Part 18
(2.) Secondly, It is a contempt of God as the most amiable object. God
is infinitely excellent and desirable : Zech. ix. 17, ' How great is his good ness, and how great is his beauty ! ' There is nothing in him but what may ravish our affections ; none that knows him but finds attractives to keep them with him ; he hath nothing in him which can be a proper object of contempt, no defects or shadow of evil ; there is infinite excellency to charm us, and infinite goodness to allure us ; the author of our beings, the bene factor of our lives ; why then should man, which is his image, be so base as to slight the beautiful original which stamped it on him ! He is the most lovely object, therefore to be studied, therefore to be honoured, therefore to be followed. In regard of his perfection, he hath the highest right to our thoughts. All other beings were eminently contained in his essence, and were produced by his infinite power. The creature hath nothing but what it hath from God. And is it not unworthy to prefer the copy before the original, to fall in love with a picture instead of the beauty it represents ? The creature, which we advance to be our rule and end, can no more report to us the true amiableness of God, than a few colours mixed and suited together upon a piece of cloth can the moral and intellectual loveliness of the soul of man. To contemn God one moment is more base than if all creatures were contemned by us for ever ; because the excellency of crea tures is to God like that of a drop to the sea, or a spark to the glory of un conceivable millions of suns. As much as the excellency of God is above our, conceptions, so much doth the debasing of him admit of unexpressible aggravations.
2. Consider the ingratitude in it. That we should resist that God with our hearts, who made us the work of his hands, and count him as nothing from whom we derive all the good that we are or have, there is no con tempt of man but steps in here to aggravate our slighting of God, be cause there is no relation one man can stand in to another wherein God doth
not more highly appear to man. If we abhor the unworthy carriage of a child to a tender father, a servant to an indulgent master, a man to his obliging friend, why do men daily act that towards God which they cannot speak of without abhorrency if acted by another against man ? Is God a being less to be regarded than man, and more worthy of contempt than a creature ? It would be strange if a benefactor should live in the same town, in the same house with us, and we never exchange a word with him ; yet this is our case, who have the works of God in our eyes, the goodness of God
in our being, the mercy of God in our daily food, yet think so little of him, converse so little with him, serve everything before him, and prefer every-
254 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIV. 1.
thing above him.'* Whence have we our mercies but from his hand ? Who, besides him, maintains our breath this moment ? Would he call for our spirits this moment, they must depart from us to attend his command. There is not a moment wherein our unworthy carriage is not aggravated, because there is not a moment wherein he is not a guardian, and gives us not tastes of a fresh bounty. And it is no light aggravation of our crime that we injure him, without whose bounty in giving us our being, we had not been capable of casting contempt upon him ; that he that hath the greatest stamp of his image, man, should deserve the character of the worst of his rebels ; that he who hath only reason by the gift of God to judge of the equity of the laws of God, should swell against them as grievous, and the government of the lawgiver as burdensome. Can it lessen the crime, to
use the principle wherein we excel the beasts, to the disadvantage of God, who endowed us with that principle above the beasts.
(1.) It is a debasing of God beyond what the devil doth at present. He is more excusable in his present state of acting than man is in his present refusing God for his rule and end. He strives against a God that exerciseth upon him a vindictive justice ; we debase a God that loads us with his daily mercies. The despairing devils are excluded from any mercy or divine patience, but we are not only under the long-suffering of his patience, but the large expressions of his bounty. He would not be governed by him when he was only his bountiful Creator. We refuse to be guided by him after he hath given us the blessing of creation from his own hand, and the more obliging blessings of redemption by the hand and blood of his Son.
It cannot be imagined that the devils and the damned should ever make God their end, since he hath assured them he will not be their happiness, and shut up all his perfections from their experimental notice, but those of his power to preserve them, and his justice to punish them. They have no grant from God of ever having a heart to comply with his will, or ever having the honour to be actively employed for his glory. They have some plea for their present contempt of God ; not in regard of his nature, for he is infinitely amiable, excellent, and lovely, but in regard of his administration towards them, $• But what plea can man have for his practical atheism, who lives by his power, is sustained by his bounty, and solicited by his Spirit ? What an ungrateful thing is it to put off the nature of man for that of devils, and dishonour God under mercy, as the devils do under his wrathful anger !
(2.) It is an ungrateful contempt of God, who cannot be injurious to us. He cannot do us wrong, because he cannot be unjust: Gen. xviii. 25, 'Shall
not the Judge of all the earth do right ? ' His nature doth as much abhor unrighteousnessas love a communicative goodness. He never commanded anything but what was highly conducible to the happiness of man. Infinite goodness can no more injure man than it can dishonour itself. It lays out itself in additions of kindness, and whiles we debase him, he continues to benefit us. And is it not an unparalleled ingratitude to turn our backs upon an object so lovely, an object so loving, in the midst of varieties of allure ments from him ? God did create intellectual creatures, angels and men, that he might communicate more of himself, and his own goodness and holi ness to man, than creatures of a lower rank were capable of. What do we
do by rejecting him as a rule and end, but cross, as much as in us lies, God's end in our creation, and shut our souls against the communications of those perfections he was so willing to bestow ? We use him as if he intended us the greatest wrong, when it is impossible for him to do any to any of his creatures.
3. Consider the misery which will attend such a temper if it continue * Reynolds.
PS. XIV. 1.] PEACTICAL ATHEISM. 255
predominant. Those that thrust God away as their happiness and end, can expect no other but to be thrust away by him as to any relief and compas sion. A distance from God here can look for nothing but a remoteness from God hereafter. When the devil, a creature of vast endowments, would advance himself above God, and instruct man to commit the same sin, he is
< cursed above all creatures,' Gen. iii. 14. When we will not acknowledge him a God of all glory, we shall be separated from him as a God of all com
fort : ' All they that are afar off shall perish,' Ps. Ixxiii. 27. This is the spring of all woe. What the prodigal suffered was because he would leave his father and live of himself. Whosoever is ambitious to be his own heaven, will at last find his soul to become his own hell. As it loved all things for itself, so it shall be grieved with all things for itself. As it would be its own god against the right of God, it shall then be its own tormentor by the justice of God.
2. Duty. Watch against this atheism, and be daily employed in the mortification of it. In every action we should make the inquiry, What is
the rule I observe ? Is it God's will or my own ? Whether do my inten tions tend to set up God or self? As much as we destroy this, we abate the power of sin. These two things are the head of the serpent in us, which we must be bruising by the power of the cross. Sin is nothing else but a turning from God and centring in self, and most in the inferior part of self. If we bend our force against those two, self-will and self-ends, we shall inter cept atheism at the spring-head, take away that which doth constitute and animate all sin. The' sparks must vanish, if the fire be quenched which affords them fuel. They are but two short things to ask in every under taking : Is God my rule in regard of his will ? Is God my end in regard of his glory ? All sin lies in the neglect of these, all grace lies in the practice of them.
Without some degree of the mortification of these, we cannot make profit able and comfortable approaches to God. When we come with idols in our hearts, we shall be answered according to the multitude and the baseness of them too, Ezek. xiv. 4. What expectation of a good look from him can we have, when we come before him with undeifying thoughts of him, a petition in our mouths, and a sword in our hearts to stab his honour !
To this purpose, (1.) Be often in the views of the excellencies of God. When we have no intercourse with God by delightful meditations, we begin to be estranged from him, and prepare ourselves to live without God in the world. Strange ness is the mother and nurse of disaffection. We slight men sometimes because we know them not. The very beasts delight in the company of men, when being trained and familiar, they become acquainted with their disposi tion. A daily converse with God would discover so much of loveliness in his nature, so much of sweetness in his ways, that our injurious thoughts of
God would wear off, and we should count it our honour to contemn our selves and magnify him. By this means, a slavish fear, which is both a dishonour to God and a torment to the soul, 1 John iv. 18, and the root of
atheism, will be cast out, and an ingenious* fear of him wrought in the heart. Exercised thoughts on him would issue out in affections to him, which would engage our hearts to make him both our rule and our end. This course would stifle any temptations to gross atheism wherewith good souls are sometimes haunted, by confirming us more in the belief of a God, and discourage any attempts to a deliberate practical atheism. We are not like to espouse any principle which is confuted by the delightful converse we
* That is 'ingenuous.' — ED.
256 CHAKNOCK'S WORKS. [Ps. XIV. 1.
daily have with him. The more we thus enter into the presence chamber' of God, the more we cling about him with our affections ; the more vigor ous and lively will the true notion of God grow up in us, and be able to prevent anything which may dishonour him and debase our souls.
Let us therefore consider him as the only happiness, set up the true God in our understandings, possess our hearts with a deep sense of his desirable excellency above all other things. This is the main thing we are to do in order to our great business. All the directions in the world, with the neglect of this, will be insignificant ciphers. The neglect of this is common, and is the basis of all the mischiefs which happen to the souls of men.
(2.) To this purpose, prize and study the Scripture. We can have no delight in meditation on him unless we know him/and we cannot know him but by the means of his own revelation. When the revelation is despised, the revealer will be of little esteem. Men do not throw off God from being their rule, till they throw off Scripture from being their guide ; and God must needs be cast off from being an end, when the Scripture is rejected from being a rule. Those that do not care to know his will, that love to be ignorant of his nature, can never be affected to his honour. Let, therefore, the subtilties of reason veil to the doctrine of faith, and the humour of the will to the command of the word.
(3.) Take heed of sensual-pleasures, and be very watchful and cautious in the use of those comforts God allows us. Job was afraid, when his sons
feasted, that they should ' curse God in their hearts,' Job i. 4, 5. It was not without cause that the apostle Peter joined sobriety with watchfulness
and prayer : 1 Pet. iv. 7, ' The end of all things is at hand ; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.' A moderate use of worldly comforts. Prayer is the great acknowledgment of God, and too much sensuality is a
hindrance of this, and a step to atheism. Belshazzar's lifting himself up against the Lord, and not glorifying of God, is charged upon his sensuality, Dan. v. 23. Nothing is more apt to quench the notions of God, and root out the conscience of him, than an addictedness to sensual pleasures. There fore take heed of that snare.
(4.) Take heed of sins against knowledge. The more sins against know ledge are committed, the more careless we are, and the more careless we shall be of God and his honour. We shall more fear his judicial power, and the more we fear that, the more we shall disaffect that God in whose hand vengeance is, and to whom it doth belong. Atheism in conversation pro ceeds to atheism in affection, and that will endeavour to sink into atheism in opinion and judgment.
The sum of the whole. And now consider, in the whole, what has been spoken. 1. Man would set himself up as his own rule. He disowns the rule of God, is unwilling to have any acquaintance with the rule God sets him, negligent in using the means for the knowledge of his will, and endeavours to shake it off when any notices of it breaks in upon him. When he cannot expel it, he hath no pleasure in the consideration of it, and the heart swells against it. When the notions of the will of God are entertained, it is on some other consideration, or with wavering and unsettled affections. Many times men design to improve some lust by his truth. This unwillingness respects truth, as it is most spiritual and holy, as it most relates and leads to God, as it is most contrary to self. He is guilty of contempt of the will of God, which is seen in every presumptuous breach of his law ; in the natural aversions to the declaration of his will and mind, which way soever he turns ; in slighting that part of his will which is most for his honour ;
PS. XIV. 1.] PEACTICAL ATHEISM. 257
in the awkwardness of the heart when it is to pay God a service ; a constraint in the first engagement ; slightness in the service, in regard of the matter ; in regard of the frame, without a natural vigour ; many distractions, much weariness ; in deserting the rule of God, when our expectations are not answered upon our service ; in breaking promises with God.
Man naturally owns any other rule, rather than that of God's prescribing. The rule of Satan, the will of man ; in complying more with the dictates of men than the will of God ; in observing that which is materially so, not because it is his will, but the injunctions of men ; in obeying the will of man, when it is contrary to the will of God. This man doth, in order to the set ting up himself. This is natural to man, as he is corrupted. Men are dis satisfied with their own consciences, when they contradict the desires of self. Most actions in the world are done, more because they are agreeable to self, than as they are honourable to God ; as they are agreeable to natural and
moral self, or sinful self. It is evident in neglects of taking God's directions upon emergent occasions ; in counting the actions of others^ to be good or bad, as they suit with, or spurn against, our fancies and humours. Man would make himself the rule of God, and give laws to his Creator, in striving against his law, disapproving of his methods of government in the world,, in impatience in our particular concerns, envying the gifts and prosperity of others, corrupt matter or ends of prayer or praise, bold interpretations of
the judgments of God in the world, mixing rules in the worship of God withthose which have been ordained by him, suiting interpretations of Scripture with our own minds and humours, falling off from God after some fair com pliances, when his will grates upon us and crosseth ours.
2. Man would be his own end. This is natural and universal. This is
seen in frequent self-applauses and inward overweening reflections ; in ascribing the glory of what we do or have to ourselves ; in desire of selfpleasing doctrines ; in being highly concerned in injuries done to ourselves, and little or not at all concerned for injuries done to God ; in trusting in ourselves ; in working for carnal self, against the light of our own consciences..
This is a usurping God's prerogative, vilifying God, destroying God. Man would make anything his end or happiness rather than God. This appears, in the fewer thoughts we have of him than of anything else : in the greedy pursuit of the world ; in the strong addictedness to sensual pleasures ; in paying a service, upon any success in the world, to instruments more than to God. This is a debasing God, in setting up a. creature ; but more in setting up a base lust : it is a denying of God. Man would make himself the end of all creatures : in pride, using the creatures contrary to the end
God hath appointed ; this is to dishonour God, and it is diabolical. Man would make himself the end of God : in loving God, because of some selfpleasing benefits distributed by him ; in abstinence from some sins, because they are against the interest of some other beloved corruption ; in perform ing duties merely for a selfish interest, which is evident in unwieldiness in religious duties where self is not concerned ; in calling upon God only in a time of necessity ; in begging his assistance to our own projects, after we have by our own craft laid the plot ; in impatience upon a refusal of our desires ; in selfish aims we have in our duties. This is a vilifying God, a dethroning him. In unworthy imaginations of God, universal in man by nature. Hence springs idolatry, superstition, presumption, the common disease of the world. This is a vilifying God, worse than idolatry, worse than absolute atheism. Natural desires to be distant from him ; no desires for the remembrance of him ; no desires of converse with him ; no desires of a thorough return to him ; no desire of any close imitation of him.
VOL. i. B
A DISCOURSE UPON GOD'S BEING A SPIRIT.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and
in truth. — JOHN IV. 24.
THE words are part of the dialogue between our Saviour and the Samaritan woman. Christ, intending to return from Judea to Galilee, passed through the country of Samaria, a place inhabited not by Jews, but a mixed com
pany of several nations,* and some remainders of the posterity of Israel, who escaped the captivity and were returned from Assyria, and being weary with his journey, arrived about the sixth hour, or noon (according
to the Jews' reckoning the time of the day), at a well that Jacob had digged, which was of great account among the inhabitants for the antiquity of it, as well as the usefulness of it, in supplying their necessities. He being thirsty, and having none to furnish him wherewith to draw water, at last comes a woman from the city, whom he desires to give him some water to drink. The woman, perceiving him by his language or habit to be a Jew, wonders at the question, since the hatred the Jews bore the Samaritans was so great, that they would not vouchsafe to have any commerce with them, not only in religious but civil affairs, and common offices belonging to mankind. Hence our Saviour takes occasion to publish to her the doc trine of the gospel, and excuseth her rude answer by her ignorance of him ; and tells her, that if she had asked him a greater matter, even that which concerned her eternal salvation, he would readily have granted it, notwith standing the rooted hatred between the Jews and Samaritans, and bestowed
a water of a greater virtue, the ' water of life,' ver. 10, or * living water.' The woman is no less astonished at his reply than she was at his first demand. It was strange to hear a man speak of giving living water to one of whom he had begged the water of that spring, and had no vessel to draw any to 'quench his own thirst. She therefore demands whence he could have this water that he speaks of, ver. 11, since she conceived him not greater than Jacob, who had digged that well and drunk of it. Our Saviour, desirous to make a progress in that work he had begun, extols the water he spake of above this of the well, from its particular virtue, fully to refresh those that drank of it, and be as a cooling and comforting foun tain within them, of more efficacy than that without, ver. 13, 14. The woman, conceiving a good opinion of our Saviour, desires to partake of this
* Amirant, Paraph, sur Jean.
JOHN IV. 24.] GOD is A SPIRIT. 259
water, to save her pains in coming daily to the well, not apprehending the
spirituality of Christ's discourse to her, ver. 15. Christ finding her to take some pleasure in his discourse, partly to bring her to a sense of her sin before he did communicate the excellency of his grace, bids her return back to the city and bring her husband with her to him, ver. 16. She freely acknowledges that she had no husband, whether having some check of con science at present for the unclean life she led, or loath to lose so much time in the gaining this water so much desired by her. Our Saviour takes occa sion from this to lay open her sin before her, and to make her sensible of her own wicked life, ver. 17, and the prophetic excellency of himself, and tells her that she had had five husbands, to whom she had been false, and by whom she was divorced ; and the person she now dwelt with was not her lawful husband, and in living with him she violated the rights of marriage, and increased guilt uponher conscience, ver. 18. The woman, being affected with this discourse, and knowing him to be a stranger, that could not be certified of those things but in an extraordinary way, begins to have a high esteem of him as a prophet, ver. 19 ; and upon this opinion she esteems him able to decide -a question which had been canvassed between them and the Jews about the place of worship, ver. 20, their fathers wor shipping in that mountain, and the Jews affirming Jerusalem to be a place of worship. She pleads the antiquity of the worship in this place, Abraham having built an altar there, Gen. xii. 7, and Jacob upon his return from
Syria. And surely, had the place been capable of an exception, such persons as they, and so well acquainted with the will of God, would not have pitched upon that place to celebrate their worship.
Antiquity hath too, too often bewitched the minds of men, and drawn them from the revealed will of God. Men are more willing to imitate the outward actions of their famous ancestors, than conform themselves to the revealed will of their Creator. The Samaritans would imitate the patriarchs in the place of worship, but not in the faith of the worshippers.
Christ answers her, that this question would quickly be resolved by a new state of the church which was near at hand, and neither Jerusalem, which
had not* the precedency, nor that mountain, should be of any more value in that concern than any other place in the world, ver. 21. But yet, to make her sensible of her sin and that of her countrymen, tells her that their worship in that mountain was not according to the will of God, he having, long after the altars built in this place, fixed Jerusalem as the place of sacrifices; besides, they had not the knowledge of that God which ought to be worshipped by them, but the Jews had the true object of worship and the true manner of worship, according to the declaration God had made of himself to them, ver. 22. But all that service shall vanish, the veil of the temple shall be rent in twain, and that carnal worship give place to one more spiritual; shadows shall fly before substance, and truth advance itself above figures, and the worship of God shall be with the. strength of the Spirit. Such a worship, and such worshippers, doth the Father seek:
ver. 23, * For God is a Spirit :: and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.' The design of our Saviour is to declare that God is not taken with external worship invented by men, no, nor com manded by himself; and that upon this reason, because he is a spiritual essence, infinitely above gross and corporeal matter, and is not taken with that pomp which is a pleasure to our earthly imaginations.
HvsvfLo, 6 ©go's. Some translate it just as the words lie, ' Spirit is God ;'f but it is not unusual, both in the Old and New Testament languages, to put
* Qu. ' now ' ?— ED. t Vulgar Lat. Illyric. Clay.
260 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [JOHN IV. 24.
the predicate before the subject ; as Ps. v. 9, ' Their throat is an open sepulchre,' in the Hebrew, * A sepulchre open their throat ;' so Ps. cxi. 3, *His work is honourable and glorious;' Hebr., 'Honour and glory his work.' And there wants not one example in the same evangelist : John i. 1, 'And the Word was God;' Greek, 'And God was the Word.' In all the predicate, or what is ascribed, is put before the subject to which it is ascribed.
One tells us, and he an head of a party that hath made a disturbance in
the church of God,* that this place is not aptly brought to prove God to be a Spirit. And the reason of Christ runs not thus, God is of a spiritual essence, and therefore must be worshipped with a spiritual worship ; for the essence of God is not the foundation of his worship, but his will ; for then we were not to worship him with a corporeal worship, because he is not a body, but with an invisible and eternal worship, because he is invisible and eternal.
But the nature of God is the foundation of worship, the will of God is the rule of worship ; the matter and manner is to be performed according to the will of God. But is the nature of the object of worship to be excluded ? No ; as the object is, so ought our devotion to be, spiritual as he is spiritual. God in his commands for worship respected the discovery of his own nature; in the law, he respected the discovery of his mercy and justice, and there fore commanded a worship by sacrifices. A spiritual worship without those
institutions would not have declared those attributes, which was God's end to display to the world in Christ. And though the nature of God is to be respected in worship, yet the obligations of the creature are to be considered. God is a Spirit, therefore must have a spiritual worship. The creature hath a body as well as a soul, and both from God ; and therefore ought to wor ship God with the one as well as the other, since one as well as the other is freely bestowed upon him.
The spirituality df God was the foundation of the change from the Judaical carnal worship to a more spiritual and evangelical.
* God is a Spirit.' That is, he hath nothing corporeal, no mixture of matter ; not a visible substance, a bodily form.f He is a Spirit, not a bare spiritual substance, but an understanding, willing Spirit; holy, wise, good, and just. Before Christ spake of the Father, ver. 23, the first person in the Trinity, now he speaks of God essentially. The word Father is personal, the word God essential. So that our Saviour would render a reason, not from any one person in the blessed Trinity, but from the divine nature, why we should worship in spirit; and therefore makes use of the word God, the being a spirit being common to the other persons with the Father.
This is the reason of the proposition, ver. 23, of a spiritual worship. Every nature delights in .that which is like it, and distastes that which is most different from it. If God were corporeal, he might be pleased with the victims of beasts, and the beautiful magnificence of temples, and the noise of music; but being a Spirit, he cannot be gratified with carnal things. He demands something better and greater than all those, that soul which he made, that soul which he hath endowed, a spirit of a frame suit able to his nature. He indeed appointed sacrifices and a temple, as shadows of those things which were to be most acceptable to him in the Messiah, but
they were imposed only ' till the time of reformation,' Heb. ix. 10.
' Must worship him.' Not they may, or it would be more agreeable to God to have such a manner of worship, but they must. It is not exclusive
* Episcop. Institut. lib. iv. cap. 3. t Melancthon.
JOHN IV. 24.] GOD is A SPIEIT. 261
of bodily worship, for this were to exclude all public worship in societies,
which cannot be performed without reverential postures of the body.* The gestures of the body are helps to worship and declarations of spiritual acts. We can scarcely worship God with our spirits without some tincture upon the outward man. But he excludes all acts merely corporeal, all resting upon an external service and devotion, which was the crime of the Pharisees, and the general persuasion of the Jews as well as heathens, who used the outward ceremonies, not as signs of better things, but as if they did of themselves please God, and render the worshippers accepted with him, without any suitable frame of the inward man.f It is as if he had said, Now you must separate yourselves from all carnal modes to which the service of God is now tied, and render a worship chiefly consisting in the affectionate motions of the heart, and accommodated more exactly to the condition of the object, who is a Spirit.
' In spirit and truth.' The evangelical service now required has the advantage of the former, that was a shadow and figure, this the body and truth.J Spirit, say some,§ is here opposed to the legal ceremonies, truth to hypocritical services; or || rather truth is opposed to shadows, and an opinion of worth in the outward action. It is principally opposed to external rites; because our Saviour saith, ver. 23, 'The hour comes, and now is,' &c. Had it been opposed to hypocrisy, Christ had said no new thing ; for God always required truth in the inward parts, and all true wor shippers had served him with a sincere conscience and single heart. The old patriarchs did worship God in Spirit and truth, as taken for sincerity. Such a worship was always and is perpetually due to God, because he always was and eternally will be a Spirit.H And it is said, ' The Father seeks such to worship him;' not shall seek, he always sought it, it always was performed to him by one or other in the world. And the prophets had always rebuked them for resting upon their outward solemnities, Isa. Iviii. 7 and Micah vi. 8. But a worship without legal rites was proper to an evangelical state and the times of the gospel, God having then exhibited Christ, and brought into the world the substance of those shadows and the end of those institutions ; there was no more need to continue them when the true reason of them was ceased. All laws do naturally expire when the true reason upon which they were first framed is changed.
Or by spirit may be meant such a worship as is kindled in the heart by the breath of the Holy Ghost. Since we are dead in sin, a spiritual light and flame in the heart, suitable to the nature of the object of our worship, cannot be raised in us without the operation of a supernatural grace. And though the fathers could not worship God without the Spirit, yet in the gospel times, there being a fuller effusion of the Spirit, the evangelical state
is called ' the administration of the Spirit,' and the ' newness of the Spirit,' in opposition to the legal economy, entitled the « oldness of the letter,' 2 Cor. iii. 8, Horn. vii. 6. The evangelical state is more suited to the nature of God than any other. Such a worship God must have, whereby he is acknowledged to be the true sanctifier and quickener of the soul. The nearer God doth approach to us, and the more full his manifestations are, the more spiritual is the worship we return to God. The gospel pares off the rugged parts of the law, and heaven shall remove what is material in the gospel, and change the ordinances of worship into that of a spiritual praise.
In the words there is,
* Terniti. J Amyrald in loc. R Chemnit. t Amyrald in loc. $ Muscul. f Muscul.
262 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [JOHN IY. 24.
1. A proposition: * God is a Spirit,' the foundation of all religion. 2. An inference : ' they that worship him,' &c. As God, a worship belongs to him; as a Spirit, a spiritual worship is due to him. In the inference we have,
1. The manner of worship: ' in spirit and in truth.' 2. The necessity of such a worship: ' must.' The proposition declares the nature of God; the inference, the duty of man.
The observations lie plain. Obs. 1. God is a pure spiritual being; he is a Spirit. 2. The worship clue from the creature to God must be agreeable to the nature of God, and purely spiritual.
3. The evangelical state is suited to the nature of God. For the first, Doct. God is a pure spiritual being.
It is the observation of one,* that the plain assertion of God's being a Spirit is found but once in the whole Bible, and that is in this place; which may well be wondered at, because God is so often described with hands, feet, eyes, and ears, in the form and figure of a man. The spiritual nature of God is deducible from many places ; but not anywhere, as I remember, asserted totidem verbis but in this text. Some allege that place, 2 Cor. iii.
17, ' The Lord is that Spirit,' for the proof of it, but that seems to have a different sense. In the text, the nature of God is described; in that place,
the operations of God in the gospel. ' It is not the ministry of Moses, or that old covenant, which communicates to you that Spirit it speaks of; but it is the Lord Jesus, and the doctrine of the gospel delivered by him, whereby this Spirit and liberty is dispensed to you. He opposes here the liberty of
the gospel to the servitude of the law.' f It is from Christ that a divine virtue diffuseth itself by the gospel ; it is by him, not by the law, that we partake of that Spirit.
The spirituality of God is as evident as his being. J If we grant that God is, we must necessarily grant that he cannot be corporeal, because a body is of an imperfect nature. It will appear incredible to any that acknowledge God the first being and creator of all things, that he should be a massy, heavy bod}7, and have eyes and ears, feet and hands, as we have.
For the explication of it.
1. Spirit is taken various ways in Scripture. It signifies sometimes an
aerial substance, as Ps. xi. 6, *A horrible tempest;' Heb., <A spirit of tem pest;' sometimes the breath, which is a thin substance: Gen. vi. 17, 'All flesh wherein is the breath of life;' Heb., * Spirit of life.' A thin substance, though it be material and corporeal, is called spirit ; and in the bodies of living creatures, that which is the principle of their actions is called spirits, the animal and vital spirits ; and the finer parts extracted from plants and minerals we call spirits, those volatile parts separated from that gross matter wherein they were immersed, because they come nearest to the nature of an incorporeal substance. And from this notion of the word, it is translated to signify those substances that are purely immaterial, as angels and the souls of men. Angels are called spirits, Ps. civ. 4 ; ' Who makes Ms angels spirits,' Heb. i. 14. And not only good angels are so called, but <evil angels, Mark i. 27. Souls of men are called spirits, Eccles. xii., and the scul of Christ is called so, John xix. 30, whence God is called ' the God
<of the spirits of all flesh,' Numb. xvi. 22 : and spirit is opposed to flesh :
* Ejiwscop. Institut. 1. iv. c. 3. % Suarez. de Deo, vol. i. p. 9, col. 2. t Amycald in loc.
JOHN IV. 24.] GOD is A SPIRIT. 263
Isaiah xxxi. 8, ' The Egyptians * are flesh, and not spirit.' And our Saviour gives us the notion of a spirit to be something above the nature of a body, Luke xxiv. 39 ; not having flesh and bones, extended parts, loads of gross matter. It is also taken for those things which are active and
efficacious, because activity is of the nature of a spirit. Caleb had ' another spirit,' Numb. xiv. 24, an active affection. The vehement motions of sin are called spirit, Hos. iv. 12, * The spirit of whoredoms,' in that sense that Prov. xxix. 11, * A fool utters all his mind,' * all his spirit;' he knows not how to restrain the vehement motions of his mind. So that the notion of
a spirit is, that it is a fine immaterial substance, an active being, that acts itself and other things. A mere body cannot act itself, as the body of man cannot move without the soul, no more than a ship can move itself without wind and waves.
So God is called a Spirit, as being not a body, not having the greatness, figure, thickness or length of a body, wholly separate from anything of flesh and matter. We find a principle within us nobler than that of our bodies, and therefore we conceive the nature of God according to that which is more worthy in us, and not according to that which is the vilest part of our natures. God is a most spiritual spirit, more spiritual than all angels, all souls (^ovorgiffws).f As he exceeds all in the nature of being, so he exceeds all in the nature of spirit. He hath nothing gross, heavy, material in his essence.
2. When we say God is a Spirit, it is to be understood by way of nega tion. There are two ways of knowing or describing God : by way of affir mation, affirming that of him in a way of eminency which is excellent in the creature, as when we say God is wise, good. The other by way of negation, when we remove from God in our conceptions what is tainted with imper fection in the creature, f The first ascribes to him whatsoever is excellent, the other separates from him whatsoever is imperfect. The first is like a limning, which adds one colour to another to make a comely picture ; the other is like a carving, which pares and cuts away whatsoever is superfluous, to make a complete statue. This way of negation is more easy ; we better understand what God is not, than what he is, and most of our knowledge of God is by this way. As when we say God is infinite, immense, immutable, they are negatives ; he hath no limits, is confined to no place, admits of no change. § When we remove from him what is inconsistent with his being, we do more strongly assert his being, and know more of him when we elevate him above all, and above our own capacity. And when we say God is a Spirit, it is a negation ; he is not a body ; he consists not of various parts, extended one without and beyond another. He is not a spirit so as our souls are, to be the form of any body ; a spirit, not as angels and souls are, but infinitely higher. We call him so because, in regard of our weak
ness, we have not any other term of excellency to express or conceive of him by. We transfer it to God in honour, because spirit is the highest excellency in our nature. Yet we must apprehend God above any spirit, since his nature is so great, that he cannot be declared by human speech, perceived by human sense, or conceived by human understanding.
The second thing, that God is a Spirit. Some among the heathens || imagined God to have a body; some thought him to have a body of air, some a heavenly body, some a human
* This is not said of the Egyptians, but of their horses. — ED. f Gerhard. J Gamacheus, torn. i. q. 3, cap. i. p. 42.
\ Coccei. Sum. Theol., cap. 8. | Thes. Sedan., part ii. p. 1000.
264 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [JOHN IV. 24.
body;* and many of them ascribed bodies to their gods, but bodies without blood, without corruption ; bodies made up of the finest and thinnest atoms ; such bodies, which, if compared with ours, were as no bodies. The Sadducees also, who denied all spirits, and yet acknowledged a God, must conclude him to be a body, and no spirit. Some among Christians have been of that opinion. Tertullian is charged by some, and excused by others ; and some monks of Egypt were so fierce for this error, that they attempted to kill one Theophilus, a bishop, for not being of that judgment.
But the wiser heathens f were of another mind, and esteemed it an unholy thing (6ux offiov) to have such imaginations of God. And some Christians have thought God only to be free from anything of body ; because he is omnipresent, immutable, he is only incorporeal and spiritual : all things else, even the angels, are clothed with bodies, though of a neater matter, and a more active frame than ours ; a pure spiritual nature they allowed to no being but God. Scripture and reason meet together to assert the spirituality of God. Had God had the lineaments of a body, the Gen
tiles had not fallen under that accusation of * changing his glory into that of a corruptible man,' Rom. i. 23.
This is signified by the name God gives himself: Exod. iii. 14, ' I am that I am,' a simple, pure, uncompounded being, without any created mixture ; as infinitely above the being of creatures as above the conceptions of crea
tures : Job xxxvii. 23, ' Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out.' He is so much a Spirit that he is the ' Father of spirits,' Heb. xii. 9. The Almighty Father is not of a nature inferior to his children. The soul is a spirit ; it could not else exert actions without the assistance of the body, as the act of understanding itself and its own nature, the act of willing, and willing things against the incitements and interest of the body. It could not else conceive of God, angels, and immaterial substances. It could not else be so active as with one glance to fetch a compass from earth to heaven, and by a sudden motion to elevate the understanding from an earthly thought to the thinking of things as high as the highest heavens. If we have this opinion of our souls, which in the nobleness of their acts surmount the body, without which the body is but a dull inactive piece of clay, we must needs have a higher conception of God than to clog him with any matter, though of a finer temper than ours. We must conceive of him by the perfections of our souls, without the vileness of our bodies. If God made man according to his image, we must raise our thoughts of God according to the noblest part of that image, and imagine the exemplar or copy not to come short, but to exceed the thing copied by it. God were not the most excellent substance if he were not a Spirit. Spiritual sub stances are more excellent than bodily, the soul of man more excellent than other animals, angels more excellent than men. They contain in their own nature whatsoever dignity there is in the inferior creatures. God must have, therefore, an excellency above all those, and therefore is entirely remote from the conditions of a body.
It is a gross conceit, therefore, to think that God is such a spirit as the air is ; J for that is to be a body as the air is, though it be a thin one ; and if God were no more a spirit than that, or than angels, he would not be the most simple being. Yet some § think that the spiritual Deity was repre sented by the air in the ark of the testament. It was unlawful to represent him by any image that God had prohibited. Everything about the ark had
* Vossius Idolol., lib. ii. cap. i. Forbes, Instrument, 1. i. c. 36. f Plutarch, incorporalis ratio ; divinus spiritus, Seneca. j Calov. Socin. Proflig., p. 129, 130. I Amyrald sup., Heb. ix. p. 146, &c.
JOHN IV. 24. J GOD is A SPIRIT. 265
a particular signification. The gold and other ornaments about it signified something of Christ, but were unfit to represent the nature of God. A thing purely invisible, and falling under nothing of sense, could not represent him to the mind of man. The air in the ark was the fittest ; it represented the invisibility of God, air being imperceptible to our eyes. Air diffuseth itself through all parts of the world, it glides through secret passages into all creatures, it fills the space between heaven and earth ; there is no place wherein God is not present.
To evidence this; —
1. If God were not a Spirit, he could not be Creator. All multitude begins in, and is reduced to, unity. As above multitude there is an absolute unity, so above mixed creatures there is an absolute simplicity. You cannot conceive number without conceiving the beginning of it in that which was not number, viz., a unit. You cannot conceive any mixture but you must conceive some simple thing to be the original and basis of it. The works of art, done by rational creatures, have their foundation in something spiritual. Every artificer, watchmaker, carpenter, hath a model in his own mind of the work he designs to frame. The material and outward fabric is squared according to an inward and spiritual idea. A spiritual idea speaks a spiritual faculty as the subject of it. God could not have an idea of that vast number of creatures he brought into being if he had not a spiritual nature.* The wisdom whereby the world was created could never be the fruit of a corporeal nature ; such natures are not capable of understanding and comprehending the things which are within the compass of their nature, much less of producing them ; and therefore beasts, which have only cor poreal faculties, move to objects by the force of their sense, and have no knowledge of things as they are comprehended by the understanding of man. All acts of wisdom speak an intelligent and spiritual agent. The effects of wisdom, goodness, power, are so great and admirable, that they bespeak him a more perfect and eminent being than can possibly be beheld under a bodily shape. Can a corporeal substance * put wisdom in the inward parts, and give understanding to the heart ' ? Job xxxviii. 86.
2. If God were not a pure Spirit, he could not be one. If God had a body consisting of distinct members, as ours, or all of one nature, as the water and air are, yet he were then capable of division, and therefore could not be entirely one. Either those parts would be finite or infinite : if finite, they are not parts of God, for to be God and finite is a contradiction ; if infinite, then there are as many infinites as distinct members, and there fore as many deities. Suppose this body had all parts of the same nature, as air and water hath, every little part of air is as much air as the greatest, and every little part of water is as much water as the ocean ; so every little part of God would be as much God as the whole, as many particular deities to make up God as little atoms to compose a body. What can be more absurd ? If God had a body like a human body, and were compounded of body and soul, of substance and quality, he could not be the most perfect unity ; he would be made up of distinct parts, and those of a distinct nature, as the members of a human body are. Where there is the greatest unity, there must be the greatest simplicity ; but God is one. As he is free from any change, so he is void of any multitude : Deut. vi. 4, ' The Lord our God is one Lord.'
8. If God had a body as we have, he would not be invisible. Every material thing is not visible : the air is a body, yet invisible, but it is sensible ; the cooling quality of it is felt by us at every breath, and we know it by our
* Amyral. moral, torn. i. p. 282.
266 CHARNOCK'S WOBZS. [JOHN IV. 24.
touch, -which is the most material sense. Every body, that hath members like to bodies, is visible ; but God is invisible.* The apostle reckons it amongst his other perfections : 1 Tim. i. 17, ' Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible.' He is invisible to our sense, which beholds nothing but material and coloured things ; and incomprehensible to our understand ing, that conceives nothing but what is finite. God is therefore a Spirit incapable of being seen, and infinitely incapable of being understood. If he be invisible, he is also spiritual. If he had a body, and hid it from our eyes, he might be said not to be seen, but could not be said to be invisible. When we say a thing is visible, we understand that it hath such qualities which are the object of sense, though we may never see that which in its own nature is to be seen. God hath no such qualities as fall under the percep tion of our sense. His works are visible to us, but not his Godhead, Rom. i. 20. The nature of a human body is to be seen and handled ; Christ gives us such a description of it : Luke xxiv. 39, ' Handle me and see, for a
spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me have ;' but man hath been so far from seeing God, that it is impossible he can see him, 1 Tim. vi. 16. There is such a disproportion between an infinite object and a finite sense and understanding, that it is utterly impossible either to behold or compre hend him ; but if God had a body more luminous and glorious than that of the sun, he would be as well visible to us as the sun, though the immensity of that light would dazzle our eyes, and forbid any close inspection into him by the virtue of our sense. We have seen the shape and figure of the sun, but no man hath ever seen the shape of God, John v. 87. If God had a body he were visible, though he might not perfectly and fully be seen by us;f as we see the heavens, though we see not the extension, latitude, and greatness of them. Though God hath manifested himself in a bodily shape,
Gen. xviii. 1, and elsewhere Jehovah appeared to Abraham, yet the sub stance of God was not seen, no more than the substance of angels was seen in their apparitions to men. A body was formed to be made visible by them, and such actions done in that body, that spake the person that did them to be of a higher eminency than a bare corporeal creature. Some times a representation is made to the inward sense and imagination, as to Micaiah, 1 Kings xx. 19, and to Isaiah, chap. vi. 1 ; but they saw not the essence of God, but some images and figures of him proportioned to their sense or imagination. The essence of God no man ever saw, nor can see, John i. 18.
Nor doth it follow that God hath a body, J because Jacob is said to * see God face to face,' Gen. xxxii. 30 ; and Moses had the like privilege, Deut. xxxiv. 10. This only signifies a fuller and clearer manifestation of God, by some representations offered to the bodily sense, or rather to the inward spirit ; for God tells Moses he could not see his face, Exod. xsxiii. 20 ; and that none ever saw the similitude of God, Deut. iv. 15. Were God a corporeal substance, he might in some measure be seen by corporeal eyes.
4. If God were not a Spirit, he could not be infinite. All bodies are of a finite nature : every body is material, and every material thing is termi nated. The sun, a vast body, hath a bounded greatness : the heavens, of a mighty bulk, yet have their limits. If God had a body, he must consist of parts ; those parts would be bounded and limited, and whatsoever is limited is of a finite virtue, and therefore below an infinite nature. Reason there fore tells us, that the most excellent nature, as God is, cannot be of a cor poreal condition, because of the limitation and other actions which belong
* Daille in Tim. J Goulart. de Dieu. p. 95, 96. t Goulart. de Dieu, p. 94.
JOHN IV. 24.] GOD is A SPIRIT. 267
to every body. God is infinite, for ' the heaven of heavens cannot contain him,' 2 Chron. ii. 6. The largest heavens, and those imaginary spaces beyond the world, are no bounds to him. He hath an essence beyond the bounds of the world, and cannot be included in the vastness of the heavens. If God be infinite, then he can have no parts in him ; if he had, they must be finite, or infinite : finite parts can never make up an infinite being. A vessel of gold of a pound weight cannot be made of the quantity of an ounce. Infinite parts they cannot be, because then every part would be equal to the whole, as infinite as the whole, which is contradictory. We see in all things every part is less than the whole bulk that is composed of it. As every member of a man is less than the whole body of man, if all the parts were finite, then God in his essence were finite ; and a finite God is not more excellent than a creature : so that if God were not a Spirit, he could not be infinite.
5. If God were not a Spirit, he could not be an independent being. What soever is compounded of many parts, depends either essentially or integrally upon those parts ; as the essence of a man depends upon the conjunction and union of his two main parts, his soul and body ; when they are sepa rated, the essence of a man ceaseth, and the perfection of a man depends upon every member of the body ; so that if one be wanting, the perfection of the whole is wanting. As if a man hath lost a limb, you call him not a perfect man, because that part is gone upon which his perfection, as an entire man, did depend. If God, therefore, had a body, the perfection of the Deity would depend upon every part of that body ; and the more parts he were compounded of, the more his dependency would be multiplied accord ing to the number of those parts of the body ; for that which is compounded of many parts is more dependent than that which is compounded of fewer.
And because God would be a dependent being if he had a bod}7, he could not be the first being ; for the compounding parts are in order of nature before that which is compounded by them, as the soul and body are before the man which results from the union of them. If God had parts and bodily members as we have, or any composition, the essence of God would result from those parts, and those parts be supposed to be before God ; for that which is a part is before that whose part it is. As in artificial things you may conceive it, all the parts of a watch or clock are in time before that watch, which is made by setting those parts together. In natural things, you must suppose the members of a body framed before you can call it a man ; so that the parts of this body are before that which is constituted by them. We can conceive no other of God, if he were not a pure, entire, unmixed Spirit : if he had distinct parts, he would depend upon them ; those parts would be before him : his essence would be the effect of those distinct parts, and so he would not be absolutely and entirely the first being. But he is so : Isa. xliv. 6, ' I am the first, and I am the last.' He is the first ; nothing is before him : whereas, if he had bodily parts, and those finite, it would follow, God is made up of those parts which are not God ; and that which is not God, is in order of nature before that which is God. So that we see, if God were not a Spirit, he could not be independent.
6. If God were not a Spirit, he were not immutable and unchangeable. His immutability depends upon his simplicity. He is unchangeable in his essence, because he is a pure and unmixed spiritual being. Whatsoever is compounded of parts, may be divided into those parts, and resolved into those distinct parts which make up and constitute the nature. Whatsoever is compounded, is changeable in its own nature, though it should never be changed. Adam, who was constituted of body and soul, had he stood in
CHAKNOCK'S WORKS. [JOHN IV. 24.
innocence, had not died ; there had been no separation made between his
soul and body whereof he was constituted, and his body had not resolved into those principles of dust from whence it was extracted ; yet in his own nature he was dissoluble into those distinct parts whereof he was compounded. And so the glorified saints in heaven, after the resurrection, and the happy meeting of their souls and bodies in a new marriage knot, shall never be dissolved ; yet in their own nature they are mutable and dissoluble, and can not be otherwise, because they are made up of such distinct parts that may be separated in their own nature, unless sustained by the grace of God. They are immutable by will, the will of God, not by nature. God is immu table by nature as well as will ; as he hath a necessary existence, so he hath
a necessary unchangeableness ; Mai. iii. 6, ' I the Lord change not.' He is as unchangeable in his essence, as in his veracity and faithfulnes. They are perfections belonging to his nature ; but if he were not a pure Spirit, he could not be immutable by nature.
7. If God were not a pure Spirit, he could not be omnipresent. He is
* in heaven above, and the earth below,' Deut. iv. 39. He ' fills heaven and earth,' Jer. xxiii. 24. The divine essence is at once in heaven and earth ; but it is impossible a body can be in two places at one and the same time. Since God is everywhere, he must be spiritual. Had he a body, he could not penetrate all things ; he would be circumscribed in place. He could not be everywhere but in parts, not in the whole ; one member in one place, and another in another ; for to be confined to a particular place is the pro
perty of the body, but since he is diffused through the whole world, * higher than heaven, deeper than hell, longer than the earth, broader than the sea,' Job xi. 8, he hath not any corporeal matter. If he had a body wherewith to fill heaven and earth, there could be no body besides his own. It is the nature of bodies to bound one another, and hinder the extending of one
another. Two bodies cannot be in the same place, in the same point of earth : one excludes the other ; and it will follow hence that we are nothing,
no substances, mere illusions ; there could be no place for any body else.* If his body were as big as the world, as it must be, if with that he filled heaven and earth, there would not be room for him to move a hand or a foot, or extend a finger ; for there would be no place remaining for the motion.
8. If God were not a Spirit, he could not be the most perfect being. The more perfect anything is in the rank of creatures, the more spiritual and simple it is, as gold is the more pure and perfect, that hath least mixture of other metals. If God were not a Spirit, there would be creatures of a more excel lent nature than God, as angels and souls, which the Scripture calls spirits, in opposition to bodies. There is more of perfection in the first notion of a spirit, than in the notion of a body. God cannot be less perfect than his creatures, and contribute an excellency of being to them which he wants him self. If angels and souls possess such an excellency, and God want that excellency, he would be less than his creatures, and excellency of the effect would exceed the excellency of the cause; but every creature, even the highest creature, is infinitely short of the perfection of God ; for whatsoever excellency they have is finite and limited : it is but a spark from the sun, a drop from the ocean ; but God is unboundedly perfect in the highest man ner, without any limitation ; and therefore above spirits, angels, the highest creatures that were made by him. An infinite sublimity, a pure act, to
which nothing can be added, from which nothing can be taken. * In him there is light and no darkness,' 1 John i. 5 ; spirituality without any mat ter, perfection without any shadow or taint of imperfection ; light pierceth
* Gamacheus Theol. torn. i. quest. 3, cap. 1.
JOHN IV. 24.] GOD is A SPIRIT. 209
into all things, preserves its own purity, and admits of no mixture of any thing else with it.
Quest. It may be said, if God be a Spirit, and it is impossible he can be otherwise than a Spirit, how comes God so often to have such members as we have in our bodies ascribed to him ; not only a soul, but particular bodily
parts, as heart, arms, hands, eyes, ears, face, and back-parts ? And how is it that he is never called a Spirit in plain words, but in this text by our Saviour ?
Ans. It is true many parts of the body and natural affections of the human nature are reported of God in Scripture : head, Dan vii. 9 ; eyes and eye lids, Ps. xi. 4 ; apple of the eye, mouth, &c. ; our affections also, grief, joy, anger, &c. But it is to be considered,
1. That this is in condescension to our weakness.* God being desirous to make himself known to man, whom he created for his glory, humbles as it were his own nature to such representations as may suit and assist the capacity of the creature. Since by the condition of our nature nothing erects a notion of itself in our understanding, but as it is conducted in by our sense, God hath served himself of those things which are most exposed to our sense, most obvious to our understandings, to give us some acquaintance with his own nature, and those things which otherwise we were not capable of having any notion of. As our souls are linked with our bodies, so our knowledge is linked with our sense, that we can scarce imagine anything at first but under a corporeal form and figure, till we come, by great attention to the object, to make, by the help of reason, a separation of the spiritual sub stance from the corporeal fancy, and consider it in its own nature. We are not able to conceive a spirit without some kind of resemblance to something below it, nor understand the actions of a spirit without considering the operations of a human body in its several members. As the glories of an other life are signified to us by the pleasures of this, so the nature of God, by a gracious condescension to our capacities, is signified to us by a likeness to our own. The more familiar the things are to us which God uses to this purpose, the more proper they are to teach us what he intends by them.
Ans. 2. All such representation are to signify the acts of God, as they bear some likeness to those which we perform by those members he ascribes to himself. So that those members ascribed to him rather note his visible operations to us, than his visible nature, and signify that God doth some works like to those which men do by the assistance of those organs of their bodies. t So the wisdom of God is called his eye, because he knows that with his mind which we see with our eyes. The efficiency of God is called his hand and arm, because, as we act with our hands, so doth God with his power. The divine efficacies are signified. By his eyes and ears we under
stand his omniscience ; by his face, the manifestation of his favour ; by his mouth, the revelation of his will ; by his nostrils, the acceptation of our prayers ; by his bowels, the tenderness of his compassion ; by his heart, the sincerity of his affections ; by his hand, the strength of his power; by his feet, the ubiquity of his presence. And in this he intends instruction and com fort : by his eyes, he signifies his watchfulness over us ; by his ears, his readiness to hear the cries of the oppressed, Ps. xxxiv. 15 ; by his arm his power, — an arm to destroy his enemies, and an arm to relieve his people, Isa. li. 9; all those attributed to God to signify divine actions, which he doth without bodily organs, as we do with them.
Ans. 3. Consider also that only those members which are the instruments
* Loquitur lex secundura linguam filiorum hominum. t Amyral. de Trin. p. 218, 219.
270 CHABNOCK'S WORKS. [.JOHN IY. 24.
of the noblest actions, and under that consideration, are used by him to represent a notion of him to our minds. Whatsoever is perfect and excel
lent is ascribed to him, but nothing that savours of imperfection.* The heart is ascribed to him, it being the principle of vital actions, to signify the life that he hath in himself. Watchful and discerning eyes, not sleepy and lazy ones ; a mouth to reveal his will, not to take in food. To eat and sleep are never ascribed to him, nor those parts that belong to the preparing or transmitting nourishment to the several parts of the body, as stomach, liver, reins, nor bowels under that consideration, but as they are significant of compassion ; but only those parts are ascribed to him whereby we acquire knowledge, as eyes and ears, the organs of learning and wisdom ; or to communicate it to others, as the mouth, lips, tongue, as they are instruments of speaking, not of tasting. Or those parts which signify strength and power, or whereby we perform the actions of charity for the relief of others. Taste and touch, senses that extend no further than to corporeal things, and are the grossest of all the senses, are never ascribed to him.