of doors to the great disservice of God and the Church If we will not see some disorders that are among us and reform them the members of both Houses of Parliament see them in their several Counties and there is hope that they will find a remedy In the mean time the people see them and there is in them such a hunger after Gods Word that in some dark neglected corners of the land they go in great numbers to hear a Non-conformist and are glad if he visit them once a month But above all God sees what is amiss amongst us and if we do not our duty he will find a Besom to cleanse his house Isa 14.24 Mal. 2.9 and make them contemptible and base before all the People that have been partial in his Law When I have pleaded with a Reverend Divine in the behalf of excluded Ministers and endeavoured to represent to him some of the manifold mischiefs to Souls by our rigour in imposing unnecessary terms I have been put off with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let all things be done decently 1 Cor. 14.40 Will the violent wresting that Text in the defence of mens Inventions cover the guilt of destroying innumerable Souls one of which is worth more than the whole World and their ruine may be for want of the labours of those able Ministers whom we exclude for toys Is the blood of Christ and of Souls so vile as to be set to Sale for Stubble and Straw These things would be most contemptible if we had the same value for Souls that Christ had when he counted the whole World too light to be put in the ballance against one Soul Mar. 8.36 and when he laid down his life to redeem us from the wrath to come We may by our rigidness drive many from our Communion into the dark Sectarian paths in which they may perish but how shall we repair the mischief that we have done Tho we pour from our Eyes Rivers of Tears or from our Veins Seas of Blood we can never recover one lost soul The redemption of their Soul is precious Psal 49.8 and it ceaseth for ever IV. Mischief's to Piety The most learned Divines and the wisest States-men in the World are but bunglers when they take upon them to add unto Gods Worship what he hath not appointed Human Institutions are but like clouts with which Chips are drest up into Babies for Children to play with With these inventions Heathens and Atheists are habited like Christians for the service of the Devil to corrupt and destroy true Christianity The World hath a long time groaned under them it is high time for people to be Wise Mankind hath for many Ages been possest and tormented with a furious Spirit the Devil of Imposition it will never be well till this Spirit is cast out Piety may now as well live and flourish without our ceremonies as it did mount without them above Idolatry and conquered the World It may be raised unto a new life from its decay caused by a long and heavy oppression under a load of humane Inventions True Piety hath been hid in Corners remove stumbling-blocks and it will come forth and appear in publick with all its beauty and glory Dr. Stilling Iren. Pag. 121. Allowing a liberty for matters of Indifferency and bearing with the weak who cannot bear things which others account lawful we might indeed be restored to a primitive lustre far sooner than by furbishing up some antiquated Ceremonies which can derive their Pedegree no higher than from some ancient Custom and Tradition Ceremonies in Worship corrupt peoples minds with vanity make them light and trifling in the weighty concerns of God and their Souls Pomp and Train of Ceremonies retained will be apt to take up the heart of such as are busied in them Corbets Kingdom of God Pag. 103. and corrupt the worship of God and make it a dead work and carnal service and so the Spirit and Power of Godliness will decay and die amongst people by this means Many think they have done much if they have exactly conformed to Rites and Ceremonies Such are apt to forget the awe and dread they should have in the Worship of the Divine Majesty They are so careful of outward Postures and Habits that they mind not the bringing of their Souls unto God in whose service all the faculties should be engaged What are all the inventions of men to our converse with an infinite glorious Spirit We cannot approach unto him but with our Spirits The use of Ceremonies tends to the oppression of the life and power of Christianity They are like painted windows which may make a gaudy shew but they much lessen the light or like Garments clog'd with Snow or Ice they may load a man but not warm him The use of them wasts sincere Piety The pressing of them is the cramming of Christians with Stubble and Straw and will sooner choke than nourish true Piety and Charity They when multiplyed strangely eat out the Heart Heat Life and Vigour of Christianity The carnal part of the world is easily engaged for them against holiness Dr. Scilling Iren. Pag. 67. and to such a degree that serious Piety hath been scorned and scoffed at not only by the Mobile but by higher ranks not excepting the Tribe in the long robe when engaged to be Advocates for Impositions witness Samuel Oxons Books of Ecclesiast Pol. and of Loyalty The use of Ceremonies hath so blinded men that multitudes have been inraged with a mad spirit against the life of Religion There hath been for a long time amongst us a bitter hatred of serious Christians that endeavoured to be pure in heart such have been reproached with the name of Puritans Mat. 5.8 Piety hath been scorned vilified and persecuted under the notion of Puritanism There is no doubt but this Church tho its Government and constitution be so pure Mr. Bolde's Sermon against Persecution Pag. 14.15 Justifiable and consonant to Apostolical Practice would suffer very much should but the almost Ordinary Miscarriages of a great number who pretend to the Clergy be exposed to Publick View with an account of the encouragement they meet with or at least how free they are from Threats and Molestations while others who live better Lives and are more constant and diligent Preachers and do express on all occasions more of that charity and forbearance towards all men which Christianity doth so much commend and enforce are frowned upon and left open to the rage and fury of besotted frantick and debauched Bigots With such as these if any man press for Regeneration Dr. Wallis Sermons to the Vniversity on John 3.3 pag. 41. Sanctification and a Holy Life he was to pass heretofore for a Puritan then for a Round-head now for a damn'd Fanatick Nor shall he escape this censure tho never so great a Church-man and do exactly conform to the Church as now by Law established
to procure an Act for abolishing the Habits c. Grindal Aug. 27. 1566. Writes that all the Bishops who had been beyond Sea had at their return dealt with the Queen to let the matter of the Habits fall But she was so prepossessed that tho they had all endeavoured to divert her from prosecuting the matter she continued still inflexible This had made them resolve to submit to the Laws and to wait for a fit opportunity to reverse them Cox in one of his Letters laments the aversion that they found in the Parliament to all the propositions that were made for the reformation of abuses It seems that these things were then established by Parliament against the minds of the Clergy they may now by the same Authority be taken away though some among us are against it and care as little for the Peace and Prosperity of the Church as the Harlot for the Child which she would have divided alive They are such Pastors as she was a Mother The example of the Primitive Church will condemn our stifness for Indifferent things Dr. Stillingfleets Iren. Pag. 122. 68. Certainly the Primitive Church that did not charge mens Faith with such a load of Articles as now in these latter Ages men are charged with would much less burden men with imposing doubtful practices upon them as the Ground of Church Communion Ib. Pref. Pag. 10 11. There is nothing the Primitive Church deserves greater imitation by us in than that admirable temper moderation and condescension which was used in it towards all the members of it It was never thought worth the while to make any standing Laws for Rites and Customs that had no other Original but Tradition much less to suspend men her Communion for not observing them This admirable temper in the Primitive Church might be largely cleared from that liberty they allowed freely to Dissenters from them in matters of Practice and Opinion As might be cleared from Cyprian Austin Jerom c. Were there in the Primitive times many hundreds of men duly qualified for the Ministry Mr. Gorber of Church -Vnity Pag. 49. kept out of the Church for their Nonconformity to some Opinions Forms and Ceremonies of the truth or lawfulness whereof the Dissenters were wholly dissatisfied and which the Imposers judged to be but things in themselves indifferent The Apostles did not at all favour the imposing humour The Holy Ghost and the Apostles were only for requiting necessary things Acts 15.28 It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater him then than those necessary things How strangely hath the Christian World been since altered It hath seemed good to men to impose unnecessary things as terms of Communion But it doth now Here appear that this practice seemeth good to the Holy Ghost The whole course of Scripture is contrary hereunto Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind Rom. â— 4.5 This is not considered for doubting consciences are not at all relieved they must conform or else be excluded from Communion with our Church in the Ordinances of Christ No man put a stumbling-block or an accasion to fall in his brothers way Rom. 14.13.19.23 Follow after things which make for Peace and things wherewith one may edifie another He that doubteth is damned How little have Souls been valued by Imposers When ye sin so against the brethren and wound their weak consciences 1 Cor. 8.12 ye sin against Christ Imposers do not only wound the Consciences of the weak but they offend their head Iesus Christ who is also the Judge of the World and takes notice of the injuries done to his flock Ezek. 34.3 4. Ye feed not the Flock The diseased have ye not strengthened neither have ye healed that which was sick neither have ye bound up that which was broken neither have ye brought again that which was driven away neither have ye sought that which was lost but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them Paul was a great Governour in the Church yet he was so Far from using his Authority to the distress of conscience that rather than offend a weak brother 1 Cor. 8.13 he would abridge himself of his liberty as a private Christian Wherefore if meat make my Brother to offend I will eat no flesh while the World standeth lest I make my Brother to offend Phil. 2.21 We have little reason to hope for this blessed temper amongst us while men seek them own and not the things of Jesus Christ IV. The manifold mischiefs of these impositions No man can shew any good they have done except it be good to maintain a corrupt party in Church and State to the excluding a Pious Sober Peaceable Diligent and Powerful Interest that to a man would stand by the King and venture all them concerns for him and the Protestant Religion while some that have profaned the Sacrament for an Office have by their manifold treacheries sacrificed many hundred lives and hugely hindred his Majesties affairs The Fabulous evils of Pandora's box come unspeakably short in number of the real mischiefs from Impositions Dr. Stillingfleets Iren. Pref. 9. Without all controversy the main inlet of all the distractions Confusions and Divisions in the Christian World hath been by adding other conditions of Church Communion than Christ hath made If any man of common sense will but open his eyes and consider he may see plainly enough that all the publick miseries of mankind in Christendom from the exorbitances of Popes and the violences of Tyrants owe their Original to the Spirit of Imposition in matters of Worship For if people were well instructed in the true knowledge of God and their Duty to their Neighbour and were not muffled in ignorance to maintain the Pride and Laziness of Churchmen they would not so readily serve the Ambition of Princes in invading the Rights of their Subjects at home and laying waste the Dominions of their Neighbours abroad The mischiefs I am speaking of are innumerable some of them are reduceable to these six heads I. Mischiefs to the Church II. To the State III. To Souls IV. To Piety V. Mischiefs in promoting a mighty increase of Prophaneness and all kind of wickedness VI. Hindering a World of good I. Mischiefs to the Church Zeal for mens devices begets in people a strange levity of mind makes them such triflers in Religion that they disregard the great interests of God and his Church in the World They are not sensible of the desolations of Gods Churches in France Orange Piedmont the Palatinate Ireland c. Of the judgments of God that threaten other Churches of the plagues that may hang over our heads to chastise us for our crying abominations What unthinking creatures are these Yet they are good Sons of the Church zealous for its Ceremonies not a pin must be pull'd out tho innumerable tender Consciences are wounded by them They cry the Church of
as much instruction as ever and so much the more in that they are apt to think now the name of Christians will carry them to Heaven c. Men must be beat off from more things which they are apt to trust to for Salvation now than in those times men could not think so much then that diligence in Publick Assemblies and attendance at Publick Prayers was the main Religion Few would profess Christianity in those times but such as were resolved beforehand rather to let go their lives than their Profession but the more Profess it now without understanding the terms of Salvation by it pag. 335. the greater necessity of Preaching to instruct men in it The Lords day hath met with many and great Enemies among the Ritualists This is a gracious injunction and gift of infinite Wisdom and Goodness necessary for us to rescue our Souls from Levity of mind carnal affections and worldly cares and to feed nourish and strengthen them with Spiritual Meditations and Heavenly Joys They that seriously endeavour to converse with God and their own Souls know the truth hereof But Formalists are ignorant of the Divine life to them the Sabbath is a burden Amo. 8.5 they say When will it be gone Pleading some years since with a grave Ceremonious Don of our Church for the sanctifying of the Lords day by spending it in Religious exercises he was so far from understanding me that his return was Shall a man be a whole day on the rack Such a mystery is the Spiritual life to a man that spends his Zeal on Rites and Ceremonies To ease such animal men from the rack a book for sports on the Lords day was injoined Ministers to read in the time of Divine Service Here we may wonder at the Fantastical humour of a sort of men they persecuted the people for working in their lawful callings on the Festival days and silenced conscientious Ministers for not reading a book for sports on Gods Day It was pretended in that sportful book that the superstitious observation of the Lords day did render his Majesties Subjects unfit for his Service in the Wars But what kind of Fighters those sportmongers on Gods day were the event shewed not long after Jer. 44.21 Did not the Lord remember them and came it not into his mind The Lords day duly observed is a mighty instrument for the promoting the Life of Godliness in the Souls of Christians The serious observation of this begets in people another Spirit than is in Christians of other Reformed Churches They are much more above the carnal World than most of them and than any that slight that day in our own The Scripture hath its share of contempt from Ceremonialists of the truth hereof the Impositions of Rome are a full proof We need not go so far For other Imposers are guilty of the same in a lower degree while they injoyn on Ministers and People terms of Communion not warranted by the Word of God And this is the worse because when Scripture is urged foolish preciseness and impertinency hath been charged on them that have pleaded against such unscriptural Impositions Our holy Religion hath been mightily exposed to the scorn of evil men when they see pretenders to it spend all their zeal on little things Force and Rigorous Impositions make men suspect the weight of the thing it self Dr. Stilling Iren. Pref. pag. 11. when such force is used to make it enter When people are very earnest for trifles as if the whole weight of Religion depended on them some may be tempted to suspect that all is but a cheat a trick of cunning Churchmen to form people to serve their purposes especially when one that hath written books for Conformity shall say that is the best Body of Divinity that enables a man to keep a Coach and six Horses Our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who hath suffered so much for sinners suffers again by the mockery of Ceremonies without the heart All the pomp of them is to him a Crown of Thorns if persecutors for them wound the weak consciences of his members One may conform to the use of the transient sign of the Cross and Scoff at the knowledge of Christ a book so called Parker of Religion and Loyalty Par. I. Pag. 28 29. Lon. 1684. ridicules the Title it bears Another is much more bold takes upon him to dethrone the King of Kings and set him at the footstool of Crowned dust It is but a crude expression not to call it prophane because it is so common by customary mistake to affirm that Kings are Supream Governours under Christ They are and ever were so under God but so as to be Superiour to Christ as Christ is head of his Church within their Dominions II. Mischiefs in promoting an increase of all kind of wickedness The most immoral men if they did pretend zeal for Ceremonies and were furious against Dissenters did pass for good Christians and true sons of the Church This false measure hath hardened abundance in their evil ways mightily cherished and increased vice in the Land Conformity to Ceremonies hath been a Cloak that hath covered the most filthy abominations The continuance of them in the Worship of God will be a gratification of the worst Christians and a grief to the best A Ceremonious service is apt to corrupt people with sensuality It is easy to the flesh not crossing any of its interests Holiness requires the subjection of the thoughts and imaginations of the heart unto Christ that we should be pure in thought word and deed But a ceremonial worship is only a bodily exercise which tho it profiteth little as the Apostle saith yet it serves to silence natural conscience and to represent men to imposing Governours as good members of the Church This is all that sensual men look for and if they obtain this they let loose the reins to all excess of riot How much did sensuality increase when it was connived at if not incouraged and tender conscience as the only bug-bear was every where hunted with a full cry People are regardless of the power of Christianity when they find that their Superiors are contented with a conformity to the externals of it The most vicious people cry The Temple of the Lord the Church of England to cover their Immoralities Away then with these mighty Engines of mischief Let us all chiefly mind and pursue those things which tend most to the promoting the work of Regeneration in the world If this course be taken Hypocrites will lose their advantages of seeming religious by zeal for those things wherein Religion doth not consist Corbets Kingdom of God Pa. 74. and carnal designs and interests that now rend the Churches and trouble all things would be defeated and abandoned Of all things that should most be regarded which qualifieth for heaven Mat. 5.8 that is holiness Without it there is no entring into that glorious Kingdom
the continuance of Ceremonies and that in respect of the account we must give to our Judge Honour Plenty and Ease may harden the hearts of some of us against tenderly considering the danger of Souls excluded from our Communion and thereby exposed as a prey to Sectaries but all the glory and pleasure of this world will be contemptible when the sign of the Son of man shall appear in heaven Mat 24 30. Acâ— 26.13 His glory at mid-day was unto Paul a light from heaven above the brightness of the Sun That sign may be such a glory filling the whole World with the brightness thereof every where seen by amazed mankind He who hath created the glorious body of the Sun which is 139 some say 166 times bigger than this Globe in which we live can spread a more Glorious Light over this point of earth or particle of dust for so it is if compared with the vast extent of the Heavens Whatever that sign shall be it is like it shall be visible to all not only to the righteous for their comfort but also to the wicked for their terrour Mat. 24.30 Gen. 49.5 It is said that all the tribes of the Earth shall then mourn They of the Tribe of Levi who are for instruments of Cruelty shall have their share in the mourning What trembling will seize upon them 1 Thes 1.16 17. when the mighty blast of Gods Trumpet shall awake all the Sleepers in the dust them that have not lodged six days in the Grave 1 Cor 15.52 and the Sleepers of 6000 years His power shall raise all the dead and change the living in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye An universal flame shall embrace the heavens and the earth the God of our proud and covetous Formalists melt the frozen World in the Laodicean State 2 Pet. 3.10 The Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Rev. 20.12 The dead small and great shall stand before God to be judged according to their works Then mocking Ishmaels that have scoffed at the pure in heart as Puritans Precise Fools and Melancholy dull Souls shall take the Fools cap unto themselves and they repenting Wisd 5 and groaning for anguish of Spirit shall say within themselves This was he whom we had sometimes in derision and a proverb of reproach We fools accounted his life madness and his end to be without honour How is he numbred among the Children of God and his Lot is among the Saints Some among us are angry with Calvin for calling humane rites tolerables ineptias Epist Anglis Franâ—â—ford p. 98. They will not at the great day be such unto rigorous Imposers who made them terms of Communion How will you at that day lift up your faces before your Master and your Judge when he shall demand of you What is become of those his Lambs which you drove into the Wilderness by needless Impositions He requires you to pray unto the Lord of the harvest that he would fend forth more labourers into his harvest and you keep away many worthy labourers from his work because they cannot comply with terms that he never appointed We may think it a light matter to offend weak Christians but it will not be always so Wo unto the World because of offences Mat. 18.7 For it must needs be that offences come but wo unto that man by whom the offence cometh Offences will hereafter be as heavy to the Imposers of humane inventions as they are now to the weak The punishment of them that offend one of Christs little ones will be more dreadful than being cast into the Sea with a milstone about the neck Luk. 17.2 If Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels shall be the lightest punishment inflicted on them that feed not the hungry and do not cloath the naked how deep will their lodging be in the lake of Fire and Brimstone who lay Stumbling-blocks before multitudes of Souls to their so great Scandal that they forsake the Ordinances of Jesus Christ how terrible will it be to be punished with everlasting destruction 2 Thes 1.9 from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power This will be heavier than many Milstones For all the works and Mountains in the world will be light in comparison of the weight of the wrath of the Lamb. The ravening Wolves that have worried Christs Flock the great Clerks that have troubled Church and State with their stiffness for very little things the mighty Nimrods that have desolated the earth shall in vain cry for a covering to the frighted and flying Mountains and the molten Rocks that could not save themselves from the power of the Judge who made the Heaven to depart as a scroll when it is rolled together Rev. 6.14 15 16 17. And the Kings of the Earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief Captains c. hid themselves in the Dens and in the Rocks of the Mountains and said to the Mountains and Rocks Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand FINIS