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
strang Wives or the like and were censured and ejected as unclean by the Jews they could presently run to Samaria and there be received And this produced a woful and irreconcileable schism betwixt those two people insomuch that they lived in perpetual discord The hatred betwixt them was so great that they held it unlawful to eat or drink with one another Hence that saying of this Woman to our Saviour How is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me which am a Woman of Samaria Nay such was the hatred of the Jews to the Samaritans that though they granted leave to all Nations in the World to become Proselytes to their religion yet would they not grant it to them Witness that solemn form of excommunication termed excommunicatio in secreto nominis tetragrammati said to be uttered against them by Ezra and Nehemiah They assembled the whole Congregation saith my Author into the Temple of the Lord and brought 300 Priests 300 Trumpets and 300 books of the Law with as many boyes And when they sounded their Trumpets and the Levites sang they cursed the Samaritans by all the sorts of excommunication in the mystery of the name Jehovah and in the Decalogue and with the curse both of the inferiour and superiour house of judgement that no Israelite should eat the bread of a Samaritan whence they say he who eateth bread of a Samaritan is as he who eateth Swines flesh and let no Samaritan be a proselyte in Israel neither let them have any part in the resurrection of the dead And as the Jews did thus prosecute their cause against the Samaritans with much heat and confidence so likewise did the Samaritans theirs against them Though they had the worse of it yet were they no less peremptory and stedfast in their way than the former being ready upon all occasions to maintain their opinion and dispute for it Witness the carriage of the Woman in this place she do's not barely propound the question to our Saviour and then wait to hear how he would determine it but stands up and reasons with him about it Our Fathers saith she worshipped in this Mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to Worship Now our Saviour in answer to this great question and for the composing of this long difference of no less than 400 years continuance tells her that the time was approaching wherein the Worship of God should be confined neither to Garizim nor Jerusalem yet by the way lets her know there was a great deal of difference betwixt the Worship of the Samaritans and the Jews Ye Worship saith he ye know not what we know what we Worship There was no comparison betwixt the Worship of the Samaritans and the Jews The Jews might miss it in the manner of their Worship but the Samaritans did not only miss it in that but likewise in the object of it for they worshipped they knew not what But in opposition both to the Worship of the Samaritans and the Jews he tells her that the hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall Worship the Father in spirit and in truth c. Which words imply as much as if he had said the question which thou now propoundest to me and hath been disputed so long with so much heat amongst you is now of small moment for God is about not only to alter the place but the manner of his Worship As he will not have his Worship limited either to Garizim or Jerusalem so neither will he have it limited to the mode either of the one place or the other but will be worshipped after another manner and the manner wherein he will be Worshipped is spiritual and simple they that Worship him must Worship him in spirit and in truth And thus I have with what brevity I could conveniently led you down to the words of the Text and given you an account of the author and occasion of them To make any Analysis or division of them is needless and therefore without any further stay I shall draw from them this point That it is the duty of the sons of men in these dayes of the Gospel to Worship God in spirit and in truth Though all Christians nay all Nations agree that there is a God and that he is to be Worshipped yet they do not agree about the manner of it Some will have him to be Worshipped one way and some another according as their light and principles lead them Some will have him to be Worshipped immediately others mediately or remotely Some with slaying of beasts and bloody sacrifices others in a spiritual and simple manner without any such adoe Some in the use of external rites and shadows others without them Now our Saviour who came from his Fathers bosome and most perfectly understood his will undertakes the determining of this controversie and shews after what manner he would have men to Worship him They that Worship saith he must Worship him in spirit and in truth The point lyes so visibly in the Text that I need not send you to other places of Scripture to shew you the truth of it and therefore I shall not spend time in that The Method I shall observe in prosecuting it is this 1. I shall shew what is meant by Worship 2. What by spirit 3. What by truth 4. The reasons of both branches that is to say wherefore we must worship God in spirit and wherefore in truth 5. I shall lay down one or two cautions And 6. come to the Vses all which I shall dispatch with plainness and brevity 1. I shall shew what is meant by Worship The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the extraction and derivation whereof the Etymologists are not agreed Zanchy thinks it's derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Dog and that it is a Metaphor taken from spaniels that use in subjection to their masters to couch upon the ground before them And that which renders it somewhat more probable is that the Hebrew Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie to worship do also signifie to fall down or lye prostrate as also that the Jews both in their civil and religious worship used to do so However others are against this derivation and assign another Rivet thinks it is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to kiss and that which renders this more probable is that kissing hath been a very antient symbol of adoration Witness that of Job If my mouth saith he hath kissed my hand this were an iniquity to be punished by the judge for I should have denyed the God that is above A bare kissing the hand he cannot mean for that we may reckon amongst those actions that are indifferent neither good nor bad but he means such a kissing of the hand as was a ceremony belonging to idolatrous worship The Heathenish
Nations as Estius observes Worshipped the Sun and Moon and when they saw either of them clearly shining forth they stretched out their hands towards them and then laid them upon their mouths and kissed them thereby signifying that if they could have got to them they would have kissed them as they did their hands Their manner was that if they could have access to their idols they kissed them if not they kissed their hands in token of worshipful reverence towards them So that Job by these words intimates thus much that if he had done as his Heathenish Neighbours did if he had relinquished the true God and plaid the Idolater as they did then he had deserved punishment indeed And in other places of Scripture we find Worshipping set forth by the same phrase God tells the Prophet Elijah who thought himself alone the only true worshipper that he had seven thousand that had not bowed unto nor kissed Baal And the Prophet Hosea complaining of the wickedness of the Israelites amongst other things that he charges them with this is one that they said Let the men that sacrifice kiss the Calves Whereby it appears that this heathenish Ceremony did not keep it self among the barbarous Nations where it was hatched but crept amongst the Israelites with whom it sound too much entertainment And the same Rivet thinks David alludes to this custome when he saith Kiss the Son lest he be angry Notwithstanding this that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is used to denote worship is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more than I dare affirm In the derivations of words though sometimes the descent be obvious and afford light yet many times it is very obscure and uncertain and in such cases we must be cautious what stress we lay on them Whether this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I leave to every one to judge there be learned men on both sides Let us now from the Name pass to the thing denoted by it The worship set forth by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is twofold it is either civil or religious Civil worship is reverent behaviour towards men whereby we testifie our respect to them proportionably to the eminency we behold in them Though I call it civil yet I do not so speak as if I thought it not at all religious for as a judicious author well observes it is commanded by God who is the author of religion and it hath some analogy with the worship which is more properly religious but for that the object from which acts do usually receive their names is civil But to go on the respect testified by this kind of worship is commonly expressed in the incurvation or bowing of the body So Abraham upon his meeting the three Angels bowed himself towards the ground And upon his treating with the children of Heth about a burial place for his wife he bows himself to them The word used in both places by the Septuagint is the same with this in the Text. What we use to say of grace in reference to Nature that it do's not destroy but rectifie it the like we may say of it in reference to civility it do's not destroy it in men but rectifie and regulate it teaching them to whom to shew it in what manner and in what degree It is so far from being an enemy to civility that it greatly promotes it it subdues the Nabalism and churlishness of mens natures takes away the gall and bitterness of them and makes them kind and pleasing Turn over the histories of all Nations and ages and you shall not meet with any persons of more condiscending obliging sweet deportment than such as have been most eminent for grace and holiness Witness Abraham in this place he was a great Lord and a mighty Prince and yet how submissively and courteously doth he carry himself to these children of Heth who were his inferiours in many respects This being so what shall we think of a generation of men amongst us that having renounced and as it were protested against the common tokens of civility carry themselves before Magistrates and others to whom they owe obeysance like a company of barbarians that never knew what civility meant making a conscience of putting off the hat calling a man master and the like But no marvel for if it be religion that teaches men manners as certainly it is we may not wonder that having laid aside religion they have also laid aside their manners This is civil worship but it is not this kind of worship the Text speaks of and therefore I shall say no more of that Religious worship is devout behaviour towards God whereby we acknowledge his Soveraignty over us and the dueness of our obedience to him appearing before him and waiting upon him in the way he hath appointed in his Word This David speaks of when he saith O come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker And this our Saviour speaks of when he saith they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Now this worship belongs not to either Angels or Saints their images reliques or any such thing but to the Lord only whose it is and from whom we may not alienate it Hence that of our Saviour in another place thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve He speaks not of a civil worship or reverence for therewith we both may and ought to serve others but of a religious worship or reverence which God hath reserved as a prerogative peculiar to himself Agreeable hereunto is that of Athanasius God alone is to be worshipped Which words are so point-blank against the proceedings of the Papists that their inquisition at Madrid lighting on them in one of his Index's expunged and put them out Religious worship is of a far other nature than civil is it differs from it not only gradually as the reverence we give to the King differs from that we give to one of his judges or Ministers of state but specifically or in kind As all acts are to be suited to so they are to be denominated from their objects and to bear appellations and titles agreeable to them Now the objects of these two sorts of worship differ as much as may be The object of the one is the Creature the object of the other is the Creator The object of the one is humane and finite the object of the other is divine and infinite And the worship we give them must be answerable When we worship the creature we must do it with apprehensions and affections becoming the creature and when we worship the Creator we must do it with apprehensions and affections becoming the Creator When we appear before men and do reverence to them we must do it with apprehensions of eminency but such as is created
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
we know what we worship q. d. ye worship the true God as we do but ye worship him under a visible similitude whereby it appears ye know him not but the hour cometh and now is that the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth c. That is they shall not worship him under any visible shape as you do but shall conceive of him as he is namely a spirit This was the opinion of our learned country man Mr. Mede But notwithstanding the respect I bear to the author and his excellent works I conceive this is none of our Saviours meaning For 1. how will it be proved that the Samaritans worshipped God under the similitude of a dove L'empereur a great master in critical learning denies it And Cunaeus doth not only acquit them from this pretended idolatry of the Dove but from all Idolatry whatsoever He grants that they did formerly live in idolatry but withal saith that they wholly renounced it and that before the time of Sanballat following the religion prescribed by Moses 2. Grant they did worship God as is alledged under the shape of a Dove yet the antithesis or opposition in the words will not admit this to be the sense of them For our Saviour doth not set the worshipping of God in spirit and in truth only in opposition to the worship of the Samaritans but also of the Jews who conceived of God as a spirit and so worshipped him Had he insisted only on the worship of the Samaritans and set worshipping God in spirit and in truth only in opposition to their worship then this sense had carried more probability along with it but it is evident that this worshipping God in spirit and in truth stands in opposition as well to the Jewish as the Samaritan worship and therefore this cannot be the meaning of them 3. Others think by worshipping God in spirit we are to understand the worshipping of him not only with the outward but the inner man and by worshipping him in truth the worshipping him in righteousness telling us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truth and righteousness are used promiscuously Those say they worship in righteousness that worship in truth and those worship in truth that worship in righteousness Thus Heinsius But this seems not to be the sense For though it be very true that to worship God in spirit is to worship him with the inner man and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are put sometimes the one for the other yet this sense agrees not with the adversative which we are to have great respect to as yielding much light to the finding out the meaning of the words Our Saviour tells the woman ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship but saith he the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth By which adversative it appears that the worshipping God in spirit and in truth is a worshipping of him in such a way as is different both from that of the Samaritans and the Jews And so far Bellarmine is in the right when he saith these words manifestly signifie that our Saviour spake of a new way of worship which was not before and which would have its beginning from him But according to this opinion the worshiping God in spirit and in truth is not different from all former worship in particular not from that of the Jews for though many of them were hypocritical and profane yet were there some amongst them that worshipped God with the inner man and in righteousness To go no further we read of Zachary and Elizabeth who were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless It is not against the abuse of a lawful worship that our Saviour speaks but against the worship it self according to its institution which he would have laid aside and another kinde of worship of his own appointment substituted in the room of it 4. Others think that worshipping God in spirit is here set in opposition to the carnal external worship of the Jews and worshipping him in truth to the fictitious false worship of the Samaritans And so they will have the words of our Saviour to amount to thus much both Jews and Samaritans worship the Father the one at one place and the other at another The one in a carnal way the other in a false way but the time is at hand that both the one and the other shall worship him after another manner The Jews laying aside their carnal worship shall worship him in spirit and the Samaritans laying aside their false worship shall worship him in truth And this sense Pererius with other Jesuits gives of the words But not to repeat what I have already alledged which shews this cannot be the meaning I see no reason wherefore spirit should be restrained to the carnal external worship of the Jews and truth to the fictitious false worship of the Samaritans For there was want of spirit not only in the worship of the Jews but also of the Samaritans and there was want of truth not only in the worship of the Samaritans but also of the Jews I understand not therefore how this limitation may be justified 5. 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 without the use of such ceremonies as were types of things to come Not without the use of all ceremonies but only such as were shadows of things to come They say the Jews and Samaritans before the coming of Christ worshipped God with bloody Sacrifices and with many rites and ordinances depending thereon which prefigured some thing to come but Christ being come that was prefigured by them he lets the woman know that this kind of worship should cease and that God would be worshipped after another manner sc. in spirit and in truth As if he had said God will not now be worshipped in the types of things expected but according to the verity of what is already exhibited After this manner speak Maldonate and others But I understand not wherefore we should restrain the words only to the exclusion of such ceremonies as are figures of things to come They are a plain assertion of the spirituality and simplicity of Gospel worship which will consist no better with other ceremonies than such as are shaddows of things to come Should we worship God in the use of as many ceremonies as the Jews did though they were not figures of things to come but of things past or present yet our worship would be no more in spirit and in truth than theirs Besides it is to be observed that Christ at his coming did not only abrogate such ceremonies as were typical and shadowed forth things to come but such
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
himself in this place prescribes But to return where I was that Christ in Circumstantials hath left his Church some power is granted but she must take heed lest in the exercising of it she go beyond her limits As she must take heed of neglecting those conveniencies tha◠he does allow her so she must likewise take heed of transgressing her bounds and going too far and that both as to the nature and number of her constitutions As to the nature of them she must if she expect to be obeyed take heed of framing such things as are liable to just exception and imposing them on her members with rigour and severity Christ hath dealt tenderly with her and it may not become her to deal austerely and harshly with them As they on the one hand must remember to shew her filial respect beware of contemning her Authority and not but upon very weighty grounds reject what she recommends to them so she on the other hand must take heed of provoking them to wrath or shewing her self cruel remembring her Authority as some of her wisest Sons have told us is not coercive but directive not imperative but declarative And if it so fall out that some of them refuse to close with or obey any or all of her injunctions she must not presently interpret it a perverse obstinacy against her whiles they are known to be sound in all fundamentals of holy lives and peaceable spirits but fear of offending God whom above all as she her self hath taught them they must labour to please suspecting not only their affection and fidelity to her but the equity of her impositions on them considering her self to be fallible and liable to mistakes as whole multitudes of repealed Canons do abundantly shew And in reference to the number of her constitutions she must take heed of transgressing her bounds that way she must beware of breaking forth into an unbridled licentiousness as the Church of Rome hath done making her members groan and sigh under the multitude of her decrees and impositions As she must take care that those things she frames be requisite and necessary at least innocent and lawful so she must take care they be few in their number lest they become burdensome and take her members of higer and greater matters And when her constitutions are warrantable both in respect of the nature and number of them it is our duty to close with them and we should greatly offend if we should refuse to do it So long as her determinations in particular cases be consonant to the general Rules she is to walk by we must by no means deny our obedience But if she make such constitutions as are unwarrantable for the nature or number of them or both and impose them on us with rigour she must not think it much if we disobey her nay if according to the authority granted us and the trust reposed in us we stand up for our own liberty fit in Judgment upon her and plead with her And so much for the Cautions as also the doctrinal part of this Discourse 6. I am now in the last place in pursuance of the propounded Method to give you the Vses of the point And 1. May be for Information to teach us these two particulars 1. That the Catholick Church is invisible Amongst other points disputed betwixt us and the Papists this is one Whether the Catholick Church be invisible we say it is they say it is not Dr. Whitaker to mention no more hath learnedly and judiciously discussed this point and amongst other Texts which he urges for confutation of them this I am now upon is one His Argument runs thus If that only saith he be the true Catholick Church of Christ that does worship and serve God in spirit and in truth then the Catholick Church is invisible but the former is true and therefore so is the latter And indeed the consequence is evident for such as the worship is such is the Church If the Worship be invisible so is the Church If we see not who they are that worship God in spirit and in truth we neither see which is the true Church for that is 〈◊〉 Worship Christ hath appointed and does enable that Society which is his true Church to worship him with Were the Church a body meerly politick like other incorporated Societies the Papists might upon better grounds tell us it is as visible as the Commonwealth of the Venetians or the Kingdom of France or Spain but it is not so it is as the Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual house standing on a spiritual foundation made up of spiritual materials and govern'd after a spiritual manner Or were it a body meerly Physical they might on better grounds plead for its Visibility but it is not so it is a mystical body and a spiritual body Now that which is spiritual is not the object of sense but faith which is the evidence of things not seen The Church therefore being thus spiritual is not visible to the Eye but credible if I may so speak to the Mind Hence that passage in the Creed I believe the holy Catholick Chruch intimating its certain there is an holy Catholick Church but withal that its invisible Indeed in respect of its accidental and external form it 's visible and as visible as other Societies but in respect of its essential and inward form which is that which gives it its being and is mainly to be looked after it 's altogether invisible To know who they be that profess as Church-Members is easie but to know who they be that believe worship and live as such is not so And thus much Bellarmine grants and what 's this but to grant us all we contend for and say as we do 2. That a ceremonious Worship in the days of the Gospel is utterly unlawful and unwarrantable contrary to the will of God the design of Christ and the nature of the dispensation he hath put his Church under This is Beza's inference To introduce saith he new Figures or any Shaddows into the Church we affirm out of the Word of God who does so expresly condemn all Will Worship and in times past prohibited the bringing of strange Fire to his Altar is wicked audaciousness If it belong to God to prescribe his own Worship and he hath been pleased in his word to do it therein telling us that he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth that is as you have heard with the inner man and in simplicity without the use of ceremonies then to introduce and set up a ceremonious Worship must needs be wicked audaciousness It is no less then an affronting his Majesty a contemning his Authority a resisting of his Will and so no doubt will be interpreted by him Had he only commanded us to worship him in general and left the specification or manner of it to us then we had been
you nothing of your own Observation or common same to inform you easily imagine But we need not travel so far from home for instances of this nature there are many even among our selves that stand deeply guilty of this sin serving God sometimes with their Bodies but seldom or never with their Souls There are many amongst us of such a frame that if they do but observe the Bell come together into the presence of God at the hour of Prayer and there abide a while with their Bodies though their Souls are at the ends of the earth they think they have done all that is commanded and may expect a blessing They think if they can but follow the Calendar go over their Divine Offices as they call them stand up kneel down cringe bow and answer in their turns they have chuse where the heart is all this while done God good service But alas what 's all this to the purpose What 's all this in comparison of what God requires What 's all this in comparison of one serious hearty humble prayer accompanied with ture contrition and lively faith Constantinus Copronimus the Eastern Emperour was wont to say Quid sine pectore corpus what 's the body without the soul What are stately Cathedrals melodious Musick costly Hangings rich Vtensils gawdy Vestments and all the gestures and postures imaginable without a praying heart Though our Worship be never so splendid and pompous decked with the most exquisite humane ornaments yet unless the heart ingage in it it is in vain nay odious and abominable It is to be wished then that men would stand less upon matters of this nature and look more after the heart 2. Such as worship God but not in truth Many are of such a temper that they know not how to worship him unless it be in a ceremonious way They have so inur'd themselves to Ceremonies and taken such affection to them that they scarcely know how to do any thing in the service of God without them so that take away them and you serve them as Jacob did Laban you take away their gods and with them their worship happiness and all at once Though they hear over and over again that God hath declared against such kind of worship told them that it is not pleasing to him that the time of it is expired and the like yet they are not satisfied but they must and will have it And herein they much aggravate their sin that not conrenting themselves with those Ceremonies which are of divine institution whereof I gave you account before they frame others of their own heads which they do not only equal with but prefer before them Thus the Scribes and Pharisees as if all those Ceremonies God appointed by Moses had been too few they must have some of their own which they were very exact chuse what became of the other in the observation of What a stir did they keep about washing of hands cups pots brazen vessels tables and such like things which they did not only use themselves but impose on others and that with so much zeal and rigour that they were ready to quarrel with Christs Disciples because they did not do as they did And what ado likewise did they make with their Phylacteries and fringes not contenting themselves with those prescribed by God they would have greater such as would be more seen and with a louder voice proclaim their zeal and sanctity They made broad saith the Evangelist their Phylacteries and enlarged the borders of their garments They thought those appointed by the Law were too little and did not sufficiently bespeak their good affection and devotion which they desired all might take notice of and admire them for and therefore they made them such as would be seen further and speak lowder and these they wore with much pride and ostentation And in this ceremonious superstitious humour the Papists imitate them to the life As they imitate them in their Hypocrisie so they do likewise in their superstition Hence that serious complaint of Erasmus The world saith he is laden with humane constitutions it is laden with the opinions and doctrines of the School-men with the tyranny of the mendicant Fryers who though they are the Vassals of the See of Rome are yes so potent and numerous that they are formidable to the very Pope and Kings themselves Jerusalem it self when she was under the paedagogical Administration and when the Ceremonial Law was at the height had not more Ceremonies than Rome hath at this day There was not a Ceremony among the Jews which they have not either in the same kind or somewhat equivalent to Nay as if that were not sufficient they have taken up many used by the Heathens which the Jews had not nor any thing like them And how far many amongst us that pretend to be come out of Babylon and to have cast of communion with her do symbolize with them I need not tell you Now what manifest disobeying nay presumptuous contradicting is this of Jesus Christ Will he have the Law of Ceremonies abrogated and will men and such too as pretend to be his obedient servants have it continued Does he say God must be worshipped without Ceremonies and do they say he shall be worshipped with them What 's this but a thrusting themselves into his Throne an invading of his Authority and a laying hold on his Soveraignty and Dominion What 's this but to charge him with insufficiency and say he is unfit to govern the Church or be the Head of it And is this the respect they have for him Is this the thanks they give him for their Redemption for his saving them from the curse of the Moral Law and yoke of the Ceremonial Who would ever think that any that carry the names of Christians and desire the setting up of his Kingdom and Government should deal thus unworthily with him Either he is our Lord of not fnot why do we profess he is if he be why do we not obey him The third Vse may be for Exhortation to perswade all to worship God in spirit and in truth This is the Worship God himself hath prescribed and by his Son propounded to us and therefore let us all without any disputing or drawing back close with it 1. Let us worship him in spirit When ever we come into his presence let 's beware we leave not our spirits behind us let 's be sure we take them along with us and engage them in the work What ever service or duty we set upon let 's be sure to imploy our spirits in it Let thine heart saith God keep my Commandments The heart is the thing he chiefly calls for expects and eyes in all our performances and therefore when ever we address our selves to him let 's be sure to bring our hearts along with us present them to him and keep them in order whiles they are before him When we
Cause acknowledging himself unworthy of such a favour To these were it needful I might add the Examples of multitudes more of blessed Saints who cheerfully hazarded all for Christ while they were on Earth and now are receiving their Reward with him in Heaven But the case is so well known that none except such who are strangers in Israel can be ignorant of it and therefore I shall forbear Now things being thus what shall we think of those that make temporal impunity and outward safety their very Rule aiming at it in all their Designs and framing all their Proceedings in a way of subserviency to it They will either continue in their present Religion or part with it either be of one way or another so they may but sleep in a whole skin and preserve themselves from trouble They will dishonour God venture their Souls or do any thing rather than expose themselves to danger If Providence call them to suffer for the Truth they 'l find out an hundred unheard-of impertinent silly distinctions but they 'l evade it When ever their Souls upon any Convictions begin to talk of Suffering they presently take them rebuke them saying as Peter to Christ Be it far from thee this shal not be unto thee Certainly such persons as these are an offence to Christ and savour not the things that be of God but the things that be of Men. And thus I have shewed you both the impediments that hinder men from worshipping God in Spirit and those likewise that hinder them from worshipping him in Truth Let us now see how far we are concerned in them how far they or any of them stand in our way and accordingly let us get them removed The worshipping of God in spirit and in truth is the Worship he would have this he will only accept of and this he will only reward and therefore let us be sure to worship him with this kind of Worship not suffering our selves by any endeavours or means whatsoever to be taken off it It is but a while and Jesus Christ who instituted this Worship will come again and vindicate it against all that oppose it It is but a while and he will come to his Temple whip out the Buyers and Sellers and purge it from the impurities and defilements that cleave unto it It is but a while and he will call all Nations down into the Valley of Decision and there he will plead with the Troublers of his Church and such as have muddied the Waters of his Sanctuary and polluted those Silver Streams with their sinful mixtures and then it will appear whether the outward ceremonious worshipping of God or the worshipping of him in spirit and in truth be the true Worship In the mean time le ts keep close to God study our duty and both cheerfully and constantly notwithstanding all the troubles we may thereby expose our selves to persist in the performance of it Though men frown upon us and threaten us with Censures Imprisonment Banishment Confiscation and all the evil humane might and cruelty can do us yet let 's not be moved but count our selves happy we have an opportunity to do or suffer any thing whereby we may testifie our respect to so good a cause Whose is all we have but Gods and for what end did he put it into our hands but that we should lay it out for him As therefore the primitive Christians sold their Lands and Houses brought the prices thereof and laid them down at the Apostles feet So let us bring our Estates Enjoyments Liberties Lives and all we have and lay it down at the feet of Christ being willing to sacrifice all so we may but further his opposed Interest and bear witness to his despised Truth Bucer in an Epistle to Calvin tells him That there were some that would willingly redeem to the Commonwealth the ancient liberty of worshipping Christ with their very lives True Grace and Christian Zeal are of an heroick nature ready to endure any thing for Christ his Worship and Truth If therefore we will evidence our Grace to be true and our Zeal to be Christian we must be willing to suffer It is a vanity to think of passing to Heaven without suffering the Saints have hitherto found the way thither paved with troubles and we may not think of finding it otherwise now Constantine the Great as piously as wittily told Acesius the Novatian that if he would not take up with Persecution and such like dealing he must provide him a Ladder and climb alone to Heaven Unless we will either be content without Heaven or find some other way to it than the Saints have yet found we must look for troubles They have been found in the way of Heaven hitherto and so they will be to the end of the World If then we will go the way of Heaven let 's make account to meet with them and prepare for them and when they fall upon us let us with all holy submission and Christian cheerfulness undergo them In a word whatever comes of it whether Prosperity or Adversity Liberty or Bonds Life or Death since God hath made it our Duty let us make it our Practise to worship him in Spirit and in Truth FINIS ERRATA In the Margent Page 18. for Judel read Tudel p. 27. f. abrogare r. abrogari p. 36. after fumus add In the Book P. 37. l. 30. for it r. in p 40. l. 1. for should r. would p. 63. l. 4. for tradtion r. tradition p. 64. l. 13. for call r. calls p. 67. l. 15. for higer r. higher Rev. 12. 7. Isa. 53. 10 11. Mat. 4. 25. Mat. 3. 7. Psal. 35. 12. Josh. 24. 1. Mat. 11. 25 Gen. 33. 18. Consentaneum vero cum eo loci habitarit etiam plures puteos fodisse In loc Joseph Antiq Judaic l. 11. c. 8. Graecol p. 382. Epiphan t. t. l. 1. haeres 14. p. 30. Ed. Paris Cunaeus de Rep. Hebr. l. 2. c. 16. p. mihi 208. 2 Kings 17. 25. Deut. 7. 3. Vid. Selden de Iure Nat. l. 2 c. 5. p. 177. Ed. Nov. Joh. 4. 9. Drusius de trib sectis l. 3. c. 11. p. 135. Doct. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est more catellorum ad pedes alicujus tanquam domini totum se prosternere subjectionis gratiâ Vol. 2. de Secund. praecept p. 567. Gen. 17. 3. Ruth 2. â—â— Simplex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 osculari significat amoâ—is aut hono is causâ Exerc. in Gen. 33. 3. Job 31. 27 28. Solent cultores solis luna hâc ceremoniâ c. in loc 1 Kings 19. 18. Hos. 13 2. Non persuadet vir doctus c. Exercit. in Gen. 41. 40. He means Drusius who thought otherwise Psal. 2. 12. Honor omnis qui à religione imperatur aut religione suadente exhibetur alicui dictur aliquando religiosus Amesius de Consc. l. 4. c. 1. p. 161. Gen. 18.
of worship but require it expect it and take complacency in it 2. Because to worship God in spirit is more agreeable and sutable to his nature than other kind of worship Sutableness is desirable in every thing and therefore should not be neglected in the servcie of God As we would have him to furnish us with sutable mercies so we should yeild to him sutable service Now to worship God in spirit sutes better with his nature than other worship doth He is not made up of matter and form subject and accident act and power or the like ingredients proper to created beings but is a most simple essence He consists not of a gross corporal substance like the Heathen Idols made of silver and gold that have mouths and speak not eyes and see not ears and hear not but is a most pure spirit as void of matter as he is of either sin or mortality Hence that of the Prophet to whom will ye liken God or what likenss will ye compare unto him And the Apostle upbraids the Gentiles for their Anthropomorphitism in that they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and fourfooted beasts and creeping things Yet were there some amongst them that took him to be a spirit and so taught Numa following the doctrine of Pythagoras forbade the Romans to believe that God had any form or likenss either of man or beast And upon this consideration they used no pictures or images of him accounting it sacriledge to represent Heavenly things by earthly forms And with this doctrine of the antient Romans agrees that of the modern Witness that of the famous Tully Neither can God himself saith he who is understood of us be understood any other way than as a mind loosed and free segregated from all mortal concretion What 's this but in a Periphrasis to tell us that he is a spirit And if he be a spirit then to worship him in spirit must needs be more proper than to do it in another way After this manner our Saviour himself reasons God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit It is Argumentum à conjugatis and implyes as much as if he had said God is a spirit and therefore they that worship him must worship him in spirit For though the illative or rational particle be not expressed yet it is evidently implyed and therefore we must not look upon the words as a bare precept only requiring us to worship God in spirit but also as a rational argument to induce us to it And indeed what can be more rational than that if God be a spirit we should worship him in spirit For if it be reasonable that since men have bodies we should reverence them with the body it must then needs be reasonable that since God is a spirit we should worship him with the spirit 3. Because to Worship God in spirit is the most excellent kind of worship As it is such worship as agrees both with his will and nature so it hath a peculiar excellency in it above all other worship and that in respect of the efficient or subject from whence it proceeds which is the inner man or reasonable soul. And what a rare and excellent piece that is is worthy the pen of an Angel to describe It is not a thing of such mean and homely extraction as the body made up of earth water and other elements ready to tumble into the grave not and putrifie every day it 's of a more divine and generous descent and of a more refined and immortal nature indued with several noble and usefull faculties each of them capable of performing excellent operations and services It is the candle of the Lord a Celestial spark a beam of light darfed down from God out of Heaven The Jewish Rabbi's have such an high esteem of it that they compare it in divers respects to God himself And not only they but Plato Tully Seneca Epictetus and other Heathens that dealt but with principles of Philosophy and could fee no further then the dimm eye of Nature would carry them have as Morney shews out of their writings many notable passages concerning it They say it came from God is a kin to him of the same off-spring with him and that it is like him and must never die but return to him again And indeed the excellencies of it are so many and so great that it s no easie matter to set them forth It is that which exalts a man above a beast and qualifies him for high and noble services It makes him fit to stand before Princes sit upon the throne of government converse with Angels serve his maker and enjoy communion with him Man is the beauty and glory of this lower world and the soul is the beauty and glory of man It is the fairest flower in all the reasonable creature the jewel in the Cabinet the diamond in the ring and so pretious that it is of more worth than all the riches of the Indies nay than all the World According to that of our Saviour what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Hence it is that wise men who understand somewhat of the nature of it set such an high value upon it David calls it his darling Deliver saith he my soul from the sword my darling from the power of the dog The word here rendered darling is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies my only one and so is rendred by Pagnine and others Whereby it appears he valued his soul so much that he regarded nothing else besides it Nay he was so choice and tender of it that he would trust it with none but God and therefore commends it to him Into thine hands saith he in another place I commit my spirit He looked upon the worth of it as so great and the welfare of it as so much concerning him that he thought none fit to be trusted with it but God and therefore passing by all others both men and angels he commits it only to him He esteemed not any place safe enough but the Cabinet of Gods gratious providence wherein he locks up the souls of all his servants and therefore he commits it to him to be preserved and kept by him And hence it is likewise that God himself makes such account of it and stands so much on it calling for it from every person and looking for it in every duty My son saith he give me thy heart He doth not say thy body thy head or thy hand but thy heart He stands not so much upon those things as he doth upon the heart That he looks for in every ordinance and in every performance And hence it is likewise that Satan aims so much at it laying all the
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
make as great account of your Christian and spiritual liberty as of your civil I am sure Paul did Though he were a man of a most peaceable condescending spirit yet herein he was resolute All things saith he are lawfull to me but I will not be brought under the power of any And the same path he went in himself the same he perswades others to go Be ye not saith he the servants of men When he speaks of civil matters then he doth all he can to stir them up to yielding and complying labouring to prevent law-suits and the evils that attend them Is it so saith he that there is not a wise man amongst you no not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren But brother goeth to law with brother and that before the unbelievers Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you because ye go to law one with another why do ye not rather take wrong why do ye not rather suffer your selves to be defrauded This is his language as to civil matters therein he uses all his art and interest to perswade them to mutual submission and forbearance advising them rather to recede from their own rights and suffer themselves to be defrauded than to ingage in vexatious law-suits to the dishonour of the Gospel But when he comes to speak of spiritual matters concerning their Christian liberty he discourses after another manner Therein he will have them to be stedfast and unmoveable not inslaving themselves to the wills of men or becoming their servants What it is to be the servants of men Ambrose tells us They are the servants of men saith he that subject themselves to humane superstitions Doubtless as God will call you to an account for his word and ordinances so he will for your Christian liberty and therefore it concerns you to take heed how you let it go 5. Whether should you not so far as lawfully you may hold communion with the best reformed Churches without question it is the will of Christ that you should so do If there be one Church more Orthodox and holy than another you should endeavour communion with it And if so how can you imagine it lawfull to worship God in the use of those Ceremonies which the best reformed Churches have declared against and abolished as not only unnecessary and burdensome but superstitious and scandalous not to trouble you with instances of their dislike and utter renouncing of them whereof you may see plenty in others Suartez mentions it as the common doctrine of Protestants that it is unlawfull to worship God with any other worship than that which is commanded in the Scriptures And that you may not think he speaks with reference only to the substance of worship hear what he saith in another place The hereticks saith he of our time say that every Ceremony and every kind of worship that is not commanded by God himself or is not contained in the Gospel is superstition yea they call it idolatry And if the Protestant Churches profess such doctrine and act accordingly and that without sin how can you without sin separate from them how will you free your selves from the charge of schism which is an evil so much condemned by Christ and prejudicial to the honour and welfare of his Church 6. Whether leaving both the practice of the primitive Christians and the communion of the best reformed Churches and you lawfully go and comply with Idolaters in the use of those things they have grosly abused in their profane mysteries Herein the Scripture is very plain After the doings saith God of the land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt shall ye not do and after the doings of the land of Canaan whither I bring you shall ye not do neither shall ye walk in their ordinances And in another place When the Lord thy God shall cut of the nations from before thee whither thou goest to possess them and thou succeedest them and dwellest in their land take heed to thy self that thou be not snared by following them after that they be destroyed from before thee and that thou inquire not after their Gods saying how did these Nations serve their Gods even so will I do likewise As God would have us to stand in a close union to him and one another so he would have us to stand at the utmost distance from idolaters And upon this ground the antients declined the use of many things though in themselves lawfull because they were used and abused by Idolaters Tertullian would not have his Christian souldier to go with a Lawrel upon his head and that because the heathens used to do so And Bishop Jewel hath several other instances of the same nature And ought not we in these dayes to detest idolatry and avoid communion with such as are guilty of it as well as the servants of God have done in former dayes Is it not as odious to him and ought it not to be resisted by us as much now as ever If therefore the ceremonies imposed be such as had their birth amongst idolatrous pagans and other enemies to God and his truth and have been not only used but notoriously abused by them how can you without apparent guilt make use of them And thus I have given you the Quaere's I thought good to offer to you both concerning the worshipping of God meerly with the outward man and the worshipping of him in the use of ceremonies consider of them and deal faithfully I shall now in the last place acquaint you with the common impediments of worshipping God in spirit and in truth and shew you whence it is that men are so ganerally averse to worship him that way And in pursuance of the method propounded to my self I shall first speak of those that concern the worshipping of him in spirit and they are these 1. Their misapprehensions of God his nature essence and will I have told you already that God is a most pure and simple being and would have worship suitable thereunto but men are apt to think otherwise of him They are apt to think he is a being cloathed with such gross matter as we poor mortals that dwell in tabernacles of clay carry about with us and that he would have such kind of worship and accordingly they give it to him They limit the holy one of Israel they measure him by themselves his properties by theirs and his will by theirs and think what pleases them pleases him Thou thoughest saith God that I was altogether such an one as thy self Now this is a most unreasonable and unjustifiable thing for what proportion is there betwixt that which is infinite and that which is fiuite bewixt a most spiritual and simple being and a soul attended with impotent and carnal passions and cloathed with gross and sinfull matter still drawing it to objects and pleasures suitable to it self none at all My thoughts are not your
inquire after them call them home from their accustomed wandrings and when we have them we must mind them of what we are going about and with all the art and skill we can urge them with the solemnness and importance of the business giving them no rest untill we have brought them into an awfull and holy frame and fitted them for the work of God And when we have ingaged them in the work that we may the better keep them to it we must set a guard upon them and carefully watch all the back doors and secret passages through which they use to steal away from us And when ever we see them begin to stir we must presently resist and restrain them accounting that which is done without them is vain and to no purpose As Masters stand over their idle and unfaithful Servants to keep them to their work so must we stand over our Souls to keep them stedfast and lively in the Duties we have in hand that so we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear because he is a consuming Fire 6. Their spiritual slothfulness and lothness to take pains with their Souls They are convinced that they ought to worship God in spirit and that such kind of Worship is the likeliest to please him but rather than they 'l be at the pains to bring themselves to it they 'l let it alone and worship him that way that is less difficult choose whether it please him or no. They find that to take their thoughts and affections off their usual objects gather them together engage them in the service of God and there keep them close to it is a business that requires some pains which rather than they 'l take they 'l come with their Bodies alone into his presence and present them to him leaving their Souls behind them as diligent in the pursuit of secular matters as ever Or if they do bring their Souls with them yet they do not keep them with them They have their company no longer than the Servants that attend on them they bring them to their seats and there leave them For the redressing of this Evil we must call to mind the equity and necessity of the Souls engaging and concurring with us in the service of God and consider that whatever we do without them signifies just nothing And hereupon we must exercise all the Authority we have over them use all the Interest we have in them follow them from place to place and not let them rest till we have prevailed with them to accompany us into his presence and joyn with us in the several duties we are to perform Having thus spoken of the several Impediments that concern the worshipping of God in spirit I shall now proceed to those that concern the worshipping him in truth and shall therewith conclude this present discourse 1. Is Satan who does all he can to keep men from worshipping God in that simple plain way that he hath appointed stirring them up to worship him in a ceremonious superstitious manner which he well knows will be so far from being acceptable to God or advantagious to them that it will rather draw down his wrath upon them He hath disobeyed God himself and would have them to do so too He is become an Enemy to God himself and would have them to be so likewise He hath undone himself and does all he can to bring them into the same condition When we were in happiness be never rested till he had got us out of it and now we are out of it he does all he can to keep us from it As it was he that perswaded our first Parents to eat of the forbidden fruit so it was he that perswaded David to number Israel Judas to betray Christ Ananias and Saphira to lie to the holy Ghost It was he that sowed the tares among the Wheat hindred Paul from going to the Thessalonians and it is he that works in the Children of Disobedience He does all he can to draw men to down-right Atheism but if he cannot bring them to that he labours to draw them to idolatry and superstition If he can he 'll keep them from worshipping God at all but if he cannot prevail with them to go so far he then labours to keep them from worshipping him after the right manner If he can he 'll keep them from doing so much as God requires but if he cannot perswade them to that he then labours to draw them to more If he can he 'll perswade them to deny the authority and truth of the Scriptures but if he cannot get them to that he 'll urge them to deny their sufficiency and perfection and hereby he makes way for the bringing in of humane Inventions Traditions Ceremonies and any thing that superstitious heads have a mind of Calvin lays it down as an undoubted truth That there is not any evil perpetrated by men to which they are not incited by Satan And he himself confesses that he goes to and fro in the earth and walks up and down in it And for what end does he this Not to take the air for he needs it not or if he did he might do it in a narrower compass nor to acquaint himself with the World for he knows it well enough already but he does it for another end and that is as the Apostle shews to seek out whom he may devour and herein he is so diligent and unwearied that he compasses Sea and Land to make one Proselyte And that he may the better carry on this his infernal design he observes the several Constitutions Dispositions and Interests of men and accordingly lays his baits for them One he sees inclined to Unbelief and Atheism and tempts him to that another to Profaneness and Debauchery and tempts him to that another to Idolatry and Superstition and tempts him to that The Jews were a People extreamly addicted to Idolatry and Superstition and he being aware of it lays hold on all opportunities and means to provoke them to it Hence we find that when Moses was dead and God appointed Michael the Archangel to take his Body and bury it in some secret place out of the way Satan stands up and resists him He well knew that if the Israelites had but known where the Body of so great a Prophet had sain they would with little ado have been drawn to worship it and therefore when he saw the Angel going to interr it and lay it out of the way he withstands him and disputes with him The one was not more forward to suppress and prevent an occasion of Idolatry than the other was to promote and further it The Book called Petoreth Mosche or The passage of Moses out of this Life describes this strife which was betwixt them Whether the Book be Apocryphal or no I leave to others to judge but the thing it self is not for the Apostle Jude mentions it The Scripture in
sufficient in all matters of this nature but from the confessions of those very sects that are likeliest to think otherwise that God is to be worshipped with the inner man as well as with the outward and that the services of the latter without the former are vain and ineffectual and therefore it concerns us if we should worship him in an acceptable successfull way to ingage the one in it as well as the other And thus I have given you the reasons of the former branch of the Doctrine shewing you wherefore the sons of men ought in these dayes of the Gospel to worship God in spirit not that I think it is so their duty to do it now as that it was not their duty to do it in the dayes of the Law or that he did not require it or expect it then or that many did not then do it but that he requires it and looks for it now in a peculiar way affording greater means to enable them to it now than he did then Paul in that famous Sermon of his to the Athenians saith Now God commandeth all men every where to repent not that he did not command them to do it before for he did it all along both by his Prophets and his Providences but that now he commanded them to do it in a more especial manner presenting to them greater incentives and laying before them stronger motives to do it And the like may be said in the present case I shall now proceed to the latter branch of the Doctrine and shew you wherefore the sons of men ought in these dayes of the Gospel to worship God in truth The reasons thereof are these 1. Because God himself hath ordained and appointed them to worship him in that way And were there nothing else this fingle reason were sufficient not only to warrant their doing of it but incite them to it For as he may justly challenge worship from us so he may justly prescribe what way he will be worshipped by us His Church is his Kingdom and it belongs to him to make laws for his own Kingdom and set dówn what way his subjects therein shall express their respect to him and serve him It is not for us to set down wayes of worship our selves but to observe the way that he in his word hath set down for us And the way that he therein hath set down for us is this that we do it in truth that is without the use of Ceremonies If you inquire after the part wherewith you are mainly to serve him he tells you You must do it in spirit and if you inquire after the external mode or dress he tells you You must do it in truth not in a gawdy pompous manner but in a way of holy simplicity and plainness This is the way that he hath appointed and he would have us in all cases how difficult and strange soever they be to look upon his appointment as a sufficient ground for us to proceed upon It was a difficult task that Joshuah was to undertake when he was to succeed Moses in the government and conduct of Israel and to lead them over Jordan among the Canaanites whom he was to dispossess and drive out before them yet God would have him to look upon his command as a sufficient ground for him to undertake the business Arise saith he go over Jordan thou and all thy people into the Land which I give unto them have not I commanded thee q. d. Though the difficulties thou art to encounter with be great and the dangers that lye before thee be many yet surely at my command thou maist venture upon the work why know for thy incouragement that I have commanded thee Nay the very Heathens had such apprehensions of God that they thought there was no neglecting of his commands but that they ought by all means to be observed and obeyed Whatsoever saith Artaxerxes is commanded by the God of Heaven let it be diligently done We may dispure of cases before God determine them but when he hath once passed sentence all disputings must cease Till his command come forth we are at liberty and may take which way we please but when that is once out then our liberty ceases and we must take that way only that he therein chalks out for us Then we must turn all our disputings and contests into silent submission and all our inquiries and opinions into cheerfull obedience If then God hath appointed us to worship him in truth as it plainly appears by the Text he hath then we ought without any disputing or drawing back to do it 2. That the Scriptures may be fulfilled The Scriptures are not only doctrinal but prophetical they do not only contain precepts of holy living but predictions of things to come to pass in after-times As God hath therein set down whatever he would have us to do so he hath there set down much of what he himself will do And amongst other things he hath declared he would do this is one that he would put his Church in the dayes of the New-Testament under a spiritual administration wherein he will not have her worship him as in times past in the use of shadows and ceremonies but in a more plain and simple manner even in truth Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah Upon our violation of the covenant of works God was pleased to grant forth a Covenant of grace promising therein pardon and salvation to the penitent and believing And this covenant he thought fit to have dispensed under a double administration that of Moses and that of Christ. The former he appointed to be carryed on in a way of types and figures agreeable to the state of the church in the Old Testament the latter in a way of spirituality and simplicity agreeable to the state of the Church in the New And this it is that the Prophet relates to in this place when he speaks of a new Covenant For we must not think that the Covenant Israel was under in the time of the Old Testament and the Covenant we are under now in the time of the New are two seral Covenants essentially and substantially different but one and the same Covenant passing under two distinct administrations the former of which was typical and ceremonious the latter plain and simple The covenant that they were under then and we are under now differ no more than one and the same person differs from himself in several habits or dresses Briefly the words of the Prophet imply as much as if he had said in the dayes of the New Testament when Jesus Christ the bridegroom of the Church shall come down from Heaven to her she shall put on new vestments go in a new garb and serve him in a new manner not in that ceremonious puerile dress she was in before but in a
paedagogy as antiquated and out of date never to be used more by her save to mind her of her former state and Gods dealings with her therein I know there are some Christian Churches that make use of some of the Jewish rites at this day The Ethiopians as also the Jacobites Aegyptians Habassines and others to baptism joyn circumcision yet do they not do it upon a sacramental but political account that by that mark they may be distinguished from other Nations to be the seed of Abram And there are some of our reformed Divines that would excuse them but others condemn them of superstition and lay down very weighty arguments against their practice in this particular And it is not so considerable what some particular Churches do as what the universal doth or what a corrupt Church doth as what those do that are more reformed and pure or what any Church doth without warrant from the word as what it doth by it It is evident from what I have alledged out of Scripture that the ceremonial law is utterly abolished and the antient Church took it to be so if therefore any endeavour whether directly or indirectly to revive or keep it up it is little as to matter of argument to be heeded And so much for proof of this particular that the time designed by God for his peoples worshipping him in the use of ceremonies particularly of the Jewish is expired As for those that would have others let them shew their warrant for them but of that I shall perhaps speak hereafter 4. Because the worshipping of God in truth is such a kind of worship as is more proper for and doth better become the Church in these dayes of the Gospel than other kind of worship We must distinguish of times that administration that may fit the Church at one time may not at another To have worshipped God without the use of ceremonies would not have fitted her in the time of the old Testament and to worship him with the use of them will not fit her in the time of the New The Apostle compares the Church of the Old-Testament to an infant and shews how God furnished her with such an administration as became her infancy intimating withall that now in the time of the New-Testament she is come to more maturity and perfection and that thereupon he hath pur her under a new administration even such a one as is suitable unto it That there is much difference betwixt the administration the Church was under in the time of the Old Testament and that she is now under in the time of the New is evident to all Eusebius speaking of the Mosaical Law calls it the tutor or guardian of puerile and imperfect souls Heretofore God appointed his Church the use of such types and figures as might help her to some apprehensions and conceptions of future things but the day spring from on high having visited her she is now in such a condition that she needs not those rudiments that formerly she did and it is greatly injurious to her for any to attempt the reducing her back to the use of them She doth not now look at Christ through the Window or behold him through the lattess she doth not now see him with his veil upon him as she did in times past but doth all with open face behold as in a glass his glory and is changed thereby into the same image from glory to glory Those things therefore that formerly were an help to her would now be an hinderance and those things that formerly were an ornament would now be a blemish That garb may become a person when he is a child that will not when he is a man Joseph's coat of many colours might become him while he was a child or youth but not when we was a man and ruler of all the Land of Aegypt When I was saith the Apostle a child I spake as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child but when I became a man I put away childish things Thus it is with the Church she hath her progressions and periods as well as every single person and that garment which became her in her minority will not at all become her or sute with her now she is in a grown state Augustine illustrates this by a very fit similitude There was saith he a youth that being diseased addressed himself to Vindecianus the Physician who gave him a Medicine fit for his age and cured him A good while after the youth being become a man be fell into the same disease again and applyes the receipt he used before but it agreed not then with him Here upon be betook himself to his Physicain telling him he wondered he would give him such Physick as would hurt him The Physican demands of him when he gave him that Physick he told him when he was a youth at which time it cured him whereas it was now likely to kill him The Physician replyed that the physick proved not good because it was not taken at his command that that which was wholsome to him being a youth was now deadly to him being of age The like we may say of the Church when she was in her youth a ceremonious pompous administration appointed her by God was proper for her and whol some but now she being come to age and God nowhere appointing it her it would be mortal and deadly And what if after all this I bring you a famous heathen that by the very light of nature gives suffrage for us in this point Hear then what Plato saith Men ought of worship God not counterfeiting with shadows but pursuing vertue in truth Had not the man lived before our Saviour I should have thought he had fetched this truth from him as well as he did many others from Moses but he dyed so long before his time that we may take it for granted it was the naked suggestion of the light of nature which teaches it is fitter for us to worship God in a plain simple way than with figures and shadows And so much for the reasons also of this second branch 5. Having thus dispatched the reasons of the point I shall now for preventig of mistakes lay down some cautions or limitations and I shall confine my self to these two 1. Though it be the duty of the Sons of men to worship God in spirit or with the inner man yet we must not understand this as some have dangerously done to the prejudice or exclusion of worshipping him with the body or outward man Such was the sottishness of that raving impostor Hen. Nicholas that he taught that all ordinances hearing preaching Scripture learning baptism the Lords Supper all confessions of Christ before men all externalls in religion were things of no worth indifferent free trivial laid on us by no law of God This I confess is doctrine likely for that wild head of
free and might have worshipped him either one way or other either with Ceremonies or without as our own inclinations had carried us But after he hath not only called upon us to worship him but hath determined the manner of his Worship and said plainly This kind of Worship does best suit with me this kind of Woship I will have this kind of Worship I seek after for us to go and set up another kind of Worship of our own heads and offer that to him what is it but to mock him What is it but to tell him he shall not be worshipped as he will but as we will than which what can be greater impudence The second Vse may be for Reprehension to reprove two sorts of Persons 1. Such as worship God but not in spirit There are many that think if they do but worship him with the outward man they need not trouble themselves about the inner if they do but present and engage their Bodies in the work it matters not what they do with their Spirits Though they hear that God is a Spirit and would have spiritual Worship that he prefers it above all other Worship nay that all other Worship is vain without it yet when they approach to him they present him with their Bodies but with-hold their Spirits Thus the Worshippers of Baal used to carry themselves witness Ahabs Prophets of whom the Scripture testifies that when upon that famous contest betwixt Elijah and them they prayed to Baal they cryed aloud leaped upon the Altar cut themselves after their manner with Knives and Lances till the blood gushed out upon them They laid not out themselves in ardency of holy affection or spiritual importunity but in shouting and making a noise thinking according to the manner of the Heathens that they should be heard for their much speaking And when that would not do they leap and cut themselves hoping thereby to stir up their careless sleepy Deity to audience But it is not Heathens only that have contented themselves with out-side Worship Others that either did or might have known better have done the like Thus the Jews carried themselves as appears by that sad complaint of God by the Prophet Isaiah This People saith he draw near to me with their mouth and with their lips do honour me but have removed their heart far from me They worshipped God with the outward man with the incurvation of the Body but not with the inner man not with the heart Though they had heard much of the Omnisciency of God his indignation against Hypocrisie his calling for the heart and the vanity and detestableness of all services without it yet did they with-hold it from him And thus the Scribes and Pharisees behaved themselves in after times as appears by our Saviour who complains of them in these very words of the Prophet Isaiah which I have now recited Ye Hypocrites saith he Well did Esaias prophecy of you saying This People draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me That which God looketh most after that they kept furthest from him that which would have been most acceptable that they were lothest to part with They made a great ado about their outward actions and look'd that they were acurate and decent and in the mean time their hearts which he call'd for they with-held from him And the Papists though they arose too late to be mentioned in Scripture yet are as all know notorious for their vanity both as to their Doctrine and Practice in this particular As to their Doctrine hear what the Jesuites that Society of Angels that flight of Phoenixes as they stile themselves teach Among other rare Maximes which they have fram'd to facilitate the exercise of holy things take these instead of many They say it is enough to be bodily present at the Mass though a man be absent as to the mind provided he behave himself with a certain external reverence That a man fulfills the Precept of hearing Mass even though he have not the intention to hear it That when two Persons say over their Breviaries at the same time they may repeat each of them his Verse at the same time not troubling themselves about any thing of attention to what they do because it is not any way necessary Nay in order to Peoples obtaining of Heaven because they will not perhaps be at the trouble of any active Devotions they let them know it 's sufficient for them to have always a pair of Beads about the arms after the manner of a Bracelet or to have a Rosary about them or some Picture of the Virgin These are strange Maximes you 'ld think yet are they deliver'd to us by no meaner men than Gaspar Hurtado Vasquez Caramuel and such like And if we leave them and go to the Papal Chair the pretended seat of Apostolical Wisdom and infallibility what liberal Indulgences does his Holiness grant upon most frivolous and childish grounds In the Chruch of St. Eusebius at Rome they have as a good Author tells us seven thousand four hundred fifty and four Quarentines of days of very Pardon for such as shall bring thither any honest offering and afford as the words of the Bull do run manus porrigentibus adjutriees their helping hands to such as seek to them In the Church of St. Mary-deliver-us-from-the-pains-of-hell for that is the Churches name there are daily granted eleven thousand years of indulgence to such as shall bring an honest offering that is to say shall give not to the poor indeed but to the rich Monks In the Church of St. Praxede you have daily twelve thousand years of very Pardon and as many Quarentines of days with the remission of the third part of your sins in such manner that visiting the Church three days in a row you shall purchase plenary pardon of all your sins and six and thirty thousand years by provision besides the Quarentines which the Popes have since increased to sixscore thousand years for every day And another Author of eminent note who was amongst them tells us that Pope John the twentieth that he might make things yet more easie granted forth an Indulgence that every inclining of the head at the Name of Jesus should get twenty years pardon And Hassenmallerus informs us That being in Rome Cardinal Farnsey's Notary gave him an Image blessed by Pope Pius the Fifth in which were inscribed these words He that on the feasts of the blessed Virgin Mary falling down before this Image thrice saith his Pater-Noster and Ave-Maria gains two thousand years Indulgence and he who devoutly worships it every day gains twelve thousand years Indulgence Thus you see what incouragement those that pass for Guides and Leaders amongst them give their people to rest in external services What their practice then is they being generally so Ignorant and Carnal as they are you may had
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
prevail A little Pulse and Water with his blessing nourishes better than all the dainties of the Emperours Court without it But the Jesuite goes on and tells us That what Salt is to Flesh that Ceremonies are to Religion To say no more have not these men dainty stomachs when they must have sauce to such savoury Food Are they not better fed than taught when Angels Food will not down unless dipped in the sauce of humane Ceremonies Is not the Word of God it self sweeter than the honey or the honey Comb And are not the Sacraments of themselves a feast of fat things a feast of wines on the lees of fat things full of marrow of wines on the lees well refined And must they have sauce to these Were their appetites like those of the Apostles and Primitive Christians and other of their fellow servants they would make shift to get down such food without the Salt of Ceremonies and it were just with God to take it from them and make them fast until they have better stomachs If notwithstanding all this the Worship and Ordinances of Christ in their spirituality and simplicity will not down with them but they must needs have the sauce of Ceremonies let them go on and take their course but as the Scripture saith let not us eat of their dainties And so much for the grounds on which men proceed and build their prejudice against Worshipping God in truth 4. Is a worldly temporizing frame of spirit whereby they suit themselves and their proceedings to the times and places wherein they live doing not that which God requires and ténds to the honour and furtherance of Religion but that which carnal Policy suggests and tends to the promoting of their worldly interest They prostitute themselves to sublunary influences and suffer themselves to be acted and governed by them ever steering their course that way that promises most gain and safety choose whether it be the way of God yea or no. They do not like good and righteous men keep their Consciences at one but turn them as Diogenes did his Tub still upon the Sun Of this kind of spirit was Alcibiades who transformed himself into all manner of shapes good or bad that the several times places and conditions wherein he was called for insomuch that he exceeded as my Author saith the Cameleon it self In Sparta he was painful and abstemious in Ionia idle and voluptuous in Thrace he was ever drinking and riding in Persia magnificent and fumptuous still observing the mode of the place where he was and conforming to it And of this spirit was Ecebolus in the time of Constantius he own'd the Christian Religion in the time of Julian he disclaim'd it and in the time of Jovinian he returned to it again and so as the Historian saith He was light and inconstant from first to last And of this spirit was Petrus Mongus Bishop of Alexandria first he was of the Orthodox Faith then a Condemner of it after an Aopprover of it and after that a Condemner of it And of this spirit are many of the present Age. both in this and other Nations Some in France were of Opinion that it is meet for a man to accommodate himself to that manner of serving God which is received by custom or authorized by the Magistrate every one in his respective Countrey without much solicitousness and inquiry whether it be Christian or Jewish Pagan or Mahometan And this was it that put Amyrald as he himself shews upon writing of that excellent Treatise of Religions wherein he solidly refutes that atheistical and profane conceit And there are too many amongst us that in complyance with Hobb's licentious Principles will rather be of any Religion the Magistrate shall set up or worship God any way he shall appoint than expose themselves to a little censure and trouble If the States under whom they live will have them to be Protestants they 'l be Protestants and if they 'l have them to be Papists they 'l be Papists If they 'l have them to worship God without Ceremonies they 'l worship him without them and if they 'l have them to worship him with them they 'l worship him with them To be short they 'l be as to matter of Religion whatever their Governours will have them to be do whatever they will have them to do thereby giving the world to understand that they are not made as the Marquess of Winchester said ex Quercu but ex Salice not of Oak but of Willow A man may say to one of them as Tully did to the man in his time As is the Garment so is thy Opinion thou hast one for home and another for abroad Now this is a most unworthy and base frame of spirit and a most wicked and sinful practice savouring rather of Atheism than of true Piety or any Christian zeal It is quite contrary to the express Command of God who forbids Conformity to the World It is quite contrary to the honour importance aud security of Religion that calls for our utmost Zeal Seriousness and Exactness it is quite contrary to that solemn Oath we entred into at our Baptism whereby we ingaged to forsake the World and keep Gods holy Commandments and walk in the same all the days of our Lives It is quite contrary to the practice of the faithful Servants of God in all Ages of the World The Righteous saith Job shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger The work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies such a way as is distinct from other ways and such a course as is different from that which others take and this the righteous man walks in stedfastly and constantly Notwithstanding the paucity of those that joyn with him and the numerousness of those that separate from him yet he holds on in his way notwithstanding all the flouts and taunts that he meets with from the Sons of Belial for his holy singularity and preciseness yet he does not like the Weather give again but stands his ground and holds on his way To go no further how fixed and stable was Job himself in the midst of those shaking Providences that befel him Though God rent and tore him all to pieces yet he remain'd still the same Till I die saith he I will not remove my Integrity from me q. d. Though I have lost my Children and Estate and Friends yet I have retain'd my Integrity and that I am resolved to take with me to my Grave as naked as I am I have one thing still that is my Integrity and choose what befalls me I am resolved to keep that Though Satan should offer me all he hath taken from me in exchange of it yet would I not part with it though he should offer me as many Kingdoms as I have boyles in this diseased Body yet I would not let it go As my Soul is the
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
theirs by the term forsaking which I can hardly think he would have done had it not been sinfull 2. It was against their express promise whereby they all of them obliged themselves to own him and cleave to him though it cost them never so dear This promise saith a man of rare learning as it was made by all the Apostles so it was broken by them all 3. Thereby they much dishonoured Christ and his cause rejoyed such as were his enemies and hardened them against him What might better serve their malicious purposes as an argument against him thâ—n that his own very followers forlook and disowned him 4. Several writers of eminent note interpret it an act of very much cowardise and weakness Gerhard saith this flight of theirs was not a slight matter but a great offence And the Author whom I mentioned before reckons it amongst their errours in manners As for the words alledged for their dismission though they obliged the Souldiers to let them go yet did they not disoblige the Disciples from following him or justifie their cowardly forsaking him Summer birds when Winter comes hide themselves in hollow trees and so did these I have mentioned and so do all temporizing formalists that preferr a little worldly trash before the Glory of God and a good Conscience So long as the Sun shines on Jerusalem they own it and every man saith he was born there but when a cloud is over it then they disown it and are ready to cry with the children of Edom rase it rase it even to the foundation thereof Now this is a most unworthy sinfull course with greatest indignation to be abhorred and with greatest care to be avoided by all such as are true hearted to Religion and that desire that Christs Kingdom may come and be set up in the world What greater disgrace can men do to Religion than for every showâ— of rain that falls run away from it and forsake it what kind of thoughts will those that are without have of Religion when they see us make so light of it They 'l think its a poor kind of Religion when it is not worthy to be suffered for What will they take it to be but a meer fable when they consider it speaks of such great matters and yet see we will not endure the least hardship for it Apostacy is a sin highly dishonourable to God and prejudicial to the truth and therefore God complains of upbraids and declares his displeasure against a people when they shrink back upon the sight of approaching troubles and refuse to suffer for him He long ago laid it to the charge of the Jews that they were not valiant for the Truth Valiant they were as any people in the World but not for the Truth They were couragious for themselves but cowardly for God And this was an aggravation of their Cowardize for this shew'd it proceeded not from any natural imbecillity of the affections but from want of true Piety which if they had had they would have been as valiant for him as they were for themselves And what by one Prophet he lays to the charge of the Jews he doth by another lay to the charge of the Israelites Ephraim saith he is like a silly Dove without heart At other times Ephraim had spirit enough but when he was to ingage for God then he had no heart And thus it is with many amongst us they have heart enough for themselves but none for God If they see their Names Estates or carnal Interest any way touched they are all on a fire and ready to be burnt up with the flames or their own zeal but they can see the Name Truth and Interest of God assaulted and torn all to pieces and never stir In their own matters they are as if they were all heart but in the Cause of God they are as if with Ephraim they had no heart at all Oh it 's sad that men should have an heart for themselves and none for God that they should have courage in their own Cause and none in his This God takes unkindly and will severely punish Though God call us sometimes to suffer for him yet we need not think much at it for he promises us ample recompence he engages that whatever we suffer for him in our Names Enjoyments Relations Friends Liberty or any other thing he will abundantly make us amends Verily saith Christ I say unto you That ye which have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the Throne of his glory ye shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel And everyone that hath forsaken Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my Names sake shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting Life Suffering then for Christ and Religion is rather a kind of gainful Merchandize than any real loss Who ever counted it loss to part with a summ of money upon good security to receive it again at such a time with due Interest why this is the Condition of the Servants of God He is so well pleased with their Sufferings that he ingages to make up whatever they lose upon his account He assures them that whatever they part with for him they shall have it repayed to them an hundred times over and surely that 's good interest But yet lest that should not be thought enough he tells them that in the end they shall inherit everlasting Life And upon these and such-like grounds the Servants of God have in all Ages stood up in the defence of Religion and his true Worship notwithstanding all the miseries they thereby rendred themselves liable to suffer Though the Enemies of God and his Truth inflicted on them the greatest tortures the Devil with all his malice and subtilty could help them to invent yet they entertain'd them cheerfully and endur'd them patiently and not only so but rejoyced in them as Ensigns of highest honour praising God that he would make use of them to suffer for his Name and bear witness to his oppressed Truth Nay sometimes they were acted by such a spirit of heroick Zeal that they desired Sufferings and put themselves upon them When the Prefect urged Basil to comply with the Emperour and threatned him with death if he denied he gave him this resolute and stout answer Thou threatnest me with death saith he and I would it would fall out so well on my side that I might lay down this carcase of mine in the Quarrel of Christ and in the defence of his Truth who is my Head and Captain And when the Prefect pressed him to remember himself and obey the Emperour he rejecting all told him What I am to day the same thou shalt find me to morrow And in like manner Luther professed to Spalatine That he rejoyced with all his heart that God called him to suffer for so good a