included in this reproof of the Samaritans and commendation of the Jewes Ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship To transgresse this rule and to take in any device of men in Gods worship doth in so farre make the true God an Idol as to imagine him to be such a one as will accept of such false worship 2. Christ as he took on the forme of a servant is content to rank himself with the true Church as a member to teach all to esteeme highly of such a society We saith he know what we worship 3. Not onely is worship devised by men not warrantable but it is not the way to heaven seeing there can be no salvation but in Gods institute way And the case of these who follow devised worship is so much the more dangerous if they want also the doctrine of salvation in matters of faith and manners Both these are included in this reason for salvation is of the Jewes that salvation was to be found in that Church their way of worship being appointed and approven of God and the saving doctrine and oracles of God concerning faith worship and manners being also committed to them and among them 4. It was the special priviledge of the Jewes and a testimony of Gods approving of them as his Church that the Saviour of sinners was to come of them and the doctrine of salvation pointing him out to sound from among them in all the earth so much also doth this reasoning import as hath beene explained Verse 23. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth Christ returneth to enlarge and explain his first assertion and sheweth what is to come in place of the Jewish worship to be abolished to wit that the time was even at hand wherein not onely there should be no distinction of place or Nations in the matter of worship but in place of carnal and typical worship performed by the Jewes in one place all true worshippers in every place should worship in spirit and truth For which he giveth two reasons first that God requireth such worship secondly that this is most agreeable and pleasing to his spiritual nature As for these two properties of worship in spirit and truth they must be taken in opposition to the properties of the former worship and so they come to one in substance that in stead of external ceremonies which are called carnal Heb. 7.16 and 9.10 and shadowes Heb. 10.1 the Lord would have a spiritual worship and the truth of what was represented by these shadowes as Rom. 12.1 Heb. 13.15 16. And this agreeth well with the reasons subjoyned for however the Lord did require and was pleased with these external formes in the infancie of the Church yet he never did accept of them save in so farre as they led to this which is so agreeable to his nature and were not rested on by the worshipper But we may further extend these properties not onely to the matter of worship but to the manner of it also that the Lord who is a Spirit doth require that lawful worship should be performed in spirit as opposite to a formal way of worship and in truth as opposite to hypocrisie Not that God did approve of the want of these before but that by the removal of these external rites wherewith worshippers were much taken up and which the best saw not clearly enough through he was to discover this way more fully and make them more free to attend it and by pouring out of his spirit he was to work it more generally Doctr. 1. The correction and reformation of the worship of God was reserved for the dayes of the Gospel and to be brought about by Christ Therefore saith he the hour cometh and now is when this change shall be He saith Now is either because it was instantly approaching at his death or because he was even now beginning this reformation by his Ministry 2. They who professe themselves worshippers of the true God ought to performe it with humble and affectionate reverence and with subjection and submission to him considering his majesty and their owne vilenesse for so much doth the word rendered worshippers import being a similitude taken from dogs fawning and casting themselves down at their Masters feet 3. Albeit all who professe the true God and are not avowed Atheists will have some sort of worship yet all of them will not be found true and approven worshippers either for matter or manner Therefore are some called true worshippers by way of distinction from others 4. The true worship of God under the Gospel doth not consist in the external pomp of ceremonies and observations but is spiritual simple and substantial for they shall worship the Father in spirit and truth not in carnal shadowes which if being Gods own Ordinance yet did take up worshippers so through their own weaknesse as oft-times to keep them from minding this spiritual worship how much more may it be expected that the more external pomp there be of mens devising there will be the lesse spiritual truth 5. It is not sufficient to make an approven worshipper that they do not multiply rites and ceremonies but their worship must be chiefly inward flowing from grace engaging the heart in Gods service and from the breathing and influence of the spirit not resting on an external forme of lawful worship or any bodily exercise about it So much also are we taught from this that worship must be spirit or spiritual for the manner of performance as well as for its nature in it self 6. God requires also in a worshipper that with avoiding of formality which is but a deceitful hypocritical shew of worship he studies sincerity and streightnesse of heart not dealing negligently or for by-ends in Gods service for worship must be in truth 7 It is the Lords will and appointment alone that can give a being to true worship and to this must all our reasonings about this matter be subject And therefore his enjoyning of spiritual substantial and sincere worship should commend it to his people So much doth the subjoyning of this reason for the Father seeketh such to worship him teach 8. All the true worship that God gets is of his own seeking and procuring and having wrought it he takes pleasure in it So much also may his seeking such import that he sent Christ to make a conquest of spiritual worshippers and seeketh such as being these he delighteth in 9. God in his nature is a most pure and simple substance free of all mixture and composition and infinite in perfections and he is to be conceived of spiritually avoiding all carnal and grosse conceptions for so much are we taught God is a Spirit infinitely above Angels or spirits of men who yer
the visible Church and professors are either idle or out of their way and in their greatest throng are but labouring in the very sire for vanity If we look upon the most part of those we will finde that being ignorant of their true good or not giving credit to what is revealed in the Word concerning it they do spend their strength in seeking after any good yea or any shew of it that hereby they may deceive and full themselves asleep and take the best course they can to skin over these wounds grievances and discontents which do attend miserable and fallen man the perfect cure whereof is onely to be found in Jesus Christ And that by seeking more then is to be expected in and from the creature they do not onely misse of their aime but deprive themselves of that good they might finde in the right use of the good creatures of God all the dayes of their life But it may further be regrated that the abuse of this mercy is more universal then that onely such should be charged with it Sad experience doth testifie how truly the Apostle did give warning that in the last dayes vilest abominations should mask themselves under a forme of godlinesse denying the power thereof 2 Tim. 3.1 2 3 4 5. and since the profession of Religion hath been in any reputation among us how frequently do we find men make use of a pretence of piety to render their vilest errors plausible Yea to carry on their selfish and carnal designes Whence it is come to passe that innocent and lovely holinesse suffers for their sake and the Name of God is blasphemed and holinesse so generally stumbled at through them Beside If we look upon those who fear God indeed How sadly may it be lamented that they are idle and turned off from their great work to needlesse diversions and distractions And among those who are most busie How few are to be found who follow a right method in their walking Many do covet more after what is adorning then after what is saving Some do earnestly desire after satisfaction to their sense in the wayes of God without acquainting themselves with the solid way of living by faith Some do habituate themselves to a trade of discouragements under which after they have wrestled awhile with anxieties and bitternesse they fall faster asleep in security then if they had a Delilah in their bosome And generally That Summary description of a Gospel way held out by the Apostle Phil. 3.3 is but the practice of very few Men do not worship God in the Spirit because they learn not to rejoyce in Christ Jesus and this they study not because they are not put from all confidence in the flesh or in any thing beside Christ And if they would begin at having no confidence in the flesh and look upon their being emptied of all things as a â—all not onely to close with but to rejoyce in Christ and his imputed righteousnesse they would finde vertue flowing from him daily to enable them to worship God in a lively and spiritual way and to order their conversation as becometh the Gospel As these considerations serve exceedingly to commend the patience and long-suffering of God who hath not removed his Candlestick from us notwithstanding our not walking in the light and our abuse of corrections which have been sent to chasten us for not entertaining the offer of salvation and to quicken us in our Christian course And as they ought to excite all in their stations to mourn before the Lord and to stand in the gap to make up the breach and Ministers in particular to be instant in season and out of season if so be there may yet be a returning to him who smiteth and we may become an afflicted and poor people trusting in the name of the Lord and he may delight in us and call us Hephzi-bah and our Land Beulah So it also hath prevailed with me to contribute my mite in this publick way beside my ordinary weak travels in my charge and to make offer of this Exposition on that rich Treasure of the Gospel written by John A subject though handled by me briefly and in much weaknesse full of the substance and marrow of Religion tending as John himself giveth an account of his scope in it Chap 20. 31 to point out Christ the true remedy for sinne in his person and offices and to direct us how to attaine salvation through faith in him Which being to come to publick view I have made bold to present it to the world under your Honourable Names and to joyne you together in this Dedication whom God hath conjoyned in the strict bond of nature which is daily confirmed by that mutual respect tendernesse and affection which You bear one toward the other It is not much my way and I know Your Honours do not expect it that I should stuffe this Application with large commendations of You or with acknowledgments of your respects to my self and Your kindnesses towards others of my Relations My great scope in it is As to encourage You in the good way wherein both Your Honours are engaged in Your several measures So to excite and engage You yet more to emprove Your eminency as You are or may be capable of this service for the advancement of Christs interests in this back-sliding and degenerate time Not that Christ needeth any such help who by weak things can confound the mighty and by things that are not bring to naught things that are But that it is Your own true honour and interest not to be among those Nobles of Tekoa who put not their necks to the work of the Lord but to subject Your selves unto him and lay out Your selves in Your stations for promoving his Kingdome and the advancement of piety and the work of the Gospel As for your Honour my Lady Weems all the lovers of Christ in Scotland do with thankfulnesse remember their obligations to Your late Father The Right Honourable Earle of Rothes of precious memory whom the Lord raised up to be a prime Instrument in the late Reformation and who spent himself till his last breath in that publick service And those who know Your Ladiship best will bear witnesse that you have endeavoured in your Sphere to trace his steps not onely in Your private and secret practice but in your open countenancing and encouraging of godlinesse and honest Ministers of the Gospel at all occasions Wherein I trust You shall be helped to persevere and abound unto the end Your Honour hath received many favours from the Lord particularly that he hath made you a joyful Mother of children who are the Lord continuing their life for which I pray to succeed in several Honourable families of the Land beside those of them who are or may be placed in other families by marriage Which I doubt not You look upon as a strong obligation to lay forth Your self that they may prove friends to
on truths side against all delusions and be made partakers of the sweet refreshments that flow therefrom Therefore it is held out as a rich encouragement ye shall know the truth 12. Proficiency in knowledge and the effects thereof is not only beleevers dutie which they should labour for but it is Gods promiâ—e to work it who should be depended on for that effect for it is his promise to true disciples ye shall know the truth 13. Whatever be the weaknesse ignorance and wants of weak beginners and how little soever refreshment they finde in the truths of the Gospel Yet by perseverance and continuance all this will be helped and they will still know more and more of the truth and the consolations thereof for If ye continue ye shall know the truth 14. Since the â—all of Adam there is no man but â—e is bâ—â—n a spiritual slave without freedome under the dominion and power of sinne and Satan and under the curse of the Law for so is here imported in that they need to be made free 15. Such as do embrace Christ and persevere in obedience to his Word albeit they be not loosed from that due subjection which in their several stations they owe to Superiours 1 Cor 7.20 21 22. yet they are made partakers of true Christian liberty and are delivered not onely from the bondage wherein they were held by nature when they were slaves to sinne and Satan and under the condemning and cursing power of the Law and from the external bondage of an yoke of Ceremonies imposed upon the Jewes and of humane precepts in things indifferent in Gods worship But also from that spirit of bondage which he lets out at first upon his own in order to their future freedome Rom 8.15 Therefore saith Christ the truth shall make you free And albeit beleevers and they who continue in Christs Word do not alwayes enjoy the possession and use of this liberty but may be under bondage terrour and fear Yet that is not their allowance but flows from their own we knesse which apprehends all their bonds to be being on when really they are freed from them And therefore they should complain of themselves to God and strive for the use of what is their right by walking familiarly with God and chearfully and comfortably in his seâ—vice and by making their liberty a Law to binde themselves more strictly to his obedience 16. This making them free is here attribute to the truth whereas Christ onely is the cause of our liberty verse 36. But these are not inconsistent for it is Christ indeed who purchaseth and applyeth this liberty Christ and this his purchase and offer are hâ—ld out in the Word to be laid hâ—ld on there by faith and so the beleever comes to get the right and application of it and he living by faith the Spirit of Adoption comes and seals up this liberty Ephes 1.13 Gal 4.6 So is this to be understood the truth shall make you free Verse 33. They answered him We be Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any man how sayest thou Ye shall be made free The contentious Jewes do here again interpose And 1. They debate about thâ—ir freedome and parentage and Christ refutes their conceits to verse 48. 2. They fall a railing at his person and contradict what he asserts of himself and he doth vindicate himself and his doctrine verse 48 58. 3. They joyne violence with their railing which he avoids verse 59 I shall take up the method and parts of the first branch of this debate in this order 1. They excepting against the immediately preceeding doctrine and boasting of their own freedome as being Abrahams children verse 33. Christ cleareth what is the great bondage of men and how to be free from it verse 34 35 36. And showeth that their being Abrahams seed after the flesh could not avail since their malicious carriage and contempt of his divine Word did evidence they had another original and Father verse 37 38. 2. They again laying claime to their descent from Abraham he sheweth that in their carriage they were not like him and so behooved to father themselves upon another in that respect verse 39 40 41 And 3. When they perceiving that he spake not of their carnal descent but of their spiriual original do assert that God is their Father verse 41. Christ evinceth the contrary from their want of love to him verse 42. and from their not understanding his preaching verse 43. And asserteth that they are of Satan whom they imitate in lying and murdering verse 44. â— 45. For he being sinlesse and a true teacher ver 26. their not hearkning nor beleeving in him did evince that they were not of God verse 47. In this verse some Jewes not they who beleeved but others do except against his former doctrine alledging that they being Abrahams children and having never been in bondage to any man it was needlesse to feed them with hopes of being made free As for the grounds of their objection it is nothing strange to see them deluded with a conceit of being Abrahams children but it may seem strange they should say they were never in bondage when yet they were bond-men in Egypt and in Babylon and frequently and at this time they were under the power of the Romans But we are to conceive that either they stood not upon an an impudent lie to make good their point or their meaning is that however they were actually in bondage yet by right and according to the promise they were free and expected to be vindicate into outward liberty by the Mâ—ssiah and therefore they would not willingly take with being in a condition of bondage Doctrine 1. Such as would embrace Christ and a course of godlinesse may expect that beside tentations and discouragements from within they will meet with oppositions and shakings without from these who cannot endure that any should be better then themselves for here these Jewes fall a carping at Christs offers that they may discourage these beginners See Matth. 23.13 2. Mâ—n in opposing of Christs offers are very subtil and will be prompted by Satan to manage it so so as may render them most invidious for so it appears in these men who do not at all meddle with what he spake of the truth but onely with the point of liberty as knowing it was most invidious to insinuate to this people who gloried so much in their liberty that they were in bondage 3. The most part of men are so carnal and blinde that they see no farther then their outside and their outward condition and so neglect their inward spiritual estate for this was the occasion of all their caâ—ping that they understand Christ to speak onely of bodily freedome and bondage as knowing no other as appears from the rest of their discourse 4. Albeit spiritual bondage be in it self so sad and heavy that to be free of it might make all other bondage
nor obscure in Scripture language whereby one thing is said to be another though distinct in their nature and kinde And that without any transmutation of the one into the other or annihilation of either But because of some mystical representation and signification or because of similitude of properties and effects Therefore doth Christ say here I am the Vine accounting that expression nothing obscure to his rude disciples although he and a vine were very different things only because it did resemble him in some respects 2 Spiritual minds may and ought to profiâ— much by the observation of common things and by improving of them to spiritual use and advantage Therefore doth Christ use these borrowed termes to teach them whenever they observed vines which were plentiful in that countrey to be put in minde thereby of somewhat in Christ And to this scope do his other parables taken from common things tend 3. Christ in his offices and relations to his people doth most fitly resemble a vine as being but small and weak in outward appearance in the state of his humiliation as vines are especially in winter As being planted in the fat soile of the love life and favour of the Father the fulnesse of the Godhead and the Spirit without measure that he may have influence in abundance for all his members As vines are planted in a fruitful soile Isa 5.2 as spending himself in fruitfulnesse to his people as vines are only useful for fruit-bearing as yielding refreshful and sweet fruit to cheer up the hearts of his people as the vine doth for the use of man Psal 104.15 as submitting to be trod in the wine presse of Gods anger that thereby fruit might redound to his people as the fruit of the vine is pressed that it may be drink unto men and as being the root in which all his members must subsist and the fountain of all their spiritual life and furniture as the vine is to all its branches For these among other causes doth Christ resemble himself unto a vine in Scripture And here especially for the last cause I am the Vine 4. What Christ is unto his people that he truly and really is whatever they look to beside for spiritual support and influence will but deceive them And whatever excellencie there be in good and necessarie things for the use of man it is all but a shadow of that perfection which is in him for the good of his people and what they are in their kinde weakly that he is in a more excellent way in his kinde Therefore saith he I am the true Vine not that he really is a vine or that a vine is not true in its own kinde but that he and he only is that fountain of grace and life unto his people which is pointed at under this similitude and that in his fulnesse in this kinde he far outstrips the excellencie of the vine in its kinde 5. As Christ in his relations to his people resembles the vine so the Father in this matter resembleth an husbandman As being the planter of this vine and appointer of Christ to be the Head of the Elect and endowing him with sufficiencie and fulnesse for that effect As being also the engraffer of the branches in the stock by bringing the Elect to Christ and giving them faith whereby they are united to him And As testifying his love and delight in this new plantation by caring for it visiting supporting protecting pruning and purging it that it may be fruitful for these causes saith he also my Father is the husbandman By which we are taught that both the Father and the Son do concurre in procuring and promoving the prosperity of beleevers Verse 2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit The second branch of this general doctrine points out the Fathers various and answerable dispensations as Husbandman toward professours and branches of this vine according as by their fruitfulnesse or unfruitfulnesse they declare themselves to be true or counterfeit branches and to be really or in shew only engraffed in Christ Taking away such as are unfruitful and purging the fruitful that they may abound in fruit Whence learn 1. The condition of Professours is most fitly resembled to branches of a vine as having no subsistence nor sap of themselves but in Christ more then branches have without a vine-stock and as being obliged to have as strict and near conjunction with him as branches have with the tree Which they will have if they be really engraffed in him For these causes doth he call them branches here 2. Professours are not all of one sort nor are they all in Christ after one way and manner some being only in him by external and visible communion as being in the visible Church and externally covenanting and professing relation to him others being also in him by faith as having spiritual inward communion with his person for so is here expressed that there are branches in him who bear not fruit and branches that bear fruit 3. The true touch-stone whereby to discerne one sort of branches from another is not their leaves or profession but their fruit for here the character of the one is every branch in me that beareth not fruit and of the other every branch that beareth fruit And in this they fitly resemble vine-branches which are uselesse if they be not fruitful Ezek. 15.2 c 4. External and fruitless branches will at last be taken away by the discovery of their hypocrisie and unsoundnesse and that they have no interest in him sometime also by their just seclusion from Church society and at last by their final separation from Christ for every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away as the Husbandman taketh away uselesse branches from the vine See v. 6. 5. There is no branch so fruitful but it hath many imperfections and wants for even every branch that beareth fruit needeth to be purged and to bring forth more fruit 6. One particular imperfection in fruitful branches is that they have many luxuriant superfluities growing up with their fruit which hinder the increase thereof Not only a remainder of corruption but much corruption growing up with their grace especially when they are in a flourishing condition without exercise Therefore do they need to be purged as vine-dressers do with luxuriant branches in vines which grow up with their fruit 7. Whatever be the imperfections of these who hold inward communion with Christ yet they shall not be taken away nor separate from him but their imperfections and frailties shall endear them to the Lords care for such branches shall not be taken away but purged 8. It is a rich blessing and reward of fruitfulnesse in the godlies account to be blessed with more fruitfulnesse for this is a promise to them it shall bring forth more fruit 9. However the Lords