yet the time of Morning and Evening Sacrifices were the usual hours of prayer observed by pious and devout men who sent up their prayers together with the Sacrifice Thus Ezra tells us at the Evening Sacrifice I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God and to this the Psalmist alludes Let my Prayer be set before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the Evening Sacrifice For since the fall of man we cannot expect that God should hear our prayers for our own sakes we can make no atonement and expiation for our own sins nor offer him any just compensation for them and therefore under the Law God appointed Expiatory Sacrifices to be offered by the Priests who were Gods Ministers and now under the Gospel God has sent his own Son into the World to be both our Priest and our Sacrifice the acceptation of our prayers depends upon the power of his Intercession and the power of his Intercession upon the merit of his blood for with his own blood he entred once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us We must now go to God in his Name and plead the Merits of his blood if we expect a gracious answer to our Prayers Now for this end was the Lords Supper instituted to be a Remembrance of Christ or of the Sacrifice of the Cross to shew forth the Lords death till he come which as it respects God is to put him in remembrance of Christ's death and to plead the Vertue and Merit of it for our pardon and acceptance It is a visible prayer to God to remember the sufferings of his Son and to be propitious to his Church his body and every member of it which he has purchased with his own blood And therefore the ancient Church constantly at this holy Supper offered up their prayers to God in vertue of the Sacrifice of Christ there represented for the whole Church and all ranks and conditions of men For this reason the Lords Supper was called a Commemorative Sacrifice because we therein offer up to God the Remembrance of Christ's Sacrifice and therefore in the ancient Church the Altar or the place where they consecrated the Elements was the place also where they offered up their prayers to signifie that they offered their prayers only in vertue of the Sacrifice of Christ and that the very remembrance of this Sacrifice in the Lords Supper by vertue of its Institution did render their prayers prevalent and acceptable to God and therefore in the very first account we have of the exercise of Christian Worship we find breaking bread and prayers joyned together The efficacy of our prayers depends on the merit of Christ's Sacrifice and the way Christ hath appointed to give our prayers an interest in his Sacrifice is to offer them in the holy Supper with the Sacramental remembrance of his Death and Passion 2. If we consider the Lords Supper as it respects Christ himself and is a Remembrance of him so it contains all that peculiar Worship which the Christian Church payes him as a thankful acknowledgement of his great love in dying for them as will appear if we consider what it is to do this in Remembrance of him For 1. This signifies to keep this Feast as a publick and solemn Commemoration of our Lord we ought to remember our Saviour and think of him as often as we can but this holy Feast is a publick celebration of his fame and memory we must not only think of our Saviour as we do of an absent Friend who is very dear to us but we must remember him as some Nations do their publick Patrons and Benefactors with solemn and festival joyes The Lords Supper is a Feast instituted in honour of our Saviour wherein the whole Church must call to mind his noble acts and shew forth his praises and perpetuate the memory of them from one generation to another We must call to mind his great and astonishing love and recount all his victories and triumphs over Sin and Death and Hell and him who had the power of death that is the Devil We must sing praises to the Lamb of God who was slain and is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing This is the proper work of a Religious Feast to call to mind the works of God and ascribe unto him the glory due unto his Name This is the true reason of all Religious Festivals The Seventh Day Sabbath was originally instituted in honour of the great Maker of all things who finished the Creation of the World in six dayes and rested on the seventh and was changed to the first day of the Week in remembrance of the work of our Redemption and the Resurrection of our Saviour from the dead The Feast of the Passeover was for a memorial of that deliverance the children of Israel had from the destroying Angel who smote all the first-born of the Egyptians but spared their houses which was but an obscure type of our greater deliverance by Christ of which the Lords Supper is instituted as a perpetual memorial All these holy Feasts were for a remembrance that is to call to mind the wonderful works of God to praise his great name and by a contemplation of his wisdom goodness and power in making and governing the world to inflame our souls with love and joy and wonder till our thoughts and passions grow too big and vehement to be suppressed in our own breasts but break forth into publick songs of praise and thanksgiving And thus we must remember our Saviour in this holy Feast by making publick thankful and joyful acknowledgements of his great and mysterious love and all the mighty things he hath done for the redemption of mankind When our Saviour says Do this in remembrance of me he requires us to keep this Feast with the publick expressions of that love and honour which we bare to his memory as a testimony of our thankfulness to him for all that he hath done and suffered for us as a profession of our faith and hope and trust and affiance in a Crucified Jesus that we own him for our Lord and Saviour and are not ashamed of his Cross nor afraid of any sufferings for his sake 2. The Lords Supper is the peculiar worship of Christ considered as a God incarnate the word was made flesh and dwelt among us the eternal son of God the uncreated wisdom of the Father came down from Heaven and cloathed himself with flesh and blood and became man as we are that he might be capable to dwell among us without that terrour and astonishment which his unvailed glory carries with it which is too bright and dazling for mortal eyes to gaze on and that when he had lived here a poor despised afflicted life in the condition of a Minister and a Servant he might die as a Sacrifice
call upon me and I will answer him I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and honour him The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him to all that call upon him in Truth He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him he also will hear their cry and will save them The Lord preserveth all them that love him but the wicked will he destroy Where those who love God are those who pray unto him and therefore the wicked whom God will destroy are those who do not pray to him who neglect or despise his Worship whence it is the Psalmist describes God that he is One that heareth Prayers O thou that hearest Prayer unto thee shall all flesh come For indeed it is not reasonable to expect that God should bestow those Blessings and Deliverances on us which we do not think worth asking or will not own him to have the disposal of those who will not pray for those good Things they want will not bless God for giving them and no wise Man thinks it prudent to place his Favours where they shall meet with no return which is like burying good Seed in a barren Soyl that deceives the expectation of the Husbandman God indeed being the Maker of the World takes care of all his Creatures but then he expects that reasonable Creatures should beg the protection and provisions of his Providence because this is an excellent Instrument of Government as it keeps Man-kind under a constant sense of his Power and Providence and in a constant dependence on him Those who expect all good Things from God dare not provoke him to anger by the breach of his Laws Men are naturally ashamed of approaching the Presence of God when they are conscious to themselves of any great Crime but sneak and hide themselves as Children do when they have displeased their Parents and dare not ask any kindness till they have first obtained their Pardon which makes it highly reasonable and necessary for God to discountenance Irreligion by casting off the care of such Men who refuse to worship him It is true very many Irreligious Men do thrive in this World and arrive to great Estates and to great Honours for God does not make such an exact difference between good and bad Men in this Life as he will do in the World to come and can serve the Ends of his Providence in the prosperity of bad Men. But yet there is a vast difference between God's permitting the prosperity of bad Men and that constant Providence which watches over good Men. Bad Men may advance themselves by Injustice Oppression and Perjury but they are not advanced by the Blessing but by the Permission of God for God never blesses any wicked Arts and therefore such Mens Prosperity is very uncertain and as tottering as the Thrones of Usurpers for though they have a good Title with respect to Men yet they are but Usurpers with respect to God and therefore are tumbled down again at his pleasure but the only sure way of thriving in the World is by God's Blessing these are the only lasting and durable Riches and Honours which are free from such Vexations and Troubles Fears and Disappointments which attend on unjust Possessions as the Wise Man tells us The Blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it The sum is this It is possible for Irreligious Men to enjoy great prosperity without God's Blessing and those who like this way may take it but it is a very uncertain and a very slippery way it often ends in Poverty and Contempt or leads to the Gallows or Men lose their standing when they are almost got up to the top of the Precipice and they tumble down faster than ever they got up But those who desire God should take care of them must pray to him and worship him for as St. Iames told those he writ to Ye have not because ye ask not Some bad Men are for awhile prosperous but a hundred for one are miserable and no Man can be secure from Misery but in the Protection of God Secondly There is a much greater Danger than this in Irreligion and that is The loss of our Souls the loss of Eternal Happiness and the miseries of an Eternal Death now it is Godliness which hath the promise of this Life and of that which is to come and the Grace of God which brings Salvation that is the Gospel of Christ which contains the Promises of eternal Life hath appeared unto all Men teaching us that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godlily in this present World These are the Conditions of Eternal Life without performing which we shall never see God but the intemperate unrighteous ungodly Men shall be condemned to the punishment of Devils to outward darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for evermore For Godliness which consists in such a constant sense of God as expresses it self in all Acts of Homage Worship and Obedience is the only vital Principle of Religion though Men have a great many very good Qualities and sociable Vertues though they are modest and temperate just in their Dealings pitiful to the Poor of a liberal and generous Spirit in promoting good Designs very affable courteous and obliging in their Conversations yet if they have no sense of God as these Men have not who neglect his Worship all this is no part of Religion but owing to natural Temper and good Breeding or humane Policy or such other Causes as may make Men good Neighbours and Citizens but cannot make them good Christians They may reap some Temporal Rewards of these Vertues but they cannot carry them to Heaven for indeed such Men are not qualified for the Work and the happiness of Heaven which is to know and love and admire and praise the great Maker and Redeemer of the World which no Man can do who hath not a quick and prevailing sense of his Excellencies and Perfections And how intolerable would it be for such Men to keep an Eternal Sabbath in Heaven to worship God and sing his Praises day and Night for ever and ever who think it lost time and a dry insipid wearisom thing to worship God here on Earth but they need not fear that Penance for they shall never be troubled with it None shall be received into Heaven but those who by the constant Exercises of Devotion on Earth have spiritualized their Minds and made Religion in some measure their Happiness as well as their Work and Duty And because there are a sort of inconsiderate Men who think to grow very religious and to repent of all their Sins before they die and thereby prevent the danger of Eternal Damnation I would desire them to consider Thirdly That the great Danger of Irreligion of an habitual neglect of God's Worship is That it lets loose the Reins to
forsaking the assembling of themselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching Which at least supposes that to forsake the Assemblies of Christians does greatly dispose Men to a final Apostacy as appears from the following verses wherein he urges the great danger of Apostacy which had been nothing to his purpose had not separation at least been the beginning of it But if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledg of the Truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sin but a certain fearful looking for of Vengeance and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversary He that despised Moses ' s Law died without mercy under two or three Witnesses of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy that trampleth under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace The truth is whoever carefully examines the state of the Apostolical-Churches according to that account we find of them in the Writings of the Apostles and I may add of the succeeding Ages from the report of the most Primitive and Apostolical Fathers will find that none but Apostates from Christianity by Apostates not meaning those who wholly renounced the Name and Profession but those who renounced the Truth of Christian Doctrine actually separated from the Communion of the Church There were Schisms and Divisions in the Church of Corinth which S. Paul reproves them for but we do not find that they actually separated into distinct Communions but contended amongst themselves about the preference of several Apostles which of them was greatest Every one of you saith I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas or Peter and I of Christ. And this seems to be the Case in the second Schism of Corinth in the time of Clemens Romanus who writ a Letter to them in the name of the Church of Rome perswading them to Peace Unity and Order But besides these Schisms in the Church which S. Paul makes a great sign of carnality For are ye not carnal for whereas there is among you Envying and Strife and Divisions are ye not carnal and walk as Men For while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos are ye not carnal There were also Schisms from the Church as we learn from St. Paul's Epistle to Timothy For of this sort are they who creep into Houses who kept Secret and Clandestine Meetings and lead captive silly Women laden with Sins led away with divers Lusts ever learning but never able to come to the knowledg of the Truth Now as Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the Truth that is they opposed themselves against the Apostles of Christ who were the only Teachers of the true Religion and were that to the Christian Church which Moses was to the Iews Which plainly signifies that they set themselves up against the Apostles and gathered Churches in opposition to them Of such Separatists St. Iohn speaks whom he calls Antichrists they went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that it might be made manifest that they were not all of us Where the Apostle expresly affirms that they went out from them that is forsook the Christian Assemblies by which he proves that they were not of them i. e. that they did not belong to the same Body and Society but had entertained such Doctrines as were destructive to the Christian Faith for otherwise they would not have separated from the Christian Church Now this necessarily supposes that Christian Communion is so indispensible a Duty that no Man can causlesly separate from the Christian Church without at least bringing his Christianity into question that nothing can reasonably tempt Men to a Separation but their renouncing some great Article of the Christian Faith nor can any thing justify a Separation but such Corruptions as destroy the Faith once delivered to the Saints for otherwise there had bin no force in the Apostle's Argument to prove that they were corrupt in the Faith from their Separation They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us no doubt they would have continued with us So that tho we should grant that Schism as Dr. Owen earnestly contends signifies no more than Divisions and Contentions among the Members of the same Church without the breach of Church-Communion and therefore Separatists are not properly Schismaticks I know not what he gains by this when Separation in the Apostles days was looked upon as a much greater evil than Schism and yet none but Hereticks or Apostates from the Truth of Christian Doctrine were in those days guilty of it and if the Apostle's Argument holds good a sinfull and causless Separation can never be own'd without some degree of Apostacy It is to no great purpose to dispute the signification of words when the difference between things is plain and notorious But yet there seems to be a manifest difference in Scripture between Schism and Heresie the first being commonly applied to signifie those Divisions which were among Christians in the same Communion the second if not always yet chiefly applied to signify Separation from the Church for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies a Sect or Party and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sectarian Thus Christianity it self when the Christians united into a distinct Church-Society was called Heresy or a new Sect and the Sect of the Nazarens Thus we read of the Sect of the Sadduces and the Sect of the Pharisees where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Heresy is always used Now tho these different Sects among the Iews did not separate into distinct Assemblies for Worship but all worshipped at the Temple as even the Christian Iews did while the Temple stood as appears from what happened to St. Paul at Ierusalem the last time he went thither yet they were distinguished by different Opinions Rites and Usages and Schools and which is usually the effect of such Distinctions by different Interests and Affections And in allusion to those Jewish Sects these Differences amongst Christians which did not break forth into open Separation but occasioned great sidings and Parties and Heats and Animosities were indifferently called Schisms or Heresies Thus St. Paul joyns Hatred Variance Wrath Seditions Heresie But then there were another sort of Heresies which always ended in Separation for such Men were always either cast out of the Church or separated themselves Such are those which St. Peter calls Damnable Heresies whom he compares with the fallen Angels and the old World which was destroyed with a Deluge of Water and Sodom and Gomorrah whom he calls presumptuous self-willed and that are not
an offended and angry Deity as a Slave would do to pacify his Lord. And here is the true Original of all that which we call Superstitious Worship which is nothing else but such a Worship as Superstitious Men pay to God to appease his Anger and to flatter him into a good Opinion of them For Superstition is properly seated in the Mind as Religion is and that is a Superstitious Worship which serves the Ends of Superstition as that is true Religious Worship which expresseth the sincere Devotion of the Mind and is fitted to the Nature and Ends of true Religion This was the Original of those numerous Sacrifices which were offered by the Heathens at least they were abused to this Purpose by Superstitious Minds to appease their angry Gods by the Blood of the Sacrifice instead of their own especially those barbarous Sacrifices of Men and Children which it is impossible should ever have any other Original than Superstition For Men must be in a horrible dread and fear of God and entertain very frightful Apprehensions of him before they can either persuade themselves to offer or believe that God will accept of such Sacrifices To the same Original is owing their worship of Demons and Inferior Deities as Intercessors for them to the more powerful God for Men who are afraid endeavour to make all the Friends they can to a powerful Adversary and it not only makes a shew of Humility as the Apostle speaks that Men dare not go directly to God but imploy his great Ministers to speak for them but it signifies also a great dread of him for had Men right apprehensions of the Nature of God and were conscious to themselves of a sincere Love and Reverence of him and a desire to please and to be like him they would be no more afraid to pray to him than a Child is to ask his Father for what he wants Thus Superstitious Men who have a mind to appease God and to keep their sins endeavour to court and flatter him with an arbitrary and external Worship either with a pompous shew such as was their carrying the Images of their Gods in Procession which was so magnificent a sight that many Christians were tempted to be present at it which was condemned and censured by the Ancient Fathers or with publick Feasts and Sports their Solennes Ludi instituted in honour of their Gods in which so many ancient Christians suffered Martyrdom or frequent Washings and Purifications or external Severities to their Bodies as Whippings and cutting themselves till the Blood gushed out as the Priests of Baal did or by prostituting their Wives and Daughters and defiling themselves in honour of their Wanton Deities Or by abstaining from certain Meats and being initiated into the Mysteries of their Religion by severe and troublesome Methods In these and such-like things consisted that superstitious Worship which the Heathens paid to their Gods in such external Rites as were expensive costly or troublesome which they thought apt and proper to atone for their sins and flatter their angry Gods into a good liking of them while they continued in sin Their Worship did not consist in any real and substantial acts of Piety and Devotion were not designed and had no tendency in them to make them more like to God or to do any real Honour to his Nature and Perfections but were an external piece of Pageantry like the crouchings and fawnings of Slaves to their Imperious Lords And thus a superstitious Mind may turn even Divine Institutions into a superstitious Worship as the Hypocritical Jews did who had no respect to the nature and signification of those external Rites of Worship which God appointed but doted upon the Letter of the Law and thought to please God with the external performance of them They gloried in the Circumcision of the Flesh but made no regard to the Circumcision of the Mind and Spirit they thought it enough that they descended from Abraham by Carnal Generation but took no care to imitate the Faith of their Father Abraham They boasted of the Temple of the Lord which was the visible Symbol of God's Presence with them and residence among them tho they made it a Den of Thieves They punctually observed their New Moons and Sabbaths and Solemn Assemblies tho they defiled themselves with all manner of wickedness insomuch that God abhorred his own Worship as much as the Pagan Superstitions and tho he instituted it himself yet denies that he required it from them When you come to appear before me Who hath required this at your hands to tread my Courts And thus profest Christians may and do turn the Institutions of our Saviour into the grossest Superstitions when they think it sufficient to carry them to Heaven that they are baptized and call themselves Christians and say their Prayers and hear Sermons and receive the Sacrament without attending to the end of all this which is to transform them into a Divine Nature to purify their Minds from all earthliness and sensuality and thereby fit them for the happiness of a Spiritual World The sum of all is this That Superstition is not properly in any Act of Worship but in the Mind Divine Institutions may be abused to Superstitious Purposes and Humane Institutions which are meer Matters of Decency and Order may be used without Superstition The Superstition of Heathens Jews and Christians differ in their Acts but agree in their Principle too great a Fear and Flattery of God But yet from what I have discoursed we may collect some plain Rules to judg what is Superstitious and what not and when we may be charged with Superstition and when not For 1. Then Men are certainly Superstitious when they think they shall please or displease God meerly by doing or not doing some indifferent things which he has neither commanded nor forbid To think to please God and to make him our Friend by any Arbitrary Rites and Usages in Religion is to think that God may be flattered by external and insignificant Complements which is the true Spirit of Superstition and to think that God will be displeased with us for doing some indifferent Things which he hath no where forbid argues a superstitious dread and horror of him so that we dare not use that liberty which he has no where restrained touch not taste not handle not that is to forbid doing those things which God has allowed or at least not forbid is more certainly an Act of Superstition than to do those things which God has not commanded for Men may do what God has not commanded without any superstitious Conceit about it but they cannot forbid doing what God has not forbid without placing Religion in not doing it and to make any thing an Act of Religion and to think to please God with it which is no Act of Religion is certainly superstitious 2. Then Men are guilty of Superstition in the external Acts of Religion whether they be instituted by