to be a Spirit they may easily conjecture that he can be more quickly sensible of the thoughts of our souls especially if they account him to be infinite too by a certain near and prying intuition the mode of which is not so adapted to our apprehensions than having not the organs of sense by which we understand and express things he can be said in a literal sence to hear our prayers But for all this in publick prayers we having others to join with us as we use words to signifie our petitions which express the sentiments of our minds So do we also by habits and gestures represent our devotions and conceptions to others to raise their affections in proportion to our own that they by all means possible understanding what we are about may be inclined to assent and say Amen and be prevailed on to frame themselves into the same resemblance of mind and body that there may not only be an unity in our common worship but Uniformity too And if these other signs besides words in the postures of our bodies or both in conjunction may effectually conduce to the same end which is the raising and signifying our devotion I see no reason why the actions of other members of our bodies besides the articulate motion of our tongues that notoriously declare profound humility and present our devotions and signifie in the eyes of all the world unless it be to those who are resolved to shut them in their prayers to avoid the Argument our homage to and dependance on God should not be used in worshipping our Maker as well as words which an absolute necessity of understanding one another has improved and made copious by custom and art and a long time since were rendered fashionable in the world as being more ready than other signs and representations from any different members of the body For these are also the action and labour of the tongue and lips It will appear to all men that in prayer and devotion the body ought to accompany the mind they being such intimate and united friends that both make but one man because any that in private address themselves to God when they are in different appartments from one another and when they enter into their Closets and are still if they pray with any earnestness and affection being moved to it by the consideration of that great God to whom they address their own meanness when compared to him or the absolute necessity of obtaining those things which they petition for they express their minds with such servor and humility as affect their bodies and cast them into postures that customarily signifie and represent these things to other men However methinks they who dissenting from the Service of our Church are advanced to be the mouth of others ought in justice to declaim for the worship of mens bodies since commonly the motions and activity of their bodies in all even their publick devotions is that which more recommends them to their people than the sense of their petitions or the decency of the words by which they express it But let us argue this thing fairly with our selves and then can any man who has stript himself of prejudice and prepossessions in his enquiries about the worship of his Maker do otherwise than conclude that we nearer arrive at the perfection of that homage due to him by how much