Cultus Evangelicus Or a brief DISCOURSE Concerning the SPIRITUALITY AND SIMPLICITY OF New-Testament WORSHIP Whit. op t. 1. l. 9. cont Dur. de Sophism p. 226. Itaque nunc ut vides non tantum Judaicae ceremoniae quas ipse Deus praescripsit sed alias etiam universas quas homo quisquam tradidit docuit guales vestrae omnes sunt apertissimè prohibentur LONDON Printed for Eliz. Calvert at the Sign of the black spread Eagle in Duck-Lane 1667. Cultus Evangelicus OR NEW TESTAMENT WORSHIP JOH 4. 23 24. But the hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall Worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth IN the former part of this Chapter we have the famous dialogue that passed betwixt the Lord Jesus and the Woman of Samaria the occasion whereof was this Our blessed Saviour did with unwearied care and industry lay out himself for the gaining and winning of souls and the bringing of them to the obedience of his Father He sought not so much how to make himself great as how to make others good He made it his business to rescue the poor sapsed and degenerated sons of men out of the paws of Satan whom he saw hurrying them away towards destruction and reduce them into a state of peace and safety And though he met with great opposition herein the dragon and his angels with united force and inflamed rage banding against him yet as was foretold the pleasure of the Lord did prosper in his hand and he saw of the travel of his soul the people following him in great multitudes from Galilee and from Decapolis and from Jerusalem and from Judaea and from beyond Jordan admiring his wisdom and speaking well of his name Which the envious Pharisees that viperous brood impatient of whatever tended to the Eclipsing of their own authority and esteem taking notice of laid their heads together against him and without having any respect to the divine Majesty that shone in his countenance the innocency of his person holiness of his life or eminency of his works consulted how they might destroy him Such was their prodigious unthankfulness and unworthiness that the more love he manifested to them the more hatred they shewed to him The more he appeared for them the more they appeared against him The more he laboured to save them the more they laboured to slay him thereby giving him occasion to complain of them as David once did of his enemies they rewarded me evil for good And he being aware of their bloody design departs from amongst them and being on his way he comes to Sychar a City of Samaria it is the same with that Shechem and Sichem so often mentioned in the Old Testament where Joshuah and Eleazar the High-Priest held the first Council for the abolishing of strange Worship and so he leaves the proud self-admiring Pharisees that dealt so unworthily with him and goes and òpens the treasures of grace and love to the despised Samaritans thereby verifying that sacred Oracle thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Now at this Sychar to which our Saviour came there was a Well called Jacobs Well For we read in the history of the Patriarchs that when Jacob came to Shalem a City of Shechem he bought a parcel of Land of the Children of Hamor and there erected an Altar and then in all probability made this well which continued till our Saviours time being called by the name of Jacobs Well Contzen the Jesuite thinks that when Jacob was at this place he did not only make this but many Wells Whether this be true or no doth not appear but this is evident that if when he was at this place he made many Wells either this only of them all remained till our Saviours time or else was in a way of peculiar eminency called Jacobs Well It was about the sixth hour that is about Noon when our Saviour came to this Well He was weary with his tedious Journey which had lasted him as may be computed two or three dayes and here he sits down to rest him and refresh him And the Disciples being gone into the City for provision he continues there alone Presently there comes a Woman of Samaria to draw Water and he being willing to make use of all occasions of doing good enters into discourse with her which continued so long till she perceived there was more than ordinary worth in him till she saw he was a Prophet And having such an opportunity she presently starts that great question so much controverted betwixt the Jews and Samaritans about the place of Worship Whether she did it out of Womanish loquacity or to pass away the time or to satisfie conscience appears not but this is evident that she did it Now the Question it self was this Whether Garizim where the Samaritans Sacrificed or Jerusalem where the Jews Sacrificed were the true place of Worship On the one hand the Samaritans held that Garizim was it on the other hand the Jews held that Jerusalem was it The occasion of this difference as divers authors shew happened thus The Samaritans were the off-spring of those Nations whom Salmanazar King of Assyria placed in the Cities of Samaria after he had carryed the ten Tribes captive and at their coming thither being Pagans they worshipped not the God of Israel but the gods of the Nations from whence they came Hereupon the Lord provoked with their Idolatry sends Lyons amongst them which molested and slew them And they apprehending it to be because they worshipped not the God of the land they sent to the King of Assyria and informed him how things stood Upon that he sends them one of the captive Priests who came and taught them how they should fear the Lord and so to make sure work they worshipped both the God of Israel and their own God too And thus it continued tâ—ll towards the end of the Persian Monarchy at which time Manasses brother to Jaddus the High priest of those Jews that were returned from Babylon did contrary to the Law of Moses which forbad contracting of Matrimony with the forreign Nations Marry Nicazo daughter to Sanballat the Horonite then governour of Samaria for which fact Jaddus his brother and the other Jews were exceedingly incensed against him and expelled him from Jerusalem Upon this he betakes himself to Sanballat his Father-in-law who courteously entertains him and not only so but upon Alexander's the Great overcoming the Persians he obtains leave of him to build a Temple at Garizim and there he places this Manasses his Son-in-law to perform the Office of High-priest Now this was very injurious to the Jews and begat great confusion For if any had eaten unlawful meats trangressed the Sabbath marryed
strang Wives or the like and were censured and ejected as unclean by the Jews they could presently run to Samaria and there be received And this produced a woful and irreconcileable schism betwixt those two people insomuch that they lived in perpetual discord The hatred betwixt them was so great that they held it unlawful to eat or drink with one another Hence that saying of this Woman to our Saviour How is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me which am a Woman of Samaria Nay such was the hatred of the Jews to the Samaritans that though they granted leave to all Nations in the World to become Proselytes to their religion yet would they not grant it to them Witness that solemn form of excommunication termed excommunicatio in secreto nominis tetragrammati said to be uttered against them by Ezra and Nehemiah They assembled the whole Congregation saith my Author into the Temple of the Lord and brought 300 Priests 300 Trumpets and 300 books of the Law with as many boyes And when they sounded their Trumpets and the Levites sang they cursed the Samaritans by all the sorts of excommunication in the mystery of the name Jehovah and in the Decalogue and with the curse both of the inferiour and superiour house of judgement that no Israelite should eat the bread of a Samaritan whence they say he who eateth bread of a Samaritan is as he who eateth Swines flesh and let no Samaritan be a proselyte in Israel neither let them have any part in the resurrection of the dead And as the Jews did thus prosecute their cause against the Samaritans with much heat and confidence so likewise did the Samaritans theirs against them Though they had the worse of it yet were they no less peremptory and stedfast in their way than the former being ready upon all occasions to maintain their opinion and dispute for it Witness the carriage of the Woman in this place she do's not barely propound the question to our Saviour and then wait to hear how he would determine it but stands up and reasons with him about it Our Fathers saith she worshipped in this Mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to Worship Now our Saviour in answer to this great question and for the composing of this long difference of no less than 400 years continuance tells her that the time was approaching wherein the Worship of God should be confined neither to Garizim nor Jerusalem yet by the way lets her know there was a great deal of difference betwixt the Worship of the Samaritans and the Jews Ye Worship saith he ye know not what we know what we Worship There was no comparison betwixt the Worship of the Samaritans and the Jews The Jews might miss it in the manner of their Worship but the Samaritans did not only miss it in that but likewise in the object of it for they worshipped they knew not what But in opposition both to the Worship of the Samaritans and the Jews he tells her that the hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall Worship the Father in spirit and in truth c. Which words imply as much as if he had said the question which thou now propoundest to me and hath been disputed so long with so much heat amongst you is now of small moment for God is about not only to alter the place but the manner of his Worship As he will not have his Worship limited either to Garizim or Jerusalem so neither will he have it limited to the mode either of the one place or the other but will be worshipped after another manner and the manner wherein he will be Worshipped is spiritual and simple they that Worship him must Worship him in spirit and in truth And thus I have with what brevity I could conveniently led you down to the words of the Text and given you an account of the author and occasion of them To make any Analysis or division of them is needless and therefore without any further stay I shall draw from them this point That it is the duty of the sons of men in these dayes of the Gospel to Worship God in spirit and in truth Though all Christians nay all Nations agree that there is a God and that he is to be Worshipped yet they do not agree about the manner of it Some will have him to be Worshipped one way and some another according as their light and principles lead them Some will have him to be Worshipped immediately others mediately or remotely Some with slaying of beasts and bloody sacrifices others in a spiritual and simple manner without any such adoe Some in the use of external rites and shadows others without them Now our Saviour who came from his Fathers bosome and most perfectly understood his will undertakes the determining of this controversie and shews after what manner he would have men to Worship him They that Worship saith he must Worship him in spirit and in truth The point lyes so visibly in the Text that I need not send you to other places of Scripture to shew you the truth of it and therefore I shall not spend time in that The Method I shall observe in prosecuting it is this 1. I shall shew what is meant by Worship 2. What by spirit 3. What by truth 4. The reasons of both branches that is to say wherefore we must worship God in spirit and wherefore in truth 5. I shall lay down one or two cautions And 6. come to the Vses all which I shall dispatch with plainness and brevity 1. I shall shew what is meant by Worship The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the extraction and derivation whereof the Etymologists are not agreed Zanchy thinks it's derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Dog and that it is a Metaphor taken from spaniels that use in subjection to their masters to couch upon the ground before them And that which renders it somewhat more probable is that the Hebrew Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie to worship do also signifie to fall down or lye prostrate as also that the Jews both in their civil and religious worship used to do so However others are against this derivation and assign another Rivet thinks it is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to kiss and that which renders this more probable is that kissing hath been a very antient symbol of adoration Witness that of Job If my mouth saith he hath kissed my hand this were an iniquity to be punished by the judge for I should have denyed the God that is above A bare kissing the hand he cannot mean for that we may reckon amongst those actions that are indifferent neither good nor bad but he means such a kissing of the hand as was a ceremony belonging to idolatrous worship The Heathenish
we know what we worship q. d. ye worship the true God as we do but ye worship him under a visible similitude whereby it appears ye know him not but the hour cometh and now is that the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth c. That is they shall not worship him under any visible shape as you do but shall conceive of him as he is namely a spirit This was the opinion of our learned country man Mr. Mede But notwithstanding the respect I bear to the author and his excellent works I conceive this is none of our Saviours meaning For 1. how will it be proved that the Samaritans worshipped God under the similitude of a dove L'empereur a great master in critical learning denies it And Cunaeus doth not only acquit them from this pretended idolatry of the Dove but from all Idolatry whatsoever He grants that they did formerly live in idolatry but withal saith that they wholly renounced it and that before the time of Sanballat following the religion prescribed by Moses 2. Grant they did worship God as is alledged under the shape of a Dove yet the antithesis or opposition in the words will not admit this to be the sense of them For our Saviour doth not set the worshipping of God in spirit and in truth only in opposition to the worship of the Samaritans but also of the Jews who conceived of God as a spirit and so worshipped him Had he insisted only on the worship of the Samaritans and set worshipping God in spirit and in truth only in opposition to their worship then this sense had carried more probability along with it but it is evident that this worshipping God in spirit and in truth stands in opposition as well to the Jewish as the Samaritan worship and therefore this cannot be the meaning of them 3. Others think by worshipping God in spirit we are to understand the worshipping of him not only with the outward but the inner man and by worshipping him in truth the worshipping him in righteousness telling us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truth and righteousness are used promiscuously Those say they worship in righteousness that worship in truth and those worship in truth that worship in righteousness Thus Heinsius But this seems not to be the sense For though it be very true that to worship God in spirit is to worship him with the inner man and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are put sometimes the one for the other yet this sense agrees not with the adversative which we are to have great respect to as yielding much light to the finding out the meaning of the words Our Saviour tells the woman ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship but saith he the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth By which adversative it appears that the worshipping God in spirit and in truth is a worshipping of him in such a way as is different both from that of the Samaritans and the Jews And so far Bellarmine is in the right when he saith these words manifestly signifie that our Saviour spake of a new way of worship which was not before and which would have its beginning from him But according to this opinion the worshiping God in spirit and in truth is not different from all former worship in particular not from that of the Jews for though many of them were hypocritical and profane yet were there some amongst them that worshipped God with the inner man and in righteousness To go no further we read of Zachary and Elizabeth who were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless It is not against the abuse of a lawful worship that our Saviour speaks but against the worship it self according to its institution which he would have laid aside and another kinde of worship of his own appointment substituted in the room of it 4. Others think that worshipping God in spirit is here set in opposition to the carnal external worship of the Jews and worshipping him in truth to the fictitious false worship of the Samaritans And so they will have the words of our Saviour to amount to thus much both Jews and Samaritans worship the Father the one at one place and the other at another The one in a carnal way the other in a false way but the time is at hand that both the one and the other shall worship him after another manner The Jews laying aside their carnal worship shall worship him in spirit and the Samaritans laying aside their false worship shall worship him in truth And this sense Pererius with other Jesuits gives of the words But not to repeat what I have already alledged which shews this cannot be the meaning I see no reason wherefore spirit should be restrained to the carnal external worship of the Jews and truth to the fictitious false worship of the Samaritans For there was want of spirit not only in the worship of the Jews but also of the Samaritans and there was want of truth not only in the worship of the Samaritans but also of the Jews I understand not therefore how this limitation may be justified 5. Others think to worship God in spirit is to worship him with the inner man and to worship him in truth is to worship him without the use of such ceremonies as were types of things to come Not without the use of all ceremonies but only such as were shadows of things to come They say the Jews and Samaritans before the coming of Christ worshipped God with bloody Sacrifices and with many rites and ordinances depending thereon which prefigured some thing to come but Christ being come that was prefigured by them he lets the woman know that this kind of worship should cease and that God would be worshipped after another manner sc. in spirit and in truth As if he had said God will not now be worshipped in the types of things expected but according to the verity of what is already exhibited After this manner speak Maldonate and others But I understand not wherefore we should restrain the words only to the exclusion of such ceremonies as are figures of things to come They are a plain assertion of the spirituality and simplicity of Gospel worship which will consist no better with other ceremonies than such as are shaddows of things to come Should we worship God in the use of as many ceremonies as the Jews did though they were not figures of things to come but of things past or present yet our worship would be no more in spirit and in truth than theirs Besides it is to be observed that Christ at his coming did not only abrogate such ceremonies as were typical and shadowed forth things to come but such
as by their signification taught moral duties I could instance in several ceremonies that were no more typical than the ceremonies in these times contended for be and yet Christ at his coming abolished them and caused them to be laid aside removing every thing that might hinder the simplicity of that administration he intended to put his Church under And therefore there is no more warrant for the institution observation or imposition of other ceremonies than for those which are typical unless they are such as Christ himself hath appointed But hereby we see what hard shift superstitious men will make before they will yield to the abolishing of those burdensome and sinful innovations they have introduced into the worship of God to the woful depraveing thereof and hindring us of that blessing that otherwise we might expect upon it Yet notwithstanding all their heat and tenaciousness they will grant us this that from these words of our Saviour we may inferr the abrogation of the Jewish ceremonies and that concession is sufficient for our purpose Let those that would have new ones produce their warrant for them Let them shew but as good authority for the institution and observation of them as we can do for the abolition and abrogation of these and we will joyn with them Without question had it been the mind of Christ that his Church under the Gospel should have worshiped him in the use of ceremonies he would either have kept up the old ones or else when he abolished them he would have instituted new but herein setting out what I shall hereafter except he is altogether silent And with this agrees that of Medina In the evangelical law saiâ—h he there were no sacramentals that is ceremonies belonging to sacraments instituted of our Lord Christ because of the dignity and excellency of our sacraments which are so precious that although they were presented to us naked without the props of ceremonies they would yet be worthy of all veneration Now he being faithful in his house and ready to prescribe every thing that might tend to the orderly government and welfare thereof and yet being silent herein may satisfie us it was his pleasure that such kind of worship should cease 6. Others think to worship God in spirit is to worship him with the inner man and to worship him in truth is to worship him not only without the use of such ceremonies as typifie things to come but all other ceremonies whatsoever saving those of divine appointment whether they typifie things to come or things past or present And so they will have the words of our Saviour to the woman to imply as much as if he had said thus You that are Samaritans worship the Father at Garizim and the Jews at Jerusalem and both of you besides your Temples wherein you celebrate your sacred mysteries have many types and figures many shadows and ceremonies but know that now the time of this kind of worship is expired God will have his Church under a new administration and will be worshipped after another manner He hath for many hundred years been worshipped by you at Garizim and by the Jews at Jerusalem and by both of you in the use of many rites and ceremonies but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth c. And this sense as it agrees best with the context so it is that which the most learned judicious and orthodox writers both ancient and modern give of the words Eusebius hath a very remarkable passage Disputing against the Jews and mentioning many eminent persons of the old Testament that worshipped God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as Melchisedeck Noah Enoch Abram Joseph Job and Moses himself in his younger years he saith it is manifest that those blessed men and friends of God did not worship in any certain determinate place neither by symbols and types but as our Saviour and Lord hath said in spirit and in truth The substance of what he saith is this that in the dayes of the Old-testament there were several choice persons famous in their generations that worshipped God without the use of symbols and types and that at the coming of Christ that kind of worship spread throughout all nations according as the Prophets had foretold His words are not to be restrained only to such symbols and types as prefigure things to come though I believe he aimes at such too because he writes against the Jews most of whose symbols and types were of that nature but to be extended to such symbols and types as signifie things either past or present For the better conceiving whereof you are to note that these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ordinarily put not only for figures of things to come but for the signa indicia similitudines imagines figurae or exempla of things whether past or present Briefly his design is to hold forth to the Jews that the worship of those eminent persons before the Law was plain and simple and that the Law whereby another kind of worship was established is abrogated and that it being abrogated it ought to be so now Hereupon he labours to perswade them to lay aside their ceremonies bring back the Worship of God to its ancient spirituality and simplicity and to serve him in that way which their renowned ancestors had formerly done with happy success And that spirit is set in opposition to what is carnal or outward and truth to what is ceremonial or figurative is the opinion of divers others of the Ancients as the Jesuites themselves confess Bellarmine saith it s the opinion of Chrysostome Cyril Euthymius Maldonate goes further and saith it was not only the opinion of them but of Origen Tertullian Hilary Procopius and Theophylact likewise And of the same perswasion are writers of a latter time Bucer saith that even by this one word all use of Ceremonies is taken away Pelican writing on a Levitical law against the Jews symbolizing with Idolaters speaks after this manner God by this one law would have them cast away and abhor what ever had pleased the Gentiles much more care ought Christians to have of this who being taught to worship God in spirit and truth ought first and last to have abhorred the idle unreasonable and deceitful forms and rites of Idolaters And Farel writing to Calvin about a popish fellow whose name was Carolus saith thus when Carolus would obtrude his significations in garments and other Magick like signs we opposed that Christ hath taught us a purer manner of worshipping the Father in spirit and truth without shadows And Gualther speaking of these words of our Saviours saith he teaches that all ceremonies ought now together to be laid aside and that henceforth there needs no disputing about them And with these agree Calvin Beza Pareus Chemnitius Illyricus Melancton Musculus Piscator Rolloc Gomarus Grotius and