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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	seek_v	spirit_n	worship_v	7,034	5	9.8542	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63003	An explication of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments, with reference to the catechism of the Church of England to which are premised by way of introduction several general discourses concerning God's both natural and positive laws / by Gabriel Towerson ...	Towerson, Gabriel, 1635?-1697.; Towerson, Gabriel, 1635?-1697. Introduction to the explication of the following commandments.	1676 (1676)	Wing T1970; ESTC R21684	636,461	560

Spirits and that too in an especial manner For as it is but requisite that he who is a Spirit should have the worship of ours because most agreeable to his own Nature so also that we should for that reason intend that Worship especially and make it the chief of our Study and Design And accordingly though under the Law for the grosness of the Jews God appointed them a Worship which consisted much in Rites and Ceremonies yet he gave them sufficiently to understand that the spiritual Worship or the Worship of the Soul was that which he principally requir'd Witness one for all that of the Prophet David Psal 51.16 17. For thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it thee thou delightest not in burnt-offering The Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou shalt not despise The result of the Premises is this That to worship God in Spirit and consequently to worship him after a due manner is especially to intend the worshipping him with ours that is to say by entertaining honourable thoughts of him by endeavouring to conform our Wills to his most holy one and lastly by suiting our Affections to his several Attributes by fearing and loving and trusting in him But beside the Worshipping of God with our Spirits and that too in a more especial manner to worship God in Spirit doth also imply the worshipping him without an Image or any Corporeal Representation For beside that this is the very thing here forbidden and therefore in reason to be suppos'd to be excluded by worshipping God in spirit and in truth to worship God by an Image is so far from being consistent with a spiritual Worship that it is but a dishonouring of him because resembling him to things to which he is no way like and which indeed are infinitely below the Excellencies of his Nature 2. Of the Natural or Moral Sense of Worshipping God in Spirit I have spoken hitherto and shewn both the Ground and Importance of it Let us now consider the Evangelical one according as was before insinuated For that such a one was also intended is evident from that Story to which this Passage is subjoyn'd If you please to consult the Verse preceding that which I have chosen for the Ground-work of this Argument you will there find a Woman of Samaria demanding of our Saviour whether Mount Gerizim by Sichem where the Samaritans sacrific'd or Jerusalem were the true Place of Worship In answer to which after our Saviour had told her That that Question was not now of much moment because ere long they should neither worship in the one or the other for a farther proof of that his Assertion he adds that the time was coming and even then was Mr. Mede on Joh. 4.23 that the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth Which being compar'd with the foregoing Words and the State of the Controversie to which they do relate will shew that by worshipping in spirit and in truth is meant no other than the worshipping of God with a spiritual Worship as that is oppos'd to the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of the Law For the Question being not whether Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem were the place of Publick Prayer because both Jews and Samaritans had particular Places for them but which of the two was the proper Place to send their Sacrifices to and our Saviour making answer That in a little time neither of them should be because the Father sought such to worship him as should worship him in spirit and in truth he thereby plainly shews his meaning to be That to worship God in spirit and in truth was not to worship him with Sacrifices and other such Figures but in spiritual and substantial Worship such as are the Sacrifices of Prayer and Praise with other the like Natural Expressions of our Devotion But from hence it will follow not onely that we are to worship God without those Legal Rites wherewith it was before sufficiently clogg'd but also that we are not to clog it with other Rites than Decency and Order shall require For our Saviour not onely excluding the Rites and Sacrifices of the Law but affirming the Worship which his Father sought to be a spiritual one he doth thereby cut off the affixing of all other Rites as being alike contrary thereto save what Decency and Order shall require But so the Church of England hath declar'd it self to understand the Worshipping of God in spirit and in truth telling us in one of its Prefaces to our Liturgy That Christ's Gospel is not a Ceremonial Law as much of Moses Law was but it is a Religion to serve God not in bondage of the Figure or Shadow but in the freedom of the Spirit contenting it self onely with those Ceremonies which do serve to a decent Order and comely Discipline and such as be apt to stir up the dull mind of Man to the remembrance of his Duty to God by some notable and special signification whereby he might be edified In conformity whereto as she her self hath proceeded injoyning neither many nor trifling ones so what she hath done is sufficiently warranted not onely by that Solemnity which Experience shews Things of that nature to add to all Matters of Importance but which is of more avail from the Institution of our Saviour and the Practice of the Church in the Apostles days For if all Rites are to be excluded what shall become of the Sacraments themselves But how shall we any way excuse the Apostolical Church for that holy Kiss wherewith they were wont to conclude their Prayers the laying on of hands in admitting Ministers to the Church or shaking off the dust of their feet against those that should not receive them in testimony of their rejection of them For that all those things were then in use even with the allowance of the Apostles themselves the Scripture is our Witness to which therefore if Men will exclude all things of that nature they must first oppose themselves Such is the Practice of that Church to which we relate such the Grounds upon which she proceeds but as farther than that she neither goes nor pretends to do so if she did there is no doubt she would offend against that Precept which requires the worshipping of God in spirit and in truth For how can they be said to do so whose Devotion spends it self in outward Ceremonies Which as they are of no value in themselves so have this ill property of the Ivy that where they are suffer'd to grow too luxuriant they eat out the Heart of that Religion about which they twine PART II. A Transition to the Negative part of the Precept and therein first to that part of it which forbids the making any Graven Image or other Corporeal Representation That all Images are not forbidden but such onely as are made with a design to represent the Divine Majesty or to bow down to and

God supposing that other to be self-sufficient as he who desires and expects it against the will of God that he is able to controul Him Neither will it avail to say which yet is commonly pretended That all who make use of such Arts have not any intention or suspicion of making any Application to the Devil For though I am willing enough to believe that many of them have not and cannot therefore but acquit them from the purpose of it yet it is past either my skill or theirs to acquit them from the thing it self or from being look'd upon as chargeable with it Men being justly chargeable with making Applications to the Devil who make use of such Means for the attaining of their Purpose the Success whereof cannot rationally be expected from any other especially when God himself hath caution'd Men against the use of them and represented them as detestable and abominable yea to such a Degree as to occasion the casting out those Nations who possess'd the Land of Canaan before the Israelites Which how they should be thought to do if they were rather vain Curiosities than secret or open Transactions with the Devil will I think be very difficult to determine And indeed as some of those Persons have the Title of Dealers with Familiar Spirits and all of them are represented under the same Guilt and obnoxious to the same Penalties so it is strange to observe that some Men should be so highly unreasonable as to question that Diabolical Commerce after so many Authentick Stories which have been publish'd to the World concerning it the free Confession of the accused Parties and the Sentences of grave and sober Judges but especially after what the Scriptures of the New Testament have declar'd concerning the Devil and his Angels They representing the Devil and his Ministers as encompassing the earth to procure mischief as the God of this world and ruling in the children of disobedience as entring through the Divine Permission into men and speaking in and by them in fine for so we read Acts 16.16 divining as well as using other Speeches by them and suggesting those Soothsayings for which such kind of Persons are resorted to After all which to question either the possibility or truth of a Diabolical Commerce is not onely to be unreasonably scrupulous but to be impudently unbelieving because contradicting the general Sense and Experience of the World and the clear Declarations of the Scriptures I will conclude this Affair with a Passage in Leviticus * Chap. 20.6 because both expressing God's detestation of all Magical Practises and his accounting of them as Idolatry or the giving of his Glory unto another And the Soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits and after wizards to go a whoring after them I will even set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people For representing such Addresses under the term of going a whoring which in the Language of the Old Testament is no other than the espousing of other Deities he thereby giveth us to understand that they are in effect an Abrenunciation of himself and an espousing of other Deities in stead of him THE SECOND COMMANDMENT THE SECOND COMMANDMENT Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the water under the earth Thou shalt not bow down to them nor Worship * or serve them For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God and visit the sins † or iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and shew mercy unto thousands in them that love me and keep my commandments PART I. The Contents That what we reckon as the Second Commandment is really such and not an Appendix of the First This evidenc'd by several Reasons as also that it respects the Manner and not the Object of our Worship The Commandment divided into a Precept and a Sanction as that again into an Affirmative and Negative one The Affirmative That we worship God after a due manner which also is there specified and particularly That we worship God in Spirit and Truth the purport whereof is at large declar'd Among other things the Questions concerning Will-worship and worshipping God with Ceremonies discussed and stated I Am now arriv'd at the Second Commandment for so I hope I may have leave to call it after the Travels of our Divines upon that Argument For though the Papists represent it as an Appendix onely to the First and which is much worse have upon that pretence raz'd it quite out of their Catechisms yet is there so little reason for their way of Reckoning and so much for ours that I doubt not all impartial Men will cast it on their sides who look upon it as distinct from the former Precept For beside that all Antiquity * Joseph Antiqu. Judaic lib. 3. cap. 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sulpit. Sever. Sacrae hist li. 1. Non erunt tibi dei alieni praeter me Non facies tibi Idolum Non sumes nomen Dei tui in vanum c. See more upon this Head in D. Taylor 's Duct Dubit Book 2. Chap. 2. Rule 6. generally have so accounted of it or at least have united it to the First upon different grounds beside that it seem'd but requisite that provision should be made for the manner of our Worship as well as for the Object of it beside lastly that the worshipping of the True God by an Image is elsewhere as expresly forbidden as the substituting of False Gods in his room beside all these things I say which yet are very material Considerations the very words of the Commandment to a diligent Observer shew the Manner of our Worship to be the thing aimed at in them For forbidding to make or worship the likeness of any thing either in the upper or lower World he thereby plainly declared his meaning to be not to caution them against an undue Object but against that kind of Adoration he who worshippeth the likeness of any thing making not that his God before which he so falls down but that which it was designed to represent Which is so true that the Papists themselves are forc'd to alledge it in behalf of their own Idololatrical Worship Neither will it suffice to say as I find it is by them That what we call the Second Commandment did therefore descend to instance in Images because those were the chief Gods among the Heathen For as the generality of the Heathen were undoubtedly too wise to terminate their Worship there the very Name of an Image directing Men to that of which it is so an Image so it is not easie to conceive save of the very Beasts of the People that they should believe a Stone or a piece of Wood to be a God From our own Account pass we to that of our

Worship so there is not any just fear of falling into that Will-worship which St. Paul cautioneth his Colossians against For beside that he cannot in any Propriety of Speech be said to add to the Worship of God who represents not what he so adds in the same condition with it but onely as subservient to it so which shews it yet farther to be no Will-worship he doth what he doth by vertue of the Divine Command even of that and other such like which prescribe That in the Worship of God all things be done decently and in order If therefore what is so added be grounded upon a Divine Command it is no longer the result of the Wills of Men at least as distinct from that of God but a just compliance with his which is a Will-worship which I hope none of us but will think our selves obliged to perform Having thus shewn at large not onely that our Worship ought to be suited to the Nature of God but also agreeable to his Commands it remains onely for the compleating of our Design that we instance in one or two Commandments by which our Worship is especially to be regulated Whereof the first that I shall assign and let that pass for 3. My third Rule is The Worshipping of God in Christ For that so we are to do God hath expresly declared by that Son of his in whom he hath commanded us to adore him Is Faith or Trust a part of Divine Worship Our Saviour's Merits are to be the ground of it there being no other Name as the Apostle speaks whereby we can be saved Is Hope a part of Divine Worship The same Jesus is to be the ground of that also as by whom alone we are obliged to expect the Object of it Is Prayer a part of Divine Worship That also is to pass by him as being to ask what we do in his name and for his sake Is Thanksgiving a part of Divine Worship We are to give thanks unto God and the Father by him Col. 3.17 In fine Whatsoever we do in relation to God or even our selves is to be done with reference to him as God's Instrument both in Governing and Redeeming us For wherefore else should God no less than twice declare from Heaven That he was the Person in whom he was well pleased and once of that twice moreover oblige his Disciples upon that account to hear him but to let us know as St. Paul speaks that whatsoever we do in word or deed we should do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus That we should do what we do in obedience to his Commands and with respect to that Authority which God vested in him That we should do what we do with respect to his Example and have an eye to his most holy Life as well as most excellent Precepts That we should do what we do with respect to the great Obligations he hath laid upon us by humbling himself to the death even the death of the cross for us That we should do what we do in confidence of his Assistance and not relie upon the strength of Nature or any Moral Acquisitions lastly That we should do what we do in confidence of Acceptance in and through the Merits of his Passion For as each of these is sometime or other the meaning of acting in his Name and therefore not lightly to be excluded so we have great reason to believe them all included in that fore-mentioned Text because all tending to his Honour and elsewhere expresly requir'd of us to make our Worship acceptable 4. That to Worship after a due manner we are to worship him in Christ hath been already declar'd together with the full Importance of such a Worship The next and indeed onely thing that I shall need to subjoyn is That we worship him in Spirit and in Truth according as was before insinuated For the evidencing whereof though it might suffice to tell you That this if any is the Affirmative part of the Precept because the Negative strikes at the worshipping of him by a corporeal and sensible Representation yet because it is a matter of importance and indeed one of the great Duties of the Gospel I shall allot it a more full Probation In order whereunto I shall lay for my Ground-work that known Saying of our Saviour which establisheth such a Worship with the proper Ground of it God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth Joh. 4.24 Now there are two Senses wherein those Words are to be consider'd and which therefore are to be distinctly handled 1. A Natural or Moral Sense And 2. An Evangelical one The former because grounded upon a Natural and Eternal Reason The latter because as I shall afterwards shew the Precept of Worshipping God in Spirit is oppos'd to that Worship which was in use under the Law 1. To begin with the former Sense even that which I call the Natural because grounded upon a Natural Reason where again I shall consider the Reason upon which it stands and then the due Importance of it For the Reason upon which it stands it will cost us little pains to evidence it to be a just Foundation of such a Worship For inasmuch as all things naturally are most affected with such Things and Operations as come nearest to their own Nature it must needs be that if God be a Spirit they who would serve him acceptably must present him with such a Worship as approacheth nearest to his own spiritual Nature The onely thing worthy our inquiry is What the Importance of such a Worship is which therefore I come now to resolve In order whereunto the first thing that I shall offer is That it is not meant to exclude wholly the Service of the Body For beside that That is God's by right of Creation and Preservation yea by all other ways by which the Soul is and consequently to pay God an Acknowledgment of its own Subjection and Obedience it is the distinct Affirmation of St. Paul That we are to glorifie God with our Bodies and with our Spirits that are his I observe secondly That as the Worshipping God in Spirit is not to be understood to exclude wholly the Worshipping him with our Bodies so neither to exclude all Worshipping him by Rites and Ceremonies For as the Christian Religion it self is not without such Rites even of God's own appointment witness the Sacrament of our Initiation into it and that other of our Continuance in it so it is much more evident that under the Law a great part of the Worship of God consisted in such Rites and Ceremonies But so it could not have done had a spiritual Worship excluded all worshipping him by Rites and Ceremonies because God was no less a Spirit under the Law than under the Gospel and therefore no less so to be ador'd It remaineth therefore That by worshipping God in Spirit we understand first of all the worshipping him with our