presence the Remedy is as bad as if not worse then the Disease Not to stand now to vindicate those who out of a pious sincerity worship God with their bodies from this slander of Superstition which were a worthy task If concurring with the censorious humour of the Objectors it be supposed that some men in worshipping God with their bodies are superstitious of which whosoever be guilty I could wish they would amend it What if they who refuse to worship God with their Bodies be superstitious also even in refusing For ought I know they may be so For though they refuse out of a fear to displease God yet if that fear be causless needless and superfluous it may not unfitly be termed Superstitious which name Saint Austin gives it * Corporal adoration or Bodily worship is a Ceremony and all Ceremonies were abolished by the death of Christ Therefore Bodily worship although it was given to God under the Law yet being by Christ taken away it is not to be given to God under the Gospel Admit Corporal adoration or Bodily worship to be a Ceremony yet was it never any part of that Ceremonial Law which was abolished by the death of Christ It was in use and practice long before the Ceremonial Law was given * Nature it self having imprinted in the hearts of men a secret character of bodily reverence to be given unto God As may appear by many examples that of Abraham falling on his face Gen. 17.3 that of Abrahams servant bowing down his head and worshipping the Lord for his good success in his journey Gen. 24.26 and that which was done by the people of Israel when they heard the tidings of their deliverance from their heavie bondage in Egypt Exod. 12.27 with many other of this kinde So that Bodily worship was in use and practice many yeers before any tittle of the Ceremonial Law was prescribed And as it was long before so likewise as longer lifed is it continued long after for whereas the Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law were wholly abolished by Christs death the termination of which may seem to be implied in his Consummatum est upon the Cross Corporal adoration is authorized as shall and will appear by sufficient precept and practice since our Saviours Death Resurrection and Ascension And the reason of it is satisfying enough to the flexible considerer that Corporal adoration is included not in the Ceremonial but in the Moral Law in the Second Commandment And who knows not that the Moral Law was not abolished by the death of Christ but is and shall be in force to the end of the world Perhaps some Antisomatist may conceive from Job 4.23 which place will come by and by to be examined that worshipping God with the body was so abolished as that to worship him with the heart soul and spirit succeeded in its stead But this cannot be for worshipping God with the heart and soul was in the world long before Bodily worship was as is conceived abolished and the Inward Worship is fully as ancient as the Outward For did not Abraham David and the rest of Gods devout servants worship God in heart soul and spirit as well as with their bodies Were they not inwardly touched with an awful reverence towards the great Majestie of God and so adored him Surely yes else we might think they played the hypocrites in making outward shews and not doing any thing within relating unto God and his Worship If then Cordial worship was not brought in Corporal worship was not for it done away by the death of Christ Indeed our Saviour did bring in a Spiritual worship but what that is shall appear when I have dispatched another Objection Corporal Adoration or Bodily Worship is offensive and scandalous it gives offence to the weak Therefore they who practise it ought to forbear it else they offend which they must not as Rom. 14.21 I Cor. 10.32 That thing should not offend the weak by which others are made strong And I could appeal to clouds of witnesses who out of an honest care to worship God devoutly with their bodies have felt themselves much strengthened in their souls But if they who are offended at Corporal adoration be weak indeed then the parties offending ought to inform and satisfie the parties offended and the parties offended are to seek after information and satisfaction by their own studies or consultation with others by which means they may receive strength to remove the offence from their apprehension and then without doubt they will not onely approve Bodily worship in others but practise it themselves But if pretending weakness they be obstinate stubborn and perverse which humour our Saviour Christ himself was not so happie or rather unhappie as to please then Corporal adoration ought not to be forborn in fear to offend such people but let the practisers of it go on * Per medias offensiones through the midst of offences not having any care to the perverse who take offence where there is none given I may ask that Question which our late Solomon hath put into my mouth * How long will they be weak for if they resolve still to be what they are Gods worshippers must resolve to do what they do I finde a devout man very high in his expression in this case * Let the Saints of the world stumble and fall and break their necks rather then the truth of the Gospel suffer any detriment in the Saints of God Scripture is produced to prove that Bodily Worship is not to be given unto God 'T is strange that men should fight against God with the sword of his own Spirit but this they do The places commonly alleadged are Prov 23.26 My son give me thy heart God requires the heart and with it he is to be worshipped but not with any more for that is superfluous and unnecessary Although Worship or Adoration be not there expresly mentioned in the letter yet no doubt but it is implicitely included and that God saith to every one in every religious action and so of Worship or Adoration in particular Give me thy heart For indeed God requires the heart and hath respect unto it principally first and before the body * All our Service and Worship being neither accepted nor respected with him if our heart go not along with our body in the performance of it But it is not said in that place of Solomon that God requires the heart alone saying Give me onely thy heart There 's no such exclusive particle adjoyned whereby lifting up the eyes holding up the hands speaking with the mouth bowing kneeling and other devout bodily expressions should be excluded therefore this place of Solomon does not make against Bodily worship The words of our Saviour are likewise produced to beat down Corporal adoration Job 4 23 24. Veri adoratores c. The true worshippers shall worship the Father
bodies of ours into his presence and permit them to appear before him whereas he might justly debar them of this happines by reason of the infinite Disparity betwixt Himself and them Shall these Bodies then appear before this presence without expression of reverence and worship Be astonished O ye heavens at this Certainly if any man may be ranked in the number of those whom holy Job taxeth for rebelling against the light it is he that is perswaded he may rush into and be in Gods presence without reverence and worship I say Against the light for it need not be doubted but that even Nature and Grace do both of them project their light this way teaching Bodily reverence and worship unto God Naaman will bow in the house of Rimmon so propense is Nature it self to present Bodily adoration to that deity which the Fancie hath conceived The Muscovites not many yeers since when they entred into one anothers houses they first looked about them to see what Images there were which when once they espied they worshipped and then saluted their friends If we must salute men in the house of God of which for my part I see no necessity or not so Great necessity as of that which respects God himself it were good if we would take notice of God first But we can rush into Gods house and there diligently spend our salutations and obeysances upon this and that body and God because he hath no Body to appear visibly honourable must be accounted No body Either he shall have no worship at all or a very slight one For a man to come before so glorious a God to hear to pray to sing and to do it with no more nay perhaps less reverence then if he were coming into some Trades mans shop What is it to sacrifice a lamb as if be cut off a dogs neck if this be not But what occasion does this administer unto Heathenish Idolaters to triumph over us Christians that they should be ruled by Nature in giving reverence and worship to their gods though false ones whereas we who pretend much to Grace will not be taught by it to adore and worship the true God from whom our grace comes Would any Idolater in the world though blinde yet devout in his way be so irreverently loose and profane before his Devil as we before the great God of heaven and earth Although such Idolaters shall themselves be condemned for their Idolatry yet certainly they shall rise up in judgement against us Christians and condemn us for our profaneness As God urged the Heathens holding them to their gods Jer. 2. 11 against the levity and inconstancy of his own people in changing him so will he produce their reverence and worship to their gods against our slackness in not giving him that Bodily worship which is due unto him Amongst those many sins which threaten the ruine of this our sinful Nation and call on us for amendment we may justly fear that this is not the least Let us then in the Name of God consider the Majestie of God before whom we appear our own unworthiness to appear before him the infinite distance and disproportion that is betwixt him and us that his own eyes and the eyes of his holy Angels are upon us observing our behaviour in coming into and abiding in his presence that we are called upon to yeeld him due reverence and worship not onely with our Souls but our Bodies likewise And if our hearts be not obstinately bent to resist the Truth which God forbid we shall see what pressing engagements lie upon us to worship the Lord our God These Arguments I conceive both for number and weight sufficient to establish this Truth Yet I shall make request in the words of Elihu Job 36.2 Suffer me a little and I will shew thee that I have jet to speak on Gods behalf I shall produce two Arguments more and those shall be from the very words themselves Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God The first of them shall be from the manner of our Saviours alleadging these words Our Saviour immediately before saith Scriptumest It is written Now we know that Bodily worship to be given unto God is written in many places of the Old Testament But what particular place is it which our Saviour may be thought to have had respect unto that this his allegation may be referred to it and compared with it I think it not amiss to follow the margin in our Bibles which directs us to Dent 6.13 and Dent 10.20 Examine either of the places and compare them with our Saviours allegation and see some difference in the terms Moses saith Timebis Thou shalt fear and our Saviour saith Adorabis Thou shalt worship And what may be the reason of this difference I answer The Feat of God may have a twofold consideration First to be taken strictly for an awful dread terrour or trembling at God Which Fear is properly belonging to that passion or affection that is in the soul and is either upon a sad apprehension of Gods Justice as was in David Psal. 119.120 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements or upon the sense of Gods Presence as was in Moses who exceedingly feared and quaked at that fearful manifestation of God upon mount Sinai This Fear should be in us all at all times Though we see not so much of God as Moses did yet we are in his presence and more especially when we come into his House there to present our selves before him And this Fear should beget in us Humility Reverence and Worship towards so * great and terrible a God Whence as Piscator observes that which is Fear in that place of Moses is rendered Worship by our Saviour in this place by a Metonymie the Effect being put for the Cause worship for Fear They then who deny that Bodily worship is to be given unto God and refuse to yeeld it unto him when they come before him though I will not judge them yet themselves make it manifest by their rude carriage and demeanour that they have not this fear in them for if they had they would surely come into Gods presence worshipping in the lowliest manner that possibly they could Or secondly Fear may be taken generally for the whole duty and service that Man oweth unto God Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man Eccles. 12.13 Now * Fear being as the tree comprehending as branches all the several duties that we owe unto God Bodily worship urged at this time by our Saviour may be comprehended in Moses his Fear as the Species in the Genus a Particular in the General So that they who deny Gods Bodily worship deny likewise his Fear in its general latitude and capacity depriving the Genus of a Species the Tree of a main Branch the Fear of God of its Bodily
that if it shall appear Corporal adoration to be Gods due the opposers and detainers of it may be left without excuse for not giving uno God the things that are Gods But I desire by the way to be rightly understood and to avoid the misprision of the Reader for I would not that this treating of Outward worship should be any prejudice or occasion the least damage to the Inward as if a man should offer unto God the husk of an outward Ceremony without the concomitancy of the hearts inward affection God forbid that I should think or be thought to excuse any such hypocrisie But this is the thing Whether in worshipping God with the heart and soul it be lawful decent and expedient to joyn the Body with it and so to exercise and employ the whole man both soul and body together in the Worship of God It is granted on both sides that God is to be worshipped with the Soul but whether he is to be worshipped with the body also this is the thing in question And first on the Negative part it is objected That Corporal adoration to God is Idolatry If this be true then both It and the Practisers deserve to be expelled with rigour out of the Church as our Saviour drave the buyers and sellers out of the Temple But this is onely a foul scandal without fair proof For What is Idolatry It is saith Zanchie Cultus Religiosus quo Idolum tanquam numen colitur A Religious Worship whereby an Idol is worshipped as the Deity But when Religious Worship is given to God who himself is the true and onely Deity Is this Idolatry Idolatry is when Religious Worship is taken from the Creator and given to the Creature But when it is given to the Creator as his right and due Is this Idolatry Why was not Corporal Worship accounted Idolatry before and under the Law as well as now That which is Idolatry in these days was so from the beginning of the world by a coequal principle But we are sure that Corporal Worship unto God was not accounted Idolatry neither before or under the Law when Abraham Isaac and Jacob David and many other devout persons practised it therefore it cannot be Idolatry now Or who dare say that our Saviour stopped the devils mouth with sin or gave liberty unto men to be Idolaters when he alleadged this place of Scripture against the devil Yet for further answer I would they knew and considered what fear there is of their running themselves against a very dangerous rock who make this Objection the sin of Blasphemy and that in a very high degree in regard whosoever shall say that Bodily Worship unto God is Idolatry will seem in effect to say that God himself is an Idol The Argument may be framed as followeth to impeach chem of it Whosoever shall say that God is an Idol blasphemeth But he who saith that Bodily worship unto God is Idolatry saith that God is an Idol Ergo he who saith that Bodily worship unto God is Idolatry blasphemeth If the makers of this Objection would weigh this it might be hoped they would take heed of blaspheming God in the use of such an Objection Bodily worship of God is Superstition Peter Martyr is against this Objection for * he would not have those gestures of body which agree with Scripture-examples to be accounted acts of Superstition This word Superstition is that great Scar-crow in Religion so common in most mens mouthes that what religious action soever does not relish upon their palate they cry out against it Superstition Superstition whereby they think to render it so odious as that it should be abhorred To whom as concerning this duty of Corporal adoration to God I will not stick to apply that of the Apostle These speak evil of those things which they understand not For as another Apostle speaks in another case Had they known it , they would not have crucified the Lord of glory Even so did these know what Reverend adoring God with the Body is they would not persecute it with such opprobrious and scandalous terms But let 's examine the Objection Is Corporal adoration of God Superstition That 's neither true nor safe to say For consider Superstition in the abstract and it will appear that Corporal worship is no more Superstition then Truth is Falshood But perhaps their meaning is that Bodily worship is superstitiously performed men are grown superstitious in the doing of it And Bodily worship being grown to this pass it is to be abolished and taken away as unlawful and not to be practised any longer I answer again That in case Bodily worship be performed after a superstitious manner yet this is but a weak Argument to conclude the abolition of the thing it self For our proceeding then in this business I see no reason but it ought to be regulated like those in our other businesses If a man be sick Must he therefore be knock'd o' th' head rather then be recovered with Physick If he hath a sore on his thigh as Hezekiah had Will he rather do by his very Flesh as Hanun did by the Garments of Davids messengers cut it away by the buttocks then apply a bunch of figs or some other plaister to heal it If he hath a Tree in his Garden taken with a Worm will he rather dig up the Tree by the root then seek to kill the Worm If a Thief come into a True-man's company must the True-man suffer with the Thief Why then cannot the Superstition with which Gods Bodily worship is infected and depraved be purged and taken away without quite taking away the thing it self If it were good to conclude the utter abolishing of a thing from the abuse of it the whole Frame of Religion would quickly be dissolved and nothing left For what have we in Religion which by some or other is not abused Gods House his Day his Word are abused and if they should not therefore be used we should have neither Place nor Time nor Rule for his Service The duties of Praying Preaching and Administring the Sacraments are abused and God forbid but they should still be used for all that If any religious act should be deserted because it is abused by others then a Papist a Jew a Turk in case he could not disswade us from our Religion neither by fair means nor foul it were a ready way to embrace the same Religion with us for a time and to stuff it with gross abuses and so drive us from our Religion that way A great care would be had lest we run from one Extreme to another as Fools do Dum vitant stulti vitia c. Whilst they shun one vice they run into the other contrary and so are as far from the golden Mean as they were before If whilst we flee from Superstition we suffer our selves to slide into an irreverent Profaneness in Gods
in spirit and in truth God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Here it is required that we worship God in spirit therefore Bodily worship is not to be given unto him For the right understanding of this place of Scripture we must know that Spirit there for the strength of the Objection lieth in this word is not to be understood of the soul in opposition to the body and so Outward bodily worship to be done away and the Inward worship of the soul to come in stead of it but it is to be understood in opposition to the Sacrifices and other Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law where with the Samaritanes did then worship God in that mountain by themselves in a Temple of their own and the Jews by themselves in their Temple at Jerusalem Notanda est antithesis inter spiritum externas figuras saith Mr Calvin the opposition is to be noted betwixt spirit and the outward figures For we know that the Worship or Service which the Samaritanes and Jews did then generally use consisted in External Rites and Visible Sacrifices of beasts and other Oblations which manner of Worship being shortly to be abolished a Spiritual or Evangelical Worship should be introduced into the place of it wherein no Typical nor Figurative Sacrifices should be offered And if it be rightly considered it will appear that those out ward Sacrifices of the Law had little or no affinity with that which our Saviour intends in this Scripture Matth. 4.10 and which we call Corporal adoration or Bodily worship which in its furthest extent is but personal Our Saviour then in that place of S. John doth no way thwart the worshipping of God with the body I conceive I have enough for it from Beza who in his Annotation upon the place is driven to make his defence against some of the Papists accusing him in some of their Writings Conferences or other ways that seeking to establish the Spiritual worship of God he should deny that God was to be worshipped with the External worship of the body But of this he clears himself Imò utrunque Deo semper debitum fuisle deberi absit ut insiciemur Yes saith he both the Inward and Outward worship have ever been and shall be due unto God God forbid that we should deny this Yet if this be not sufficient I can raise my authority higher to the great Apostle of the Gentiles who although he speaks in the very words of our Saviour Phil. 3. 3. We are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit c. yet this did not detain him from worshipping God with his body as may appear Act. 20.36 21.5 Eph. 3.14 I rehearse not the words because I would have the Reader peruse and judge But would it not seem strange if I should say that Corporal worship unto God under the Gospel is Spiritual If I should so affirm there are and those of no mean credit that would confirm it Not to trouble my self with setting down what Aquinas speaks or others in this case I shall content my self with what Zanchie writes The Scripture saith he calls External worship as well as Internal spiritual because it proceeds from our spirit renewed by Gods Spirit and is done in faith and tends to the honour and glory of God And he cites this very place of S. John for it To which let me adde the c. Whence we conclude that notwithstanding this place of S. John Bodily worship stands firmly due unto God and is to be performed to wards him by vertue of the present Scripture which we have in hand Adorabis c. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God These are the common Objections on the negative part which buz into the ears of men that Bodily worship is not to be given unto God to which I hope I have given satisfactory Answers I come now to examine what evidence may be produced to defend and require it on the affirmative part In pursuance whereof I shall first produce such Arguments as from solid Grounds may be drawn to prove it and afterwards such Testimonies from authentick Authors as may further confirm it The first Argument may be drawn from the consideration of our bodies themselves Here are three things to be taken notice of which might afford so many several Arguments but I shall comprise them all in one 1. The Creation 2. The Redemption 3. The Glorification of these our bodies There is no Corporeal substance what ever it be that is so much ennobled and honoured by the bounty grace and mercy of the great Creator as these lumps of Flesh our bodies are First in respect of their Creation though not for Substance yet for Priviledge above other bodily Creatures all other Creatures being made for the use and sustentation of these bodies Some creatures bring their Flesh to feed them some their Wooll and Skins to clothe them some their Medicinal vertues to heal them The Sun affords them light and refreshment the Fire warms them the Water purifies them the Air affords them a breathing place the Earth accommodations for adwelling place All the Creatures in their several squadrons present them with their serviceable respects from the meanest even to the highest order of Creatures the holy and blessed Angels who have from God the tutelary charge over these our Bodies And shall these our Bodies receive these benefits and acknowledge no Homage nor Worship unto God whose goodness hath vouchsafed them Hath God created our Bodies for Themselves and no way for Himself but left them at liberty nay secluded them from this service that they should not worship nor bow nor kneel before the Lord their Maker If our Bodies be not bound to this duty and service What difference then is there betwixt the bodies of Reasonable men and the bodies of Bruit beasts towards God Secondly for the blessing of Redemption In this no bodily substance hath any interess but the bodies of men alone Christ sprinkled not his blood upon the Sun nor upon the Moon nor upon the Stars nor upon the Heavens nor upon the Terrestrial creatures but onely upon the Bodies of Men is the effusion of that inestimable Blood And still must our bodies be ingrateful Are we not bought with a price and must we not therefore glorifie God in our bodies and in our spirits because they are Gods Look yet further to the Third the Glorification of our Bodies which are designed to such glory and immortality in the highest heavens as that no Corporeal creature besides hath the like happiness prepared for it And shall our bodies still remain stiff stubborn and inflexible Let us take heed lest this benumming stupidity endanger us not both souls and bodies Let us consider that our Souls and Bodies are twins and that God hath united them together as in one man so in one participation of his
which is verily the most general and universal Custom that is in the world there being scarce any Nation where Superiours receive not this homage and civility from their Inferiours and upon this ground account their god whatever it be that they account their god worthy of such Bodily reverence in a Religious way But we Christians in the West are now so far declined from all due reverence and respect towards Gods Divine Majestie that our bodies must not acknowledge him by kneelings and bowings gestures of reverence which in the Civil way we plentifully exhibit unto men our superiours when we meet with them or make our addresses to them Now if we did but rightly consider Gods transcendency above men and our own obligations to his Divine Majestie and Goodness above whatever we do or can owe to all the men in the world we should surely see that Corporal adoration is more due to God in a Religious way then unto Men in a Civil Though perhaps for all this if the primaevity or fundamental constitution of Corporal adoration Civil and Religious be considered it may seem a disputable Question Which of the two is the Mother and which the Daughter Whether the Civil adoration be derived from the Religious That because God himself is to have Religious adoration therefore Men our Superiours are to have a Civil as having some analogie and resemblance with God Psal. 86. 2. or Whether the Religious adoration be derived from the Civil That because we worship Men with our Bodies therefore we ought also to worship God Which way soever it be determined the Civil worship to Men will infer and strongly establish Religious Bodily worship towards God which is the scope of the Argument A Fifth Argument may be drawn from the silence of the holy Scriptures If the Scriptures be not against it they are for it He that is not against us is on our part Where does the Scripture forbid that Bodily worship should be given unto God or Where is it said that God condemned any for doing it or that Himself refused to be worshipped with the body Many devout and humble suppliants have bowed kneeled and prostrated themselves unto God and Where is it written that God rejected them as if he would not have been worshipped after that manner This must be plainly shewn else it cannot be made good that Bodily worship unto God is unlawful But sinco the Word of God is altogether for it and hath not one syllable against it neither in the Old Testament nor in the New it must needs be not onely lawful but convenient and necessary Where are then the odious aspersions that are cast upon it in calling it Idolatry Superstition and I know not by what other scandalous names Would the Word of God the lantern light and oracle of Truth be silent or connive at a sin worthy of so hainous appellations and neither countenance the opposers nor condemn the practisers of it Would that Light want a ray to enlighten us in the knowledge of this which by some is accounted so great an offence Who will say that the Scripture is imperfect and deficient in a thing of such consequence But rather on the contrary Have we not many both Examples and Precepts in the Old Testament and in the New for giving of Bodily worship unto God Are not the words of this present Scripture first given by Moses and now ratisied by our Saviour strong enough to enjoyn Bodily worship that they may satisfie any but the wilfully obstinate Sure we are that these words put the devil to silence for when our Saviour urged them the devil was forced to yeeld having nothing to reply against them And let not the opposers of Gods Bodily worship shew themselves more stubborn then the devil was lest even he accuse them before God for the neglect of that duty with the truth whereof himself was so clearly convinced by Scripture-evidence But I will put the case Suppose one who is an opposer of Gods Bodily worship and withal an hater of Idols should be tempted as our Saviour was to fall down and worship the devil or an Idol which the * Scriptures call a devil Our Saviour having taught him to be furnished with Scripture whereby to resist temptations Would he not think this place which our Saviour made use of a fit answer for himself and would he not alleadge it to put the tempter to silence I trow he would alleadge either this or some other equivalent place And Would he not then be driven upon necessity against former mislikings to acknowledge Corporal adoration to be Gods due and so even condemn himself if he does not yeeld it unto him Let him consider this A Sixth Argument may be drawn from the practice of Corporal adoration in heaven Rev. 5.14 And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever Earth ought to conform it self to Heaven the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant in setting forth the honour and worship of God Now if it were unlawful or so great an offence as it is here made to worship God with the body S. John with his illuminated eagles eyes would scarce have seen such a thing in heaven It it shall be objected that there were no such bodies in heaven when S. John saw this he onely saw it represented in a Vision This is nothing for the vision of the thing in heaven is sufficient to approve the lawfulness and authorize the practice of it here on earth And let any gainsayer ask himself When he comes into heaven bodily Does he think he shall not with those four and twenty elders fall down before God bodily worship him If so Shall it be Honour then and Dishonour now Shall it be Glory there and Shame here Shall it be an high Happiness in Gods Heavenly house and Sin in his Earthly Me thinks Reason it self should perswade us that Corporal reverence and worship should be given unto God here as a necessary preparation for the doing of it hereafter A Seventh Argument may be drawn from the Majestie of God If nothing else will prevail one would think this should Is not he the Almighty God infinite in Power Greatness Majestie Holiness and Glory Does not he dwell in that light which no man can approach unto the least ray of which light is ten thousand times brighter then the Sun Are all the Kings in the world half so glorious as he or their Thrones to be compared to his Footstool Does not he sit upon a Throne of incomprehensible glory attended upon with thousands of glorious and mighty Angels that stand before him admiring worshipping blessing praising and crying continually Holy holy holy Lord God of hosts And although he hath his dwelling so high yet Does he not humble himself to behold the things that are in heaven and earth Does he not vouchsafe to admit these poor
morship belonging unto it as included in it The other Argument shall be from these words The Lord thy God Because he is so therefore thou shalt worship him This is a glorious and fearful Name Deut. 28.58 Mercy and Majestie Goodness and Greatness meet together in it The due consideration of it may affect a man with high admiration that a God of such Majestie and Greatness should not be ashamed to be called The God of his people Their God and in them Thy God Every particular person in the number of those that serve him having this interess propriety in God as well as the general that he may say with David Psal. 63.1 O God thou art my God And O Christian whoever thou art if thou wilt say that God is thy God Dost thou not mean thy Whole self that he is the God of thy Body as well as of thy Soul and that thy Body challengeth an interess in God with thy Soul If so Art not thou bound to worship him with the one as wel as with the other This Argument is framed Psal 45.11 He is thy Lord áud worship thou him And more fully Psal. 95.6 O come let us worship and how down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker the reason whereof follows in the next verse For be is our God Our relation to him our propriety in him should make us the people of God resolve to worship him Suppose then that a Congregation of people in the presence of God be divided in their practice some worshipping God with their Bodies others not If the refrainers shall ask the other why they bow or kneel c. The other have a ready answer He is the Lord our God therefore we do and will worship him so long as we bear these our bodies about with us they shall acknowledge an homage and reverence to our God And if these retort the Question upon the other and ask Wherefore do not you bow nor kneel What answer will these refusers of Corporal adoration return that may relate to this Scripture Will they say We will not worship nor how down nor kneel negatively in the duty and yet hold the affirmative in the rest For he is ear God This cannot hang together They rather disclaim God and deny him to be their God in refusing to give him his due worship I think they would be loath to have this laid to their charge yet they will have an hard task to discharge themselves for if they deny the duty they go very far in denying the ground upon which the duty is founded Thus I end the Arguments for Gods Bodily worship and pass to the second way of proving it to be Gods due which shall be by Testimony Although I might say of Bodily worship approved and urged by our Saviour in this Scripture the same that the High-Priest said when the Jews accused him of blasphemy What need we any further witness For there needs not any to avouch that which Christ himself hath so clearly ratified Yet I shall adde some few Testimonies which though they can adde nothing to Christs authority may give further satisfaction and light concerning the thing in question And first I shall produce Angelical testimony or Mandate rather which is more for it does not onely testifie but commands as necessary It is Rev. 19.10 and 22.9 where we read that twice S. John fell down at the feet of the Angel to worship him but the Angel forbad him See thou do it not giving a reason of his prohibition I am {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} thy fellow-servant Therefore S. John should not have proffered the Angel such worship neither would the Angel accept it being tendred unto him but he charged S. John thus Adora Deum Worship God Now who can think that one of the blessed Angels who are ever studious to advance the honour of their great Creaton would perswade S. John to the practice of an unlawful and unnecessary service in bidding him to give that worship unto God which he would have given unto him This were to cast a foul aspersion upon those glorious spirits and to accuse them of errour If that very same Angel should appear to one of us after the same manner and should have the same occasion now which he had then I doubt not but he would give the same word of command Adorare Doum to worship God But we need not with Samsons parents make request for the Angel to come again unto us that he might settle us in this truth for in speaking to S. John he hath spoken likewise to us And one would think we should sooner adhere and give credence to the testimony of an incorrupt unerring Angel then to the testimony of ten thousand gainsayers Men who are always sinful and commonly rash unconstant and partial in their judgements And who among the sons of men dares make himself wiser then that Angel by giving contrary counsel As if Angels and Men derived not their wisdom from one and the same fountain Non aliunde sapiens Angelus aliunde Home aliunde ille verax aliunde homo sed ab unà incommutabili sapientia veritate The Angel deriveth not his wisdom from one fountain and Man from another nor is he true one way and man another but from one unchangeable wisdom and truth saith S. Austin in this case of Adoration Now if that Angel in the Apocalypse did wisely and truely in telling S. John he must worship God whosoever is wise will concur with him elso he is not wise Now for Humane testimony The Altar at Athens which had written on it this Inscription To the unknown God if we may give credit to Martinus Polonus was erected presently upon the time of our Saviours suffering for those great Athenian Philosophers seeing the great darkness that then was and not knowing the true cause they fell upon this Quia Deus Nature patitur The darkness is because the God of Nature now suffereth And the Athenians said Let us build an Altar to him So they set up the Altar and wrote thereon To the unknown God And when they would have offered Sacrifices the Philosphers said God hath no need of your goods sed facietis genuflexiones ante ipsius aram but ye shall make bowings and adorations before his altar I have nothing to do here with the Altar therefore let none hence catch at any thing for an accusation against me concerning that My purpose is onely to demonstrate how that men who saw by no other light then that of Nature improved by humane industrie acknowledged Corporal adoration to be due unto that unknown God whoever he was and accordingly advised the Athenians to yeeld it unto him This among many thousands of Heathen Testimonies shall suffice In producing Christian Testimonies I shall endeavour a resemblance with that good housolder which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old by
should so shine before men that they may see our good works see that we worship and serve God and glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Matth. 5. 16. Thus Mr Hildersham And let me set a good bush at his back who comes with his three Reasons also not much different The Reverend Arch-Bishop of Armagh in the Page of his Book which is cited before To this question Is there any use of our bodily behaviour before God sith he is a Spirit and looketh to the heart He answereth thus Yes verily For The whole man and consequently the body it self oweth duty unto God It is a glass wherein the affections of the mind are beheld The mind is the better holden in the thing affected and the better holpen and furthered in the inward worship when both body and mind are joyned together Since these Authors and I doubt not but many more if they were sought into of unquestionable repute have like so many streams bent their courses to the Ocean of this Truth Our late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury is not to be condemned for his pious resolution without the rejection and disproof of all the rest For my own part saith he I take my self bound to worship with body as well as in soul when ever I come where God is worshiped And were this Kingdom such as would allow no holy Table standing in its proper place and such places some are yet I would worship God when I came into his house And were the times such as should beat down Churches and all the curious carved works thereof with Axes and Hammers as in Psal. 74. and such times have been yet I would worship in what place so ever I came to pray though there were not so much as a stone laid for Bethel My last authority shall be more general When in the dawning of this Churches reformation in King Edwards dayes the night of idolatrous worship began to wear away Our blessed reformers Spiritual and Temporal in their endeavours to establish an orderly method for the true worship of God they ordered kneeling at several times in the performance of Gods Service Nor did they intend any other object of their outward bodily worship but only God And our Brethren in Scotland were not disagrecing from the same practice and injunction for Mr Knox having been no otherwise taught in this by his great Master composing a Liturgie for the publick Use of that Church this was one principal thing joyned That the Minister and People should prostrate themselves in the Celebration of their solemn Fasts So far was he or they in those dayes from denying corporal reverence and adoration to be Gods due and just Prerogative This consent of a multitude proceeding not from any heady inconsiderate rashness but from good advice deliberation is a good confirmation of Gods propriety in our bodily worship And though it be much spoken against no adayes by the ignorant who cry it down at all adventure and by the careless profane not a whit practiced in the publick Assemblies yet it might easily be hoped the one would not condemn it nor the other neglect it but both would joyn with the profession of this Service if well and advisedly they would but look into it As when Balaams Ass saw the Angel of the Lord she fell down under Balaam for which his anger was kindled that he smote her with a staff and wished that there were a Sword in his hand for then would he kill her yet afterwards when his own eyes were opened he did the same thing He bowed down his head and fell flat on his face Even so if men who are angry with the profession of corporal Reverence unto God and could find in their hearts to smite and to kill such as they observe to do it would apply themselves to a serious and upright scrutiny of the thing using those helps whereby their eyes might be opened and their understandings enlightned their Will not sitting as Judge in the place of Reason they would surely worship God with their bodies as others do And withal if they would consider how little they can have from the Writings of Divines to countenance their Opposition of Gods bodily worship Pens are commonly more deliberate then tongues and though some mens tongues walk at liberty and prate much against it yet I have not seen or heard that any pen hath drop't so much as a letter in contradiction of this That God is to be worshipped with the body Nor do I think there can be a face so bold as to do it I know they may break forth into exclamations against the corruptions and abuses of bodily worship which for mine own part I am as desirous may be reformed as any gain-sayer of corporal adoration can be And therefore for conclusion of this poor Treatise I shall level a Caveat against two main evils from which I desire every good Christian may be careful to keep himself in his acts of corporal adoration And these are Idolatry and Hypocrisie both which are high provocations unto God For Idolatry This is a grosse abuse and mis-employment of our bodies which God having made them only for himself will not that they should do any religious homage to any but to him alone having by his own express Edict often reiterated excluded all things else whatsoever from having any part or fellowship with himself in this service Though there be Angels and Saints in Heaven yet corporal adoration is not theirs the Angels have refused it and I doubt not but the glorified Saints if they could signifie so much unto us are of the same mind and would likewise shew that they do refuse it If St. Peter could be talked withal he would surely diswade from corporal adoration if it should be tendered unto him as being alive he diswaded Cornelius Act. 10.25 26. Though the * Blessed Virgin be with Christ her Son yet she is not to share with him in our adoration But if we will be wise let us do like wise men who when they came where Christ and his Mother were they fell down and worshipped only him Mat. 2.11 moved questionless thereunto by the secret instinct of the same Spirit which conducted them thither Nor shall I fear to say That the Bread in the holy Eucharist his neerest and most lawful representative in the world is not to have any corporal worship done unto it much less his Image Picture or Cross whatever Aquinas and the Papists are pleased to say That it is to be worshipped with the same worship as Christ himself is As for Images of Gold or Silver Wood or Stone we are not only streightly charged by God himself to with-hold our adoration from them but we may be diswaded even by their own impotency vileness unworthiness they being of our own making inferiour to us and regardless of us In time of need they require more help from us then we can