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
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
thoughts neither are your wayes my wayes saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are higher than the earth so are my wayes higher than your wayes and my thoughts than your thoughts If the thoughts and wayes of a man are so far above the thoughts and wayes of a beast which yet is his fellow creature made of the same elements with him how far must the thoughts and wayes of God needs be above the thoughts and wayes of man We must not measure the nature and will of God by ours that 's an unsafe way but by what he hath revealed of himself in his word wherein he hath made known both his nature and will to us and set down what he will have us to do And therefore since he hath therein declared he will be worshipped in spirit we must without consulting with flesh and blood worship him that way 2. The secret and close enmity that is in them to all divine and spiritual matters Though they are indued with reasonable souls and are thereby capable of conversing with God and holding intercourse with Heaven yet through the miserable depravation that hath seifed upon their natures they are utterly averse to it and all spiritual services The carnal mind saith Paul is enmity against God Carnal men have carnal minds and are for carnal things and have in them an enmity to God Christ and all spiritual services By how much any service is more spiritual by so much they are the more at enmity with it They would rather be dealing with carnal matters though never so base than things spiritual though never so pretious and excellent They would rather with the filthy Swine embrace a dunghill than with the glorious angels hehold the face of God The reasonable soul instead of exercising its authority over the sensitive powers and holding them in subjection do's captivate and inslave it self to them Instead of sublimating and raising them up to high and eminent services it indulges them in their bruitish and boundless extravagancies to the utter indisposing both of it self and them to all spirituall and holy undertakings For the cure hereof we must pray hard to God that he would subdue this enmity of our souls stir up the several faculties thereof to the discharge of their proper functions and cause us to delight in his truth and wayes 3. Their immersing and drowning their souls in the though 〈◊〉 cares of worldly matters The world hath ever since the transgression in Eden and the depravation of our natures thereby been an enemy to God and his kingdom It doth not only intice the hearts of the sons of men from him but doth utterly indispose them for the right serving of him They let out their hearts so much upon it are so far in love with it and so eager in the pursuit of it that when they come to set upon the serving of him they cannot get them off it They can no more remove them than they can remove mountains Or if they can go so far as to hale them into the presence of God yet if Heaven it self lay upon it they cannot keep them one hour there when a man hath been all the week long busie about the world how unfit is he upon the Sabbath day to do any thing for God what a multitude of matters hath he then to review and exercise his thoughts upon He hath ground which he hath purchased to view and oxen which he hath bought to try and multitudes of other matters to look after He can perhaps make shift at the close of the week to loose his hands from the world but he cannot loose his heart from it They are easily taken off it but his heart is not so That goes and takes a view of all the ear hath heard the tongue hath spoken and the hand hath done and passes a judgement upon them all weighing how far they were managed to his credit and advantage and how far not And herein he is so intent that he cannot spare his heart one hour no nor one quarter of an hour for God 〈◊〉 is so common that there is not a man that deals much in the World but his heart will Eccho to what I say and readily assent to it If therefore we would serve God with our hearts we must first disintangle them from the world keep them at a further distance from it and free them from that miserable vassalage and bondage they daily to the unspeakable debasing of them lye in to it 4. Their forgetting that Gods eye is upon them viewing and taking notice of all they do They look after the eyes of men take care to keep their miscarriages from being discerned by them and so secure their reputation with them and in the mean time they forget that there is an all seeing eye upon them that observes all the treacheries backslidings wandrings of their inconstant hearts and weighs every of their actions with all the circumstances belonging to them in a most righteous and unerring ballance And what greater folly can there be than this shall we stand in awe of men and not of God shall we prefer their esteem and acceptance with them before the esteem of God and acceptance with him Is it God that we are to serve or men Is it he that must sit in judgement upon us or they Is it he that must reward us or they If it be he that must do it then le ts henceforth have respect to his eye and see that our services be pleasing to him choose whether they please men or no. With me saith Paul it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of mans judgement Alas what will it avail us to have them think well of us when he thinks ill what will it profit us to be acquitted by them and condemned by him or to be owned by them and rejected by him 5. Their security and want of care and watchfulness over themselves Though they know their souls are treacherous and deceitful and that they are apt to backslide and give them the slip in the service of God yet they will not be got to watch over them but set them at liberty letting them rove and wander up and down whither they please Though they know they have deceived them a thousand times to the losing the benefit of many a pretious ordinance and duty whereby they might have been edified and furthered in the way of God yet they still trust to them letting them take their liberty and do what ever they please Now this is a very unwise course and can lead to nothing but destruction and ruine We must remember what kind of souls we have they are not innocent but sinfull not prone to holy undertakings but greatly averse to them not faithful but treacherous and therefore if we will have them to ingage in the service of God we must watch over them and look to them When ever we set upon duties we must
glory of my Body so is my Integrity the glory of my Soul and therefore whatever becomes of me I 'll not part with it I 'll sooner suffer the Blood to be prest out of my veins and the Soul out of my Body than my Integrity out of my Soul And how bravely did the primitive Christians carry themselves as to this matter Pliny writing to Trajan declares to him that such was their Zeal and Courage in the behalf of their God that nothing could stir them from it neither the imperious checks of the potent Emperours nor the soft language of the eloquent Orators could draw them from the Faith but they stedfastly own'd it and constantly persevered in the defence of it 5. Is sinfull moderation or over much love of peace As there are some that with the Sarmatians are so ignorant and barbarous that they know not what peace means and others that with Pope Sixtus so at enmity with it that they dye at the name of it so there are others so in love with it that they exceed in their esteem of it insomuch that with the Romans they are ready to build Temples and Altars to it and sacrifice truth purity holiness and all to it Even amongst those that profess Christianity and seem to bear respect to the truth some are of such a lukewarm complying spirit that they 'l appear for it no further than they may do it with the maintenance of peace Though they see the truth arraigned condemned and led away to be crucified yet rather than they 'l occasion any stir by seeking to rescue it they 'l let it go They make peace their darling and thereupon when they see any occasion of difference arising they cry out as David did of his Son deal gently with the young man Absalom They would have all to deal tenderly with it but as for truth which is the light and glory of Israel they care not what becomes of it They have great care and pitty of peace but little or none for truth Though they see the ahomination of desolation stand in the holy place though they see the worship of God corrupted his ordinances polluted his word trampled under foot the discipline of the Church utterly perverted the Ministers and servants of God every where reproached and persecuted and religion it self made the scorn of the multitude yet rather than they 'l have an hand in the disturbing of the peace they 'l not so much as open their mouths against it Rather than they 'l have the noise of an hammer in the Temple they 'l see the pillars walls with all the strength and glory of it fall to the ground and become a ruinous heap Brutus layes it to the charge of Tully that he was afraid of a civil war but not of a shamefull peace And so we may lay it to the charge of these men they would rather sit down under the greatest impurities and corruptions than open their mouths to speak against them Nay many are so far from that true zeal and masculine courage they should have for the truth that they do not only refuse to appear for it themselves but in veigh against such as do representing them not only as foolish hypocritical precise proud but as schismatical seditious factious as persons against order and government against good laws and customes as disturbers and troublers of the peace Ahab counted Elijah the troubler of Israel And Haman laid it to the charge of the Jews that they were disobedient to the Kings laws And the adversaries of Jerusalem told Artaxerxes that it was a rebellious City hurtfull unto Kings and Provinces And the unbelieving Jews at Thessalonica did as much for the Apostles they said they were the men that turned the world upside down And Tertullus calls Paul a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition And the Jansenian tells of the Jesuites that after they have disturbed the peace of the Church by their horrid doctrines which tend to the destruction of the precepts of Jesus Christ they make it their business to accuse those who endeavour the re-establishment of them as disturbers of the Churches peace After they have put things into disorder on all sides by the publication of their detestable morality they treat as breakers of the publick peace those whole consciences will not suffer them to comply with their designs and who cannot edunre that those Pharisees of the New Law as they have called themselves should establish their humane traditions upon the ruines of the Divine Thus he This is the reward the ingratefull world gives the servants of Christ for their zeal and faithfulness in his cause Instead of encouraging them and joyning with them they load them with the ignominious and hatefull terms of rebellion and turbulency labouring thereby to make them odious and frustrate their blessed endeavours Now this lukewarm frame of spirit God doth every where declare against and condemn calling upon his servants to be couragious in his cause to quit themselves like men and to contend for the faith he hath delivered to them And they according to the trust reposed in them have done it to the hazarding of all near and dear to them What a peaceable man was Moses how apt to bear wrongs how loth to revenge he was the meekest man upon the face of the earth Yet how exact and punctuall was he in the cause of God When the Israelites were about to come out of Aegypt and Pharaoh would have had them to have left their flocks and herds behind them Moses tells him to his face Our cattel also shall go with us there shall not an hoof be left behind Had Moses lived in our dayes what censures and reproaches would this action have brought upon him what not obey the King not observe his royal commands and that in those things as undoubtedly fall under his cognizance and authority what not leave an hoof at his appointment what disloyalty and irreligiousness is this Away with such a fellow from the earth for it is not fit that he should live This no doubt would have been the language of many amongst us against this faithful servant of God But we must not measure the proceedings of good men by the foolish partial judgements of carnal ones who would rather see the interest of God and his Kingdom perish and come to nothing than expose themselves to the least hazard in preserving it To this example of Moses we may add that of Paul What a peaceable man was he who ever loved peace more desired it more preached it more wrote for it more or endeavoured it more then he yet would not he give place to the false Apostles by subjection no not for an hour What not for an hour who in such a juncture of things would not have born much longer but he would not do it he would not lye for God or use any indirect base means