God is a Spirit
fervency, James 5:16., "An effectual fervent prayer availeth much."
This is both the fire and the incense; without fervency it is no prayer.
—2. Love him as God, Deut. 6:5., "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." To love him with all thy heart, is to give him a precedency in our love: desire to let him have the cream of our affections,—to love him not only appreciatively, but intensively, as much as we can. As the sunbeams united in a burning glass, burn the hotter, so all our affections should be united, that our love to God may be more ardent.—3. Obey him as God. All creatures obey him: the stars fight his battles,—the wind and sea obey him, Mark 4:41.,— much more should man whom God hath endued with a principle of reason. He is God, and hath a sovereignty over us; therefore, as we received life from him, so we must receive a law from him, and submit to his will in all things. This is to kiss him with a kiss of loyalty, and it is to glorify him as God.
GOD IS A SPIRIT
QUEST. IV. WHAT is God?
ANS. God is a Spirit.
2d. The thing expressed, John 4:24., "God is a spirit." God is essentia spiritualissima. ZANCH.
Q. What do you mean when you say, God is a Spirit?
A. By a spirit I mean, God is an immaterial substance, of a pure, subtile, unmixed essence, not compounded of body and soul, without all extension of parts. The body is a dreggish thing: the more
spiritual God's essence is, the more noble and excellent. The spirits are the more refined part of the wine.
Q. Wherein doth God differ from other spirits?
1. The angels are spirits.
A. We must distinguish of spirits. 1. The angels are created, God is a spirit uncreated.—2. The angels are spirits, but they are finite, and capable of being annihilated; the same power which made them, is able to reduce them to their first nothing; but God is an infinine spirit.—3. The angels are confined spirits; they cannot be duobus locis simul, they are confined to a place; but God is an immense spirit, and cannot be confined, being in all places at once.—4. The angels, though they are spirits, yet they are but ministering spirits,
Heb. 1:14. Though they are spirits, yet are they servants. God is a super-excellent spirit, "the Father of spirits," Heb. 12:9.
2. The soul is a spirit: Eccles. 12:7., "The spirit shall return unto God that gave it."
Q. How doth God, being a spirit, differ from the soul?
Servetus and Osiander thought, that the soul being infused did convey into man the very spirit and substance of God; an absurd opinion, for the essence of God is incommunicable.
A. Therefore, when it is said, the soul is a spirit, it is meant God hath made it intelligent, and hath stamped upon it his likeness, not his essence.
Q. But is it not said, that we are made partakers of the divine nature?
A. By divine nature there, is meant divine qualities, 2 Pet. 1:4. We are made partakers of the divine nature, not by identity or union with the divine essence, but by a transformation into the divine likeness.
Thus you see how God differs from other spirits, angels and souls of men. He is a spirit of transcendent excellency, "the Father of spirits."
OBJ. Against this Vorstius and the An thropomorphites object, that, in scripture, an human shape and figure is given to God; he is said to have eyes and hands.
A. It is contrary to the nature of a spirit to have a corporeal substance: Luke 24:39., "Handle me, and see me: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Bodily members are ascribed to God, not properly, but metaphorically, and in a borrowed sense; he is only set out to our capacity; by the right hand of the Lord is meant his power; by the eyes of the Lord is meant his wisdom. Now that God is a spirit, and is not capable of bodily shape or substance, is clear. 1. A body is visible, but God is invisible; therefore he is a spirit,
1 Tim. 6:16., "whom no man hath seen, nor can see;" not by an eye of sense.—2. A body is terminated; can be but in one place at once; but God is every where, in all places at once; therefore he is a spirit, Ps.
139:7, 8. God's centre is every where, and his circumference is nowhere.—3. A body being compounded of integral parts may be dissolved,—quicquid divisible est corruptibile; but the Godhead is not capable of dissolution; he can have no end, from whom all things have their beginning. So that it clearly appears that God is a spirit, which adds to the perfection of his nature.
Use 1. If God be a spirit, then he is impassible,—he is not capable of being hurt. Wicked men set up their banners, and bend their forces against God; they are said to fight against God, Acts 5:39. But what will this fighting avail? What hurt can they do to the Deity? God is a
spirit, and therefore cannot receive any hurtful impression; wicked men may imagine evil against the Lord, Nahum 1:9., "What do ye imagine against the Lord?" But God, being a spirit, is impenetrable.
The wicked may eclipse his glory, but cannot touch his essence. God can hurt his enemies, but they cannot hurt him. Julian might throw up his dagger into the air against heaven, but could not touch the Deity. God is a spirit, invisible. How can the wicked with all their forces hurt him, when they cannot see him? Hence all the attempts of the wicked against God are foolish, and prove abortive: Ps. 2:2, 4.,
"The kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord and against his anointed. He that sits in the heaven shall laugh." He is a spirit, he can wound them, but they cannot touch him.
Use 2. If God be a spirit, then it shows the folly of the papists, who worship him by pictures and images. Being a spirit, we cannot make any image to represent him by: Deut. 4:12., "The Lord spake to you out of the midst of the fire, ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude."
1. God being a spirit is imperceptible, cannot be discerned; how then can there be any resemblance made of him? Isa. 40:18., "To whom then will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare unto him?"
How can you paint the Deity? Can we make an image of that which we never saw? "Ye saw no similitude." God is a spirit. It were a folly to go to make the picture of the soul, because it is a spiritual thing; or to paint the angels, because they are spirits.
OBJ. Are not the angels in scripture represented by the cherubims?
A. There is imago personæ et officii,—there is the image of the person, and the image that represents the office. The cherubims did not represent the persons of the angels, but their office. The cherubims were made with wings, to show the swiftness of the
angels, in discharge of their office; and if we cannot picture the soul, nor the persons of angels, because they are spirits, much less can we make an image or picture of God, who is infinite and the Father of spirits.
2. God is also an omnipresent spirit; he is present in all places, Jer.
23:24., "Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord." Therefore, being every where present, it is absurd to worship him by an image.
Were it not a foolish thing to bow down to the king's picture, when the king is present? So it is to worship God's image, when God himself is present.
Q. But how then shall we conceive of God, being a spirit, if we may make no image or resemblance of him?
A. We must conceive of him spiritually: viz. (1.) In his attributes,—his holiness; justice, goodness, which are the beams by which his divine nature shines forth. (2.) We must conceive of him as he is in Christ,
Christ "is the image of the invisible God," Col 1:15. Set the eyes of your faith on Christ, God-man. In Christ we see some sparklings of the divine glory; in him there is the exact resemblance of all his
Father's excellencies. The wisdom, love, and holiness of God the Father shine forth in Christ, John 14:9., "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father."
Use 3. If God be a spirit, it shows us, that the more spiritual we grow, the more we grow like to God. How do earth and spirit agree? Phil.
3:9. Earthly ones may give for their crest, the mole or tortoise that live in the earth. What resemblance is there between an earthly heart, and him who is a spirit? The more spiritual any one is, the more like God.
Q. What is it to be spiritual?
A. To be refined and sublimated, to have the heart still in heaven, to be thinking of God and glory, and to be carried up in a fiery chariot of love to God,—this is to be spiritual: Ps. 73:25., "Whom have I in heaven but thee:" on which Beza paraphrased thus, Apaga terra, utinam tecum in cœlo essem! "O that I were in heaven with thee!" A Christian, who is taken off these earthly things, as the spirits are taken off from the lees, hath a noble spiritual soul, and doth most resemble him who is a spirit.
Use 4. It shows what that worship is God requires of us, and is most acceptable to him, viz. such a worship as is suitable to his nature,
'spiritual worship.' John 4:24., "They which worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth." Spiritual worship is the virgin worship. Though God will have the service of our bodies,—our eyes and hands lifted up, to testify to others what reverence we have of God's glory and majesty,—yet chiefly he will have the worship of the soul, 1 Cor. 6:20., "Glorify God in your body and in your spirit."
Spirit worship God prizeth, because it comes so near to his own nature who is a spirit.
Q. What is it to worship God in spirit?
A. 1. To worship him without ceremonies. The ceremonies of the law, which God himself ordained, are now abrogated, and out of date;
Christ the substance being come, the shadows fly away; and therefore the apostle calls the legal ceremonies 'carnal rites,' Heb.
10:10.; and if we may not use those Jewish ceremonies which God did once appoint, then not those which he did never appoint.
A. 2. To worship God in spirit, is to worship him, 1. With faith in the blood of the Messiah, Heb. 11:9.; and, 2. To worship him with the utmost zeal and intenseness of soul, Acts 26:7., "Our twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night,"—with intenseness of spirit,—
not only constantly, but instantly. This is to worship God in spirit.
The more spiritual any service is, the nearer it comes to God, who is a spirit, and the more excellent it is; the spiritual part of duty is the fat of the sacrifice,—it is the soul and quintessence of religion. The richest cordials are made of spirits, and the best duties are such as are of a spiritual nature. God is a spirit, and will be worshipped in spirit; it is not pomp of worship, but purity, which God accepts.
Repentance is not in the outward severities used to the body, penance, fasting, and chastising the body, but it consists in the sacrifice of a broken heart; thanksgiving doth not stand in church music, the melody of an organ, but rather in making melody in the heart to the Lord, Eph. 5:19. Prayer is not the tuning the voice into an heartless confession, or telling over a few beads, but it consists in sighs and groans, Rom. 8:26. When the fire of fervency is put to the incense of prayer, then it ascends as a sweet odour; that is the true holy water, not that which the pope sprinkles, but what is distilled from the limbeck of a penitent eye. Spirit-worship best pleaseth that God who is a spirit: John 4:23., "The Father seeketh such to worship him;" to shew the great acceptance of such, and how God is delighted with spiritual worship. This is the savoury meat God loves. How few mind this! Worshipping him who is a spirit, in the spirit, they give him more dregs than spirits; they think it enough to bring their duties, but not their hearts, which hath made God disclaim these very services he himself appointed, Isa. 1:12; Ezek. 33:31. Let us then give God spirit-worship, this best suits with his nature; a sovereign elixir full of virtue may be given in a few drops; a little prayer, if it be with the heart and spirit, may have much virtue and efficacy in it.
The publican made but a short prayer, "God be merciful to me a sinner," Luke 18:13., but it was full of life and spirit; it came from the heart, therefore it was accepted.
Use 5. Of Exhortation. Pray to God, that as he is a spirit; so he will give us of his Spirit. The essence of God is incommunicable; but not the motions, the presence, and influences of his Spirit. When the sun shines in a room, not the body of the sun is there, but the light, heat, and influence of the sun. God hath made a promise of his Spirit,
Ezek. 36:27., "I will put my Spirit within you." Turn promises into prayers. "O Lord, thou who art a spirit, give me of thy Spirit: I flesh, beg thy Spirit, thy enlightening, sanctifying, quickening Spirit!"
Melancthon prayed, "Lord, inflame my soul with thy holy Spirit!"
How needful is his Spirit? We cannot do any duty without it, in a lively manner; when this wind blows upon our sails, then we move swiftly towards heaven. Pray therefore, that God would give us of 'the residue of his Spirit,' Mal. 2:15., that we may move more vigorously in the sphere of religion.
Use 6. Of Comfort. As God is a spirit, so the reward that he gives is spiritual; that is the excellency of it. As the chief blessings he gives us in this life are spiritual blessings, Eph. 1:3., not gold and silver,—he gives Christ, his love,—he fills us with grace,—so the main rewards he gives us after this life are spiritual, 'a crown of glory that fadeth not away," 1 Pet. 5:4. Earthly crowns fade, but the beliver's crown, being spiritual, is immortal, a never-fading crown. "It is impossible (saith
Joseph Scaliger) for that which is spiritual to be subject to change or corruption." This may comfort a Christian in all his labours and sufferings; he lays out himself for God, and hath little or no reward here; but remember, God, who is a spirit, will give spiritual rewards,
—a sight of his face in heaven,—white robes,—a weight of glory. Be not then weary of God's service; think of the spiritual reward, a crown of glory which fadeth not away!