strang Wives or the like and were censured and ejected as unclean by the Jews they could presently run to Samaria and there be received And this produced a woful and irreconcileable schism betwixt those two people insomuch that they lived in perpetual discord The hatred betwixt them was so great that they held it unlawful to eat or drink with one another Hence that saying of this Woman to our Saviour How is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me which am a Woman of Samaria Nay such was the hatred of the Jews to the Samaritans that though they granted leave to all Nations in the World to become Proselytes to their religion yet would they not grant it to them Witness that solemn form of excommunication termed excommunicatio in secreto nominis tetragrammati said to be uttered against them by Ezra and Nehemiah They assembled the whole Congregation saith my Author into the Temple of the Lord and brought 300 Priests 300 Trumpets and 300 books of the Law with as many boyes And when they sounded their Trumpets and the Levites sang they cursed the Samaritans by all the sorts of excommunication in the mystery of the name Jehovah and in the Decalogue and with the curse both of the inferiour and superiour house of judgement that no Israelite should eat the bread of a Samaritan whence they say he who eateth bread of a Samaritan is as he who eateth Swines flesh and let no Samaritan be a proselyte in Israel neither let them have any part in the resurrection of the dead And as the Jews did thus prosecute their cause against the Samaritans with much heat and confidence so likewise did the Samaritans theirs against them Though they had the worse of it yet were they no less peremptory and stedfast in their way than the former being ready upon all occasions to maintain their opinion and dispute for it Witness the carriage of the Woman in this place she do's not barely propound the question to our Saviour and then wait to hear how he would determine it but stands up and reasons with him about it Our Fathers saith she worshipped in this Mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to Worship Now our Saviour in answer to this great question and for the composing of this long difference of no less than 400 years continuance tells her that the time was approaching wherein the Worship of God should be confined neither to Garizim nor Jerusalem yet by the way lets her know there was a great deal of difference betwixt the Worship of the Samaritans and the Jews Ye Worship saith he ye know not what we know what we Worship There was no comparison betwixt the Worship of the Samaritans and the Jews The Jews might miss it in the manner of their Worship but the Samaritans did not only miss it in that but likewise in the object of it for they worshipped they knew not what But in opposition both to the Worship of the Samaritans and the Jews he tells her that the hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall Worship the Father in spirit and in truth c. Which words imply as much as if he had said the question which thou now propoundest to me and hath been disputed so long with so much heat amongst you is now of small moment for God is about not only to alter the place but the manner of his Worship As he will not have his Worship limited either to Garizim or Jerusalem so neither will he have it limited to the mode either of the one place or the other but will be worshipped after another manner and the manner wherein he will be Worshipped is spiritual and simple they that Worship him must Worship him in spirit and in truth And thus I have with what brevity I could conveniently led you down to the words of the Text and given you an account of the author and occasion of them To make any Analysis or division of them is needless and therefore without any further stay I shall draw from them this point That it is the duty of the sons of men in these dayes of the Gospel to Worship God in spirit and in truth Though all Christians nay all Nations agree that there is a God and that he is to be Worshipped yet they do not agree about the manner of it Some will have him to be Worshipped one way and some another according as their light and principles lead them Some will have him to be Worshipped immediately others mediately or remotely Some with slaying of beasts and bloody sacrifices others in a spiritual and simple manner without any such adoe Some in the use of external rites and shadows others without them Now our Saviour who came from his Fathers bosome and most perfectly understood his will undertakes the determining of this controversie and shews after what manner he would have men to Worship him They that Worship saith he must Worship him in spirit and in truth The point lyes so visibly in the Text that I need not send you to other places of Scripture to shew you the truth of it and therefore I shall not spend time in that The Method I shall observe in prosecuting it is this 1. I shall shew what is meant by Worship 2. What by spirit 3. What by truth 4. The reasons of both branches that is to say wherefore we must worship God in spirit and wherefore in truth 5. I shall lay down one or two cautions And 6. come to the Vses all which I shall dispatch with plainness and brevity 1. I shall shew what is meant by Worship The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the extraction and derivation whereof the Etymologists are not agreed Zanchy thinks it's derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Dog and that it is a Metaphor taken from spaniels that use in subjection to their masters to couch upon the ground before them And that which renders it somewhat more probable is that the Hebrew Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie to worship do also signifie to fall down or lye prostrate as also that the Jews both in their civil and religious worship used to do so However others are against this derivation and assign another Rivet thinks it is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to kiss and that which renders this more probable is that kissing hath been a very antient symbol of adoration Witness that of Job If my mouth saith he hath kissed my hand this were an iniquity to be punished by the judge for I should have denyed the God that is above A bare kissing the hand he cannot mean for that we may reckon amongst those actions that are indifferent neither good nor bad but he means such a kissing of the hand as was a ceremony belonging to idolatrous worship The Heathenish
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
Cultus Evangelicus Or a brief DISCOURSE Concerning the SPIRITUALITY AND SIMPLICITY OF New-Testament WORSHIP Whit. op t. 1. l. 9. cont Dur. de Sophism p. 226. Itaque nunc ut vides non tantum Judaicae ceremoniae quas ipse Deus praescripsit sed alias etiam universas quas homo quisquam tradidit docuit guales vestrae omnes sunt apertissimè prohibentur LONDON Printed for Eliz. Calvert at the Sign of the black spread Eagle in Duck-Lane 1667. Cultus Evangelicus OR NEW TESTAMENT WORSHIP JOH 4. 23 24. 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 God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth IN the former part of this Chapter we have the famous dialogue that passed betwixt the Lord Jesus and the Woman of Samaria the occasion whereof was this Our blessed Saviour did with unwearied care and industry lay out himself for the gaining and winning of souls and the bringing of them to the obedience of his Father He sought not so much how to make himself great as how to make others good He made it his business to rescue the poor sapsed and degenerated sons of men out of the paws of Satan whom he saw hurrying them away towards destruction and reduce them into a state of peace and safety And though he met with great opposition herein the dragon and his angels with united force and inflamed rage banding against him yet as was foretold the pleasure of the Lord did prosper in his hand and he saw of the travel of his soul the people following him in great multitudes from Galilee and from Decapolis and from Jerusalem and from Judaea and from beyond Jordan admiring his wisdom and speaking well of his name Which the envious Pharisees that viperous brood impatient of whatever tended to the Eclipsing of their own authority and esteem taking notice of laid their heads together against him and without having any respect to the divine Majesty that shone in his countenance the innocency of his person holiness of his life or eminency of his works consulted how they might destroy him Such was their prodigious unthankfulness and unworthiness that the more love he manifested to them the more hatred they shewed to him The more he appeared for them the more they appeared against him The more he laboured to save them the more they laboured to slay him thereby giving him occasion to complain of them as David once did of his enemies they rewarded me evil for good And he being aware of their bloody design departs from amongst them and being on his way he comes to Sychar a City of Samaria it is the same with that Shechem and Sichem so often mentioned in the Old Testament where Joshuah and Eleazar the High-Priest held the first Council for the abolishing of strange Worship and so he leaves the proud self-admiring Pharisees that dealt so unworthily with him and goes and òpens the treasures of grace and love to the despised Samaritans thereby verifying that sacred Oracle thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Now at this Sychar to which our Saviour came there was a Well called Jacobs Well For we read in the history of the Patriarchs that when Jacob came to Shalem a City of Shechem he bought a parcel of Land of the Children of Hamor and there erected an Altar and then in all probability made this well which continued till our Saviours time being called by the name of Jacobs Well Contzen the Jesuite thinks that when Jacob was at this place he did not only make this but many Wells Whether this be true or no doth not appear but this is evident that if when he was at this place he made many Wells either this only of them all remained till our Saviours time or else was in a way of peculiar eminency called Jacobs Well It was about the sixth hour that is about Noon when our Saviour came to this Well He was weary with his tedious Journey which had lasted him as may be computed two or three dayes and here he sits down to rest him and refresh him And the Disciples being gone into the City for provision he continues there alone Presently there comes a Woman of Samaria to draw Water and he being willing to make use of all occasions of doing good enters into discourse with her which continued so long till she perceived there was more than ordinary worth in him till she saw he was a Prophet And having such an opportunity she presently starts that great question so much controverted betwixt the Jews and Samaritans about the place of Worship Whether she did it out of Womanish loquacity or to pass away the time or to satisfie conscience appears not but this is evident that she did it Now the Question it self was this Whether Garizim where the Samaritans Sacrificed or Jerusalem where the Jews Sacrificed were the true place of Worship On the one hand the Samaritans held that Garizim was it on the other hand the Jews held that Jerusalem was it The occasion of this difference as divers authors shew happened thus The Samaritans were the off-spring of those Nations whom Salmanazar King of Assyria placed in the Cities of Samaria after he had carryed the ten Tribes captive and at their coming thither being Pagans they worshipped not the God of Israel but the gods of the Nations from whence they came Hereupon the Lord provoked with their Idolatry sends Lyons amongst them which molested and slew them And they apprehending it to be because they worshipped not the God of the land they sent to the King of Assyria and informed him how things stood Upon that he sends them one of the captive Priests who came and taught them how they should fear the Lord and so to make sure work they worshipped both the God of Israel and their own God too And thus it continued tâ—ll towards the end of the Persian Monarchy at which time Manasses brother to Jaddus the High priest of those Jews that were returned from Babylon did contrary to the Law of Moses which forbad contracting of Matrimony with the forreign Nations Marry Nicazo daughter to Sanballat the Horonite then governour of Samaria for which fact Jaddus his brother and the other Jews were exceedingly incensed against him and expelled him from Jerusalem Upon this he betakes himself to Sanballat his Father-in-law who courteously entertains him and not only so but upon Alexander's the Great overcoming the Persians he obtains leave of him to build a Temple at Garizim and there he places this Manasses his Son-in-law to perform the Office of High-priest Now this was very injurious to the Jews and begat great confusion For if any had eaten unlawful meats trangressed the Sabbath marryed
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
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
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
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
sufficient in all matters of this nature but from the confessions of those very sects that are likeliest to think otherwise that God is to be worshipped with the inner man as well as with the outward and that the services of the latter without the former are vain and ineffectual and therefore it concerns us if we should worship him in an acceptable successfull way to ingage the one in it as well as the other And thus I have given you the reasons of the former branch of the Doctrine shewing you wherefore the sons of men ought in these dayes of the Gospel to worship God in spirit not that I think it is so their duty to do it now as that it was not their duty to do it in the dayes of the Law or that he did not require it or expect it then or that many did not then do it but that he requires it and looks for it now in a peculiar way affording greater means to enable them to it now than he did then Paul in that famous Sermon of his to the Athenians saith Now God commandeth all men every where to repent not that he did not command them to do it before for he did it all along both by his Prophets and his Providences but that now he commanded them to do it in a more especial manner presenting to them greater incentives and laying before them stronger motives to do it And the like may be said in the present case I shall now proceed to the latter branch of the Doctrine and shew you wherefore the sons of men ought in these dayes of the Gospel to worship God in truth The reasons thereof are these 1. Because God himself hath ordained and appointed them to worship him in that way And were there nothing else this fingle reason were sufficient not only to warrant their doing of it but incite them to it For as he may justly challenge worship from us so he may justly prescribe what way he will be worshipped by us His Church is his Kingdom and it belongs to him to make laws for his own Kingdom and set dówn what way his subjects therein shall express their respect to him and serve him It is not for us to set down wayes of worship our selves but to observe the way that he in his word hath set down for us And the way that he therein hath set down for us is this that we do it in truth that is without the use of Ceremonies If you inquire after the part wherewith you are mainly to serve him he tells you You must do it in spirit and if you inquire after the external mode or dress he tells you You must do it in truth not in a gawdy pompous manner but in a way of holy simplicity and plainness This is the way that he hath appointed and he would have us in all cases how difficult and strange soever they be to look upon his appointment as a sufficient ground for us to proceed upon It was a difficult task that Joshuah was to undertake when he was to succeed Moses in the government and conduct of Israel and to lead them over Jordan among the Canaanites whom he was to dispossess and drive out before them yet God would have him to look upon his command as a sufficient ground for him to undertake the business Arise saith he go over Jordan thou and all thy people into the Land which I give unto them have not I commanded thee q. d. Though the difficulties thou art to encounter with be great and the dangers that lye before thee be many yet surely at my command thou maist venture upon the work why know for thy incouragement that I have commanded thee Nay the very Heathens had such apprehensions of God that they thought there was no neglecting of his commands but that they ought by all means to be observed and obeyed Whatsoever saith Artaxerxes is commanded by the God of Heaven let it be diligently done We may dispure of cases before God determine them but when he hath once passed sentence all disputings must cease Till his command come forth we are at liberty and may take which way we please but when that is once out then our liberty ceases and we must take that way only that he therein chalks out for us Then we must turn all our disputings and contests into silent submission and all our inquiries and opinions into cheerfull obedience If then God hath appointed us to worship him in truth as it plainly appears by the Text he hath then we ought without any disputing or drawing back to do it 2. That the Scriptures may be fulfilled The Scriptures are not only doctrinal but prophetical they do not only contain precepts of holy living but predictions of things to come to pass in after-times As God hath therein set down whatever he would have us to do so he hath there set down much of what he himself will do And amongst other things he hath declared he would do this is one that he would put his Church in the dayes of the New-Testament under a spiritual administration wherein he will not have her worship him as in times past in the use of shadows and ceremonies but in a more plain and simple manner even in truth Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah Upon our violation of the covenant of works God was pleased to grant forth a Covenant of grace promising therein pardon and salvation to the penitent and believing And this covenant he thought fit to have dispensed under a double administration that of Moses and that of Christ. The former he appointed to be carryed on in a way of types and figures agreeable to the state of the church in the Old Testament the latter in a way of spirituality and simplicity agreeable to the state of the Church in the New And this it is that the Prophet relates to in this place when he speaks of a new Covenant For we must not think that the Covenant Israel was under in the time of the Old Testament and the Covenant we are under now in the time of the New are two seral Covenants essentially and substantially different but one and the same Covenant passing under two distinct administrations the former of which was typical and ceremonious the latter plain and simple The covenant that they were under then and we are under now differ no more than one and the same person differs from himself in several habits or dresses Briefly the words of the Prophet imply as much as if he had said in the dayes of the New Testament when Jesus Christ the bridegroom of the Church shall come down from Heaven to her she shall put on new vestments go in a new garb and serve him in a new manner not in that ceremonious puerile dress she was in before but in a
more plain and grave habit even in truth And with this agrees that which God spake by a Prophet of a latter standing in every place saith he incense shall be offered to my name and a pure offering It s usual with the sacred pen-men as the Papists themselves who alledge this place for the Sacrifice of the Mass confess to speak of Gospel Ordinances and duties under legal terms and so this Prophet doth in this place By incense and offering he means not such as the ceremonial law required and as the Jews in the Old Testament in conformity thereunto used he well knew that such things upon the death of Christ the great Sacrifice were to be laid aside but he means somewhat of a more spiritual nature having analogy or agreement therewith as prayer thanksgiving and the like which are our Gospel incense and offering and which we are to tender to God in these dayes as they did their bloody Sacrifices and such like matters in those of this there is no doubt all the question is what is meant by this attribute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pure and wherein the purity of Gospel incense and offering doth consist Some think pure denotes the spirituality of the service which is not to be celebrated as the Jews and Gentiles was modo corporuli by slaying of Beasts and such like work but in a spiritual manner by putting up of prayers giving of thanks singing of Psalms with other duties of that nature Others think it denotes conscientiam offerentis the good Conscience of the offerer not polluted with misapprehensions unbelief hypocrisrie as the Consciences of both Jews and Gentiles were but sound believing and upright Others restraining the words to the Sacrament of the Eucharist think it denotes rem significatam or the thing represented in it which is Jesus Christ who is a sacrifice not like one of the Jews corrupt and polluted but immaculate and perfect without spot or blemish But the first seems to be most probable and therefore is embraced not only by Justin Martyr and Tertullian among the ancients as the above mentioned Author confesses but likewise by the ablest and soundest modern writers A Lapide mentions it as the common opinion of the Protestants Calvin saith he and the hereticks who deny all sacrifice under the Gospel properly so called take offering mystically that is to say for the worship of God by faith hope charity prayer invocation praise and pious works especially those of mercy almes and conversion of souls And he confesses that Clarius and Vatablus were of the same mind The sense then of the Prophet we may take to be this that the Church of God in the dayes of the New-Testament is to worship him in a more pure spiritual inward manner then heretofore Though the worship she yielded to him in the time of the Old Testament was of Divine institution yet was it not so pure as this here foretold because it was attended with and wrapped up in so many outward ceremonies Her worship then was a mixt kind of worship partly consisting of outward ceremonies and partly of inward devotion but the Prophet here foretells that when the time of reformation should come she should serve him after another manner that she should then offer him a pure offering Calvin makes this place parallel with the Text looking upon it as a prophesie of the spirituality and simplicity of Gospel service which is not to be folded up as the legal was in rites and ceremonies but to be carryed on in a grave and plain manner To be short as our Saviour in the Text sets truth in opposition to ceremonies so doth the Prophet in this place set pure both of them holding forth this truth that God would have his Church in these days of the Gospel to worship him without the use of them Now if it be true that the Scriptures have foretold that God would put his Church in the dayes of the Gospel under a spiritual administration and have her to worship him in truth then we ought all to do it We must not only take notice of prophecies but so far as the keeping of our places and callings will permit contribute our assiftance towards the fulfilling of them God often joyns the accomplishment of his prophecies and the performance of our duty together so that the one is done in and with the other And thus it is in this case and therefore if we would see him accomplish the one we must betake our selves to the performance of the other We must not as many do get prophecies into our minds and then stand gazing to see what will be done but we must out of a true zeal to the name of God which is concerned therein do what we can to help them to the birth God foretells in the forementioned places that all shall know him and call upon him now we must not only wait to see these things accomplished but we must endeavour in the places wherein we are that they may be accomplished So he doth in like manner foretell that his people in the New-Testament shall worship him in truth that is without Ceremonies now we must not stand looking about us to see what others will do and do nothing our selves but we must put to our helping hand and do what we can towards the promoting and furtherance of the work 3. Because the time designed by God for our worshipping of him in truth is come As the time designed by him for his peoples worshipping him in the use of Ceremonies is expired so the time designed by him for their worshipping him in truth is come That he once allowed nay commanded them to worship him with ceremonies is granted but that administration was not to be perpetual but temporary it was not to continue alwayes but as some of the Jewish Rabbi's themselves confess to abide for a certain season and then to be laid aside But choose what they say Paul is very clear in it The Law saith he was our School master to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith But after that faith is come we are no longer under a Schoolmaster By faith he means not actus animae or that grace whereby we are justified but tempus Evangelii or the dayes of the New-Testament in which there is no necessity of such Ceremonies as the Church before the coming of the Messias stood in need of The Ceremonial Law was no other than Evangelium velatum or Gospel with a mask or veil upon it directing to and pointing at Christ in all the parts of it Amongst all those rites that they used there was not one but it had its signification and there were very few of them but they did in some degree or other referr the Jews to Christ and Preach him to them We must not think that all those ceremonies God appointed them were empty ciphers signifying nothing that were to reproach both
paedagogy as antiquated and out of date never to be used more by her save to mind her of her former state and Gods dealings with her therein I know there are some Christian Churches that make use of some of the Jewish rites at this day The Ethiopians as also the Jacobites Aegyptians Habassines and others to baptism joyn circumcision yet do they not do it upon a sacramental but political account that by that mark they may be distinguished from other Nations to be the seed of Abram And there are some of our reformed Divines that would excuse them but others condemn them of superstition and lay down very weighty arguments against their practice in this particular And it is not so considerable what some particular Churches do as what the universal doth or what a corrupt Church doth as what those do that are more reformed and pure or what any Church doth without warrant from the word as what it doth by it It is evident from what I have alledged out of Scripture that the ceremonial law is utterly abolished and the antient Church took it to be so if therefore any endeavour whether directly or indirectly to revive or keep it up it is little as to matter of argument to be heeded And so much for proof of this particular that the time designed by God for his peoples worshipping him in the use of ceremonies particularly of the Jewish is expired As for those that would have others let them shew their warrant for them but of that I shall perhaps speak hereafter 4. Because the worshipping of God in truth is such a kind of worship as is more proper for and doth better become the Church in these dayes of the Gospel than other kind of worship We must distinguish of times that administration that may fit the Church at one time may not at another To have worshipped God without the use of ceremonies would not have fitted her in the time of the old Testament and to worship him with the use of them will not fit her in the time of the New The Apostle compares the Church of the Old-Testament to an infant and shews how God furnished her with such an administration as became her infancy intimating withall that now in the time of the New-Testament she is come to more maturity and perfection and that thereupon he hath pur her under a new administration even such a one as is suitable unto it That there is much difference betwixt the administration the Church was under in the time of the Old Testament and that she is now under in the time of the New is evident to all Eusebius speaking of the Mosaical Law calls it the tutor or guardian of puerile and imperfect souls Heretofore God appointed his Church the use of such types and figures as might help her to some apprehensions and conceptions of future things but the day spring from on high having visited her she is now in such a condition that she needs not those rudiments that formerly she did and it is greatly injurious to her for any to attempt the reducing her back to the use of them She doth not now look at Christ through the Window or behold him through the lattess she doth not now see him with his veil upon him as she did in times past but doth all with open face behold as in a glass his glory and is changed thereby into the same image from glory to glory Those things therefore that formerly were an help to her would now be an hinderance and those things that formerly were an ornament would now be a blemish That garb may become a person when he is a child that will not when he is a man Joseph's coat of many colours might become him while he was a child or youth but not when we was a man and ruler of all the Land of Aegypt When I was saith the Apostle a child I spake as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child but when I became a man I put away childish things Thus it is with the Church she hath her progressions and periods as well as every single person and that garment which became her in her minority will not at all become her or sute with her now she is in a grown state Augustine illustrates this by a very fit similitude There was saith he a youth that being diseased addressed himself to Vindecianus the Physician who gave him a Medicine fit for his age and cured him A good while after the youth being become a man be fell into the same disease again and applyes the receipt he used before but it agreed not then with him Here upon be betook himself to his Physicain telling him he wondered he would give him such Physick as would hurt him The Physican demands of him when he gave him that Physick he told him when he was a youth at which time it cured him whereas it was now likely to kill him The Physician replyed that the physick proved not good because it was not taken at his command that that which was wholsome to him being a youth was now deadly to him being of age The like we may say of the Church when she was in her youth a ceremonious pompous administration appointed her by God was proper for her and whol some but now she being come to age and God nowhere appointing it her it would be mortal and deadly And what if after all this I bring you a famous heathen that by the very light of nature gives suffrage for us in this point Hear then what Plato saith Men ought of worship God not counterfeiting with shadows but pursuing vertue in truth Had not the man lived before our Saviour I should have thought he had fetched this truth from him as well as he did many others from Moses but he dyed so long before his time that we may take it for granted it was the naked suggestion of the light of nature which teaches it is fitter for us to worship God in a plain simple way than with figures and shadows And so much for the reasons also of this second branch 5. Having thus dispatched the reasons of the point I shall now for preventig of mistakes lay down some cautions or limitations and I shall confine my self to these two 1. Though it be the duty of the Sons of men to worship God in spirit or with the inner man yet we must not understand this as some have dangerously done to the prejudice or exclusion of worshipping him with the body or outward man Such was the sottishness of that raving impostor Hen. Nicholas that he taught that all ordinances hearing preaching Scripture learning baptism the Lords Supper all confessions of Christ before men all externalls in religion were things of no worth indifferent free trivial laid on us by no law of God This I confess is doctrine likely for that wild head of
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
you nothing of your own Observation or common same to inform you easily imagine But we need not travel so far from home for instances of this nature there are many even among our selves that stand deeply guilty of this sin serving God sometimes with their Bodies but seldom or never with their Souls There are many amongst us of such a frame that if they do but observe the Bell come together into the presence of God at the hour of Prayer and there abide a while with their Bodies though their Souls are at the ends of the earth they think they have done all that is commanded and may expect a blessing They think if they can but follow the Calendar go over their Divine Offices as they call them stand up kneel down cringe bow and answer in their turns they have chuse where the heart is all this while done God good service But alas what 's all this to the purpose What 's all this in comparison of what God requires What 's all this in comparison of one serious hearty humble prayer accompanied with ture contrition and lively faith Constantinus Copronimus the Eastern Emperour was wont to say Quid sine pectore corpus what 's the body without the soul What are stately Cathedrals melodious Musick costly Hangings rich Vtensils gawdy Vestments and all the gestures and postures imaginable without a praying heart Though our Worship be never so splendid and pompous decked with the most exquisite humane ornaments yet unless the heart ingage in it it is in vain nay odious and abominable It is to be wished then that men would stand less upon matters of this nature and look more after the heart 2. Such as worship God but not in truth Many are of such a temper that they know not how to worship him unless it be in a ceremonious way They have so inur'd themselves to Ceremonies and taken such affection to them that they scarcely know how to do any thing in the service of God without them so that take away them and you serve them as Jacob did Laban you take away their gods and with them their worship happiness and all at once Though they hear over and over again that God hath declared against such kind of worship told them that it is not pleasing to him that the time of it is expired and the like yet they are not satisfied but they must and will have it And herein they much aggravate their sin that not conrenting themselves with those Ceremonies which are of divine institution whereof I gave you account before they frame others of their own heads which they do not only equal with but prefer before them Thus the Scribes and Pharisees as if all those Ceremonies God appointed by Moses had been too few they must have some of their own which they were very exact chuse what became of the other in the observation of What a stir did they keep about washing of hands cups pots brazen vessels tables and such like things which they did not only use themselves but impose on others and that with so much zeal and rigour that they were ready to quarrel with Christs Disciples because they did not do as they did And what ado likewise did they make with their Phylacteries and fringes not contenting themselves with those prescribed by God they would have greater such as would be more seen and with a louder voice proclaim their zeal and sanctity They made broad saith the Evangelist their Phylacteries and enlarged the borders of their garments They thought those appointed by the Law were too little and did not sufficiently bespeak their good affection and devotion which they desired all might take notice of and admire them for and therefore they made them such as would be seen further and speak lowder and these they wore with much pride and ostentation And in this ceremonious superstitious humour the Papists imitate them to the life As they imitate them in their Hypocrisie so they do likewise in their superstition Hence that serious complaint of Erasmus The world saith he is laden with humane constitutions it is laden with the opinions and doctrines of the School-men with the tyranny of the mendicant Fryers who though they are the Vassals of the See of Rome are yes so potent and numerous that they are formidable to the very Pope and Kings themselves Jerusalem it self when she was under the paedagogical Administration and when the Ceremonial Law was at the height had not more Ceremonies than Rome hath at this day There was not a Ceremony among the Jews which they have not either in the same kind or somewhat equivalent to Nay as if that were not sufficient they have taken up many used by the Heathens which the Jews had not nor any thing like them And how far many amongst us that pretend to be come out of Babylon and to have cast of communion with her do symbolize with them I need not tell you Now what manifest disobeying nay presumptuous contradicting is this of Jesus Christ Will he have the Law of Ceremonies abrogated and will men and such too as pretend to be his obedient servants have it continued Does he say God must be worshipped without Ceremonies and do they say he shall be worshipped with them What 's this but a thrusting themselves into his Throne an invading of his Authority and a laying hold on his Soveraignty and Dominion What 's this but to charge him with insufficiency and say he is unfit to govern the Church or be the Head of it And is this the respect they have for him Is this the thanks they give him for their Redemption for his saving them from the curse of the Moral Law and yoke of the Ceremonial Who would ever think that any that carry the names of Christians and desire the setting up of his Kingdom and Government should deal thus unworthily with him Either he is our Lord of not fnot why do we profess he is if he be why do we not obey him The third Vse may be for Exhortation to perswade all to worship God in spirit and in truth This is the Worship God himself hath prescribed and by his Son propounded to us and therefore let us all without any disputing or drawing back close with it 1. Let us worship him in spirit When ever we come into his presence let 's beware we leave not our spirits behind us let 's be sure we take them along with us and engage them in the work What ever service or duty we set upon let 's be sure to imploy our spirits in it Let thine heart saith God keep my Commandments The heart is the thing he chiefly calls for expects and eyes in all our performances and therefore when ever we address our selves to him let 's be sure to bring our hearts along with us present them to him and keep them in order whiles they are before him When we
The Scripture affords instances of both On the one hand Asa though a good King miss'd it in many things he executed not the Law upon his idolatrous Mother remov'd not the high-places and the like yet because his heart was right God accepted him On the other hand Jehu though a bad King did many good Works destroyed Ababs house slew the Worshippers of Baal with other good service yet because his heart was not right all was in vain The Jesuites indeed as if they were resolved to make themselves the laughing-stocks as well as the hatred of all good Christians speak so lightly of the Souls engaging in the service of God as if it were indifferent whether a man understand what he does or not nay whether he do it by himself or by another Hence they use as a learned Writer of our own tells us to cast the Die which shall say Prayer for the other Whether such Devotion as this be proper or like to find acceptance let any one that hath but one grain of a Christian Spirit left him judge 4. Whether do you not employ your Souls in far meaner and lower Offices than the service of God When you go forth into the World do not you take them along with you When you go out into your Shops into the Market into the Fields have you not them with you Do you not use their assistance in every Bargain advise with them in every Business and do what ever you do with their concurrence Do not you make them Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water cause them to attend on every vain and frivolous undertaking and prostitute them to the very Dunghils Nay do you not vex and grieve them with anxious and thorny Cares about the poorest and basest matters insomuch that you sometimes make them weary of their Habitations and long to be divorced from them And will you thus employ your Heaven-born Souls innobled with such rare and excellent faculties in things of this nature and yet think them too good to be employed in the service of God wherein the glorious Angels themselves so much delight What 's this but most wretchedly to debase your selves and provoke God that gave you your Souls to tear them away from you 5. Whether would you not have God to let you have his heart in all that he does for you When he bestows upon you Corn and Wine and such-like benefits would you not that he should do it with his Heart without designs of dereliction or obduration Would you be content that whiles he stretches forth his hand of bounty and fills your mouths with his outward blessings he should in the mean time with-hold his heart from you Alas what did it avail Cain to be Adam's first-born and Heir of all the World when God would not own him Or what did it avail Esau to be the first born of the wealthy Isaac and elder Brother to the Princely Jacob when the Lord hates him Upon these and such-like confiderations I cannot but think but you would have God whatever he does for you to let you have his heart with it Every good man saith Lord whatever thou dost for me let me have thy heart with it Though thou give me the Bread of Adversity and the Water of Affliction yet let me have thy heart with it Though I have never so little from thee let me have thy heart in it Now what you would that God should do to you the same do ye to him If ye would that he should let you have his heart in what he does for you let him have yours in what you do for him 6. Whether would you not have your service accepted of God If you would not what do you tender it for Do you think it worth the while to mock him or that you may do it with safety If you would have your service accepted then ingage your hearts in it for assure your selves do what you will all is in vain without it Simon Magus believed was baptized continued with Philip and wondered at the Miracles and Signs which were done and what was he the better for all this Thou hast neither part nor lot saith Peter in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God Observe here how far this man went he acknowledged the truth of the Gospel received the Seal of the Covenant associates himself with the Servants of Christ which others were afraid to do is affected with their wonders desires ability to do the like and that so earnestly that he offers money for it but his heart is not right and that mars all Had it been right though he had done less it would have been enough but that being wrong though he did more it was too little Faith and Holiness are so necessary to the acceptance both of our Persons and Services that without them all is in vain Herein the Scripture is most plain For one and the same Apostle shews that without the former it is impossible to please God and without the latter it is impossible to see him Now this being so be sure when ever you present your selves before the Lord to have your hearts and affections with you and engage them in his service and then your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord as the labour of Hypocrites and all such painted Sepulchres is but then you shall make your way prosperous and then you shall have good success 2. Let 's worship God in Truth Whiles Jews Pagans and such as symbolize with them do contrary to his Command worship him in the use of Rites and Ceremonies let us in obedience to it worship him in truth Let 's beware lest any man spoil us through Philosophy and vain deceit after the Tradition of men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ. The Jewish Ceremonies which we are mainly to look after as having been once of Divine Institution were crucified as you have already heard with Christ and died with him and the Christian Church did after a time decently as it were interr them and lay them in their grave and let not us now offer to dig them up again This in Augustines account were no less than to offer violence to the Diceased than which what can be more inhumane and barbarous Though there was a time when they were salutaria exercitia wholsome and useful Rudiments yet now it s not so now they are no better than foetida cadavera filthy Carcases fitter with those mentioned by the Prophet to remain among the graves and lodge in the monuments than abide among the living and therefore let 's not own them or have any thing to do with them God ordained in the Levitical Law which was the Jews Ritual that if any man touched a dead Body he should be unclean If then their Ceremonies are dead let 's beware of touching them lest we become unclean And
as for other Ceremonies which are of latter date and humane institution let 's take heed likewise how we own them or have any thing to do with them I may say of the one sort and the other as Solomon did in another case Both of them are alike Abomination to the Lord. The former once were lawful but now are unlawful the latter never were lawful nor ever will be lawful and therefore as we desire to keep our selves pure let 's abstain from both of them and utterly renounce and disclaim them Now that I may the better hold forth to you the necessity of worshipping God in Truth and the unwarrantableness of worshipping him in the use of Ceremonies I shall offer to you these following Queries 1. Whether is there so much as one word or syllable in all the holy Scriptures for any such kind of Worship If you are Christians you take the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles for the Word of God and if you are Protestants you take them for a compleat and perfect Rule of Divine and Religious Worship The Holy Ghost hath there declared both to whom such kind of Worship belongs and the manner wherein it is to be performed If therefore you will act regularly and do nothing but what is just and warrantable shew us by what Prophet or Apostle he hath allowed you to worship in the use of Ceremonies In the old Testament he foretells the abolishing and ceasing of Them The Church of those times being afflicted with the burden of them prayes for support till the time of their ceasing should come Christ no sooner sets upon preaching but he invites People from them justifies them in the refusal of them and afterwards laying down his Life to redeem them from them he blots out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against them takes it out of the way and nails it to his cross The Apostles Elders and Brethren at Jerusalem directed by the Holy Ghost who sat President amongst them decreed against them And as if all this were too little Paul who had once such esteem and Zeal for the Rites and Traditions of his Fathers speaks of them with words of greatest contempt and indignation calls them all to nought terms them carnal Ordinances Rudiments of the World beggarly Elements and the like Thus I have shewed you that both Prophets and Apostles speak much against Ceremonies do you now shew where they speak any thing for them 2. Whether if the holy Scriptures have nothing at all for them is it not apparent superstition to institute them or worship God in the use of them If Tertullian be not mistaken it is Those Ceremonies saith he are vain which are used without any Authority of Divine or Apostolical Command and are to be accounted superstitious and even therefore to be repressed because they make us in some sort like the Gentiles And if Zanchy Vrsin Viret with other Orthodox and learned writers on the second commandment are not mistaken it clearly falls within the compass of it Nay if the very descriptions that the schoolmen give of superstition may pass it stands justly chargeable with it Aquinas places it in the excess of religion as when a man gives divine worship either to him it belongs not to or in that way it ought not to be given And speaking of four kinds of superstition he places the first in the giving of worship to the true God modo tamen indebito but after an undue manner It consists not only in the worshipping of a strange deity but in the worshipping of the true Deity in a strange manner such as he hath not appointed He that adds institutions to his institutions nay so much as a ceremony to the ceremonies he hath appointed is guilty of it And therefore as the Athenians were guilty of it in their ignorant worshâ—pping of their unknown God so likewise were some both of the ancient Jews and Christians the former in their washing of hands before meat the latter in their abstaining from certain meats and observing of dayes And what a great sin it is to be guilty of it we may gather from Gods proceedings against Saul upon his miscarriage in the business of the Amallkites For the injury they offered to the Israelites when they came from Egypt the Lord appoints Saul to go and destroy them both man and woman infant and suckling ox and sheep camell and ass And he accordingly went against them and smote them but did not fully observe his commission for to say nothing of other things he spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings and the lambs and all that was good And this he did if he himself say true and we do not find that Samuel charges him with falshood in it that he might sacrifice them to the Lord in Gilgal Saul then out of a superstitious humour would offer that to God which he would not have offered to him And what 's the issue of it why he is so incensed against him for it that he takes him and devests him of his royal ornaments deposes him from being King and casts him out of his favour for ever Saul committed several miscarriages before but God was not so displeased with any of them as he was with this We do not find that he ever smiled upon him or owned him after this time Now if it be superstition to do that in the worship of God that he hath not appointed and such a dangerous thing to be guilty of it you had best consider before you go any further whether you may either lawfully or safely use such Ceremonies in his worship as he hath not appointed but have been devised by men 3. Whether should you not imitate the primitive Church If ever the Church were worthy of imitation it was during her primitive state Then as Egesippus shews she was a pure and incorrupted Virgin So she continued for somewhat above an hundred years after our Saviours time so long she remained free from those superstitions and errours that after like a mighty flood brake in upon her Now during this space of her Virgin purity whether had she any of those Ceremonies that at this time are with so much heat contended for amongst us The learned Camero to mention no more is peremptory in the negative Besides saith he water in baptism bread and wine in the Lords Supper imposition of hands and anointing of the sick she had not any ceremonies at all Christians then contented themselves with the institutions of Christ and rejoiced in the liberty wherewith he had set them free without troubling themselves or others with the devising or imposing of any humane rites or ordinances 4. Whether ought you not to maintain your Christian liberty you think you ought to maintain your civil liberties and will venture at law all you have before you will let them go and ought you not to
make as great account of your Christian and spiritual liberty as of your civil I am sure Paul did Though he were a man of a most peaceable condescending spirit yet herein he was resolute All things saith he are lawfull to me but I will not be brought under the power of any And the same path he went in himself the same he perswades others to go Be ye not saith he the servants of men When he speaks of civil matters then he doth all he can to stir them up to yielding and complying labouring to prevent law-suits and the evils that attend them Is it so saith he that there is not a wise man amongst you no not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren But brother goeth to law with brother and that before the unbelievers Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you because ye go to law one with another why do ye not rather take wrong why do ye not rather suffer your selves to be defrauded This is his language as to civil matters therein he uses all his art and interest to perswade them to mutual submission and forbearance advising them rather to recede from their own rights and suffer themselves to be defrauded than to ingage in vexatious law-suits to the dishonour of the Gospel But when he comes to speak of spiritual matters concerning their Christian liberty he discourses after another manner Therein he will have them to be stedfast and unmoveable not inslaving themselves to the wills of men or becoming their servants What it is to be the servants of men Ambrose tells us They are the servants of men saith he that subject themselves to humane superstitions Doubtless as God will call you to an account for his word and ordinances so he will for your Christian liberty and therefore it concerns you to take heed how you let it go 5. Whether should you not so far as lawfully you may hold communion with the best reformed Churches without question it is the will of Christ that you should so do If there be one Church more Orthodox and holy than another you should endeavour communion with it And if so how can you imagine it lawfull to worship God in the use of those Ceremonies which the best reformed Churches have declared against and abolished as not only unnecessary and burdensome but superstitious and scandalous not to trouble you with instances of their dislike and utter renouncing of them whereof you may see plenty in others Suartez mentions it as the common doctrine of Protestants that it is unlawfull to worship God with any other worship than that which is commanded in the Scriptures And that you may not think he speaks with reference only to the substance of worship hear what he saith in another place The hereticks saith he of our time say that every Ceremony and every kind of worship that is not commanded by God himself or is not contained in the Gospel is superstition yea they call it idolatry And if the Protestant Churches profess such doctrine and act accordingly and that without sin how can you without sin separate from them how will you free your selves from the charge of schism which is an evil so much condemned by Christ and prejudicial to the honour and welfare of his Church 6. Whether leaving both the practice of the primitive Christians and the communion of the best reformed Churches and you lawfully go and comply with Idolaters in the use of those things they have grosly abused in their profane mysteries Herein the Scripture is very plain After the doings saith God of the land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt shall ye not do and after the doings of the land of Canaan whither I bring you shall ye not do neither shall ye walk in their ordinances And in another place When the Lord thy God shall cut of the nations from before thee whither thou goest to possess them and thou succeedest them and dwellest in their land take heed to thy self that thou be not snared by following them after that they be destroyed from before thee and that thou inquire not after their Gods saying how did these Nations serve their Gods even so will I do likewise As God would have us to stand in a close union to him and one another so he would have us to stand at the utmost distance from idolaters And upon this ground the antients declined the use of many things though in themselves lawfull because they were used and abused by Idolaters Tertullian would not have his Christian souldier to go with a Lawrel upon his head and that because the heathens used to do so And Bishop Jewel hath several other instances of the same nature And ought not we in these dayes to detest idolatry and avoid communion with such as are guilty of it as well as the servants of God have done in former dayes Is it not as odious to him and ought it not to be resisted by us as much now as ever If therefore the ceremonies imposed be such as had their birth amongst idolatrous pagans and other enemies to God and his truth and have been not only used but notoriously abused by them how can you without apparent guilt make use of them And thus I have given you the Quaere's I thought good to offer to you both concerning the worshipping of God meerly with the outward man and the worshipping of him in the use of ceremonies consider of them and deal faithfully I shall now in the last place acquaint you with the common impediments of worshipping God in spirit and in truth and shew you whence it is that men are so ganerally averse to worship him that way And in pursuance of the method propounded to my self I shall first speak of those that concern the worshipping of him in spirit and they are these 1. Their misapprehensions of God his nature essence and will I have told you already that God is a most pure and simple being and would have worship suitable thereunto but men are apt to think otherwise of him They are apt to think he is a being cloathed with such gross matter as we poor mortals that dwell in tabernacles of clay carry about with us and that he would have such kind of worship and accordingly they give it to him They limit the holy one of Israel they measure him by themselves his properties by theirs and his will by theirs and think what pleases them pleases him Thou thoughest saith God that I was altogether such an one as thy self Now this is a most unreasonable and unjustifiable thing for what proportion is there betwixt that which is infinite and that which is fiuite bewixt a most spiritual and simple being and a soul attended with impotent and carnal passions and cloathed with gross and sinfull matter still drawing it to objects and pleasures suitable to it self none at all My thoughts are not your
inquire after them call them home from their accustomed wandrings and when we have them we must mind them of what we are going about and with all the art and skill we can urge them with the solemnness and importance of the business giving them no rest untill we have brought them into an awfull and holy frame and fitted them for the work of God And when we have ingaged them in the work that we may the better keep them to it we must set a guard upon them and carefully watch all the back doors and secret passages through which they use to steal away from us And when ever we see them begin to stir we must presently resist and restrain them accounting that which is done without them is vain and to no purpose As Masters stand over their idle and unfaithful Servants to keep them to their work so must we stand over our Souls to keep them stedfast and lively in the Duties we have in hand that so we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear because he is a consuming Fire 6. Their spiritual slothfulness and lothness to take pains with their Souls They are convinced that they ought to worship God in spirit and that such kind of Worship is the likeliest to please him but rather than they 'l be at the pains to bring themselves to it they 'l let it alone and worship him that way that is less difficult choose whether it please him or no. They find that to take their thoughts and affections off their usual objects gather them together engage them in the service of God and there keep them close to it is a business that requires some pains which rather than they 'l take they 'l come with their Bodies alone into his presence and present them to him leaving their Souls behind them as diligent in the pursuit of secular matters as ever Or if they do bring their Souls with them yet they do not keep them with them They have their company no longer than the Servants that attend on them they bring them to their seats and there leave them For the redressing of this Evil we must call to mind the equity and necessity of the Souls engaging and concurring with us in the service of God and consider that whatever we do without them signifies just nothing And hereupon we must exercise all the Authority we have over them use all the Interest we have in them follow them from place to place and not let them rest till we have prevailed with them to accompany us into his presence and joyn with us in the several duties we are to perform Having thus spoken of the several Impediments that concern the worshipping of God in spirit I shall now proceed to those that concern the worshipping him in truth and shall therewith conclude this present discourse 1. Is Satan who does all he can to keep men from worshipping God in that simple plain way that he hath appointed stirring them up to worship him in a ceremonious superstitious manner which he well knows will be so far from being acceptable to God or advantagious to them that it will rather draw down his wrath upon them He hath disobeyed God himself and would have them to do so too He is become an Enemy to God himself and would have them to be so likewise He hath undone himself and does all he can to bring them into the same condition When we were in happiness be never rested till he had got us out of it and now we are out of it he does all he can to keep us from it As it was he that perswaded our first Parents to eat of the forbidden fruit so it was he that perswaded David to number Israel Judas to betray Christ Ananias and Saphira to lie to the holy Ghost It was he that sowed the tares among the Wheat hindred Paul from going to the Thessalonians and it is he that works in the Children of Disobedience He does all he can to draw men to down-right Atheism but if he cannot bring them to that he labours to draw them to idolatry and superstition If he can he 'll keep them from worshipping God at all but if he cannot prevail with them to go so far he then labours to keep them from worshipping him after the right manner If he can he 'll keep them from doing so much as God requires but if he cannot perswade them to that he then labours to draw them to more If he can he 'll perswade them to deny the authority and truth of the Scriptures but if he cannot get them to that he 'll urge them to deny their sufficiency and perfection and hereby he makes way for the bringing in of humane Inventions Traditions Ceremonies and any thing that superstitious heads have a mind of Calvin lays it down as an undoubted truth That there is not any evil perpetrated by men to which they are not incited by Satan And he himself confesses that he goes to and fro in the earth and walks up and down in it And for what end does he this Not to take the air for he needs it not or if he did he might do it in a narrower compass nor to acquaint himself with the World for he knows it well enough already but he does it for another end and that is as the Apostle shews to seek out whom he may devour and herein he is so diligent and unwearied that he compasses Sea and Land to make one Proselyte And that he may the better carry on this his infernal design he observes the several Constitutions Dispositions and Interests of men and accordingly lays his baits for them One he sees inclined to Unbelief and Atheism and tempts him to that another to Profaneness and Debauchery and tempts him to that another to Idolatry and Superstition and tempts him to that The Jews were a People extreamly addicted to Idolatry and Superstition and he being aware of it lays hold on all opportunities and means to provoke them to it Hence we find that when Moses was dead and God appointed Michael the Archangel to take his Body and bury it in some secret place out of the way Satan stands up and resists him He well knew that if the Israelites had but known where the Body of so great a Prophet had sain they would with little ado have been drawn to worship it and therefore when he saw the Angel going to interr it and lay it out of the way he withstands him and disputes with him The one was not more forward to suppress and prevent an occasion of Idolatry than the other was to promote and further it The Book called Petoreth Mosche or The passage of Moses out of this Life describes this strife which was betwixt them Whether the Book be Apocryphal or no I leave to others to judge but the thing it self is not for the Apostle Jude mentions it The Scripture in
for the bringing about of his design And if we come to after-times we find the orthodox Christians carryed themselves after the same manner They would rather hazard all then part with one syllable nay one letter of that name wherein the divinity and honour of Christ was concerned When the Arrians desired them to admit one word nay but one letter more into their Creed that is to use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 promising that if they would do it they would be at peace with them yet they would not do it And we read likewise of Basil that when the Prefect asked him for a time to obey and not suffer so many Churches to be troubled for a small subtilty of opinions he told him that those who are instructed in the holy oracles are not suffered to alter one syllable of divine determinations but for them are to endure if called to it all kinds of death Nay we may learn this lesson from the very enemies of the truth themselves For when Cassander taught that Princes ought to find out some way of peace betwixt the Catholicks Lutherans and Calvinists and in the mean time to allow every one his own faith Bellarmine was much displeased and blamed him for it alleadging that the holy fathers taught we must not only keep the articles of the Creed inviolable but all other dogmata fidei or points in religion though they seem but small And writing to Blackwell Arch-priest here in England about the Oath of Allegiance he thus courts him and his party I suppose saith he there are not wanting amongst you those who say they are but subtilties of opinions that are contained in the Oath that is offered to the Catholicks and that you are not to strive against the Kings authority for such a little matter But there are not wanting also amongst you holy men like unto Basil the great who will openly avow that the very least syllable of Gods divine truth is not to be corrupted though many torments were to be endured and death it self set before you Now if Papists thus stand so much on their minuta dogmata why should not we If they oppose the Cassandrian reconciliation its sure time for us to do it If they refuse to close with us because we observe not the presumptions of men we may sure well refuse to close with them when they observe not the institutions of God 6. Is fear of suffering Sin and wickedness long ago got to such an height in the world and the spirit of Cain and Esau works so furiously in the men of this age that it s become dangerous to worship God in the way he hath appointed And such is the timeronsness and faint-heartedness of many professing religion that rather than they 'l suffer for him they 'l forsake the worship he hath set up and close with that which is set up by men While the Sun shines the way is fair and the coasts are clear they cry up religion to the clouds and are ready upon all occasions to say come with me and see my zeal for the Lord but when storms arise and troubles approach they begin to consult not how they may glorifie God by suffering but how they may provide for their own safety Plato knew much of God but as Josephus shews durst not set it down for fear of the people And Lactantius charges the same upon Tully Thou darest not saith he undertake the patronage of the truth for fear of the prison of Socrates And Augustin doth as much for Seneca he spends a whole chapter in shewing how he held the truth in unrighteousness telling us how he reverenced that which he reproved did that which he condemned and worshipped that which he found fault with Though these wise men saw the vanity of the heathenish Deities and the worship that was given to them and looked upon them as utterly unworthy of respect from wise and sober men nay secretly scorned and derided them yet would they not openly declare against them and that for fear of the people who so much doted on them And not only they but divers others who lived in places of greater light have shrunk from the truth and declined the maintaining of it meerly upon the account of suffering The young man our Saviour had to deal with that had gone so far in religion and made such a shew of respect to him no sooner hears talk of parting with his estate for him but he bids him farewell He comes to Christ with so much seeming zeal as if he wanted nothing but a little instruction to make him perfect and fit him for the Kingdom of Heaven He bears it out as if he had been ready to have laid himself and all he had down at the feet of Christ but the issue shews he meant no such thing he no sooner hears that he was like to cost him so dear but he presently turns his back upon him and leaves him Like a young traveller undertaking a voyage he is confident at the first but being come to the water side and there beholding the unruliness of the waves and what dangers the angry visage of the boyling Seas threatens him with his countenance presently falls and he becomes another man Whiles our Saviour speaks to him of things in general he hath his answer ready but when he descends so far as to require him to sell what he had and give it to the poor then he hath no more to say then he shews whether it was Christ or the world that lay next his heart In like manner Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimatheu were men that loved Christ and believed his doctrine yet were so fearfull of bringing themselves into trouble that they durst not publickly own him for the Evangelist tells us that the one of them came to him by night and the other secretly They were great men and by their open testimony might have done much good but they were so fearful of being called in question and of having a stir made about it that they came to him at such times when they might not be taken notice of But to leave them how shamefully did the Apostles themselves miscarry in this particular when the multitude came to apprehend Christ they all forsook him and fled As the rain wet and weakened the Persian bows so afflictions and discouragements do often damp the spirits of good men and cool their zeal to Christ and his cause Thus it hapned to the Disciples the swords and staves of the multitude frighted them away from Christ and made them forsake him and flee Some are of opinion that they did not sin in forsaking him thinking those words of his to the souldiers if ye seek me let these go their way discharged them from attending on him But I conceive they sinned in it and that very grosly For 1. The Evangelist expresses this act of
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.