Evangelical Worship IS Spiritual Worship As it was Discussed in a SERMON Preached before the RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lord Maior At Pauls Church Aug. 26. 1660. BY Matthew Poole Minister of the Gospel at Michael Quern in London The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Sa. Thomson at the Bishops-head in Pauls Church-yard 1660. To the Ingenuous Reader THat this Sermon is brought to light it is not from my own choice inclination but by constraint not only in respect of the importunities of many that pressed me to it but in regard of the mis-constructions censures and scandalous aspersions of others that forced me to it It hath fared with me as it did with David They laid to my charge things that I knew not Psal. 35. 11. and fastned such reports upon my Sermon as never entred into my thoughts being it seems well instructed in that Diabolical Lesson calumniare fortiter adhaerebit aliquid For my part I thank the Lord who hath taught me that it is a small matter to be judged of man or of mans judgment I could not expect better measure than my Saviour had of whom we read John 7. 12. Some said he is a good man others said nay but he deceiveth the people It is sufficient to me that I have the Conscience of mine own integrity and the uprightness of my aimes that whatever was said was not spoken out of a spirit of contention or bitterness or opposition nor with any other design that I know of God is my witness but from a Conscience of my duty and an abhorrency of that unchristian and antichristian spirit which breaths after the ruine of all those who cannot stretch to the length of their bed and consent to them in every punctilio To which I was the more encouraged because his Majesty hath frequently expressed his dislike of that furious spirit and his resolution that the affairs of the Church should be managed in a moderate way I intended not to meddle with Common-Prayer of which I spake not one word however I am traduced nor Ceremonies considered in themselves but only as some endeavour that they may be pressed with an AEgyptian rigour and violently imposed upon the Consciences of their Brethren I supposed that there were divers of the Episcopal perswasion of more sedate and peaceable dispositions who were unconcerned in my Discourse and I must needs do them that right that some of that opinion and those of considerable esteem in the world for Learning and Goodness were pleased to pass a favourable construction upon my Sermon and to acknowledge that I had reason for what I said I spake no more for substance than what some of the Bishops of England however overborn by a more potent Party have said in their Speeches and Writings that have declared their dislike of those tyrannical proceedings whereby Learned and honest men were forced to forgo the exercise of their Ministry for some Ceremonies As much was said by the B. of St. Davids in a Convocation An. 1604. as it is cited in a Treatise called Beams of former Light printed this year p. 205. Which is worthy of the perusal of all those that would not have the Ministers and people of England to bite and devour one another and thereby make sport for the common Adversary I thought it was an hard case if a man should be accounted violent for dehorting men from violence and immoderate for pressing them to moderation I concluded that I could not do his Majesty better Service than by endeavouring to disswade men from those practises which might occasion the dividing distracting and unsetling of his Realms and to perswade unto such a temper in which the generality of the people of the Land seem prepared to acquiesce if they be not turned out of the way by the Pride Cruelty and Tyranny of some exorbitant Persons As for what some have fastned upon me that I had seditious passages and Reflexions upon his Majesty it is well that beside the witness of my own Conscience I have so many hundred Compurgators I desire alwaies to abhor that sinful practise of speaking evil of Dignities I have learned to fear God and honour the King I am instructed in that Lesson that I must not curse the King no not in my Bed-chamber much lesse defame him in a publick Assembly And other Sedition I am resolved by the Grace of God not to be guilty of than this to offer up my most hearty and fervent Prayers publick and private for his Majesties long and happy Reign here and in Heaven and that God would guide him to those counsels which conduce most to his own and the Nations Peace Amongst other Calumnies which have been cast upon me one is this that I wisht their fingers might rot that plaied upon the Organs where I must not only condemn the falshood and impudence of those that raised and propagated so abominable a Lie but also I must blame the imprudence and uncharitableness of such as were ready to receive and believe so improbable a report The Reader will see that I only declared my dislike of Organs in our Churches and therein I think I have better Authority than those that are of another mind forasmuch as in the Homily of the Place and time of Prayer a Book established and enjoyned by the Laws of the Land p. 131. they bring in some superstitious Persons complaining that they could not hear the like Piping Singing Chaunting and Playing upon the Organs that they could before To this is immediatly answered thus But Dearly Beloved We ought greatly to rejoyce and to give thanks to God that our Churches are delivered out of those things which displeased God so sore and filthily defiled his holy House c. Which how our great Zealots for these things who pretend to be the only genuine sons of the Church of England can reconcile with their Principle and Practise let themselves consider and let the Indifferent judge I shall adde no more but this that to the best of my knowledge and remembrance this Sermon is printed as it was preached without either omission or alteration of any one material word and so I commend thee to the Guidance of the great Counsellour of his Church Begging that the God of Truth would lead us all into every Truth but especially that which concerns his Worship wherein he is so jealous which is the Prayer of Thy Servant in the Gospel M. P. JOHN 4. 23 24. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth IN this Chapter you have an holy conference between Christ and a Samaritan woman who at first entertains his discourse with scoffs but afterwards began to be more seriously affected and upon the occasion of his strange discovery of her secret wickednesse she saith ver. 19.
Sir I perceive thou art a Prophet And hereupon makes her addresse to him and seeks resolution from him in one of the great and weighty cases of those times It is a Christians duty especially to labour for satisfaction and establishment against the errours and in the questions of the times they live in Vers. 20. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship She falls not into curious and unprofitable questions in which she might have looked for satisfaction from a Prophet about the length of her daies number of her children condition of life but about things of another nature Obs. That Soul which is under the influence of Gods Grace is most inquisitive about Religious concernments And it is one of the first steps and works of Grace to direct a mans thoughts and enquiries to these things This is that which at first conversion especially most fils head and heart Acts 16. 30. Sirs what must I do to be saved And it is a sign of a desperate state to be careless and contentedly ignorant in the concernments of the soul To proceed Our Fathers saith she are of this opinion and you of another What saiest thou Differences in Religion should not make a man reject all religion but search after the true Religion So it doth here so it doth in all other things In Philosophy some say the earth moves others it stands still It were now a strange kind of folly and pettishness if a man should say he would believe neither No but this makes him search for the truth with greater diligence The differences amongst Physitians do not make any discreet man reject all the rules and Principles of his Art nor would it have such an effect in Religion had not men an hatred of it Again It is about the Worship of God that she enquires Obs. A Gracious person is very solicitous and exact about the Worship of God An hypocrite neither cares much to know nor regards to do as he ought so the work be done he cares for no more A Gracious person 1. Is careful to know what worship will please God 2. Conscientious to offer up such worship Again Our Fathers The opinions and practises of our Fathers in the Worship of God is no rule to their children This hath been a common stumbling stone though none more absurd and unreasonable Men love to tread in their Fathers steps The Indian hearing his Ancestors were in hell said then he would go thither This was the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of the Jews which led them into many miscarriages Jet 44. 17. We will bake cakes to the Queen of Heaven as we have done we and our Fathers The Pharisees were great Zealots for their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a vain conversation received by tradition from your Fathers 1 Pet. 1. 18. And he that shall follow this ignis fatuus must go to Popery Samaritanism Heathenism Hell it self The Prophet Jeremy when he speaks of the conversion of the Gentiles he tells you they shall relinquish the opinions of their Ancestors Jer. 16. 19. The Gentiles shall come unto thee and shall say Our Fathers inherited lies God himself gives a caution in this point Ezek. 20. 18. But I said unto their children walk ye not in the statutes of your Fathers You are not to pin your faith upon your Fathers sleeve Isaiah sends them to the Law and Testimony not to Fathers Isa. 8. 20. Your Fathers were men Humanum est errare Forsake not Fountains for Cisterns Not that you are to slight your Fathers no but to reverence them yet to avoid extreams neither to Defie them nor Deifie them neither to make them Cyphers nor yet principal figures to be followers of them as they are followers of Christ The Question was about the place of Worship whether in this Mount and that was the Mount of Gerizim where the Samaritans Temple had stood for a long time the Mount where her Ancestors used to worship God and the Mount where Jacob had worshipped God or in Jerusalem This was her Question To which he answers ver. 21 22 23 24. His Answer refers 1. To the place of Worship 2. The Worship it self 1. As to the place The hour cometh when neither in this Mountain nor yet in Jerusalem shall men worship the Father All places shall be alike as to holiness though not as to conveniency for meeting together It is an Aphorism of some men that time and place are circumstances of the same consideration in the Worship of God But that appears plainly to be a mistake Those are not equal and alike Circumstances in which God makes a difference For time the holiness of times that continues one day in seven sanctified by Christ observed by the Apostles followed by all Ages For place you see here an abrogation And there is no substitution of any place or places in the room of it no Precept nor example to that purpose in the New Testament 2. As to the Worship it self He infers 1. More Generally 2. More Particularly 1. Generally Ye worship ye know not what You follow an uncertain Rule and not the Word of God so that hereby are condemned those things which some men make the Rule of Worship Custom of Ancestors Light of Reason We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews The way and doctrine of salvation is revealed to them by the Author of Salvation You grope in the dark 2. Particularly and so he expresseth what is the kind and quality of Gods Worship q. d. The time is coming when Gods Worship shall be neither your false and Idolatrous Worship nor the Jews Ceremonial and carnal Worship but there shall be a more spiritual way of Worship And as v. 22. he gave the Jewish Worship the precedency before the Samaritan so here he prefers another kind of Worship before both And as before he disclaimed both places of Worship so here both those kinds of worship are rejected In these words you may observe 2 parts I. A Doctrine concerning Gods Worship asserted v. 23. And amplified 1. By the Subject of this worship true worshippers 2. The Object of it the Father 3. The manner of it in spirit and truth 4. The time of it the hour cometh and now is And this Doctrine is repeated v. 24. They that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth II. The Reasons to enforce it which are two 1. A Voluntate Dei From Gods Will The Father seeketh such to worship him 2. A Naturâ Dei From the Nature of God God is a Spirit The hour cometh and now is It is at the doors and that is the hour of Christs Passion of which you read that his hour was not yet come For that was the time when the Vail of the Temple was rent and when the shadows were to vanish and those carnal Sacrifices to expire the substance being come
and the true Sacrifice offered When Christ spake he was bound to the carnal worship of the Jews c. but that was to be terminated in his death when he abolished the Law of Commandments Eph. 2. But I will not spend more time in the opening of the words I shall do that in the Doctrine Only one thing needs opening What is meant by in Spirit and in Truth First In Spirit is taken three waies in Scripture 1. For an extraordinary motion of the Spirit such as the Prophets had Rev. 1. 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lords day i. e. in an extatical motion and rupture of soul whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell But this is not meant here 2. In spirit is opposed unto a bodily or carnal worship of God But that is twofold The 1. respects the subject of worship and that is opposed unto those who worship God only with their bodies whose hearts and souls do not concur with them who draw nigh to God with their lips when their hearts are far from him Thus Rom. 1. 9. God is my witnesse whom I serve in my Spirit Neither is this intended in these words for in this sense the Jews were to worship God in spirit before 2. This therefore may respect the manner or means of worship and thus in spirit is not opposed to our bodies but to the body of worship or to a bodily and carnal way of worship called bodily exercise 1 Tim. 4. 8. Bodily exercise profiteth little And this is that which is here intended q. d. The time was when the worship of God did consist in a great measure in external Rites and Ceremonies It stood in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of Reformation Heb. 9. 10. But now that time of Reformation cometh and now is when you shall have a more spiritual way of worship Secondly In Truth may be opposed to two things 1. Truth is opposed to Lying or Dissembling Phil. 1. 18. Whether in pretence or in truth Christ is preached Josh. 24. 19. Serve him in sincerity and truth 2. It is opposed to Types thus John 1. 17. The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ The Law the Ceremonial Law the Type of the Grace of God in Christ was given by Moses but Grace and Truth or the Grace of God in Truth it is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in substance not in shadow it was not only typified and shadowed as that which should be given hereafter some foretasts whereof they only had by drops but really and plentifully exhibited And thus not to distract your heads with the various Interpretations of others you see the plain meaning in spirit in opposition to corporeal and carnal Sacrifices and in Truth in opposition to Ceremonial Types and Legal shadows So that now way being made I shall come to that one Doctrine which I intend to discourse of omitting others which might be pertinently and profitably raised and that is this Doct. Evangelical worship must be spiritual worship In the Prosecution of this Point I shall observe this Order 1. Open 2. Prove 3. Apply the Point 1. For the Opening of it 1. Negatively 2. Positively 1. Negatively you must not understand either the Text or Doctrine so as if all external Worship were excluded as some dangerously mistake There are two things allowed and required in the Gospel somthing external 1. In Worship 2. In the Worshipper 1. In the Worship there is somthing external even in that which Christ instituted not only Prayer but bodily Fasting is an Ordinance In the Sacrament there is a visible part as well as a spiritual In the hearing of the Word there must be an external attention of the ear as well as the inward obedience of the heart On Sabbaths a rest from worldly works as well as from sin 2. In the Worshipper there must be a concurrence of the outward man even in the spiritual Worship of God though the Spirit and heart be the chief And so it was of old my Son give me thy heart yet the body also is not exempted from the Worship of God Glorifie God with your souls and with your bodies for both are Gods 1 Cor. 6. 20. Our bodies are the Temples of the holy Ghost here the Vessels of Glory hereafter and thefore it is but meet they should be Instruments of Gods Worship here And therefore not only in the Old but in the New Testament too a regard hath been had unto the gesture of the body Christ kneeled down and prayed Luke 22. 41. Peter kneeled Acts 9 40. Paul kneeled down and prayed Acts 20. 36. This for the Negative 2. Positively In what respects must Evangelical Worship be spiritual Worship I Answer four waies 1. Subjectivè It must be offered up by a spiritual person The first thing God looks at is the person of the Worshipper c. God had respect unto Abel first and to his offering Gen. 4. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} A carnal persons Worship is never accepted They that are in the flesh cannot please God Rom. 8. 9. where being in the flesh is opposed unto being in the Spirit or being a spiritually minded person Therefore St Peter tels the Jews 1 Pet. 2. 5. Ye also as lively stones are built up a Spiritual house an holy Priesthood to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices Paul blames the Corinthians for this in hearing 1 Cor. 3. 1. I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal A man must be translated from darknesse to light he must be a spiritual person partaker of the holy Ghost filled with the fruits of the Spirit under the conduct and command of Gods Spirit if he hope to offer up Evangelical Service in an acceptable manner 2. Instrumentaliter this Worship must be done principally with our Spirit not with our body only nor chiefly c. This God expects in all things In Preaching Acts 18. 25. Apollos being fervent in Spirit spake and taught In Praying 1 Cor. 14. 14. My Spirit prayeth Eph. 6. 18. Praying in the Spirit unlesse that be meant of the Spirit of God Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart How lamentably are those mistaken that think they worship God when they come to a publick assembly and there sit and sleep or talk or think of other things Surely these men think they are worshipping one of Davids Idols that hath eyes but sees not and not that God who is a Spirit Mark how sharply our Saviour takes up such persons Mat. 15. 8. Ye hypocrites well did Esaias prophesie of you saying this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth but their heart is far from me Ezek. 33. 31. They sit before thee but their heart goeth after their covetousnesse 3. Finaliter A mans designes and aimes in the Worship of God must be spiritual the getting and