1 First, You know the Scripture saith, that God is a Spirit, in Joh 4.24. Then presently Christ saith, That he that worships him, must worship him in Spirit; that is, there must be a suitableness in our worship to what God is: Is God a Spirit? then all that worship him, must worship him in Spirit and Truth; that is thus, When I am to go to worship God, I must consider of him, as he is an infinite and glorious Spirit: well then, surely bodily worship is not sufficient for me: Though I do kneel down in Prayer, or do come and present my body to hear the Word, or my body to receive the Sacrament, this is not to worship God as a Spirit: If indeed that our God were as the Heathens, that were corporeal, then it were another matter, then bodily worship would serve the turn, but God being a Spirit, he must have Spiritual Worship, therefore my soul and all that is within me, magnify his Name: saith David, my Soul magnify his Name, not my lips only but my Soul: The Apostle in 1 Tim. 4.8. saith, that bodily exercise profits little; it is no great matter for the body, God looks but very little at bodily exercise; but it is godliness that is profitable, it is the work of the Spirit; when we come to pray, we must pray in the Spirit; that is, we must pray with our Souls, we must pour forth our souls before God, and when we come to hear, our hearts must not go after our covetousness, we must set our hearts to what we hear we must hear with our hearts as well as with our ears, our Souls must be at work in hearing of the Word; when you hear it is not enough for you to come and fit in a Pew, and have the sound of a mans voice in your ears, but your Souls must be at work: And so when you come to receive the Sacrament, your Souls must feed upon Jesus Christ: Bodily worship without Soul-worship is nothing, but Soul-worship may be accepted without bodily worship; therefore it is the Soul that God doth principally look ⟨p. 94⟩at in holy duties: If you be not able to worship God in your bodies, you may worship him in your Souls, and God regards that bodily exercise in holy duties is little worth, somewhat it may be worth, I confess sometime bodily exercise may further the soul, as a reverend carriage of the body and the like, but it is nothing in comparison, the great work is the work of the Soul, for God is a Spirit and must be worshipped in Spirit.
1 First, You know the Scripture saith, that God is a Spirit, in Joh 4.24. Then presently Christ saith, That he that worships him, must worship him in Spirit; that is, there must be a suitableness in our worship to what God is: Is God a Spirit? then all that worship him, must worship him in Spirit and Truth; that is thus, When I am to go to worship God, I must consider of him, as he is an infinite and glorious Spirit: well then, surely bodily worship is not sufficient for me: Though I do kneel down in Prayer, or do come and present my body to hear the Word, or my body to receive the Sacrament, this is not to worship God as a Spirit: If indeed that our God were as the Heathens, that were corporeal, then it were another matter, then bodily worship would serve the turn, but God being a Spirit, he must have Spiritual Worship, therefore my soul and all that is within me, magnifie his Name: saith David, my Soul magnifie his Name, not my lips only but my Soul: The Apostle in 1 Tim. 4.8. saith, that bodily exercise profits little; it is no great matter for the body, God looks but very little at bodily exercise; but it is godliness that is profitable, it is the work of the Spirit; when we come to pray, we must pray in the Spirit; that is, we must pray with our Souls, we must poure forth our souls before God, and when we come to hear, our hearts must not go after our coveteousness, we must set our hearts to what we hear we must hear with our hearts as well as with our ears, our Souls must be at work in hearing of the Word; when you hear it is not enough for you to come and fit in a Pew, and have the sound of a mans voice in your eares, but your Souls must be at work: And so when you come to receive the Sacrament, your Souls must feed upon Jesus Christ: Bodily worship without Soul-worship is nothing, but Soul-worship may be accepted without bodily worship; therefore it is the Soul that God doth principally look ⟨p. 94⟩at in holy duties: If you be not able to worship God in your bodies, you may worship him in your Souls, and God regards that bodily exercise in holy duties is little worth, somewhat it may be worth, I confess sometime bodily exercise may further the soul, as a reverend carriage of the body and the like, but it is nothing in comparison, the great work is the work of the Soul, for God is a Spirit and must be worshipped in Spirit.
