is destructive, or contrary to the ends of worship.' For the aptitude of it as a means to its proper end, is essential to it. Now the ends of worship are, 1. The honouring of God. 2. The edifying of ourselves in holiness, and delighting our souls in the contemplation and praises of his perfections. 3. The communicating this knowledge, holiness, and delight to others, and the increase of his actual kingdom in the world. (1.) Avoid then all that pretended worship which dishonoureth God, (not in the opinion of carnal men, that judge of him by their own misguided imaginations, but according to the discovery of himself to us in his works and Word.) Many travellers that have conversed with the more sober heathen and Mahometan nations, tell us, that it is not the least hindrance of their conversion, and cause of their contempt of Christianity, to see the Christians that live about them, to worship God so ignorantly, irrationally, and childishly as many of them do*. (2.) Affect most that manner of worship (cæteris paribus) which tendeth most to your own right information, and holy resolutions and affections, and to bring up your souls into nearer communion and delight in God and not that which tendeth to deceive, or flatter, or divert you from him, nor to be in your ears as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal, or as one that is playing you a lesson of music; and tendeth not to make you better. (3.) Affect not that manner of worship which is an enemy to knowledge, and tendeth to keep up ignorance in the world: such as is a great part of the Popish worship, especially their reading the Scriptures to the people in an unknown tongue, and celebrating their public prayers, and praises, and sacraments in an unknown tongue, and their seldom preaching, and then teaching the people to take up with a multitude of toyish ceremonies, instead of knowledge, and rational worship. Certainly that which is an enemy to knowledge, is an enemy to all holiness and true obedience and to the ends of worship, and therefore is no acceptable worshipping of God. (4.) Affect not that pretended wor But with the barbarous it is otherwise, saith Acosta the Jesuit, p. 249. lib. i. Proderit quam plurimum ritus et signa et omnem externum cultum diligenter curare. His quippe et delectantur et detinentur homines animales (N. B.) donec paulatim aboleatur memoria et gustus præteritorum. So Gr. Nyssen, saithin vita Gr. Neocos. that they turned the Pagan's festivals into festivals for the martyrs, to please them Which Beda and many others relate of the practice of those times. the better. ship which is of itself destructive of true holiness: such as is the preaching of false doctrine, not according to godliness, and the opposition and reproaching of a holy life and worship, in the misapplication of true doctrine; and then teaching poor souls to satisfy themselves with their mass, and mass ceremonies, and an image of worship, instead of serious holiness, which is opposed; "He that saith to the wicked, Thou art righteous, him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him." And if this be done as a worship of God, you may hence judge how acceptable it will be: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter"." To make people believe that holiness is but hypocrisy, or a needless thing, or that the image of holiness is holiness itself, or that there is no great difference between the godly and ungodly, doth all tend to men's perdition, and to damn men by deceiving them, and to root out holiness from the earth". "If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth." (5.) Affect not a dead and heartless way of worship, which tendeth not to convince and waken the ungodly, nor to make men serious as those that have to do with God. Direct. VIII. Let the manner of your worshipping God, be suited to the matter that you have in hand.' Remember that you are speaking to or of the eternal God; that you are employed about the everlasting salvation of your own or others' souls; that all is high and holy that you have to do: see then that the manner be answerable hereunto. Direct. 1x. Offer God nothing as a part of worship which is a lie; much less so gross a lie as to be disproved by the common senses and reason of all the world.' God needeth not our lie unto his glory: what worship then do Papists offer him in their mass, who take it for an article of their faith, that there is no bread or wine left after the consecration, it being all transubstantiate into the very body and blood of Christ? And when the certainty of all men's senses is renounced, then all the certainty of faith, and all 1 Prov. xxiv. 24. "See Ezek. xxii. 26. xliv. 23. Jer. xv. 19. m Isa. v. 20. • Mal. iii. 18. Psal. i. xv. religion is renounced; for all presuppose the certainty of sense. Direct. x. Worship not God in a manner that is contrary to the true nature, and order, and operations of a rational soul.' I mean not to the corrupted nature of man, but to nature as rational in itself considered. As 1. Let not your mere will and inclination overrule your understandings; and say not as blind lovers do, I love this, but I know not why or as children that eat unwholesome meat, because they love it P. 2. Let not passion overtop your reason: worship God with such a zeal as is according to knowledge. 3. Let not your tongues lead your hearts, much less overgo them: words may indeed reflect upon the heart, and warm it more; but that is but the secondary use: the first is to be the expressions of the heart: you must not speak without or against your hearts (that is, falsely) that by so speaking you may better your hearts (and make the words true, that at first were not true): unless it be when your words are but reading recitations or narratives, and not spoken of yourselves. The heart was made to lead the tongue, and the tongue to express it, and not to lead it. Therefore speak not to God either the words of a parrot, which you do not understand, or the words of a liar or hypocrite, which express not the meaning, or desires, or feeling of your hearts: but first understand and feel what you should speak, and then speak that which you understand and feel. Quest. 'How then can a prayer be lawful that is read or heard from a book?' Answ. There is in reading the eye, and in hearing the ear that is first to affect the heart, and then the tongue is to perform its office. And though it be sudden, yet the passage to the heart is first, and the passage from the heart is last and the soul is quick, and can quickly thus both receive, and be affected and express itself. And the case is the same in this, whether it be from a book, or from the words of another without book: for the soul must do the same, as quickly, in joining with another that speaketh before us, without a book as with it. Direct. x1. 'Understand well how far Christ hath given a law and a rule for worship to his church in the holy Scriptures, and so far see that you take it as a perfect rule, and swerve not from it by adding or diminishing.' This is a matter of great importance by reason of the danger of erring on either side. 1. If you think that the Scripture containeth not any law or rule of worship at all, or not so much as indeed it doth, you will deny a principal part of the office of Christ, as the king and teacher of the church, and will accuse his laws of insufficiency, and be tempted to worship him with a human kind of worship, and to think yourselves at liberty to worship him according to your own. imaginations, or change his worship according to the fashion of the age or the country where you are. And on the other side, if you think that the Scripture is a law and rule of worship, more particular than Christ intended it, you will involve yourselves and others in endless scruples and controversies, and find fault with that which is lawful and a duty, because you find it not particularly in the Scriptures and therefore it is exceeding needful to understand how far it is intended to be herein our law and rule, and how far not to handle this fully would be a digression, but I shall briefly answer it. 1. No doubt but Christ is the only universal head and law-giver to his church; and that legislation is the first and principal part of government; and therefore if he had made no laws for his church, he were not the full governor of it. And therefore he that arrogateth this power to himself to be law-giver to the church universal (as such) doth usurp the kingly office of Christ, and committeth treason against his government; (unless he can prove that Christ hath delegated to him this chief part of his government, which none can do;) there being no universal law-giver to the church but Christ (whether pope or council), no law that is made by any mere man can be universally obligatory. Therefore seeing the making of all universal laws doth belong only to Christ, we may be sure that he hath perfectly done it; and hath left nothing out of his laws that was fit to be there, nor nothing at liberty that was fit to be determined and commanded. Therefore whatsoever is of equal use or consideration to the universal church, as it is to any one part of it, and to all times as it is to any time of the church, should not be made a law by man to any part of the church, if Christ have not made it a law to the whole: because else they accuse him of being defective in his laws, and because all his subjects are equally dependant on him as their King and Judge. And no man must step into his throne pretending to amend his work which he hath done amiss, or to make up any wants, which the chief law-giver should have made up. 2. These laws of Christ for the government of his church, are fully contained in the Holy Scriptures: for so much as is in nature, is there also more plainly expressed than nature hath expressed it. All is not Christ's law that is any way expressed in Scripture; but all Christ's laws are expressed in the Scriptures: not written by himself, but by his Spirit in his apostles, whom he appointed and sent to teach all nations to observe whatever he commanded them: who being thus commissioned and enabled fully by the Spirit to perform it, are to be supposed to have perfectly executed their commission; and to have taught whatsoever Christ commanded them, and no more as from Christ and therefore as they taught that present age by voice, who could hear them, so they taught all ages after to the end of the world by writing, because their voice was not by them to be heard. 3. So far then as the Scripture is a law and rule, it is a perfect rule but how far it is a law or rule, its own contents and expressions must determine. As (1.) It is certain that all the internal worship of God (by love, fear, trust, desire, &c.) is perfectly commanded in the Scriptures. (2.) The doctrine of Christ which his ministers must read and preach is perfectly contained in the Scriptures. (3.) The grand and constantly necessary points of order in preaching, are there also expressed: as that the opening of men's eyes, and the converting of them from the power of satan to God be first endeavoured, and then their confirmation and further edification, &c. (4.) Also that we humble ourselves before God in the confession of our sins. (5.) And that we pray to God in the name of Christ for mercy for ourselves and others. (6.) That we give God thanks for his mercies to the church, ourselves and others. (7.) That we praise God in his excellencies manifested in his Word and works |