it up in knots The Postillers play'd with it and made it well-neer ridiculous and we have seen some such unseemly Jiggs in our dayes and there have been too many Theoricall Divines who have stretched beyond their line beyond the understanding of their hearers and beyond their own wrought darknesse out of light made that obscure which was plain that perplexed which was easie have handled Metaphors as Chymists doe metalls and extracted that out of them which Christ never put into them made them lesse intelligible by pressing them so far and by beating them out have made them nothing more obscure then the thing which it should shew and yields us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sea of words but not a word of sense and to be regenerate is something more then to be made good who were evil and to be a new creature is something more if we could tell what it were then to be a just and righteous man and we are born and made what we are against our will And what hath followed this bold obtruding of our own thin and forced conceits upon the Church under the high commanding form of necessary truths even that which hath been observed of philosophy when men made wisdom the onely aime and end of their studies then philosophy was it self in its prime and naturall glory being drawn up unto its proper end but when they applied themselves to it onely to fill up their time or satisfie their ambition or to delight their wits then she lost her native complexion and strength and degenerated into folly then Epicurus raised a swarm of atomes and Diogenes made him a tub the Stoicks brought in their decrees and paradoxes then there were Mille familiarum nomina so many Sects that it is not easie to draw them into a catalogue and some there were who declared their different opinions and disputed one against the other by outward signes alone as by Weeping and Laughing so we find it also in the Church of Christ that Divinity never suffered so much as when it was made a matter of wit and ambition and policy and faction became moderators and staters of questions Then every man became an interpreter of Scripture and every interpreter had need of another to interpret him Then men taught the Law as Moses received it out of a thick cloud and darknesse was drawn over the face of life it self and men received it as it was taught and did understand them who did not understand themselves received it as news out of a far country and conceived of it either more or lesse then it was received it in parcells and fragments which hung like meteors in their fancy or as indigested lumps in their minds which soon broke out into sores and ulcers and one was a Libertine another an Anabaptist another a Leveller and some there were who did distinguish themselves by the motion and gesture and some which is strange by the nakednesse of their bodies and thus mischief grew up and multiplied through the blindnesse or deceitfulnesse of reachers and the folly and madnesse of the people which evil had not certainly so far over-run the Church if men would have kept themselves within their own limits and not took upon them to be wiser then God if the truth had been as plainly taught as it was first delivered and not held out by mens ignorance or ambition and set forth with words and phrases and affected notions of our own if all men would have contended for and rested in that faith alone which was once delivered to the Saints And this I markt and avoided and in the course of my ministery run from as far as a good will with my weaknesse could carry me and as I strook at those errours which are most common and did strive to set up in their place those truths which are most necessary so I did indeavour to do it to the very eye with all plainnesse and evidence and as neer as I could in the language of him who for us men and for our salvation did first publish them to the world to which end and to which alone next to the glory of God these my rude and ill-polished papers are consecrate and if they attain this in many or few or but one I have a most ample recompense for my labour and praise and dispraise shall be to me both alike for the one cannot make these Sermons better nor the other worse I know others before me have raised themselves up to a higher pitch and strook at errour with more art and brought more strength to the building up of the Truth and I have seen it exalted and Falshood led in triumph gloriously by those whom God and their industry hath more fitted to the work and I have but offered my self up to it as some succours which come when the day and heat is over who though they doe not help yet shew their good will and we know that even they who bring on the baggage do some service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz Orat. 20. The God of patience and Consolation grant that we may be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus that we may with one mind and mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 15.5,6 A TABLE DIRECTING TO THE TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE Handled in the following SERMONS Foure Festivall Sermons On Christmas-Day HEB. 2.17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren page 1. On Good-Friday ROM 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things 23 On Easter-Day REV. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of death 45 On Whitsunday JOHN 16.13 Howbeit when He the spirit of truth is come he will lead you into all truth 67 Twenty six Sermons more Serm. 1. JAM 1. Ver. ult Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherlesse and widowes in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the World 1. Serm. 2. 1 SAM 3.18 And Samuel told Eli every whit and kept nothing from him And He said It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 21 Serm. 3. COLOSS. 2.6 As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him 45 Serm. 4. JOHN 6.56 He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him 67 Serm. 5. EZEK 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked Turne ye Turne ye from your evil wayes For why will ye dye oh House of Israel 87 Serm. 6. EZEK 33.11 Turne ye Turne ye c. 111 Serm. 7. EZEK 33.11 From your evill wayes c. 133 Serm. 8. EZEK 33.11 From your evill wayes c. 155 Serm. 9. EZEK 33.11 Why will ye die c. 177 Serm. 10. EZEK
powerfull Lord shall be lifted up and crowned with glory and honour for evermore Which God grant c. HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday JOHN 16.13 Howbeit when He the spirit of truth is come he will lead you into all truth WHen the spirit of truth is come c. and behold he is come already and the Church of Christ in all ages hath set apart this day for a memoriall of his coming a memoriall of that miraculous and unusuall sound that rushing wind those cloven tongues of fire And there is good reason for it that it should be had in everlasting remembrance For as he came then in solemn state upon the Disciples in a manner seen heard so he comes though not so visibly yet effectually to us upon whom the ends of the world are come that we may remember it though not it a mighty wind yet he rattles our hearts together though no house totter at his descent yet the foundations of our souls are shaken no fire appears yet our breasts are inflamed no cloven tongues yet our hearts are cloven asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every day to a Christian is a day of Pentecost his whole life a continued holy-day wherein the Holy Ghost descends both as an Instructer and a Comforter secretly and sweetly by his word characterizing the soul imprinting that saving knowledge which none of the Princes of this world had not forcing not drawing by violence but sweetly leading and guiding us into all truth When He the spirit of truth is come c. In which words we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Epiphany or Apparition of the blessed Spirit as Nazianzen speaks or rather the promise of his coming and appearance and if we well weigh it there is great reason that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ his that he should say Lo I come Psal 40. For in the volume of the book it is written of him that the spirit of the Lord should rest upon him Es 11.2 and I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh Joel 2.28 Christus legis Spiritus Sanctus Evangelii complementum Christs Advent for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirits for the fulfilling and compleating of the Gospel Christs Advent to redeem the Church and the Spirits Advent to teach the Church Christ to shed his blood and the Spirit to wash and purge it in his blood Christ to pay down the ransome for us Captives and the Spirit to work off our fetters Christ to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit to interpret it for we may soon see that the one will little availe without the other Christs Birth his Death and Passion Chists glorious Resurrection but a story in Archivis good newes sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it and teach us to know him Phil. 3.10 and the vertue and power of his Resurrection and make us conformable to his death This is the summe of these words and in this we shall passe by these steps or degrees First carry our thoughts to the promise of the Spirits Advent the miracle of this day cùm venerit when the spirit of truth comes in a sound to awake them in wind to move them in fire to enlighten and warm them in tongues to make them speak Secondly consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work and employment of the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall lead you into all truth In the first we meet with 1. nomen personae if we may so speak a word pointing out to his person the demonstrative pronoune ille when he shall come 2. Nomen naturae a name expressing his nature he is a spirit of truth and then we cannot be ignorant whose spirit it is In the second we shall find Nomen officii a name of office and administration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word from whence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a leader or conducter in the way for so the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to be their leader and conducter that they might not erre but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep on in a strait and even course in the way And in this great office of the Holy Ghost we must first take notice of the lesson he teacheth it is Truth Secondly the large extent of this lesson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he leads into all truth Thirdly The method and manner of his discipline which will neerly concern us to take notice of it is ductus a gentle and effectuall leading he drives us not he drawes us not by violence but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word here he takes as it were by the hand and guides and leads us into all truth Cùm venerit ille spiritus veritatis When He the spirit of truth c. And first though we are told by some that where the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added to fo there we are to understand the person of the Holy Ghost yet we rather lay hold on the pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ille when he the spirit of truth shall come he shall lead you which points out to a distinct person For if with Sabellius he had onely meant some new motion in the Disciples hearts or some effect of the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been enough but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He designes a certain person and ille he in Christs mouth a distinct person from himself Besides we are taught in the Schools Actiones sunt suppositorum actions and operations are of persons now in this verse Christ sayes that he shall lead them and before he shall reprove the world and in the precedent chapter he shall testifie of me which are proper and peculiar operations of the blessed Spirit and bring him in a distinct person from the Father and the Son And therefore S. Augustine rests upon this dark and generall expression The Holy Ghost communicates both of the Father and the Son is something of them both whatsoever we may call it whether we call him the Consubstantiall and Coeternall communion and friendship of the Father and the Son or with Gerson and others of the Schools Nexum Amorosum the Essentiall Love and Love-knot of the undivided Trinity But we will wave these more abstruse and deeper speculations in which if we speak not in the Spirits language we may sooner lose than profit our selves and speak more than we should whilest we are busie to raise our thoughts and words up to that which is but enough It will be safer walking below amongst those observations which as they are more familiar and easy so are they more usefull and take what oare we can find with ease than to dig deeper in this dark mine where if we walk not warily we may meet with poysonous fogs and damps instead of treasure We will therefore in the next place enquire why he is called the Spirit of Truth for divers
mens unruly lust to pace it more delicately to its end they that magnifie Gods will that they may do their own these men these spirits cannot be from God By their fruits you shall know them For their hypocrisie as well and cunningly wrought as it is is but a poor cob-web-lawn and we may easily see through it even see these spirituall men sweating and toyling for the flesh these spirits digging in the mineralls and making haste to be rich for though Gloria Patri Glory be to God on High he the Prologue to the Play for what doth an hypocrite but play yet the whole drift the businesse of every Scene and Act is to draw and conclude all in this From hence we have our gain The Angel or the Spirit speaks first and is the Prologue and Mammon and the Flesh make up the Epilogue Date manus why should not every man clap his hands surely such Roscii such nimble cunning actors deserve a plaudite By their fruits you shall know them what spirit soever they have it is not of God for nothing more contrary to the flesh than this spirit and therefore he cannot lead this way nor can he teach any thing that may flatter or countenance it there is nothing more against his nature than this fire may descend and the earth may be removed out of its place nature may change her course at the word and beck of the God of nature but this is one thing which God cannot do he cannot change himself nor can his spirit breath any doctrine forth which savours of the world of the flesh or corruption and therefore we may nay we must suspect all those doctrines and actions which are said to be the effects and products of the blessed spirit when we observe them drawn out and levelled to carnall ends and temporall respects for sure the spirit can never beat a bargain for the world and the truth of God is the most unproportioned price that can be laid out on such a purchase When I see a man rowl his eys compose his countenance order and methodize his gesture as if he were now on his death-bed to take his leave of the world when I hear him loud in Prayer and as loud in reviling the iniquity of the times when I see him startle at a misplaced word as if it were a thunder-bolt when I heare him cry as loud for a reformation as the Idolatrous Priests did upon Baal I begin to think I see an Angel in his flight and mount going up into heaven but then after all this extaticall devotion after all this zeal and in the midst of all this noyse wherein I see him stoop like the vultur and flie like lightning to the prey I cannot but say within my self Oh Lucifer son of the morning how art thou fallen from heaven how art thou brought down to the ground nay to hell it self sure I am the spirit of truth looks upward moves upward directs upward to those things which are above and if we follow him neither our doctrine nor our actions will ever savour of this dung So then we see this inconvenience and mischief which sometimes is occasioned by this doctrine of the Spirits leading is not unavoidable it is not necessary though I mistake and take the Divel for an Angel of light that the holy Ghost should be put to silence though Corah and his complices perish in their gainsayings yet God forbid that all Israel should be swallowed up on the same gulph In the third of the first of Samuel Samuel runs to Eli when the voice was Gods but was taught at last to answer Speak Lord for thy servant heareth though there be many false Prophets yet Micaiah was a true one and though there be many false Teachers come into the world yet the spirit of God is a spirit of Truth ducet nos and he shall lead us into all truth And that we may follow as he leads we must observe the wayes in which he moves for as there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a way of peace Luk. 1.79 so there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wayes of truth and in those wayes the spirit will lead us I may be in viis iniquitatis in the wayes of wickednesse in the wayes of the Gentiles and prophane men in viis meis in my own wayes in those wayes which my fancy and lust hath chalked out on that pinacle and height where my ambition hath placed me in that mine and pit where my coverousnesse hath buried me alive and in these I walk with my face from Jerusalem from the truth and in these he leads us not How can he learn poverty of spirit who hath no God but Mammon and knows no sin but poverty How can he be brought down to obedience and humility who with diotrephes in S. John loves to have preheminence and thinks himself nothing till he is taller than his fellowes by the head and shoulders how can he hearken to the truth who studies lies and doe we now wonder why we are not taught the truth where the Spirit keeps open school there is no wonder at all the reason why we are not taught is because we will not learn Ambition soars to the highest seat and the Spirit directs us to the ground to the lowest place the love of the world doth fill our barns and the Spirit points to the bellies of the poore as the better and safer garners my private factious humour tramples under foot obedience to superiours because I my self would be the highest and challenge that as my peculiar which I deny to others but this spirit prescribes order Doth Montanus lead about silly women and prophesy doth he call his dreames revelations Eusebius tells us that the Spirit which led him about was nothing else but an inseparable desire of precedency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. c. 21. Tert. coat Valent c. 4. Doth Valentinus number up his Aeones and as many crimes as gods Tertullian informes us that he hoped for a Bishoprick but fell from those hopes and was disappointed by one who was raised to that dignity by the prerogative of Martyrdome and his many sufferings for the truth Doth Arrius deny the divinity of the Son read Theodoret and he will shew you Alexander in the chaire before him Theod. l. 1. c. 2. Doth Aerius deny there is any difference between a Bishop and Presbyter the reason was he was denied himself and could not be one so that he fell from a Bishoprick as Lucifer did from Heaven whose first wish was to be God and whose next was that there were no God at all From hence these stirres and tumults in the Church of Christ from hence these storms and tempests which blow and beat in her face from hence these distractions and uncertainties in Christian Religion that it is a matter of some danger but to mention it which made Nazianzen in some passion as it may seem cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I would saith he Naz. Or. 20. there were no precedency no priority no dignities in the Church but that mens estimation did onely rise from vertue but now the right hand and the left the higher and the lower place these terms of difference have led men not into the truth but into that ditch where Errour mudds it self Caeca avaritia saith Maximus covetousness and ambition are blind and cannot look upon the truth though she be as manifest as the sun at noon and it fares with men in the lust of their eyes in the love of the world as it did with the man in Artemidorus who dreamt he had eyes of gold and the next day lost them had them both put out for now no smell is sweet but that of lucre no sight delightfull but of the wedge of gold and so by a strange kind of Chymistry they turn Religion into Gold and even by Scripture it self heap up Riches and so they lose their sight and judgement and savour not the things of God but are stark blind to that truth which should save them But now grant that they were indeed perswaded of the truth of that which they defend with so much noyse and tumult yet this may be but opinion and fancy which the love of the world will soon build up because it helps to nourish it and how can we think that the spirit did lead them in those wayes in which self love and desire of gaine did drive on so furiously for sure the spirit of truth cannot work in that building where such Sanballats laugh him to scorne Now all these are the very cords of vanity by which we are drawn from the truth and must be broken asunder before the spirit will lead us to it for he leads us not over the Mountaines nor through the bowells of the Earth nor through the numerous Atomes of our vaine and uncertaine and perplext imaginations but as the wisdome which he teacheth so is the method of his Discipline pure peaceable Jam. 3.17 and gentle without partiality without hypocrisie and hath no savour or relish of the Earth for he leads the pure he leads the peaceable he leads the humble In a word he leads those who are lovers of peace and truth Conclus And now to draw towards aconclusion will you know the wayes in which the Spirit walks and by which he leads us will you know the rules we must observe if we will be the Spirits Schollars I will be bold to give them you from one who was a great lover of truth even Galen the Physician I can but name them for the time will not suffer me to insist they are but four the first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a love of Truth the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a love of Industry a frequent meditation of the truth the third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an orderly and methodicall proceeding in the pursuit of Truth the last is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exercitation and our conformity to the truth in our conversation And this gold though it be brought from Ophir yet may it be usefull to adorn and beautifie those who are the living temples of the holy Ghost And first Love is a passion imprinted in us to this end to urge and carry us forward to the truth and it is the first of all the passions the first of all the operations of the soul the first mover as it were being a strong propension to that we love and which is fitted and proportioned to the mind seeking out the meanes and working forward with all the heat of intention unto the end eminent among the affections calling up my fear my hope my anger my sorrow my fear of not finding out yet in the midst of fear raising a hope to attain to it my sorrow that I find not so soon as I would and my anger at any thing that is averse or contrary at any cloud or difficulty that is placed between me and the truth The love of Christ saith S. Paul constraineth me 2 Cor. 5.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a resemblance taken from women in travell constraineth urgeth me worketh in me such a desire as the pain in travell doth in a woman to be dlivered for do we not labour and travell with a conclusion which we would find out and what joy is there when we have like that of a woman in travell when a man-child is brought into the world If you love me keep my commandement John 14.15 saith Christ if you love me not you cannot but if you love me you will certainly keep them Will you know the reason why the wayes of truth are so desolate why so little truth is known when all offers it self and is even importunate with us to receive it there can be no other reason given but this that our hearts are congealed our spirits frozen and we are coldly affected to the truth nay are averse and turn from it this truth crosseth our profit that our pleasure other truths stand in our light obstruct our passage to that we most desire S. Paul speaks plainly If the truth be hid it is hid to them that perish 2 Cor. 4.3,4 in whom the God of this world hath fo blinded their mind that the light of this truth should not shane upon them for if we have eyes to see her she is a fair object as visible as the Sun if we do but love the truth the spirit of truth is ready to take us by the hand and lead us to it but those that withdraw themselves doth his soul hate Now in the next place this love of truth brings in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a love of Industry for if we love it it will be alwayes in our thoughts and we shall meditate of it day and night for to love seven yeares are but a few dayes and great burdens are but small and labour is but pleasure and we walk in the region of truth viewing it and delighting in it gathering what may be for our use we walk in it as in a Paradise Truth is best bought when it costs us most and must be wooed oft and seriously and with great devotion as Pythagoras said of the gods Non est salutanda in transitu is not to be spoken with in the By and passage is not content with a glance and slutation and no more but we must behold it with care and anxiety we must make a kind of peregrination out of our selves and must run and sweat to meet it and then this spirit leads us to it And this great encouragement we have that in this our labour we never faile of the end we labour for which we cannot find in our other endeavours and attempts in which we have nothing to uphold us under those burdens which we lay upon our own shoulders but a deceitful hope which carries us along to see it self defeated the frustration whereof
quae deterior redditur That cannot be said to be restored which is returned worse then it was when it was first put into our hands and what can accrew to a soul by sacrifice by Ceremony by any outward formality if it receive no deeper impressions then these can make if we return it back to him with nothing but words and noise and shews in the posture of a bragging coward with his scarfs and ribbons and big words and glorious lyes with no better hatchments then these we return it far worse then we received it worse then it was when it was as a smooth unwritten table when it was such a soul qualem habent qui solam habent such a one which they have Tertull. de Testim anim who have it onely as other creatures have to keep them alive and in being and no more and better we had breathed it out when it was first breathed in then that we should thus keep and retain it and then return it with no better furniture no better endowed and filled then with shadows and lyes That which adornes and betters a soul and makes it fit to be returned must be as spirituall as it self Self-denyall Sincerity and Honesty love of mercy humility these are the riches and glories of a soul which must make it fit to be presented back again into the hands of its Creator For these for the advancement of these were all outward Ceremony and Formality ordained and without these sacrifice is an abomination and the Brownists calumny or rather blasphemy will be a truth our preaching will be but Preachments our time of preaching but disputing to an houre-glasse our Pulpits prescript places our solemn fasts but stage playes wherein one acts sinne another Judgment a third Repentance and a fourth the Gospel and the blessed Sacrament will be but as a two-peny-feasT Or which is worse our outward formality and busie diligence in those duties which require the least will but serve Contenebrare incesta as the Father speaks Tertull. Apol. to cast a mist and darknesse upon our impurities which may hide them from our own eyes whom it most concerns to see them and for a while from others who see the best of us which indeed is the worst of us because it makes us worse and worse whilest the evil they shadow and hide is in our very bowels and spreads it self and works on insensibly but most strongly and certainly to our ruine and then it appeares more ugly and deformed to his pure and all-seeing eye who never hates an oppressor more then when he sees him at the Altat and is most offended with that fraudulent man who is called Christian We read in the Historian when Nero had but set his foot into the temple of Vesta he fell into a fit of trembling facinorum recordatione saith Tacitus being shaken with the remembrance of his monstrous crimes for what should he do in the temple of Vesta who had defiled his own mother And how shall we dare to enter Gods courts unlesse we leave our sinnes behind us how dare we speak to a God of truth who defraud so many why should we fast from meat who make our brethren our meat and eat them up at that great day of separation of true and false worshippers when he shall bespeake those on his right hand Come ye llessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you The forme or reason is not for you have sacrificed often you have fasted often you have heard much you were frequent in the temple and yet these are holy duties but they are ordinata ad aliud they were ordained for those that follow and therefore are not mentioned but in them implyed For I was hungry and you gave me meat I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was naked and you clothed me sick and in prison and you visited me Then outward worship hath its glory and reward when it drawes the inward along with it then the sacrifice hath a sweet-smelling savour when a just and mercifull man offers it up when I sacrifice and obey heare and do pray and endeavour contemplate and practice fast and repent and thus we are made one fit to be lookt upon by him who is Onenesse it self not divided betwixt sacrifice and oppression a forme of godlinesse and an habituall course in sinne a dissembling with God and fighting against him betwixt an Hosanna and a Crucifige a professing Christ and Crucifing him In this unnity and conjunction every duty and virtue as the stars in the firmament have their severall glory and they make the Israelite the Christian a child of light but if we divide them or set up some few for all the easiest and those which are most attempered to the sence for those which fight against it and bring in them for the maine which by themselves are nothing if all must be sacrifice if all must be Ceremony and outward formality if this be the conclusion and summe of the whole matter If this be the body of our worship and Religion then instead of a blessing and an Euge we shall meet with a frown and a check and God will question us for appearing before him in strange apparell which he never put upon us question us for doing his command and tell us he never gave any such command because he gave it not to this end will he be pleased with burnt offerings with Ceremony and formality he asks the question with some indignation and therefore 't is plain he will not but loaths the sacrifice as he doth the oppressor and unclean person that brings it We see then that we may yet draw it neerer to us that there was good reason why God should thus disclaime his own ordinance because he made it for their sakes and to an end quite contrary to that to which the Jew carried it we see the Prophet might well set so low an esteeme upon so many thousand rams because Idolaters and oppressors and cruell blood-thirsty men offered them We see Sacrifice and all out ward Ceremony and formality are but as the garment or shadow of Religion which is turned into a disguise when she weares it not and is nothing is a delusion when it doth not follow her For oppression and sacriledge may put on the same garment and the greatest evil that is may cast Wuch a shadow He that hates God may sacrifice to him he that blasphemes him may praise him The hand that strips the poore may put fire to the incense and the feet that are so swift to shed bloud may carry us into the Temple When all is Ceremony all is vaine nay lighter then vanity for in this we doe not worship God but mock him give him the skin when he looks for the heart we give him shadows for substances and shews for realities and leaves for fruit and we mortifie our lusts and affections as Tragedians die upon the Stage and are the