mercy make thee not fear and tremble before him and do not separate thee from thy sins if remission of sins be not the strongest perswasion to thy soul of the removing of sin certaiuly thou dost in vain presume upon his mercy Now consider what influence all this glorious Proclamation had on Moses it stirs up in him reverence and affection reverence to such a glorious Majesty great desire to have him amongst them and to be more one with him If thy soul rightly discover God it cannot but abase thee he made bade haste to bow down and worship O Gods Majesty is a surprising and astonishing thing it would bow thy soul in the dust if it were represented to thee labour to keep the right and intire representation of God in thy sight his whole Name Strong Mercifull Iust Great and Holy I say keep both in thy view for half representations are dangerous either to beget presumption and security when thou looks on mercy alone or despair when thou looks on Justice and power alone Let thy soul consider all joyntly that it may receive amixed impression of all this is the holy composition and temper of a Believer Rejoice with trembling love with fear let all thy discoveries of him aime at more union communion with him who is â—…ch a self-sufficient al-sufficient and eternal Beeing Joh. 4. 24. God is a Spirit and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth WE have here something of the Nature of God pointed out to us somthing of our duty towards him God is a spirit that is his Nature and man must worship him that is his duty that in spirit in truth that is the right manner of the duty if these three were right pondered till they sink in to the bottome of our spirits they would make us indeed Christians not in the Letter but in the Spirit That is presupposed to all Christian worship walking to know what God is it s indeed the Primo cognitum of Christianity the first Principle of true Religion the very root out of which springs grows up walking sutably with worshipping answerably of a known God I fear much of our Religion be like the Athenians They builded an Altar to an unknown God and like the Samaritanes Who worshipped they know not what Such a Worship I know not what it is when the God worshipped is not known The two parents of true Religion are the knowledge of God and of our selves this indeed is the beginning of the fear of God which the wise Preacher cals the beginning of wisdom And these two as they beget true Religion so they cannot truly be one without the other It is not many notions and speculations about the Divine nature it is not high strained conceptions of God that comprises the true knowledg of him many think they know something when they can speak of these mysteries in some singular way and in some tearms removed from common understandings which neither themselves nor others know what they mean thus they are presumptuous self-conceited knowing nothing as they ought to know there is a knowledge that puffes up there is a knowledge that casts down a a knowledge in many that doth buâ—… swell them not grow them It s but a rumor full of wind a vain and empty and fâ—…othy knowledge that is neither good for edifying others nor saving a manâ—… self a knowledge that a man knows and reflects upon so as to ascend upon the height of it and measure himself by the degrees of it this is not the true knowledge of God which knows not it self looks not back upon it self but straight towards God his holinesse and glory our basenesse misery and therefore it constrains the soul to be ashamed of it self in such a glorious presence and to make haste to worship as Moses Iob Isaiah did This definition of God if we did truly understand it we could not but worship him in another manner God is a spirit Many ignorant people form in their own mind some liknesse and Image of God who is invisible you know how ye fancy to your selves some bodily shape when you conceive of him you think he is some Reverend and Majestick Person sitting on a Throne in Heaven But I beseech you correct your mistakes of him there is outward idolatry and there is inward there is idolatry in action when men paint or ingrave some similitude of God there is Idolatry in imagination when the fancy and apprehension runs upon some Image or likenesse of God The first is among Papists but I fear the latter be too common among us it is indeed all one to form such 〈◊〉 similitude in our mind and to ingrave or paint it without so that the God whom many of us worship is not the living and true God but a painted or graven Idol When God appeared most visible to the world â—…s at the giving out of the Law yet no man did see any liknesse at all he did not come under the percepâ—…ion of the most subtile sense he could not be perceived but by the retired understanding going aside â—…om all things visible therefore you do but fancy â—…n idol to your selves in stead of God when you apâ—…rehend him under the likenesse of any visible or senâ—…ble thing so what ever love or fear or reverence â—…ou have it is all but mispent superstition the love â—…nd fear of an idol 1. I know then that God is a Spirit and therefor he is like none of all these things you see or hear or smel or taste or touch The heavens are glorious indeed the light is full of glory but he is not like that If all your senses should make an inquiry and search for him throughout the world you should not find him though he be near hand every one of us yet your eyes and ears all your senses might travel the length of the earth and breadth of the sea and should not find him even as you might search all the corners of heaven ere ye could hear or see an Angel if you saw a man asunder and resolve him in atomes of dust yet you could not perceive a soul within him why Because these are spirits and so without the reach of your senses II. If God be a Spirit then he is invisible dwels in light inaccessible which no man hath seen or can see then ouâ—… poor narrow minds thaâ—… are drowned as it were and immersed into bodies of clay in this state of mortality receives all knowledge of the senses cannot frame any suitable notion of his spiritual and abstracted nature We cannot conceive what our own soul is but by some sensible operation flowing from it and the height that our knowledge of that noble part of our selves amounts to is but this dark confused conception that the soul is some inward principle of life and sense and reason
possession of it Let all your meditations and affections and conversion proclaim this Whom have I in heaven but thee and none in the earth beside thee And certainly he shal guide you to the end and receive you into glory then you shal rest from your labours because you shal dwell in him and enjoy that which you longed and laboured for Let the consideration of our end unite the hearts of Christians here O what an absurd thing is it that those who shal lodge together at night be made perfect in one should not only go contrary wayes but have contrary minds and affections Of the SCRIPTURES 2 Tim. 3. 16. All Scriptures is given c. WE told you that there was nothing more necessary to know then what our end is and what the way is that leads to that end We see thâ—… most part of men walking at random running an uncertain race because they do not propose unto themselves a certain scope to aim at and whither to direct their whole cours According to mens particular inclinations humors so do the purposes designs of men vary and often do the purposes of one man change according to the circumstances of time his condition in the World We see all men almost running crosse one to another one drives at the satisfaction of his lust by pleasure another fancies a great felicity in honour a third in getting riches and thus men divide themselves whereas if it were true happinesse that all were seeking they would all go one way towards one end If men be not in the right way the faster they seem to move toward the mark the farther they go from it wandering from the right way suppose men intend well will put them farther from that which they intend Si via in contrarium ducat ipsa velocitas as majoris intervalli causa est Therefore it concerns us all most deeply to be acquainted with the true path of blessednesse For if we once mistake the more we do the swister we move the more distant we are from it indeed And there is the more need because there are so many by-paths that lead to destruction What say I by paths No high wayes beaten-paths that the multitude of men walk in never challenge nor will endure to be challenged as if they were in an error In other journeys men keep the plain high way and are afraid of any secret by-way lest it lead them wrong At hîc via quaeque tritissima maximè decipit Here the high pathed way leads wrong and O far wrong to Hell This is the meaning of Christs Sermon Enter in at the strait gate but walk not in the broad way where many walk for it leads to destruction Therefore I would have this perswasion once begotten in your souls that the course of the world the way of the most part of men is dangerous is damnable O consider whither the way will lead you before you go further Do not think it a folly to stand still now examine it when ye have gone on so long in their company Stand I say and consider be not ignorant as beasts that know no other thing than to follow the drove quae pergunt non quae eundum est sed quae itur they follow not whither they ought to go but whither most go You are men and have reasonable souls within you therefore I beseech you be not composed and fashioned according to custome and example that is brutish but according to some inward knowledge and reason Retire once from the multitude and ask in earnest at God what is the way Him that fears him he will teach the way that he should choose the way'to this blessed end is very strait very difficult you must have a guide in it you must have a lamp and a light in it else you cannot but go wrong The principles of reason within us are too dark dim they will never lead us through the pits and snares in the way these indeed shined brightly in Adam that he needed no light without him no voice about him But sin hath extinguished it much and there remains nothing but some little spunk or sparkle under the ashes of much corruption that is but insufficient in it self and is often more blinded and darkned by lusts so that if it were never so much refined as it was in many heathens yet it is but the blind leading the blind and both must fall into the ditch Our end is high and divine To glorifie God and to enjoy Him therefore our reason caligat ad suprema it can no more stedfastly behold that glorious end move towards it then our weak eyes can behold the Sun Our eyes can look downward upon the earth but not upward to the Heavens So we have some remnant of reason in us that hath some petty and poor ability for matters of little moment as the things of this life But if once we look upward to the glory of God or eternal happinesse our eyes are dazled our reason confounded we cannot stedfastly behold that Eph. 4. 18. 2 Cor. 3. 13. 14. Therefore the Lord hath been pleased to give us the Scriptures which may be a Lamp unto our feet a guide unto our way whereunto we shal do well to take heed as unto a candle or a light that shines in a dark place till the day dawn 2 Pet. 1. 6. These are able to make us wise unto salvation Let us here what Paul speaks of Timothy 2 Tim. 3. 16. All Scriptures is given c. Where you have two points of high concernment The Authority of the Scriptures and their Utility Their Authority for they are given by Divine Inspiration Their Utility for they are profitable for Doctrine c. and can make us perfect and well furnished to every good work The Authority of it is in a peculiar way divine of him and through him are all things All Writings of men according to the truth of the Scriptures have some Divinity in them in as much as they have of truth which is a Divine thing Yet the Holy Scriptures are by way of excellency attributed to God for they are immediatly inspired of God Therefore Peter saith that the Scriptures came not in old time by the will of Man but holy men spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 21. God by his Spirit as it were acted the part of the soul in the Prophets and Apostles and they did no more but utter what the Spirit conceived The holy Ghost inspired the matter the words they were but tongues pens to speak write it unto the people here needed no debate no search in their own minds for the truth no inquisition for light but light shined upon their souls so brightly so convincingly that it puts it beyond all question that it was the mind and voice of God You need not ask How they did know that their dreams or
the Kings Statute and Law if it vary in any thing from his intention it s not valid and binding I beseech you take the Scriptures for the Rule of your walking or else you will wander the Scripture is Regula regulans a ruling Rule If you be not acquainted with It you must follow the opinions or examples of other men and what if they lead you unto destruction Joh. 5. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them c. Eph. 2. 20. And are built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles AS in darknesse there is need of a Lanthorn without and the light of the eyes within for neither can we see in darknesse without some Lamp though we have never so good eyes nor yet see without eyes though in never so clear a Sun-shine So there is absolute need for the guiding of our feet in the dangerous and dark paths to Eternall life that is full of pits and snares of the Lamp or Wood written or preached without us and the illumination of the holy Ghost within us These are conjoyned Isa. 56. 21. This is my Covenant the spirit that is upon thee and the words that I have put in thy mouth shal not depart out of thy mouth nor the mouth of thy seed c. There are words without and there must needs be a Spirit within which makes us to behold the truth and grace contained in these words There is a Law written without with pen and ink and there is a Law written within upon the heart with the Spirit of the living God The Law without is the Patern and exact copy the Law within is the Transcript or the Image of God upon the heart framed and fashioned according to the similitude of it 2 Cor. 3. 3. Heb. 8. 10. So then there needs be no more question about the Divine Authority of the Scriptures among those who have their senses exercised to descern between good and ill than among men who see and taste concerning light and darknesse sweet bitter The perswasion of a Christian is fetched deeper than the reasons of men their faith is the evidence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not seen it s an eye a supernaturall eye whereby a soul beholds that Majesty and excellency of God shinning in the word which though it shine about the rest of the World yet it 's not seen because they cannot know it nor descern it Wonder not that the multitude of men cannot believe the report that is made that there is so few who find any such excellency and sweetnesse in the Gospel as is reported because saith Isai. 53. 1. the arm of the Lord is not revealed to them the hand of God must first write on their heart ere they understand the Writtings of the Scriptures his arm must creat an eye in their souls an eternal light before it can behold that glorious brightnesse of Gods shinning in the word The word is Gods testimony of himself of his grace and mercy and good-will to mankind Now no man can receive this testimony unlesse it be sealed and confirmed by the holy Ghost into the heart saith Peter We are his witnesses of these things and so also is the holy Ghost whom God hath given to those that obey him Acts 5. 32. The word witnesses to the ear and the spirits testifieth to our spirits the truth and worth of that and therefore the spirit is a seal and a witnesse The word is the Lord's voice to his own Children Bastards cannot know it but my sheep hear my voice Joh. 10 4. 16. You know no difference between the bleeting of one sheep and another but the poor lambs know their mothers voice there is a secret instinct of nature that is more powerfull than many marks and signs Even so those that are begotten of God know his voice they descern that in it which all the world that hear it cannot descern there is a sympathy between their souls and that living Word that word is the immortall seed they are begotten of and there is a naturall instinct to love that and to mediate in it such an inclination to it as in new born babes to the breasts so the Children of God do desire the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby aâ—… they were born of it 1 Pet. 2. 2. In these Scriptures which we read in your audience you have something of their excellency and our duty there is a rich jewel in them a precious pearl in that field even Jesus Christ and in him eternall life and therefore we ought to search the Scriptures for this jewel to dig in the field for this pearl the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles is a sure foundation whereupon souls may build their eternall felicity and the hope of it Jesus Christ is the very chief stone in that foundation whereupon the weight of all the Saints and all their hope hangs And therefore we ought to lean the weight of our Souls only to this truth of God and build our faith only upon it and square our practice only by it We shal speak something of the first that it may be a spurre to the second The Jews had some respective opinion of the word of God they knew that in them waseternall life they thought it a Doctrine of life and happinesse and so cryed up Moses Writtings but they would not believe Christs words they erred not understanding the Scriptures and so set the Writtings of Moses Law at variance with the preaching of Christs Gospel What a pittyfull mistake was this they thought they had eternall life in the Scriptures and yet they did not receive nor acknowledge him whom to know was eternall life therefore our Lord Jesus sends them back again to the Scriptures go and search them you think and you think well that in then you may find the way to eternall life but while you seek it in them you mistake it These Scriptures testifie of me the end of the Law but you cannot behold the end of that Ministry because of the blindnesse of your hearts Rom. 10. 3. 2 Cor. 3. 14. Therefore search again unfold the ceremonies I am wrapt in them and life eternall with me dig up the Law till you find the bottome of Gods purpose in it till you find the end of the Ministration and you shal find me the way and truth and life and so you shal have that eternall life which now you do but think you have and are beguiled While you seek it out of me in vain you think you have it for it is not in the Scriptures but because they testifie of me the life and the light of men May not this now commend the word to us Eternall life is in it Other Writings and discourses may tickle the ears with some pleasing eloquence but that is vanishing it s but like a Musitians voice some may represent some petty momentary advantage but how soon shal an end be put till all that so that within
that they do also agree in one common Testimony to the Mediator of men yet moreover they are one They not only agree in one but are one God one simple undivided self-being infinite Spirit holden out to us in three Persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost to whom be praise and glory Deut. 6. 4. and Ioh. 5. 7. ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God it is profitable for instruction for direction c. There is no refuse in it no simple and plain History but it tends to some edification no profound or deep mysterie but it is profitable for Salvation whatsoever secrets there be in the mysteries of God which is reserved from us though it be given us but to know in part darkly thorow a vail yet as much is given us to know as may make the man of God perfect in every good work as much is given us to know as may build us up to eternall salvation if there were no more use of these deep mysteries of the Holy Trinity c. but to silence all flesh restrain the unlimited spirits of men and keep them within the bounds of Sobriety and Faith It were enough That great secret would teach as much by its silence darknesse as the plainer truths do speak out clearly O that this great mystery did compose our hearts to some reverend awfull apprehension of that God we have to do with did imprint in our soul a more feeling sense of our darknesse and ignorance this were more advantage than all the gain of light or increase of knowledge than can come from the search of curiosity If men would labour to walk in that light they have attained rather than curiously enquire after what they cannot know by enquiry they should sooner attain more true light if men would set about the practice of what they know without doubt they would more readily come to a resolution clearnesse in doubtful things Religion is now turned into questions School-debates Men begin to believe nothing but dispute every thing under a pretence of searching for light and resolution but for the most part while men look after light they darken themselves this is the righteous judgement of the Lord upon the world that doth not receive the truth in love or walk in the light of what they have already attained therefore he gives men up to wander in their search into the dark dungeons of humane wisdome and fancy and to lose what they have already If those things which are without all Controversie as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 3. 16. were indeed made conscience of and imbraced in love and practised it were beyond all controversie that the most part of present controversies would cease But it fals out with many as with the dog that catching at a shadow in the water lost the substance in his teeth so they pursuing after new discoveries in contraverted things and not taking a heart-hold and inward grip of the substantiall truths of the Gospell which are beyond all controversie do even lose what they have Thus Even that which they have not is taken from them because though they have it in judgment yet they have it not surely and solidly in affection that it may be holden So to this present point if we could learn to adore and admire this Holy Holy Holy One If we could in silence and faith sit down and wonder at this mysterie it would be more profitable to us and make way for a clearer manifestation of God than if we should search and enquire into all the Volums that are written upon it thinking by this means to satisfie our reason I think there is more profoundnesse in the sobriety of Faith than in the depths of humane wisdome and learning when the mysterie is such an infinite depth O but mens eloquence and wisedom must be shallow far too shallow either to find it out or unfold it But there is yet both more instruction and consolation to be pressed out of this mysterie and therefore If you cannot reach it in it self O consider what it concerns us how we may be edified by it for this is true Religion Look upon that place of Moses what is the great instruction he draws from this unity of Gods Essence v. 5. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Since God is one then have no God but one and that the true and living God and this is the very first command of God which flowes as it were immediatly from his absolute Onenesse and perfection of Beeing There is no man but he must have some God that is something whereupon he placeth his affection most every man hath some one thing he loves and respects beyond all other things some Lord and Master that commands him therefore saith Christ No man can serve two Masters before a man will want God to love and serve he will make them and then worship them yea he will make himself his belly his back his honour pleasure a God and sacrifice all his affections and desires and endeavours to these The naturall subordination of man to God the relation he hath as a Creature to a Creator is the first fundamentall relation beyond all respects to himself or other fellow-creatures This is the proto-naturall Obligation upon the Creature therefore it should have returned in a direct line to his Majesty all its affections and endeavours But mans Fall from God hath made a wretched throw crâ—…ok in the soul that it cannot look any more after him but bows downward towards creatures below or bends inwardly towards it self so since the Fall man hath turned his heart from the true God set it upon vanity upon lying vanities upon base dead Idols which can neither help him nor hurt him your hearts are gone a whoring from God O that ye would believe it none of you will deny but ye have broken all the Commands yet such is the brutish ignorance stupidity of the most part that you will not confesse that when it comes to particulars and especially if you should be challenged for loving other things more than God or having other Gods besides the true God you will instantly deny it that with an asseveration aversation God forbid that I have another God Alas this shews that what you confesse in the generall is not believed in the heart but only is like the parting of children whom you may learn to say any thing I beseech you consider that what you give your time pains thoughts and affections to that is your God you must give God all your heart and so retain nothing of your own will if God be your God but do ye not know that your care and grief and desire and love vents another way towards base things You know that you have a will of your own which goeth quite contrary to his holy vvill in all things therefore Sathan hath bewitched
joyntly to God it is certainly a great slight of that deceitful destroyer the Devill to possesse your minds with an opinion of Religion in such vain bablings that he may with-draw both your ears your hearts from the publick worship of God for when every one is busied with his own prayers you cannot at all joyn in the publick service of God which is offered up in your name The like I may say of stupid forms of prayer tying your selves to a plat-form written in a book or to some certain words gotten by the heart who hath commanded this Sure not the Lord who hath promised his spirit to teach them to pray and help their infirmities who know not how nor what to pray it is a device of your own invented by Satan to quench the spirit it of supplication which should be the very naturall breathing of a christian But there are some so grossely ignorant of what prayer is that they make use of the ten commands Beleef as a Prayer so void are they of the knowledge and spirit of God that they cannot discern betwixt Gods commands to themselves their own requests to God betwixt his speaking to men and their speaking to him between their professing of him before men and praying and confessing to him all this is but forged imaginary worship worship falsly so called which the Father seeks not and receives not But what if I should say that the most part of your worship even that which is commanded of God as Prayer Hearing Reading c hath no truth in it I should say nothing amiss for though you doe those things that are commanded yet not as Commanded without any respect to divine appointment only because you have received them as traditions from your fathers and because you are taught so by the precepts of men and are accustomed so to do therefore the stamp of Gods will and pleasure is not engraven on them but of your own will or of the will of men Let me pose your Consciences many of you what difference is there between your praying your plowing between your hearing and your harrowing between your reading of the Scriptures and your reaping in the Harvest between your Religious Service and your common ordinary actions I say what difference is in the rise of these You do many civill things out of custome or because of the Precepts of men is there any other principle at the bottom of your religious performances Do you at all consider these are divine appointments these have a stamp of his authority on them and from the Conscience of such an immediat command of God and the desire to please him and obey him do you go about these I fear many cannot say it O I am sure all cannot thogh it may be all will say it therefore your religious worship can come in no other account than will-worship or man-worship it hath not the stamp of truth on it an express conformity to the truth of God as his truth But we must presse out this a little more Truth is opposed to a ceremony shadow The ceremonies of old were shadows or the external body of Religion in which the soul and spirit of godlinesse should have been enclosed but the Lord did alwaies urge more earnestly the substance and truth then the ceremony the weightier matters of the Law Piety equity and sobriety than these lighter external Ceremonies he sets an higher account upon mercy then sacrifice upon obedience then Ceremonies but this people turned just contrary they summed up all their Religion in some ceremonial performance and separated those things God had so nearly conjoyned they would be devout men in offering sacrifices in their washings in their rites and yet made no conscience of heart and Soul-piety toward God upright just dealing with men Therefore the Lord so often quarrels them rejects all their service as being adevice and invention of their own which never entred in his heart Isa. 1. from 10. to 16. Ier. 7. throughout Isa. 66. to 6. Isa 28. Now if you will examine it impartially it is even just so with us there are some externall things in Religion which in comparison with the weightier things of faith and obedience are but ceremonial in these you place the most part if not all your Religion and think your selves good Christians if you be baptized and hear the Word and partake of the Lords table and such like though in the mean time you be not given to secret prayer reading and do not inwardly judge and examine your selves that you may flee unto a Mediator thogh your conversation be unjust and scandalous among men I say unto such souls as the Lord to the Jews Who hath required this at your hands who commanded you to hear the VVord to be baptized to wait on publick Ordinances Away with all this it is abomination to his Majesty though it please you never so well the more it displeases him If you say why commands he us to hear c. I say the Lord never commanded these external Ordinances for the sum of true Religion that was not the great thing which was in his heart that he had most pleasure unto but the weightier matters of the Law piety equity sobriety a holy and godly conversation adorning the Gospell What hath the Lord required of thee but this O man To do justly and walk humbly with thy God So then thou dost not worship him in Truth but in shadow the Truth is holinesse and righteousnesse that externall profession is but a Ceremony while you separate these external Ordinances from these weighty duties of piety justice that they are but as dead body without a soul. If the Lord required truth of old much more now when he hath abolished the multitude of Ceremonies that the great things of his Law may be more seen and loved If you would then be true worshippers look the whole mind of God especially the chief pleasure of Gods mind that which he most delights into and by any means do not separate what God hath conjoyned do not divide righteousness towards men from a profession of holiness to God else it is but a falshood a counterfeit coyn do not please your selves so much in externall Church priviledges without a holy and godly conversation adorning the Gospel but let the chief study endeavour delight of your souls be about that which God most delights into let the substantials of Religion have the first place in the soul Pray more in secret that he will be the life of your souls you ought indeed to attend publick ordinances but above all take heed to your conversation walking at home and in secret prayer in your Family is a more substantiall worship then to sit hear prayer in publick and prayer in secret is more substantiall then that The more retired and immediate a duty be the more weighty it is the more it
crosse thy corruptions and evidence the stamp of God on thy affections the more divine it is And therefore to serve God in these is to serve him in truth Practice hath more of truth in it then a profession When your Fathers executed judgement was not this to know me Duties that have more opposition from our natures against them and lesse sewel or oyl to feed the flame of our self love and corruption have more truth in them and if you should worship God in all other duties and not especially in those you do not worship him in truth Next let us consider the manner of Divine Worship And this is as needfull to true Worship as true matter that it be commanded and done as it is commanded that compleats true worship Now I know no better way or manner to worship God in than so to worship him as our worship may carry the stamp of his Image upon it as it may be a glasse wherein we may behold Gods Nature and Properties For such as himself is such he would be acknowledged to be I would think it were true worship indeed which had engraven on it the Name of the true living God if it did speak out so much of it self That God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him diligently Most part of our service speaks an unknown God carries such an inscription upon it To the unknown God There is so little either reverence or love or fear or knowledge in it as if we did not worship the true God but an Idoll It is said that the fool sayes in his heart that there is no God because his thoughts and affections and actions are so little composed to the fear and likenesse of that God as if he did indeed plainly deny him I fear it may be said thus of our Worship It sayes There is no God it is of such a nature that none could conclude from it that it had any relation to the true God our prayers denie God because there is nothing of God appears in them But this is true worship when it renders back to God his own Image and Name Unde repercussus redditur ipse sibi As it is a poor clean Fountain in which a man may see his shaddow distinctlie but a troubled fountain or myre in which he cannot be hold himself So it is pure worship which receives and reflects the pure Image of God but impure and unclean worship which cannot receive it and retain it I pray you Christians consider this for it is such Worshippers the Father seeks and why seeks he such But because in them he finds himself so to speak His own I mage and superscription is upon them His mercy isengraven on their faith confidence His Majestie power is stamped on their humility and reverence His goodnesse is to be read on the souls rejoicing His Greatnesse and Justice in the souls trembling Thus there ought to be some engravings on the soul answering the Characters of his glorious Name O how little of this is among them that desire to know something of God How little true Worship even among them whom the Father hath sought out to make true Worshippers But alas How are all of us unacquainted with this kind of Worship We stay upon the first principles practices of Religion and go not on to build upon the foundation Sometimes your Worship hath a stamp of Gods holinesse and justice in fear terrour at such a Majesty which makes you to tremble before him But where is the stamp of his mercy grace which should be written in your faith and rejoycing Tremble and fear indeed but rejoyce with trembling because there is mercy with him Sometime their is rejoycing and quietnesse in the soul but that quickly degenerates into carnal confidence makes the soul turn grace into wantonness and esteem of it self above what is right because it is not counterpoised with the sense and apprehension of his holinesse and justice But O to have these joyntly written on the heart in worship fear reverence confidence humility and faith That is a rare thing it is a divine composition and temper of spirit that makes a divine soul For the most part our Worship savours and smels nothing of God neither his power nor his mercy and grace nor his holinesse and justice nor his majesty and glory a secure saint formal way void of reverence of humility of servency and of faith I beseech you let us consider as before the Lord how much pains and time we lose and please none but our selves profit none at all Stir up your selves as in his sight for it is the keeping of our souls continually as in his sight which will stamp our service with his likenesse The fixed and constant meditation of God and his glorious properties this will beget the resemblance between our worship and the God whom we worship and it will imprint his Image upon it then it should please him then it should profit thee and then it should edifie others But more particularly The Worship must have the stamp of Gods spiritual Nature and be conformed to it in some measure else it cannot please him There must be a conformity between God and souls this is the great end of the Gospel to repair that Image of God which was once upon man and make him like God again Now it is the way that Jesus Christ repairs this Image brings about this conformity with God by the souls worshipping of God sutable to his Nature it is the more and more like God and happy in that likenesse Now God is a Spirit therefore saith Christ you must worship him in spirit truth The worship then of Saints must be of a spiritual nature that it may be like the immortal divine Spirit It is such Worshippers the Father seeks he seeks souls to make them like himself and this likenesse and conformity to God is the very foundation of the souls happinesse and eternall refreshment This is a point of great consequence I fear not laid to heart The Worship must be like the Worshipped It is a Spirit must Worship the Eternal Spirit it is not a body that can be the principle and chief Agent in the businesse What Communion can God have with your bodies while your souls are removed far from him more than with beasts All society and fellowship must be between those that are like one another A man can have no comfortable company with Beasts or with Stones and Trees It is men that can converse with men and a Spirit must worship the self-being-spirit Do not mistake this as if under the dayes of the Gospel we were not called to an external and bodily Worship to any service to which our outward man is instrumentall this is one of the deep delusions of this Age into which some men reprobate 〈◊〉 the Faith hath fallen That there should be no externall
searching we could find them out unto perfection but to believe what is spoken till the day break and the shadows flee away and the darknesse of ignorance be wholly dispelled by the rising of the Sun of Righteousnesse We are called then to receive this truth that God is one truly one and there are three in this one the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost This I say you must believe because the wisdom of God faith it though you know not how it is or how it can be though it seem a contradiction in reason a Trinity in Unity yet you must lead your reason captive to the obedience of faith silence it with this one answer The Lord hath said it If thou go on to dispute and to enquire how can these things be Thou art escaped from under the power of Faith and are fled unto the tents of humane wisedom where thou mayest learn artheism but no Religion for the world through wisedom knew not God 1 Cor. 1. And certainly who ever he be that will not quiet his conscience upon the bare word of truth in this particular but will call in for the help of reason and disputation how to understand and maintain it I think he shall be further from the true knowledge of God and satisfaction of mind than before There is no way here but to flee into Pauls Sanctuary Who art thou O man that disputes When ever thou thinks within thy self How may this be how can one be three and three one then withall let this of Pauls sound in thine ears Who art thou O man who disputes Think that thou art man think that he is God Believing ignorance is much better than rash presumptuous knowledge ask not a reason of these things but rather adore and tremble at the mysterie and Majesty of them Christianity is foolishnesse to the world upon this account because it 's an Implicite faith so to speak given to God but there is no fear of being deceived though he lead thee blind by a way thou know not yet he cannot lead thee wrong This holy simplicity in believing every word of God trusting without more trying by disputation is the very Character of Christianity and it will be found only true wisdome for if any will become wise he must be a fool in mens account that he may be wise he must quite his reason to learn true Religion which indeed is a more excellent and divine reason neither is it contrary to it though it be high above it In this place of Moses you have the Unity of God asserted The Lord thy God is one Lord And that is indeed engraven on the very hearts of men by nature That God is One for all may know that the common notion and apprehension of God is that he is a most perfect being the Originall of all things most wise most powerfull infinite in all perfections Now common reason may tell any man that there can bee but one thing most perfect Excellent there can be but one infinite one Almighty one beginning and end of all one first mover one first cause of whom are all things and who is of none Again in this place of Iohn ye have a Testimony of the blessed Trinitie of Persons Father Son and holy Ghost in that holy Unity of Essence The great point which Iohn hath in hand is this fundamentall of our Salvation that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Saviour of the World in whom all our confidence should be placed and upon whom we should lean the weight of our souls this he proves by a twofold testimony one out of Heaven another in the Earth There are three bearing witnesse to this truth in heaven The Father the word that is Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God whom this Apostle calls the word of God or wisdom of God Ioh. 1. 1. and the Holy Ghost The Father witnessed to this truth in an audible voice out of Heaven when Christ was baptized Mat. 3. 17. This is my wel-belovd Son hear him here 's the Fathers Testimony of the Son when he was baptized which was given very solemnly in a great congregation of people and divinely with great glory and Majesty from Heaven as if the heavens had opened upon him and the inaccessible light of God had shined down on him which was confirmed in the transfiguration Mat. 17. 5. VVhere the Lord gave a glorious evidence to the astonishment of the three Disciples how he did account of him how all Saints and Angels must serve him Him hath God the Father sealed saith Iohn Indeed the stamp of divinitie of the divine Image in such an excellent manner upon the man Christ was a Seal set on by God the Father signifying confirming his approbation of his well-beloved Son and of the work he was going about Then the Son himself did give ample Testimony of this this was the subject of his Preaching to the VVorld I am the light and life of men He that beleeveth on mee shall be saved and therefore he may be called the word of God and the wisedom of God Joh. 1. 1. Prov. 8. Because he hath revealed unto us the blessed mysterie of Wisdom concerning our Salvation He is the very expression and Character of the Fathers person and Glory Heb. 1. In his own Person and he hath revealed and expressed his Fathers mind and his own Office so fully to the World that there should be no more doubt of it Out of the mouth of these two witnesses this Word might be established But for superabundance behold a third the Holy Ghost witnessing at his baptisme in his Resurrection after his Ascension the Holy Ghost signifieth his presence and consent to that work in the similitude of a Dove the Holy Ghost testified it in the power that raised him from the dead the Holy Ghost put it beyond all question when he descended upon the Apostles according to Christs promise For the other three witnesses on earth we shal not stay upon it only know that the work of the regeneration of souls by the power of the word and spirit signified by water the justification of guilty souls signified by the blood of Jesus Christ the Testimony of the spirit in our Conscience bearing witnesse to our Spirits is an assured Testimony of this that Jesus Christ in whom we believe is the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth The changing pacifying and comforting of souls in such a wonderfull manner cryes aloud that he in whom the soul believes is the true and living God whom to know is eternal life But mark I pray you the accuracy of the Apostle in the change of the speech these three witnesses on earth saith he agree in one in giving one common testimony to the Son of God and Saviour of Sinners But as for the heavenly witnesses the Father the Word and Holy Ghost how ever they be three after an inconceivable manner