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
manifested to the World or the reason of men have lawfully and by good consequence concluded to be most excellent and glorious in themselves He must be endow'd therefore with all knowledge power goodness impassibility justice truth mercy faithfulness and the like with self existency and eternity crowning and adding an ornament to the whole To this God then under such glorious notions adorned with such transcendent Attributes and all possible perfections imaginable To this King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only Wise God we are to give all honour and glory adoring those Attributs of which we are transcribing the Copy as far as frail humane nature will permit and by which only we can declare his essence To this transcendent Being we ought to pray without pretending to form an Idea or similitude of his living substance which we cannot make any likeness of nor frame a due Image of his being without notions attending that are unworthy of him and such accidents as would be blemishes and imperfections at once leading us into impiety and a snare And to such a Being when we have once setled a notion of him before we enter upon our devotions to him we may address our lawful petitions and direct all the intentions of our minds without framing any similitude and worship him who is and was the Maker of all things sustains the Creation by his Almighty power and influences the whole by his daily providence Who as I believe cannot be drawn otherwise by the most accurate judgment the most towering phancy or sublimest and most retired contemplation because he is invisible To this universal Being who is the cause and parent of all others if we thus direct suitable petitions we shall worship God in spirit and in truth and the Father seeketh such to worship him John 4. 23. And thus I have done with the first part of the manner of our address in relation to the intention of our minds I proceed now to the second particular to make inquiry into that manner in which we ought to pray with reference to the gesture of our bodies Now this in general ought to be such as is most expressive of our humility reverence profound devotion and dependence on God and therefore such as is used to these ends and purposes in the Regions and Countries in which we live For prayer testifying our religion to others and by our outward example for they cannot know our inward thoughts drawing them into the same acts of devotion with our selves as well as according to the expectation of our Maker to raise and signifie our own dispositions and affections to him since therefore other men can no way be made sensible of the intentions of our minds but by those representations which they receive from the external acts and gestures of our bodies we ought to use such in prayer as may best signifie those to them which can be no other than those by which we represent both our humility and affection to those persons with whom we converse 'T is true indeed I cannot say that the sacred Scriptures have commanded any one gesture in prayer so strictly as to exclude all others For in these things an absolute necessity at any time becomes a reasonable dispensation A man may be enseebled in his limbs lay stretch'd upon a bed of languishing be moved to ejaculations when he is imployed in his Trade or occupation He may be inclined to pray when he is walking in the field or travelling on a journey and may often be lifting his thoughts to God when he is sitting at his ordinary meals In such cases and others like them he is not obliged to alter his posture but God will accept of his secret whispers or more outwardly express'd language nay the humble breathings and wishes of his mind with or without the words of his mouth And further yet sometimes even in publick Assemblies a man or woman may be in a Croud or his Knees so benum'd and his body wearied with the length of his devotions that any one posture may be so uneasie and painful too as to blunt the sharpness of his affections and hinder the most acceptable intention of his mind And God forbid that the more noble part of our devotions should be slackned or interrupted by the necessary attendance on the frailty and weakness of our own bodies for this would render them not only the restraining prisons of our souls but their Jaylors too And certainly he to whom our prayers are directed being gracious and merciful will not injoyn any burden upon men who are humble and devout which neither they nor their Forefathers were able to bear I cannot therefore sufficiently admire the piety and prudence of our own Church whose Service is so admirably contrived that the frequent intermixtures of praises and thanksgivings readings and confessions of our faith with our prayers and the confessions of our sins give frequent relief to the aged or wearied bodies of men by injoyning suitable though uniform postures that by their variation become easie and delightsome and advance the fervour and affections of the mind But that I may not deviate from this duty of Prayer We find goodmen in Sacred Writ sometimes worshipping by prostration on the ground sometimes adoring by bowing their heads and without doubt kissing their hands as the act of adoring properly signifies sometimes standing upon their feet and sometimes kneeling upon their knees But in the New Testament the latter is more frequent though prostration is a posture more lowly than this When Saint Stephen had the honour to become the first Martyr to the Faith of Jesus next to himself and like his Master signaliz'd his charity in praying for his enemies the Text tells us that he kneeled down and prayed crying out with a loud voice Lord lay not this sin to their charge Act. 7.60 When Saint Paul prayed amongst the Bishops at Miletus he kneeled down and prayed with them all Acts 20.36 When Saint Peter sealed the truth of Christianity by that eminent miracle of raising Dorcas from the dead we are given to understand that he kneeled down and prayed Act. 9.40 And the blessed and holy Jesus himself who was more worthy than all mankind because he was accepted as a just and proportionable sacrifice for them and redeemed those who were prisoners to Death and Hell yet that he might testifie the great humility and submission of his mind did not only fall down upon his knees but prostrated himself with his face to the ground when with a reserved submission to his Fathers will he prayed saying O Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me Matth. 26.39 When Saint Paul prayed for the Ephesians that they might not faint in the midst of their tribulations he bowed his knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ Eph. 3 14. And when in his voyage towards Jerusalem he landed at Tyre at his departure from thence himself with the disciples their wives 〈◊〉
expressions could not certainly be stopt by the Clouds but must dart themselves clear through them and ascend above the Moon Sun and more lofty Stars and lodge themselves in the highest Heavens Nay they themselves who by rubbing and chafing and other implements have been advanced to this height of carrying their souls out of their bodies like the Heathen Enthusiasts who divined in a fury have caused other men to believe that to be inspired from above which takes its original from mens own indisposition and madness Such things being the fruits of a warm constitution and the effects of an odd temperament in mens bodies pass frequently for the perfection of the mind and an airy soul when it breaths forth extraordinary fancy is supposed to be blown upon first by that which bloweth where it listeth And yet this may be the fruits of passion and the effects of an ill temperament of body that passes for the perfection of an inspired mind and many things are supposed to proceed from the communication of Spirits which are nothing but a disease of the body nay oftentimes the product only of craft and subtilty This may imitate some primitive inspired extraordinary worship when the Prophets spake by turns and others were to hold their tongues But though it resembles some kind of worship to God 't is now no more than an unreasonable service And 't is no wonder that error and falshood being fairly varnished with a shew of truth should be embraced by many Proselytes who either will nor or cannot give themselves time and retirement to consider and search diligently into causes and effects And this is too apparent and troublesom also to many men who find these things much operating on the weaker Sex who are usually more guided by affection than reason and so are led captive to divers lusts Yet that which causes error to be courted instead of truth is some resemblance it bears to it because it has as Plutarch reports of the Egyptian Fables 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some faint and obscure representations of truth and these things are very often promoted by a persons education predisposition and temperament of body in which a soul is imprisoned and locked up but at last breaks loose by the strength of the disease through the pores of the body and obtains an unusual vehicle to carry it We read of some in Tully de Divinat lib. 1. who affirmed and we need not go so far back for them ad opinionem imperitorum fict as esse religiones That Religion was fitted according to the opinions of those that were unskilful and not able to make inquisition into the nature and truth of things But if ever there were the Being and Attributes of God so stated as we consent in here and yet a worship given to that Being as unsuitable to him as it is almost possible which imposed a cheat upon mankind Then considering the principles the favourers pretend to be their conduct an odd sort of Dissenters among us apparently practise it Nay their way of worship is suited to the dispositions of the weaker and more infirm judgements and this appears in very many of the Proselytes to it who really believe what they profess and their Religion is not weighed by their advantage For we find by experience and more converse than they were willing formerly to have with us that Women are wonderfully devoted to Separation and though their Husbands are prevailed upon to come to Church the Wives are yet addicted to a Conventicle But few men who do not make secular interest their God of any briskness and strength of parts embrace those methods Yet some there are that permit themselves to be bound hand and foot with their wives apron-strings or follow the paths and allurements of a Mistress or the custom of their Trade or the advantage of an Office and the same Motives when Religion is so low will bring them back to Church again or equally incline them to Geneva or Rome And truly I have observed in my time though I wish not for the opportunity again that the numbers of Sexes are extremely disproportionable among them Which has created some wonder but no astonishment For I quickly found that it had been the method of the great Deceiver of mankind to gain an interest in the weaker Sex that he might the more easily entangle the stronger Thus the old Serpent began with Eve and proceeded afterwards by Miriam the Sister of Moses and still persisted by the wife of Job Nay after the Revelation of the glorious Gospel when his power and craft was ebbing and must abate the Jews by his instigation stirred up the devout and honourable women to expel Paul and Barnabas out of their Coasts Acts 13.50 Thus also Simon Magus that bewitching Father of the Gnosticks accomplished his designs by the help of Helena Montanus by Maximilla the French men by their Pucelle de Dieu and our English Anabaptists by their Maid of Kent I mention not these things to undervalue the glory of that Sex although it may serve to abate their pride and stop their mouths when they are troublesom and censorious since not only the sin of man but the propensity and inclination to it came at first by the means of a Woman But I urge this to abate our zeal and affection to such a worship in which the weaker sort become the great Devotionists and not to espouse wayes of Religion by the example of those whose airy thoughts will not settle long enough upon one object to consider it well And though this be not a sufficient argument to conclude against the worship of those with whom we have now entered into debate yet it is enough to raise suspition and make us inquisitive about such matters But if we approach nearer to the worship of our Dissenters we shall find their prayers many times to consist of such expressions as are too often unworthy of the Deity whilst they assume too great familiarity with God and the persons that utter them in their peoples behalf are more bold with him than a well bred person will pretend to even among such as are not much his superiours Cotta in Tully De natur Deor. lib. 3. having severely disputed against the Grecian and the Roman Gods says Omnis igitur talis à philosophiâ pellatur error ut cum de diis immortalibus disputemus dicamus digna diis immortalibus When we speak of the Immortal Gods let us speak things worthy of them The Heathen may here instruct the Christian or at least some that pretend to it who in spight of confutation would be accounted the best of that denomination that bold expressions uncouth clamours and loose incoherent and many times insignificant sentences which are the effects of inconsideration sudden inventions and the extempore raptures of a nimble fancy do not suit with the wisdom and greatness of that God to whom all our prayers are addressed nor the reason and understandings
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