respect to the outward and publick worship of God under the state of the Gospel First Spirit and Truth are not here opposed either to outward bodily worship or to any outward express of any Grace or Virtue And this to a wary ear hath already been concluded by the premises For being I have shew'd unto you how the Question between the Samaritan and our Saviour was about two Worships one false and the other gross one Idolatrous and the other Legal one by the Jew to the true God the other by the Samaritan to they knew not what To these two Worships our blessed Lord and Master in the Text opposeth these two Spirit and Truth To the Gross Legal and Jewish way of worship to that he opposeth the Spirit To the False Idolatrous and Samaritan way to that he opposeth the Truth So that to worship in Spirit and in Truth is no more according to the Letter than onely thus The hour is coming and now is when the Law shall give way to the Gospel Moses to Christ the Jewish worship which was then by Bullocks Goats and Lambs to a spiritual worship which shall require no such Sacrifice no such Oblations And in order to the Samaritan thus The time is coming and Now is when ye shall be better informed in the word of Truth when ye shall know what to worship and then you shall finde neither Gerasin to be the place nor what ye now worship to be the Object For the true worshippers they shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth So that by spirit and truth there is nothing stands here excluded but either worshipping the wrong object as did the Samaritan or the right Object the wrong way as the Jews do even to this very day Hugely then are they mistaken who conceit to worship in spirit is a discharge to bodily or outward worship when the opposition and the discharge it onely is against Mosaick and Samaritan against Legal and against Idolatrous worship Yea so far was our Saviour in those words from excluding bodily and outward worship that those who know any thing of the Greek know he here useth a word so proper to bodily and outward expression that the spirit alone cannot do it The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth an outward prostration and a lowly humbling of the Body so that the true Worshippers of the Father when in a godly sear and with a religious reverence they bow down and humble their Bodies before him they then do what the Text requires they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They do worship in spirit yea and in truth too And As the Spirit is not opposed to bodily worship so neither is it to any outward and exteriour evidence or express of any Grace or Virtue For to forbid Grace or Virtue to shew forth it self were to take splendour from Light and to restrain the exercise of all inward Pieties Indeed if we closely consider of the Mosaick and outward worship of the Jews to wit Sacrifice Oblations Incense and the like these were not accounted the visible expressions of any inward Grace Nor were these the outward Acts of any interiour Piety but those were the shadows of things to come and the representative Types of what was substantially to be verified when the Gospel came and therefore no wonder if spirit and truth both stand opposed to these But bodily expressions and outward Gestures Signes and Ceremonies under the Gospel these are the outward Evidences of inward Graces the outward Manifestations of inward Pieties As devoutly to frequent Christian Churches and to be present at the publick Worship it is an outward expression of an inward Grace to wit of Christian Religion for hereby we declare our selves such who profess to worship the Father and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent To profess with the Mouth it is an outward expression of an inward Faith To confess our sin is an outward expression of an inward penitence To humble our selves lowly upon our Knees an outward express of an inward Reverence To receive the Sacrament an outward express of an inward Piety So that if Spirit and Truth stood opposed to these there could be no visible Religion nor no outward godliness in the world And this properly leads to the Second Proposition which is to shew A publick worship in spirit without truth the outward expression cannot be Now that I say a publick Worship it is no more than my Text requireth For the whole difference between our Saviour and the Samaritan it was not you have seen about inward or private but meerly about outward and about publick worship for Gerasin and Jerusalem they were the seat of publick worship Whereas then our Saviour speaking to the point of publick worship plainly averréth that even that shall be in spirit and in truth it even hence inevitably followeth that Spirit and Truth cannot here stand opposed to Visible Bodily and exteriour worship For if there must be under the Gospel a publick Worship and that worship must be in spirit and in truth Outward Visible and Bodily expressions they cannot here be inhibited for they must be the publishers of all religious and all interiour worship For 1 Cor. 2. 11. No man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him Suppose a man to have within him all the graces of the Gospel no man can know this so long as they onely are within him for the inward or reserved things of man knoweth no man save the spirit of a man which is within him If then the graces of the Gospel was either given to edisie others or to glorisie God both these require they be not kept within and therefore Spirit without Truth or inward conceptions without outward expressions they will never do the work of God By worship then in Spirit and Truth we must here understand a compleat Worship that is the worship of the whole Man Spirit and Truth that is both For as the outward without the inward is meer Hypocrisie even so the Spirit without Truth the Minde without the Members will make but an halting and an halving Sacrifice Yea in publique to worship in Spirit without manifestations of that Spirit it is both a scandalous and an incredible worship For as we cannot reasonably believe that man is sober in spirit whose Body reels vomits and staggers before our Eyes and as we cannot reasonably believe him honest at Heart who we see deceitful in Weights and Measures nor him charitably minded who we hear reviling cursing and defaming his Neighbour So neither can any man reasonably believe that that man is devout in Spirit who is rude in Body that that man is full of fear within who is full of sauciness without that that man doth Reverence in Spirit who hath nothing of Reverence in the outward gesture So that Spirit and Truth seem to me like the outward Expression to the inward Meaning for if the
outward Expression be not answerable to the inward Meaning if we think one thing and say another though we say better than we think there is no sincerity nor truth in what we say Even so here if we pretend in Spirit to have in us the dreadful apprehension of our God when in outward appearance we shew nothing less if this be to worship in Spirit it is not it cannot be in Truth For the signes of Fellowship of Familiarity and of Boldness they can no more be the true expressions of the inward apprehension of Majesty Terrour and an infinite Distance than can Vomiting be of Sobriety outward Cheating of inward Honesty Railing and Wronging of inward Charity For they who know any thing of Truth cannot but know that Truth in general is nothing else but an outward Conformity to the inward Apprehension a real Evidence and Interpreter of the inward meaning And therefore wheresoever the outward conformity is not answerable to the inward conception and the outward Demeanour is not proportionable to the Spirit that acts within let people pretend what height and holiness of Spirit can be imagined Spirit and Truth are never evidenced in God's Worship or which is all one to God's honour and glory unless the outward Demeanour be proportioned to the inward Spirit and the Spirit within be really conformed to his Greatness 1 Cor. 14. St. Paul speaking of a Christian convert whose Spirit was touched with the Greatness Goodness and the Glory of his God tells us so active and powerful was the inspired Spirit that it inforced a manifestation of the truth of it for Falling down on his face he worshipped God Now without peradventure had those who pretend to have the most holy and best spirits such a feeling and real sense of the Goodness Greatness and the Glory of God as had the Convert Even they as well as he would fall upon thier Faces or at least in God's publick Worship give some more probable and better evidence that they fear God and that they are before him but as Dust and Ashes for if the spiritual man is the greatest discerner if he is most sensible of what a God he serves certainly then either there is no truth in him or he is the most devout and the humblest worshipper in the world Amongst us men in case God should sensibly reveal himself and manifest himself to the Eye as in the Bush to Moses or in the habit of the Captain of an Hoast to Joshua or in Thundring and Lightening upon mount Sinai In such a case as this I believe very few if any but would say we were bound to worship and in pursuance of that worship to humble our Bodies to fall upon our Faces and even ontwardly to use the utmost reverence that we could And here I have a special Appeal to those who themselves confessing are in the religious attendance of their God put on their Hata To them I appeal whether if the Great God even now should at this instant break in upon them and shew himself as I have already said as terrible as upon mount Sinai or in a flaming Bush or but as he did to Joshua with a Sword in his Hand I desire such to consider whether such an Apparition or such a Manifestation would not not onely move but hasten them to throw off their Hats to fall upon their Knees yea prostrate on their Faces Now then if it be so I beseech you let us calmly consider what is the solemn real and serious bottom or motive for which we ought to give unto our God all Glory Honour Reverence and Worship Is it Visibility or is it Sight If so then none are bound to Reverence Worship Kneel or fall down before him but those onely who see him with their Eyes and behold him as a thing sensible whereas God himself hath told us Exod. 33. 21. There shall no man see me and live The ground then Foundation and Motive to glorifie and worship God it is not in Sense but in Faith it is not the seeing but the believing the Glory Majesty Dominion Power and Greatness of our God that should move Christians to fear adore and worship And therefore if we believe God to be in Heaven as glorious as the Angels see him as terrible as the Damned finde him or as dreadful as he appeared upon Mount Sinai If we believe him to be a God mighty in Power glorious in Majesty and that God who is to be feared above all Gods In the Name of that God I beseech you let us but manifest that Faith and my Text is done for so to do doubtless is to worship the Father both in Spirit and in truth Matth. 18. 20. Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them Our Saviour did not say there you shall behold or see me yet he positively said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There am I. Now being God will be worshipped where he is not seen let us but so pray so praise so sing so worship where he is though not seen as if we did see him we believe we ought there would never be any further dispute or demur about outward Worship For the Spirit of God and Truth are in such a perfect union that he who worships in Spirit that is in the due Faith and fear of God he will be devout he will be humble he will by a meet demeanour and outward deportment shew the reality and truth of such a Spirit for such cannot but conclude the truth No publick Worship can or ought to be in Spirit onely Thirdly The Christian practise of worshipping God by Adoration and Liturgies demonstrates that they held that way the way of worshipping God in spirit and in truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adoratio or as we render it Worship it is taken either in Abstracto or in Concreto as the School that is either for an Act of it self or as in Conjunction with some other Christian-duty Matth. 4. When the Devil made his last assault upon our Saviour he did require neither Prayer nor Praise nor Sacrifice nor Oblation onely thus said Vers 9. All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me He onely required an outward act of Worship abstracted from all Duty Whence it appears to me that Adoration or Worship abstractly considered when it onely imports God's Majesty and our Distance even thus and no more it is of great account with God Almighty or else the subtile Devil would never have attempted by a single act of Adoration to have robbed the World of a Redeemer by thus doing to make the Saviour of Mankinde a Sinner But by Worship in the Text we are not to understand Worship in the Abstract but as going along with other Duties such as make up Christian Worship Now that it may appear that unless the Christian Church for of Schismatical and Fanatick spirits unless by pity
honour I have reviewed the thing and finde that what is Truth and Reason it will still be so change the state and condition of Seculars how they please So that look what in the days of Tryal they then did no other in these better days do they seem to me And what to me that also they appear to some so candidly judicious that upon their account and as they conceive for the good of others they again shew themselves not so much because strong but because short and plain and ad Captum vulgi and to their capacity who most need them it being thought by some that what was writ and published when the Liturgie like Christianity in the days of St. Paul was every where much spoken against that will be much sooner heeded than what hath been published since our Form of Worship hath been like the rising Sun either for the Beauty or Necessity of it received at most hands For to receive it now may be gain but to retain it then had more of godliness But as the Apostle of the Gospel the same may I say of the Liturgy whether in pretence or truth it is now used I do therein rejoyce and will rejoyce for I know this may turn to the salvation of many by the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ which being the spirit of Wisdom and Holiness will much more certainly accompany a well-digested Form than a sudden Rapsody in as much as Consideration and Prudence approach nigher to Holiness and Wisdom than rashness basty and inconsiderate Effusions One pretending to pray in my sequestred Pulpit is said to say O Lord get up upon thine Horse and make haste into Ireland or thou wilt lose more honour there than ever thou gotst in England He certainly had less of the spirit of Prayer than he who shall devoutly read the meanest of our Collects And it is very well known if it were worth the while to shovel up such Dunghils we might present the World with an huge heap of such unsavory Profanations and therefore except the madness of the people and the upholding of their Credits who have thus dishonoured God I cannot imagine what should hinder as universal joy that Forms are established and Ministers confin'd to pray with the Spirit and with the Understanding also For if St. Paul did wisely well when he preferred five Words spoken with the understanding before ten thousand in an unknown Tongue certainly it is as proportionably true to say A Prayer of five Lines deliberately made understandingly penn'd and devoutly offered is to be preferred before an whole hour of that which neither Speaker nor Hearer can give any tolerable repetition or account of Some whom I have lately treated with are come to this Truely they like the Prayers and wish there were no worse made but the Imposition that Christians should be under penalties compelled to be present at these Prayers that they like not Now for their sakes who make this Objection I must needs and especially to them remember that when the Lords and Commons acting both without and against their King were doing as the godly Ministers and Party then hoped their work then even they now Enemies to Imposition were by them stiled Custodes vindices utriusque Tabulae Not onely Gods Ministers but Gods Avengers Then it was lawful for their Magistrates in matters of Religion and Worship to Impose and if not obeyed to Dispose even of all men had Thus thought the Worthy that I have to deal with for Mr. Marshall in a Sermon upon Psal 102. v. 16 17. thus Those in Authority in things of this life may command and act ad Modum imperii by way of imposing in matters of Religion And a little after As Josiah put to death those that followed Baal so may the Parliament those that will not return to the Lord and leave Antichristianism In the year 1647 I have the testimony of many persons of Quality then Prisoners in the Tower who after an hundred Sollicitations but to have Bread out of their own Estates received from a Chair-man this Answer He would famish them into the taking of the Covenant and Negative Oath In the Articles for which I loft my Livelyhood a grand Charge is the refusal of the Directory Now if it were lawful for usurping Powers to oblige under the severity of undoing to be present at no man knew what at such Prayers as could neither be considered on nor reviewed Certainly then à Fortiori it is much more lawful for a legal and undoubted Authority to exact our presence at a Form which may be both seen and read and examined before men approach to make or give consent to the oblation of it And indeed not to make a business of this pretence it is undoubtedly clear that no party in Authority but did impose and did exact a Conformity to their Imposition Witness the Protestation the Covenant and the Engagement All Forms Humane Forms and such as have neither Command nor Example in the Book of God Yea they were Forms Contradictory and gain-saying each the other And yet whosoever refused any one of them he was proceeded against as disaffected to the present Government and by consequent unworthy to enjoy his own Bread Nor do I believe there can be found so great a difference between a Vow in Form and a Prayer in Form that it shall be lawful for Vsurpers to impose the one and unlawful for the legal and loyal Magistrate to impose the other So that refusal of the Common-prayer meerly upon the account of Imposition it seems to carry a greater measure of stomack than Conscience in it And thus thought Mr. Calvin or else he would never have writ to the Protector in the first of Edw. the sixth as in the Title-page That he exceedingly approved a set Form both of Prayer and Ecclesiastical Rituals and would have it such as no Pastor might recede from And for proof of it in England I shall onely relate what hapned some nine years after and may be read in the 1531 Page of the old and unpurged Edition of The Book of Martyrs of John Careless a Coventry-Confessor who to Dr. Martin thus The second Edition speaking of the Common-prayer of Edw. 6. is good and godly and in all points agreeing to the Word of God And then infra I will adde thus much more That the same Book which is so consonant and agreeable to Gods Word being set forth by common Authority both the King's Majesty that is dead and the whole Parliament-house ought not to be despised of me or of any other private man under pain of God's curse and high displeasure and Damnation except they repent April 25 1556. See here one ready to go to the Stake being as himself writes proclaimed Heretick at Paul 's Cross makes such a conscience of obeying the Authoritative Imposition of the Common-prayer-book that he professeth Nor he himself and will these Exceptors say he had
all the world Quae ad ordinem spectant ut precum formulae disposuit Apostolus Those things which appertain to order as do forms of Prayer the Apostle himself appointed and disposed So that set Forms in the judgement of M. Beza are Apostolical The English Translation reads it thus Such things as appertain to Order and Form of Prayers and other such like the Apostle took order for in the Congregation according to the consideration of times places persons 1 Cor. 11. 39. Yea after the great Reformer Martin Luther had a while tried what it was to want a set Form himself professeth lib. de Formula Missae coactus sum I am constrained observe by what and to what constrained he was alios Canones aliamque Missandi Formulam prescribere to prescribe fresh Canons and another form of Mass And if you please to observe by what he was constrained his words are Propter leves fastidiosos spiritus qui sola Novitate gaudent atque statim ut Novitas desiit nauseantes By reason of light and humorous spirits who onely delight in Novelty nauseating what themselves liked when it ceaseth to be new A humour which the first Zeal of our times did not digest and therefore whether I appeal to Beza or the more eminent Luther still a set Form A set Form according to Beza's note because Apostolical A set Form according to Luther because woful and extavagant experience demonstrated the necessity of it No curb for fastidious and rambling spirits but a set Form Fourthly The want of set Form prevents that which I am bound for to endeavour the conversion and communion of the adverse party for either I must perswade them to worship God according to my discretion and rely upon the implicite faith of my prudence or else I must produce a Form in which I desire their communion and to which I must endeavour their conversion Now I believe all those who renounce an implicite faith in the whole Church or in the Representative of it all such I say at least will abhor so far to resigne themselves unto a private Minister as to worship God all days of their lives according to his mutable dictate I am sure the Papists will say this is worse than what we call Popish servitude for they are bound onely to believe and serve God as the Church orders but where all is left to the will of the Minister people are bound to worship and serve God as his private spirit leads them and I wish I could not feelingly say even from follies vented in my own Pulpit what an Ignis fatuus that is Lastly To avoid prolixity for my own particular should I renounce a set Form I must needs profess my self guilty either of Superstitious Innovation or which in materia Religionis is bad enough popular insinuation First That to worship God without a Form is Innovation this the whole Christian world will attest unto me the Eastern and Western Churches Wittemberg where Luther Geneva where Calvin Scotland where Knox flourished and to innovate and act against a Catholick Custom of Christendom of the whole Christian world may breed a scruple in a wise much more in a weak Christian Secondly As Innovation so it would seem to me unavoidable superstition and that whether Superstition be positively or negatively considered for Superstition being positively considered being the issue of misgrounded Zeal this superstition is active in the production of superstitious performances whereof this is one to conceive that God will be pleased with no prayer from me unless of my own conception nor no devotion unless it be of our own invention this I say is the superstitious issue of a misguided zeal Again as misguided zeal is the Mother of superstitious performances even so ignorant fear is the motive and cause of superstitious forbearances as when one vainly fears and in that fear refrains such an act as displeasing which indeed is rather pleasing to Almighty God Touch not taste not bandle not these are negative superstitions issues of ignorant fear And so far as I can conceive scrupulously to reject or lay aside set Forms as superstitious is out of ignorant fear really and actually to commit pardon the phrase a negative superstition Thirdly Again should I not superstitiously which as drawing nigher Religion is more honest of the two lay aside a set Form I cannot imagine any other principle but popular insinuation to move me to it and to make that a motive in Religion scarce appears to me religious Omnia ponenda post Religionem nostra Civitas duxit If the Pagans had so much Divinity as to say it was a Law in their City that all things whatsoever must give way unto Religion certainly it behoveth me who am a Christian in matter and point of Religion to look upon nothing through a carnal or secular Perspective Now to me and with me runs the whole current of Antiquity set Forms of Prayer and Worship they are the most religious and assured means either to preserve or advance Religion The scruple then is whether any of my judgement and perswasion may for any popular or secular end in the world and for that end merely lay aside a better and assume in God's worship a worse way whether this be not having a Male in my Flock to offer unto God a Female judge you That blessed speech of Sir Benj. Ruddierd to Mr. Rym He that thinks to save any thing by his Religion but his Soul will be a terrible loser in the end It is worthy to be written in letters of gold yea worthy to be engraven in the Heart of every Parliament-man that sits it is indeed a saying that hath so far prevailed on me that I begin extremely to question the truth of that vulgar opinion that the Worship and Government of the Church of Christ are so left as to be accommodated to the proportionable exigences of States and Kingdoms For my particular I conceive the glory of God attended municipal Laws ought rather to stoop than they to strain for Religion is so tender a Virgin that she may not admit the least prostitution and I am sure a conscientious breast feareth to rumple her very ornaments Whereas then to worship God without a set Form seems to me destructive of the form of sound words which charily must be preserved a worship more careless than what Pagans used an Innovation which takes away the very ground and basis of conversion and communion with an adverse party whereas it would be in me either Superstition or Popularity to desert a set Form I must crave leave to follow these Dictates till I have better premises given me from which I may conclude otherwise And so I shall desire your patience to accompany me to my last endeavour which is to shew that I cannot with a good conscience renounce or as yet lay aside this our individual Liturgy and that for these reasons 1. It maketh our Religion to be
we are to take no notice by a Worship in Spirit and Truth and by worshipping the Father understood worshipping in a Form for Father implies a Form and by publick Liturgies let us a little survey their Piety and their Prayers First Our blessed Lord and Master who gave this rule he himself exemplified what he gave for the exact Pattern and the very Basis of all Gospel-worship is Pater Noster Our Father The Apostolical Symbol the Canon and Square of all the Professions of our Faith it begins Credo in Deum Patrem I believe in God the Father Confession of sins as the words were by our Saviour put into the mouth of the penitent Prodigal it is an address unto the Father I will go to my Father c. And Father I have sinned against heaven and against thee The Sacrament of Initiation or first admittance into the mystical Communion it is confined to this rule In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Yea when the Church in humble thankfulness returneth Praise and Glory unto God for all his benefits it is done as becomes true Worshippers by worshipping the Father and by saying Glory be to the Father and to the Son c. And as for the Church of England is not every Collect a most exact Gospel-worship Almighty and most merciful Father begins our Confession Almighty God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ begins our Absolution Then the Prayer of the Son unto his Father And the Close of every Collect is through Jesus Christ which is still an implication of the Father So that according to this rule the true Worshippers shall worship the Father Who can be truer Worshippers than that Church all whose publick Prayers are Addresses and Acts of worship to the Father And as for Spirit and Truth had it been inconsistent with publick and outward Worship or with Form then St. Paul would never have writ to Timothy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Prayers should be not onely said but made for Kings and all that are in Authority St. James the Brother of our Lord he had scornfully and ignominiously been termed Jacobus Liturgus James the Liturgist had set Forms been inconsistent with Spirit and truth Justine Martyr he would never have spoken of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Common-prayers nor Ignatius before him of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one Prayer had it been a stinting of the good Spirit to have a Liturgy or a Common-prayer Yea there would have been no Churches to have worshipped God in no publick Assemblies to have worshipped there nor indeed no use at all of our Bodies in order to God's glory if Spirit and Truth concluded against outward worship Whatsoever then the antient Churches understood by Spirit and Truth they did not understand an opposition either to bodily or to outward worship For that which is held the best Interpreter of Scripture to wit Praxis Ecclesiae the Church-Practice you see it doth evince the contrary for they had Churches they had known and set Forms for publick worship Yea Beza himself in his smaller Notes thus Quae ad Ordinent spectant ut precum formulae disposuit Apostolus Those Decencies which appertain to Order as Forms of Prayer the Apostle himself prepared and disposed By Spirit and Truth then we may very well here understand a worshipping of the Father according to those measures which the Spirit Light and Grace of the Gospel prescribeth and alloweth to us By Truth we may understand such outward expressions and manifestations as are proportionable to such a Spirit to such Light to such Grace for so by their unanimous and constant practice the primitive and best Churches understood it Lastly therefore give me leave in a word to shew how much it concerns us to give all due regard and respect to the outward and publick Worship of God under the state of the Gospel The Servants of God under the Gospel they are stiled by our Saviour Veri Adoratores the true Worshippers not the unsatiable Hearers Now it seems strange to me that Christians should emphatically be called the true Worshippers and yet many make no account at all of Evangelical Worship as if God did not as much regard the honour done unto his Person as he doth the bare hearing and listening to his Word Or as if Pray continually and Continue in prayer sounded not as much duty as doth Be instant in season and out of season By Evangelical Worship I understand Prayers Supplications and giving of Thanks confession of Sin profession of Faith making and performing of Vows oblation of Praise singing of Hymns and Psalms reception of Sacraments Adoration either with or without these So that the Father is then worshipped in Spirit and in Truth when there is a reverential address or a religious performance of all or any of these before him so that we cannot come under the honourable Appellative in the Text Veri Adoratores true Worshippers unless we outwardly and publickly even thus assemble for to worship Esay 66. 23. the Evangelical Prophet speaking of Gospel-days thus writes All flesh shall come to worship before me saith the Lord. To worship is not to clap on our Hats and sit on our Seats to hear a Sermon but to perform some act of honour some humble office some such religious Duty the reverence whereof may shew forth our distance and the Father's glory the performance whereof may move all who see it say These men are in the presence and before their God These men know what they worship These men have the Fear and Apprehension of a glorious Majesty before their eyes For being the great designe of God in all his works is the setting forth of his own Glory Worship it is the very immediate tendency to that great end For they that worship it is their actual employment to set forth his praise and to magnifie him under some glorious Attribute or other So that indeed between Hearing and Worshipping there is as much difference as between Hearing and Doing For Hearing being but a disposition to Doing Worship is the very practice Doing and actual Advance of God's honour and therefore a Duty not to be laid aside nor so coolly frequented and performed as by too too many He who in the second Commandment said Thou shalt not bow down to them or worship them He who forbids Sacrisice and Prayers and Praises yea the very bowing of the Body to false Gods doth not in so doing imply less than a reservation of this Worship to himself And therefore to him who is the everliving God and the everlasting Father to him we must ascribe and give the Glory the Honour and the Worship that evangelically is due unto him for the true Worshippers are in all duty bound to worship the Father and to worship him in Spirit and Truth Hos 6. 6. I desired mercy and not sacrisice and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings