Cultus Evangelicus Or a brief DISCOURSE Concerning the SPIRITUALITY AND SIMPLICITY OF New-Testament WORSHIP Whit. op t. 1. l. 9. cont Dur. de Sophism p. 226. Itaque nunc ut vides non tantum Judaicae ceremoniae quas ipse Deus praescripsit sed alias etiam universas quas homo quisquam tradidit docuit guales vestrae omnes sunt apertissimè prohibentur LONDON Printed for Eliz. Calvert at the Sign of the black spread Eagle in Duck-Lane 1667. Cultus Evangelicus OR NEW TESTAMENT WORSHIP JOH 4. 23 24. But the hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall Worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth IN the former part of this Chapter we have the famous dialogue that passed betwixt the Lord Jesus and the Woman of Samaria the occasion whereof was this Our blessed Saviour did with unwearied care and industry lay out himself for the gaining and winning of souls and the bringing of them to the obedience of his Father He sought not so much how to make himself great as how to make others good He made it his business to rescue the poor sapsed and degenerated sons of men out of the paws of Satan whom he saw hurrying them away towards destruction and reduce them into a state of peace and safety And though he met with great opposition herein the dragon and his angels with united force and inflamed rage banding against him yet as was foretold the pleasure of the Lord did prosper in his hand and he saw of the travel of his soul the people following him in great multitudes from Galilee and from Decapolis and from Jerusalem and from Judaea and from beyond Jordan admiring his wisdom and speaking well of his name Which the envious Pharisees that viperous brood impatient of whatever tended to the Eclipsing of their own authority and esteem taking notice of laid their heads together against him and without having any respect to the divine Majesty that shone in his countenance the innocency of his person holiness of his life or eminency of his works consulted how they might destroy him Such was their prodigious unthankfulness and unworthiness that the more love he manifested to them the more hatred they shewed to him The more he appeared for them the more they appeared against him The more he laboured to save them the more they laboured to slay him thereby giving him occasion to complain of them as David once did of his enemies they rewarded me evil for good And he being aware of their bloody design departs from amongst them and being on his way he comes to Sychar a City of Samaria it is the same with that Shechem and Sichem so often mentioned in the Old Testament where Joshuah and Eleazar the High-Priest held the first Council for the abolishing of strange Worship and so he leaves the proud self-admiring Pharisees that dealt so unworthily with him and goes and òpens the treasures of grace and love to the despised Samaritans thereby verifying that sacred Oracle thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Now at this Sychar to which our Saviour came there was a Well called Jacobs Well For we read in the history of the Patriarchs that when Jacob came to Shalem a City of Shechem he bought a parcel of Land of the Children of Hamor and there erected an Altar and then in all probability made this well which continued till our Saviours time being called by the name of Jacobs Well Contzen the Jesuite thinks that when Jacob was at this place he did not only make this but many Wells Whether this be true or no doth not appear but this is evident that if when he was at this place he made many Wells either this only of them all remained till our Saviours time or else was in a way of peculiar eminency called Jacobs Well It was about the sixth hour that is about Noon when our Saviour came to this Well He was weary with his tedious Journey which had lasted him as may be computed two or three dayes and here he sits down to rest him and refresh him And the Disciples being gone into the City for provision he continues there alone Presently there comes a Woman of Samaria to draw Water and he being willing to make use of all occasions of doing good enters into discourse with her which continued so long till she perceived there was more than ordinary worth in him till she saw he was a Prophet And having such an opportunity she presently starts that great question so much controverted betwixt the Jews and Samaritans about the place of Worship Whether she did it out of Womanish loquacity or to pass away the time or to satisfie conscience appears not but this is evident that she did it Now the Question it self was this Whether Garizim where the Samaritans Sacrificed or Jerusalem where the Jews Sacrificed were the true place of Worship On the one hand the Samaritans held that Garizim was it on the other hand the Jews held that Jerusalem was it The occasion of this difference as divers authors shew happened thus The Samaritans were the off-spring of those Nations whom Salmanazar King of Assyria placed in the Cities of Samaria after he had carryed the ten Tribes captive and at their coming thither being Pagans they worshipped not the God of Israel but the gods of the Nations from whence they came Hereupon the Lord provoked with their Idolatry sends Lyons amongst them which molested and slew them And they apprehending it to be because they worshipped not the God of the land they sent to the King of Assyria and informed him how things stood Upon that he sends them one of the captive Priests who came and taught them how they should fear the Lord and so to make sure work they worshipped both the God of Israel and their own God too And thus it continued tâ—ll towards the end of the Persian Monarchy at which time Manasses brother to Jaddus the High priest of those Jews that were returned from Babylon did contrary to the Law of Moses which forbad contracting of Matrimony with the forreign Nations Marry Nicazo daughter to Sanballat the Horonite then governour of Samaria for which fact Jaddus his brother and the other Jews were exceedingly incensed against him and expelled him from Jerusalem Upon this he betakes himself to Sanballat his Father-in-law who courteously entertains him and not only so but upon Alexander's the Great overcoming the Persians he obtains leave of him to build a Temple at Garizim and there he places this Manasses his Son-in-law to perform the Office of High-priest Now this was very injurious to the Jews and begat great confusion For if any had eaten unlawful meats trangressed the Sabbath marryed
as by their signification taught moral duties I could instance in several ceremonies that were no more typical than the ceremonies in these times contended for be and yet Christ at his coming abolished them and caused them to be laid aside removing every thing that might hinder the simplicity of that administration he intended to put his Church under And therefore there is no more warrant for the institution observation or imposition of other ceremonies than for those which are typical unless they are such as Christ himself hath appointed But hereby we see what hard shift superstitious men will make before they will yield to the abolishing of those burdensome and sinful innovations they have introduced into the worship of God to the woful depraveing thereof and hindring us of that blessing that otherwise we might expect upon it Yet notwithstanding all their heat and tenaciousness they will grant us this that from these words of our Saviour we may inferr the abrogation of the Jewish ceremonies and that concession is sufficient for our purpose Let those that would have new ones produce their warrant for them Let them shew but as good authority for the institution and observation of them as we can do for the abolition and abrogation of these and we will joyn with them Without question had it been the mind of Christ that his Church under the Gospel should have worshiped him in the use of ceremonies he would either have kept up the old ones or else when he abolished them he would have instituted new but herein setting out what I shall hereafter except he is altogether silent And with this agrees that of Medina In the evangelical law saiâ—h he there were no sacramentals that is ceremonies belonging to sacraments instituted of our Lord Christ because of the dignity and excellency of our sacraments which are so precious that although they were presented to us naked without the props of ceremonies they would yet be worthy of all veneration Now he being faithful in his house and ready to prescribe every thing that might tend to the orderly government and welfare thereof and yet being silent herein may satisfie us it was his pleasure that such kind of worship should cease 6. Others think to worship God in spirit is to worship him with the inner man and to worship him in truth is to worship him not only without the use of such ceremonies as typifie things to come but all other ceremonies whatsoever saving those of divine appointment whether they typifie things to come or things past or present And so they will have the words of our Saviour to the woman to imply as much as if he had said thus You that are Samaritans worship the Father at Garizim and the Jews at Jerusalem and both of you besides your Temples wherein you celebrate your sacred mysteries have many types and figures many shadows and ceremonies but know that now the time of this kind of worship is expired God will have his Church under a new administration and will be worshipped after another manner He hath for many hundred years been worshipped by you at Garizim and by the Jews at Jerusalem and by both of you in the use of many rites and ceremonies but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth c. And this sense as it agrees best with the context so it is that which the most learned judicious and orthodox writers both ancient and modern give of the words Eusebius hath a very remarkable passage Disputing against the Jews and mentioning many eminent persons of the old Testament that worshipped God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as Melchisedeck Noah Enoch Abram Joseph Job and Moses himself in his younger years he saith it is manifest that those blessed men and friends of God did not worship in any certain determinate place neither by symbols and types but as our Saviour and Lord hath said in spirit and in truth The substance of what he saith is this that in the dayes of the Old-testament there were several choice persons famous in their generations that worshipped God without the use of symbols and types and that at the coming of Christ that kind of worship spread throughout all nations according as the Prophets had foretold His words are not to be restrained only to such symbols and types as prefigure things to come though I believe he aimes at such too because he writes against the Jews most of whose symbols and types were of that nature but to be extended to such symbols and types as signifie things either past or present For the better conceiving whereof you are to note that these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ordinarily put not only for figures of things to come but for the signa indicia similitudines imagines figurae or exempla of things whether past or present Briefly his design is to hold forth to the Jews that the worship of those eminent persons before the Law was plain and simple and that the Law whereby another kind of worship was established is abrogated and that it being abrogated it ought to be so now Hereupon he labours to perswade them to lay aside their ceremonies bring back the Worship of God to its ancient spirituality and simplicity and to serve him in that way which their renowned ancestors had formerly done with happy success And that spirit is set in opposition to what is carnal or outward and truth to what is ceremonial or figurative is the opinion of divers others of the Ancients as the Jesuites themselves confess Bellarmine saith it s the opinion of Chrysostome Cyril Euthymius Maldonate goes further and saith it was not only the opinion of them but of Origen Tertullian Hilary Procopius and Theophylact likewise And of the same perswasion are writers of a latter time Bucer saith that even by this one word all use of Ceremonies is taken away Pelican writing on a Levitical law against the Jews symbolizing with Idolaters speaks after this manner God by this one law would have them cast away and abhor what ever had pleased the Gentiles much more care ought Christians to have of this who being taught to worship God in spirit and truth ought first and last to have abhorred the idle unreasonable and deceitful forms and rites of Idolaters And Farel writing to Calvin about a popish fellow whose name was Carolus saith thus when Carolus would obtrude his significations in garments and other Magick like signs we opposed that Christ hath taught us a purer manner of worshipping the Father in spirit and truth without shadows And Gualther speaking of these words of our Saviours saith he teaches that all ceremonies ought now together to be laid aside and that henceforth there needs no disputing about them And with these agree Calvin Beza Pareus Chemnitius Illyricus Melancton Musculus Piscator Rolloc Gomarus Grotius and
the whole stream of Protestant Writers I had collected their words and set them down but finding that they took up more room than in so small a tract may well be spared I thought it convenient to lay them by Those that have a mind to peruse them may have recourse to their Commentaries and Annotations on the Text and there find them They do for the most part so distinguish as that they set spirit in opposition to what is carnal corporeal external and truth to what is figurative ritual and ceremonial but they do not all I confess precisely observe that distinction yet they do all from hence declare against the use of Ceremonies in New-Testament worship not only against the use of Jewish Ceremonies but others likewise I know some of them as well as the Ancients before them speak with reference to the Jewish and Samaritan Ceremonies and so without question our Saviour did too for what other carrying the least colour of authority or reason were there then for him to speak against but yet not so as if they thought those were the only ceremonies that fell under our Saviours censure That they never thought the Jewish and Samaritan Ceremonies were the only ceremonies condemned by our Saviour appears in this that they alledge this place against the Papists and their Ceremonies accounting it a good and solid argument against them Besides such as have commented upon it and so have taken occasion to urge it against them Chamier Camero Bucan with many more in writings of another nature improve it against them Now if it be a good argument against the Ceremonies of the Papists why may it not likewise be so against the Ceremonies of others who have derived them from them Indeed Contzen the Jesuite saith that spirit and truth are here opposed to hypocrisie and the vanity of certain of the Jews and all the Samaritans rather than to figures but herein he is not only contradicted by the body of Protestant writers but by his own friends Bonaventure Jansenius nay Ribera and others of his own order in what they have writ on the place In a word our Saviour well foreknew not only how loth the Jews and Samaritans would be to part with those Ceremonies which they had so long made use of but likewise how prone others in after-ages would be to a Ceremonious superstitious pompous Worship and therefore saw it needful to speak not only against the Ceremonies of the Samaritans and Jews in particular but also all Ceremonies in general and this he doth in these words They that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth 4. I am now to give you the grounds of the point and shew you wherefore it is the duty of the sons of men in these dayes of the Gospel to worship God in spirit and in truth And I shall first speak of worshipping him in spirit Now they ought to do that for these Reasons 1. Because it is the will and pleasure of God whom they are to worship that they should so do And this sure to all those that know any thing what a deity means is a sufficient reason The will of God saith the Seraphick Doctor is the reason of reasons and not only right but the rule of our proceedings And latter writers speak to the same purpose As his power is unlimited and his wisdome infinite so his authority is supream and his freedome absolute and therefore he may both do what he will himself and appoint what he will have us to do and it is not for such worms as we are either to resist or censure him Earthly Potentates we may censure for they are under Law themselves as well as we but it is not so with God he is not under any Law save the Law of his own most holy and righteous will in the choice and determination whereof we stand bound by vertue both of that natural and professed allegiance we owe to him under the harshest appointments and distastfullest occurrences to acquiesce and rest satisfied He needs not the advice or help of any of his creatures whether Angels or men to assist him in the management of his affairs He made the world without them redeemed his Church without them and he knows how to govern it without them And the reason wherefore he doth this and not that and appoints this and not that is not any natural necessity or debility that is in him for he is al-sufficient but it is his own pleasure I may say in this case as our Saviour did in the like Even so O Father because it seemed good in thy sight or as it is in the original because it was thy good pleasure Now that it is the will and pleasure of God that we should worship him in spirit is evident And now Israel saith he what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in all his wayes and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul He doth not only require us to serve him but to serve him with the heart and not only with the heart in an indefinite way but with every part of it The heart is a thing he stands so much on that he will not endure we should withhold it or any part of it from him He will either have it or nothing and he will either have all of it or none of it The sacrifices of God saith David are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise What an expression is this were no sacrifices the sacrifices of God but this were all other sacrifice of men No but though other sacrifices were his sacrifices appointed and owned by him yet this was his sacrifice in a way of eminency and in a peculiar manner This is the sacrifice he principally calls for looks after accepts of and promises his blessing to He doth not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not sacrifice but sacrifices to intimate to us that this one sacrifice is instead of all other sacrifices And with this doctrine of the old-testament agrees that of the new We must saith Paul do the will of God from the heart This phrase from the heart doth not here stand in opposition to with the heart as sometimes it doth but in coincidency with it He doth not mean we must serve him from something else and not the heart but from the heart and nothing else He would have our service to be cordial sincere hearty service free from that abominable hypocrisie and formality that attends the performances of unsanctified carnal graceless men But that God would have us to worship him in spirit I need not go so far for proof of the very text shews it Such saith Christ the Father seeks to worship him thereby intimating that he doth not only allow of such kind
imperfect and finite but when we appear before God and do reverence to him we must do it with apprehensions of eminency and that such as is uncreated perfect infinite There are two dangerous rocks we are apt to dash our selves upon the one is the ascribing to the creature the perfections of God by conceiving of him carrying our selves towards him as God and the other is the ascribing to God the imperfections of the creature conceiving of him and carrying our selves towards him as a creature Now to give to the creature the Prerogative of God and to charge upon God the defects of the creature are equally absurd and dangerous It must therefore be our care that our worship be suitable to the object to which it is tendered That is fit for the Creator that is not fit for the creature and that is fit for the creature that is not fit for the Creator In our worshipping the creature we must take heed of going too far and in our worshipping the Creator we must take heed of falling short As God would not have us give to him the honour he hath allowed the creature so neither will he have us to give the creature that honour he hath reserved for himself but we must give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods If we neglect to worship man we offer violence to the commandments of the second table if God then we offer violence to the commandments of the first To worship God and not man is to overthrow that beautiful and comely order he hath established in the world and to worship man and not God is to deny him that natural right that belongs to him and prefer his own creature before him which must needs be a sin of a very hainous nature We must see therefore that we worship both man and God man with the worshhip belonging to him and God with the worship belonging to him which what it is more particularly is the next thing I am to speak of 2. I am to shew what is meant by worshiping God in spirit For the better understanding whereof let us first enquire what is meant by the simple term spirit For if it be a true rule that the way to finde out the meaning of a complex term is first to take it asunder and seek out the meaning of the simple terms included in it then the way to find out the meaning of the worshipping God in spirit is first to take the clause asunder and seek out the meaning of the simple term spirit We cannot tell what is meant by worshiping God in spirit till we have first found out what is meant by spirit and when we know that we may easily know the other Now the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of various significations too many here to be reckoned up It is a word that the holy Ghost hath made use of to express the highest and eminentest beings in the world There is not any intelligent being whatsoever but it is applyed to it Sometimes it s spoken of God considered both essentially and personally Sometimes of angels both good and bad Sometimes of the soul of man and that not only vital but rational as it comprehends the understanding conscience heart will affections and all the powers thereof And in this last sense that is as it is put for the reasonable soul it uses to be taken when it is mentioned with the service and duty that we owe to God Though the sacred Pen-men put it for several things yet when they joyn it with our duty to God they mean by it the reasonable soul which as it is the interiour so it is the superiour nobler and better part of man whereby only he is capable of knowing God understanding his will and doing him service Witness these passages God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit And I will pray with the spirit And praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit And so our Saviour uses the word in this place by spirit he means the reasonable soul or inner man as it stands in opposition to the body or outward man The meaning then of worshiping God in spirit is this that we must not worship him only with the body or outward man as heathens and hypocrites use to do but with the soul or inner man which is that which he in all holy addresses mainly looks after This I might have been larger on but I shall have occasion to say somewhat of it under the next particular 3. I am to shew you the meaning of worshiping God in truth And of this passage I may say as Maldonate did of another perhaps it had been easier had not men obscured it by their expositions Having perused several writers upon it I find them very different in their apprehensions concerning it Such of their opinions as are most remarkable I shall give you an account of and then recommend to you that which I take to be the true and genuine sense of it 1. Some think that by spirit in this place we are to understand the third person in the Trinity and by truth the second and that to worship God in spirit and in truth is to worship the Father in the Son and the Son in the Holy Ghost which is to worship the whole Trinity This way goes Athanasius but as Tolet the Jesuit saith truly it is difficult to accommodate this to the context Had this been our Saviours meaning he should rather have said they that worship him must worship him in truth and in spirit than as it is here in spirit and in truth But the mistake is evident and therefore I need to say no more of it 2. Others think to worship God in spirit and in truth are one and the same thing that to worship him in spirit is to worship him in truth and to worship him in truth is to worship in spirit and so they will have the one to be an exposition of the other And they say to worship him in spirit and in truth is not to worship him under a visible representation or similitude as if he were a material substance or body For the Samaritans worshipped him under the image of a dove and circumcised their children in the name thereof And so they will have our Saviours words to imply as much as if he had answered the woman thus Thou enquirest of me concerning the true place of worship whether it be mount Garizim or Jerusalem which is a thing now not very material for as much as the time is at hand that the worship of God shall be confin'd to neither of them But there is a greater difference betwixt us then that of place which thou takest no notice of and that is about the object of worship ye worship ye know not what
baits he can to insnare it mattering neither one thing nor other so he can but gain it He goes about like a roaring lyon ranges up and down compasses Sea and Land and all to make a prey of souls Other Lyons prey upon bodies but he preys upon souls Now all these things bespeak the excellency of the soul. Were not the nature of it very pretious neither man nor God nor Satan would make such account of it And by how much the soul is more excellent by so much the worship performed by it is the more excellent By how much the soul is more excellent than the body by so much the worship of the soul is more excellent than that of the body Lanctantius speaking of the excellency of the Christian religion above that of the Heathens saith go amongst them and there is nothing but the blood of beasts a little smoak and foolish sacrificing but with us there is a good mind a pure heart and an innocent life The one was outward the other inward the one consisted in killing and sacrificing of beasts the other in purity of heart and innocency of life And without doubt a pure heart and an innocent life are of higher price with God than the most splendid glittering outward worship whatsoever And some of the heathens themselves thought no less as appears by that of Tully the most excellent pure holy and pious worship of the gods saith he is that we should serve them with a pure sincere and upright mind and voice Now if the spirit be the most excellent part of man and worshipping in spirit be the most excellent kind of worship then certainly it belongs to God and ought to be rendered to him For as he is the donor and Lord of all we have so he is worthy of and looks for whatever is most excellent from us If the first-born he the most excellent he looks for that if our first-fruit be most excellent he looks for that and if there be a male in our flock he looks for that and will not take it well if he be denyed Since then worshipping him in spirit is the most excellent kind of worship we may well make account he expects it from us 4. Because till we worship him in spirit we worship him in vain Though a man spend never so much time and treasure in worshipping God yet if his spirit ingage not in it all is to no purpose Though he should with the Heathen offer whole Hecatombs of sacrifices yet if his spirit concurr not in the work all would be ineffectual This the Scripturs is most clear in witness that of the Prophet Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God shall I come before him with burnt offerings with Calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God The people were convinced that it was their duty to please God but they knew not how to do it They thought great and costly Sacrifices of Calves Rams Oyl and such like things would have done it but the Prophet teaches them another lesson he lets them know that was not the way and withall shews them there was something else which they minded not that was more acceptable to him than any such matters and that was justice mercy and humble walking These he shews were far more pleasing to God than all those Ceremonious and costly Sacrifices they kept such a stir with and put so much confidence it Both the Israelites and jews in the time of their degeneracy were much in external sacrifices and services and what were they better for it O Ephraim saith God What shall I do unto thee for your goodness is as a morning cloud and as the early dew it goeth away What is emptier than the morning cloud and what is lighter than the early dew a blast of wind dispels the one and a beam of the Sun exhales the other How came it to pass then that the goodness of Ephraim and Judah had no more substance and solidity in it why because they rested in their external services and performances not regarding in the mean time that which they should mainly have looked after Nay God doth not only make light account of unspiritual services but he rejects and abhors them as things abominable Bring saith he no more vain oblations incense is an abomination to me Though the Sacrifices they offered him were of his own appointment and typified the death of his Son who was so dear to him yet in regard they proceeded not from the heart but were tendered to him in an hypocritical way he refuses to receive them speaks of them under terms of highest dislike and disdain tells them plainly they were hatefull and loathsome to him And he doth not only reject and abhor such kind of service but severely punishes it For as much saith he as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honour me but have removed their heart far froms me and their fear towards me is taught by the precept of men therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvellous work amongst this people even a marvellous work and a wonder for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid And this truth the modern Jews though a people very prone to rest in outward services do confess and own in an eminent manner Buxtorf saith that upon the very walls of their Synagogue they have this sentence written Prayer without the intention of the mind is like the body without the soul. And Cappellus tells us that in their Euchologium or prayer-book they have this passage to the same purpose Where withall shall I come before his face but with my spirit for nothing is more pretious to a man than his soul And the Papists too for all their peregrinations processions images and gawdy stuff speak after the same manner Estius writing upon the Text saith Our Saviour requires that kind of worship which is most excellent and which is altogether necessary and without which bodily worship is unprofitable and vain Nay the wiser sort of the very Heathens own it Plutarch saith It s incredible that the gods delight in the outward beauty of creatures And if he held that the gods delight not in the outward beauty of creatures we may fairly conclude he also held that they delight not in the outward dress of services when there is nothing of inward affection and devotion It appears then not only from Scripture the sentence whereof is of it self
his to devise and that blasphemous tongue of his to utter but far different from what the Holy-Ghost dictaed to the Prophets and Apostles As God would not have us to worship him with the body only so neither would he have us to worship him with the soul only but with soul and body both together He is maker and Lord both of the one and the other and therefore he expects to be worshipped with the one as well as with the other When he calls so much for our worshipping him in spirit he doth not thereby exclude or discharge us from worshipping him with the body he never intended any such thing He calls upon us indeed to worship him with the spirit principally but not only Thus the Saints of old acted and guided by the Holy Ghost ever understood him and therefore did not only imploy their spirits in worshipping him but their bodies also To instance in the duty of prayer therein they bowed their knees lifted up their eyes voice hands smote upon their breasts and the like thereby teaching us that when we imploy our selves in the worship of God we must not only ingage the soul but the body likewise And Amyrald who writes against such quodlibetick spirits tells us that there never was any Nation that thought it enough to serve God in thought only without making demonstrations of their devotion by gestures and external actions And though bodily exercise as it is single and divided from the spirit doth as the Apostle saith profit little yet when it joyns with it it profits much It assists the spirit elevates the heart inflames the affections excites to devotion and makes us far more lively in the service of God than otherwise we should be What difference is there commonly in the intention of mens affections betwixt their praying only inwardly in the spirit and outwardly with the voice what deadness and straitness do usually attend the one and what life and inlargement the other Hence we find that the ancient Christians when they set upon the service of God did on purpose take in the body to assist the soul and further their devotion in it Witness that of Augustin by words saith he and other signes we greatly excite our selves to increase holy desire And upon this and such like grounds Aquinas teaches that prayer though secret may be vocal or that in our closet-performances when we have no spectators but God and Angels we may use the voice Anatomists say there are certain strings that come from the heart to the tongue so that the agitation and motion of the tongue doth stir and shake the heart and thereby awaken and affect it rendring it more vigorous and lively in its present services If therefore when we are waiting upon God in secret we find our hearts dead and liveless we may make use of the tongue for the quickning of them and rendring them more fit for the enjoyment of communion with him and better carrying on of his service The truth is such is the indisposition of our hearts to good that they are apt like Eutichus to drop asleep in the service of God and therefore we have need of something to awaken them and if we find the voice will do it we may use it If we find them lively and in good frame and fit for the service we are about we may then spare it and pray as Hannah did in her heart but if otherwise we may and ought to use it This I speak of the duty of prayer and that prayer which is secret the use of the voice is also necessary when one prayes in the person of many as the Master in his family or the Minister in the Congregation Those that are to joyn with them are to know what Petitions they make and say Amen to them which they cannot do except they use the voice And as the voice is thus to be used in the worship of God so must other parts of the body as the occasion serves and the nature of the duty requires And this is the common Doctrine of Protestants and therefore it is an unworthy slander of Maldonate the Jesuite that the Calvinists interpret worshipping in spirit a worshipping with faith alone as if they were Solifidians and against all external services Now what shall be done to thee thou false tongue sharp arrows of the Almighty and coals of Juniper This is even as true as that the Devil ran away with Luther that Calvin dyed blaspheming that Beza recanted that Junius had a cloven foot Nay this is as true as that their St. Patrick caused the stoln Sheep to bleat in the belly of him that had eaten it that St. Lupus shut the Devil all night up in a Tanckard that St. Dunstan held him fast by the nose with a pair of Tongs that St. Dominick made him hold him the Candle till he burnt his fingers with abundance of such ridiculous childish fables which yet their deluded vulgar take to be as true as the Gospel it self Let any man that hath eyes but read Calvin himself on the Text and he shall find him speaking not only for faith and purity of heart but likewise for prayer giving of thanks and innocency of life Nay their own Cajetan hath spoken as much if not more upon this Text for internal worship than Calvin hath done In spirit that is saith he not in the Mount not in Jerusalem not in any place not with temporal worship not with the tongue but with inward worship consisting in spirit that is in the mind as it bears the office of the spirit and layes out it self in spiritual matters What if Calvin had said all this then the angry Jesuite would sure have opened his mouth indeed But we may not wonder that the Jesuites carry it thus towards us Their friend Jarrigius hath told us what kind of dealing we are to expect from them It is saith he speaking to one of them your ordinary custome according to the secret and mysterious rules of the society to impose things upon the pastors of the reformed Churches in your injurious and treacherous refutations and make the world believe they say what never came into their thoughts A Jesuites tongue then is no slander but no more of this 2. Though it be our duty in these dayes of the Gospel to worship God in truth or without the use of Ceremonies yet we do not understand this to the exclusion 1. Of such Ceremonies as are of divine institution When Christ abolished the Jewish and Samaritan Ceremonies he instead thereof instituted some of another nature that were to continue Of this sort are water in Baptism bread and wine in the Supper with the several actions pertaining to them That these are Ceremonies both Papists and Protestants as Chamier shews grant and that they are of divine institution none but infidels will deny And these ceremonies notwithstanding what hath been
go into his presence to sanctifie his name and humble our selves let 's do it with the heart When we pray unto him praise him sing Psalms let 's do it with the heart When we read or hear his Word receive the Sacrament or celebrate any other Ordinance let 's do it with the heart One grain of heart-service is of more account with him than Mountains of all other services whatsoever He would rather have one bleeding heart offered to him upon the Altar of his Sons Merits than many thousands of Oxen upon Altars of Stone He is more pleased with the sighs of a contrite heart than the costliest incense that ever was presented to him The heart is the thing he hath pitch'd upon and he will either have it or nothing He stands so much upon it in all our sacrifices that though other things be mean yet if that be there to animate and put life into them he will accept of them and if other things be never so costly and that be wanting he will not endure them Set the heart aside and he that killeth an Oxe is as if he slew a man He that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck He that offereth an oblation as if he offered Swines blood He that burneth Incense as if he blessed an Idol Alas men mistake the nature of Religion imagining it consists in that it does not They look to their outward actions and keep a great stir about them whereas he regards them not any further than the heart concurs with them What cares he for the expression of the tongue lifting up the eyes smiting the breast bowing the knees or any such outward actions he matters them not a jot further than the heart joyns with them What cares he for a mans making a good Profession unless he have good affection for his speaking like an Angel unless he mean accordingly for his seeming to be holy unless he be so indeed What cares he for a mans outward ingaging in the common duties of Religion while he inwardly hates them for his giving him the knee in prayer while he denies him the heart for his hearing the word while he does not believe it What cares he for his sitting with Christ at the Sacrament while he hath a design to betray him for his going in Pilgrimage to his Sepulchre while he daily crucifies him at home for his wearing hair-cloath on his back while he nourishes Pride and Hypocrisie in his soul Do you care for a man that smiles in your face and speaks you fair but inwardly hates you and plots your ruine No more does God care for a mans specious pretences unless his heart be with him If therefore you would worship God regularly acceptably comfortably see that you worship him in spirit Now that I may the better evince to you the reasonableness of this worshipping God in spirit and provoke you to it I shall offer to your thoughts these following Queries 1. Whether hath not God propriety in your souls as well as in your bodies Did not he make the one as well as the other Did not he redeem the one as well as the other Hath he not furnished you with proper and suitable supplies for the one as well as the other Nay have not you solemnly resign'd to him the one as well as the other If you have with what colour or shew of reason can you with-hold from him the one any more than the other If we consult the Scripture we shall find that though God challenge a propriety both in soul and body yet he challenges a propriety in the former in an especial manner calling it his soul. That hath not saith he lift up my soul to vanity In the Original according to the Kethib or Line it is as our translation renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his soul but according to the Keri or Marginal correction it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my soul God thereby intimating that the soul is his and that in a peculiar manner as a thing that he hath title to in many respect But if you think this not clear enough hear what he saith in another place All souls saith he are in me All Souls yes and all bodies too but souls are his in an eminent way Every soul in the world is his made by him under his eye and at his disposal The souls of Parents and Children rich and poor Princes and people are all his Now if the soul as well as the body be Gods what more equal than that you should at his command worship him with it were it your own you might with-hold it but being his and that too which he mainly respects looks after you cannot without guilt of high injustice do it 2. Whether is he not worthy of your souls and the best service you are capable of doing him with them Though the soul be as you have heard an excellent being yet sure if it were far better than it is it were not too good for him What did he not think it too good to bestow it on you and that before it was tainted with the least spot of sin and will you think it now too good for him Nay did he not think his own Son with all the blessings of the Covenant of Grace too good for you and yet will you think your Souls too good for him and with-hold them from joyning with your Bodies in his Worship There is not a Soul no nor an Angel in Heaven that thinks himself too good to be employed in his service but is ready to undertake the meanest Office for him and shall we poor Mortals think our selves or any thing belonging to us too good to be laid out for him By no means We should rather say Come Lord here is my Soul take it to thy self and use it as thou wilt It is indeed my Darling but were it ten thousand times better and dearer to me than it is I should not think it too good for thee Such as it is it is thine Oh that it were better for thee 3. Whether should you not let him have that in your Worship which he judges and measures all by That you ought without question to do and consequently you ought to let him have the heart for that he reckons all by Solomon saith of a man As he thinketh in his heart so is he that is both in himself and in Gods account As God finds his heart so he esteems of him if he find it good he esteems him good and if he finds it bad he esteems him bad And as he esteems of every man by his heart so he esteems of his service by it If the heart be in it he accounts it good and if the heart be not in it he accounts it bad Let a man but give God his heart and he over-looks other infirmities and if he deny him that let him do never so much it 's all lost labour
The Scripture affords instances of both On the one hand Asa though a good King miss'd it in many things he executed not the Law upon his idolatrous Mother remov'd not the high-places and the like yet because his heart was right God accepted him On the other hand Jehu though a bad King did many good Works destroyed Ababs house slew the Worshippers of Baal with other good service yet because his heart was not right all was in vain The Jesuites indeed as if they were resolved to make themselves the laughing-stocks as well as the hatred of all good Christians speak so lightly of the Souls engaging in the service of God as if it were indifferent whether a man understand what he does or not nay whether he do it by himself or by another Hence they use as a learned Writer of our own tells us to cast the Die which shall say Prayer for the other Whether such Devotion as this be proper or like to find acceptance let any one that hath but one grain of a Christian Spirit left him judge 4. Whether do you not employ your Souls in far meaner and lower Offices than the service of God When you go forth into the World do not you take them along with you When you go out into your Shops into the Market into the Fields have you not them with you Do you not use their assistance in every Bargain advise with them in every Business and do what ever you do with their concurrence Do not you make them Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water cause them to attend on every vain and frivolous undertaking and prostitute them to the very Dunghils Nay do you not vex and grieve them with anxious and thorny Cares about the poorest and basest matters insomuch that you sometimes make them weary of their Habitations and long to be divorced from them And will you thus employ your Heaven-born Souls innobled with such rare and excellent faculties in things of this nature and yet think them too good to be employed in the service of God wherein the glorious Angels themselves so much delight What 's this but most wretchedly to debase your selves and provoke God that gave you your Souls to tear them away from you 5. Whether would you not have God to let you have his heart in all that he does for you When he bestows upon you Corn and Wine and such-like benefits would you not that he should do it with his Heart without designs of dereliction or obduration Would you be content that whiles he stretches forth his hand of bounty and fills your mouths with his outward blessings he should in the mean time with-hold his heart from you Alas what did it avail Cain to be Adam's first-born and Heir of all the World when God would not own him Or what did it avail Esau to be the first born of the wealthy Isaac and elder Brother to the Princely Jacob when the Lord hates him Upon these and such-like confiderations I cannot but think but you would have God whatever he does for you to let you have his heart with it Every good man saith Lord whatever thou dost for me let me have thy heart with it Though thou give me the Bread of Adversity and the Water of Affliction yet let me have thy heart with it Though I have never so little from thee let me have thy heart in it Now what you would that God should do to you the same do ye to him If ye would that he should let you have his heart in what he does for you let him have yours in what you do for him 6. Whether would you not have your service accepted of God If you would not what do you tender it for Do you think it worth the while to mock him or that you may do it with safety If you would have your service accepted then ingage your hearts in it for assure your selves do what you will all is in vain without it Simon Magus believed was baptized continued with Philip and wondered at the Miracles and Signs which were done and what was he the better for all this Thou hast neither part nor lot saith Peter in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God Observe here how far this man went he acknowledged the truth of the Gospel received the Seal of the Covenant associates himself with the Servants of Christ which others were afraid to do is affected with their wonders desires ability to do the like and that so earnestly that he offers money for it but his heart is not right and that mars all Had it been right though he had done less it would have been enough but that being wrong though he did more it was too little Faith and Holiness are so necessary to the acceptance both of our Persons and Services that without them all is in vain Herein the Scripture is most plain For one and the same Apostle shews that without the former it is impossible to please God and without the latter it is impossible to see him Now this being so be sure when ever you present your selves before the Lord to have your hearts and affections with you and engage them in his service and then your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord as the labour of Hypocrites and all such painted Sepulchres is but then you shall make your way prosperous and then you shall have good success 2. Let 's worship God in Truth Whiles Jews Pagans and such as symbolize with them do contrary to his Command worship him in the use of Rites and Ceremonies let us in obedience to it worship him in truth Let 's beware lest any man spoil us through Philosophy and vain deceit after the Tradition of men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ. The Jewish Ceremonies which we are mainly to look after as having been once of Divine Institution were crucified as you have already heard with Christ and died with him and the Christian Church did after a time decently as it were interr them and lay them in their grave and let not us now offer to dig them up again This in Augustines account were no less than to offer violence to the Diceased than which what can be more inhumane and barbarous Though there was a time when they were salutaria exercitia wholsome and useful Rudiments yet now it s not so now they are no better than foetida cadavera filthy Carcases fitter with those mentioned by the Prophet to remain among the graves and lodge in the monuments than abide among the living and therefore let 's not own them or have any thing to do with them God ordained in the Levitical Law which was the Jews Ritual that if any man touched a dead Body he should be unclean If then their Ceremonies are dead let 's beware of touching them lest we become unclean And
thoughts neither are your wayes my wayes saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are higher than the earth so are my wayes higher than your wayes and my thoughts than your thoughts If the thoughts and wayes of a man are so far above the thoughts and wayes of a beast which yet is his fellow creature made of the same elements with him how far must the thoughts and wayes of God needs be above the thoughts and wayes of man We must not measure the nature and will of God by ours that 's an unsafe way but by what he hath revealed of himself in his word wherein he hath made known both his nature and will to us and set down what he will have us to do And therefore since he hath therein declared he will be worshipped in spirit we must without consulting with flesh and blood worship him that way 2. The secret and close enmity that is in them to all divine and spiritual matters Though they are indued with reasonable souls and are thereby capable of conversing with God and holding intercourse with Heaven yet through the miserable depravation that hath seifed upon their natures they are utterly averse to it and all spiritual services The carnal mind saith Paul is enmity against God Carnal men have carnal minds and are for carnal things and have in them an enmity to God Christ and all spiritual services By how much any service is more spiritual by so much they are the more at enmity with it They would rather be dealing with carnal matters though never so base than things spiritual though never so pretious and excellent They would rather with the filthy Swine embrace a dunghill than with the glorious angels hehold the face of God The reasonable soul instead of exercising its authority over the sensitive powers and holding them in subjection do's captivate and inslave it self to them Instead of sublimating and raising them up to high and eminent services it indulges them in their bruitish and boundless extravagancies to the utter indisposing both of it self and them to all spirituall and holy undertakings For the cure hereof we must pray hard to God that he would subdue this enmity of our souls stir up the several faculties thereof to the discharge of their proper functions and cause us to delight in his truth and wayes 3. Their immersing and drowning their souls in the though 〈◊〉 cares of worldly matters The world hath ever since the transgression in Eden and the depravation of our natures thereby been an enemy to God and his kingdom It doth not only intice the hearts of the sons of men from him but doth utterly indispose them for the right serving of him They let out their hearts so much upon it are so far in love with it and so eager in the pursuit of it that when they come to set upon the serving of him they cannot get them off it They can no more remove them than they can remove mountains Or if they can go so far as to hale them into the presence of God yet if Heaven it self lay upon it they cannot keep them one hour there when a man hath been all the week long busie about the world how unfit is he upon the Sabbath day to do any thing for God what a multitude of matters hath he then to review and exercise his thoughts upon He hath ground which he hath purchased to view and oxen which he hath bought to try and multitudes of other matters to look after He can perhaps make shift at the close of the week to loose his hands from the world but he cannot loose his heart from it They are easily taken off it but his heart is not so That goes and takes a view of all the ear hath heard the tongue hath spoken and the hand hath done and passes a judgement upon them all weighing how far they were managed to his credit and advantage and how far not And herein he is so intent that he cannot spare his heart one hour no nor one quarter of an hour for God 〈◊〉 is so common that there is not a man that deals much in the World but his heart will Eccho to what I say and readily assent to it If therefore we would serve God with our hearts we must first disintangle them from the world keep them at a further distance from it and free them from that miserable vassalage and bondage they daily to the unspeakable debasing of them lye in to it 4. Their forgetting that Gods eye is upon them viewing and taking notice of all they do They look after the eyes of men take care to keep their miscarriages from being discerned by them and so secure their reputation with them and in the mean time they forget that there is an all seeing eye upon them that observes all the treacheries backslidings wandrings of their inconstant hearts and weighs every of their actions with all the circumstances belonging to them in a most righteous and unerring ballance And what greater folly can there be than this shall we stand in awe of men and not of God shall we prefer their esteem and acceptance with them before the esteem of God and acceptance with him Is it God that we are to serve or men Is it he that must sit in judgement upon us or they Is it he that must reward us or they If it be he that must do it then le ts henceforth have respect to his eye and see that our services be pleasing to him choose whether they please men or no. With me saith Paul it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of mans judgement Alas what will it avail us to have them think well of us when he thinks ill what will it profit us to be acquitted by them and condemned by him or to be owned by them and rejected by him 5. Their security and want of care and watchfulness over themselves Though they know their souls are treacherous and deceitful and that they are apt to backslide and give them the slip in the service of God yet they will not be got to watch over them but set them at liberty letting them rove and wander up and down whither they please Though they know they have deceived them a thousand times to the losing the benefit of many a pretious ordinance and duty whereby they might have been edified and furthered in the way of God yet they still trust to them letting them take their liberty and do what ever they please Now this is a very unwise course and can lead to nothing but destruction and ruine We must remember what kind of souls we have they are not innocent but sinfull not prone to holy undertakings but greatly averse to them not faithful but treacherous and therefore if we will have them to ingage in the service of God we must watch over them and look to them When ever we set upon duties we must
glory of my Body so is my Integrity the glory of my Soul and therefore whatever becomes of me I 'll not part with it I 'll sooner suffer the Blood to be prest out of my veins and the Soul out of my Body than my Integrity out of my Soul And how bravely did the primitive Christians carry themselves as to this matter Pliny writing to Trajan declares to him that such was their Zeal and Courage in the behalf of their God that nothing could stir them from it neither the imperious checks of the potent Emperours nor the soft language of the eloquent Orators could draw them from the Faith but they stedfastly own'd it and constantly persevered in the defence of it 5. Is sinfull moderation or over much love of peace As there are some that with the Sarmatians are so ignorant and barbarous that they know not what peace means and others that with Pope Sixtus so at enmity with it that they dye at the name of it so there are others so in love with it that they exceed in their esteem of it insomuch that with the Romans they are ready to build Temples and Altars to it and sacrifice truth purity holiness and all to it Even amongst those that profess Christianity and seem to bear respect to the truth some are of such a lukewarm complying spirit that they 'l appear for it no further than they may do it with the maintenance of peace Though they see the truth arraigned condemned and led away to be crucified yet rather than they 'l occasion any stir by seeking to rescue it they 'l let it go They make peace their darling and thereupon when they see any occasion of difference arising they cry out as David did of his Son deal gently with the young man Absalom They would have all to deal tenderly with it but as for truth which is the light and glory of Israel they care not what becomes of it They have great care and pitty of peace but little or none for truth Though they see the ahomination of desolation stand in the holy place though they see the worship of God corrupted his ordinances polluted his word trampled under foot the discipline of the Church utterly perverted the Ministers and servants of God every where reproached and persecuted and religion it self made the scorn of the multitude yet rather than they 'l have an hand in the disturbing of the peace they 'l not so much as open their mouths against it Rather than they 'l have the noise of an hammer in the Temple they 'l see the pillars walls with all the strength and glory of it fall to the ground and become a ruinous heap Brutus layes it to the charge of Tully that he was afraid of a civil war but not of a shamefull peace And so we may lay it to the charge of these men they would rather sit down under the greatest impurities and corruptions than open their mouths to speak against them Nay many are so far from that true zeal and masculine courage they should have for the truth that they do not only refuse to appear for it themselves but in veigh against such as do representing them not only as foolish hypocritical precise proud but as schismatical seditious factious as persons against order and government against good laws and customes as disturbers and troublers of the peace Ahab counted Elijah the troubler of Israel And Haman laid it to the charge of the Jews that they were disobedient to the Kings laws And the adversaries of Jerusalem told Artaxerxes that it was a rebellious City hurtfull unto Kings and Provinces And the unbelieving Jews at Thessalonica did as much for the Apostles they said they were the men that turned the world upside down And Tertullus calls Paul a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition And the Jansenian tells of the Jesuites that after they have disturbed the peace of the Church by their horrid doctrines which tend to the destruction of the precepts of Jesus Christ they make it their business to accuse those who endeavour the re-establishment of them as disturbers of the Churches peace After they have put things into disorder on all sides by the publication of their detestable morality they treat as breakers of the publick peace those whole consciences will not suffer them to comply with their designs and who cannot edunre that those Pharisees of the New Law as they have called themselves should establish their humane traditions upon the ruines of the Divine Thus he This is the reward the ingratefull world gives the servants of Christ for their zeal and faithfulness in his cause Instead of encouraging them and joyning with them they load them with the ignominious and hatefull terms of rebellion and turbulency labouring thereby to make them odious and frustrate their blessed endeavours Now this lukewarm frame of spirit God doth every where declare against and condemn calling upon his servants to be couragious in his cause to quit themselves like men and to contend for the faith he hath delivered to them And they according to the trust reposed in them have done it to the hazarding of all near and dear to them What a peaceable man was Moses how apt to bear wrongs how loth to revenge he was the meekest man upon the face of the earth Yet how exact and punctuall was he in the cause of God When the Israelites were about to come out of Aegypt and Pharaoh would have had them to have left their flocks and herds behind them Moses tells him to his face Our cattel also shall go with us there shall not an hoof be left behind Had Moses lived in our dayes what censures and reproaches would this action have brought upon him what not obey the King not observe his royal commands and that in those things as undoubtedly fall under his cognizance and authority what not leave an hoof at his appointment what disloyalty and irreligiousness is this Away with such a fellow from the earth for it is not fit that he should live This no doubt would have been the language of many amongst us against this faithful servant of God But we must not measure the proceedings of good men by the foolish partial judgements of carnal ones who would rather see the interest of God and his Kingdom perish and come to nothing than expose themselves to the least hazard in preserving it To this example of Moses we may add that of Paul What a peaceable man was he who ever loved peace more desired it more preached it more wrote for it more or endeavoured it more then he yet would not he give place to the false Apostles by subjection no not for an hour What not for an hour who in such a juncture of things would not have born much longer but he would not do it he would not lye for God or use any indirect base means