The Existence and Attributes of God, Volumes 1 and 2Charnock, Stephen
Religion
The Existence and Attributes of God, Volumes 1 and 2
Charnock, Stephen
God (Christianity) -- Attributes; Providence and government of God -- Christianity
1. Not by legal ceremonies. The evangelical administration being
called spirit, in opposition to the legal ordinances as carnal; and
truth in opposition to them as typical. As the whole Judaical service
is called flesh, so the whole evangelical service is called spirit; or
spirit may be opposed to the worship at Jerusalem, as it was carnal;
truth, to the worship on the Mount Gerizim, because it was false. They
had not the true object of worship, nor the true medium of worship
as those at Jerusalem had. Their worship should cease, because it was
false; and the Jewish worship should cease, because it was carnal.
There is no need of a candle when the sun spreads his beams in the air;
no need of those ceremonies when the Sun of righteousness appeared;
they only served for candles to instruct and direct men till the time
of his coming. The shadows are chased away by displaying the substance,
so that they can be of no more use in the worship of God, since the
end for which they were instituted is expired; and that discovered to
us in the gospel, which the Jews sought for in vain among the baggage
and stuff of their ceremonies.
2. With a spiritual and sincere frame. _In spirit_, _i. e._ with
spirit; with the inward operations of all the faculties of our souls,
and the cream and flower of them; and the reason is, because there
ought to be a worship suitable to the nature of God; and as the
worship was to be spiritual, so the exercise of that worship ought
to be in a spiritual manner.[417] It shall be a worship “in truth,”
because the true God shall be adored without those vain imaginations
and fantastic resemblances of him,[418] which were common among the
blind Gentiles, and contrary to the glorious nature of God, and
unworthy ingredients in religious services. It shall be a worship “in
spirit,” without those carnal rites the degenerate Jews rested on;
such a {a206} posture of soul which is the life and ornament of every
service God looks for at your hands. There must be some proportion
between the object adored, and the manner in which we adore it; it
must not be a mere corporeal worship, because God is not a body; but
it must rise from the centre of our soul, because God is a Spirit. If
he were a body, a bodily worship might suit him, images might be fit
to represent him; but being a Spirit, our bodily services enter us not
into communion with him. Being a spirit, we must banish from our minds
all carnal imaginations of him, and separate from our wills all cold
and dissembled affections to him. We must not only have a loud voice,
but an elevated soul; not only a bended knee, but a broken heart;
not only a supplicating tone, but a groaning spirit; not only a ready
ear for the word, but a receiving heart; and this shall be of greater
value with him, than the most costly outward services offered at
Gerizim or Jerusalem. Our Saviour certainly meant not by worshipping
in spirit, only the matter of the evangelical service, as opposed
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