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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.