for the bringing about of his design And if we come to after-times we find the orthodox Christians carryed themselves after the same manner They would rather hazard all then part with one syllable nay one letter of that name wherein the divinity and honour of Christ was concerned When the Arrians desired them to admit one word nay but one letter more into their Creed that is to use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 promising that if they would do it they would be at peace with them yet they would not do it And we read likewise of Basil that when the Prefect asked him for a time to obey and not suffer so many Churches to be troubled for a small subtilty of opinions he told him that those who are instructed in the holy oracles are not suffered to alter one syllable of divine determinations but for them are to endure if called to it all kinds of death Nay we may learn this lesson from the very enemies of the truth themselves For when Cassander taught that Princes ought to find out some way of peace betwixt the Catholicks Lutherans and Calvinists and in the mean time to allow every one his own faith Bellarmine was much displeased and blamed him for it alleadging that the holy fathers taught we must not only keep the articles of the Creed inviolable but all other dogmata fidei or points in religion though they seem but small And writing to Blackwell Arch-priest here in England about the Oath of Allegiance he thus courts him and his party I suppose saith he there are not wanting amongst you those who say they are but subtilties of opinions that are contained in the Oath that is offered to the Catholicks and that you are not to strive against the Kings authority for such a little matter But there are not wanting also amongst you holy men like unto Basil the great who will openly avow that the very least syllable of Gods divine truth is not to be corrupted though many torments were to be endured and death it self set before you Now if Papists thus stand so much on their minuta dogmata why should not we If they oppose the Cassandrian reconciliation its sure time for us to do it If they refuse to close with us because we observe not the presumptions of men we may sure well refuse to close with them when they observe not the institutions of God 6. Is fear of suffering Sin and wickedness long ago got to such an height in the world and the spirit of Cain and Esau works so furiously in the men of this age that it s become dangerous to worship God in the way he hath appointed And such is the timeronsness and faint-heartedness of many professing religion that rather than they 'l suffer for him they 'l forsake the worship he hath set up and close with that which is set up by men While the Sun shines the way is fair and the coasts are clear they cry up religion to the clouds and are ready upon all occasions to say come with me and see my zeal for the Lord but when storms arise and troubles approach they begin to consult not how they may glorifie God by suffering but how they may provide for their own safety Plato knew much of God but as Josephus shews durst not set it down for fear of the people And Lactantius charges the same upon Tully Thou darest not saith he undertake the patronage of the truth for fear of the prison of Socrates And Augustin doth as much for Seneca he spends a whole chapter in shewing how he held the truth in unrighteousness telling us how he reverenced that which he reproved did that which he condemned and worshipped that which he found fault with Though these wise men saw the vanity of the heathenish Deities and the worship that was given to them and looked upon them as utterly unworthy of respect from wise and sober men nay secretly scorned and derided them yet would they not openly declare against them and that for fear of the people who so much doted on them And not only they but divers others who lived in places of greater light have shrunk from the truth and declined the maintaining of it meerly upon the account of suffering The young man our Saviour had to deal with that had gone so far in religion and made such a shew of respect to him no sooner hears talk of parting with his estate for him but he bids him farewell He comes to Christ with so much seeming zeal as if he wanted nothing but a little instruction to make him perfect and fit him for the Kingdom of Heaven He bears it out as if he had been ready to have laid himself and all he had down at the feet of Christ but the issue shews he meant no such thing he no sooner hears that he was like to cost him so dear but he presently turns his back upon him and leaves him Like a young traveller undertaking a voyage he is confident at the first but being come to the water side and there beholding the unruliness of the waves and what dangers the angry visage of the boyling Seas threatens him with his countenance presently falls and he becomes another man Whiles our Saviour speaks to him of things in general he hath his answer ready but when he descends so far as to require him to sell what he had and give it to the poor then he hath no more to say then he shews whether it was Christ or the world that lay next his heart In like manner Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimatheu were men that loved Christ and believed his doctrine yet were so fearfull of bringing themselves into trouble that they durst not publickly own him for the Evangelist tells us that the one of them came to him by night and the other secretly They were great men and by their open testimony might have done much good but they were so fearful of being called in question and of having a stir made about it that they came to him at such times when they might not be taken notice of But to leave them how shamefully did the Apostles themselves miscarry in this particular when the multitude came to apprehend Christ they all forsook him and fled As the rain wet and weakened the Persian bows so afflictions and discouragements do often damp the spirits of good men and cool their zeal to Christ and his cause Thus it hapned to the Disciples the swords and staves of the multitude frighted them away from Christ and made them forsake him and flee Some are of opinion that they did not sin in forsaking him thinking those words of his to the souldiers if ye seek me let these go their way discharged them from attending on him But I conceive they sinned in it and that very grosly For 1. The Evangelist expresses this act of
theirs by the term forsaking which I can hardly think he would have done had it not been sinfull 2. It was against their express promise whereby they all of them obliged themselves to own him and cleave to him though it cost them never so dear This promise saith a man of rare learning as it was made by all the Apostles so it was broken by them all 3. Thereby they much dishonoured Christ and his cause rejoyed such as were his enemies and hardened them against him What might better serve their malicious purposes as an argument against him thâ—n that his own very followers forlook and disowned him 4. Several writers of eminent note interpret it an act of very much cowardise and weakness Gerhard saith this flight of theirs was not a slight matter but a great offence And the Author whom I mentioned before reckons it amongst their errours in manners As for the words alledged for their dismission though they obliged the Souldiers to let them go yet did they not disoblige the Disciples from following him or justifie their cowardly forsaking him Summer birds when Winter comes hide themselves in hollow trees and so did these I have mentioned and so do all temporizing formalists that preferr a little worldly trash before the Glory of God and a good Conscience So long as the Sun shines on Jerusalem they own it and every man saith he was born there but when a cloud is over it then they disown it and are ready to cry with the children of Edom rase it rase it even to the foundation thereof Now this is a most unworthy sinfull course with greatest indignation to be abhorred and with greatest care to be avoided by all such as are true hearted to Religion and that desire that Christs Kingdom may come and be set up in the world What greater disgrace can men do to Religion than for every showâ— of rain that falls run away from it and forsake it what kind of thoughts will those that are without have of Religion when they see us make so light of it They 'l think its a poor kind of Religion when it is not worthy to be suffered for What will they take it to be but a meer fable when they consider it speaks of such great matters and yet see we will not endure the least hardship for it Apostacy is a sin highly dishonourable to God and prejudicial to the truth and therefore God complains of upbraids and declares his displeasure against a people when they shrink back upon the sight of approaching troubles and refuse to suffer for him He long ago laid it to the charge of the Jews that they were not valiant for the Truth Valiant they were as any people in the World but not for the Truth They were couragious for themselves but cowardly for God And this was an aggravation of their Cowardize for this shew'd it proceeded not from any natural imbecillity of the affections but from want of true Piety which if they had had they would have been as valiant for him as they were for themselves And what by one Prophet he lays to the charge of the Jews he doth by another lay to the charge of the Israelites Ephraim saith he is like a silly Dove without heart At other times Ephraim had spirit enough but when he was to ingage for God then he had no heart And thus it is with many amongst us they have heart enough for themselves but none for God If they see their Names Estates or carnal Interest any way touched they are all on a fire and ready to be burnt up with the flames or their own zeal but they can see the Name Truth and Interest of God assaulted and torn all to pieces and never stir In their own matters they are as if they were all heart but in the Cause of God they are as if with Ephraim they had no heart at all Oh it 's sad that men should have an heart for themselves and none for God that they should have courage in their own Cause and none in his This God takes unkindly and will severely punish Though God call us sometimes to suffer for him yet we need not think much at it for he promises us ample recompence he engages that whatever we suffer for him in our Names Enjoyments Relations Friends Liberty or any other thing he will abundantly make us amends Verily saith Christ I say unto you That ye which have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the Throne of his glory ye shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel And everyone that hath forsaken Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my Names sake shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting Life Suffering then for Christ and Religion is rather a kind of gainful Merchandize than any real loss Who ever counted it loss to part with a summ of money upon good security to receive it again at such a time with due Interest why this is the Condition of the Servants of God He is so well pleased with their Sufferings that he ingages to make up whatever they lose upon his account He assures them that whatever they part with for him they shall have it repayed to them an hundred times over and surely that 's good interest But yet lest that should not be thought enough he tells them that in the end they shall inherit everlasting Life And upon these and such-like grounds the Servants of God have in all Ages stood up in the defence of Religion and his true Worship notwithstanding all the miseries they thereby rendred themselves liable to suffer Though the Enemies of God and his Truth inflicted on them the greatest tortures the Devil with all his malice and subtilty could help them to invent yet they entertain'd them cheerfully and endur'd them patiently and not only so but rejoyced in them as Ensigns of highest honour praising God that he would make use of them to suffer for his Name and bear witness to his oppressed Truth Nay sometimes they were acted by such a spirit of heroick Zeal that they desired Sufferings and put themselves upon them When the Prefect urged Basil to comply with the Emperour and threatned him with death if he denied he gave him this resolute and stout answer Thou threatnest me with death saith he and I would it would fall out so well on my side that I might lay down this carcase of mine in the Quarrel of Christ and in the defence of his Truth who is my Head and Captain And when the Prefect pressed him to remember himself and obey the Emperour he rejecting all told him What I am to day the same thou shalt find me to morrow And in like manner Luther professed to Spalatine That he rejoyced with all his heart that God called him to suffer for so good a
strang Wives or the like and were censured and ejected as unclean by the Jews they could presently run to Samaria and there be received And this produced a woful and irreconcileable schism betwixt those two people insomuch that they lived in perpetual discord The hatred betwixt them was so great that they held it unlawful to eat or drink with one another Hence that saying of this Woman to our Saviour How is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me which am a Woman of Samaria Nay such was the hatred of the Jews to the Samaritans that though they granted leave to all Nations in the World to become Proselytes to their religion yet would they not grant it to them Witness that solemn form of excommunication termed excommunicatio in secreto nominis tetragrammati said to be uttered against them by Ezra and Nehemiah They assembled the whole Congregation saith my Author into the Temple of the Lord and brought 300 Priests 300 Trumpets and 300 books of the Law with as many boyes And when they sounded their Trumpets and the Levites sang they cursed the Samaritans by all the sorts of excommunication in the mystery of the name Jehovah and in the Decalogue and with the curse both of the inferiour and superiour house of judgement that no Israelite should eat the bread of a Samaritan whence they say he who eateth bread of a Samaritan is as he who eateth Swines flesh and let no Samaritan be a proselyte in Israel neither let them have any part in the resurrection of the dead And as the Jews did thus prosecute their cause against the Samaritans with much heat and confidence so likewise did the Samaritans theirs against them Though they had the worse of it yet were they no less peremptory and stedfast in their way than the former being ready upon all occasions to maintain their opinion and dispute for it Witness the carriage of the Woman in this place she do's not barely propound the question to our Saviour and then wait to hear how he would determine it but stands up and reasons with him about it Our Fathers saith she worshipped in this Mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to Worship Now our Saviour in answer to this great question and for the composing of this long difference of no less than 400 years continuance tells her that the time was approaching wherein the Worship of God should be confined neither to Garizim nor Jerusalem yet by the way lets her know there was a great deal of difference betwixt the Worship of the Samaritans and the Jews Ye Worship saith he ye know not what we know what we Worship There was no comparison betwixt the Worship of the Samaritans and the Jews The Jews might miss it in the manner of their Worship but the Samaritans did not only miss it in that but likewise in the object of it for they worshipped they knew not what But in opposition both to the Worship of the Samaritans and the Jews he tells her that the hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall Worship the Father in spirit and in truth c. Which words imply as much as if he had said the question which thou now propoundest to me and hath been disputed so long with so much heat amongst you is now of small moment for God is about not only to alter the place but the manner of his Worship As he will not have his Worship limited either to Garizim or Jerusalem so neither will he have it limited to the mode either of the one place or the other but will be worshipped after another manner and the manner wherein he will be Worshipped is spiritual and simple they that Worship him must Worship him in spirit and in truth And thus I have with what brevity I could conveniently led you down to the words of the Text and given you an account of the author and occasion of them To make any Analysis or division of them is needless and therefore without any further stay I shall draw from them this point That it is the duty of the sons of men in these dayes of the Gospel to Worship God in spirit and in truth Though all Christians nay all Nations agree that there is a God and that he is to be Worshipped yet they do not agree about the manner of it Some will have him to be Worshipped one way and some another according as their light and principles lead them Some will have him to be Worshipped immediately others mediately or remotely Some with slaying of beasts and bloody sacrifices others in a spiritual and simple manner without any such adoe Some in the use of external rites and shadows others without them Now our Saviour who came from his Fathers bosome and most perfectly understood his will undertakes the determining of this controversie and shews after what manner he would have men to Worship him They that Worship saith he must Worship him in spirit and in truth The point lyes so visibly in the Text that I need not send you to other places of Scripture to shew you the truth of it and therefore I shall not spend time in that The Method I shall observe in prosecuting it is this 1. I shall shew what is meant by Worship 2. What by spirit 3. What by truth 4. The reasons of both branches that is to say wherefore we must worship God in spirit and wherefore in truth 5. I shall lay down one or two cautions And 6. come to the Vses all which I shall dispatch with plainness and brevity 1. I shall shew what is meant by Worship The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the extraction and derivation whereof the Etymologists are not agreed Zanchy thinks it's derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Dog and that it is a Metaphor taken from spaniels that use in subjection to their masters to couch upon the ground before them And that which renders it somewhat more probable is that the Hebrew Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie to worship do also signifie to fall down or lye prostrate as also that the Jews both in their civil and religious worship used to do so However others are against this derivation and assign another Rivet thinks it is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to kiss and that which renders this more probable is that kissing hath been a very antient symbol of adoration Witness that of Job If my mouth saith he hath kissed my hand this were an iniquity to be punished by the judge for I should have denyed the God that is above A bare kissing the hand he cannot mean for that we may reckon amongst those actions that are indifferent neither good nor bad but he means such a kissing of the hand as was a ceremony belonging to idolatrous worship The Heathenish
prevail A little Pulse and Water with his blessing nourishes better than all the dainties of the Emperours Court without it But the Jesuite goes on and tells us That what Salt is to Flesh that Ceremonies are to Religion To say no more have not these men dainty stomachs when they must have sauce to such savoury Food Are they not better fed than taught when Angels Food will not down unless dipped in the sauce of humane Ceremonies Is not the Word of God it self sweeter than the honey or the honey Comb And are not the Sacraments of themselves a feast of fat things a feast of wines on the lees of fat things full of marrow of wines on the lees well refined And must they have sauce to these Were their appetites like those of the Apostles and Primitive Christians and other of their fellow servants they would make shift to get down such food without the Salt of Ceremonies and it were just with God to take it from them and make them fast until they have better stomachs If notwithstanding all this the Worship and Ordinances of Christ in their spirituality and simplicity will not down with them but they must needs have the sauce of Ceremonies let them go on and take their course but as the Scripture saith let not us eat of their dainties And so much for the grounds on which men proceed and build their prejudice against Worshipping God in truth 4. Is a worldly temporizing frame of spirit whereby they suit themselves and their proceedings to the times and places wherein they live doing not that which God requires and ténds to the honour and furtherance of Religion but that which carnal Policy suggests and tends to the promoting of their worldly interest They prostitute themselves to sublunary influences and suffer themselves to be acted and governed by them ever steering their course that way that promises most gain and safety choose whether it be the way of God yea or no. They do not like good and righteous men keep their Consciences at one but turn them as Diogenes did his Tub still upon the Sun Of this kind of spirit was Alcibiades who transformed himself into all manner of shapes good or bad that the several times places and conditions wherein he was called for insomuch that he exceeded as my Author saith the Cameleon it self In Sparta he was painful and abstemious in Ionia idle and voluptuous in Thrace he was ever drinking and riding in Persia magnificent and fumptuous still observing the mode of the place where he was and conforming to it And of this spirit was Ecebolus in the time of Constantius he own'd the Christian Religion in the time of Julian he disclaim'd it and in the time of Jovinian he returned to it again and so as the Historian saith He was light and inconstant from first to last And of this spirit was Petrus Mongus Bishop of Alexandria first he was of the Orthodox Faith then a Condemner of it after an Aopprover of it and after that a Condemner of it And of this spirit are many of the present Age. both in this and other Nations Some in France were of Opinion that it is meet for a man to accommodate himself to that manner of serving God which is received by custom or authorized by the Magistrate every one in his respective Countrey without much solicitousness and inquiry whether it be Christian or Jewish Pagan or Mahometan And this was it that put Amyrald as he himself shews upon writing of that excellent Treatise of Religions wherein he solidly refutes that atheistical and profane conceit And there are too many amongst us that in complyance with Hobb's licentious Principles will rather be of any Religion the Magistrate shall set up or worship God any way he shall appoint than expose themselves to a little censure and trouble If the States under whom they live will have them to be Protestants they 'l be Protestants and if they 'l have them to be Papists they 'l be Papists If they 'l have them to worship God without Ceremonies they 'l worship him without them and if they 'l have them to worship him with them they 'l worship him with them To be short they 'l be as to matter of Religion whatever their Governours will have them to be do whatever they will have them to do thereby giving the world to understand that they are not made as the Marquess of Winchester said ex Quercu but ex Salice not of Oak but of Willow A man may say to one of them as Tully did to the man in his time As is the Garment so is thy Opinion thou hast one for home and another for abroad Now this is a most unworthy and base frame of spirit and a most wicked and sinful practice savouring rather of Atheism than of true Piety or any Christian zeal It is quite contrary to the express Command of God who forbids Conformity to the World It is quite contrary to the honour importance aud security of Religion that calls for our utmost Zeal Seriousness and Exactness it is quite contrary to that solemn Oath we entred into at our Baptism whereby we ingaged to forsake the World and keep Gods holy Commandments and walk in the same all the days of our Lives It is quite contrary to the practice of the faithful Servants of God in all Ages of the World The Righteous saith Job shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger The work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies such a way as is distinct from other ways and such a course as is different from that which others take and this the righteous man walks in stedfastly and constantly Notwithstanding the paucity of those that joyn with him and the numerousness of those that separate from him yet he holds on in his way notwithstanding all the flouts and taunts that he meets with from the Sons of Belial for his holy singularity and preciseness yet he does not like the Weather give again but stands his ground and holds on his way To go no further how fixed and stable was Job himself in the midst of those shaking Providences that befel him Though God rent and tore him all to pieces yet he remain'd still the same Till I die saith he I will not remove my Integrity from me q. d. Though I have lost my Children and Estate and Friends yet I have retain'd my Integrity and that I am resolved to take with me to my Grave as naked as I am I have one thing still that is my Integrity and choose what befalls me I am resolved to keep that Though Satan should offer me all he hath taken from me in exchange of it yet would I not part with it though he should offer me as many Kingdoms as I have boyles in this diseased Body yet I would not let it go As my Soul is the