Thomas Manton · 4 of 46

A Description of the True Circumcision. · Part 1

For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.—Phil. III. 3.

AMONG those that entertain thoughts of religion there ever have been and will be many contests who are the true church and people of God. The lazy place their plea and claim in external observations; the serious look to the vitals and heart of religion, and cannot satisfy themselves in an outward form without the life and power. This was the very difference between the true Christians and a certain sort of persons who took upon them to be the circumcision. The Jews are often called ‘the circumcision,’ therefore Christ is said to be ‘a minister of the circumcision,’ as being sent to the people that were to be circumcised, Rom. xv. 8. And Peter is called ‘the apostle of the circumcision,’ Gal. ii. 7, 8, as being appointed to deal with that people. Now these Judaizing Christians, who had a zeal for the ceremonies of the law, did falsely boast themselves to be the only people of God and the true circumcision. This was the difference between them: who were to ‘be accounted the true circumcision, the Jewish zealots, who placed their justification in the ceremonies of the law, or those who adhered to Christ only, and looked for the mercy of God through him? ‘We are the circumcision’ say they, excluding the other and better sort of Christians. The one had the form, and the other the effect and power; the one were circumcised outwardly, the other spiritually. The apostle judgeth for the latter; the former were κατατομὴ, ‘the concision,’ who, instead of circumcising themselves, did cut asunder the church of God; but the sound believers were περιτομὴ, ‘the circumcision’ indeed, as being circumcised by the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by Christ, Col. ii. 11. They were the true children of Abraham, who did indeed perform that for which circumcision was intended, ‘for we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.’

In the words we have a threefold description of the true circumcision: how they stand affected to God, Christ, self.

I. They worship God in the spirit.

II. They rejoice in Christ Jesus.

III. They have no confidence in the flesh.

I. They worship God in the spirit. This clause may be interpreted:—

1. In opposition to the legal ordinances. So it is taken, John iv. 23, 24, ‘But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.’ The Jewish worship is in a sense called carnal, the Christian spiritual: Heb. vii. 16, ‘A carnal commandment;’ Heb. ix. 10, ‘Carnal ordinances imposed on them till the time of reformation;’ and ‘shadows,’ Heb. x. 1. Now the Lord would have a spiritual worship, and the truth of what was in these shadows, these external forms, he allowed (instituted in the infancy of the church), so that they ‘worship God in the spirit’ is, they have embraced the true worship of the gospel, and serve God, not by the carnal rites of the law, but by the pure rational worship of the gospel. This is part of the sense.

2. It implieth worshipping God with the inward and spiritual affections of a renewed heart: Heb. xii. 28, ‘Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.’ Worship flowing from grace, engaging the heart in God’s service, is that which God prizeth; therefore a Christian should not rest in an external form: ‘God is nay witness, whom I serve with my spirit,’ Rom. i. 9.

3. It doth also imply the assistance and continual influence of the Holy Spirit: Eph. vi. 18, ‘Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;’ and Jude, ver. 20, ‘Praying in the Holy Ghost.’

The doctrine is this: That a true Christian is known by his worship, or is one that doth worship God in the spirit.

Here I shall show you:—

1. What is worship.

2. Why a true Christian—(1.) doth worship; (2.) why in the spirit.

1. What is worship? It is either internal or external. The internal consisteth in the love and reverence we owe to God; the external in those offices and duties by which our honour and respect to God is signified and expressed.

[1.] Internal. The soul and life of our worship lieth in faith, and reverence, and delight in God above all other things: Ps. ii. 11, ‘Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling;’ such a delight as will become the greatness and goodness of God. Worship hath its rise and foundation in the heart of the worshipper; there it must begin. In our high thoughts and esteem of God especially two things—love and trust.

(1.) Love: Deut. vi. 5, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.’ We worship God when we give him such a love as is superlative and transcendental, far above the love that we give to any other thing, that so our respect to other things may stoop and give way to our respect to God.

(2.) The other affection whereby we express our esteem of God is trust, which is the other foundation of worship: Ps. lxii. 8, ‘Trust in the Lord at all times, pour out your hearts before him.’ Delightful adhesion to God, and an entire dependence upon him; if either fail or be intermitted, our worship faileth. If delight: Job xxvii. 10, ‘Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God?’ Isa. xliii. 22, ‘But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.’ They that love God and delight in him cannot be long out of his company; they take all opportunities and occasions of being with God. So dependence and trust: Heb. iii. 12, ‘Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God;’ James i. 6, 7, ‘Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering: for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.’ Dependence begets observance: they that distrust God’s promises will not long keep his precepts. If we look for all from him, we will often come to him and take all out of his hands, be careful that we do not offend him and displease him.

[2.] External. In those offices and duties by which our honour and respect to God is signified and expressed—as by invocation, thanksgiving, praise, obedience. God will be owned both in heart and life, in all these prescribed duties by which our affections towards him are acted. If God did not call for outward worship, why did he appoint the ordinances of preaching, praying, singing psalms, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper? God, that made the whole man, body and soul, must be worshipped of the whole man; therefore, besides the inward affections, there must be external actions; in short, we are said to worship God either with respect to the duties which are more directly to be performed to God, or in our whole conversation.

(1.) With respect to the duties which imply our solemn converse with God, and are more directly to be performed towards him—such as the word, prayer, praise, thanksgiving, and sacraments—surely these must be attended upon, because they are special acts of love to God and trust in him. And these duties are the ways wherein God hath promised to meet with his people, and appointed us to expect his grace: Exod. xx. 24, ‘In all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and bless thee;’ and Mark iv. 24, it is a rule of commerce between us and God, ‘With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you; and unto you that hear shall more be given.’

(2.) In our whole conversation: Luke i. 74, 75, ‘That we should serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our lives.’ A Christian’s life is a constant hymn to God, or a continued act of worship; ever behaving himself as in the sight of God, and directing all things as to his glory. He turneth second table duties into first: James i. 27, ‘Pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world;’ Heb. xiii. 16, ‘To do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased;’ Eph. v. 21, 22, ‘Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.’ Now a true Christian maketh conscience of all this; as of internal worship, so external; as of solemn and sacred acts, so of a constant awfulness of God.

2. Secondly, The reasons.

1st, Why a true Christian doth worship God.

2dly, Why in the spirit.

1st, For the worship itself.

[1.] Because they have a deep sense of his being and excellency impressed upon their hearts.

(1.) His being. These two notions live and die together: that God is, and that he ought to be worshipped and served, Heb. xi. 6; the one immediately floweth from the other. The first commandment is, ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me;’ the second, ‘Thou shalt not worship a graven image.’ If God be, worship is certainly due to him: they that have no worship are as if they had no God. The psalmist proveth atheism by that: Ps. xiv. 1, ‘The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God;’ and ver. 4, ‘They call not upon God.’

(2.) His excellency. They have a clearer sight of God than others have, and are more acquainted with him than others are; and, therefore, are more prone to worship. When God had proclaimed his name, and manifested himself to Moses, Exod. xxxiv. 8, ‘He made haste, and bowed himself to the earth, and worshipped.’ None so ready and forward: Ps. ix. 10, ‘They that know thy name will put their trust in thee.’

[2.] Because they have a principle within them which inclineth them to God: their hearts are carried to him, as light bodies are carried upward. There is such a grace as godliness, 2 Pet. i. 6, and distinct in the notion from righteousness and holiness: 1 Tim. vi. 11, ‘Follow after righteousness, godliness;’ 2 Pet. iii. 11, ‘What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness?’ What is the notion then of it? It is tendentia mentis in Deum—an impression left upon their hearts, which causeth a bent and tendency towards God, as the fountain of their mercies, the joy of their souls, and the centre of their rest. There is such an inclination—in some stronger, in others more remiss; but in all that are made partakers of a divine nature in some good degree, so as ordinarily to prevail over the inclinations of the flesh. As holiness noteth purity of life, so godliness an inclination to God.

[3.] Because of their relations to God, which they own. God pleadeth his right: Mal. i. 6, ‘If I be a father, where is mine honour? if I be a master, where is my fear?’ A father must have honour, and a master must have fear; and God, who is the common parent and absolute master of all, must have both. A worship and honour in which reverence and fear is mixed with love and joy; or, as the owning of a king implieth submission to his government, so the owning of a God adoration and worship.

2dly, Why in the spirit?

[1.] Because worship without the spirit is like a body without the soul; it is but the carcase of a duty. The heart must be the principal and chief agent in this business: Mat. xv. 8, ‘This people draweth nigh to me with their mouths, and honoureth me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’ There is no love to God, rather an habitual aversion from him.

[2.] External worship is but a means to the internal; as prayer, hearing, reading, receiving, tend to promote love, trust, heavenly-mindedness, self-denial, mortification, purity of life and conversation. Now, as the means are only valuable with respect to their end, so are these duties of hearing, reading, singing. Diligence in the use of means is good, but those acts that are conversant about the end are better,—such as the love of God, and delight and trust in God; for finis est nobilior mediis. Nay, amongst the internal acts, as they are means to one another, so the nearer respect they have to the last end, the more noble they are; as faith is more noble than bare knowledge, because knowledge tendeth to faith, Ps. ix. 10; love than faith, be cause faith tendeth to love, Gal. v. 6; 1 Cor. xiii. 13. Faith causeth love, and serveth as the bellows to enkindle this holy fire; and in love, desire maketh way for delight, as its noblest act. And accordingly must all things be valued as they suit the great end, which is the enjoying of God.

[3.] A man doth not partake of the gospel blessing till he doth serve God in the spirit; that is, till he be made partaker of the regenerating grace and actual influence of the Holy Spirit.

(1.) Of his regenerating grace: Rom. vii. 6, ‘That we should serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.’ New life is the principle of evangelical obedience; and when we are renewed by the Holy Ghost, we walk in newness of conversation. The gospel is a ministry of the Spirit, 2 Cor. iii. 8. It not only requireth duty, but giveth power to perform it. The letter of the law requireth, but giveth no principle or inclination to do it; that is from regenerating grace, or the law written upon our hearts: John iii. 6, ‘That which is born of Spirit, is spirit;’ that is, suited, inclined, disposed, fitted for a spiritual life.

(2.) Actual influence. He still worketh in us what is pleasing in God’s sight; helpeth to mortify corruption: Rom. viii. 13, ‘If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.’ To perfect holiness, Heb. xiii. 21, that so we may serve God in all purity of life. We cannot get, nor keep, nor act, nor increase grace of ourselves, if forsaken by the Spirit of grace; the foulest sins would be come our pleasure, and the most unquestionable duties our burden. If he withdraw his quickening influences, you can do nothing.

Use 1. It reproveth those that either do not worship God, or by halves, or not worship him in the Spirit.

1. It disproveth their confidence that do not worship God. There are an irreligious sort of men that neither call upon him in public or in private, in the family or in the closet, but wholly forget the God that made them, and at whose expense they are maintained and kept.

[1.] Let me reason with you as men. Wherefore had you reason able souls, but to praise, and honour, and glorify your Creator and Preserver? If you believe there is a God, why do you not call upon him? The neglect of his worship argueth a doubting of his being. If there be such a supreme Lord, to whom you must one day give an account, how dare you live without him in the world? All the creatures glorify him, Ps. cxlv. 10; they passively, but you have a heart and a tongue to glorify him actually. Man is the mouth of the creation, to return to God the praise of all that wisdom, glory, and power which is seen in the things that are made. Now, you should make one among the worshippers of God.

[2.] Let me reason with you as Christians. Are you a Christian, and have such advantages to know more of God, and will you be dumb and tongue-tied in his praise? Have you the discovery of the wonders of his love in your redemption by Christ, and do you see no cause to own and acknowledge him? Have you no necessities to bring to the throne of grace? In Christianity, you know his particular providence and redemption by Christ, and should you eat, and drink, and trade, and sleep, and never think of God? Have you no pardon to sue out, no grace that you stand in need of, that you should live like a brute beast, go on in the circle of trade, business, comforts, and never think of God? You profess you know him, but in your works you deny him, and sin doubly, both against the light of reason and Christianity. All that are not avowed atheists must have some worship.

2. It cutteth off their confidence that worship him by halves. They are of many sorts.

[1.] Some worship him in public, but never in private and secret; though Christ hath given us direction to enter into our closets, Mat. vi. 6. And surely every Christian should make conscience of secret duties. There are many disputes about praying in families, though those that take their daily bread should seek God together; but there can be no dispute about praying in secret, for the precept that requireth prayer first falleth upon single persons before it falleth upon families and churches: 1 Thes. v. 17, ‘Pray without ceasing.’ This cannot concern families and churches; they are done at stated times, when they can conveniently meet; but every man in secret is to be often with God. Christ was often alone: Mark i. 35, ‘He went out into a solitary place, and there prayed.’ Surely Christ had not such need to pray as we have, nor such need of retirement, his love to God being always fervent, and so in no danger of distraction. God poured out the Spirit that we might go apart and mourn over soul-distempers, Zech. xii. 10-14. Now, God’s precious gifts are not given in vain. So, Acts x. 2, Cornelius ‘prayed to God alway.’ Therefore, certainly, secret prayer is a necessary duty of God’s worship, to be observed by all that acknowledge God to be God, and the world to be ruled by his providence, or themselves to have any need of his grace and pardon, or hope for anything from him in the world to come. Therefore, if you have any sense of religion, or think you have any need of particular commerce with God, you should make conscience of secret prayer.

[2.] Others that make conscience of external worship, prayer, hearing, reading, singing of psalms, but not of internal worship, faith, love, and hope. The external forms were appointed for the acting or increasing of internal grace; and so they superficially are conversant about the means, and never mind the end. External worship is sensible and easily done, but internal worship is difficult. External worship may procure us esteem with men; but internal, acceptance with God. External worship satisfieth blind conscience, but doth not better the heart. External worship may puff us up with a vain confidence, but internal worship maketh us lament spiritual defects. We have not that purity of heart, that deep sense of the world to come, that absolute dependence upon God, which may quiet our souls in all exigencies. Surely they are better Christians that have the effect of the ordinances than they that have only the formality of them. The external duty may procure us toil and wearisomeness to the flesh, but the internal worship bringeth us comfort and peace. The more faith in Christ, and love to God, and lively hope of eternal life, the more is the soul comforted. Therefore, if you will always lick the glass, and never taste the honey, go on in a track of duties, but you will have no comfort in them. In short, they that go on in external duties may be said in some sense to serve God, but they do not seek after him. In pretence they make God the object of their worship, for they do not worship an idol; but they do not make him the end of their worship. A man maketh God the end of his worship when he will not go away from God without God; when he looketh to this, that his delight in God be quickened, his dependence upon God strengthened, his hatred of sin increased, and by every address to God is made more like God.

[3.] It reproveth and disproveth those that put on a garb of devotion when ministering before the Lord, but are slight and vain in their ordinary conversation. A man should be in some measure such out of duty as he giveth out himself to be in duty; for his whole life should be, as it were, a continued act of worship: Prov. xxiii. 17, ‘Let not thy heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.’ We should still live in a dependence upon God, and in subjection to him: Ps. xvi. 8, ‘I have set the Lord always before me: he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.’ In point of reverence, and in point of dependence, because we are in danger to miscarry, both by the delights of sense and the terrors of sense. If a reverence of and a dependence on the great God do still possess our hearts, we shall carry ourselves more soberly as to the comforts of the world, and not be easily discouraged and daunted with the fears of the world. This is our preservative, and maketh us true and faithful to our great end.

3. Those that do not serve God in the spirit. You should worship God so as it may look like worship and service performed to God, and due to God. It is spiritual worship God requireth, and is ever pleased withal. He ‘seeketh such to worship him as worship him in spirit and in truth,’ John iv. 23; and this is most agreeable to his nature: John iv. 24, ‘God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.’ When hearts wander, when affections do not answer expressions, is this like service and worship done to an all-seeing and all-knowing spirit? Is there any stamp of God upon the duty, of his majesty, goodness, and great power?

Use 2. For the comfort of good Christians. Here is their carriage towards God briefly set down—they ‘worship God in the spirit.’ A Christian is described by his proper act, worship; and by the proper object thereof, God; and by the proper part and seat thereof, in the spirit. Do you worship him with reverence, and with delight and affection, with a trust, hope, and confidence?

1. With reverence. Considering God’s majesty and our own vileness. The majesty of God: Mal. i. 14, ‘For I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts.’ Slight worship argueth lessening thoughts of God. Do you know to whom you speak? It is a contempt of God if you think anything will serve the turn; you have mean thoughts of him, and do not consider him as you ought to do. So our vileness: Gen. xviii. 27, ‘Who am I, that am but dust and ashes, that I should speak unto God?’—dust as to the baseness of his original, and ashes by the desert of sin. In our nearer approaches to God, thus should we think of ourselves.

2. With delight and affection, as our reconciled father in Christ. So he is to us as the well-spring of all grace and goodness. The great work of the gospel is to bring us to God as a father, Gal. iv. 6. God as a judge, by the spirit of bondage, driveth us to Christ; but Christ, by the spirit of adoption, bringeth us back again to God as a father. This is the evangelical way of worshipping, that in a child-like manner we may come to God.

3. With trust, hope, and confidence. He knoweth all our wants, can relieve all our necessities: Ps. lvii. 2, ‘I will cry unto God most high, who performeth all things for me.’ Worship would be a cold formality if we had to do with one that knew us not, or had not sufficiency and power to help us, But God is omniscient and all-sufficient, and hath promised to hear and help us in our straits; he knoweth our necessities when we know them not.

II. We come now to the second character: And rejoice in Christ Jesus.

Thence observe:—

Doct. That the great work of a Christian is a rejoicing in Christ Jesus, or a thankful sense of our Redeemer’s mercy.

In opening this point I shall use this method:—

1st, Show you what is this rejoicing in Christ.

2dly, I shall prove that Christ is matter of true rejoicing in his person, offices, benefits.

3dly, That Christians are not sound and sincere in their profession, unless they do keep up this rejoicing in Christ.

First, What is this rejoicing?—(καυ χώμενοι ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ). The original word implieth such a degree of joy as amounts to glorification or boasting, or such an exultation of mind as breaketh out into some sensible expression of it. There are in it three things:—

1. An apprehension of the good and benefit which we have by Christ; for otherwise how can we rejoice and glory in him? 1 Cor. i. 30, 31, ‘But of him ye are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption; that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.’ Christ is all: that our whole rejoicing may be in him, who hath enlightened us with the knowledge of the gospel, and showed us the way of salvation, and is the author of our justification and sanctification, and of our deliverance from all calamities, and from death itself. These benefits are the cause of our rejoicing—namely, the promises of the gospel, sealed by his death, and the graces conveyed to us by his Spirit. We rejoice and glory in him, as the only and all-sufficient Saviour. They that gloried in circumcision gloried in their entrance into the legal covenant; they became debtors to the law, but Christ hath ratified it in the new covenant by his blood; therefore here is more abundant cause of rejoicing.

2. Due affections of contentment, joy, love, exultation of heart, that followeth thereupon. A blessing ourselves in our portion, that this great happiness is fallen to our share, offered to us, at least, if not possessed by us. The very knowledge of Christianity breedeth joy: Acts viii. 8, ‘And there was great joy in that city,’ that is, upon the tendering of the gospel; much more when we believe in Christ, and embrace his religion, and resolve to become his disciples. They received his word gladly, Acts ii. 41. His doctrine must be welcomed with the heart, with all love and thankfulness. It is said of the jailor, Acts xvi. 34, that he ‘rejoiced, believing in God, and all his house.’ He was but newly recovered out of the suburbs of hell, ready to kill himself but just before; so that a man would think it were easier to fetch water out of a flint, or a spark of fire out of the bottom of the sea, than to expect or find joy in such a heart; yea, though still in danger of life for treating those as guests whom he should have kept as prisoners, yet he rejoiced when acquainted with salvation by Christ. More especially should we rejoice when the comfort is sealed up to our consciences: Rom. v. 11, ‘Not only so, but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.’ The eunuch, when he was baptized, he ‘went on his way rejoicing,’ Acts viii. 39.

3. An expression of it, by an open profession of Christ’s name, both in word and deed, whatever it costs us. They are said to rejoice in Christ Jesus who in those times could profess his name, though with hazard and self-denial. As the Thessalonians, who received the word with much affliction, and much assurance and joy in the Holy Ghost, 1 Thes. i. 6. And it is expressed by the parable of the man that found the true treasure, and for joy thereof sold all that he had to buy the field, Mat. xiii. 44. They are willing to lose all other contentments and satisfactions for this; Christ is enough. They needed this joy to encourage them against the trials which they then under went for Christ’s sake and the gospel’s sake.

Secondly, That Christ is matter of true rejoicing, for they are fools that rejoice in baubles and trifles. A Christian’s joy may be owned and justified. When Christ’s birth was celebrated by angels, it is said, Luke ii. 10, ‘Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy.’ Here is joy, and great joy in salvation by Christ. And Mary: Luke i. 46, 47, ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit doth rejoice in God my Saviour.’ Surely there is no cause of joy wanting in God, and in God coming as a Saviour. In short, in Christianity, all is fitted to fill our hearts with delight and joy.