Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A29049
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A brief treatise about the spiritual nature of God and of His worship by Edw. Bagshaw ...
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Bagshaw, Edward, 1629-1671.
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1662
(1662)
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Wing B405; ESTC R9965
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16,963
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38
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and are infallibly assured that Salvation is of the Jews i. e. the saving Doctrine is onely to be found amongst us and you Samaritans have nothing to shew that any such thing is committed unto you Our Saviour having thus fully satisfied this Womans Scruple and rectified her Erroneous Practise by bringing of her unto a Rule of Worship which alone can be a comfortable ground of any Religious Action since God looks not onely after the Matter but the Manner of our Worship and disdains to be served by the Inventions of Men since by their Adding to his Word they onely presume to be Wiser and Holier then he Therefore our Saviour repeats and enforces again what he had mentioned before and tells her plainly Vers 23 that as Gods Worship should no longer be confined to a certain place by way of Special Holinesse so neither should it be clogged with those Outward Forms and Ceremonies as before No such things as Pompous Garments Legal Washings and Fleshly Rites should be required any longer but the True Worshippers should worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth Which alone is the True Worship because all those External Rites were onely Shadows and Representations of it As if our Saviour had said it is no longer your Temples nor your Altars nor your Outward State and Magnificence which God now looks after but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he seeks with earnestness and approves with Delight and Complacency onely such as worship him in a Spiritual and Inward Manner The reason of which our Saviour gives in the words of the Text because God is a Spirit and therefore he expects a Worship altogether suitable to his own Nature They that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth In the words there are two things considerable 1. What God is God is a Spirit 2. What kind of Worship must be paid unto him They that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in Truth From whence arise two Observations the first of which I shall handle as a Doctrine the other as an Use or Inference from it 1. God is a Spirit or a Being altogether Spiritual 2. The Spiritual Worship of God is the onely True Worship For the understanding of the first there are two things to be explained 1. What is a Spirit 2. In what sence God is said to be a Spirit For the first viz. what is a Spirit the Schooles define it to be an Immaterial or Incorporeal Substance where if in stead of the word Substance which is a Term very few understand they had put the word Essence or Being which answers to the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they had spoke some but not all the Truth For thus our Saviour likewise defines a Spirit in opposition to a grosse and palpable Body Luke 24.39 A Spirit said he hath not Flesh and Bones as you see me to have Which place though some have made use of for the definition of a Spirit yet it is clear our Saviour speaks there only of a Spirit in that sense that we call a Phantasm or an Apparition a Spirit and therefore Ignatius in one of his Epistles instead of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A bodiless Demon or Ghost But in the word Spirit is implied something more Positive then barely to tell us what it is not and as in the Definition of a Man it would but little satisfie us to tell us that he is not an Horse nor an House c. because these Negative Descriptions would never lead us to those Essential Characters and Properties by which the Nature of man might be discerned So nakedly to tell us as the Schools do that a Spirit is Incorporeal i. e. not a Body will give but very little satisfaction to the Enquiry What it is To find out therefore more positively what a Spirit is I shall lay down this Ground The Nature of every thing is to be discerned by its manner of Operation as though we can see neither Fire nor Air yet we may justly conclude they have Different Natures because they produce Diverse and Contrary effects So that if there be some Things or Beings in the World which have such kind of Operations as are no way applicable to or produceable by Bodies then They have a Distinct Nature from Bodies i. e. They are Spirits What those Operations are every man may observe in the Actions of his Soul And I shall instance onely in these three 1. Power 2. Presence 3. Knowledge 1. The first Action by which the Nature of the Soul of man may be discerned to be Spiritual is Power I mean that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or self-moving-virtue by which it can move not onely it's self but the Body too to which it is conjoyned And this no meer Body is capable of for motum movetur No Body can otherwise move then as it hath an Outward Principle to move it but the Soul hath no other Motive of it's Actings but it 's own Will and Pleasure And though there be some who affirm that the Will doth alwayes follow the last dictate of the understanding yet this is Demonstrably false by the experience of all men in the World as well as of the Apostle Paul who cries out of himself Rom. 7. The things I like not these do I. And it is a very true saying of one to whose writings the Christian world is little beholding As oft as Reason is against a man so often will a man be against Reason For which no cause can be given but meerly the Power of the Will to move i. e. to determine it self in spight of all contrary suggestions from the Vnderstanding Solomon therefore speaking of dying man divides him into his two distinct and seemingly inconsistent Natures The dust sayes he i. the Body returns to the Earth as it was but the Spirit i. Eccles 12.7 the the Soul returns to God who gave it It is the Spark of Divinity within us which puts Life and Motion into the Dull and Unactive piece of Earth about us and so enlivens it for the doing of such Actions as Flesh alone could not compass without the Influence and Conduct of some more Heavenly and Spiritual Principle 2. The second Operation which demonstrates the Soul of man to be a Spirit is Presence We know that every Body is tied and limited to a place out of which it cannot stir and whenever it is moved it moves onely one way and with one kind of Motion at once making a dull leasurely progress First how then there by steps without any Variety at all Herein therefore doth the Spirituality of the Soul of man most convincingly appear in that at one instant it can attend so many different Employments and without any distraction at all wheels about in so many Contrary and Repugnant Motions not onely Seeing in one place Hearing in another Feeling in
of his Infinity then what they conceive is ascribable unto the highest strain of Humane Excellence This Erronious sleight opinion we are by all means to be armed and fortified against for besides the mean and poor esteem it begets of God in our Thoughts it doth necessarily draw along with it this conceit that God is beholding to Man and that we do oblige him by our Service And therefore the Scripture is very express in declaring Psal 16.2 c. Job 35.7 that our Righteousnesse is nothing to him and that when God requires to be worshiped he challengeth it onely as the Devout Homage of an Humble Soul and not thereby in the least to encourage the Vanity and Pride of Boasters since his greatnesse is incapable of any Addition God indeed doth in Scripture describe himself by such Names as are of greatest Esteem and Reverence with men such as are King Lord Father Master and the like yet herein he is far from prescribing a meer Bodily and Outside Worship such as those would have who are as yet far from knowing or at least from considering that God is a Spirit But the meaning of all those Expressions is this that what kind of Outward Reverence we show unto persons to whom we are so related as a Subject is to his Prince or a Son to his Father or a Servant to his Master the same by way of Analogy and Proportion we should show to God in the Inward Frame and Deportment of our Spirits when we appear before him in any solemn way of Worship Now to advance and raise up the mind unto this necessary pitch of Devotion there can be no better expedient given then fixedly to contemplate the Spirituality of Gods Nature unto which our worship must bear some proportion and that will be by fastning upon those Attributes which do most represent his Spiritual Nature unto us What those Attributes are from what hath been said may easily be gathered for since Power Presence and Knowledge are these Actions of the Soul which do demonstrate it to be a Spirit it will follow then since God is a Spirit the Attributes which do most declare him to be so are these three 1. His Omnipotence 2. His Omnipresence 3. His Omniscience which ought most intently to be eyed by us in our Worship of and Addresses to Him 1. First The first Attribute we should fix upon in our Worship of God is his Omnipotence which is in many and several Forms expressed in Scripture all which like so many lines pointing at one Center do but speak this Truth that God can do what he will and that nothing can withstand his VVill because the Will of the Creature is onely Gods Creature it is his Wheel in the VVatch and moves onely as he will turn it And the Potter cannot have more absolute power over or lesse resistance from the Clay then God our Maker hath if he so please to order it from us his VVorkmanship The consideration of this at that time when we come to VVorship God besides that it gives God the Honour of his Power which he desires should be Magnified will be of Infinite use to us in all the Course of our Lives and in those several scenes of Providence we may fall under As 1. This will be a wonderful encouragement unto us to put up our Prayers to God and to attend with Comfort the Successe and Issue of them For what should we despair of if we can engage Omnipotence on our behalf If therefore we miss of what we Petition for if we Ask and Have not It is not because God is not able to do even more then we Ask but because we Ask a miss and not with that Faith which is requisite to so Sacred an Action It is our Unbelief of Gods Power which ties his hands for did we pray with Full Assurance that he whom we deal with could answer our most Laboured and Intense Requests that he could satisfie our most Enlarged and Heightned Expectations we should not depart so often as we do without a Blessing But God scorns a Suitor that hath low thoughts of him For what do we else but tacitly contemn God if we think that it lies in a poor Creatures power to Ask what the Great Creator cannot do Yet this as easie a matter as it may be supposed to be hath been the great miscarriage of the Saints of Old Gen. 18.12 What made Sarah laugh i. e. Inwardly make a sport and jest of the Promise God made to give her a Son in her Old Age but her doubting of this Attribute After I am waxed Old saith she shall I have pleasure my Lord being old also In which words she musters up all manner of Arguments to augment the Difficulty and therefore the Lord to satisfie her is fain to have recourse unto his own Omnipotence Is any thing saith he too hard for the Lord Intimating that whatever she pretended yet indeed that was the Fundamental Article she doubted of Exod. 4 1â— 11. So what made Moses raise up so many Scruples and urge so many Objections against his being sent to Pharaoh alleadging that he was not Eloquent but slow of Speech and slow of Tongue intimating that God could certainly do no great matter by him who was laden with so many Imperfections and withal insinuating that God might do well to make a better choice thereby laying a secret imputation upon Gods Wisdom as well as his Power as if God had not chose a fit Messenger to do his Errand God therefore doth answer all his Objections by raising him from looking down upon himself that was sent to look up to him that sent him Who saith he hath made Mans mouth or who makes the Dumb or Deaf or Seeing or Blind is it not I the Lord i. shall God do the greater and shal not he do the less Shall he be able to make man and shal he not be able afterwards to fit him for what Ends and Uses he pleases In the very same manner we find afterwards that David and Zachary and the Disciples of our Saviour did often miscarry So that as our Saviour tells them They could not cast out the Devil Mat. 17.20 because of their Vnbelief but if they had the least grain of Faith in God they should presently be able even to remove Mountains and nothing should be impossible for them so say I the great cause why we thrive so ill in our Prayers and Supplications to God it is because we are faint and timerous Askers We do not by Faith set Gods Omnipotence on Work but in a Dubious and Unresolved manner we pray according to the Compass of what we see and can Naturally hope to And whilest we do so it is no wonder if we obtain no great Matters from the Hands of God for as we undervalue a Prince if we ask Trifles of him so doth he disesteem God who asks any thing below the Immediate Work