being raised from the deep sleep of sin were turned from darkness to light from the power of Satan unto God. This Light of Life dispersed throughout the Gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ 't is the design of this little Tract to collect for instruction in the true Spirit and Genius of Christian Religion For since to be a Christian is to put on Christ i. e. to imitate him by copying out the Excellencies of his Spirit and Holiness of his Life it is necessary we should have the true Idea of his Mind and Spirit and the true Characters of his holy Conversation in intimate knowledge and constant remembrance as well as in highest veneration and love Our profession obliging us to walk as he walked and the efficacy of Example consisting much in being acted before our Eyes it is highly necessary that we look unto Jesus form to our selves such an exact Idea of his Life that seeing him as it were walking before us in every path of Vertue we may follow him more accurately treading in his steps In this consists the true study and use of the holy Gospels not in learning to make or defend Systems and Scheems of Orthodox Opinions but in receiving the light of Life or as the Apostle calls it in 1 Cor. 2.16 the mind of Christ i. e. the imbibing the true sense and tincture of his Heavenly Doctrine and partaking of his Spirit therein lively express'd that beholding as in a Glass the glory of the Lord we be changed into the same image from glory to glory by the spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 In order hereunto it must be ever remembred that Jesus was manifested to destroy the works of the Devil to rescue Religion from that depravation which was the dishonour of God and reproach of Man and to restore Men at once to Truth and Happiness The Mind therefore and Spirit of his Doctrine will be best conceived as opposite to those pernicious Errours which had depraved Religion debauched the Lives and enslaved the Spirits of Men which had brought them to become Vassals of Satan the Author and Abetter of such false Opinions and wicked Practices Christianity is to be considered as a supplement to natural Religion restoring it from depravation adding a new light authority and sanction to the truths and precepts thereof and by confirming what was doubtful through the ignorance and prejudices of Men clearing what was dark rectifying what was abused or mistaken reducing Men to the true knowledge of God and rendring them true Worshippers of him To this restauration of Religion and of Man it was necessary first to set them upon a firm basis and foundation by enlightning their darkness satisfying their doubts and helping their infirmity and then to prevent their falling again which they are extreamly prone to do into these pernicious conceits by which they had departed from God were captivated unto Satan and enslaved in his Kingdom of darkness In order to the first viz. the fixing Mens Minds upon a solid foundation by satisfying their important Doubts relieving their Ignorance and helping their Infirmity 't was necessary for the Saviour of the World 1. To reconcile God to Man by a propitiatory Sacrifice 2. To demonstrate the Immortality of the Soul the certainty of a future Life and Judgment 3. To reveal the object of Worship 4. To set a perfect Example of Life 5. To succour Men with supernatural Grace a strength Divine First A propitiatory Sacrifice and the most solemn Declaration that could be of God's being reconciled to returning Sinners was necessary to pacify Mens guilty Consciences to satisfy their diffident and doubtful minds to make an end of all that anxious busy and fruitless Religion of Expiations which could neither purge the Conscience nor improve the Man which by becoming the chief subject of religious solicitude jostled true Religion i. e. Wisdom and Goodness out of the World. Natural Religion knows no Sacrifice but Eucharistical 't is a service of Love and Gratitude but guilt is diffident and anxious sin begets dread of God as well as alienation from him and he that knows himself sadly in arrears to the Divine Justice and obnoxious to Almighty Anger must first be satisfied that that Justice and Anger appeas'd and God reconciled before he can be prevail'd with to love and thankfulness and holy imitation that is before he can be made to repent and return unto God. 2 Co. 5.19 Rom. 3.25 1 Jo. 4.10 God therefore was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself setting him forth a propitiation for the sins of it declaring himself reconciled and publishing an Act of Oblivion and Patents of Grace and Pardon ratified and seal'd with the bloud of that most inestimable Sacrifice By the most solemn sacred sensible and affectionate pledges of his love he hath assured us that he wills not the death of Sinners but his will is their return and happiness that he will communicate himself to his Creatures according to their capacity and that Repentance is a sure Capacity for his greatest Blessings but impenitence the only accursed thing that separates from God and that because it renders uncapable of those blessed streams which are ever flowing from the inexhaustable Fountain of Divine Goodness And as by the bloud of Jesus he hath pacified the Conscience of Sinners so by the revelation of his divine Mercy and Goodness by the Promise of the holy Spirit and of Eternal Life he hath revived their desponding Hearts he hath begotten them again to a lively hope that they may be filled with joy and peace in believing 1 Pet. 1.3 Rom. 15.13 and abound with hope through the power of the Holy Ghost that they may return with humble Confidence and chearful readiness to him who waits for that happy opportunity to shew them mercy and being reconciled to God by Faith and Repentance may be inseparably united unto him in love and hope and the participation of his holy Spirit Secondly To the Restauration of true Religion 't was fundamentally necessary to banish all doubtfulness about the immortality of the Soul and to render the future Life and Judgment indisputably certain Men lost with their Innocence their hope in God and the sense of those immortal Capacities the divine goodness had bestowed upon them They corrupted also that Tradition which should have supported their hope and forgot both what their Reason and their Fathers had told them from God concerning his design to make them Eternally happy And the Arguments of Philosophy were too fine and artificial to encounter the prejudices of Lust and jealousies of guilt and to perswade minds that knew very little of God or of themselves that rather dreaded the presence than desired the enjoyment of the Divinity and whose secular Religion taught them to look for no other rewards than the averting a misfortune or a plague or the procuring the comforts and emoluments of this Life Vt averteretur imminens ira vel
to be built upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Isid Osir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simpl. in Epictet c. 34. whether there were two first Principles the one of good the other of evil which was the most ancient and universal opinion as Plutarch tells us or whence else those lapses and errours of the humane Soul should proceed whence it was that the brutish part had enslaved the rational and the sensitive appetite broke loose from the governing power They knew not the head of this over-flowing Nile but found themselves involved in the Inundation whilst their understandings reasoned tolerably well of Vertue their inclinations engaged them powerfully in Vice So that either despairing of liberty they tamely yielded to the torrent of inclination and custom or else with great perplexity but little success strove against the mighty stream and in so great a streight as was natural look'd up to God Plutar. de superstit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is the hope of Vertue but not the Patron of Sloth and Cowardize Although they sometimes magnified humane nature yet experience of their own infirmity at other times extorted this confession from them that a divine impulse was necessary to make a Man truly great and good Nunquam vir magnus sine divino afflatu Cicero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag Aur. Carm. and that there is something divine in holy men that informs and guides them Which differs but little from that of St. John 1 Ep. c. 2.20 Ye have an unction from the holy one and know all things But the knowledge of their remedy was not equal to the sense and pressure of their Disease they could cry out with St. Paul Oh wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me but could not answer with him I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the Redeemer of the World who by a divine strength hath relieved the weakness of Man and by the law of the spirit of life Rom. 8.2 made them free from the law of sin and death The Sun of Righteousness just before his rising upon the benighted World had emitted some twilight Rayes into the darkness of it by raising up some eminent Philosophers Preachers of Righteousness to check the superstition and madness of the Priests and to scatter some rayes of knowledge among the people thereby to prepare the way to the Eternal Word who was to bring with him the treasures of divine Knowledge and Wisdom But when this glorious Sun was risen he not only shed a divine light but quickening heat and influence upon the benummed and frozen World. He revived the dead restored the languishing redeem'd the Captive and enabled Slaves to break off their Fetters Joh. 8.36 and those whom the Eternal Truth set at liberty were free indeed He plentifully poured out that Spirit that rested on himself even the Spirit of wisdom and understanding Isa 11.2 of counsel and might of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. By the miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost he awaken'd the stupid World and called them into his Church an unconquerable never-failing Principle of Eternal Righteousness By the abounding of this grace he hath provided Rom. 5.21 that as sin hath reigned unto death so righteousness may now reign unto Eternal Life The Gospel preached in the demonstration of the Spirit made a speedy and wonderful reformation in the understandings tempers and lives of Men and yielded a most powerful conviction that God was both able and willing to restore his lost Image in them And all the treasures of this divine Spirit are promised to those that humbly ask and are willing to receive them The Conscience therefore awakened by the light of Truth is no longer amazed or distracted but confiding in the divine aids and strengthened with his Heavenly Grace pursues its conflict with the Flesh to a compleat Victory Every good motion is from the same Spirit of Truth and Grace which hath made such admirable Conquests over Ignorance and Lust and he that hath the same Principle in himself can't but have a good hope of the same blessed Fruits The Soul that feels a divine strength cannot but expect from the same Fountain a constant supply and thus united to God in the same design of restoring his Image and animated with the holy Spirit can't fail to master all opposition for greater is he that is in us than he that is in the World. This therefore is the Foundation on which Christs Kingdom of Righteousness and Grace is built viz. Faith establishing the heart by a full and certain perswasion of these Fundamental Points viz. That God is Reconciled and Pardon and gracious acceptance sure to returning Sinners That a future Judgment and Eternal Life and consequently the difference of moral good and evil are indisputably certain and unquestionable realities That there is but one God the Creator of all things and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the only object of worship and Fountain of Blessing whom we must glorify in and worship through as he blesseth us by the Eternal Word and Spirit That the true service of God consists in the imitation of him of which the Life of Jesus is our Pattern that such Holiness is indispensibly necessary certainly practicable and can never fail of the divine acceptance That the corruption of nature and the power of inclination and custom are infallibly conquerable by the grace of God and God most ready to prevent and follow us with his grace and that he will never fail to assist and prosper our endeavours till they are crowned with Everlasting Success This is the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon these fundamentals of religious Belief must the Superstructure of Holiness and Happiness be raised and built Now Christians even of the meanest Capacities believing Jesus to be the Son of God and receiving that account the Evangelists give of him have thereby most evident demonstration lively perswasion and certain knowledge of these fundamental truths such as the most learned Philosophers could not attain unto and the generality of the World were extreamly far from This Foundation being laid sure God having made Faith of these truths to all men in a most easy and certain way and most powerfully and solemnly attested them by the miraculous effusion and demonstration of the Spirit that which remains for restoring Religion and Man for perfecting the Kingdom of Christ is to build upon this holy Faith the true Image of God and Spirit of Holiness to pluck up those prejudices that debauched Mens minds the Sources and Tap-roots of false Religion and to inculcate those truths which contain the true Spirit and Genius of pure and undefil'd Religion With this design the Doctrine and Life of Jesus travail viz. to introduce amongst his Followers that excellency of Spirit that was in himself which is the true Image of God the glory and the perfection of Man. And as this spirit
against the most pernicious errours and restoring true Religion as they are contain'd in the Sermons and occasional Discourses of Jesus recorded by the Evangelists and by considering how Jesus inculcated and abetted this holy truth as a pattern to us how we should hold and profess and propugne such his Doctrine Secondly By exhibiting the true spirit and genius of the Christian Life and Practice collected from the Example of Jesus And that first By drawing the great lines of his Life as the admirabâ—â— pattern of ours Secondly By appâ—ying the light of this Example for oâ—r Instruction in the necessity nature extent and excellency of true holiness Thirdly By shewing what obligation and encouragement the Life of Christ contains to render us followers of him concluding with an Exhortation to that purpose THE PATTERN Of Pure and Undefiled RELIGION CHAP. I. Containing the Principles of Christian Doctrine JEsus being a Teacher sent from God Sect. 1 to restore true Religion levell'd his Doctrine principally against those Errours contrary thereunto which yet Mankind was very prone to fall into and inculcated those prime and fundamental truths which make up the genuine Spirit constitute the Essence and are as it were the Informing Soul of true and undefil'd Religion As First Concerning the Nature and Government of God. He that lay in the bosome of the father Joh. 1.18 hath reveal'd him to us Whom Men rather conceived of as a powerful than as a good Being a God of wrath and the object of their dread rather than a God of perfect Wisdom and Goodness the object of their love and holy imitation One whom they might possibly appease by Gifts and atone by servile performances little apprehending in the mean while that He was most easy to reconcile and forward to do them good and sufficiently pleased if they were but willing to be made happy by him This was the degenerate and mis-shapen notion of God that inform'd the Religion of the World and render'd it servile superstitious unsavoury and uncomfortable As for the Jews God was their King and they consider'd him as the Lord of their Hosts dreading his Power and limiting his goodness Whilst they reverenc'd his Sanctuary hallow'd his Sabbaths and paid his tyth and oblations they were safe under his Almighty Protection and to them possibly he might make some allowance and bear with the transgressions of his peculiar people but the Nations of the World they look'd upon as the people of his Wrath and either devoted to destruction or not regarded by him who whatever goodness he had in his nature had appropriated that to the Jews only Jesus therefore who hath shew'd us plainly of the Father inculcates worthy apprehensions of God teaching us to conceive of him as the Father of Mercies as kind to the unthankful and freely good towards all and that Universal Love the most generous and fervent Charity the most tender Bowels of Pity these are his true Image and make us like God the children of our Father which is in Heaven Math. 5.44 He therefore tells the Jews that God loved not them only but the whole World and that to such degree as he sent his only Son into it for the Salvation of all that should become willing to be saved by him Joh. 3.16 That He came to seek and save that which was lost and that Repentance and remission of Sins should be preach'd in his Name to All People without exception Luk. 24.47 that God is gracious and reconcileable in his nature and that there is Joy in Heaven at the conversion of a sinner Luk. 15.7 10. In a word the true notion of God is that he is indeed to be Reverenc'd for his excellent Greatness but that he is especially to be loved for his Goodness as being the excellent pattern of all that is good and original of all perfection whom to know is Life Eternal to be like him is to be as perfect as we are capable and to see God our supream felicity and that Vision is the portion of his Children that strive to imitate the Being they Adore and Love that Copy out his Purity his Righteousness and Mercy they shall be blessed for they shall see God Mat. 5. such are the excellent notions of God which the Doctrine of Christ inspires banishing those narrow and stingy mean and servile conceptions of him that had infected the minds and vitiated the Religion of Jews and Gentiles and which Mankind are exceeding prone to fall into Secondly Jesus in his preaching Sect. 2 did especially inculcate the truth of divine Worship with what things God is pleas'd and what is the Worship and Homage he requires of us dispelling the gross Ignorance and dangerous Errours both of the Jews and Gentiles God he tells them is a Spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and truth with the Mind and Soul without shadows and ceremonies Joh. 4.23 as he will not be honour'd with Images so he little regardeth any external performances That he values neither place nor time but every where and at all times he will have Men call upon him holding up pure hands with sincere and fervent minds That he preferreth Mercy to Sacrifice and is only glorify'd by our being fruitful in good works Joh. 15.8 that the Gentile Image-worship was abominable and the Jews Ceremonies trifles and the Pharisaick superstition intolerable with God. To turn Religion into noise and shew to place it in Fringes and Phylacteries in distinguishing opinions or unprofitable speculations in regard to Altars and Shrines to difference of meats and days and such like Traditions of Men this was an offence and scandal that moved the Spirit the meek and gentle Jesus and made him reprove sharply and lash severely the abetters of it Math. 23. Especially they having advanced these trifles and superstitions into the place of Justice Mercy and Faith and the greater things of the Law and made void the Commandments of God through their traditions There is nothing our Saviour tells us entring into the Man that can defile him in the estimate of God but the evil things that proceed out of the heart these defile the man Mark 7.18 nor can any thing on the other hand avail him but what proceeds from a mind full of God and is a genuine fruit of the true knowledge of him That true Religion and true Happiness its natural issue consist in and are the results of a due temper of mind the poor in spirit the penitent Mourners the meek Math. 5.3 c. the merciful the pure and peaceable these are the true Worshippers and truly happy Men. That God needeth not our Prayers to inform him of our wants or to move his pity nor are we heard the sooner for our much speaking but that our due apprehensions concerning God and humble confidence in him fervent application of our Soul towards him and a ready obsequiousness to his Will these render us capable of his Blessings and secure them to us
When our hearts are full of the sense of his power and goodness and our Prayers oblige us to honour him in our Lives when we forgive others as heartily as we desire God to forgive us and pray to our Father in secret with a full trust to be heard and approved by him then we worship him aright and shall be the better for such our serving God though he that is infinitely perfect needs not our Service nor can be profited by us Matth. 6. Jesus instructs us therefore to make our Prayers short and grave fervent and apt to excite Devotion after the Pattern he taught his Disciples Mat. 6.9 And that we pray continually and importunately for those things the desire whereof doth greatly exalt and improve our Spirits Luk. 11.1 13. thus did this great Instructer call Men back to the true worship of God admonishing that they no longer should trust in Sacrifices and oblations in pompous Rites and ceremonious Addresses or any thing of that nature but worship God in Spirit and Truth and be followers of him as dear Children and then they might rely upon it that their Heavenly Father both knows their needs and will most readily succour them in all their distress and bestow upon them all his goods Thirdly Another main Principle Sect. 3 of true Religion taught by the holy Jesus concerns the true motive reason and end of our duty and obedience in which Mankind had grosly misconceiv'd and mistaken and such mistake is most fatal and pernicious to Religion and to that satisfaction and happiness that should be attain'd by it The Pagans ploy'd their Altars and practised their Religion to avert a Pestilence or Famine to obtain the Commodities of Life The Jews would not serve God for nought but were encouraged to expect affluence and prosperity as the reward of their Obedience The wicked Pharisees had prevaricated to the utmost and presumed they might satisfy for Injustice and Oppression by a strict observation of the Ceremonies of the Law and Traditions of the Elders The people generally expected from Christ secular Immunities and Priviledges they followed him for the Loaves Their Fathers they tell him did eat Manna were wonderfully fed and protected in the Wilderness and planted at length in a land flowing with Milk and Honey but what sign shewest thou Joh. 6.30 31. Upon which and all apt occasions Jesus instructs them in the true reasons motives and ends of obedience to God telling them that to make Religion a Cloak to secular designs is to prostitute and profane it and to procure to themselves an inevitable and great damnation Matth. 23.14 That they should not seek any longer the meat which perisheth but that which endureth to eternal Life Joh. 6.27 That his Kingdom was not of this World nor did he promise his Followers extraordinary immunities in it but rather it would frequently so happen that they should be hated reviled and persecuted for their adherence to him There is indeed a true and great felicity the natural result and inseparable consequent of the righteousness taught by Christ but then poverty of Spirit and contempt of the world are parts of that Righteousness and Ingredients of that Blessedness and being revil'd disgraced afflicted and persecuted Math. 5. Mark 7.34 are well enough consistent with it Blessed are they that suffer for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven and their reward shall be great in Heaven That his Disciples must take up the Cross and no Man can be his Disciple that is not resolved to part with all for his sake Luk. 14.33 and the hundred fold restitution that he promiseth is such as consists with persecution Mar. 10.30 That therefore his Disciples ought not to have the interests of this World in mighty Reckoning nor value themselves upon any thing besides their interest in the future and better Life Nay even those miraculous gifts they were endowed withal far exceeding all the gifts of Nature or of Fortune yet were not a sufficient foundation for any great complacency or rejoycing in themselves Luke 10.20 Rejoice not in this that the spirits are subject to you but rather rejoice because your names are written in Heaven His Promise to his Followers is that he will Raise them up at the last day that where he is they shall be also that they shall have a beatifical Vision of God in Life Everlasting that in the mean while they shall bâ— the Children of God and have the lively hope of his Favour the Conscience of their own Integrity the feeling of a happy temper and excellent state of mind and the consolations of the Holy Spirit for their support and encouragement Upon these motives and from the principles of equity and ingenuity love and gratitude to God and a desire of being like him and of attaining that perfection they are capable of he wills them to practise all Righteousness he recommends their duty to them And this is it which constitutes the Spirit and Soul of Christian Righteousness and gives the true stamp and complexion to all our Obedience viz. that it being founded in a right knowledge of God cherished by a holy Acquaintance with him expressed in those things that are Worthy of him making a due difference between the greater and lesser matters of the law be acted from love and gratitude from a conviction of the excellency of Holiness and with delight in it from the hope and desire of Eternal Life and a full perswasion of the necessity of holiness to perfect our nature and make us capable of seeing God and meet to enjoy him This is the Truth as Jesus taught it which he that heartily imbibes and suitably expresseth in his Life he is a Christian a Disciple indeed and shall receive the end of his Faith the Salvation of his Soul. Lastly The Doctrine of Jesus hath Sect. 4 also given Light to the Measure of Righteousness and extent of our duty with respect to some allowances made to the Jews or such things as God winked at in former times of Ignorance For we are assured by him that unless our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees we shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of God Math. 5.20 That not only murther and maiming but hatred and revenge yea causeless and immoderate anger will certainly expose us to the judgment of God. That ineffectual Lust makes us guilty before him as well as actual Adultery That the occasions of evil must be avoided and the first motions of Lust repelled or we perish by our indulgence fondness and softness as well as by accomplish'd wickedness That although God tolerated the hard-hearted Jews and winked at the ignorant Gentiles in the matter of Polygamy and Divorce yet from the beginning it was not so nor should be for the future among the Disciples of Jesus That trivial and common swearing makes guilty as well as Perjury but such truth and faithfulness ought to be amongst Christians
obtains so his Kingdom comes with effect and when it shall rest universally upon his Followers then shall come salvation and strength the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ Rev. 12.10 c. 11.15 for the Kingdoms of the World shall become his and he shall reign for ever and ever This is the Summ and Accomplishment of all these glorious Prophecies concerning the Kingdom of the Messiah That the Knowledge of the Lord shall fill the Earth as the Waters cover the sea Isa 11.4 The plentiful effusion of this spirit upon the primitive Christians made them hope for the speedy accomplishment of these Predictions and speak of the perfection of Christ's Kingdom as near at hand But so great a Reformation was a work of time and Christ had foretold not only a failing of the spirit of Christianity but a reviving of the Kingdom of darkness an Apostasie from the Faith such a return of the ejected prejudices and depravation of Religion as should undermine the very Foundations 1 Tim. 4.1 c. and subject men again to the ignorant infidelity anxious Superstition abominable Idolatry and foolish Lusts of the benighted Pagans But that himself in due time will again set up his Kingdom and restore to his Followers 2 Tim. 1.7 the spirit of power of love and a sound mind make truth righteousness and peace to reign and so break the Empire of Satan that he shall never be able to erect it more In the mean while he hath left with us his Heavenly Doctrine and holy Life as an Antidote against those delusions which are the passages to and the very Sinews and Strength of Satan's Kingdom whether Pagan or Antichristian and powerfully to inculcate the contrary truths which constitute the genuine Spirit of Christianity building men up into the Image of God and into the Glorious Kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ First Sensuality and the Love of Sin is the inlet of errour the root and sap of false Religion but Purity and the Love of Righteousness inculcated in the Doctrine and Life of Jesus is the Friend of Truth and Wisdom and the way to be filled with the knowledge of God. They who love their Lusts cannot love the truth that is contrary to them nor endure the light that discovers their vile deformities An impure mind is unmeet to receive the knowledge of a pure and holy God and a guilty mind cannot bear it The effect of such knowledge upon impure spirits is dread and that quickly converts into Superstition For a guilty Conscience like a drowning man that catches hold of every twig embraces every expedient offered to compound with an offended God and will do any thing to please save only the rendring that holy obedience that he requires of him If atonement may be made by Sacrifice the Altars shall flame and smoke continually their Flocks and Herds be all devoted they will make if possible Rivers of Oyl to run from the Sacrifices yea they will not spare their own Bowels but give the fruit of their body Mich. 6.6 an expiation for the sin of their Soul. They will not fail to build Temples and adorn Shrines nor to visit them devoutly nor think much of a costly and painful devotion if they may have but hope to fatisfy God for the arrears they are in to his Justice And when they have labour'd it hard they begin to hope it may do and that God will surely be pleas'd that they have done so much to gain his favour 2 Thess 2.11 And just it is with God to send them strong delusion and give them over to the belief of lies who loved not the truth nor were obedient to it But the Spirit of Obedience is the Spirit of Children to be followers of God makes us dear to him and the doers of his will shall know the Doctrine this is the Lesson which Christ inculcates A pure mind hath a lively perception of truth is very apprehensive of Errours dishonourable to God and that deface his Image and such purity it is that the Doctrine and Life of Jesus travel to produce all Knowledge is of no further value than as ministring to proceeding from or accompanied with it All the Sacrifices of the wicked are declared an abomination but the delight of God is in those that love him and do his Commandments for they shall be loved of God he will manifest himself unto Joh. 14.21 22 23. and make his abode with them Secondly Sense and Imagination Fondness for external shew and pomp is the way of Superstition and false Religion but the love of spiritual worship and a rational service is the spirit of Christ and that way of his Kingdom God is a Spirit and chiefly to be worshipped with ours And although so long as we are cloathed with Flesh our Religion must have a Body as well as Soul yet by an uninstructed fondness for the Bodily part Men have ever departed from God into dotage and superstition and rendred themselves a prey to the powers of darkness This is the mistake of the vulgar especially or of Souls as mean and unimproved as theirs though hang'd with better trappings By this fondness for representation pomp and solemnity the Patriarchal Rites which were few and grave grew up at length into a theatrical and magnificent Religion that required a great Ministry and a huge body of Rubricks for the exact performance of it For now the height and magnitude and shape of the Altar the number of its steps and horns and innumerable things of like sort entred into Religion and exercised the servile Superstition of the Worshipper At this door came in Images with all their train of Foppish and Idolatrous Ceremonies and became stumbling blocks to the souls of men and snares to the feet of the unwise the singular diligence of the Artificer helping forward the ignorant to more superstition This devising of Idols was the beginning of spiritual Fornication the invention of them the corruption of life Wisd 14. The proneness of the Jews to revolt unto the way of the Heathen the fondness of those that became Christians for their old Rites whether of Paganism or Judaism the great multitude of these early obtaining in the Christian Church together with the necessity that the Apostles and first Reformers found of indulging for a time the accustomed Rites and Ceremonies these are convincing demonstrations of the power of this Childish fondness for somewhat sensible and pompous in Religion and of the danger of falling into false Religion by multiplying Rites to the subverting of spiritual worship or laying the stress of Religion on such bodily service But Christianity teacheth a spiritual worship and rational service viz. that of the Mind illuminated with true Knowledge and quickned with a lively sense of God and referring all unto him And the very bodily part is either the spiritual Sacrifice of Prayer and Praise or the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments
for spiritual ends and purposes for the help of Faith Devotion and Resolution and the more effectual uniting the heart unto God in fervent love in thankful and dutiful affection Rom. 14.17 The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost for he that in these things serveth Christ is accepted of God and approved of men But he that has a mighty opinion of bodily labour that values a Ceremony before a Vertue his opinion about a Rite before Charity or Peace that acts his fancy more than his understanding is more nice and curious about the bodily than the spiritual part of worship such an one is departed from the genuine spirit of Christianity entred in at the gate of Superstition in danger of all the extravagance and dotage thereof and thereby of Apostatizing into the Kingdom of darkness Thirdly 2 Tim. 1.7 A dark and servile dread of God is the temper and spirit of false Religion but the Spirit of Christianity is light and love and a sound mind When Men become alienated from God by wicked works and serve him chiefly with their vain imaginations then they lose the true and amiable notion of him they consider him only as terrible and dreadful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarc de superst who is the supream good and only happiness of his creatures They conceive of him altogether as arbitrary power who is Eternal mind and wisdom and the glory and perfection of whose nature it is that as he can do whatever he will so he can will nothing but what is wise and good The Dreams of such dark and timorous minds are very frightful wild and extravagant they worship the Idol of their own brains express their own ill nature and disturbed imaginations in that worship which should be a confession of the excellency and perfection of the Deity Hence Men came to place Religion in solemn darkness in cloud and mystery venerable because hidden or unintelligible Rites obscure Oracles sacred Paradoxes and Arks and Clefts full of divine and wonderful secrets of which the Priest and the Devil taking advantage made themselves absolute Masters of the belief and reverence of the people and by these of their Estates and Fortunes But this is the Message which we have heard of Christ 1 Joh. 1.5 that God is light and in him is no darkness at all That the Principles of his Service are Knowledge and Love and he regards not the Religion of those that worship they know not what nor why That we direct our Service and Obedience by what we clearly know of him and that the more we know the better we shall please him who will not be served with a blind submission nor with unintelligible mysteries but with our best understanding not with a servile Flattery and Court-like Address by many Intercessors with a ritual niceness or a pompous Pageantry or any such devices of ignorant and superstitious Minds but with purity of Heart and Life with a spirit of Love and of a sound Mind not with Terrour and Melancholy but with Hope and Alliance not with scruple and perplexity but generous Resolution not as an Arbitrary Tyrant but as a wise and loving Father Fourthly The Devil is the God of this World and the Spirit of errour is an earthly and secular one but the Kingdom of Christ is Heavenly and such is the spirit and genius of his Religion The love of the World and an inordinate estimate of the goods thereof was ever a mighty source of Superstition and Pillar of Satan's Empire With such Worldly-minded Men Interest is always more ponderous than Truth and that Religion best that most effectually provides for their temporal concerns To such secular Spirits 't was a very agreeable conceit to imagine that every business of theirs was under the especial care of some Patron Deity whose Rites if they carefully performed their affairs should succeed according to their wish The multitude of such Tutelar Gods for Cities Families and particular affairs the superstitious regard to Oracles and Prodigies the observation of times and all the Arts of divination and augury which made up the Pagan Superstition plainly shew the spirit of its Votaries viz. that their hopes and fortunes were Embarqued in this World and that they regarded the good and evil thereof as the sole reward of their labour or punishment of their negligence in Religion This principle the Idolatrous Jews plainly avowed to the Prophets Head when he expostulated with them concerning their sorsaking of God Jer. 44.17 that they would burn Incense to and serve the Queen of Heaven as their Fathers had done to good purpose for then they had plenty and saw no evil whereas since they had left off their service all things had gone to ruin Nor was this a vulgar conceit but the best defence the greatest Men among the Pagans could make for the worship of those many Lords Caecilius in Minut. Felic Orig. c. Cels l. 8. Jul. Ep. 51. that by their singular care the good things of life are distributed to men so Caecilius Celsus and the Emperour Julian defend the Cause of Daemon-worship It is also a mighty temptation unto Men to imagine that God must needs love such Riches Magnificence and Glory in his Service as they find themselves to be extreamly delighted withal that the long flourishing of a Religion is a demonstration of the truth of it and the misfortune and calamity of Men an argument against their way of serving God. Thus they are apt to conclude who mind Earthly things and over-rate the concerns of this Life and judge every petit affair thereof worthy of a divine decision But Christianity teacheth us to consider our selves as Strangers and Pilgrims here whose estate and interest doth not lye in sublunary things but in spiritual Promises and Immortal Hopes We are Citizens of Heaven and only travelling through this World thither Upon this our Heavenly Relation and Interest only we may value our selves and ought to love our Religion because it secures these to us and designs the improvement of our Spirits for the eternal Vision and Enjoyment of God. We are instructed therefore to have our affections very moderate and cool towards Earthly things but warm and tender towards Heavenly Objects This is the finishing Lesson and most excellent effect of the Christian Religion which is a Heavenly Philosophy and to make it truckle to the affairs of this Life or turn it into Maxims of secular Policy is the greatest abuse and subversion thereof Lastly The spirit and genius of false Religion is selfish narrow and stingy but that of Christianity Charitable and generous and large as the Kingdom and goodness of God. Superstition converts Religion into a private Commerce imagining God to gain by the service done him and expecting the return of that service only in personal and private Blessings And no wonder if they who conceive God to seek himself
in the homage he exacts from his Creatures imitate the Deity they worship and centre in themselves in every thing they do or that they who serve an arbitrary Deity should expect to oblige and render him partial to their interest by the multitude of their services Hence arose the conceit that the divine favour and beneficence might be monopolized by certain persons was appropriated to particular places or annexed to the performance of peculiar Rites and happy they that had the secret of that Monopoly the mystery of engrossing the divine protection and care Hence every Family had its tutelar Gods and singular Rites and they changed the Shrine the Rite or the place when any ill success defeated their expectation Fugiuntque penates quisque suos sua cuique domus funesta videtur quia causa latet locus est in crimine notus Ovid. Met. l. 7. So Balaak repeated the Sacrifice and shifted the place in hopes at last to make the God he supplicated favourable to his request Numb 23.13 He said unto Balaam Come I pray thee with me unto another place and Curse me them from thence So the Syrians having fought unsuccessfully with the Israelites upon the Hills resolve to change the place and to have recourse to the Gods of the Vallies in hopes of better success 1 Kings 20.23 Their Gods are Gods of the Hills therefore they were stronger than we but let us fight against them in the plain and surely we shall be stronger than they Hence such who found by success that their interest in their Gods was great boasted this reward of their Superstition and trampled upon such who seem'd neglected of the Deity or greatly fallen from his favour and protection Whom God had forsaken either for their neglects of his service or for the arbitrariness of his own will casting them out of his protection they look'd upon as abandoned to neglect and contempt and cruel treatments If kindness were due to any it was only to those whom God distinguished by his Favours or who served him in the same manner with themselves and that kindness too was arbitrary and precarious as well as partial and ever gave place to the efforts of a narrow stingy and selfish Spirit Hence also the Spirit of Persecution became an ingredient of false Religion the Friends and Favourites of God as they thought themselves conceited they did him service in destroying his Enemies or at least that they had right to use as they pleased to crush and ruin those despicable Wretches who were reprobated and out-law'd and fallen from the protection and care of Heaven But Christianity teacheth us to serve God not as if he needed such service but for the reasonableness and excellency thereof because his service is perfect freedom and true Religion the perfection of Man. It teacheth us to seek our improvement and happiness in subjection to those laws of God which are the transcript of his most perfect and blessed nature and are design'd for the perfecting and felicitating ours and contains in them the true Elements the certain principles and necessary means of such felicity It teacheth us to consider God not as a respecter of persons but as God both of the Jews and Gentiles the universal Father of the whole Family of Heaven and Earth governing by the eternal measures of Wisdom and Goodness and by Laws that respect and provide for the welfare of the whole As the inexhaustible Fountain of Goodness ever communicating himself to all his Creatures according to their Capacities and requiring only such service as capacitates for the enjoyment of him It directeth us to seek the glory of God not in the triumphs of his Arbitrary Power but in the consummate effects of his infinite wisdom and goodness the perfection of his works and especially of that grace he hath bestowed on Men in the most perfect communication of himself to them which is life and happiness everlasting And as our God so our Religion is love Charity is the summ and substance of it generous goodness the most courteous gentleness the most perfect humanity the truest greatness of Mind and largeness of Heart are the genuine and excellent fruits thereof It obligeth us to consider our selves but as stones in the great building of God disposed by the wisdom of the Almighty Architect with regard to the whole Fabrick and that we become useless and insignificant by centring in our selves and minding only our own things without respect had to the common interest Rom. 12.3 4 5. Just as the members of the body are beautiful in conjunction and considerable in their operations conspiring to the common welfare for the Eye doth not see for it self but looks out for the whole Body and the hand is useless whilst it grasps to it self but its ministrations to the Body are necessary and excellent It obligeth us to account all the gifts of God as designed to render us useful to others not to make us glad and full of our selves In short the whole oeconomy of the Gospel travels with this design to better the Societies of Men and perfect the Communion of Saints to edify the Body of Christ in the Spirit of Love ruling in all its Members to render Believers of one Heart and one Soul as their God their Faith and their Hope their Profession Business and Interest are one that they may be one as the Father and his Son Jesus Christ by a Communication of the same excellent nature and communion in the same divine riches and treasures And the Christian thus instructed values himself and expects his approbation from God not by his enjoyments but by his usefulness not by the number of his talents but by the improvement he makes of them This is the true spirit of Christ's Religion and excellent proceed of his Kingdom the true Members whereof being by a right and lively Faith fixed upon a solid Foundation firmly perswaded of the mercy of God and of Eternal Life of the necessity of Holiness and the efficacy of the divine Assistance are built upon this Faith into a most excellent temper inform'd and govern'd by the spirit of sincerity and purity delighting in the spiritual worship of God united to him in filial trust and affection placing their Happiness and seeking their Interest not in the things of this World but those of a better pursuing them with tender and warm affections having their spirits enlarged by the knowledge of God and fill'd with generous goodness in imitation of the divine beneficence do seek their own felicity in the perfection and consummation of the Kingdom of God. For the effecting hereof Christ hath left with us the Record of his Doctrine and Life that we beholding therein the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 may be changed into the same Image from glory to glory by the spirit of the Lord. To minister hereunto is this Tract designed First By exhibiting the true Principles of Christian Doctrine levelled
those better things we abstain from all that use and injoyment not only which makes an Inroad upon Justice or Charity but from that too which deadeneth and palls our taste for Spiritual things and abates our delight in them Such pleasures as make the mind soft and feeble and trifling and leave a fondness for and awaken our passions towards this World but cool and trash us in our desires and pursuits of a better Moreover that we not only be chearful and contented in every lot but that we daily contract our desires and Appetites and have our minds more free from importune and violent longings And then as the consummation of the habit that the sense of carnal and secular delights be swallowed up in the brighter and more gustful pleasures of Virtue and Holiness When we are crucified to the World and almost wholly indifferent as to the delights of it when we neither doat nor long nor fret nor envy nor yet swell with hope or seem ravished with injoyment but rather think meanly of all the entertainments of this World as having nothing agreeable to our Heavenly Mind nor worthy of a passionate regard To this consummate State we must be daily pressing forward and judge of our safety by our approach to it viz. as the sense of Worldly delights cooleth and that of Heavenly ones grows and swells Fourthly In the Life of Christ we Sect. 4 have an admirable Pattern of an Invincible Fortitude of a Mind as much above the terrours of sense as the delights of it that could no more be broken by the troubles and misfortunes of Life than soften'd by the injoyments and pleasures thereof He is become an Example to us how to maintain our Resolution and Integrity and to keep a due decorum in the midst of great sufferings or great fears and not to be vanquish'd by the frowns of the World any more than by the blandishments and allurements of it For Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs he drank deep of the Cup of Afflictions being assaulted on every side afflicted by God and persecuted by Men and pursued by the utmost art and malice of Devils He suffered contempt and contumely and the blasphemous contradictions of Sinners their insolent mockeries and barbarous insults and triumphs over him as baffled and conquer'd Save thy self thou King of Israel and come down from the Cross and we will believe on thee Luk. 23.37 and when he was not in their hands yet he had always reason to apprehend their malice and to fear their power His condition was mean and friendless and his Adversaries potent such as had persecuted former Prophets and openly declared their hatred of him such as had the Government in their hands and had used it against him by decreeing to Excommunicate those that should own him But in the midst of these his frequent Sufferings and continual fears he maintain'd a firm Resolution and a venerable decorum and left us an Example that we should tread in his steps He was neither fearless of evil nor stupidly insensible under it When his Passion drew nigh his Soul was troubled and sore amazed heavy and exceeding sorrowful Matth. 26.38 Though he refused not the Cup yet he pray'd if possible it might be removed Matth. 26.29 He resented the Hypocrisy the Ingratitude and Cruelty of his Enemies Many good works have I done for which of these do ye stone me Joh. 10.32 He did not dare and provoke their rage but prudently avoided it whilst innocently he might do so But he did not so fear the power of his Adversaries as to omit his duty or to do any evil thing for the avoidance of it He resolutely professed and taught the truth which they were not able to bear He encountred the errours and prejudices of the Age and reproved the Vices of it He did not sooth or flatter any party of Men but dealt plainly and spake freely and lanced smartly the ulcerated Hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees that were the most potent and popular Faction He would not shrink from the truth nor mince the matter though they heard him with malice in their hearts and stones in their hands Joh. 10.31 He would venture again among them to raise Lazarus from the dead though they had so lately sought to stone him Joh. 11.8 He would go up to the Passover according to the Law though he fall thereby into the hands of the Chief Priests who will be sure to Sacrifice him to their rage When he was overtaken with evil he did not struggle and complain he was not over-born and sunk with it he indured all their taunts and reproaches without being discouraged and when he was reviled he answer'd not And he suffer'd with undaunted Courage and resolution and unbroken Patience a violent shameful and cruel Death Nor was it lowness of Spirit that made him silent for he was not afraid to confess the truth to the last But his Mind was exalted above the impression of evil by divine consideration Faith in God and reverence of his Government He knew the power they had against him was from Heaven Joh. 19.11 and he acquiesced in the equity and goodness of the divine determination and disposal Hence he maintain'd his Empire over the Passions free from the disquietude of anxious Fear or the torment of ouragious Anger the smart of peevish Impatience or the sinking load of melancholy despair He possessed his Soul in Patience steady in the greatest change of condition as one that expected it that was not mightily concern'd at it that consider'd chiefly how he might adorn every Lot and honour the supream disposer of it From whose great Example we learn not foolishly and imprudently to provoke Enemies or to throw our selves into their hands or bring our selves into a state of suffering but that we chearfully take up the Cross when God lays it in our way so as we cannot with a safe Conscience step over or beside it We learn too to consider the state we are in and not to flatter our selves with a constant immunity from the afflictions of it to expect as Jesus did the hour and the assaults of the powers of darkness At least always to remember that there is nothing unchangeable but God nor constant but his favour That we ever mix with the considerations of this state our lively hopes of a better for then only will these momentany afflictions seem light and short when the massy Crown of eternal glory is put into the counter-ballance That we learn to value our selves altogether upon our interest in God and in the World to come that so we may neither inordinately fear nor resent the loss of such things as leave our greatest concern and interest intire untouch'd and secure to us That we may then rejoice in our better portion and be thankful to the donor of it when he cuts us short in the possessions and interests of this Life Yea that we rejoice