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Saviour, who himself fhewed External Reverence when he prayed, kneeling, lifting up his Eyes, nay, even falling proftrate upon the Ground, himself inftituted an Outward Service of Religion; he instituted Baptifm, and the holy Communion of the Eucharift, and Religious Affemblies of his Church, for the common Service, which cannot poffibly be observed without External Religion and Bodily Worfhip. And if Outward Religion ftands upon the Authority of our Lord, and was inftituted by his Ápostles, it is a fenfless thing to make any question about that Reverence of Outward Behaviour, and those Ornaments of God's House, and the Furniture thereof, by which we are to testify that we serve the great God of Heaven and Earth, and that as we ferve him with pure Minds, because that is the best we can give him, so because we are to serve him outwardly too, we will ferve him also with the beft, even of thofe Things, by which we are to make a Profeffion of honouring him before all the World.

And thus much for the Caution, wherewith the Text is to be understood, that we might not think that thefe Words of our Saviour do destroy Outward Religion and Bodily Worship, by taking away the Lawfulnefs, Profitableness, Needfulness, or Divine Acceptance of that

But

But then even this Caution had need be guarded by another, viz. that we are not therefore at Liberty to run the Service of God into Formalities and Ceremonies without Bounds or Limits, for this the Doctrine of the Text will not justify, but condemn. For,

1. We are furely to obferve thofe Limits, that God himself by an exprefs Command hath prefcribed to us, and that is, that we fhould not worship him by any Visible Cor-, poreal Reprefentations, as the Ifraelites of old did once, when they turned their Glory into the Similitude of a Calf, and as these Samaritans did, who worshipped God under the Reprefentation of a Dove, as likewife do those corrupted Chriftians of the Church of Rome at this Day, who worship God the Father under the Similitude of an Old Man: I fay, we are not to worship God by Pictures or Images, no, tho' they be pretended, nay, much lefs if they be tended to be Reprefentatives or Remembrances for us of his own incomparable Majefty. We need not wonder that God hath exprefly forbidden this, it being directly contrary to the reafon of his Spiritual Worfhip, that he requires, viz. that himself is a pure and perfect Spirit: He is the living and true God, and the Image is but a fenfless and inanimate Thing. God is every where by his Immenfity of Prefence, the Dull

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Image is fix'd to the Place where it stands, it cannot move, but as it is moved, nor does it fee or know any thing where it ftands. What therefore can be a greater Reproach to God and our Saviour Jefus Christ, than to worship him by fuch difhonourable Means as Wood or Stone? To what doth this tend, but to corrupt the Notions of the People concerning God, to make them think meanly and dishonourably of him, as they muft needs do if they take the Godhead to be like fuch Things, which is worse than if they had but fuch Thoughts of him as they have of a good Man? For the preventing of this, and other fuch Mischief, God hath exprefly forbidden the worshipping of any Pictures or Images whatsoever. And truly if there be any fuch Advantages to be made of Image-Worship, in Comparison to which the Danger of it were nothing at all, how comes it to be fo feverely prohibited? But when we confider for whofe Sake chiefly the Profitableness of ferving Images is pretended, we see how true it is that the Wisdom of Man is Foolishness, when it would mend the Provifions of God. For by the Ufers of Images we are told, that by all means Images are to be retained and honoured, because they are the Books and Remembrancers of the common People, and Helps to their Piety and Devotion, and therefore they must not Y

be

be without them. But all wife Men, and feveral of the wifeft even of the Roman Communion have confefs'd it, that the People who want Inftruction most of all, are most apt to be led into the worst Superstitions, and into the most difhonourable Thoughts of God by having Images, and that it is one of the hardest Things in the World to prevent it. Perhaps Philofophers and Priefts, if they be of the better fort, may be able to diftinguish between the Dul nefs of the Image and the Glory of the Prototype; perhaps they may not fuffer that ftupid Thing, by which they convey their Worship to the best Object, to reflect any difparaging Notions into themselves of what they worship, and yet neither is that fo certain; but then they ought not to do that, which looks to the World as if they believed the Object of our Worfhip was fo mean a Thing, that it was capable of being reprefented by Things without Reafon and without Life; but much lefs ought they to do it, when God, to prevent this Dishonour of his own Name, and the Mischief that would be done to the Souls of Men by the Worship of Images, has exprefly forbid it. If Image-Worship had been commanded, as 'tis forbidden, it had been extreamly neceffary to diftinguish between Relative Worship and Abfolute Worship, between Worship terminated on the Image, and intended

tended to the Perfon represented by it, between taking it for our Saviour, and taking it for a miferable Reprefentation of him; but as in this Cafe fuch Distinctions had been very neceffary, fo as the Cafe ftands they are vain and impertinent. For if ImageWorship had been commanded or prescribed, we were to worship Images but as Images, but being forbidden, we are not to worship them at all, I fay, if it had been allowed, we must indeed have worshipped them not without a Diftinction, but as it is forbidden, we must not worship them neither with a Diftinction, because it is forbidden without a Diftinction, and as univerfally as Words can express a Thing.

2. Neither are Things to be ordered in the Worship of God contrary to the general Rules of Worship, feeing he is a Spirit, and is to be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth; for therefore his Worship is not to be clogg'd with a Croud of Ceremonies, as if he were more taken with the Oftentation of Ceremony, and the outward Grandeur and Majefty of Service, than with the Simplicity of a good Mind, as if he were more pleafed with a tedious Train of Formalities and Complementings, than with the Integrity of Faith and Obedience; and thefe Things are not to be done, left Men fhould be diverted from the moft Excellent Service of God in Spirit Y 2 and

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