Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	true_a	worship_v	worshipper_n	5,566	5	12.1877	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43698	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable George Earl of Berkeley, Governour, and the Company of Merchants of England trading into the Levant Seas at St. Peters Church in Broadstreet, January, 25, 1680 / by Charles Hickman ...	Hickman, Charles, 1648-1713.; Berkeley, George Berkeley, Earl of, 1628-1698.	1681 (1681)	Wing H1896; ESTC R11269	15,523	36

SERMON Preached before the RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE Earl of Berkeley GOVERNOUR AND THE Company of Merchants of ENGLAND Trading into the Levant Seas AT St. PETERS Church in Broadstreet January 25. 1680. By CHARLES HICKMAN A. M. Student of Christ-Church in Oxon and Chaplain to his Excellency the Lord Chandois Embassadour to Constantinople LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West-End of St. Pauls 1681. To the Right Honourable George Earl of Berkley GOVERNOUR And to the Right Worshipful THE DEPUTY and COMPANY of Merchants trading into the Levant Seas Right Honorable and Right Worshipful IF I had judged this Discourse worthy of the Press both the general consent whereby you honour'd me with the Title of your Servant and the particular expressions of your Favour to me would have obliged me to publish my gratitude in this Dedication though you had not obliged me by your Commands But since I understand how unreasonably I am censured for this Discourse and that those censures must in some manner reflect upon you also who have been pleased to afford me a more favourable Character I find my self bound in honour as well as in gratitude and obedience to vindicate both you and my self by this Publication The objections I need not here either repeat or answer they are so groundless that every rational man will be satisfied by reading the Sermon and they which are otherwise will not be convinced by an Epistle Against these I humbly beg your Protection and as in duty bound I shall ever pray for your happiness and Dedicate my self wholly to your service My Lord and Gentlemen Your most obliged and Most humble servant Charles Hickman A SERMON ON JOHN iv 21 12 23. Jesus saith unto her Woman believe me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father Ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth IN these words our Saviour determines the great Controversie which had long depended between the Jews and Samaritans as it was proposed to him by the woman of Samaria in these words Our Fathers worshipped in this mountain but ye say that at Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship Therefore for the full and profitable understanding of my Text I shall consider 1. The difference between the Jews and Samaritans 2. Our Saviours method of reconciling it and 3. I shall apply the whole in some useful reflections upon the differences of these our times 1. The difference between the Jews and Samaritans was this When the Tribes of Israel were carried Captive into Assyria the King of that Land transplanted several Inhabitants of Babylon and the Neighbouring Provinces there and placed them in the Country of Samaria where at the first they worshipped their own Gods without any respect to the God of Israel But being terrified by Lions which infested their Land they wisely imputed this their danger to some mistake in their Religion concluding that the God of the Land had brought this Calamity upon them for the neglect of his own worship for they knew not the manner of the God of the Land Upon complaint hereof their King sent them one of the Priests of Israel to instruct them the Priest built them an Altar and a Temple and appointed Sacrifices therein and so made a formal appearance of an Independent Church of Israel Nevertheless though they feared the Lord yet they served their Graven Images also for they thought they had sufficiently appeased the God of the Land by appointing Sacrifices to him but they could not forget the Gods of their Native Country so they set up Adramelech and Anamelech the Gods of Sepharvaim every Nation according to their own inventions and their Devotion was absurdly divided betwixt the Idol and the living God This was the rise and original of the Samaritan Sect in the days of Salmaneser seven hundred years before our Saviours time this was the true Antiquity of their Church as we find it Recorded 2 Kings xvii Howbeit this was not the Antiquity pleaded by the woman in my Text neither were these the Fathers which she affirmed to have worshipped in the mountain but as Nations so Religions also love to boast of a long descent and derive their pedegree if it be possible from the beginning of time and if they want sufficient Authority to make good their plea a small pretence or Tradition will serve their turn and such a one it was whereby the Samaritans endeavoured to justifie their separation For the Authority of Salmaneser not being sufficient to establish a Church in opposition to the Temple of Jerusalem they could find out no better expedient both to quiet their own Consciences and answer the objections of their Adversaries the Jews than by pleading a greater Antiquity for their Religion than the Jews themselves pretended to and that the worshipping upon that mountain was countenanced at least if not commanded before the Temple of Jerusalem was built and this was no hard thing to prove For we read Gen. xxviii that Jacob travelling over this mountain to Padan-Aram saw a vision of Angels ascending and descending therefore he took the stone which he had put for his Pillow and put it up for a Pillar poured Oil upon the top of it and called the the name of that place Bethel and he vowed a vow that if God would be with him and bring him back to his Fathers house in peace then the Lord should be his God and that stone which be set up for a Pillar should be Gods house and he would surely pay his tenths And Gen. xxxiii at his return he did buy this parcel of ground and built an Altar there and called it El Elohe Israel i. e. God the God of Israel according as he promised This is that Bethel which was afterwards made the Seat of the Priests of Samaria and the solemn place of their worship for so we read in the forecited chap. of 2 Kings Then one of the Priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord. Here we find a very plausible pretence for the Samaritan service and since it was so contrary both to their ease and interest to go up to Jerusalem to Sacrifice no wonder if they made use of this Argument to serve God nearer home And now the womans boast sounds big and significant Our Fathers worshipped in this mountain Our Fathers ever since Jacobs time Our Fathers for these eighteen hundred years which was seven hundred years before the Temple of Jerusalem was built and yet Ye say that at Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship That by their Fathers they reckon'd from their Father Jacob we may conclude 1. Because Jacob as we have heard did really worship in that

both temporary and local was now in the fulness of time to be utterly abolished though the promise was made only to Abraham and his Seed and that promise solemnized only at the Temple yet the time was coming when the Temple should be destroyed and God would raise up from those stones even from the ruins of the Temple children unto Abraham The mighty Fabrick should fall down and in three days a more glorious than that should be erected instead thereof So much for the Place 2. As for the Object of their worship the answer is Ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews Here the Samaritan Church stood in great need of a Reformation for though they feared the Lord yet they served their own Gods also after the manner of the Nations And though by the frequent Conversion of Jews to their Church they had laid by the grosser parts of their Idolatry yet they kept their Idols and graven Images in their houses and worshiped according to our Saviours words they knew not what In this respect our Saviour adjudges the Cause to the Jewish side alledging that though the Ceremonial part of their worship was now expiring yet the substance thereof should never change God is the same for ever and the object of their worship shall remain throughout all Ages They are the only Church which truly acknowledges the only true God and therefore Salvation is of the Jews and from them it shall be derived to all other Nations But 3. Though the Jews did worship the true God yet the manner of worship was imperfect and deficient even amongst them and the imperfection thereof consisted herein while their service depended upon outward forms alone and they were taught to offer up the fruits of their bodily labour for the Sins of their Soul whilst they measured their obedience by these dead works of the Law and their devotion only by hearing or repeating the forms prescribed by Moses then could this people draw nigh unto God with their mouths when their heart was far from him When the Sacrifice was ended their work was done and they could return to their sins with this satisfaction that the scape-Goat in the wilderness had carryed off all their transgressions that were past and the Goats in their Folds could expiate for all that was to come Thus they thought they might obtain forgiveness of their sins without any Reformation of their Minds for their Flesh was always willing but their Spirit was always weak Thus the Jews worshipped the true God by types and figures but the Samaritans worshiped types and figures for the true God that worship was true but imperfect this was neither perfect nor true Therefore for the instruction of both Jew and Samaritan our Saviour tells them that The hour cometh and now when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth In Spirit first to distinguish the Gospel-service from the shadows of the Jewish Law which in Scripture are called carnal ordinances And then in Truth to divide it from the Samaritan Idolatry and all other superstitious errors To worship in Spirit therefore is to bow the knees of our heart and not content our selves with the outward devotion of the body alone which could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience but to offer up the only acceptable Sacrifice of a broken and contrite Spirit To worship God in Truth is to worship the true God in such a manner as he has directed without profaning his service as the Samaritans did by a mixture of Heathenish Superstitions and Idols which are called lies And those who thus worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth our Saviour terms the true worshippers for the discovery of whom I proceed in the third place to apply the former discourse to the present times that by our Saviours deciding this Controversie we may be able to pass some judgment upon the Controversies of these our days which have so miserably rent our Nation and do lively represent unto us the antient discord between the Jews and the Samaritans And herein I must beg your favour and patience if I am necessarily led not by my own inclinations but by the method of my Text to touch upon some of those sores which so unhappily afflict us that they cannot be heal'd without handling nor handled without regret and pain and yet as I shall avoid all unnecessary unprofitable provocations and endeavour with a tender hand not to enlarge but to close the wound so I hope none will be offended at this charitable design especially in defence of that Church whereof of we all here profess our selves to be Members 1. Then As in those days so now also we find that of all the disputes which divide the hearts of men and disaffect them from each other there are none raised with more Ignorance and Pride carried on with more Heat and Animosity nor concluded with more Labour and Difficulty than those which concern Religion and the different ways of worshipping God No Opinion is so absurd but it will serve to lay the foundation of a Schism amongst the discontented inconsiderate multitude and gain sturdy Proselytes too in spight of all the convictions of Reason if it can plead either ease or interest in its behalf For though all Nations do agree in the certainty of a God and the necessity of his worship yet when men think themselves so wonderfully wise that neither the height nor depth of his wisdom are beyond his reach when they will intrude into the Counsels of the Almighty and shape his worship according to the extravagance of their fancy then does their wisdom degenerate into ignorance and the strength of their reason only betrays them to labour and folly Hardly do we guess aright at the things upon Earth and with labour do we find the things that are before us but the things that are in Heaven who hath searched out and thy Counsels who hath known said the wisest of men But though the Ignorance of man be great yet generally his Pride is greater than that and those false Notions which in his vanity he has conceived in his obstinacy he will defend There are few so ingenuous as to confess an error and the most ignorant are always the hardest to convince They will impose their own fancies upon others with that eagerness as if they really were what they falsly stile them the only Divine Truths and immediate Revelations of God and to disbelieve their Opinion is to renounce their friendship Thus the Heathens though they had no knowledg of God yet they also would fight pro aris focis for their Gods as well as their Country and the sharpest Persecutions that the world ever saw were raised by the Romish Emperors first and after them by their Successors the Romish Bishops against the professours of the true Primitive Christianity No wars are so bloody

inflamed to hand up our Petitions to the Throne of Grace so spiritual and refined that they may convey our Prayers to Heaven so powerful and strong as to bring down Heaven to us And this is not to be done by painful noise and exercise of the Body but by the quick and sprightly motions of the soul These are the faculties which we must employ in the service of God and thus we must worship in Spirit But what man is sufficient for these things Our understandings are naturally so dull our wills so corrupt and our affections so disturbed that of our selves we know not what to ask nor how to Pray Therefore when according to the first Rule we have by humility prepared our hearts for Prayer then does the spirit of God descend upon us and help our infirmities he builds upon the Foundations of Nature improves our understanding into a stedfast Faith quickens our wills and desires with a sure hope and confidence in God and inflames our affections with a Divine love He so enlightens our Eyes as that we may look up and behold the Heavens opened to admit our supplications and so purifies our hearts that we may be worthy to receive the rays of Divine Majesty into our bosom in the happy return of our Prayers These are the gifts or the Spirit whereby he directs and assists us in our Prayers and Supplications and thus we must worship in Spirit and in Truth And if we take our measures of the Romish service by this Rule we shall find it very deficient As for instance their Praying in an unknown Tongue How can the spirit of a man be moved by that which he does not understand How can a man be edified by those words which only enter into his outward Ears and never sink into his heart it is not the turning over so many Beads nor the kneeling so long upon our knees that compleats the worship of God or prepares a Sacrifice worthy of him but the lifting up of our hearts as well as our hands to his Holy place therefore we may say of this sort of Prayer as St. Paul did of the Preaching in his time yet in the Church I had rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice I might teach others also than ten thousand words in an unknown Tongue This practice savours too much of the blind formal Devotion of a Jewish Synagogue and can never be proved to be the true Christian worship except they can convince us that miraculous effusion of the Spirit is still continued to the Church and men may now understand these unknown Tongues by the same Miracle whereby the Apostles spake them And as the Romish Church is deficient herein so our Dissenting Brethren notwithstanding all their pretences to the Spirit do not at all abound who by a new and strange Interpretation have forced this expression of worshipping in the Spirit to signifie only Extempore Prayer and confined all these Noble and Divine influences or the Holy Ghost to the mean ungenerous purposes of supplying the defects of our speech and inventing words for our imperfect thoughts As if forwardness of behaviour confidence of Face and readiness of the Tongue which are the reproachful Characters of a troublesome Companion were now become the only tests of a gifted Brother But supposing readiness of Expression to be really a gift of the Spirit yet how shall we know by what Spirit it is that this man speaks There is a deluding Spirit which under a pretence of extraordinary Piety has drawn multitudes together into extraordinary evils and this is no new thing especially in these our days There is a Spirit of Contention whereby many pretend to a more eminent degree of vertue and yet intend only a more eminent place of honour to themselves Such was the Spirit whereby the Sons of Zebedee prayed that they might sit one on the right hand of our Saviour and the other on the left There is a Spirit of Vanity and Ostentation and such a one it was that exalted Herod into his Throne clothed him with his Royal Apparel and prompted to him that vain-glorious Oration which he made unto the people All these Spirits fail not to give utterance to the person possessed therewith according to the mighty working of their Error their Interest or their Pride as particularly to Herod in so fluent and divine a manner that the poor deluded people took him not for a man but God Therefore it availeth very little for a man to have the gift of speaking by the Spirit except the people have the gift also of discerning the Spirit by which he speaks and this is a gift not very usual or remarkable in those that are the admirers of this sort of worship Since thercfore the Age of Miracles is gone and the immediate impulse of the Holy Ghost is departed from us 't is safer for us to trust to those Prayers which the wisest and best of men amongst us even those to whom under Christ we owe our Religion and Reformation have compiled with great Piety and Prudence and maintained with Constancy and Perseverance even to Martyrdom rather than to rely on the unskilful undigested Prayers of every forward inconsiderate worshipper Who would not quit the wild roving fancies of such as Pray for they think not they know not what to joyn in these Petitions which are so plain and easie that they are agreedable to the capacities of the meanest so judicious and accurate as to satisfie the wisest men so full and copious as to supply the wants of the greatest sinners so Substantial Pious and Grave as may befit the greatest Saints As for those therefore that quarrel with the matter of our Prayers we say no more but that all human things are subject to errors and when they can find out better we shall willingly submit to the change As for those that find fault with the manner of them and say these set Forms do stint the Holy Ghost and quench the Spirit I answer 't is very strange that these words which were composed with the greatest Art and Industry of man and with as great a measure at least of the Holy Spirit as any private person can pretend unto should come at length to be despised as flat and insignificant Rhetorick and a well framed Composure were wont to raise our affections and heighten our Devotion and can nothing move us now but what is remarkable for being mean and the rude product of our first thoughts Certainly it is not the goodness but the newness of this fashion that draws the people after it and the love of Novelty is in all cases a sign of Levity but in Religion it is commonly the cause of Superstition 'T is only a debauched and wanton stomach that requires variety of tasts and a constant Appetite is not only the sign but also the cause of Health But I would willingly know wherein a set form of Prayers does stint the Spirit cannot our Spirit be touched with a sence of our wants and an ardent desire of a supply as well by a premeditated as an extempore Prayer Cannot we Pray as Spiritually and as effectually in that perfect form of words which were prescribed by our Saviour as in those which are conceived by man Cannot we lift up our hearts to God with as much Zeal and Devotion in one of the Psalms of David for they are Spiritual Songs as in the sudden transports of a private Spirit dares any man be so presumptuous so blasphemous as to say that these Forms of worship are cold jejune and do stint the Spirit where then is their Argument against prescribed Liturgies But what if the Spirit should be stinted A Spirit is an unruly thing and 't is fit it should be circumscribed If the Spirit of St. Peter had been confined within the bounds of Prudence he had escaped many severe censures to which the evtravagance of his Zeal exposed him When he Prayed that they might build Altars to Moses and Elias the Evangelists upbraids him with a Spirit of inconsideration When he Prayed against the Passion of our Saviour he rebuked his Spirit for Diabolical saying Get thee behind me Satan And if the Spirit of the Great Apostle was subject to such errors in Prayer what greater confidence can we have in our new unpractised uninspired professors To conclude if neither the command of our Saviour nor the practice of all settled Churches throughout the world both Jewish and Christian can be of sufficient Authority to weigh down this new Model of Divinity if nothing but Mathematical Demonstrations can convince them of the truth and the least shadow of an Argumcnt will serve to confirm them in their errors if neither reason nor kindness can reclaim them I hope 't is no breach of Charity to think that it is not the Spirit of Prayer but the Spirit of Ostentation that animates their Assemblies and encourages this ungrounded Separation And since all human means have proved ineffectual we must commit the Cause to God who is the searcher of all hearts and Pray that by the power of his love he would come amongst us and turn the hearts of out disaffected Brethren That he would remove their prejudices and enlighten their understandings abate their heats and warm their affections towards us that they would leave off their uncharitable censures and shew forth the purity of their Faith by their certain gifts of the Spirits Humility and Love That they would for once suppose us to be but as Wise as Vertuous and as Sincere as they and after a kind impartial tryal I doubt not but their Charity will either pronounce us good or their Conversation will make us better FINIS