The Reform'd Samaritan OR THE WORSHIP OF GOD By the Measures of Spirit and Truth Preached for a VISITATION-SERMON at the Convention of the Clergy by the Reverend Arch-Deacon of Coventry in Coventry April the Sixth 1676. To which is Annexed A Review of a short Discourse Printed in 1649. about the Necessity and Expediency of Worshipping God by set Forms By JOHN ALLINGTON Vicar Of Leamington-Hastang LONDON Printed by J. C. for Thomas Basset at the George near St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1678. To the Honourable CHARLES LEIGH Esq Now at Leighton-Buzzard Be Health Honour Happiness SIR OF that Gentile who built them a Synagogue the Jews gave this Eulogie That he was worthy and that he loved their Nation That your self came a worthy person into the World your paternal Dignity will avouch and that you are one who not onely love your Nation but the Religion of it I shall onely in proportion to the Synagogue say You have lately at your own Cost beautisied the better part of the House of God not doubting but Beauty in Place as well as in a Person may be a great attractive endeavouring to woe the People to worship their God in the Beauty of Holiness Having thus done and hearing the following Sermon you did more than desire that it might be made publique and merely therefore because it had for subject onely the Worship of God which as distinct from Service hath not been in your hearing so plainly explicated as you candidly concéived it is Now honoured Sir to gratifie you and at your instigation to promote the Worship of God in the capacities of such who are not sinely learned I have delivered my Endeavours and your Desires to the world My Intention is good the Acceptance dubious but shall I please God and please you in so doing I have my end There is annexed to the Sermon what many years hath lain in the posture it now appears which for the Brevity Easiness and Time it was writ in was much importuned Thousands since the Glory of our Worship brake forth that dismal Cloud which many years it stood eclipsed in I say thousands have now courted it as the rising Sun but by their mincing and mangling and neglect of it declare they receive it onely as an expedient to hold a Living Whereas when that was writ a Living was lost for the using of it and the Author suspended by an imperious Beggar Tam ab Officio quam à Beneficio for reading the Common-prayer without Book The sum is that to worship God by a set Form is the stablest and most certain advance of his Glory and the securing of the holy Duty from all impertinencies A Discourse not unfit to accompany and wait upon a Sermon precisely about Worship which shall suffice at this time to trouble both your honourable Self and the willing Reader From my Study at Leamington Novemb 20. 1677. Yours Most willing to Honour Love and Pray for you John Allington THE REFORMED SAMARITAN JOHN 4. 23. The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth TO traverse the Coherence from the sixth to this present Verse would spend too much time and therefore being intelligentibus loquor I shall observe as introductory to my Text onely three things 1. One concerning the Woman a Samaritan 2. The place Jerusalem and Gerasin 3. The Worship it self First The observable in the Woman it was a religious piece of Hypocrisie For when our blessed Master convinced her of being a close Adulteress then she begins to speak godlily and to turn her discourse as Factious Saints use to a religious Controversie Our Fathers saith she worshipped in this mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship Our Saviour puts her in minde of living in Adultery and she puts our Saviour upon the decision of a Question our Saviour tells her of her living with one that was not her Husband and she tells our Saviour that the Jews did not worship where they should Our Saviour tells her of an undoubted fault and she makes scruple of a disputable Ceremony And in this she seems to be the Emblem of too too many yea of too too many even at this very day For have not we those who make huge scruple about what they understand not and yet none at all of indisputable and known sins I have heard of one who made an huge scruple of kneeling to ask Blessing to a Mother who made none of lying with another Womans Husband I have heard of some who make an huge scruple of any Recreation upon the Lord's day who upon all the days of the Week have made none at all of Rebellion Schism Sedition Heresie which witness the Apostle are more undoubted wickednesses Yea we have heard and seen too too many boggle at a Surplice who made nothing of Plundering Killing and Cutting of Throats Too too many scrupling a Gesture at the Sacrament who made none after their own mode to receive it with Hatred Malice and all Vncharitableness And what is this but just as did the Samaritan Woman to wave common and crying sins with religious controversies yea what are all such scruples but meerly Religion in Hypocrisie Secondly The next observable it is about the place from Vers 21. where it is written Neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem shall ye worship and it shall be onely this These words are not as some mistake them an inhibition of set places as if God under the Gospel would have no Churches no Temples no holy places But this is a gratious enlargement and an holy Liberty given to devout Christians in any place to erect a Temple and in every Country Town or City to build an House of Prayer In those daies the Samaritans they held themselves bound to Gerasin and the Jews we all know were confined and bound to go up to Jerusalem for to worship but by the coming of Christ and his Gospel so are Christians enlarged that wheresoever we shall dedicate Houses to his Worship there will he be worshipped there will he receive our Vows our Prayers our Praises Nor doth worshipping in spirit and truth in the least oppose this For if worshipping in spirit and in truth were an opposition to material places then we might not pray in our Closets nor in our Chambers nor in our Houses nor in Groves nor in Fields nor indeed upon God's Earth for these are all material as well as Churches Nay I might adde not in our Bodies for even they are materials also By Worshipping then in spirit and truth there is no rejection of material places no neither of Jerusalem nor Gerasin in order to Evangelical worship For where Story telleth us Eruptions of Fire would not permit the re-edifying of a Temple even there at this day the Christians have a Temple and do worship Thirdly therefore to come directly to the Text our last introductory Observation
to speak the same thing considerable it is that as we have the Apostolical Creed for the one so we have the Lords Prayer for the other Christ having given unto us as well a Common-prayer as a common Faith and indeed no Congregation in the world can confidently say we know how we worship but such onely as have set Forms against which and the appendencies thereupon That there is nothing at all in these too too much abused words we will now pass to a peculiar and strict survey of them The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers pers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth In which words for Methods sake thus First The time here spoken of The hour cometh and now is Secondly The Subject spoken on and that is the Worship of God The true worshippers of God shall worship Thirdly The Mode or manner how Spirit The Father in Truth First of the Time The hour cometh and now is He to whom a thousand years are but as one day He to admonish our mortality speaks of the whole term and state of the Gospel as but an hour The hour cometh and now is and yet this Hour extends from his coming in the Flesh to his coming in the Clouds and therefore if we strictly and grammatically look upon the words being it is not onely said the hour cometh but also Now is this Nunc est this Now is it must be taken Inchoativè that is Now commencing or now beginning For as a man at first turning of the Glass may say now is the hour in which such or such things shall be done which perchance shall not begin or be done till the middle or latter end of the hour Even so whereas our Saviour saith The hour is coming and now is wherein neither in that mountain nor yet in Jerusalem they should worship this Now was not instantly and from that very period of time to take place but within the compass of the hour for these words are observed to have been spoken even the very first year of his preaching and as appears in this Chapter before his second Miracle So that neither was Jerusalem or Gerasin laid aside so soon yea before the Temple was destroy'd and before they forbare to go up to Jerusalem to worship it was nigh fourty years after this saying Peter and John went up into the Temple at the hour of prayer the Aethiopian Eunuch yea St. Paul himself after this went up even to Jerusalem for to worship So that by this approaching Hour and by the Now in my Text we are to understand the state of the Gospel after the term and dissolution of that Legal way so that to be brief here both we and our Fore-fathers for many by-past Ages may take up the Text and say The hour is come and now is when which is the Second considerable the true worshippers shall worship In the whole Book of God there is no one Duty to which there are more invitations of which more holy Examples against violating which more severe Judgements than this general Duty the Worship of God And yet at this day as if God had laid aside his Honour those who ought to be the true Worshippers they despise neglect and lay aside his worship as if that of the Psalmist O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness or that Exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at his foot-stool As if these and very very many of the like were all but airy and empty sounds If there be no Sermon too too many who by profession ought to be Worshippers they are come to that they think it not worth the while to go up to the House of God to worship Sure I am in the days of Nehemiah it was not so Worshipping then had as full a regard as Hearing As much of the solemn day as was spent in Reading even so much and no less was spent in Worshipping For you shall finde They read in the book of the law of the Lord their God one fourth part of the day and another fourth part they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God The equal Sisters had an equal portion they spent full as much time in worshipping as in reading Nay if we survey the Law of God it self you shall finde that God so far valued his Worship that he took not a weekly but a daily order for it For whereas we read Acts 15. 21. Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him being read in the synagogue every sabbath Whereas care was taken for that but once a Week we finde God commanded the Priests to worship publickly twice a Day For Exod. 29. 38. Thou shalt offer upon the altar two lambs of the first year day by day continually the one lamb in the morning the other at the evening This was God's publick and this was his daily worship Now if the state of the Gospel be such that our Righteousness must exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharises why should not also our Devotion do it If that people who had lesser obligation were bound to a daily worship certainly then it must be a failing or a sin in us Christians to despise vilisie and neglect God's daily Worship For the hour is come and now is wherein we Christians are bound to worship for the state of Christianity even by Christ himself is thus described The true worshippers shall worship and worship the Father too whence it is as clear as Noon-day under the state of the Gospel we must be worshippers Amongst Christians there are many who press and speak much of Gospel graces Gospel liberties Gospel priviledges and Gospel ordinances but for Gospel-worship not a Syllable And yet our Saviour in the Text pronounceth Christians onely shall prove the true worshippers Now the better to understand what is here meant by Worship Consider we must there are in God two things of distinct Consideration as to us 1. His Person 2. His Precepts To his Person we owe all Worship and Honour and Glory To his Precepts all Regard Service and Obedience Now the Question here propounded by the Samaritan is not about Obedience Regard or Service for there was no dispute but both in Gerasin and Jerusalem God was to be served and God was to be obey'd but the Question onely is where he was to be Worshipped Yea To come more close and stricter to the point the Question is not about inward but about outward not about private but onely about publickworship For as for the inward worship of the Soul as for private Devotion and spiritual Duties this was never confined either to Jerusalem by the Jew nor ever by a Samaritan determined unto Gerasin Daniel prayed in his Chamber Jeremy prayed in the Dungeon Job pray'd in the Dunghil David prayed on his Bed And it was in all ages lawful thus to worship God in any place The scruple
respect to the outward and publick worship of God under the state of the Gospel First Spirit and Truth are not here opposed either to outward bodily worship or to any outward express of any Grace or Virtue And this to a wary ear hath already been concluded by the premises For being I have shew'd unto you how the Question between the Samaritan and our Saviour was about two Worships one false and the other gross one Idolatrous and the other Legal one by the Jew to the true God the other by the Samaritan to they knew not what To these two Worships our blessed Lord and Master in the Text opposeth these two Spirit and Truth To the Gross Legal and Jewish way of worship to that he opposeth the Spirit To the False Idolatrous and Samaritan way to that he opposeth the Truth So that to worship in Spirit and in Truth is no more according to the Letter than onely thus The hour is coming and now is when the Law shall give way to the Gospel Moses to Christ the Jewish worship which was then by Bullocks Goats and Lambs to a spiritual worship which shall require no such Sacrifice no such Oblations And in order to the Samaritan thus The time is coming and Now is when ye shall be better informed in the word of Truth when ye shall know what to worship and then you shall finde neither Gerasin to be the place nor what ye now worship to be the Object For the true worshippers they shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth So that by spirit and truth there is nothing stands here excluded but either worshipping the wrong object as did the Samaritan or the right Object the wrong way as the Jews do even to this very day Hugely then are they mistaken who conceit to worship in spirit is a discharge to bodily or outward worship when the opposition and the discharge it onely is against Mosaick and Samaritan against Legal and against Idolatrous worship Yea so far was our Saviour in those words from excluding bodily and outward worship that those who know any thing of the Greek know he here useth a word so proper to bodily and outward expression that the spirit alone cannot do it The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth an outward prostration and a lowly humbling of the Body so that the true Worshippers of the Father when in a godly sear and with a religious reverence they bow down and humble their Bodies before him they then do what the Text requires they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They do worship in spirit yea and in truth too And As the Spirit is not opposed to bodily worship so neither is it to any outward and exteriour evidence or express of any Grace or Virtue For to forbid Grace or Virtue to shew forth it self were to take splendour from Light and to restrain the exercise of all inward Pieties Indeed if we closely consider of the Mosaick and outward worship of the Jews to wit Sacrifice Oblations Incense and the like these were not accounted the visible expressions of any inward Grace Nor were these the outward Acts of any interiour Piety but those were the shadows of things to come and the representative Types of what was substantially to be verified when the Gospel came and therefore no wonder if spirit and truth both stand opposed to these But bodily expressions and outward Gestures Signes and Ceremonies under the Gospel these are the outward Evidences of inward Graces the outward Manifestations of inward Pieties As devoutly to frequent Christian Churches and to be present at the publick Worship it is an outward expression of an inward Grace to wit of Christian Religion for hereby we declare our selves such who profess to worship the Father and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent To profess with the Mouth it is an outward expression of an inward Faith To confess our sin is an outward expression of an inward penitence To humble our selves lowly upon our Knees an outward express of an inward Reverence To receive the Sacrament an outward express of an inward Piety So that if Spirit and Truth stood opposed to these there could be no visible Religion nor no outward godliness in the world And this properly leads to the Second Proposition which is to shew A publick worship in spirit without truth the outward expression cannot be Now that I say a publick Worship it is no more than my Text requireth For the whole difference between our Saviour and the Samaritan it was not you have seen about inward or private but meerly about outward and about publick worship for Gerasin and Jerusalem they were the seat of publick worship Whereas then our Saviour speaking to the point of publick worship plainly averréth that even that shall be in spirit and in truth it even hence inevitably followeth that Spirit and Truth cannot here stand opposed to Visible Bodily and exteriour worship For if there must be under the Gospel a publick Worship and that worship must be in spirit and in truth Outward Visible and Bodily expressions they cannot here be inhibited for they must be the publishers of all religious and all interiour worship For 1 Cor. 2. 11. No man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him Suppose a man to have within him all the graces of the Gospel no man can know this so long as they onely are within him for the inward or reserved things of man knoweth no man save the spirit of a man which is within him If then the graces of the Gospel was either given to edisie others or to glorisie God both these require they be not kept within and therefore Spirit without Truth or inward conceptions without outward expressions they will never do the work of God By worship then in Spirit and Truth we must here understand a compleat Worship that is the worship of the whole Man Spirit and Truth that is both For as the outward without the inward is meer Hypocrisie even so the Spirit without Truth the Minde without the Members will make but an halting and an halving Sacrifice Yea in publique to worship in Spirit without manifestations of that Spirit it is both a scandalous and an incredible worship For as we cannot reasonably believe that man is sober in spirit whose Body reels vomits and staggers before our Eyes and as we cannot reasonably believe him honest at Heart who we see deceitful in Weights and Measures nor him charitably minded who we hear reviling cursing and defaming his Neighbour So neither can any man reasonably believe that that man is devout in Spirit who is rude in Body that that man is full of fear within who is full of sauciness without that that man doth Reverence in Spirit who hath nothing of Reverence in the outward gesture So that Spirit and Truth seem to me like the outward Expression to the inward Meaning for if the
Seraphin continually do cry Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbaoth Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory If to him Ten thousand times ten thousand were heard saying with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing certainly then all the Earth should worship him magnifie his Name confess before him and confess him before men we should all sing and praise and laud and do every thing and nothing but such things in time of his holy Worship as may speak the Glory the Goodness the Holiness the Greatness and the Majesty of the God we worship And thus to do is to do my Text thus to do is to worship in Spirit and in Truth And so I have done with these words The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth Tibi soli Domine debetur Latria tibi omnis honos adoratio cultus nunc in aeternum Amen FINIS A REVIEW OF A BRIEF APOLOGY FOR SUCH SEQUESTER'D CLERGY Who choose rather to suffer Sequestration Than to lay aside The LITURGY And receive The DIRECTORY Written in a Letter to Mr. STEPHEN MARSHALL whose Answer is here Printed never before extant and how obtained TOGETHER WITH A brief Perswasive to the onely use of Set FORMS in Private FAMILIES By John Allington Vicar of Leamington-Hastang Quod ad formulam Precum Rituum Ecclesiasticorum valdè probo ut Certa illa sit à quâ Pastoribus discedere in Functione suâ non liceat tam ut consulatur quorundam simplicitati imperitiae quà m ut certius ita constet omnium inter se Ecclesiarum Consensus Johannes Calvinus Protectori Angliae 1 Edw. 6th LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset at the George near St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1678. To the Honourable And his much honoured Neighbour CHARLES LEIGH Esq At Burdingbury SIR THe justice of your Birth forceth me to preface you by that which I conceive is least honourable in you Your native Nobility For morally to speak look what is necessary is scarce laudible Quae non fecimus ipse Vix ea Nostra voco An adventitious is no acquired Honour And if Poetry may pass for Heraldry Nobilitas sola est atque unica Virtus There is no real Nobility which hath not more of Virtue than Blood in it And this seems patroniz'd by a great Fountain of Honour even our blessed Lord and Master who allowed the Jews to be the Seed but not the Sons of Abraham for he plainly tells them it was Works and Imitation not a Line or Descent that made Children unto Abraham The witty Atheist who in his Dialogues brings in Galatea and Doris discoursing of the love of Polyphemus tells her she should not look upon his Deformity or minde his having but one Eye and that in his Forehead for he was the Son of Neptune But the nice Nymph replied smartly An verò credis genus illi quicquam profuturum ad formam Thinkest thou that a Descent can make beautiful or because begot by a God deformities are comely Now truely as descent cannot make that lovely and amiable that is not so so neither can descent make that honourable that is not so For though I perfectly abhor to think that Dominium fundatur in Gratiâ That Right or Propriety is founded in Grace of that onely Saints have right to their Goods or onely the godly party a just title to Riches and secular Dominion yet may I distinguish between real and secular Honour I conceive such to empty themselves of all real Repute and divest themselves of all due Honour who by doing unworthy things make themselves vile unclean and that which stands in direct opposition to what is truely honourable So that a man may as well argue deformed and ugly Polyphemus was therefore beautiful because Neptune was his Father as a Vitious person therefore truely and really honourable because a person of true honour got him To you my honourable Neighbour I therefore make my Address because you have Honour of your own Intrinsecal Honour such which you merit to be honoured and regarded for Religion Sobriety Temperance and the rare Grace of these times Conjugal Chastity no man rejoycing more with the Wife of his Youth and as the holy Pen expresseth it ravished always with her love To you worthy Sir I have made bold to give the Patronage of what here followeth which being a brief Assertion of a necessity of publickly worshipping God by a set Form I therefore make yours because beside that personal Piety which your God alone is witness to your prudence in your Family hath wisely chosen constantly to use onely that Form which we rightly call Common-prayer And indeed many very many reasons may be given to confirm your choice and perswade your imitation First By the Law of the Land Open Prayer such which is for others to come to hear is onely the Service of the Church our Common-prayer So that if Law be a rule and the regular man be the laudible person he is most so who conforms to Law and regulates himself and Family by it Secondly An unknown Worship it is a proportionable folly to an unknown God For as St. Paul told the Athenians it was superstitious and unlawful for them to worship they knew not what though that unknown was thought to be the true God Even so as unlawful it may seem or else let Latine Prayers pass to worship a known God we know not how which he who joyns issue in a conceived or unknown Prayer must needs do For the Worship must be over before he can judge of it Thirdly To offer the Blinde Lame or Sick to God for Sacrifice God himself hath declared Evil. But whosoever shall bare his Head fall upon his Knees and be ready to joyn in the Oblation of he knows not what he is in a present disposition to offer up to his God for ought he knows the Blinde the Lame the Sick that is such crude and unhallowed both Petitions and Expressions as are unworthy the Almighty yea unfit to be presented to a Governour Fourthly To offer that to our God which would not please our Governour God abhors Now what man amongst us will be content that a Petition be drawn and proffered in his Name to a man of Power and he never see it nor hear it read till 't is read and offered to the Governour And shall we think it meet with less consideration to offer up our Prayers to God than Petitions to one like unto our selves Fifthly Every considering man will finde to the compleating of a publick Prayer there must be a concurrence of these six Acts. 1. Hearing 2. Understanding 3. Consideration 4. Judgement 5. Oblation And Lastly Devotion Now whether these can be better managed when a man knoweth what to pray or where a man must warily listen what through
then here propounded as it is not about service so neither is it about private or inward worship but it is about the outward and about the publickworship of God that is where Sacrifice was to be made where his publick Homage was to be paid whether Gerasin or Jerusalem was the place of publick worship Our blessed Master upon the point he rejecteth both saying The hour cometh and now is when to use the words of Malachi From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place shall incense that is an holy Worship be offered unto my Name So that whereas of old Sacrifice and that onely in the Temple and that Temple at Jerusalem was God's highest acknowledgment and outward Worship he telleth the Samaritan that hereafter the worship of God would be in a clear other mode neither confined to place nor exprest by Sacrifice so that indeed Evangelical worship is the proper subject here to be enquired on to wit What is that publick Worship which the true Worshippers should use under the state and condition of the Gospel which from the legal I shall shew you differs both in the Object and in the Expression for Veri Adoratores the true Worshippers they shall worship the Father and him they shall worship in spirit and in truth First they shall worship the Father God in all ages and states of the Church hath had his worship but under sundry Methods and divers Notions for though he himself and his self onely was the sole object of divine Worship yet in several ages he hath been pleased to be worshipped under several Apellatives Names or Attributes For Exod. 6. 3. I appeared unto Abraham Isaac and Jacob by the Name of God Almighty but by my Name Jehovah was I not known unto them To Moses it seems God was known by a Name by which he was not known to Abraham and to Abraham probably by a Name by which he was not known to Adam So that it is conceived Adam and his posterity they worshipped God under the notion of a Creator Abraham as God Almighty Moses by his Name Jehovah Yea St. Jerom hath taken pains to number up and to explicate ten Names by which under the Old Testament the people of God did worship God and yet among them all no mention of this in my Text no approach to God under the notion of a Father Albeit then we may as the Jew did worship and approach unto God as the high God as the God of all Spirits as the God of vengeance as the Lord God of Sabbaoth yet we have through the mercies of God a far nigher and a dearer Relative for we cry Abba Father Veri Adoratores Cospel-worshippers they shall worship the Father Now if it be a Gospel-priviledge and that Priviledge upon Scripture-account a choice favour to worship and approach the living God under the Relation of a Father then we who have the enjoyment of this favour we who are the onely true worshippers of God we have not onely a more comfortable object but we have a singular and extraordinary and a most affectionate motive for to worship For we are to worship a Father Now if the Jew whose state was servile if they who had onely Attributes of power and terrour to draw them to their God if they went from their own home even as far as Jerusalem to worship if their fear carried them to the holy Temple are not we very unkindly and ungracious Children who so little love value or honour the House of our Father that albeit in the same Town we will not go up to worship Had the Worship of God been a performance of mean and slight account the Aethiopian Eunuch he would never have made so long a Journey as from his Country to Jerusalem to worship St. Paul then a Christian though he was oft told by the way that Troubles and Bonds abode him at Jerusalem yet for all the Now in my Text was begun and notwithstanding Bonds and Troubles abode him there up to Jerusalem he would and did and that upon this very account even to Worship Whereas then as a great grace and priviledge of the Gospel the Worship of God is brought even from Jerusalem to our own Doors changed from a costly to a cheap worship from Bullocks Goats and Lambs to Prayer and Praises and whereas to this better worship we are now invited not by an Appellative of Terrour but by Allurements of Love Being it is said the true Worshippers that is the Worshippers under the Gospel shall worship the Father If Faith and Obedience because the Gospel exacts them be Duty then the Worship of God which is equally required must needs be Duty too And what can be more express than this from our Saviour's own mouth Veri Adoratores adorabunt Patrem The true Worshippers shall worship the Father which that as we ought we may do we will pass to the last Considerable in my Text. Third The manner how In spirit and in truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritu ac veritate as Beza with spirit and truth for he leaves out the In. And indeed there are more of the Learned beside him who taking this for an Hebraism conceive they ought to be so read and indeed so read the like For whereas it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I indeed Baptise you in Aqua we English it not in but with Water And whereas it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we read it right enough With one minde and one mouth glorisie God And whereas St. Paul saith God is my witness whom I serve in Spiritu meo we read it not in but with my Spirit And therefore whereas it is said in the Text The true worshippers shall worship in spiritu veritate we may very well read it thus The true Worshippers shall worship the Father with spirit and with truth And therefore those who think by these two words In Spiritu in Spirit for they never minde in Truth to void and destroy all outward Worship they may be deceived and mistaken in the very letter of the Text which being it may be as if not more justly read with the Spirit as in the Spirit the bottom of their Building it totters if not down And therefore for the better both Explication and Application of these words I shall reduce all that followeth into these four Propositions Spirit and Truth are not here opposed to outward bodily Worship nor to any outward expression of Grace or Virtue A publick Worship in Spirit without Truth the outward expression of it cannot be The Christian practice of worshipping God by Adoration and Liturgies demonstrates that they held that way the way of worshipping in Spirit and in Truth Lastly Being Christians are the onely true Worshippers I shall briefly shew how much it concerns us to give all due regard and
outward Expression be not answerable to the inward Meaning if we think one thing and say another though we say better than we think there is no sincerity nor truth in what we say Even so here if we pretend in Spirit to have in us the dreadful apprehension of our God when in outward appearance we shew nothing less if this be to worship in Spirit it is not it cannot be in Truth For the signes of Fellowship of Familiarity and of Boldness they can no more be the true expressions of the inward apprehension of Majesty Terrour and an infinite Distance than can Vomiting be of Sobriety outward Cheating of inward Honesty Railing and Wronging of inward Charity For they who know any thing of Truth cannot but know that Truth in general is nothing else but an outward Conformity to the inward Apprehension a real Evidence and Interpreter of the inward meaning And therefore wheresoever the outward conformity is not answerable to the inward conception and the outward Demeanour is not proportionable to the Spirit that acts within let people pretend what height and holiness of Spirit can be imagined Spirit and Truth are never evidenced in God's Worship or which is all one to God's honour and glory unless the outward Demeanour be proportioned to the inward Spirit and the Spirit within be really conformed to his Greatness 1 Cor. 14. St. Paul speaking of a Christian convert whose Spirit was touched with the Greatness Goodness and the Glory of his God tells us so active and powerful was the inspired Spirit that it inforced a manifestation of the truth of it for Falling down on his face he worshipped God Now without peradventure had those who pretend to have the most holy and best spirits such a feeling and real sense of the Goodness Greatness and the Glory of God as had the Convert Even they as well as he would fall upon thier Faces or at least in God's publick Worship give some more probable and better evidence that they fear God and that they are before him but as Dust and Ashes for if the spiritual man is the greatest discerner if he is most sensible of what a God he serves certainly then either there is no truth in him or he is the most devout and the humblest worshipper in the world Amongst us men in case God should sensibly reveal himself and manifest himself to the Eye as in the Bush to Moses or in the habit of the Captain of an Hoast to Joshua or in Thundring and Lightening upon mount Sinai In such a case as this I believe very few if any but would say we were bound to worship and in pursuance of that worship to humble our Bodies to fall upon our Faces and even ontwardly to use the utmost reverence that we could And here I have a special Appeal to those who themselves confessing are in the religious attendance of their God put on their Hata To them I appeal whether if the Great God even now should at this instant break in upon them and shew himself as I have already said as terrible as upon mount Sinai or in a flaming Bush or but as he did to Joshua with a Sword in his Hand I desire such to consider whether such an Apparition or such a Manifestation would not not onely move but hasten them to throw off their Hats to fall upon their Knees yea prostrate on their Faces Now then if it be so I beseech you let us calmly consider what is the solemn real and serious bottom or motive for which we ought to give unto our God all Glory Honour Reverence and Worship Is it Visibility or is it Sight If so then none are bound to Reverence Worship Kneel or fall down before him but those onely who see him with their Eyes and behold him as a thing sensible whereas God himself hath told us Exod. 33. 21. There shall no man see me and live The ground then Foundation and Motive to glorifie and worship God it is not in Sense but in Faith it is not the seeing but the believing the Glory Majesty Dominion Power and Greatness of our God that should move Christians to fear adore and worship And therefore if we believe God to be in Heaven as glorious as the Angels see him as terrible as the Damned finde him or as dreadful as he appeared upon Mount Sinai If we believe him to be a God mighty in Power glorious in Majesty and that God who is to be feared above all Gods In the Name of that God I beseech you let us but manifest that Faith and my Text is done for so to do doubtless is to worship the Father both in Spirit and in truth Matth. 18. 20. Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them Our Saviour did not say there you shall behold or see me yet he positively said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There am I. Now being God will be worshipped where he is not seen let us but so pray so praise so sing so worship where he is though not seen as if we did see him we believe we ought there would never be any further dispute or demur about outward Worship For the Spirit of God and Truth are in such a perfect union that he who worships in Spirit that is in the due Faith and fear of God he will be devout he will be humble he will by a meet demeanour and outward deportment shew the reality and truth of such a Spirit for such cannot but conclude the truth No publick Worship can or ought to be in Spirit onely Thirdly The Christian practise of worshipping God by Adoration and Liturgies demonstrates that they held that way the way of worshipping God in spirit and in truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adoratio or as we render it Worship it is taken either in Abstracto or in Concreto as the School that is either for an Act of it self or as in Conjunction with some other Christian-duty Matth. 4. When the Devil made his last assault upon our Saviour he did require neither Prayer nor Praise nor Sacrifice nor Oblation onely thus said Vers 9. All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me He onely required an outward act of Worship abstracted from all Duty Whence it appears to me that Adoration or Worship abstractly considered when it onely imports God's Majesty and our Distance even thus and no more it is of great account with God Almighty or else the subtile Devil would never have attempted by a single act of Adoration to have robbed the World of a Redeemer by thus doing to make the Saviour of Mankinde a Sinner But by Worship in the Text we are not to understand Worship in the Abstract but as going along with other Duties such as make up Christian Worship Now that it may appear that unless the Christian Church for of Schismatical and Fanatick spirits unless by pity
we are to take no notice by a Worship in Spirit and Truth and by worshipping the Father understood worshipping in a Form for Father implies a Form and by publick Liturgies let us a little survey their Piety and their Prayers First Our blessed Lord and Master who gave this rule he himself exemplified what he gave for the exact Pattern and the very Basis of all Gospel-worship is Pater Noster Our Father The Apostolical Symbol the Canon and Square of all the Professions of our Faith it begins Credo in Deum Patrem I believe in God the Father Confession of sins as the words were by our Saviour put into the mouth of the penitent Prodigal it is an address unto the Father I will go to my Father c. And Father I have sinned against heaven and against thee The Sacrament of Initiation or first admittance into the mystical Communion it is confined to this rule In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Yea when the Church in humble thankfulness returneth Praise and Glory unto God for all his benefits it is done as becomes true Worshippers by worshipping the Father and by saying Glory be to the Father and to the Son c. And as for the Church of England is not every Collect a most exact Gospel-worship Almighty and most merciful Father begins our Confession Almighty God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ begins our Absolution Then the Prayer of the Son unto his Father And the Close of every Collect is through Jesus Christ which is still an implication of the Father So that according to this rule the true Worshippers shall worship the Father Who can be truer Worshippers than that Church all whose publick Prayers are Addresses and Acts of worship to the Father And as for Spirit and Truth had it been inconsistent with publick and outward Worship or with Form then St. Paul would never have writ to Timothy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Prayers should be not onely said but made for Kings and all that are in Authority St. James the Brother of our Lord he had scornfully and ignominiously been termed Jacobus Liturgus James the Liturgist had set Forms been inconsistent with Spirit and truth Justine Martyr he would never have spoken of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Common-prayers nor Ignatius before him of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one Prayer had it been a stinting of the good Spirit to have a Liturgy or a Common-prayer Yea there would have been no Churches to have worshipped God in no publick Assemblies to have worshipped there nor indeed no use at all of our Bodies in order to God's glory if Spirit and Truth concluded against outward worship Whatsoever then the antient Churches understood by Spirit and Truth they did not understand an opposition either to bodily or to outward worship For that which is held the best Interpreter of Scripture to wit Praxis Ecclesiae the Church-Practice you see it doth evince the contrary for they had Churches they had known and set Forms for publick worship Yea Beza himself in his smaller Notes thus Quae ad Ordinent spectant ut precum formulae disposuit Apostolus Those Decencies which appertain to Order as Forms of Prayer the Apostle himself prepared and disposed By Spirit and Truth then we may very well here understand a worshipping of the Father according to those measures which the Spirit Light and Grace of the Gospel prescribeth and alloweth to us By Truth we may understand such outward expressions and manifestations as are proportionable to such a Spirit to such Light to such Grace for so by their unanimous and constant practice the primitive and best Churches understood it Lastly therefore give me leave in a word to shew how much it concerns us to give all due regard and respect to the outward and publick Worship of God under the state of the Gospel The Servants of God under the Gospel they are stiled by our Saviour Veri Adoratores the true Worshippers not the unsatiable Hearers Now it seems strange to me that Christians should emphatically be called the true Worshippers and yet many make no account at all of Evangelical Worship as if God did not as much regard the honour done unto his Person as he doth the bare hearing and listening to his Word Or as if Pray continually and Continue in prayer sounded not as much duty as doth Be instant in season and out of season By Evangelical Worship I understand Prayers Supplications and giving of Thanks confession of Sin profession of Faith making and performing of Vows oblation of Praise singing of Hymns and Psalms reception of Sacraments Adoration either with or without these So that the Father is then worshipped in Spirit and in Truth when there is a reverential address or a religious performance of all or any of these before him so that we cannot come under the honourable Appellative in the Text Veri Adoratores true Worshippers unless we outwardly and publickly even thus assemble for to worship Esay 66. 23. the Evangelical Prophet speaking of Gospel-days thus writes All flesh shall come to worship before me saith the Lord. To worship is not to clap on our Hats and sit on our Seats to hear a Sermon but to perform some act of honour some humble office some such religious Duty the reverence whereof may shew forth our distance and the Father's glory the performance whereof may move all who see it say These men are in the presence and before their God These men know what they worship These men have the Fear and Apprehension of a glorious Majesty before their eyes For being the great designe of God in all his works is the setting forth of his own Glory Worship it is the very immediate tendency to that great end For they that worship it is their actual employment to set forth his praise and to magnifie him under some glorious Attribute or other So that indeed between Hearing and Worshipping there is as much difference as between Hearing and Doing For Hearing being but a disposition to Doing Worship is the very practice Doing and actual Advance of God's honour and therefore a Duty not to be laid aside nor so coolly frequented and performed as by too too many He who in the second Commandment said Thou shalt not bow down to them or worship them He who forbids Sacrisice and Prayers and Praises yea the very bowing of the Body to false Gods doth not in so doing imply less than a reservation of this Worship to himself And therefore to him who is the everliving God and the everlasting Father to him we must ascribe and give the Glory the Honour and the Worship that evangelically is due unto him for the true Worshippers are in all duty bound to worship the Father and to worship him in Spirit and Truth Hos 6. 6. I desired mercy and not sacrisice and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings