Nations as Estius observes Worshipped the Sun and Moon and when they saw either of them clearly shining forth they stretched out their hands towards them and then laid them upon their mouths and kissed them thereby signifying that if they could have got to them they would have kissed them as they did their hands Their manner was that if they could have access to their idols they kissed them if not they kissed their hands in token of worshipful reverence towards them So that Job by these words intimates thus much that if he had done as his Heathenish Neighbours did if he had relinquished the true God and plaid the Idolater as they did then he had deserved punishment indeed And in other places of Scripture we find Worshipping set forth by the same phrase God tells the Prophet Elijah who thought himself alone the only true worshipper that he had seven thousand that had not bowed unto nor kissed Baal And the Prophet Hosea complaining of the wickedness of the Israelites amongst other things that he charges them with this is one that they said Let the men that sacrifice kiss the Calves Whereby it appears that this heathenish Ceremony did not keep it self among the barbarous Nations where it was hatched but crept amongst the Israelites with whom it sound too much entertainment And the same Rivet thinks David alludes to this custome when he saith Kiss the Son lest he be angry Notwithstanding this that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is used to denote worship is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more than I dare affirm In the derivations of words though sometimes the descent be obvious and afford light yet many times it is very obscure and uncertain and in such cases we must be cautious what stress we lay on them Whether this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I leave to every one to judge there be learned men on both sides Let us now from the Name pass to the thing denoted by it The worship set forth by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is twofold it is either civil or religious Civil worship is reverent behaviour towards men whereby we testifie our respect to them proportionably to the eminency we behold in them Though I call it civil yet I do not so speak as if I thought it not at all religious for as a judicious author well observes it is commanded by God who is the author of religion and it hath some analogy with the worship which is more properly religious but for that the object from which acts do usually receive their names is civil But to go on the respect testified by this kind of worship is commonly expressed in the incurvation or bowing of the body So Abraham upon his meeting the three Angels bowed himself towards the ground And upon his treating with the children of Heth about a burial place for his wife he bows himself to them The word used in both places by the Septuagint is the same with this in the Text. What we use to say of grace in reference to Nature that it do's not destroy but rectifie it the like we may say of it in reference to civility it do's not destroy it in men but rectifie and regulate it teaching them to whom to shew it in what manner and in what degree It is so far from being an enemy to civility that it greatly promotes it it subdues the Nabalism and churlishness of mens natures takes away the gall and bitterness of them and makes them kind and pleasing Turn over the histories of all Nations and ages and you shall not meet with any persons of more condiscending obliging sweet deportment than such as have been most eminent for grace and holiness Witness Abraham in this place he was a great Lord and a mighty Prince and yet how submissively and courteously doth he carry himself to these children of Heth who were his inferiours in many respects This being so what shall we think of a generation of men amongst us that having renounced and as it were protested against the common tokens of civility carry themselves before Magistrates and others to whom they owe obeysance like a company of barbarians that never knew what civility meant making a conscience of putting off the hat calling a man master and the like But no marvel for if it be religion that teaches men manners as certainly it is we may not wonder that having laid aside religion they have also laid aside their manners This is civil worship but it is not this kind of worship the Text speaks of and therefore I shall say no more of that Religious worship is devout behaviour towards God whereby we acknowledge his Soveraignty over us and the dueness of our obedience to him appearing before him and waiting upon him in the way he hath appointed in his Word This David speaks of when he saith O come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker And this our Saviour speaks of when he saith they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Now this worship belongs not to either Angels or Saints their images reliques or any such thing but to the Lord only whose it is and from whom we may not alienate it Hence that of our Saviour in another place thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve He speaks not of a civil worship or reverence for therewith we both may and ought to serve others but of a religious worship or reverence which God hath reserved as a prerogative peculiar to himself Agreeable hereunto is that of Athanasius God alone is to be worshipped Which words are so point-blank against the proceedings of the Papists that their inquisition at Madrid lighting on them in one of his Index's expunged and put them out Religious worship is of a far other nature than civil is it differs from it not only gradually as the reverence we give to the King differs from that we give to one of his judges or Ministers of state but specifically or in kind As all acts are to be suited to so they are to be denominated from their objects and to bear appellations and titles agreeable to them Now the objects of these two sorts of worship differ as much as may be The object of the one is the Creature the object of the other is the Creator The object of the one is humane and finite the object of the other is divine and infinite And the worship we give them must be answerable When we worship the creature we must do it with apprehensions and affections becoming the creature and when we worship the Creator we must do it with apprehensions and affections becoming the Creator When we appear before men and do reverence to them we must do it with apprehensions of eminency but such as is created
we know what we worship q. d. ye worship the true God as we do but ye worship him under a visible similitude whereby it appears ye know him not but the hour cometh and now is that the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth c. That is they shall not worship him under any visible shape as you do but shall conceive of him as he is namely a spirit This was the opinion of our learned country man Mr. Mede But notwithstanding the respect I bear to the author and his excellent works I conceive this is none of our Saviours meaning For 1. how will it be proved that the Samaritans worshipped God under the similitude of a dove L'empereur a great master in critical learning denies it And Cunaeus doth not only acquit them from this pretended idolatry of the Dove but from all Idolatry whatsoever He grants that they did formerly live in idolatry but withal saith that they wholly renounced it and that before the time of Sanballat following the religion prescribed by Moses 2. Grant they did worship God as is alledged under the shape of a Dove yet the antithesis or opposition in the words will not admit this to be the sense of them For our Saviour doth not set the worshipping of God in spirit and in truth only in opposition to the worship of the Samaritans but also of the Jews who conceived of God as a spirit and so worshipped him Had he insisted only on the worship of the Samaritans and set worshipping God in spirit and in truth only in opposition to their worship then this sense had carried more probability along with it but it is evident that this worshipping God in spirit and in truth stands in opposition as well to the Jewish as the Samaritan worship and therefore this cannot be the meaning of them 3. Others think by worshipping God in spirit we are to understand the worshipping of him not only with the outward but the inner man and by worshipping him in truth the worshipping him in righteousness telling us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truth and righteousness are used promiscuously Those say they worship in righteousness that worship in truth and those worship in truth that worship in righteousness Thus Heinsius But this seems not to be the sense For though it be very true that to worship God in spirit is to worship him with the inner man and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are put sometimes the one for the other yet this sense agrees not with the adversative which we are to have great respect to as yielding much light to the finding out the meaning of the words Our Saviour tells the woman ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship but saith he the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth By which adversative it appears that the worshipping God in spirit and in truth is a worshipping of him in such a way as is different both from that of the Samaritans and the Jews And so far Bellarmine is in the right when he saith these words manifestly signifie that our Saviour spake of a new way of worship which was not before and which would have its beginning from him But according to this opinion the worshiping God in spirit and in truth is not different from all former worship in particular not from that of the Jews for though many of them were hypocritical and profane yet were there some amongst them that worshipped God with the inner man and in righteousness To go no further we read of Zachary and Elizabeth who were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless It is not against the abuse of a lawful worship that our Saviour speaks but against the worship it self according to its institution which he would have laid aside and another kinde of worship of his own appointment substituted in the room of it 4. Others think that worshipping God in spirit is here set in opposition to the carnal external worship of the Jews and worshipping him in truth to the fictitious false worship of the Samaritans And so they will have the words of our Saviour to amount to thus much both Jews and Samaritans worship the Father the one at one place and the other at another The one in a carnal way the other in a false way but the time is at hand that both the one and the other shall worship him after another manner The Jews laying aside their carnal worship shall worship him in spirit and the Samaritans laying aside their false worship shall worship him in truth And this sense Pererius with other Jesuits gives of the words But not to repeat what I have already alledged which shews this cannot be the meaning I see no reason wherefore spirit should be restrained to the carnal external worship of the Jews and truth to the fictitious false worship of the Samaritans For there was want of spirit not only in the worship of the Jews but also of the Samaritans and there was want of truth not only in the worship of the Samaritans but also of the Jews I understand not therefore how this limitation may be justified 5. Others think to worship God in spirit is to worship him with the inner man and to worship him in truth is to worship him without the use of such ceremonies as were types of things to come Not without the use of all ceremonies but only such as were shadows of things to come They say the Jews and Samaritans before the coming of Christ worshipped God with bloody Sacrifices and with many rites and ordinances depending thereon which prefigured some thing to come but Christ being come that was prefigured by them he lets the woman know that this kind of worship should cease and that God would be worshipped after another manner sc. in spirit and in truth As if he had said God will not now be worshipped in the types of things expected but according to the verity of what is already exhibited After this manner speak Maldonate and others But I understand not wherefore we should restrain the words only to the exclusion of such ceremonies as are figures of things to come They are a plain assertion of the spirituality and simplicity of Gospel worship which will consist no better with other ceremonies than such as are shaddows of things to come Should we worship God in the use of as many ceremonies as the Jews did though they were not figures of things to come but of things past or present yet our worship would be no more in spirit and in truth than theirs Besides it is to be observed that Christ at his coming did not only abrogate such ceremonies as were typical and shadowed forth things to come but such
the whole stream of Protestant Writers I had collected their words and set them down but finding that they took up more room than in so small a tract may well be spared I thought it convenient to lay them by Those that have a mind to peruse them may have recourse to their Commentaries and Annotations on the Text and there find them They do for the most part so distinguish as that they set spirit in opposition to what is carnal corporeal external and truth to what is figurative ritual and ceremonial but they do not all I confess precisely observe that distinction yet they do all from hence declare against the use of Ceremonies in New-Testament worship not only against the use of Jewish Ceremonies but others likewise I know some of them as well as the Ancients before them speak with reference to the Jewish and Samaritan Ceremonies and so without question our Saviour did too for what other carrying the least colour of authority or reason were there then for him to speak against but yet not so as if they thought those were the only ceremonies that fell under our Saviours censure That they never thought the Jewish and Samaritan Ceremonies were the only ceremonies condemned by our Saviour appears in this that they alledge this place against the Papists and their Ceremonies accounting it a good and solid argument against them Besides such as have commented upon it and so have taken occasion to urge it against them Chamier Camero Bucan with many more in writings of another nature improve it against them Now if it be a good argument against the Ceremonies of the Papists why may it not likewise be so against the Ceremonies of others who have derived them from them Indeed Contzen the Jesuite saith that spirit and truth are here opposed to hypocrisie and the vanity of certain of the Jews and all the Samaritans rather than to figures but herein he is not only contradicted by the body of Protestant writers but by his own friends Bonaventure Jansenius nay Ribera and others of his own order in what they have writ on the place In a word our Saviour well foreknew not only how loth the Jews and Samaritans would be to part with those Ceremonies which they had so long made use of but likewise how prone others in after-ages would be to a Ceremonious superstitious pompous Worship and therefore saw it needful to speak not only against the Ceremonies of the Samaritans and Jews in particular but also all Ceremonies in general and this he doth in these words They that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth 4. I am now to give you the grounds of the point and shew you wherefore it is the duty of the sons of men in these dayes of the Gospel to worship God in spirit and in truth And I shall first speak of worshipping him in spirit Now they ought to do that for these Reasons 1. Because it is the will and pleasure of God whom they are to worship that they should so do And this sure to all those that know any thing what a deity means is a sufficient reason The will of God saith the Seraphick Doctor is the reason of reasons and not only right but the rule of our proceedings And latter writers speak to the same purpose As his power is unlimited and his wisdome infinite so his authority is supream and his freedome absolute and therefore he may both do what he will himself and appoint what he will have us to do and it is not for such worms as we are either to resist or censure him Earthly Potentates we may censure for they are under Law themselves as well as we but it is not so with God he is not under any Law save the Law of his own most holy and righteous will in the choice and determination whereof we stand bound by vertue both of that natural and professed allegiance we owe to him under the harshest appointments and distastfullest occurrences to acquiesce and rest satisfied He needs not the advice or help of any of his creatures whether Angels or men to assist him in the management of his affairs He made the world without them redeemed his Church without them and he knows how to govern it without them And the reason wherefore he doth this and not that and appoints this and not that is not any natural necessity or debility that is in him for he is al-sufficient but it is his own pleasure I may say in this case as our Saviour did in the like Even so O Father because it seemed good in thy sight or as it is in the original because it was thy good pleasure Now that it is the will and pleasure of God that we should worship him in spirit is evident And now Israel saith he what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in all his wayes and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul He doth not only require us to serve him but to serve him with the heart and not only with the heart in an indefinite way but with every part of it The heart is a thing he stands so much on that he will not endure we should withhold it or any part of it from him He will either have it or nothing and he will either have all of it or none of it The sacrifices of God saith David are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise What an expression is this were no sacrifices the sacrifices of God but this were all other sacrifice of men No but though other sacrifices were his sacrifices appointed and owned by him yet this was his sacrifice in a way of eminency and in a peculiar manner This is the sacrifice he principally calls for looks after accepts of and promises his blessing to He doth not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not sacrifice but sacrifices to intimate to us that this one sacrifice is instead of all other sacrifices And with this doctrine of the old-testament agrees that of the new We must saith Paul do the will of God from the heart This phrase from the heart doth not here stand in opposition to with the heart as sometimes it doth but in coincidency with it He doth not mean we must serve him from something else and not the heart but from the heart and nothing else He would have our service to be cordial sincere hearty service free from that abominable hypocrisie and formality that attends the performances of unsanctified carnal graceless men But that God would have us to worship him in spirit I need not go so far for proof of the very text shews it Such saith Christ the Father seeks to worship him thereby intimating that he doth not only allow of such kind
of worship but require it expect it and take complacency in it 2. Because to worship God in spirit is more agreeable and sutable to his nature than other kind of worship Sutableness is desirable in every thing and therefore should not be neglected in the servcie of God As we would have him to furnish us with sutable mercies so we should yeild to him sutable service Now to worship God in spirit sutes better with his nature than other worship doth He is not made up of matter and form subject and accident act and power or the like ingredients proper to created beings but is a most simple essence He consists not of a gross corporal substance like the Heathen Idols made of silver and gold that have mouths and speak not eyes and see not ears and hear not but is a most pure spirit as void of matter as he is of either sin or mortality Hence that of the Prophet to whom will ye liken God or what likenss will ye compare unto him And the Apostle upbraids the Gentiles for their Anthropomorphitism in that they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and fourfooted beasts and creeping things Yet were there some amongst them that took him to be a spirit and so taught Numa following the doctrine of Pythagoras forbade the Romans to believe that God had any form or likenss either of man or beast And upon this consideration they used no pictures or images of him accounting it sacriledge to represent Heavenly things by earthly forms And with this doctrine of the antient Romans agrees that of the modern Witness that of the famous Tully Neither can God himself saith he who is understood of us be understood any other way than as a mind loosed and free segregated from all mortal concretion What 's this but in a Periphrasis to tell us that he is a spirit And if he be a spirit then to worship him in spirit must needs be more proper than to do it in another way After this manner our Saviour himself reasons God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit It is Argumentum à conjugatis and implyes as much as if he had said God is a spirit and therefore they that worship him must worship him in spirit For though the illative or rational particle be not expressed yet it is evidently implyed and therefore we must not look upon the words as a bare precept only requiring us to worship God in spirit but also as a rational argument to induce us to it And indeed what can be more rational than that if God be a spirit we should worship him in spirit For if it be reasonable that since men have bodies we should reverence them with the body it must then needs be reasonable that since God is a spirit we should worship him with the spirit 3. Because to Worship God in spirit is the most excellent kind of worship As it is such worship as agrees both with his will and nature so it hath a peculiar excellency in it above all other worship and that in respect of the efficient or subject from whence it proceeds which is the inner man or reasonable soul. And what a rare and excellent piece that is is worthy the pen of an Angel to describe It is not a thing of such mean and homely extraction as the body made up of earth water and other elements ready to tumble into the grave not and putrifie every day it 's of a more divine and generous descent and of a more refined and immortal nature indued with several noble and usefull faculties each of them capable of performing excellent operations and services It is the candle of the Lord a Celestial spark a beam of light darfed down from God out of Heaven The Jewish Rabbi's have such an high esteem of it that they compare it in divers respects to God himself And not only they but Plato Tully Seneca Epictetus and other Heathens that dealt but with principles of Philosophy and could fee no further then the dimm eye of Nature would carry them have as Morney shews out of their writings many notable passages concerning it They say it came from God is a kin to him of the same off-spring with him and that it is like him and must never die but return to him again And indeed the excellencies of it are so many and so great that it s no easie matter to set them forth It is that which exalts a man above a beast and qualifies him for high and noble services It makes him fit to stand before Princes sit upon the throne of government converse with Angels serve his maker and enjoy communion with him Man is the beauty and glory of this lower world and the soul is the beauty and glory of man It is the fairest flower in all the reasonable creature the jewel in the Cabinet the diamond in the ring and so pretious that it is of more worth than all the riches of the Indies nay than all the World According to that of our Saviour what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Hence it is that wise men who understand somewhat of the nature of it set such an high value upon it David calls it his darling Deliver saith he my soul from the sword my darling from the power of the dog The word here rendered darling is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies my only one and so is rendred by Pagnine and others Whereby it appears he valued his soul so much that he regarded nothing else besides it Nay he was so choice and tender of it that he would trust it with none but God and therefore commends it to him Into thine hands saith he in another place I commit my spirit He looked upon the worth of it as so great and the welfare of it as so much concerning him that he thought none fit to be trusted with it but God and therefore passing by all others both men and angels he commits it only to him He esteemed not any place safe enough but the Cabinet of Gods gratious providence wherein he locks up the souls of all his servants and therefore he commits it to him to be preserved and kept by him And hence it is likewise that God himself makes such account of it and stands so much on it calling for it from every person and looking for it in every duty My son saith he give me thy heart He doth not say thy body thy head or thy hand but thy heart He stands not so much upon those things as he doth upon the heart That he looks for in every ordinance and in every performance And hence it is likewise that Satan aims so much at it laying all the
baits he can to insnare it mattering neither one thing nor other so he can but gain it He goes about like a roaring lyon ranges up and down compasses Sea and Land and all to make a prey of souls Other Lyons prey upon bodies but he preys upon souls Now all these things bespeak the excellency of the soul. Were not the nature of it very pretious neither man nor God nor Satan would make such account of it And by how much the soul is more excellent by so much the worship performed by it is the more excellent By how much the soul is more excellent than the body by so much the worship of the soul is more excellent than that of the body Lanctantius speaking of the excellency of the Christian religion above that of the Heathens saith go amongst them and there is nothing but the blood of beasts a little smoak and foolish sacrificing but with us there is a good mind a pure heart and an innocent life The one was outward the other inward the one consisted in killing and sacrificing of beasts the other in purity of heart and innocency of life And without doubt a pure heart and an innocent life are of higher price with God than the most splendid glittering outward worship whatsoever And some of the heathens themselves thought no less as appears by that of Tully the most excellent pure holy and pious worship of the gods saith he is that we should serve them with a pure sincere and upright mind and voice Now if the spirit be the most excellent part of man and worshipping in spirit be the most excellent kind of worship then certainly it belongs to God and ought to be rendered to him For as he is the donor and Lord of all we have so he is worthy of and looks for whatever is most excellent from us If the first-born he the most excellent he looks for that if our first-fruit be most excellent he looks for that and if there be a male in our flock he looks for that and will not take it well if he be denyed Since then worshipping him in spirit is the most excellent kind of worship we may well make account he expects it from us 4. Because till we worship him in spirit we worship him in vain Though a man spend never so much time and treasure in worshipping God yet if his spirit ingage not in it all is to no purpose Though he should with the Heathen offer whole Hecatombs of sacrifices yet if his spirit concurr not in the work all would be ineffectual This the Scripturs is most clear in witness that of the Prophet Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God shall I come before him with burnt offerings with Calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God The people were convinced that it was their duty to please God but they knew not how to do it They thought great and costly Sacrifices of Calves Rams Oyl and such like things would have done it but the Prophet teaches them another lesson he lets them know that was not the way and withall shews them there was something else which they minded not that was more acceptable to him than any such matters and that was justice mercy and humble walking These he shews were far more pleasing to God than all those Ceremonious and costly Sacrifices they kept such a stir with and put so much confidence it Both the Israelites and jews in the time of their degeneracy were much in external sacrifices and services and what were they better for it O Ephraim saith God What shall I do unto thee for your goodness is as a morning cloud and as the early dew it goeth away What is emptier than the morning cloud and what is lighter than the early dew a blast of wind dispels the one and a beam of the Sun exhales the other How came it to pass then that the goodness of Ephraim and Judah had no more substance and solidity in it why because they rested in their external services and performances not regarding in the mean time that which they should mainly have looked after Nay God doth not only make light account of unspiritual services but he rejects and abhors them as things abominable Bring saith he no more vain oblations incense is an abomination to me Though the Sacrifices they offered him were of his own appointment and typified the death of his Son who was so dear to him yet in regard they proceeded not from the heart but were tendered to him in an hypocritical way he refuses to receive them speaks of them under terms of highest dislike and disdain tells them plainly they were hatefull and loathsome to him And he doth not only reject and abhor such kind of service but severely punishes it For as much saith he as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honour me but have removed their heart far froms me and their fear towards me is taught by the precept of men therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvellous work amongst this people even a marvellous work and a wonder for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid And this truth the modern Jews though a people very prone to rest in outward services do confess and own in an eminent manner Buxtorf saith that upon the very walls of their Synagogue they have this sentence written Prayer without the intention of the mind is like the body without the soul. And Cappellus tells us that in their Euchologium or prayer-book they have this passage to the same purpose Where withall shall I come before his face but with my spirit for nothing is more pretious to a man than his soul And the Papists too for all their peregrinations processions images and gawdy stuff speak after the same manner Estius writing upon the Text saith Our Saviour requires that kind of worship which is most excellent and which is altogether necessary and without which bodily worship is unprofitable and vain Nay the wiser sort of the very Heathens own it Plutarch saith It s incredible that the gods delight in the outward beauty of creatures And if he held that the gods delight not in the outward beauty of creatures we may fairly conclude he also held that they delight not in the outward dress of services when there is nothing of inward affection and devotion It appears then not only from Scripture the sentence whereof is of it self
himself in this place prescribes But to return where I was that Christ in Circumstantials hath left his Church some power is granted but she must take heed lest in the exercising of it she go beyond her limits As she must take heed of neglecting those conveniencies tha◠he does allow her so she must likewise take heed of transgressing her bounds and going too far and that both as to the nature and number of her constitutions As to the nature of them she must if she expect to be obeyed take heed of framing such things as are liable to just exception and imposing them on her members with rigour and severity Christ hath dealt tenderly with her and it may not become her to deal austerely and harshly with them As they on the one hand must remember to shew her filial respect beware of contemning her Authority and not but upon very weighty grounds reject what she recommends to them so she on the other hand must take heed of provoking them to wrath or shewing her self cruel remembring her Authority as some of her wisest Sons have told us is not coercive but directive not imperative but declarative And if it so fall out that some of them refuse to close with or obey any or all of her injunctions she must not presently interpret it a perverse obstinacy against her whiles they are known to be sound in all fundamentals of holy lives and peaceable spirits but fear of offending God whom above all as she her self hath taught them they must labour to please suspecting not only their affection and fidelity to her but the equity of her impositions on them considering her self to be fallible and liable to mistakes as whole multitudes of repealed Canons do abundantly shew And in reference to the number of her constitutions she must take heed of transgressing her bounds that way she must beware of breaking forth into an unbridled licentiousness as the Church of Rome hath done making her members groan and sigh under the multitude of her decrees and impositions As she must take care that those things she frames be requisite and necessary at least innocent and lawful so she must take care they be few in their number lest they become burdensome and take her members of higer and greater matters And when her constitutions are warrantable both in respect of the nature and number of them it is our duty to close with them and we should greatly offend if we should refuse to do it So long as her determinations in particular cases be consonant to the general Rules she is to walk by we must by no means deny our obedience But if she make such constitutions as are unwarrantable for the nature or number of them or both and impose them on us with rigour she must not think it much if we disobey her nay if according to the authority granted us and the trust reposed in us we stand up for our own liberty fit in Judgment upon her and plead with her And so much for the Cautions as also the doctrinal part of this Discourse 6. I am now in the last place in pursuance of the propounded Method to give you the Vses of the point And 1. May be for Information to teach us these two particulars 1. That the Catholick Church is invisible Amongst other points disputed betwixt us and the Papists this is one Whether the Catholick Church be invisible we say it is they say it is not Dr. Whitaker to mention no more hath learnedly and judiciously discussed this point and amongst other Texts which he urges for confutation of them this I am now upon is one His Argument runs thus If that only saith he be the true Catholick Church of Christ that does worship and serve God in spirit and in truth then the Catholick Church is invisible but the former is true and therefore so is the latter And indeed the consequence is evident for such as the worship is such is the Church If the Worship be invisible so is the Church If we see not who they are that worship God in spirit and in truth we neither see which is the true Church for that is 〈◊〉 Worship Christ hath appointed and does enable that Society which is his true Church to worship him with Were the Church a body meerly politick like other incorporated Societies the Papists might upon better grounds tell us it is as visible as the Commonwealth of the Venetians or the Kingdom of France or Spain but it is not so it is as the Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual house standing on a spiritual foundation made up of spiritual materials and govern'd after a spiritual manner Or were it a body meerly Physical they might on better grounds plead for its Visibility but it is not so it is a mystical body and a spiritual body Now that which is spiritual is not the object of sense but faith which is the evidence of things not seen The Church therefore being thus spiritual is not visible to the Eye but credible if I may so speak to the Mind Hence that passage in the Creed I believe the holy Catholick Chruch intimating its certain there is an holy Catholick Church but withal that its invisible Indeed in respect of its accidental and external form it 's visible and as visible as other Societies but in respect of its essential and inward form which is that which gives it its being and is mainly to be looked after it 's altogether invisible To know who they be that profess as Church-Members is easie but to know who they be that believe worship and live as such is not so And thus much Bellarmine grants and what 's this but to grant us all we contend for and say as we do 2. That a ceremonious Worship in the days of the Gospel is utterly unlawful and unwarrantable contrary to the will of God the design of Christ and the nature of the dispensation he hath put his Church under This is Beza's inference To introduce saith he new Figures or any Shaddows into the Church we affirm out of the Word of God who does so expresly condemn all Will Worship and in times past prohibited the bringing of strange Fire to his Altar is wicked audaciousness If it belong to God to prescribe his own Worship and he hath been pleased in his word to do it therein telling us that he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth that is as you have heard with the inner man and in simplicity without the use of ceremonies then to introduce and set up a ceremonious Worship must needs be wicked audaciousness It is no less then an affronting his Majesty a contemning his Authority a resisting of his Will and so no doubt will be interpreted by him Had he only commanded us to worship him in general and left the specification or manner of it to us then we had been
imperfect and finite but when we appear before God and do reverence to him we must do it with apprehensions of eminency and that such as is uncreated perfect infinite There are two dangerous rocks we are apt to dash our selves upon the one is the ascribing to the creature the perfections of God by conceiving of him carrying our selves towards him as God and the other is the ascribing to God the imperfections of the creature conceiving of him and carrying our selves towards him as a creature Now to give to the creature the Prerogative of God and to charge upon God the defects of the creature are equally absurd and dangerous It must therefore be our care that our worship be suitable to the object to which it is tendered That is fit for the Creator that is not fit for the creature and that is fit for the creature that is not fit for the Creator In our worshipping the creature we must take heed of going too far and in our worshipping the Creator we must take heed of falling short As God would not have us give to him the honour he hath allowed the creature so neither will he have us to give the creature that honour he hath reserved for himself but we must give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods If we neglect to worship man we offer violence to the commandments of the second table if God then we offer violence to the commandments of the first To worship God and not man is to overthrow that beautiful and comely order he hath established in the world and to worship man and not God is to deny him that natural right that belongs to him and prefer his own creature before him which must needs be a sin of a very hainous nature We must see therefore that we worship both man and God man with the worshhip belonging to him and God with the worship belonging to him which what it is more particularly is the next thing I am to speak of 2. I am to shew what is meant by worshiping God in spirit For the better understanding whereof let us first enquire what is meant by the simple term spirit For if it be a true rule that the way to finde out the meaning of a complex term is first to take it asunder and seek out the meaning of the simple terms included in it then the way to find out the meaning of the worshipping God in spirit is first to take the clause asunder and seek out the meaning of the simple term spirit We cannot tell what is meant by worshiping God in spirit till we have first found out what is meant by spirit and when we know that we may easily know the other Now the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of various significations too many here to be reckoned up It is a word that the holy Ghost hath made use of to express the highest and eminentest beings in the world There is not any intelligent being whatsoever but it is applyed to it Sometimes it s spoken of God considered both essentially and personally Sometimes of angels both good and bad Sometimes of the soul of man and that not only vital but rational as it comprehends the understanding conscience heart will affections and all the powers thereof And in this last sense that is as it is put for the reasonable soul it uses to be taken when it is mentioned with the service and duty that we owe to God Though the sacred Pen-men put it for several things yet when they joyn it with our duty to God they mean by it the reasonable soul which as it is the interiour so it is the superiour nobler and better part of man whereby only he is capable of knowing God understanding his will and doing him service Witness these passages God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit And I will pray with the spirit And praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit And so our Saviour uses the word in this place by spirit he means the reasonable soul or inner man as it stands in opposition to the body or outward man The meaning then of worshiping God in spirit is this that we must not worship him only with the body or outward man as heathens and hypocrites use to do but with the soul or inner man which is that which he in all holy addresses mainly looks after This I might have been larger on but I shall have occasion to say somewhat of it under the next particular 3. I am to shew you the meaning of worshiping God in truth And of this passage I may say as Maldonate did of another perhaps it had been easier had not men obscured it by their expositions Having perused several writers upon it I find them very different in their apprehensions concerning it Such of their opinions as are most remarkable I shall give you an account of and then recommend to you that which I take to be the true and genuine sense of it 1. Some think that by spirit in this place we are to understand the third person in the Trinity and by truth the second and that to worship God in spirit and in truth is to worship the Father in the Son and the Son in the Holy Ghost which is to worship the whole Trinity This way goes Athanasius but as Tolet the Jesuit saith truly it is difficult to accommodate this to the context Had this been our Saviours meaning he should rather have said they that worship him must worship him in truth and in spirit than as it is here in spirit and in truth But the mistake is evident and therefore I need to say no more of it 2. Others think to worship God in spirit and in truth are one and the same thing that to worship him in spirit is to worship him in truth and to worship him in truth is to worship in spirit and so they will have the one to be an exposition of the other And they say to worship him in spirit and in truth is not to worship him under a visible representation or similitude as if he were a material substance or body For the Samaritans worshipped him under the image of a dove and circumcised their children in the name thereof And so they will have our Saviours words to imply as much as if he had answered the woman thus Thou enquirest of me concerning the true place of worship whether it be mount Garizim or Jerusalem which is a thing now not very material for as much as the time is at hand that the worship of God shall be confin'd to neither of them But there is a greater difference betwixt us then that of place which thou takest no notice of and that is about the object of worship ye worship ye know not what
as by their signification taught moral duties I could instance in several ceremonies that were no more typical than the ceremonies in these times contended for be and yet Christ at his coming abolished them and caused them to be laid aside removing every thing that might hinder the simplicity of that administration he intended to put his Church under And therefore there is no more warrant for the institution observation or imposition of other ceremonies than for those which are typical unless they are such as Christ himself hath appointed But hereby we see what hard shift superstitious men will make before they will yield to the abolishing of those burdensome and sinful innovations they have introduced into the worship of God to the woful depraveing thereof and hindring us of that blessing that otherwise we might expect upon it Yet notwithstanding all their heat and tenaciousness they will grant us this that from these words of our Saviour we may inferr the abrogation of the Jewish ceremonies and that concession is sufficient for our purpose Let those that would have new ones produce their warrant for them Let them shew but as good authority for the institution and observation of them as we can do for the abolition and abrogation of these and we will joyn with them Without question had it been the mind of Christ that his Church under the Gospel should have worshiped him in the use of ceremonies he would either have kept up the old ones or else when he abolished them he would have instituted new but herein setting out what I shall hereafter except he is altogether silent And with this agrees that of Medina In the evangelical law saiâ—h he there were no sacramentals that is ceremonies belonging to sacraments instituted of our Lord Christ because of the dignity and excellency of our sacraments which are so precious that although they were presented to us naked without the props of ceremonies they would yet be worthy of all veneration Now he being faithful in his house and ready to prescribe every thing that might tend to the orderly government and welfare thereof and yet being silent herein may satisfie us it was his pleasure that such kind of worship should cease 6. Others think to worship God in spirit is to worship him with the inner man and to worship him in truth is to worship him not only without the use of such ceremonies as typifie things to come but all other ceremonies whatsoever saving those of divine appointment whether they typifie things to come or things past or present And so they will have the words of our Saviour to the woman to imply as much as if he had said thus You that are Samaritans worship the Father at Garizim and the Jews at Jerusalem and both of you besides your Temples wherein you celebrate your sacred mysteries have many types and figures many shadows and ceremonies but know that now the time of this kind of worship is expired God will have his Church under a new administration and will be worshipped after another manner He hath for many hundred years been worshipped by you at Garizim and by the Jews at Jerusalem and by both of you in the use of many rites and ceremonies but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth c. And this sense as it agrees best with the context so it is that which the most learned judicious and orthodox writers both ancient and modern give of the words Eusebius hath a very remarkable passage Disputing against the Jews and mentioning many eminent persons of the old Testament that worshipped God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as Melchisedeck Noah Enoch Abram Joseph Job and Moses himself in his younger years he saith it is manifest that those blessed men and friends of God did not worship in any certain determinate place neither by symbols and types but as our Saviour and Lord hath said in spirit and in truth The substance of what he saith is this that in the dayes of the Old-testament there were several choice persons famous in their generations that worshipped God without the use of symbols and types and that at the coming of Christ that kind of worship spread throughout all nations according as the Prophets had foretold His words are not to be restrained only to such symbols and types as prefigure things to come though I believe he aimes at such too because he writes against the Jews most of whose symbols and types were of that nature but to be extended to such symbols and types as signifie things either past or present For the better conceiving whereof you are to note that these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ordinarily put not only for figures of things to come but for the signa indicia similitudines imagines figurae or exempla of things whether past or present Briefly his design is to hold forth to the Jews that the worship of those eminent persons before the Law was plain and simple and that the Law whereby another kind of worship was established is abrogated and that it being abrogated it ought to be so now Hereupon he labours to perswade them to lay aside their ceremonies bring back the Worship of God to its ancient spirituality and simplicity and to serve him in that way which their renowned ancestors had formerly done with happy success And that spirit is set in opposition to what is carnal or outward and truth to what is ceremonial or figurative is the opinion of divers others of the Ancients as the Jesuites themselves confess Bellarmine saith it s the opinion of Chrysostome Cyril Euthymius Maldonate goes further and saith it was not only the opinion of them but of Origen Tertullian Hilary Procopius and Theophylact likewise And of the same perswasion are writers of a latter time Bucer saith that even by this one word all use of Ceremonies is taken away Pelican writing on a Levitical law against the Jews symbolizing with Idolaters speaks after this manner God by this one law would have them cast away and abhor what ever had pleased the Gentiles much more care ought Christians to have of this who being taught to worship God in spirit and truth ought first and last to have abhorred the idle unreasonable and deceitful forms and rites of Idolaters And Farel writing to Calvin about a popish fellow whose name was Carolus saith thus when Carolus would obtrude his significations in garments and other Magick like signs we opposed that Christ hath taught us a purer manner of worshipping the Father in spirit and truth without shadows And Gualther speaking of these words of our Saviours saith he teaches that all ceremonies ought now together to be laid aside and that henceforth there needs no disputing about them And with these agree Calvin Beza Pareus Chemnitius Illyricus Melancton Musculus Piscator Rolloc Gomarus Grotius and
thoughts neither are your wayes my wayes saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are higher than the earth so are my wayes higher than your wayes and my thoughts than your thoughts If the thoughts and wayes of a man are so far above the thoughts and wayes of a beast which yet is his fellow creature made of the same elements with him how far must the thoughts and wayes of God needs be above the thoughts and wayes of man We must not measure the nature and will of God by ours that 's an unsafe way but by what he hath revealed of himself in his word wherein he hath made known both his nature and will to us and set down what he will have us to do And therefore since he hath therein declared he will be worshipped in spirit we must without consulting with flesh and blood worship him that way 2. The secret and close enmity that is in them to all divine and spiritual matters Though they are indued with reasonable souls and are thereby capable of conversing with God and holding intercourse with Heaven yet through the miserable depravation that hath seifed upon their natures they are utterly averse to it and all spiritual services The carnal mind saith Paul is enmity against God Carnal men have carnal minds and are for carnal things and have in them an enmity to God Christ and all spiritual services By how much any service is more spiritual by so much they are the more at enmity with it They would rather be dealing with carnal matters though never so base than things spiritual though never so pretious and excellent They would rather with the filthy Swine embrace a dunghill than with the glorious angels hehold the face of God The reasonable soul instead of exercising its authority over the sensitive powers and holding them in subjection do's captivate and inslave it self to them Instead of sublimating and raising them up to high and eminent services it indulges them in their bruitish and boundless extravagancies to the utter indisposing both of it self and them to all spirituall and holy undertakings For the cure hereof we must pray hard to God that he would subdue this enmity of our souls stir up the several faculties thereof to the discharge of their proper functions and cause us to delight in his truth and wayes 3. Their immersing and drowning their souls in the though 〈◊〉 cares of worldly matters The world hath ever since the transgression in Eden and the depravation of our natures thereby been an enemy to God and his kingdom It doth not only intice the hearts of the sons of men from him but doth utterly indispose them for the right serving of him They let out their hearts so much upon it are so far in love with it and so eager in the pursuit of it that when they come to set upon the serving of him they cannot get them off it They can no more remove them than they can remove mountains Or if they can go so far as to hale them into the presence of God yet if Heaven it self lay upon it they cannot keep them one hour there when a man hath been all the week long busie about the world how unfit is he upon the Sabbath day to do any thing for God what a multitude of matters hath he then to review and exercise his thoughts upon He hath ground which he hath purchased to view and oxen which he hath bought to try and multitudes of other matters to look after He can perhaps make shift at the close of the week to loose his hands from the world but he cannot loose his heart from it They are easily taken off it but his heart is not so That goes and takes a view of all the ear hath heard the tongue hath spoken and the hand hath done and passes a judgement upon them all weighing how far they were managed to his credit and advantage and how far not And herein he is so intent that he cannot spare his heart one hour no nor one quarter of an hour for God 〈◊〉 is so common that there is not a man that deals much in the World but his heart will Eccho to what I say and readily assent to it If therefore we would serve God with our hearts we must first disintangle them from the world keep them at a further distance from it and free them from that miserable vassalage and bondage they daily to the unspeakable debasing of them lye in to it 4. Their forgetting that Gods eye is upon them viewing and taking notice of all they do They look after the eyes of men take care to keep their miscarriages from being discerned by them and so secure their reputation with them and in the mean time they forget that there is an all seeing eye upon them that observes all the treacheries backslidings wandrings of their inconstant hearts and weighs every of their actions with all the circumstances belonging to them in a most righteous and unerring ballance And what greater folly can there be than this shall we stand in awe of men and not of God shall we prefer their esteem and acceptance with them before the esteem of God and acceptance with him Is it God that we are to serve or men Is it he that must sit in judgement upon us or they Is it he that must reward us or they If it be he that must do it then le ts henceforth have respect to his eye and see that our services be pleasing to him choose whether they please men or no. With me saith Paul it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of mans judgement Alas what will it avail us to have them think well of us when he thinks ill what will it profit us to be acquitted by them and condemned by him or to be owned by them and rejected by him 5. Their security and want of care and watchfulness over themselves Though they know their souls are treacherous and deceitful and that they are apt to backslide and give them the slip in the service of God yet they will not be got to watch over them but set them at liberty letting them rove and wander up and down whither they please Though they know they have deceived them a thousand times to the losing the benefit of many a pretious ordinance and duty whereby they might have been edified and furthered in the way of God yet they still trust to them letting them take their liberty and do what ever they please Now this is a very unwise course and can lead to nothing but destruction and ruine We must remember what kind of souls we have they are not innocent but sinfull not prone to holy undertakings but greatly averse to them not faithful but treacherous and therefore if we will have them to ingage in the service of God we must watch over them and look to them When ever we set upon duties we must
Cause acknowledging himself unworthy of such a favour To these were it needful I might add the Examples of multitudes more of blessed Saints who cheerfully hazarded all for Christ while they were on Earth and now are receiving their Reward with him in Heaven But the case is so well known that none except such who are strangers in Israel can be ignorant of it and therefore I shall forbear Now things being thus what shall we think of those that make temporal impunity and outward safety their very Rule aiming at it in all their Designs and framing all their Proceedings in a way of subserviency to it They will either continue in their present Religion or part with it either be of one way or another so they may but sleep in a whole skin and preserve themselves from trouble They will dishonour God venture their Souls or do any thing rather than expose themselves to danger If Providence call them to suffer for the Truth they 'l find out an hundred unheard-of impertinent silly distinctions but they 'l evade it When ever their Souls upon any Convictions begin to talk of Suffering they presently take them rebuke them saying as Peter to Christ Be it far from thee this shal not be unto thee Certainly such persons as these are an offence to Christ and savour not the things that be of God but the things that be of Men. And thus I have shewed you both the impediments that hinder men from worshipping God in Spirit and those likewise that hinder them from worshipping him in Truth Let us now see how far we are concerned in them how far they or any of them stand in our way and accordingly let us get them removed The worshipping of God in spirit and in truth is the Worship he would have this he will only accept of and this he will only reward and therefore let us be sure to worship him with this kind of Worship not suffering our selves by any endeavours or means whatsoever to be taken off it It is but a while and Jesus Christ who instituted this Worship will come again and vindicate it against all that oppose it It is but a while and he will come to his Temple whip out the Buyers and Sellers and purge it from the impurities and defilements that cleave unto it It is but a while and he will call all Nations down into the Valley of Decision and there he will plead with the Troublers of his Church and such as have muddied the Waters of his Sanctuary and polluted those Silver Streams with their sinful mixtures and then it will appear whether the outward ceremonious worshipping of God or the worshipping of him in spirit and in truth be the true Worship In the mean time le ts keep close to God study our duty and both cheerfully and constantly notwithstanding all the troubles we may thereby expose our selves to persist in the performance of it Though men frown upon us and threaten us with Censures Imprisonment Banishment Confiscation and all the evil humane might and cruelty can do us yet let 's not be moved but count our selves happy we have an opportunity to do or suffer any thing whereby we may testifie our respect to so good a cause Whose is all we have but Gods and for what end did he put it into our hands but that we should lay it out for him As therefore the primitive Christians sold their Lands and Houses brought the prices thereof and laid them down at the Apostles feet So let us bring our Estates Enjoyments Liberties Lives and all we have and lay it down at the feet of Christ being willing to sacrifice all so we may but further his opposed Interest and bear witness to his despised Truth Bucer in an Epistle to Calvin tells him That there were some that would willingly redeem to the Commonwealth the ancient liberty of worshipping Christ with their very lives True Grace and Christian Zeal are of an heroick nature ready to endure any thing for Christ his Worship and Truth If therefore we will evidence our Grace to be true and our Zeal to be Christian we must be willing to suffer It is a vanity to think of passing to Heaven without suffering the Saints have hitherto found the way thither paved with troubles and we may not think of finding it otherwise now Constantine the Great as piously as wittily told Acesius the Novatian that if he would not take up with Persecution and such like dealing he must provide him a Ladder and climb alone to Heaven Unless we will either be content without Heaven or find some other way to it than the Saints have yet found we must look for troubles They have been found in the way of Heaven hitherto and so they will be to the end of the World If then we will go the way of Heaven let 's make account to meet with them and prepare for them and when they fall upon us let us with all holy submission and Christian cheerfulness undergo them In a word whatever comes of it whether Prosperity or Adversity Liberty or Bonds Life or Death since God hath made it our Duty let us make it our Practise to worship him in Spirit and in Truth FINIS ERRATA In the Margent Page 18. for Judel read Tudel p. 27. f. abrogare r. abrogari p. 36. after fumus add In the Book P. 37. l. 30. for it r. in p 40. l. 1. for should r. would p. 63. l. 4. for tradtion r. tradition p. 64. l. 13. for call r. calls p. 67. l. 15. for higer r. higher Rev. 12. 7. Isa. 53. 10 11. Mat. 4. 25. Mat. 3. 7. Psal. 35. 12. Josh. 24. 1. Mat. 11. 25 Gen. 33. 18. Consentaneum vero cum eo loci habitarit etiam plures puteos fodisse In loc Joseph Antiq Judaic l. 11. c. 8. Graecol p. 382. Epiphan t. t. l. 1. haeres 14. p. 30. Ed. Paris Cunaeus de Rep. Hebr. l. 2. c. 16. p. mihi 208. 2 Kings 17. 25. Deut. 7. 3. Vid. Selden de Iure Nat. l. 2 c. 5. p. 177. Ed. Nov. Joh. 4. 9. Drusius de trib sectis l. 3. c. 11. p. 135. Doct. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est more catellorum ad pedes alicujus tanquam domini totum se prosternere subjectionis gratiâ Vol. 2. de Secund. praecept p. 567. Gen. 17. 3. Ruth 2. â—â— Simplex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 osculari significat amoâ—is aut hono is causâ Exerc. in Gen. 33. 3. Job 31. 27 28. Solent cultores solis luna hâc ceremoniâ c. in loc 1 Kings 19. 18. Hos. 13 2. Non persuadet vir doctus c. Exercit. in Gen. 41. 40. He means Drusius who thought otherwise Psal. 2. 12. Honor omnis qui à religione imperatur aut religione suadente exhibetur alicui dictur aliquando religiosus Amesius de Consc. l. 4. c. 1. p. 161. Gen. 18.