vout Men may be this way addicted; Vol. VII. A Religion that confists in external and little things, doth moft eafily gain upon and poffefs the weakest Minds, and whoever entertain it, it will enfeeble their Spirits, and unfit them for the more generous and excellent Duties of Chriftianity.We have but a finite heat, and zeal, and actiyity, and if we let out much of it upon fmall things, there will be too little left for those parts of Religion which are of greatest moment and concernment; if our heat evaporate in externals, the heart and vitals of Religion will infenfibly cool and decline. How fhould we blush who areChriftians, that we have not learnt this eafie truth from the Gofpel, which even the Light of Nature taught the Heathen; Cultus autem deorum eft. aptimus itemque fanctiffimus atque caftifsi Y 3 musą M mus, pleniffimufque pietatis, ut eos femVol. VII. per purâ integra & incorruptâ mente & voce veneremur, Tully. The beft, the Sureft, the most chaft, and most devout worship of the Gods, is that which is pay'd them with a pure, fincere, and uncorrupt Mind, and words truly reprefenting the thoughts of the Heart. Com pofitum jus fafque animi, &c. Serve God with a pure, honeft, holy frame of Spirit, bring him a heart that is but generously honest, and he will accept of the plainest Sacrifice. And let me tell you, that the ceremonious Worship of the Jews was never a thing in it felf acceptable to God, or which he did delight in; and tho' God was pleased with their obedience to the ceremonial Law af ter it was commanded, yet antece. dently he did not defire it; but that which our Saviour faith concerning the Law of Divorce, is true likewise of the ceremonial, that it was per mitted to the Jews for the hardneß their hearts, and for their proneness to Idolatry. God did not command it fo much by way of approbation, bation, as by way of condefcenfion to their weakness; it was because Vol. VII. of the hardness of their carnal hearts that God brought them under the Law of a carnal Commandment, as the Apostle calls it. See Pfal. 51. 16, 17. Fer, 7. 21. The reason why I have infifted fo long upon this, is to let you underftand,what is the true nature of Christ's Religion, and to abate the intemperate heat and zeal. which Men are apt to have for external and indifferent things in Religion. The Sacrifices and Rites of the Jews were very unagreeable and unfuitable to the Nature of God; Pfal. 50. 13. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Spirits neither eat nor drink; it was a very unfuitable way of fervice to kill Oxen and Sheep for God; and there's the fame reason of all other Rites which either natural necef fity or decency doth not require. Can any Man in earnest think, that God who is a Spirit is pleased with the pompous bravery and pageantry which affects our Senfes ? So Y 4 little little doth God value indifferent Vol. VII. Rites, that even the neceffary external Service of God, and outward Reverence, where they are separated from Spirit and truth, from real holinefs and obedience to the indifpenfable Laws of Chrift, are fo far from being acceptable to God, that they are abominable; nay, if they be used for a Cloak of Sin, or in oppofition to real Religion, and with a defign to undermine it, God accounts fuch Service in the number of the moft heinous Sins. You who spend the ftrength and vigour of your Spirits about external things, whose zeal for or against Ceremonies is ready to eat you up, you who hate and perfecute one another because of these things, and break the neceffary and indispensable Commands of Love, as an indifferent. and unneceffary Ceremony, go and learn what that means, I will have mercy, and not facrifice, which our Saviour doth so often inculcate, and that Rom. 14. 17. The kingdom of God is not meat and |