Gospel must be pure which he expresses by that word holy and because our Sacrifices now must be our persons and not our beasts he adds a living sacrifice in opposition to the dead ones under the Law therefore it is plain that he that comes unto God must come with a Conscience purged from dead works and refined as far as is possible from all the dross and imperfections of corrupted nature The necessity of which we are sometimes taught by more proper expressions 2 Cor 7.1 Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting Holiness Thus we must imitate that first good and reach after some participations of the Divine Nature becoming holy as the Lord our God is holy and perfect even as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect That so there may be some congruity and suitableness between God and those that worship him and indeed this is the great condition of finding acceptance for as God would not accept of a blemished Sacrifice so the Text expresly declares that we must present our selves a Sacrifice holy if ever we mean to be acceptable to him That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God 2. These Sacrifices were made and offered to God which was part of the Divine Worship And this viz. Worship is a standing and perpetual Duty Though the Modus be changed yet the thing still remains Therefore in that very place where our Saviour rejects the Temple and the Service peculiar to it he yet retains Worship still and thereby makes it a Gospel-duty Joh. 4.23 The true Worshipers shall worship And the Father seeks such to worship him So S. Paul Tit. 2.12 comprises all Religion under these three Heads viz. 1. Sobriety which includes the Duties we owe to our selves and forbids all intemperance and excess 2. Righteousness which contains all the Offices we owe to others and is a doing to all men as we would all men should do to us And 3. Godliness which comprises the several Duties we owe immediately to God whereof Adoration or Worship is one in the judgment of the Gentile World who ever paid these Tributes of Honour to the Deity Therefore when Epicurus by denying Divine Providence took the ready course to rob God of his Worship he was charged by others and the better of the Philosophers tollere Deos in effect to deny his very existence and run the world into right down Atheism And that Command that prohibits the worship of Graven Images doth yet retain this worship as proper and peculiar to the true God For as God is the most excellent of all beings so he will have something reserved for himself which no creature shall share with him in and this is especially Worship which is forbid to the creature for this very reason that it is due to God only and that both by virtue of Precept and Eminency Which thing is here expressed by presenting that ye present your bodies viz. in a way of Adoration and Worship That Religion then must needs be lame and imperfect which rests in some moral Virtues but is deficient in this great point that is willing to appear blameless to the world but matters not by Divine Worship to give Praise and Glory to the Deity For as it was not sufficient to the Jews to prepare their Sacrifices but not to offer them so neither is it sufficient for us to make our bodies a living Sacrifice and never present them as such before God The Metaphor must hold in these two points else it would have been improperly used and would reach but one part of that which other Texts in the New Testament make our duty and the word Present must be of no use and signification Nay a thing is not properly and strictly a Sacrifice till it be offered or at least in offering before when it is prepared it is but for a Sacrifice it is the offering that makes it such Therefore by presenting our bodies a sacrifice we are most certainly and clearly put upon the offering them to God in a way of worship for so Sacrifices were And indeed one great end of Religion is to give Praise and Glory to God which is done very much and perhaps in nothing better than by worship for in these very acts we own him the greatest and best of all Beings and our selves but poor and dependent creatures God is never more magnified by men than when they fall down and worship him Therefore as the worshiping the Creature is said to be a giving God's glory to another and his praise to graven Images Isa 42.8 So the not worshiping must needs be a with-holding from or a denying him the same Praise and Glory Therefore of what civil behaviour what sober conversation or how just soever men may be in their Societies and Commerce yet if they do not present their bodies a living Sacrifice to God they are no Worshipers and therefore wanting in one of the best parts and main ends of all Religion 3. Sacrifices were not only offered but in a publick place and manner Deut. 16.5 6. Thou mayst not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee But at the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse to place his name in Levit. 13.3 4. Whatsoever man c. that kills an ox or lamb or goat c. and brings it not to the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation to offer an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord blood shall be imputed to that man And Deut. 12.17 18. The tithe of corn wine oil the firstlings of the herd and of the flock vows free-will-offerings and heave-offerings were to be eaten before the Lord in the place which the Lord should chuse And though private Worship was required of the Jew as well as of the Christian yet the Old Testament especially the Psalms do so far prefer the publick before private worship that a man would be almost apt to think all worship confined to this For though David when driven to and fro by Saul and whilst among the Philistines had opportunity of private Adoration and secret Devotions yet speaks of himself as driven from the presence of God when driven from his House and publick Worship Psal 84.1 2. How amiable are thy tabernacles O Lord of Hosts My soul longs yea even faints for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God Verse 3 he speaks the Swallow more happy than himself in that while he is absent she is suffered to visit and build her nest about the altars Psal 42.1 2. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks so pants my soul after thee O God When shall I come and appear before God! Now the Psalmist very well knew he was always in the Divine Presence and therefore Psal 139.8 to Verse 13. proves by an induction of particulars that there is no place of concealment from
him not in Heaven nor in Hell not in the utmost parts of the Sea nor in the darkest night therefore verse 7. Whither shall I flee from thy presence Which being proposed by way of question implies the stronger Negation Therefore if we will make sense of those places we must understand the Psal as reaching after a more than ordinary presence which is the presence of God in places of publick worship which all sincere worshipers do enjoy By which kind of speeches he seems so to value the presence of God in his publick worship that he looks upon all things without this to be worth nothing And certainly where there is a spiritual life wrought in us it will discover it self by reaching after the utmost participations of divine things And the Gospel however a furtherer of private devotions yet doth in an especial manner command and incourage a publick Service as by the example of the Apostles which as a tacite precept requires the like of us To which end we find sometimes the place of their assembling recorded Act. 1.13 14. In an upper room they continued with one accord in prayer and supplication And otherwiles the time is mentioned Joh. 20.26 After eight days the disciples again were within which number includes two Sundays according to a computation then in use which was to take in the day from which they began their account thereby putting two Sundays into one week And when Christians began to grow cool and negligent in the publick presenting their Bodies the Author to the Heb. 10.25 both reproves this growing evil and charges others to avoid it not forsaking the assembling your selves together as the manner of some is And no wonder the Scripture is so round in this matter since the neglect of publick most certainly draws after it the neglect of all private duties therefore those that excuse their not frequenting publick Ordinances by a pretence of serving God at home are like those that will have every day a Sabbath till at last they keep none at all And good reason private devotions should give way to publick services because these are the most ordinary and beaten road to Heaven and a more usual conveyance of Grace than other Performances For Faith is said to come by hearing and this hearing such as is from Preaching How shall they hear without a Preacher Rom. Christ appeared to the first Christians when assembled together Joh. 20.26 The Holy Ghost descended upon them when met together with one accord in one place Act. 2. And our Saviour promises Matth. 18.20 that when two or three are met together in his name he will be in the midst of them Which must be understood in a more peculiar and especial manner than by his essential presence in regard of which he is at all times present with all his Creatures And no wonder this hath the greater blessing since we do in this more than any other way make a visible profession and thereby give more praise and glory to God than in private and unseen services Therefore as God hath so entwisted his Honour and our happiness together that it is impossible to separate them for the same Acts do both so those acts that most advance his Glory usually tend most to the advantage of him that doth them Whence the Apostle seeing these two ends best attainable by a publick worship doth press us to present our bodies a living sacrifice and therefore to present them in that way that Sacrifices were offered which was in the most solemn and publick manner 4. The Text fixes this Worship on the Body That ye present your Bodies Which by a Synechdoche partis pro toto is put for the whole man That ye present your selves Where observe That the Body is engaged in this work Though indeed there is no Text that doth expresly exclude it yet because there is one that doth not in terminis include the Body as John 4.23 The true worshipers shall worship in spirit and in truth Therefore some will have the Soul alone concerned and not the Body at all in Divine Worship But as out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaks so bodily worship is in and flows from that of the spirit nothing being more natural than outwardly to express our inward sentiments and especially the awfulness we have of the Deity In most ordinary cases it is judged Hypocrisie to do otherwise and in this it cannot be without some violence offered to our selves for it is certainly contrary to the reasons and experience of all observing men that when we come to the place and Offices of a publick Worship men should have any due and suitable thoughts of the presence they come before and not express the same in outward gestures and behaviour I am sure none will believe that man hath any internal or mental reverence for his Superiours who when in their presence doth not outwardly express the same For we measure the thoughts by the actions and guess at the Soul by the Body Much more must we think thus in the case before us for God being the greatest and most excellent of all beings if we have worthy thoughts of him the mind is so struck and the soul receives such deep impressions that we much more necessarily in outward gestures discover the awful and reverend thoughts we have of the Deity than we do our respects to Superiors who being but fellow-creatures differ from us not in infinite as God doth but in some few and little distances and doubtless our Saviour requiring a spiritual worship doth as much intend that of the Body too as those Scriptures mean so many persons that speak only of so many souls Gen. 12.5 And Abraham took Sarai his wife c. and all the Souls they had gotten c. And it seems very observable that when men once exclude the reverence of the Body they quickly lose that of the Soul too as appears from such mens expressions who make their prayers familiar discourses with God Almighty which must proceed from want of due thoughts of God whereupon they make themselves too much like him or him too much like themselves Neither is it any wonder that our Saviour expresly requires a spiritual worship rather than a bodily Because 1. This is the greater and carries the other along with it whereas that is the less and may be because it sometimes is without this 2. Christ was here nulling the Mosaick Dispensation which was called a Carnal Command Heb. 7.16 the reason of which we find Ch. 9 10. because it stood in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed upon them Therefore being now to bring in a worship which rested not so much in bodily Exercises it was most proper and subservient to this present design to call it a spiritual worship not only because the denomination is now taken from the major part but also that men might hereby be prepared by taking off their minds
from those carnal Ordinances to close with the proposals of a more spiritual Law But yet this Text cannot in reason be supposed to exclude the body because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Worshipers and shall worship do come signifies to kiss which implies an act of the Body and the Septuagint uses the same word to express a worship which was for the most part bodily viz. that of Baal 1 King 19.18 I have left me seven thousand in Israel all the knees which have not bowed to Baal and every mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hath not kissed that is that hath not worshiped him and why the same word should in one place signifie a worship which is mostly bodily and in the other place viz. this of S. John should signifie a worship purely spiritual or exclusive of the Body I do not yet understand But it is a common rule in expounding Scripture that that cannot be the meaning of one Text which contradicts another and such is this sense which excludes the Body from acts of worship For in Exod. 20.5 Bowing down the Body being the highest expression of our inward reverence and therefore meetest for the worship of the great God is made an act of Divine Worship and for that very reason is forbid to be paid to the creatures as representations of the Deity Therefore if we must not bow down to the true God then we may bow down to Graven Images and contrariwise if we must not bow down to Graven Images then we must bow down to the true God and the reason is because it is forbid to be paid to the one upon this very account that it is reserved as proper and peculiar to the other and therefore so long as it is forbid to be given to Images so long it remains a debt to God which is for ever this Command being moral and consequently perpetually obliging It must needs therefore be that those men who bow down to neither as they are no Idolaters so they are no Worshipers and because they would not be Redundants will therefore be Defectives in their Religion From this precept have flowed those Exhortations Psal 95.6 O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our maker Which are no parts of the Ceremonial Law but streams from this Fountain And since God made redeemed and promised rewards to the Body as well as the Soul it is all the reason in the world he should be worshiped by both from which Topicks that great Apostle argues 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and your spirit which are Gods Whence we proceed to the fifth part of the Text viz. the meetness and equity of the thing It is your reasonable service That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God Which is your reasonable service That is a Service agreeable to the reasons of men and dictates of nature abstracting from her Corruptions And indeed it must needs be so because it is a part of the natural Law For as Cicero saith consensio omnium gentium lex naturae putanda est The consent of all Nations in any one thing must be reputed the law of nature And truly as what nature teaches must needs be known and spread as far as humane nature it self so when we find all Nations agreeing in any one thing we cannot in reason assign any other teacher of that thing but the same nature Now Jew and Gentile Greek and Barbarian did all agree in this according to their several Modes and Capacities that it is a most meet and reasonable thing that we should present our bodies a living sacrifice to God Whence they had their Temples their Priests and Sacreds And in their moral Discourses they taught the necessity and way of rooting out Vice and acquiring Virtue in order to their making themselves holy and acceptable to God Neither can any think me too daring in this part of my Discourse that considers that great and learned men hold there is nothing purely positive in the Gospel but the two Sacraments and some think these in part founded on nature and reason too because they find some shadows and footsteps of them in Gentile Writings as Purification by Water and this before Homer or at least by him mentioned and their making Leagues inter vinum epulas with eating and drinking Though indeed some men are so fansiful that if they perceive any the least likeness between the Notions and Customs of the Jews and Gentiles as especially T. G. in his Court of the Gentiles it must needs pass as a clear Demonstration that therefore the Gentiles had these things mediately or immediately from the Jews By which means I dare undertake to make out to the reasons of men that they may as well make the History of one Nation but an imitation and corruption of the History of another Whereas both Jew and Gentile having the same natural light might be directed thereby to many the same notions and like customs I would ask whether the Gentile by the natural light of the understanding might not hit upon some truth Else to what purpose doth that light serve O what benefit is it to that part of Mankind that had no further Directions Then whether the Jews having the same light together with the farther addition of Revelation might not hit upon the same truths whether it necessarily follows that the Gentiles had this from the Jews Again since each Light directs mankind to the Belief and Worship of the Deity and because there can be no publick Worship without the appointment of persons time and place to that end whence they must descend to many particular Constitutions and Customs as to these grand requisites of Worship whether we can in reason suppose that it is not likely there will be some similitudes as to Persons Habits Sacreds or one thing or other between the worship of each although these two Bodies of Men might never hear or know any thing one of another Whence let reason judge what an irrefragable argument likeness of Notions or Customs is to prove them all of Jewish Original Though indeed moderate and rational Discourses on this Subject may much advance the Glory of Sacred Writings yet to press them so far as some have done robs the greater part of Mankind of their very Reasons detrudes them into lower Species and therefore makes them like the Beasts that perish leaving them without light without any rule of life without Law and consequently without any thing whereby they may be judged at the last day But I know not how any man can deny the point before us to have been discovered by natural light unless he will correct S. Paul who affirms a Law written on our hearts by nature and that Conscience accuses or excuses according as Men have kept or broke it Rom. 1.14 15.