* â—â—r 20. Their Fathers Worshipping in that Mountain and the Jews affirming Jerusalem to be a place of worship She pleads the Antiquity of the worship in this place Abraham having built an Altar there Gen. 12.7 and Jacob upon his return from Syria And surely had the place been capable of an exception such persons as they and so well acquainted with the Will of God would not have pitched upon that place to Celebrate their worship Antiquity hath too too often bewitched the minds of Men and drawn them from the revealed Will of God Men are more willing to imitate the outward actions of their famous Ancestors than conform themselves to the revealed Will of their Creator The Samaritans would imitate the Patriarchs in the place of worship but not in the faith of the worshippers Christ answers her that this question would quickly be resolved by a new state of the Church which was neer at hand and neither Jerusalem which had now the precedency nor that Mountain should be of any more value in that concern than any other place in the world * ver 21. But yet to make her sensible of her sin and that of her Country-men tells her that their Worship in that Mountain was not according to the Will of God he having long after the Altars built in this place fixed Jerusalem as the place of Sacrifices besides they had not the knowledge of that God which ought to be worshipped by them but the Jews had the true object of Worship and the true manner of worship according to the declaration God had made of himself to them * ver â—â— But all that service shall vanish the vail of the Temple shall be rent in twain and that Carnal worship give place to one more Spiritual shadows shall fly before substance and truth advance it self above figures and the worship of God shall be with the strength of the Spirit such a worship and such worshippers doth the Father seek * ver 23. For God is a Spirit and those that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in truth The design of our Saviour is to declare that God is not taken with external worship invented by men no nor Commanded by himself and upon that this reason because he is a Spiritual essence infinitely above gross and Corporeal matter and is not taken with that pomp which is a pleasure to our Earthly imaginations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some translate it just as the words lie Spirit is God * Vulgar lat Illyrc Clav. But it is not unusual both in the old and new Testament languages to put the predicate before the subject as Psal 5.9 Their throat is an open Sepulchre in the Hebrew a Sepulchre open their throat So Psa 111.3 His work is honourable and glorious Heb. Honour and glory his work And there wants not one example in the same Evangelist Joh. 1.1 And the word was God Greek and God was the word In all the predicate or what is ascribed is put before the subject to which it is ascribed One tells us and he an head of a party that hath made a disturbance in the Church of God * Eâ—â—â—â—â—p Institut lib. 4. cap. 3. that this place is not aptly brought to prove God to be a Spirit And the reason of Christ runs not thus God is of a Spiritual Essence and therefore must be worshipped with a Spiritual worship for the Essence of God is not the Foundation of his worship but his Will for then we were not to worship him with a Corporal worship because he is not a body but with an invisible and Eternal worship because he is invisible and eternal But the nature of God is the foundation of worship the Will of God is the Rule of worship the matter and manner is to be performed according to the Will of God But is the nature of the object of worship to be excluded No as the object is so ought our Devotion to be Spiritual as he is Spiritual God in his Commands for worship respected the discovery of his own nature in the Law he respected the discovery of his mercy and justice and therefore Commanded a worship by Sacrifices a Spiritual worship without those institutions would not have declared those Attributes which was Gods end to display to the world in Christ And tho the nature of God is to be respected in worship yet the obligations of the Creature are to be considered God is a Spirit therefore must have a Spiritual worship The Creature hath a body as well as a Soul and both from God and therefore ought to worship God with the one as well as the other since one as well as the other is freely bestowed upon him The Spirituality of God was the foundation of the change from the Judaical carnal worship to a more Spiritual and Evangelical God is a Spirit That is he hath nothing Corporeal no mixture of matter not a visible substance a bodily form * Melancton He is a Spirit not a bare Spiritual substance But an understanding willing Spirit holy wise good and just Before Christ spake of the Father * ver 23. the first person in the Trinity Now he speaks of God Essentially The word Father is personal the word God essential So that our Saviour would render a reason not from any one person in the blessed Trinity but from the Divine nature why we should worship in Spirit and therefore makes use of the word God the being a Spirit being Common to the other persons with the Father This is the reason of the proposition verse 23. Of a Spiritual Worship Every nature delights in that which is like it and distasts that which is most different from it If God were Corporeal he might be pleased with the victims of beasts and the beautiful Magnificence of Temples and the noyse of Musick But being a Spirit he cannot be gratified with carnal things He demands something better and greater than all those that Soul which he made that Soul which he hath endowed a Spirit of a frame sutable to his nature He indeed appointed Sacrifices and a Temple as shadows of those things which were to be most acceptable to him in the Messiah but they were imposed only till the time of Reformation * Heb. 9.10 Must Worship him Not they may or it would be more agreeable to God to have such a manner of worship But they must T is not exclusive of bodily worship for this were to exclude all publick worship in societies which cannot be performed without reverential postures of the body * Terniti The Gestures of the body are helps to worship and declarations of Spiritual acts We can scarcely worship God with our Spirits without some tincture upon the outward-man But he excludes all acts meerly Corporeal all resting upon an external service and devotion which was the Crime of the Pharisees and the general persuasion of the Jews
the Spirit * 2 Cor. 7.1 By the one we defile the Body by the other we defile the Spirit which in regard of its Nature is of kin to the Creator To wrong one who is neer of kin to a Prince is worse than to injure an inferior Subject When we make our Spirits which are most like to God in their Nature and framed according to his Image a stage to act vain imaginations wicked desires and unclean affections we wrong God in the excellency of his Work and reflect upon the nobleness of the Patern we wrong him in that part where he hath stampt the most signal Character of his own spiritual nature we defile that whereby we have only converse with him as a Spirit which he hath ordered more immediately to represent him in this Nature than all corporeal things in the world can and make that Spirit with whom we desire to be joyned unfit for such a knot Gods Spirituality is the root of his other perfections We have already heard he could not be infinite omnipresent immutable without it Spiritual sins are the greatest root of bitterness within us As grace in our Spirits renders us more like to a spiritual God so spiritual sins bring us into a conformity to a degraded Devil * Eph. 2.2 3. Carnal sins change us from men to brutes and spiritual sins devest us of the Image of God for the Image of Satan We should by no means make our Spirits a Dung-hill which bear upon them the Character of the spiritual Nature of God and were made for his residence Let us therefore behave our selves towards God in all those ways which the spiritual nature of God requires us A DISCOURSE OF Spiritual Worship HAVING thus dispatcht the first proposition God is a Spirit It will not be amiss to handle the inference our Saviour makes from that proposition which is the second observation propounded Doct. That the Worship due from us to God ought to be Spiritual and Spiritually performed Spirit and Truth are understood variously Either we are to Worship God 1. Not by legal ceremonies The Evangelical administration being called Spirit in opposition to the legal ordinances as carnal and Truth in opposition to them as typical As the whole Judaical service is called flesh so the whole Evangelical service is called Spirit Or Spirit may be opposed to the worship at Jerusalem as it was carnal Truth to the worship on the Mount Gerizim because it was false They had not the true object of worship nor the true Medium of worship as those at Jerusalem had Their worship should cease because it was false and the Jewish worship should cease because it was carnal There is no need of a Candle when the Sun spreads it beams in the Air no need of those Ceremonies when the Sun of righteousness appeared They only served for Candles to instruct and direct men till the time of his coming The shadows are chased away by the displaying the substance so that they can be of no more use in the worship of God since the end for which they were instituted is expired and that discovered to us in the Gospel which the Jews sought for in vain among the baggage and stuff of their Ceremonies 2. With a Spiritual and sincere frame In Spirit i. e. with Spirit with the inward operations of all the faculties of our Souls and the cream and flower of them And the reason is because there ought to be a worship sutable to the nature of God And as the worship was to be Spiritual so the exercise of that worship ought to be in a Spiritual manner * Lingend Tom. 2. p. 777. It shall be a worship in Truth because the true God shall be adored without those vain imaginations and phantastick resemblances of him * Taylors Exemplar Preface § 30. which were common among the blind Gentiles and contrary to the glorious nature of God and unworthy ingredients in Religious services It shall be a worship in Spirit without those carnal rites the degenerate Jews rested on Such a posture of Soul which is the life and ornament of every service God looks for at your hands There must be some proportion between the object adored and the manner in which we adore it It must not be a meer Corporeal worship because God is not a body but it must rise from the Center of our Soul because God is a Spirit If he were a body a bodily worship might sute him Images might be fit to represent him but being a Spirit our bodily services enter us not into communion with him Being a Spirit we must banish from our minds all carnal imaginations of him and separate from our Wills all cold and dissembled affections to him We must not only have a loud voice but an elevated Soul not only a bended knee but a broken heart not only a supplicating tone but a groaning Spirit not only a ready ear for the word but a receiving heart and this shall be of greater value with him than the most costly outward services offered at Gerizim or Jerusalem Our Saviour certainly meant not by worshipping in Spirit only the matter of the Evangelical service as opposed to the legal administration without the manner wherein it was to be performed T is true God always sought a worship in Spirit he expected the heart of the worshipper should joyn with his instituted rights of adoration in every exercise of them But he expects such a carriage more under the Gospel administration because of the clearer discoveries of his nature made in it and the greater assistances conveyed by it I shall therefore 1. Lay down some general propositions 2. Shew what this Spiritual worship is 3. Why we must offer to God a Spiritual service 4. The Vse 1. Some general propositions Proposition 1. First The right exercise of worship is founded upon and riseth from the Spirituality of God * Ames medul lib. 2. cap. 4. § 20. The first ground of the worship we render to God is the infinite excellency of his nature which is not only one attribute but results from all For God as God is the object of worship and the Notion of God consists not in thinking him wise good just but all those infinitely beyond any Conception And hence it follows that God is an object infinitely to beloved and honoured His goodness is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as a motive of our homage Psal 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Fear in the Scripture dialect signifies the whole worship of God Acts 10.35 But in every Nation he that fears him is accepted of him * So 2 Kings 17.32 33. If God should act towards men according to the rigors of his Justice due to them for the least of their Crimes there could be no exercise of any affection but that of despair which could not engender a worship of God which ought to be joyned with love not
several valves or doors for the thrusting the blood forwards to perform its circular motion 3. The Brain fortified by a strong skull to hinder outward accidents a tough membrane or skin to hinder any oppression by the skull the seat of sense that which coins the animal spirits by purifying and refining those which are sent to it and seems like a curious peice of Needlework 4. The Ear framed with windings and turnings to keep any thing from entring to offend the Brain so disposed as to admit sounds with the greatest safety and delight * Eccles 12.4 filled with an air within by the motion whereof the sound is transmitted to the Brain As sounds are made in the Air by diffusing themselves as you see Circles made in the water by the flinging in a stone This is the Gate of knowledge whereby we hear the Oracles of God and the instruction of men for arts T is by this they are exposed to the mind and the mind of another Man framed in our understandings 5. What a curious Workmanship is that of the Eye which is in the body as the Sun in the World set in the head as in a Watch-Tower having the softest nerves for the receiving the greater multitude of Spirits necessary for the act of Vision How is it provided with defence by the variety of Coats to secure and accomodate the little humor and part whereby the vision is made Made of a round figure and convex as most commodious to receive the species of objects shaded by the eye-brows and eye-lids secured by the eye-lids which are its ornament and safety which refresh it when it is too much dried by heat hinder too much light from insinuating it self into it to offend it cleanse it from impurities by their quick motion preserve it from any invasion and by contraction confer to the more evident discerning of things Both the eyes seated in the hollow of the bone for security yet standing out that things may be perceived more easily on both sides And this little Member can behold the earth and in a moment veiw things as high as Heaven 6. * Coccei sum Theol. cap. 8. § 49. The Tongue for speech framed like a Musical instrument the Teeth serving for variety of sounds the lungs serving for Bellows to blow the Organs as it were to cool the Heart by a continual motion transmitting a pure Air to the Heart expelling that which was smoky and superfluous T is by the Tongue that communication of Truth hath a passage among men it opens the sense of the mind there would be no converse and commerce without it Speech among all Nations hath an elegancy and attractive force mastering the affections of men Not to speak of other parts or of the multitude of Spirits that act every part he quick flight of them where there is a necessity of their presence Solomon 12 Ecclesiast makes an elegant description of them in his Speech of old age And Job â—peaks of this formation of the body Job 10.9 10 11 c. Not the least part of the body is made in vain The hairs of the Head have their use as well as are an ornament The whole Symmetry of the body is a ravishing object Every Member hath a Signature and mark of God and his Wisdom He is visible in the formation of the Members the beauty of the parts and the vigor of the body This structure could not be from the body that only hath a passive power and cannot act in the absence of the Soul Nor can it be from the Soul How comes it then to be so ignorant of the manner of its formation The Soul knows not the internal parts of its own body but by information from others or inspection into other bodies It knows less of the inward frame of the body than it doth of it self But he that makes the Clock can tell the number and motions of the wheels within as well as what figures are without This short discourse is useful to raise our admirations of the Wisdom of God as well as to demonstrate that there is an Infinite Wise Creator And the consideration of our selves every day and the wisdom of God in our frame would maintain Religion much in the world Since all are so framed that no man can tell any error in the constitution of him If thus the body of man is fitted for the service of his Soul by an infinite God the body ought to be ordered for the service of this God and in obedience to him 2. In the admirable difference of the features of Men. Which is a great argument that the world was made by a wise Being This could not be wrought by Chance or be the work of meer nature since we find never or very rarely two persons exactly alike This distinction is a part of infinite wisdom otherwise what confusion would be introduced into the World Without this Parents could not know their Children nor Children their Parents nor a Brother his Sister nor a Subject his Magistrate Without it there had been no comfort of Relations no Government no commerce Debtors would not have been known from strangers nor good men from bad Propriety could not have been preserved nor justice executed the innocent might have been apprehended for the nocent wickedness could not have been stopt by any Law The Faces of men are the same for parts not for features A dissimilitude in a likeness Man like to all the rest in the World yet unlike to any and differenced by some mark from all which is not to be observed in any other species of Creatures This speaks some wise Agent which framed man since for the preservation of human society and order in the world this distinction was necessary Secondly II. As mans own nature witnesseth a God to him in the structure of his body so also in the nature of his Soul * Coâ—cei sam Theolog. cap. 8. § 50.51 We know that we have an understanding in us a substance we cannot see but we know it by its operations as thinking reasoning willing remembring And as operating about things that are invisible and remote from sense This must needs be distinct from the body for that being but dust and Earth in its original hath not the power of reasoning and thinking for then it would have that power when the Soul were absent as well as when it is present Besides if it had that power of thinking it could think only of those things which are sensible and made up of matter as it self is This Soul hath a greater excellency it can know it self rejoyce in it self which other Creatures in this world are not capable of The Soul is the greatest glory of this lower world and as one saith * More There seems to be no more difference between the Soul and an Angel than between a Sword in the Scabbard and when it is Out of the Scabbard First I. Consider the vastness
dived into the depths of Nature have been more studious of the qualities of the Creatures than of the excellency of the nature or the discovery of the mind of God in them who regard only the rising and motions of the Star but follow not with the wise men its conduct to the King of the Jews How often do we see men filled with an eager thirst for all other kind of knowledge that cannot acquiesce in a twilight discovery but are inquisitive into the causes and reasons of effects yet are contented with a weak and languishing knowledge of God and his Law and are easily tired with the Proposals of them He now that nauseates the means whereby he may come to know and obey God has no intention to make the Law of God his Rule There is no man that intends seriously an end but he intends means in order to that end As when a man intends the preservation or recovery of his health he will intend means in order to those ends otherwise he cannot be said to intend his health So he that is not diligent in using means to know the mind of God has no sound intention to make the Will and Law of God his Rule Is not the inquiry after the Will of God made a work by the by and fain to lacquy after other concerns of an inferior nature if it hath any place at all in the Soul which is a despising the Being of God The Notion of the Soveraignty of God bears the same date with the Notion of his Godhead and by the same way that he reveals Himself he reveals his Authority over us whether it be by Creatures without or Conscience within All Authority over Rational Creatures consists in commanding and directing the duty of Rational Creatures in compliance with that Authority consists in obeying Where there is therefore a careless neglect of those means which convey the knowledge of Gods Will and our Duty there is an utter disowning of God as our Soveraign and our Rule 2. When any part of the Mind and Will of God breaks in upon Men they endeavour to shake it off As a Man would a Sergeant that comes to arrest him they like not to retain God in their Knowledge Rom. 1.28 A natural Man receives not the things of the Spirit of God that is into his Affection he pusheth them back as men do troublesome and importunate Beggers They have no kindness to bestow upon it They thrust with both shoulders against the Truth of God when it presseth in upon them and dash as much contempt upon it as the Pharisees did upon the Doctrine our Saviour directed against their Covetousness As men naturally delight to be without God in the world so they delight to be without any offspring of God in their thoughts Since the Spiritual Palate of Man is depraved Divine Truth is unsavoury and ungrateful to us till our taste and relish is restored by Grace Hence men damp and quench the motions of the Spirit to Obedience and Compliance with the Dictates of God strip them of their Life and Vigor and kill them in the Womb. How unable are our Memories to retain the substance of spiritual Truth but like Sand in a Glass put in at one part and runs out at the other Have not many a secret wish that the Scripture had never mentioned some truths or that they were blotted out of the Bible because they face their Consciences and discourage those boiling Lusts they would with eagerness and delight pursue Me thinks that interruption John gives our Saviour when he was upon the Reproof of their Pride looks little better * Mark 9.33.38 than a design to divert him from a discourse so much against the grain by telling him a story of their prohibiting one to cast out Devils because he followed not them How glad are men when they can raise a Battery against a Command of God and raise some smart Objection whereby they may shelter themselves from the strictness of it 3. When men cannot shake off the Notices of the Will and Mind of God they have no pleasure in the consideration of them Which could not possibly be if there were a real and fixed design to own the Mind and Law of God as our Rule Subjects or Servants that love to obey their Prince and Master will delight to read and execute their Orders The Devils understand the Law of God in their minds but they loath the impressions of it upon their Wills Those miserable Spirits are bound in Chains of Darkness evil Habits in their Wills that they have not a thought of obeying that Law they know It was an unclean Beast under the Law that did not chew the Cud 'T is a corrupt Heart that doth not chew Truth by Meditation A natural man is said not to know God or the things of God he may know them notionally but he knows them not affectionately A sensual Soul can have no delight in a spiritual Law To be sensual and not to have the Spirit are inseparable Jude 19. Natural Men may indeed meditate upon the Law and Truth of God but without delight in it if they take any pleasure in it 't is only as 't is knowledge not as it is a Rule for we delight in nothing that we desire but upon the same account that we desire it Natural Men desire to know God and some part of his Will and Law not out of a sense of their practical excellency but a natural thirst after knowledge and if they have a delight 't is in the act of knowing not in the Object known not in the Duties that stream from that Kowledge they design the furnishing their Understandings not the quickning their Affections like idle Boys that strike Fire not to warm themselves by the heat but sport themselves with the Sparks Whereas a gracious Soul accounts not only his Meditation or the Operations of his Soul about God and his Will to be sweet but he hath a joy in the object of that Meditation * Psal 104.34 Many have the knowledge of God who have no delight in Him or his Will Owls have Eyes to perceive that there is a Sun but by reason of the weakness of their sight have no pleasure to look upon a Beam of it So neither can a man by Nature love or delight in the Will of God because of his natural corruption That Law that riseth up in men for Conviction and Instruction they keep down under the power of Corruption making their Souls not the Sanctuary but Prison of Truth Rom. 1.18 They will keep it down in their hearts if they cannot keep it out of their heads and will not endeavour to know and taste the Spirit of it 4. There is farther a rising and swelling of the Heart against the Will of God 1. Internal Gods Law cast against a hard Heart is like a Ball thrown against a stone Wall by reason of the resistance rebounding the further
end in the Flesh Our hearts like Lute-strings are changed with every change of weather with every appearance of a Temptation scarce one motion of God in a thousand prevails with us for a setled abode 'T is a hard task to make a signature of those Truths upon our affections which will with ease pass currant with our understandings Our affections will as soon lose them as our understandings embrace them The heart of Man is unstable as water * Gen. 49.4 Jam. 1.8 Some were willing to rejoyce in Johns Light which reflected a lustre on their minds but not in his heat which would have conveyed a warmth to their hearts and the Light was pleasing to them but for a season * Joh. 5.35 while their corruptions lay as if they were dead not when they were awakened Truth may be admitted one day and the next day rejected As Austin saith of a wicked Man he loves the Truth shining but he hates the Truth reproving This is not to make God but our own humor our rule and measure 7. Many desire an acquaintance with the Law and Truth of God with a design to improve some lust by it To turn the Word of God to be a Pander to the Breach of his Law This is so far from making Gods Will our Rule that we make our own vile affections the Rule of his Law How many forced Interpretations of Scripture have been coyned to give content to the lusts of men and the Divine Rule forced to bend and be squared to mens loose and carnal apprehensions 'T is a part of the instability or falseness of the heart to wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction * 2 Pet. 3.16 which they could not do if they did not first wring them to countenance some detestable Error or filthy Crime In Paradise the first Interpretation made of the first Law of God was point blank against the mind of the Law-giver and venemous to the whole Race of Mankind Paul himself feared that some might put his Doctrine of Grace to so ill a use as to be an Altar and Sanctuary to shelter their Presumption Rom. 6.1.15 shall we then continue in Sin that Grace may abound Poysonous Consequences are often drawn from the sweetest Truths As when Gods Patience is made a Topick whence to argue against his Providence * Psal 94.1 or an encouragement to commit Evil more greedily as though because he had not presently a revenging Hand he had not an all seeing Eye Or when the Doctrine of Justification by Faith is made use of to depress a holy life or Gods readiness to receive returning sinners an encouragement to defer repentance till a death bed A Lyar will hunt for shelter in the reward God gave the Midwifes that lyed to Pharaoh for the preservation of the Males of Israel and Rahabs saving the Spies by false intelligence God knows how to distinguish between grace and corruption that may lie close together or between something of moral goodness and moral evil which may be mixed We find their fidelity rewarded which was a moral good but not their lye approved which was a moral evil Nor will Christs conversing with sinners be a plea for any to thrust themselves into evil Company Christ conversed with sinners as a Physitian with diseased persons to cure them not approve them others with profligate persons to receive infection from them not to communicate holiness to them Satans Children have studied their Fathers art who wanted not perverted Scripture to second his Temptations against our Saviour * How often do carnal hearts turn Divine Revelation to carnal ends as the Sea fresh water into salt As meâ—â—â—â—ject the precepts of God to carnal interests so they subject the truths of God to â—â—â—nal fancies When men will allegorize the Word and make a humorous and crazy fancy the Interpreter of Divine oracles and not the Spirit speaking in the Word This is to enthrone our own imaginations as the rule of Gods Law and depose his Law from being the rule of our reason This is to riflle truth of its true mind and intent T is more to rob a man of his reason the essential constitutive part of man than of his estate This is to refuse an intimate acquaintance with his Will We shall never tell what is the matter of a precept or the matter of a promise if we impose a sense upon it contrary to the plain meaning of it Thereby we shall make the Law of God to have a distinct sense according to the variety of mens imaginations and so make every mans fancy a Law to himself Now that this unwillingness to have a Spiritual acquaintance with Divine Truth is a disowning God as our rule and a setting up self in his stead is evident because this unwillingness respects Truth 1. As it is most Spiritual and Holy A fleshly mind is most contrary to a Spiritual Law and particularly as it is a searching and discovering Law that would dethrone all other rules in the Soul As men love to be without a Holy God in the world so they love to be without a holy Law the transcript and image of Gods Holiness in their hearts and without holy men the lights kindled by the Father of lights As the holiness of God so the holiness of the Law most offends a carnal heart Isa 30.11 Cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us prophecy to us right things They could not endure God as a holy one Herein God places their Rebellion rejecting him as their rule ver 9. Rebellious Children that will not hear the Law of the Lord. The more pure and precious any discovery of God is the more it is disrelisht by the world As Spiritual sins are sweetest to a carnal heart so Spiritual truths are most distastful The more of the brightness of the Sun any beam conveys the more offensive it is to a distempered eye 2. As it doth most relate to or lead to God The Devil directs his fiercest batteries against those Doctrines in the Word and those Graces in the heart which most exalt God debase man and bring men to the lowest subjection to their Creator Such is the Doctrine and grace of justifying faith That men hate not knowledge as knowledge but as it directs them to choose the fear of the Lord was the determination of the Holy Ghost long ago Prov. 1.29 for that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. Whatsoever respects God clears up guilt witnesses mans revolt to him rouzeth up Conscience and moves to a return to God a man naturally runs from as Adam did from God and seeks a shelter in some weak bushes of error rather than appear before it Not that men are unwilling to inquire into and contemplate some Divine Truths which lie furthest from the heart and concern not themselves immediatly with the rectifying the soul They may view them with such a pleasure as
as well as Heathens who used the outward Ceremonies not as signs of better things but as if they did of themselves please God and render the worshippers accepted with him without any sutable frame of the inward man * Amirald in loc It is as if he had said now you must separate your selves from all carnal modes to which the service of God is now tyed and render a worship chiefly consisting in the affectionate motions of the heart and accommodated more exactly to the condition of the object who is a Spirit In Spirit and Truth * Amirald in loc The Evangelical Service now required has the advantage of the former that was a Shadow and Figure this the Body and Truth * Muscul Spirit say some is here opposed to the legal Ceremonies Truth to hypocritical services or * Chemnit rather truth is opposed to shadows and an opinion of worth in the outward action 't is principally opposed to external Rites because our Saviour saith v. 23. The hour comes and â—oâ— is c. Had it been opposed to Hypocrisy Christ had said no new thing For God always required Truth in the inward parts and all true Worshippers had served him with a sincere Conscience and single Heart The old Patriarks did worship God in Spirit and Truth as taken for sincerity Such a Worship was always and is perpetually due to God because he always was and eternally will be a Spirit * Musâ—al And it is said the Father seeks such to worship him not shall seek He always sought it it always was performed to him by one or other in the world And the Prophets had always rebuked them for resting upon their outward Solemnities Isa 58.7 and Micah 6.8 But a Worship without legal Rites was proper to an Evangelical State and the times of the Gospel God having then exhibited Christ and brought into the world the substance of those shadows and the end of those institutions There was no more need to continue them when the true reason of them was ceased All Laws do naturally expire when the true reason upon which they were first framed is changed Or by Spirit may be meant such a Worship as is kindled in the heart by the breath of the holy Ghost Since we are dead in sin a spiritual light and flame in the heart sutable to the nature of the object of our worship cannot be raised in us without the operation of a supernatural Grace And though the Fathers could not worship God without the Spirit yet in the Gospel-times there being a fuller effusion of the Spirit the Evangelical State is called the administration of the Spirit and the newness of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 in opposition to the legal Oeconomy entitled the oldness of the Letter * Rom. 7.6 The Evangelical State is more suted to the Nature of God than any other Such a Worship God must have whereby he is acknowledged to be the true Sanctifier and Quickner of the Soul The nearer God doth approach to us and the more full his manifestations are the more spiritual is the Worship we return to God The Gospel pares off the rugged parts of the Law and Heaven shall remove what is material in the Gospel and change the Ordinances of Worship into that of a Spiritual Praise In the words there is 1. A Proposition God is a Spirit The Foundation of all Religion 2. An Inference they that worship him c. As God a Worship belongs to him as a Spirit a spiritual Worship is due to him in the inference we have 1. The manner of Worship in Spirit and Truth 2. The necessity of such a Worship must The Proposition declares the Nature of God the Inference the Duty of Man The Observations lie plain Ob. 1. God is a pure spiritual Being He is a Spirit 2. The Worship due from the Creature to God must be agreeable to the Nature of God and purely spiritual 3. The Evangelical State is suted to the Nature of God For the first D. God is a pure spiritual Being 'T is the Observation of one * Episcop insti tut l. 4. c. 3. that the plain assertion of Gods being a Spirit is found but once in the whole Bible and that is in this place which may well be wondred at because God is so often described with hands feet eyes and ears in the form and figure of a Man The spiritual Nature of God is deducible from many places but not any where as I remember asserted totidem verbis but in this Text Some alledge that place 2 Cor. 3.17 the Lord is that Spirit for the proof of it but that seems to have a different sense In the Text the Nature of God is described in that place the operations of God in the Gospel * Amyrald in loc 'T is not the Ministry of Moses or that old Covenant which communicates to you that Spirit it speaks of but it is the Lord Jesus and the Doctrin of the Gospel delivered by him whereby this Spirit and Liberty is dispensed to you He opposes here the Liberty of the Gospel to the Servitude of the Law 'T is from Christ that a Divine Vertue diffuseth it self by the Gospel 't is by him not by the Law that we partake of that Spirit * Suarez de Deo vol. 1. P. 9. Col. 2. The Spirituality of God is as evident as his Being If we grant that God is we must necessarily grant that he cannot be corporeal because a Body is of an imperfect Nature It will appear incredible to any that acknowledge God the first Being and Creator of all things that he should be a massy heavy Body and have Eyes and Ears Feet and hands as we have For the explication of it 1. Spirit is taken various ways in Scripture It signifies sometimes an aereal substance as Psal 11.6 A horrible Tempest Heb. A Spirit of Tempest Sometimes the breath which is a thin substance Gen. 6.17 All Flesh wherein is the breath of Life Heb. Spirit of Life A thin substance though it be material and corporeal is called Spirit And in the bodies of living Creatures that which is the principle of their actions is called Spirits the animal and vital Spirits And the finer parts extracted from Plants and Minerals we call Spirits Those volatile parts separated from that gross matter wherein they were immerst because they come nearest to the nature of an incorporeal substance And from this notion of the word 't is translated to signifie those substances that are purely immaterial as Angels and the Souls of Men. Angels are called Spirits Psal 104.4 who makes his Angels Spirits * Heb. 1.14 And not only good Angels are so called but evil Angels Mark 1.27 Souls of men are called Spirits Eccl. 12. And the Soul of Christ is called so John 19.30 whence God is called the God of the Spirits of all Flesh Numb 22.16 and Spirit is opposed to Flesh Isa
his nature in our Spirits rather than our bodies * Petav. Theol. Dog Tom. 1. lib. 2. cap. 1. pa. 104. It was a fancy of Eugubinus that when God set upon the actual Creation of man he took a bodily form for an Exemplar of that which he would express in his work and therefore that the words of Moses * Gen. 1.26 are to be understood of the body of man because there was in Man such a shape which God had then assumed To let alone Gods forming himself a body for that work as a groundless fancy Man can in no wise be said to be the image of God in regard of the substance of his body but beasts may as well be said to be made in the Image of God whose bodies have the same Members as the body of Man for the most part and excell Men in the acuteness of the senses and swiftness of their motion agility of body greatness of strength and in some kind of ingenuities also wherein Man hath been a Scholar to the brutes and beholden to their skill The Soul comes nearest the nature of God as being a Spiritual substance yet considered singly in regard of its Spiritual substance cannot well be said to be the image of God A beast because of its Corporeity may as well be called the image of a Man for there is a greater similitude between man and a brute in the rank of bodies than there can be between God and the highest Angels in the rank of Spirits If it doth not consist in the substance of the Soul much less can it in any similitude of the body This Image consisted partly in the state of man as he had dominion over the Creatures partly in the nature of man as he was an intelligent being and thereby was capable of having a grant of that Dominion but principally in the conformity of the Soul with God in the frame of his Spirit and the holiness of his actions Not at all in the figure and form of his body Physically tho morally there might be as there was a rectitude in the body as an instrument to conform to the holy motions of the soul as the holiness of the soul sparkled in the actions and members of the body If man were like God because he hath a body whatsoever hath a body hath some resemblance to God and may be said to be in part his image But the truth is the essence of all Creatures cannot be an image of the immense essence of God 2. If God be a pure Spirit T is unreasonable to frame any Image or picture of God * Jamblyc protrept cap. 21. Symb. 24. Some Heathens have been wiser in this than some Christians Pythagoras forbad his Scholars to engrave any shape of him upon a Ring because he was not to be comprehended by sense but conceived only in our minds our hands are as unable to fashion him as our eyes to see him * Austin de Civitat Dei lib. 4. cap. 31. out of Varro The ancient Romans worshipped their Gods 170. years before any material representations of them * Tacitus and the Ancient Idolatrous Germans thought it a wicked thing to represent God in a human shape Yet some and those no Romanists labour to defend the making Images of God in the resemblance of man because he is so represented in Scripture he may be * Gerhard loc Comun vol. 4. Exegesis de naturâ Dei cap. 8. § 1. saith one conceived so in our minds and figured so to our sense If this were a good reason why may he not be pictured as a Lyon Horn Eagle Rock since he is under such Metaphors shadowed to us The same ground there is for the one as for the other What tho man be a nobler Creature God hath no more the body of a man than that of an Eagle and some perfections in other Creatures represent some excellencies in his nature and actions which cannot be figur'd by a human shape as strength by the Lyon swiftness and readiness by the wings of the Bird. But God hath absolutely prohibited the making any Image whatsoever of him and that with terrible threatnings Exod. 20.5 I the Lord am a jealous God visiting the iniquities of the Fathers upon their Children and Deut. 5.8 9. After God had given the Israelites the Commandment wherein he forbad them to have any other Gods before him he forbids all figuring of him by the hand of man * Amiraut Morale Christiene Tom. 1. p. 294. not only Images but any likness of him either by things in Heaven in the earth or in the water How often doth he discover his indignation by the Prophets against them that offer to mould him in a Creature form This law was not to serve a particular dispensation or to endure a particular time but it was a declaration of his Will invariable in all places and all times being founded upon the immutable nature of his being and therefore agreeable to the Law of nature otherwise not chargeable upon the Heathens And therefore when God had declared his nature and his works in a stately and Majestick eloquence he demands of them To whom they would liken him or what likeness they would compare unto him Isa 40.18 Where they could find any thing that would be a lively image and resemblance of his infinite excellency Founding it upon the infiniteness of his nature which necessarily implies the Spirituality of it God is infinitely above any Statue and those that think to draw God by a stroak of a pensil or form him by the engravings of Art are more stupid than the Statues themselves To shew the unreasonableness of it Consider 1. T is impossible to fashion any image of God If our more capacious Souls cannot grasp his nature our weaker sense cannot frame his image T is more possible of the two to comprehend him in our minds than to frame him in an image to our sense He inhabits inaccessible light As it is impossible for the eye of man to see him t is impossible for the art of man to paint him upon walls and carve him out of wood None knows him but himself none can describe him but himself * Cocceius sum Theol. cap. 9. pa. 47. § 35. Can we draw a figure of our own Souls and express that part of our selves wherein we are most like to God Can we extend this to any bodily figure and divide it into parts How can we deal so with the Original Copy whence the first draught of our Souls was taken and which is infinitely more Spiritual than Men or Angels No Corporeal thing can represent a Spiritual substance there is no proportion in nature between them God is a simple infinite immense eternal invisible incorruptible being A Statue is a compounded finite limited temporal visible and corruptible body God is a living Spirit but a Statue nor sees nor hears nor perceives any thing But suppose God
there but to behold the beauty of the Lord * Psal 27.4 and taste the ravishing sweetness of his presence No doubt but Elijah's desires for the enjoyment of God while he was mounting to Heaven were as fiery as the Chariot wherein he was carried Unutterable groans acted in worship are the fruit of the Spirit and certainly render it a spiritual service * Rom. 8.26 Strong appetites are agreeable to God and prepare us to eat the fruit of worship A spiritual Paul presseth forward to know Christ and the power of his Resurrection and a spiritual Worshipper actually aspires in every duty to know God and the power of his Grace To desire worship as an end is carnal to desire it as a means and act desires in it for communion with God in it is spiritual and the fruit of a spiritual life 5. Thankfulness and admiration are to be exercised in spiritual services This is a worship of Spirits Praise is the adoration of the blessed Angels * Isa 6.3 and of glorified Spirits Rev. 4.11 Thou art worthy oh Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power And Rev. 5.13.14 they worship him ascribing Blessing Honour Glory and Power to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Other acts of worship are confined to this Life and leave us as soon as we have set our foot in Heaven There no notes but this of Praise are warbled out The Power Wisdom Love and Grace in the dispensation of the Gospel seat themselves in the thoughts and tongues of blessed Souls Can a worship on Earth be spiritual that hath no mixture of an eternal heavenly duty with it The worship of God in Innocence had been chiefly an admiration of him in the works of Creation and should not our Evangelical worship be an admiration of him in the works of Redemption which is a restoration to a better State After the petitioning for pardoning Grace * Hos 14.2 there is a rendring the Calves or Heifers of our lips alluding to the Heifers used in Eucharistical Sacrifices The Praise of God is the choicest Sacrifice and Worship under a dispensation of redeeming Grace This is the prime and eternal part of worship under the Gospel The Psalmist Psalm 149. and 150. speaking of the Gospel times spurrs on to this kind of worship Sing to the Lord a new Song Let the Children of Zion be joyful iâ—â—â—â—ir King Let the Saints be joyful in glory and sing aloud upon their beds Let the high praises of God be in their mouths He begins and ends both Psalms with praise ye the Lord. That cannot be a spiritual and evangelical worship that hath nothing of the praise of God in the heart The consideration of Gods adorable perfections discovered in the Gospel will make us come to him with more seriousness beg blessings of him with more confidence fly to him with a winged Faith and Love and more spiritually glorify him in our attendances upon him 7. Spiritual Worship is performed with delight The Evangelical worship is prophetically signified by keeping the Feast of Tabernacles * Zach. 14.16 they shall go up from year to year to worship the King the Lord of Hosts and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles Why that Feast when there were other Feasts observed by the Jews That was a Feast celebrated with the greatest joy typical of the gladness which was to be under the exhibition of the Messiah and a thankful comemmoration of the Redemption wrought by him It was to be celebrated five days after the solemn day of Atonement Levit. 23.34 compared with v. 27. wherein there was one of the solemnest types of the Sacrifice of the death of Christ In this Feast they commemorated their exchange of Egypt for Canaan the Manna wherewith they were fed the Water out of the Rock wherewith they were refresht In remembrance of this they poured water on the ground pronouncing those words in Isaiah they shall draw waters out of the Wells of Salvation which our Saviour referrs to himself John 7.37 inviting them to him to drink upon the last day the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles wherein this solemn Ceremony was observed Since we are freed by the death of the Redeemer from the Curses of the Law God requires of us a Joy in spiritual priviledges A sad frame in worship gives the lye to all Gospel-liberty to the Purchase of the Redeemers Death the Triumphs of his Resurrection 'T is a carriage as if we were under the influences of the legal Fire and Lightning and an entring a Protest against the Freedom of the Gospel The Evangelical worship is a Spiritual worship and Praise Joy and Delight are prophecied of as great ingredients in attendance on Gospel Ordinances Isa 12.3 4 5. What was occasion of terror in the worship of God under the Law is the occasion of delight in the worship of God under the Gospel The Justice and Holiness of God so terrible in the Law becomes comfortable under the Gospel since they have feasted themselves on the active and passive obedience of the Redeemer The approach is to God as gracious not to God as unpacified as a Son to a Father not as a Criminal to a Judge Under the Law God was represented as a Judge remembring their Sin in their Sacrifices and representing the punishment they had merited in the Gospel as a Father accepting the Atonement and publishing the Reconciliation wrought by the Redeemer Delight in God is a Gospel frame therefore the more joyful the more spiritual The Sabbath is to be a delight not only in regard of the Day but in regard of the Duties of it * Isa 58.13 in regard of the marvelous work he wrought on it raising up our blessed Redeemer on that day whereby a foundation was laid for the rendring our persons and services acceptable to God Psal 118.24 This is the day which the Lord hath made we will be glad and rejoyce in it A lumpish frame becomes not a day and a duty that hath so noble and spiritual a mark upon it The Angels in the first act of worship after the Creation were highly joyful Job 38.7 They shouted for joy c. The Saints have particularly acted this in their Worship David would not content himself with an approach to the Altar without going to God as his exceeding joy Psal 43.4 My triumphant joy When he danced before the Ark he seems to be transformed into delight and pleasure 2 Sam. 6.14 16. He had as much delight in Worship as others had in their Harvest and Vintage And those that took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods would as joyfully attend upon the Communications of God Where there is a fullness of the Spirit there is a waking melody to God in the heart * Eph. 5.18.19 and where there is an acting of love as there is in all spiritual services the proper fruit of it is joy in a neer
less vain must it be when the Bodies of Men are presented to supply the place of their Spirits As an omission of duty is a contempt of Gods Soveraign Authority so the omission of the manner of it is a contempt of it and of his amiable excellency and that which is a contempt and mockery can lay no just claim to the title of Worship Reason 4. There is in worship an approach of God to Man It was instituted to this purpose that God might give out his blessings to Man And ought not our Spirits to be prepared and ready to receive his communications We are in such acts more peculiarly in his presence In the Israelites hearing the Law it is said God was to come among them * Exod. 19.10 11. Then men are said to stand before the Lord * Deut. 10.8 God before whom I stand that is whom I worship And therefore when Cain forsook the worship of God setled in his Fathers Family * Kings 1.17 he is said to go out from the presence of the Lord Gen. 4.16 God is essentially present in the world graciously present in his Church The name of the Evangelical City is Jehovah Shammah * Ezek. 48.35 the Lord is there God is more graciously present in the Evangelical institutions than in the Legal He loves the Gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob * Psal 87.2 His Evangelical Law and Worship which was to go forth from Zion as the other did from Sinai Mic. 4.2 God delights to approach to Men and converse with them in the worship instituted in the Gospel more than in all the dwellings of Jacob. If God be graciously present ought not we to be spiritually present A liveless Carcass service becomes not so high and delectable a presence as this 'T is to thrust him from us not invite him to us 'T is to practise in the Ordinances what the Prophet predicts concerning mens usage of our Saviour Isa 53.2 There is no form no comeliness nor beauty that we should desire him A slightness in worship reflects upon the excellency of the object of worship God and his worship are so linkt together that whosoever thinks the one not worth his inward care esteems the other not worth his inward affection How unworthy a slight is it of God who profers the opening his Treasure the reimpressing his Image conferring his blessings admits us into his presence when he hath no need for us who hath millions of Angels to attend him in his Court and celebrate his Praise He that worships not God with his Spirit regards not Gods presence in his Ordinances and slights the great end of God in them and that perfection he may attain by them We can only expect what God hath promised to give when we tender to him what he hath commanded us to present If we put off God with a Shell he will put us off with a Husk How can we expect his heart when we do not give him ours or hope for the blessing needful for us when we render not the glory due to him It cannot be an advantagious worship without spiritual graces for those are uniting and Union is the ground of all Communion Reason 5. To have a spiritual worship is Gods end in the restoration of the Creature both in Redemption by his Son and Sanctification by his Spirit A fitness for spiritual Offerings was the end of the coming of Christ * Mal. 3.3 He should purge them as Gold and Silver by Fire a Spirit burning up their dross melting them into a holy compliance with and submission to God To what purpose That they may offer to the Lord an Offering in Righteousnes a pure Offering from a purified Spirit He came to bring us to God * 1 Pet. 3.18 in such a Garb as that we might be fit to converse with him Can we be thus without a fixedness of our Spirits on him The offering of spiritual Sacrifices is the end of making any a spiritual Habitation and a holy Priest-hood * Pet. 2.5 We can no more be Worshippers of God without a Worshippers nature than a man can be a man without humane nature As man was at first created for the honour and worship of God so the design of restoring that Image which was defaced by Sin tends to the same end We are not brought to God by Christ nor are our services presented to him if they be without our Spirits Would any man that undertakes to bring another to a Prince introduce him in a slovenly and sordid habit such a garb that he knows hateful to him Or bring the Clothes or Skin of a Man stuft with straw instead of the Person To come with our Skins before God without our Spirits is contrary to the design of God in Redemption and Regeneration If a carnal worship would have pleased God a carnal heart would have served his turn without the expence of his Spirit in Sanctification He bestows upon man a spiritual nature that he may return to him a spiritual service He enlightens the Understanding that he may have a rational service and new moulds the Will that he may have a voluntary service As it is the Milk of the Word wherewith he feeds us so it is the service of the Word wherewith we must glorifie him So much as there is of confusedness in our understanding so much of starting and levity in our Wills so much of slipperiness and skipping in our affections so much is abated of the due qualities of the worship of God and so much we fall short of the end of Redemption and Sanctification Reason 6. A spiritual worship is to be offered to God because no worship but that can be acceptable We can never be secured of acceptance without it He being a Spirit nothing but the worship in Spirit can be sutable to him What is unsutable cannot be acceptable There must be something in us to make our services capable of being presented by Christ for an actual acceptation No service is acceptable to God by Jesus Christ but as it is a spiritual Sacrifice and offered by a spiritual heart 1 Pet. 2.5 The Sacrifice is first spiritual before it be acceptable to God by Christ When it is an offering in righteousness it is then and only then pleasant to the Lord Mal. 3.3 4. No Prince would accept a gift that is unsutable to his Majesty and below the condition of the person that presents it Would he be pleased with a bottle of water for drink from one that hath his Cellar full of wine How unacceptable must that be that is unsutable to the Divine Majesty And what can be more unsutable than a withdrawing the operations of our Souls from him in the oblation of our Bodies We as little glorifie God as God when we give him only a corporeal worship as the Heathen did when they represented him in a corporeal shape * Rom. 1.21
his own though appearing ridiculous in the place where he is he owns the Authority of the Prince whereas the omission of all respect would be a contempt of Majesty And therefore the Judgments of God have been more signal upon the Sacrilegious Contemners of worship among the Heathens than upon those that were diligent and devout in their false worship and they generally owned the blessings received to the preservation of a sense and worship of a deity among them Though such a worship be not acceptable to God and every man is bound to offer to God a devotion agreeable to his own mind yet it is commendable not as worship but as it speaks an acknowledgment of such a Being as God in his power in Creation and his beneficence in his Providence Well then omissions of worship are to be avoided Let no man execute that upon himself which God will pronounce at last as the greatest misery and bid God depart from him who will at last be loath to hear God bid him depart from him Though man hath natural sentiments that God is to be worshipped yet having an hostility in his nature he is apt to neglect or give it him in a slight manner He therefore sets a particular mark and notice of attention upon the fourth Command Remember thou keep holy the Sabath-day Corrupt nature is apt to neglect the worship of God and flagg in it This Command therefore which concerns his worship he fortifies with several reasons Nor let any neglect worship because they cannot find their hearts spiritual in it The further we are from God the more carnal shall we be No man can expect heat by a distance from the Sun beams or other means of warmth Though God commanded a circumcised heart in the Jewish services yet he did not warrant a neglect of the outward testimonies of Religion he had then appointed He expected according to his Command that they should offer the Sacrifices and practise the legal Purifications he had commanded he would have them diligently observed though he had declared that he imposed them only for a time And our Saviour ordered the practise of those positive rites as long as the law remained unrepealed as in the Case of the Leper * Mark 14.4 'T is an injustice to refuse the offering our selves to God according to the manner he hath in his Wisdom prescribed and required If spiritual worship be required by God then 2. It informs us that diligence in outward worship is not to be rested in * Daille melange des Sermon Ser. 2. Men may attend all their days on worship with a juiceless heart and unquickned frame and think to compensate the neglect of the manner with abundance of the matter of service Outward expressions are but the badges and liveries of service not the service it self As the strength of Sin lies in the inward frame of the heart so the strength of worship in the inward complexion and temper of the Soul What do a thousand services avail without cutting the throat of our carnal affections What are loud Prayers but as sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbals without Divine Charity A Pharisaical diligence in outward forms without inward Spirit had no better a title vouchsafed by our Saviour than that of hypocritical God desires not Sacrifices nor delights in burnt Offerings Shadows are not to be offered instead of Substance God required the heart of man for it self but commanded outward Ceremonies as subservient to inward worship and goads and spurs unto it They were never appointed as the substance of Religion but auxiliaries to it What value had the Offering of the human nature of Christ been of if he had not had a divine nature to qualifie him to be the Priest And what is the oblation of our Bodies without a Priestly act of the Spirit in the presentation of it Could the Israelites have called themselves Worshippers of God according to his Order if they had brought a thousand Lambs that had died in a Ditch or been killed at home They were to be brought living to the Altar the blood shed at the foot of it A thousand Sacrifices killed without had not been so valuable as one brought alive to the place of Offering One sound Sacrifice is better than a thousand rotten ones As God took no pleasure in the blood of Beasts without its relation to the Antitype So he takes no pleasure in the outward rites of worship without Faith in the Redeemer To offer a Body with a sapless Spirit is a Sacriledge of the same nature with that of the Israelites when they offered dead Beasts A man without spiritual worship is dead whiles he worships though by his diligence in the externals of it he may like the Angel of the Church of Sardis have a name to live * Revel 3.1 What security can we expect from a multitude of dead services What weak shields are they against the holy eye and revenging wrath of God What man but one out of his wits would sollicite a dead man to be his Advocate or Champion Diligence in outward worship is not to be rested in Vse 2. Shall be for Examination Let us try our selves concerning the manner of our worship We are now in the end of the world and the dreggs of time wherein the Apostle predicts there may be much of a form and little of the power of Godliness * 2 Tim. 3.1 5. And therefore it stands us in hand to search into our selves whether it be not thus with us Whether there be as much reverence in our Spirits as there may be devotion in our countenances and outward carriages 1. How therefore are our hearts prepared to worship Is our diligence greater to put our hearts in an adoring posture than our bodies in a decent garb Or are we content to have a muddy Heart so we may have a drest Carcass To have a Spirit a Cage of unclean Birds while we wipe the filth from the outside of the Platter is no better than a Pharisaical devotion and deserves no better a name than that of a whited Sepulcher Do we take opportunities to excite and quicken our Spirits to the performance and cry aloud with David awake awake my glory Are not our hearts asleep when Christ knocks when we hear the voice of God seek my face Do we answer him with warm resolutions thy face Lord we will seek * Psal 27.8 Do we comply with spiritual motions and strike whiles the Iron is hot Is there not more of reluctancy than readiness Is there a quick rising of the Soul in reverence to the motion as Eglon to Ehud or a sullen hanging the head at the first approach of it Or if our hearts seem to be engaged and on fire What are the motives that quicken that fire Is it only the blast of a natural Conscience fear of Hell desires of Heaven as abstracted from God Or is it an affection to God an obedient
a good Concoction when there is a greater strength in the vitals of Religion a more eager desire to know God When Moses had been praying to God and prevailed with him he puts up a higher request to behold his Glory * Exod. 33.13 18. When the appetite stands strong to fuller discoveries of God it is a sign there hath been a spiritual converse with him 2. How is it especially as to humility The Pharisees worship was without dispute carnal and we find them not more humble after all their devotions but over-grown with more weeds of spiritual pride they performed them as their righteousness What men dare plead before God in his day they plead before him in their hearts in their day but this men will do at the day of Judgement we have prophesied in thy Name c. Mat. 7.21 They shew what tincture their services left upon their Spirits That which excludes them from any acceptation at the last day excludes them from any estimation of being spiritual in this day The carnal Worshippers charge God with Injustice in not rewarding them and claim an acceptation as a compensation due to them Isa 58.3 Wherefore have we afflicted our Souls and thou takest no knowledge A spiritual Worshipper looks upon his duties with shame as well as he doth upon his sins with confusion and implores the mercy of God for the one as well as the other In the 143 Psalm v. 2. the Prophet David after his supplications begs of God not to enter into Judgment with him and acknowledges any answer that God should give him as a fruit of his faithfulness to his promise and not the merit of his worship * Psal 143.2 In thy Faithfulness answer me c. Whatsoever springs from a gracious Principle and is the breath of the Spirit leaves a man more humble whereas that which proceeds from a stock of nature hath the true blood of nature running in the veins of it viz. that pride which is naturally derived from Acam The breathing of the Divine Spirit is in every thing to conform us to our Redeemer that being the main work of his Office is his work in every particular Christian-act influenced by him Now Jesus Christ in all his actions was an exact Pattern of Humility After the institution and celebration of the Supper a special act of worship in the Church though he had a sense of all the Authority his Father had given him yet he humbles himself to wash his Disciples feet * John 13.2 3 4 And after his sublime Prayer John 17. He humbles himself to the death and offers himself to his Murderers because of his Fathers pleasure John 18.1 When he had spoken those words he wâ—nt over the Brook Kedron into the Garden What is the end of God in appointing worship is the end of a spiritual heart in offering it not his own exaltation but Gods glory Glorifying the name of God is the fruit of that Evangelical-worship the Gentiles were in time to give to God Psal 86.9 All Nations which thou hast made shall come and worship before thee oh Lord and shall glorifie thy Name Let us examin then what debasing our selves there is in a sense of our own vileness and distance from so glorious a Spirit Self-denial is the heart of all Gospel-grace Evangelical Spiritual-worship cannot be without the ingredient of the main Evangelical Principle 3. What delight is there after it What pleasure is there and what is the Object of that pleasure Is it Communion the we have had with God or a Fluency in our selves Is it something which hath touched our hearts or tickled our fancies As the strength of sin is known by the delightful thoughts of it after the commission so is the spirituality of duty by the object of our delightful remembrance after the performance It was a sign David was spiritual in the worship of God in the Tabernacle when he enjoyed it because he longed for the spiritual part of it when he was exil'd from it His desires were not only for Liberty to revisit the Tabernacle but to see the power and glory of God in the Sanctuary as he had seen it before * Psal 63.2 His desires for it could not have been so ardent if his reflection upon what had past had not been delightful nor could his Soul be poured out in him for the want of such opportunities if the remembrance of the converse he had had with God had not been accompanied with a delightful relish * Psal 42.4 Let us examin what delight we find in our spirits after worship Vse 3. Is of comfort And 't is very comfortable to consider that the smallest worship with the Heart and Spirit flowing from a principle of grace is more acceptable than the most pompous veneration yea if the oblation were as precious as the whole Circuit of Heaven and Earth without it That God that values a Cup of Cold water given to any as his Disciple will value a sincere service above a costly Sacrifice God hath his eye upon them that honour his nature He would not seek such to worship him if he did not intend to accept such a worship from them When we therefore invoke him and praise him which are the prime parts of Religion he will receive it as a sweet favour from us and overlook infirmities mixed with the graces The great matter of discomfort and that which makes us question the spirituality of worship is the many starts of our Spirits and rovings to other things For answer to which 1. 'T is to be confest that these starts are natural to us Who is free from them We bear in our own bosoms a nest of turbulent thoughts which like busie Gnatts will be buzzing about us while we are in our most inward and spiritual converses Many wild beasts lurk in a mans heart as in a close and covert wood and scarce discover themselves but at our solemn worship No duty so holy No worship so spiritual that can wholly priviledge us from them They will jogg us in our most weighty employments that as God said to Cain sin lyes at the door and enters in and makes a riot in our Souls As it is said of wicked men they cannot sleep for multitude of thoughts * Eccles 5.12 so it may be of many a good man he cannot worship for multitude of thoughts There will be starts and more in our Religious than natural imployments 't is natural to man Some therefore think the Bells tied to Aarons Garments between the Pomegranates were to warn the People and recall their fugitive minds to the present service when they heard the sound of them upon the least motion of the High priest The Sacrifice of Abraham the Father of the Faithful was not exempt from the Fouls pecking at it * Gen. 15.11 Zechariah himself was drowsie in the midst of his Visions which being more amazing might cause a heavenly intentness*
good evil is present with me * Rom. 7.21 Never more present than when we have a mind to do good and never more present than when we have a mind to do the best and greatest good How hard is it to make our thoughts and affections keep their stand place them upon a good Object and they will be frisking from it as a Bird from one bough one fruit to another We vary postures according to the various objects we meet with The course of the World is a very airy thing suted to the uncertain motions of that Prince of the power of the Air which works in it * Eph. 2.2 This ought to be bewail'd by us Tho we may stand fast in the truth tho we may spin our resolutions into a firm web tho the Spirit may triumph over the flesh in our practice yet we ought to bewail it because inconstancy is our nature and what fixedness we have in good is from grace What we find practised by most men is natural to all * Lawrence of Faith p. 262. As face answers to face in a glass so doth heart to heart * Pro. 27.19 a face in the glass is not more like a natural face whose image it is than one mans heart is naturally like another 1. 'T is natural to those out of the Church Nebuchadnezzar is so affected with Daniels prophetick Spirit that he would have none accounted the true God but the God of Daniel * Dan. 2.47 How soon doth this notion slip from him and an image must be set up for all to worship upon pain of almost cruel painful death Daniels God is quite forgotten The miraculous deliverance of the three Children for not worshipping his Image makes him settle a Decree to secure the Honour of God from the reproach of his Subjects * Dan. 3.29 yet a little while after you have him strutting in his Palace as if there were no God but himself 2. 'T is natural to those in the Church The Israelites were the only Church God had in the World and a notable Example of inconstancy After the Miracles of Aegypt they murmured against God when they saw Pharaoh marching with an Army at their Heels They desired food and soon nauseated the Manna they were before fond of when they came into Canaan They sometimes worshipped God and sometimes Idols not only the Idols of one Nation but of all their Neighbours In which regard God calls this his Heritage a Speckled Bird * Jer. 12.9 a Peacock saith Hierom inconstant made up of varieties of Idolatrous colours and Ceremonies This levity of Spirit is the root of all mischeif it scatters our thoughts in the Service of God it is the cause of all revolts and Apostacies from him it makes us unfit to receive the communications of God whatsoever we hear is like words writ in sand ruffled out by the next gale whatsoever is put into us is like precious liquor in a palsie hand soon spilt It breeds distrust of God when we have an uncertain judgment of him we are not like to confide in him an uncertain judgment will be followed with a distrustful heart In fine where it is prevalent it is a certain sign of ungodliness to be driven with the wind like chaffe and to be ungodly is all one in the judgment of the Holy Ghost Psal 1.4 the ungodly are like the chaff which the wind drives away which signifies not their destruction but their disposition for their destruction is inferred from it ver 5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in judgment How contrary is this to the unchangeable God who is alwayes the same and would have us the same in our religious Promises and Resolutions for good 4. If God be immutable 't is sad news to those that are resolved in wickedness or careless of returning to that duty he requires Sinners must not expect that God will alter his will make a breach upon his nature and violate his own Word to gratifie their lusts No 't is not reasonable God should dishonour himself to secure them and cease to be God that they may continue to be wicked by changing his own nature that they may be unchanged in their vanity God is the same goodness is as amiable in his sight and Sin as abominable in his eyes now as it was at the beginning of the world Being the same God he is the same Enemy to the Wicked as the same Friend to the Righteous He is the same in Knowledge and cannot forget sinful acts He is the same in Will and cannot approve of unrighteous Practices Goodness cannot but be alway the Object of his Love and Wickedness cannot but be alway the Object of his Hatred And as his aversion to Sin is alway the same so as he hath been in his Judgments upon Sinners the same he will be still for the same perfection of Immutability belongs to his Justice for the punishment of Sin as to his Holiness for his disaffection to Sin Though the Covenant of Works was changeable by the crime of man violating it yet it was unchangeable in regard of Gods justice vindicating it which is inflexible in the punishment of the breaches of his Law The Law had a preceptive part and a minatory part When man changed the observation of the Precept the righteous nature of God could not null the execution of the threatning He could not upon the account of this perfection neglect his just word and countenance the unrighteous transgression Tho there were no more rational Creatures in being but Adam and Eve yet God subjected them to that death he had assured them of and from this immutability of his Will ariseth the necessity of the suffering of the Son of God for the relief of the apostate Creature His Will in the second Covenant is as uncâ—aâ—â—eable as that in the first only repentance is settled as the condition of the second which was not indulged in the first and without repentance the sinner must iâ—â—voâ—â—bly pâ—rish or God must change his nature There must be a change in man there can be nâ—â—â—e in God his bow is bent his arrows are ready if the wicked do not turn * Psal 7.11 There is not an Atheist an hypocrite a prophane person that ever was upon the Earth but Gods Soul abhorred him as such and the like he will abhor for ever While any therefore continue so they may sooner expect the Heavens should roul as they please the Sun stand still at their order the Stars change their course at their beck than that God should change his nature which is opposite to prophaness and vanity Who hath hardned himself against him and hath prospered * Job 9.4 Use 2. Of comfort The immutability of a good God is a strong ground of consolation Subjects wish a good Prince to live for ever as being loath to change him but care not how soon they are rid of an Oppressor
Wisdom Power signify at a distance from us Let us frame in our minds a strong Idea of it 't is this makes so great a difference between the actions of one man and another one maintains actual thoughts of it another doth not tho' all believe it as a Perfection pertaining to the infiniteness of his Essence David or rather a greater than David had God always before him there was no time no occasion wherein he did not stir up some lively thoughts of him Psal 16.8 Let us have right notions of it imagine not God as a great King sitting only in his Majesty in Heaven acting all by his Servants and Ministers This saith one * Musculuâ— is a Childish and unworthy conceit of God and may in time bring such a conceiver by degrees to deny his Providence the denyal of this Perfection is an Axe at the Root of Religion if it be not deeply imprinted in the mind personal Religion grows faint and feeble who would fear that God that is not imagin'd to be a Witness of his actions Who would worship a God at a distance both from the Worship and Worshipper * Drexel Let us believe this Truth but not with an idle Faith as if we did not believe it Let us know that as wheresoever the Fish moves it is in the Water wheresoever the Bird moves it is in the Air so wheresoever we move we are in God as there is not a moment but we are under his Mercy so there is not a moment that we are out of his Presence Let us therefore look upon nothing without thinking who stands by without reflecting upon him in whom it Lives Moves and hath its Being When you view a man you fix your eyes upon his Body but your mind upon that invisible part that acts every member by life and motion and makes them fit for your converse Let us not bound our thoughts to the Creatures we see but pierce through the Creature to that boundless God we do not see we have continual remembrancers of his Presence the Light whereby we see and the Air whereby we live give us perpetual notices of it and some weak resemblance why should we forget it yea what a shame is our unmindfulness of it when every cast of our Eye every motion of our Lungs jogs us to remember it Light is in every part of the Air in every part of the World yet not mixt with any both remain entire in their own substance Let us not be worse than some of the Heathens who pressed this notion upon themselves for the spiriting their actions with Vertue That all places were full of God This was the means Basil used to prescribe upon a Question was askt him Omnia Diâ—plena How shall we do to be serious Mind Gods Presence How shall we avoid distractions in Service Think of Gods Presence How shall we resist Temptations Oppose to them the Presence of God 1. This will be a Shield against all Temptations God is present is enough to blunt the Weapons of Hell this will secure us from a ready complyance with any base and vile attractives and curb that head-strong Principle in our nature that would joyn hands with them the Thoughts of this would like the powerful Presence of God with the Israelites take off the Wheels from the Chariots of our sensitive Appetites and make them perhaps more slower at least towards a Temptation How did Peter fling off the Temptation which had worsted him upon a look from Christ the actuated faith of this would stifle the Darts of Satan and fire us with an anger against his sollicitations as strong as the Fire that inflames the Darts Moses his Sight of him that was Invisible strengthned him against the costly Pleasures and Luxuries of a Princes Court Heb. 11 27. We are utterly senseless of a Deity if we are not moved with this Item from our Consciences God is Present Had our first Parents actually consider'd the nearness of God to them when they were Tempted to Eat of the Forbidden Fruit they had not probably so easily been overcome by the Temptation What Soldier would be so base as to revolt under the Eye of a tender and obliging General Or what man so negligent of himself as to Rob a House in the Sight of a Judg Let us consider That God is as near to observe us as the Devil to sollicite us yea nearer the Devil stands by us but God is in us we may have a Thought the Devil knows not but not a Thought but God is actually present with as our Souls are with the Thoughts they think nor can any Creature attract our heart if our minds were fixed on that invisible Presence that contributes to that excellency and sustains it and considered that no Creature could be so present with us as the Creator is 2. It will be a Spur to Holy Actions What man would do an unworthy action or speak an unhandsom Word in the Presence of his Prince the Eye of the General inflames the Spirit of a Soldier Why did David keep Gods Testimonies Psal 119 168 because he consider'd that all his ways were before him because he was perswaded his ways were present with God Gods Precepts should be present with him The same was the cause of Jobs Integrity Job 31.4 Doth he not see my ways to have God in our Eye is the way to be sincere Gen 17. â— walk before me as in my Sight and be thou perfect Communion with God consists chiefly in an ordering our Ways as in the Presence of him that is Invisible This would make us spiritual rais'd and watchful in all our Passions if we consider'd that God is present with us in our Shops in our Chambers in our Walks and in our Meetings as present with us as with the Angels in Heaven who tho' they have a Presence of Glory above us yet have not a greater measure of his Essential Presence than we have What an awe had Jacob upon him when he consider'd God was present in Bethel Gen. 28.16 17 If God should appear visibly to us when we were alone should we not be reverent and serious before him God is every where about us he doth encompass us with his Presence should not Gods seeing us have the same influence upon us as our seeing God He is not more essentially present if he should so manifest himself to us than when he doth not Who would appear besmear'd in the presence of a great person or not be asham'd to be found in his Chamber in a nasty posture by some visitant Would not a man blush to be catched about some mean action tho' it were not an immoral Crime If this Truth were imprest upon our Spirits we should more blush to have our Souls daub'd with some loathsom Lust swarms of Sin like Egyptian Lice and Frogs creeping about our Heart in his Sight If the most sensual man be asham'd
All People are under Gods Care but he has a particular regard to his Church This is the Signet on his hand as a Bracelet upon his arm this is his Garden which he delights to dress if he prunes it it is to purge it if he Digs about his Vine and wounds the Branches 't is to make it more Beautiful with new Clusters and restore it to a fruitful Vigour 2. All great deliverances are to be ascrib'd to God as the principal Author whosoever are the Instruments The Lord doth build up Jerusalem he gathers together the outâ—â—â—s of Israel This great deliverance from Babylon is not to be ascrib'd to Cyrus or Darius or the rest of our favourers 't is the Lord that doth it we had his Promise for it we have now his Performance Let us not ascribe that which is the effect of his Truth only to the good Will of men 't is Gods act not by Might nor by Power nor by Weapons of War or strength of Horses but by the Spirit of the Lord. He sent Prophets to comfort us while we were exiles and now he hath stretched out his own Arm to work our deliverance according to his Word blind man looks so much upon Instruments that he hardly takes notice of God either in Afflictions or Mercies and this is the cause that robs God of so much Prayer and Praise in the World Verse 3. He heals the broken in heart and binds up their Wounds He hath now restored those who had no hope but in his Word he hath dealt with them as a tender and skilful Chirurgeon he hath applyed his curing Plaisters and dropped in his Soveraign Balsams he hath now furnisht our fainting hearts with refreshing Cordials and comforted our Wounds with strengthning Ligatures How gracious is God that restores Liberty to the Captives and Righteousness to the Penitent mans misery is the fittest opportunity for God to make his Mercy illustrious in it self and most welcome to the Patient He proceeds verse 4. Wonder not that God calls together the out-casts and singles them out from every corner for a return why can he not do this as well as tell the number of the Stars and call them all by their Names Ver. 4. There are none of his People so despicable in the eye of man but they are known and regarded by God tho' they are clouded in the World yet they are the Stars of the World and shall God number the inanimate Stars in the Heavens and make no account of his living Stars on the Earth no wherever they are dispersed he will not forget them however they are afflicted he will not despise them the Stars are so numerous that they are innumerable by man some are visible and known by men others lie more hid and undiscovered in a confused Light as those in the Milky-way man cannot see one of them distinctly God knows all his People As he can do what is above the power of man to perform so he understands what is above the skill of man to discover shall man measure God by his scantiness Proud man must not equal himself to God nor cut God as short as his own Line He tells the number of the Stars and calls them all by their Names He hath them all in his List as Generals the Names of their Soldiers in their Muster-Roll for they are his Host which he Marshals in the Heavens as Isa 40.26 where you have the like Expression he knows them more distinctly than man can know any thing and so distinctly as to call them all by their Names He knows their Names that is their natural offices influences the different degrees of heat and light their order and motion and all of them the least glimmering Star as well as the most glaring Planet this man cannot do Tell the Stars if thou be able to number them Gen. 15.5 saith God to Abraham whom Josephus represents as a great Astronomer yea they cannot be numbred Jer. 33.22 and the uncertainty of the Opinions of men evidenceth their ignorance of their number some reckoning 1022 others 1025 others 1098 others 7000 besides those that by reason of their mixture of Light with one another cannot be distinctly discern'd and others perhaps so high as not to be reach'd by the eye of man To impose Names on things and Names according to their Natures is both an Argument of Power and Dominion and of Wisdom and Understanding from the imposition of Names upon the Creatures by Adam the Knowledg of Adam is generally concluded and it was also a fruit of that Dominion God allowed him over the Creatures Now he that Numbers and Names the Stars that seem to lie confus'd among one another as well as those that appear to us in an unclouded Night may well be suppos'd accurately to know his People tho' lurking in secret Caverns and know those that are fit to be Instruments of their deliverance the one is as easy to him as the other and the Number of the one as distinctly known by him as the Multitude of the other For great is our Lord and of great Power his Vnderstanding is Infinite Ver. 5. He wants not Knowledg to know the objects nor Power to effect his Will concerning them Of great Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Much Power plenteous in Power so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred Psal 5.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a multitude of Power as well as a multitude of Mercy a Power that exceeds all Created Power and Understanding His Vnderstanding is Infinite You may not imagine how he can call all the Stars by Name the multitude of the visible being so great and the multitude of the invisible being greater but you must know that as God is Almighty so he is Omniscient and as there is no end of his Power so no account can exactly be given of his Understanding His Vnderstanding is Infinite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No number or account of it and so the same Words are rendred Joel 1.6 a Nation strong and without number No end of his Understanding Syriack no measure no bounds †His Essence is Infinite and so is his Power and Understanding and so vast is his Knowledg that we can no more comprehend it than we can measure spaces that are without limits or tell the minutes or hours of Eternity Who then can fathom that whereof there is no number but which exceeds all so that there is no searching of it out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he knows Universals he knows Particulars We must not take understanding here as noting a faculty but the use of the understanding in the knowledg of things and the Judgment in the consideration of them and so it is often used In the Verse there is a description of God 1. In his Essence great is our Lord. 2. In his Power of great Power 3. In his Knowledg his Vnderstanding is Infinite his Understanding is his Eye
the suggestions of their Carnal Wisdom The Brats of Soul-destroying Errors may walk about the World in a garb and disguise of good words and fair speeches as it is in the 18th Verse by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple And for their encouragement to a constancy in the Gospel Doctrine he assures them that all those that would dispossess them of Truth to possess them with Vanity are but Satans Instruments and will fall under the same Captivity and Yoke with their Principal Verse 18. The God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly Whence observe 1. All Corrupters of Divine Truth and Troublers of the Churches Peace are no better than Devils Our Saviour thought the Name Satan a Title merited by Peter when he breathed out an Advice as an Ax at the Root of the Gospel the Death of Christ the foundation of all Gospel Truth and the Apostle concludes them under the same Character which hinder the superstructure and would mix their Chaff with his Wheat Mat. 16.23 Get thee behind me Satan 'T is not Get thee behind me Simon or Get thee behind me Peter but Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence to me Thou dost oppose thy self to the Wisdom and Grace and Authority of God to the Redemption of Man and to the good of the World As the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Truth so is Satan the Spirit of Falshood As the Holy Ghost inspires Believers with Truth so doth the Devil corrupt Unbelievers with Error Let us cleave to the Truth of the Gospel that we may not be counted by God as part of the Corporation of Fallen Angels and not be barely reckon'd as Enemies of God but in league with the greatest Enemy to his Glory in the World 2. The Reconciler of the World will be the subduer of Satan The God of Peace sent the Prince of Peace to be the Restorer of his Rights and the Hammer to beat in pieces the Usurper of them As a God of Truth he will make good his Promise as a God of Peace he will perfect the design his Wisdom hath laid and begun to act In the subduing Satan he will be the Conqueror of his Instruments He saith nor God shall bruise your Troublers and Hereticks but Satan The fall of a General proves the rout of the Army Since God as a God of Peace hath delivered his own he will perfect the Victory and make them cease from bruising the heel of his Spiritual Seed 3. Divine Evangelical Truth shall be Victorious No Weapon formed against it shall prosper The Head of the Wicked shall fall as low as the Feet of the Godly The Devil never yet bluster'd in the World but he met at last with a disappointment His Fall hath been like Lightning sudden certain vanishing 4. Faith must look back as far as the foundation Promise The God of Peace shall bruise c. The Apostle seems to allude to the first Promise Gen. 2.15 A Promise that hath vigor to nourish the Church in all Ages of the World 'T is the standing Cordial out of the Womb of this Promise all the rest have taken their birth The Promises of the Old Testament were designed for those under the New and the full performance of them is to be expected and will be enjoyed by them 'T is a mighty strengthning to Faith to trace the footsteps of Gods Truth and Wisdom from the Threatning against the Serpent in Eden to the bruise he received in Calvary and the Triumph over him upon Mount Olivet 5. We are to confide in the Promise of God but leave the season of its accomplishment to his Wisdom He will bruise Satan under your feet therefore do not doubt it and shortly therefore wait for it Shortly it will be done that is quickly when you think it may be a great way off or shortly that is seasonably when Satans Rage is hottest God is the best Judge of the seasons of distributing his own Mercies and darting out his own Glory 'T is enough to encourage our waiting that it will be and that it will be shortly but we must not measure God's shortly by our Minutes The Apostle after this concludes with a comfortable Prayer That since they were liable to many Temptations to turn their backs upon the Doctrine which they had learned yet he desires God who had brought them to the knowledge of his Truth would confirm them in the belief of it since it was the Gospel of Christ his dear Son and a Mystery he had been chary of and kept in his own Cabinet and now brought forth to the World in pursuance of the ancient Prophesies and now had publish'd to all Nations for that end that it might be obeyed and concludes with a Doxology a voice of Praise to him who was only Wise to effect his own purposes Verses 25 26 27. Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the commandment of the Everlasting God made known to all Nations for the obedience of Faith This Doxology is interlac'd with many Comforts for the Romans He explains the causes of this glory to God Power and Wisdom Power to establish the Romans in Grace which includes his Will This he proves from a Divine Testimony viz. the Gospel the Gospel committed to him and preached by him which he commends by calling it the preaching of Christ and describes it for the instruction and comfort of the Church from the Adjuncts the obscurity of it under the old Testament and the clearness of it under the New It was hid from the former Ages and kept in silence not simply and absolutely but comparatively and in part because in the Old Testament the Doctrine of Salvation by Christ was confin'd to the limits of Judea preached only to the Inhabitants of that Country To them he gave his Statutes and his Judgments and dealt not so magnificently with any Nation †Psal 147.19 20. but now he causes it to spring with greater Majesty out of those narrow bounds and spread its Wings about the World This manifestation of the Gospel he declares first from the subject All Nations 2. From the principal efficient cause of it The Commandment and Order of God 3. The Instrumental cause The Prophetick Scriptures 4. From the End of it Gomarus in loc The obedience of Faith 1. Observe The glorious Attributes of God bear a comfortable respect to Believers Power and Wisdom are here mention'd as two props of their Faith his Power here includes his Goodness Power to help without Will to assist is a dry Chip The Apostle mentions not Gods Power simply and absolutely considered for that of it self is no more comfort to Men than it is to Devils but
time to the World And the Wisdom of God in them would be amazing if we could understand the analogy between every Ceremony in the Law and the thing signified by it As it cannot buâ— affect a diligent Reader to observe that little account of them we have by the Apostle Paul sprinkled in his Eipstles and more largely in that to the Hebrews As the Political Laws of the Jews flowed from the depth of the Moral Law so their Ceremonial did from the depth of Evangelical Counsels and all of them had a special relation to the honour of God and the debasing the Creature Though God formed the Mass and Matter of the World at the first creation at once yet his Wisdom took six days time for the disposing and adorning it The more illustrious truths of God are not to be comprehended on a suddain by the weakness of men Christ did not declare all Truths to his Disciples in the time of his life because they were not able at that present to bear them John 16.12 Ye cannot bear them now Some were reserved for his Resurrection others for the coming of the Spirit and the full discovery of all kept back for another World This Doctrine God figured out in the Law Oracled by the Prophets and unvail'd by Christ and his Apostles 2. The Wisdom of God appeared in using all proper means to render the belief of it easie 1. The most minute things that were to be transacted were predicted in the ancient foregoing Age long before the comeing of the Redeemer The vinegar and gall offered to him upon the Cross the parting his Garments the not breaking of his Bones the piercing of his Hands and Feet the betraying of him the slighting of him by the multitude all were exactly painted and represented in variety of Figures There was Light enough to good men not to mistake him and yet not so plain as to hinder bad men from being Serviceable to the counsels of God in the crucifying of him when he came 2. The translation of the Old Testament from the private Language of the Jews into the most publick Language of the World That Translation which we call Septuagint from Hebrew into Greeks some years before the coming of Christ that Tongue being most diffused at that time by reason of the Macedonian Empire raised by Alexander and the University of Athens to which other Nations resorted for Learning and Education This was a preparation for the Sons of Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Shem. By this was the entertainment of the Gospel facilitated When they compar'd the Prophecies of the Old Testament with the Declarations of the New and found things so long predicted before they were transacted in the publick view 3. By ordering concurrent Testimonies as to matter of Fact that the matter of Fact was not deniable That there was such a Person as Christ that his Miracles were stupendous that hâ—s Doctrine did not incline to Sedition that he affected not Worldly Applause that he did suffer at Jerusalem was acknowledged by all Not a man among the greatest Enemies of Christians was found that denied the matter of Fact And this great truth that Christ is the Messiah and Redeemer hath been with universal consent owned by all the Professors of Christianity throughout the World Whatever Bickerings there have been among them about some particular Doctrines they all centred in that Truth of Christ's being the Redeemer The first publication of this Doctrine was sealed by a thousand Miracles and so illustrious that he was an utter Stranger to the World that was ignorant of them 4. In keeping up some Principles and Opinions in the World to facilitate the belief of this or render men inexcusable for rejecting of it The Incarnation of the Son of God could not be so strange to the World if we consider the general belief of the Appearances †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their Gods among them that the Epicureans and others that denied any such Appearances were counted Atheists * Dionis Halicar Antiq. l. 2. p. 128. And Pythagoras was esteemed to be one not of the inferiour Genij and Lunar Daemons but one of the higher Gods who appeared in a Human Body for the curing and rectifying mortal Life †Iamblych Vit. Pythag. l. 1. cap. 6. p. 44. lib. 2. c. 19. p. 94. And himself tells Abaris the Scythian that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he took the flesh of man that men might not be astonished at him and in a fright fly from his Instructions It was not therefore accounted an irrational thing among them that God should be Incarnate But indeed the great stumbling block was a crucified God But had they known the holy and righteous Nature of God the Malice of sin the universal Corruption of Human Nature the first threatning and the necessity of vindicating the honour of the Law and clearing the Justice of God the Notion of his crucifixion would not have appeared so incredible since they believed the possibility of an Incarnation Another Principle was that universal One of Sacrifices for Expiation and rendring God propitious to man and was practised among all Nations I remember not any wherein this Custom did not prevail for it did even among those People where the Jews as being no trading Nation had not any Commerce and also in America found out in these latter Ages It was not a Law of Nature no man can find any such thing written in his own heart but a Tradition from Adam Now that among the loss of so many other Doctrines that were handed down from Adam to his immediate Posterity as in particular that of the Seed of the Woman which one would think a necessary Appendix to that of Sacrificing This latter should be preserved as a Fragment of an ancient Tradition seems to be an Act of Divine Wisdom to prepare men for the entertainment of the Doctrine of the great Sacrifice for the Expiation of the sin of the World And as the Apostle forms his Argument from the Jewish Sacrifices in the Epistle to the Hebrews for the convincing them of the end of the death of Christ so did the Ancient Fathers make use of this practise of the Heathen to convince them of the same Doctrine 5. The wisdom of God appeared in the time and circumstances of the first solemn publication of the Gospel by the Apostles at Jerusalem The Relation you may read in Acts 2. from verse 1. to the 12th The Spirit was given to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost a time wherein there were multitudes of Jews from all Nations not only near but remote that heard the great things of God spoken in the several Languages of those Nations where their Habitations were fixed and that by twelve illiterate men that two or three hours before knew no Language but that of their Native Country It was the custom of the Jews that dwelt among other Nations at a
Judgments upon some to form a new Generation for himself He destroy'd an old World to raise a new one more Righteous As a Man pulls down his old Buildings to erect a sounder and more stately Fabrick To sum up what hath been said in this particular How could God be a Friend to Goodness if he were not an Enemy to Evil How could he shew his enmity to Evil without revenging the abuse and contempt of his Goodness God would rather have the Repentance of a Sinner than his Punishment but the Sinner would rather expose himself to the severest frowns of God than pursue those Methods wherein he hath setled the conveyances of his kindness You will not come to me that you might have Life saith Christ How is Eternity of Punishment inconsistent with the Goodness of God Nay how can God be good without it If Wickedness always remain in the Nature of Man Is it not fit the Rod should always remain on the Back of Man Is it a want of goodness that keeps an incorrigible Offender in Chains in a Bridewell While Sin remains it 's fit it should be Punished Would not God else be an Enemy to his own Goodness and shew favour to that which doth abuse it and is contrary to it He hath threatned Eternal Flames to Sinners that he might the more strongly excite them to a Reformation of their Ways and a Practice of his Precepts In those Threatnings he hath manifested his Goodness And can it be bad in him to defend what his Goodness hath Commanded and Execute what his Goodness hath Threatned His Truth is also a part of his Goodness for it is nothing but his Goodness performing that which it oblig'd him to do That is the first thing Severe Judgments in the World are no Impeachments of his Goodness 2. The Afflictions God inflicts upon his Servants are no violations of his Goodness Sometimes God aflicts Men for their Temporal and Eternal good for the good of their Grace in order to the good of their Glory which is a more excellent Good than Afflictions can be an Evil. The Heathens reflected upon Vlysses his hardship as a Mark of Jupiters goodness and love to him that his Virtue might be more conspicuous By strong Persecutions brought upon the Church her Lethargy is Cur'd her Chaff Purg'd the glorious Fruit of the Gospel brought forth in the lives of her Children The number of her Proselytes multiply and the strength of her weak ones is increased by the Testimonies of Courage and Constancy which the stronger present to them in their Sufferings Do those good Effects speak a want of goodness in God who brings them into this condition By those he cures his People of their Corruptions and promotes their Glory by giving them the honour of suffering for the Truth and raiseth their Spirits to a Divine pitch The Epistles of Paul to the Ephes Philip. and Colos wrote by him while he was in Nero's Chains seem to have a higher strain than some of those he wrote when was at liberty As for Afflictions they are Marks of a greater measure of Fatherly Goodness than he discovers to those that live in an uninterrupted Prosperity who are not dignifi'd with that glorious Title of Sons as those are that he chasteneth * Heb. 12.6 7. Can any question the goodness of the Father that Corrects his Child to prevent his Vice and Ruine and breed him up to Vertue and Honour It would be a Cruelty in a Father leaving his Child without Chastisement to leave him to that Misery an ill Education would reduce him to God judges us that we might not be condemned with the World †1 Cor. 11.32 Is it not a greater Goodness to separate us from the World to Happiness by his Scourge than to leave us to the condemnation of the World for our Sins Is it not a greater Goodness to make us smart here than to see us scorcht hereafter As he is our Shepherd it is no part of his Enmity or ill will to us to make us feel sometimes the weight of his Shepherds Crook to reduce us from our Stragling The visiting our Transgressions with Rods and our Iniquities with Stripes is one of the Articles of the Covenant of Grace wherein the greatest lustre of his Goodness appears * Psal 89.33 The advantage and gain of our Afflictions is a greater Testimony of his Goodness to us than the pain can be of his Unkindness The Smart is well recompenced by the accession of clearer Graces It is rather a high Mark of his Goodness than an Argument for the want of it that he treats us as his Children and will not suffer us to run into that Destruction we are more ambitious of than the Happiness he hath prepared for us and by Afflictons he fits us for the partaking of by imparting his Holiness together with the inflicting his Rod †Heb. 12.10 That is the third thing God is Good The Fourth thing is The manifestation of this Goodness in Creation Redemption and Providence 1. In Creation This is apparent from what hath been said before That no other Attribute could be the Motive of his Creating but his Goodness His Goodness was the Cause that he made any thing and his Wisdom was the Cause that he made every thing in Order and Harmony He pronounced every thing good i. e. such as became his Goodness to bring forth into Being and rested in them more as they were Stamps of his Goodness than as they were Marks of his Power or Beams of his Wisdom And if all Creatures were able to answer to this Question What that was which Created them The Answer would be Almighty Power but employed by the Motion of Infinite Goodness * Cusan p. 228. All the varieties of Creatures are so many Apparitions of this Goodness Though God be one yet he cannot appear as a God but in variety As the greatness of Power is not manifest but in variety of Works and an Acute Understanding not discover'd but in variety of Reasonings so an Infinite Goodness is not so apparent as in variety of Communications 1. The Creation proceeds from Goodness 'T is the Goodness of God to extract such multitude of things from the depths of nothing Because God is Good things have a Being If he had not been Good nothing could have been Good Nothing could have imparted that which it possessed not Nothing but Goodness could have communicated to things an Excellency which before they wanted Being is much more Excellent than nothing By this Goodness therefore the whole Creation was brought out of the dark Womb of Nothing This formed their Natures this beautified them with their several Ornaments and Perfections whereby every thing was enabled to act for the good of the Common World God did not Create things because he was a Living Being but because he was a Good Being No Creature brought forth any thing in the World meerly because it is
acknowledge it with thankfulness in what we have to implore it with a holy submission in what wâ— wâ—nt To oâ—n Gâ—â— as a Soveraign in a way of dependance is the way to be own'd by him as Subjects in a way of favour 5. His Soveraignty is manifested in giving a great measure of knowledge to some than to others What Parts Gifts excellency of Nature any have above others are Gods donative He gives Wisdom to the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding Dan. 2.21 Wisdom the habit and Knowledge the right use of it in discerning the right nature of objects and the fitness of means conducing to the end all is but a beam of Divine Light and the different degrees of Knowledge in one man above another are the effects of his Soveraign pleasure He enlightens not the minds of all men to know every part of his will one eats with a doubtful Conscience another in Faith without any staggering Romans 14.2 Peter had a desire to keep up Circumcision not fully understanding the mind of God in the abolition of the Jewish Ceremonies While Paul was clear in the Truth of that Doctrine A thought comes into our mind that like a Sun-beam makes a Scripture Truth visible in a moment which before we were poring upon without any success this is from his pleasure One in the primitive times had the gift of Knowledge another of Wisdom one the gift of Prophesie another of Tongues one the gift of Healing another that of discerning Spirits why this gift to one man and not to another Why such a distribution in several Subjects Because it is his Soveraign pleasure The Spirit divides to every man severally as he will 1 Cor. 12.11 Why doth he give Bezaleel and Aholiah the gift of Engraving and making curious works for the Tabernacle Exod. 31.3 and not others Why doth he bestow the Treasures of Evangelical Knowledge upon the meanest of Earthen Vessels the poor Galileans and neglect the Pharisees stor'd with the Knowledge both of Naturals and Morals Why did he give to some and not to others to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 13.11 The reason is implyed in the words Because it was the mystery of his Kingdom and therefore was the act of his Soveraignty How would it be a Kingdom and Monarchy if the Governour of it were bound to do what he did 'T is to be resolv'd only into the Soveraign right of propriety of his own goods that he furnisheth Babes with a stock of knowledge and leaves the Wise and Prudent empty of it Matth. 11.26 Even so Father for so it seem'd good in thy sight Why did he not reveal his mind to Eri a grown man and in the highest office in the Jewish Church but open it to Samuel a stripling Why did the Lord go from the one to the other Because his motion depends upon his own will Some are of so dull a constitution that they are uncapable of any impression like Rocks too hard for a stamp others like water you may stamp what you please but it vanisheth as soon as the Seal is remov'd 'T is God forms men as he pleaseth Some have parts to govern a Kingdom others scarce brains to conduct their own affairs One is fit to rule men and another scarce fit to keep Swine Some have capacious Souls in crazy and deform'd Bodies others contracted Spirits and heavier minds in a richer and more beautiful case Why are not all stones alike some have a more sparkling light as gems more orient than pebbles Some are Stars of first and others of a less magnitude others as mean as Glo-worms a slimy lustre 'T is because he is the Soveraign disposer of what belongs to him and gives here as well as at the Resurrection to one a Glory of the Sun to another that of the Moon and to a third a less resembling that of a Star 1 Cor. 15.40 And this God may do by the same right of Dominion as he exercised when he endow'd some kinds of Creaâ—â—â—es with a greater perfection than others in their Nature Why may he not as well garnish one man with a greater proportion of gifts as make a man differ in excellency from the Nature of a Beast Or frame Angels to a more purely spiritual Nature than a man Or make one Angel a Cherubim or Seraphim with a greater measure of light than another Though the foundation of this is his Dominion yet his wisdom is not uninterested in his Soveraign disposal he garnisheth those with a greater ability whom he intends for greater service than those that he intends for less or none at all As an Artificer bestows more labour and carves a more excellent figure upon those Stones that he designs for a more honourable place in the building But though the intending this or that man for service be the motive of laying in a greater provision in him than in others yet still it is to be referred to his Soveraignty Since that first act of culling him out for such an end was the fruit solely of his Soveraign pleasure As when he resolv'd to make a Creature actively to glorifie him in wisdom he must give him reason yet the making such a Creature was an act of his absolute Dominion 6. His Soveraignty is manifest in the calling some to a more special service in their Generation God settles some in immediate Offices of his service and perpetuates them in those Offices with a neglect of others who seem to have a greater pretence to them Moses was a great sufferer for Israel the sollicitor for them in Egypt and the conductor of them from Egypt to Canaan yet he was not chosen to the High Priesthood but that was an office setled upon Aaron and his posterity after him in a lineal descent Moses was only pitched upon for the present resscue of the Captiv'd Israelites and to be the instrument of Divine Miracles but notwithstanding all the success he had in his conduct his faithfulness in his employment and the transcendent familiarity he had with the great Ruler of the World his posterity were left in the common level of the Tribe of Levi without any special mark of dignity upon them above the rest for all the services of that great man Why Moses for a Temporary Magistracy Aaron for a perpetual Priesthood above all the rest of the Israelites hath little reason but the absolute pleasure of God who distributes his employments as he pleaseth and as a Master orders this Servant to do the noblest work and another to labour in baser offices according to his pleasure Why doth he call out David a Shepherd to sway the Jewish Scepter above the rest of the Brothers that had a fairer appearance and had been bred in arms and enur'd to the Toyls and Watchings of a Camp Why should Mary be the Mother of Christ and not some other of the same Family of David of a more splendid birth and a