DIRECTIONS ABOUT THE MANNER OF WORSHIP, TO AVOID ALL CORRUPTIONS, AND
FALSE, UNACCEPTABLE WORSHIPPING OF GOD.
The lamentable contentions that have arisen about the manner of God's
worship, and the cruelty, and blood, and divisions, and uncharitable
revilings which have thence followed, and also the necessary regard
that every christian must have to worship God according to his will,
do make it needful that I give you some directions in this case.
_Direct._ I. Be sure that you seriously and faithfully practise that
inward worship of God, in which the life of religion doth consist: as
to love him above all, to fear him, believe him, trust him, delight in
him, be zealous for him; and that your hearts be sanctified unto God,
and set upon heaven and holiness: for this will be an unspeakable help
to set you right in most controversies about the worshipping of
God.[18] Nothing hath so much filled the church with contentions, and
divisions, and cruelties about God's worship, as the agitating of
these controversies by unholy, unexperienced persons: when men that
hate a holy life, and holy persons, and the holiness of God himself,
must be they that dispute what manner of worship must be offered to
God by themselves and others, and when the controversies about God's
service are fallen into the hands of those that hate all serious
serving of him, you may easily know what work they will make of it. As
if sick men were to determine or dispute what meat and drink
themselves and all other men must live upon, and none must eat but by
their prescripts, most healthful men would think it hard to live in
such a country. As men are within, so will they incline to worship God
without. Outward worship is but the expression of inward worship; he
that hath a heart replenished with the love and fear of God, will be
apt to express it by such manner of worship, as doth most lively and
seriously express the love and fear of God. If the heart be a stranger
or an enemy to God, no marvel if such worship him accordingly. O could
we but help all contenders about worship to the inward light, and
life, and love, and experience of holy, serious christians, they would
find enough in themselves, and their experiences, to decide abundance
of controversies of this kind (though still there will be some, that
require also other helps to decide them.) It is very observable in all
times of the church, how in controversies about God's worship, the
generality of the godly, serious people, and the generality of the
ungodly and ludicrous worshippers, are ordinarily of differing
judgments! and what a stroke the temper of the soul hath in the
determination of such cases!
_Direct._ II. Be serious and diligent also in all those parts of the
outward worship of God that all sober christians are agreed in. For if
you be negligent and false in so much as you confess, your judgment
about the controverted part is not much to be regarded. God is not so
likely to direct profane ones and false-hearted hypocrites, and bless
them with a sound judgment in holy things, (where their lives show
that their practical judgments are corrupt,) as the sincere that obey
him in that which he revealeth to them. We are all agreed that God's
word must be your daily meditation and delight, Psal. i. 2; and that
you should "speak of it lying down and rising up, at home and
abroad," Deut. vi. 6-8; and that we must be constant, fervent, and
importunate in prayer, both in public and private, 1 Thess. v. 17;
Luke xviii. 1; James v. 16. Do you perform this much faithfully or
not? If you do, you may the more confidently expect that God should
further reveal his will to you, and resolve your doubts, and guide you
in the way that is pleasing to him. But if you omit the duty that all
are agreed on, and be unfaithful and negligent in what you know, how
unmeet are you to dispute about the controverted circumstances of
duty! To what purpose is it that you meddle in such controversies? Do
you do it wilfully to condemn yourselves before God, and shame
yourselves before men, by declaring the hypocrisy which aggravateth
your ungodliness? What a loathsome and pitiful thing is it, to hear a
man bitterly reproach those who differ from him in some circumstances
of worship, when he himself never seriously worshipped God at all!
when he meditateth not on the word of God, and instead of delighting
in it, maketh light of it, as if it little concerned him; and is
acquainted with no other prayer than a little customary lip-service!
Is such an ungodly neglecter of all the serious worship of God, a fit
person to fill the world with quarrels about the manner of his
worship?
_Direct._ III. Differ not in God's worship from the common sense of
the most faithful, godly christians, without great suspicion of your
own understandings, and a most diligent trial of the case. For if in
such practical cases the common sense of the faithful be against you,
it is to be suspected that the teaching of God's Spirit is against
you; for the Spirit of God doth principally teach his servants in the
matter of worship and obedience.
[Sidenote: The disadvantages of ungodly men in judging of holy
worship.]
There are several errors that I am here warning you to avoid: 1. The
error of them that rather incline to the judgment of the ungodly
multitude, who never knew what it was to worship God in spirit and
truth. Consider the great disadvantages of these men to judge aright
in such a case. (1.) They must judge them without that teaching of the
Spirit, by which things spiritual are to be discerned, 1 Cor. ii. 13,
15. He that is blind in sin must judge of the mysteries of godliness.
(2.) They must judge quite contrary to their natures and inclinations,
or against the diseased habits of their wills: and if you call a
drunkard to judge of the evil of drunkenness, or a whoremonger to
judge of the evil of fornication, or a covetous, or a proud, or a
passionate man to judge of their several sins, how partial will they
be! And so will an ungodly man be in judging of the duties of
godliness. You set him to judge of that which he hateth. 3. You set
him to judge of that which he is unacquainted with: it is like he
never thoroughly studied it; but it is certain he never seriously
tried it, nor hath the experience of those, that have long made it a
great part of the business of their lives. And would you not sooner
take a man's judgment in physic, that hath made it the study and
practice of his life, than a sick man's that speaketh against that
which he never studied or practised, merely because his own stomach is
against it? Or will you not sooner take the judgment of an ancient
pilot about navigation, than one's that was never at sea? The
difference is as great in this present case.
2. And I speak this also to warn you of another error, that you prefer
not the judgment of a sect or party, or some few godly people, against
the common sense of the generality of the faithful; for the Spirit of
God is likelier to have forsaken a small part of godly people, than
the generality, in such particular opinions, which even good men may
be forsaken in: or if it be in greater things, it is more unreasonable
and more uncharitable for me to suspect that most that seem godly are
hypocrites and forsaken of God, than that a party or some few are so.
_Direct._ IV. Yet do not absolutely give up yourselves to the judgment
of any in the worshipping of God, but only use the advice of men in a
due subordination to the will of God, and the teaching of Jesus
Christ. Otherwise you will set man in the place of God, and will
reject Christ in his prophetical office, as much as using co-ordinate
mediators is a rejecting him in his priestly office. None must be
called master, but in subordination to Christ, because he is our
Master, Matt. xxiii. 8-10.
_Direct._ V. Condemn not all that in others, which you dare not do
yourselves; and practise not all that yourselves, which you dare not
condemn in others.[19] For you are more capable of judging in your own
cases, and bound to do it with more exactness and diligent inquiry,
than in the case of others. Ofttimes a rational doubt may necessitate
you to suspend your practice, as your belief or judgment is suspended;
when yet it will not allow you to condemn another whose judgment and
practice hath no such suspension. Only you may doubt whether he be in
the right, as you doubt as to yourself. And yet you may not therefore
venture to do all that you dare not condemn in him; for then you must
wilfully commit all the sins in the world, which your weakness shall
make a doubt or controversy of.
_Direct._ VI. Offer God no worship that is clearly contrary to his
nature and perfections, but such as is suited to him as he is revealed
to you in his word. Thus Christ teacheth us, to worship God as he is:
and thus God often calleth for holy worship, because he is holy.[20]
1. "God is a Spirit: therefore they that worship him, must worship him
in spirit and in truth;" (which Christ opposeth to mere external
ceremony or shadows;) "for the Father seeketh such to worship him,"
John iv. 23, 24. 2. God is incomprehensible, and infinitely distant
from us: therefore worship him with admiration, and make not either
visible or mental images of him, nor debase him by undue resemblance
of him to any of his creatures.[21] 3. God is omnipresent, and
therefore you may every where lift up holy hands to him, 1 Tim. ii. 8.
And you must always worship him as in his sight. 4. God is omniscient,
and knoweth your hearts, and therefore let your hearts be employed and
watched in his worship. 5. God is most wise, and therefore not to be
worshipped ludicrously with toys, as children are pleased with to
quiet them, but with wise and rational worship. 6. God is most great,
and therefore to be worshipped with the greatest reverence and
seriousness; and not presumptuously, with a careless mind, or
wandering thoughts, or rude expressions. 7. God is most good and
gracious, and therefore not to be worshipped with backwardness,
unwillingness, and weariness, but with great delight. 8. God is most
merciful in Christ, and therefore not to be worshipped despairingly,
but in joyful hope. 9. God is true and faithful, and therefore to be
worshipped believingly and confidently, and not in distrust and
unbelief. 10. God is most holy, and therefore to be worshipped by
holy persons, in a holy manner, and not by unholy hearts or lips, nor
in a common manner, as if we had to do but with a man. 11. He is the
Maker of your souls and bodies, and therefore to be worshipped both
with soul and body. 12. He is your Redeemer and Saviour, and therefore
to be worshipped by you as sinners in the humble sense of your sin and
misery, and as redeemed ones in the thankful sense of his mercy, and
all in order to your further cleansing, healing, and recovery. 13. He
is your Regenerator and Sanctifier, and therefore to be worshipped not
in the confidence of your natural sufficiency, but by the light, and
love, and life of the Holy Ghost. 14. He is your absolute Lord, and
the Owner of you and all you have, and therefore to be worshipped with
the absolute resignation of yourself and all, and honoured with your
substance, and not hypocritically, with exceptions and reserves. 15.
He is your sovereign King, and therefore to be worshipped according to
his laws, with an obedient kind of worship, and not after the
traditions of men, nor the will or wisdom of the flesh.[22] 16. He is
your heavenly Father, and therefore all these holy dispositions should
be summed up into the strongest love, and you should run to him with
the greatest readiness, and rest in him with the greatest joy, and
thirst after the full fruition of him with the greatest of your
desires, and press towards him for himself with the most fervent and
importunate suits. All these the very being and perfections of God
will teach you in his worship: and therefore if any controverted
worship be certainly contrary to any of these, it is certainly
unwarranted and unacceptable unto God.
_Direct._ VII. Pretend not to worship God by that which 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 soberer heathen and Mahometan nations, tell us, that it is not the
least hinderance 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.[23] (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 worship 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: Prov. xxiv. 24, "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: Isa. v. 20, "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. See Ezek. xxii. 26; xliv. 23; Jer. xv. 19. "If thou
take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth,"
Mal. iii. 18; Psal. i.; xv. (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
either 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._ IX. 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.[24]
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 certainty of faith and all 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 children that eat unwholesome meat, because they
love it.[25] 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.
[Sidenote: How far the Scripture is the law or rule of worship and
discipline, and how far not.]
_Direct._ XI. 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 Scripture: 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 Lawgiver to his
church.[26] 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 lawgiver 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 lawgiver 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 dependent 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 Lawgiver
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, Matt. xxviii. 20:
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 of
creation and providence. (8.) That we do this by singing psalms with
holy joyfulness of heart. (9.) The matter and order of the ordinary
prayers and praises of christians is expressed in the Scripture (as
which parts are to have precedency in our estimation and desire, and
ordinarily in our expressions). (10.) Christ himself hath determined
that by baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, men be solemnly entered into his covenant, and church, and
state of christianity. (11.) And he hath himself appointed that his
churches hold communion with him and among themselves, in the
eucharistical administration of the sacrament of his body and blood,
represented in the breaking, delivering, receiving, and eating the
consecrated bread, and in the pouring out, delivering, receiving, and
drinking the consecrated wine. (12.) And as for the mutable,
subservient circumstances, and external expressions, and actions, and
orders, which were not fit to be, in particular, the matter of a
universal law, but are fit in one place, or at one time, and not
another, for these he hath left both in nature and Scripture such
general laws, by which upon emergent occasions they may be determined;
and by particular providences he fitteth things, and persons, and
times, and places, so as that we may discern their agreeableness to
the descriptions in his general laws: as that all things be done
decently, in order, and to edification, and in charity, unity, and
peace. And he hath forbidden generally doing any thing undecently,
disorderly, to the hurt or destruction of our brethren, even the weak,
or to the division of the church.[27] (13.) And many things he hath
particularly forbidden in worship: as making to ourselves any graven
image, &c. and worshipping angels, &c.[28]
And as to the order and government of the church, (for I am willing to
despatch all here together,) this much is plainly determined in
Scripture: 1. That there be officers or ministers under Christ to be
the stated teachers of his people, and to baptize, and administer the
sacrament of his body and blood, and be the mouth and guide of the
people in public prayers, thanksgiving, and praises, and to bind the
impenitent and loose the penitent, and to be the directors of the
flocks according to the law of God, to life eternal; and their office
is described and determined by Christ. 2. It is required that
christians do ordinarily assemble together for God's public worship;
and be guided therein by these their pastors. 3. It is required that
besides the unfixed ministers, who employ themselves in converting
infidels, and in an itinerant service of the churches, there be also
stated, fixed ministers, having a special charge of each particular
church; and that they may know their own flocks, and from house to
house, and the people may know their own pastors that are over them in
the Lord, and honour them and obey them in all that they teach them
from the word of God for their salvation. 4. The ministers that
baptize are to judge of the capacity and fitness of those whom they
baptize; whether the adult that are admitted upon their personal
profession and covenanting, or infants that are admitted upon their
parents' profession and entering them into covenant. 5. The pastors
that administer the Lord's supper to their particular flocks, are to
discern or judge of the fitness of those persons whom they receive
newly into their charge, or whom they admit to communion in that
sacrament as members of their flock. 6. Every such pastor is also
personally to watch over all the members of his flock as far as he is
able; lest false teachers seduce them, or Satan get advantage of them,
or any corruption or root of bitterness spring up among them and
defile them. 7. It is the duty of the several members of the flock, if
a brother trespass against them, to tell him his faults between them
and him; and if he hear not, to take two or three, and if he hear not
them, to tell the church. 8. It is the pastor's duty to admonish the
unruly, and call them to repentance, and pray for their conversion. 9.
And it is the pastor's duty to declare the obstinately impenitent
uncapable of communion with the church, and to charge him to forbear
it, and the church to avoid him. 10. It is the people's duty to avoid
such accordingly, and have no familiarity with them, that they may be
ashamed; and with such, no, not to eat. 11. It is the pastor's duty to
absolve the penitent, declaring the remission of their sin, and
re-admitting to the communion of the saints. 12. It is the people's
duty to re-admit the absolved to their communion with joy, and to take
them as brethren in the Lord.[29] 13. Though every pastor hath a
general power to exercise his office in any part of the church, where
he shall be truly called to it; yet every pastor hath a special
obligation (and consequently a special power) to do it over the flock,
of which he hath received the special charge and oversight. 14. The
Lord's day is separated by God's appointment for the churches'
ordinary holy communion in God's worship under the conduct of these
their guides.[30] 15. And it is requisite that the several particular
churches do maintain as much agreement among themselves as their
capacity will allow them; and keep due synods and correspondences to
that end. Thus much of God's worship, and church order and government,
at least, is of divine institution, and determined by Scripture, and
not left to the will or liberty of man. Thus far the form of
government (at least) is of divine right.
But on the contrary, 1. About doctrine and worship; the Scripture is
no law in any of these following cases, but hath left them
undetermined. (1.) There are many natural truths which the Scripture
meddleth not with: as physics, metaphysics, logic, &c. (2.) Scripture
telleth not a minister what particular text or subject he shall preach
on this day or that. (3.) Nor what method his text or subject shall be
opened and handled in. (4.) Nor what day of the week besides the
Lord's day he shall preach, nor what hour on the Lord's day he shall
begin. (5.) Nor in what particular place the church shall meet. (6.)
Nor what particular sins we shall most confess; nor what personal
mercies we shall at this present time first ask; nor for what we shall
now most copiously give thanks: for special occasions must determine
all these. (7.) Nor what particular chapter we shall now read; nor
what particular psalm we shall now sing. (8.) Nor what particular
translation of the Scripture, or version of the Psalms, we shall now
use. Nor into what sections to distribute the Scripture, as we do by
chapters and verses. Nor whether the Bible shall be printed or
written, or in what characters, or how bound. (9.) Nor just by what
sign I shall express my consent to the truths or duties which I am
called to express consent to (besides the sacraments and ordinary
words). (10.) Nor whether I shall use written notes to help my memory
in preaching, or preach without. (11.) Nor whether I shall use a
writing or book in prayer, or pray without. (12.) Nor whether I shall
use the same words in preaching and prayer, or various new
expressions. (13.) Nor what utensils in holy administration I shall
use; as a temple or an ordinary house, a pulpit, a font, a table,
cups, cushions, and many such, which belong to the several parts of
worship. (14.) Nor in what particular gesture we shall preach, or
read, or hear. (15.) Nor what particular garments ministers or people
shall wear in time of worship. (16.) Nor what natural or artificial
helps to our natural faculties we shall use; as medicaments for the
voice, tunes, musical instruments, spectacles, hour-glasses: these and
such like are undetermined in Scripture, and are left to be determined
by human prudence, not as men please; but as means in order to the
proper end, according to the general laws of Christ.[31] For Scripture
is a general law for all such circumstances, but not a particular law.
So also for order and government, Scripture hath not particularly
determined, 1. What individual persons shall be the pastors of the
church. 2. Or of just how many persons the congregation shall consist.
3. Or how the pastors shall divide their work where there are many. 4.
Nor how many every church shall have. 5. Nor what particular people
shall be a pastor's special charge. 6. Nor what individual persons he
shall baptize, receive to communion, admonish, or absolve. 7. Nor in
what words most of these shall be expressed. 8. Nor what number of
pastors shall meet in synods, for the communion and agreement of
several churches, nor how oft, nor at what time or place, nor what
particular order shall be among them in their consultations; with many
such like.
When you thus understand how far Scripture is a law to you in the
worship of God, it will be the greatest direction to you, to keep you
both from disobeying God and your superiors; that you may neither
pretend obedience to man for your disobedience to God, nor pretend
obedience to God against your due obedience to your governors, as
those will do that think Scripture is a more particular rule than ever
Christ intended it: and it will prevent abundance of unnecessary
scruples, contentions, and divisions.
[Sidenote: What commands of God are not universal nor perpetual.]
_Direct._ XII. Observe well in Scripture the difference between
Christ's universal laws, (which bind all his subjects in all times and
places,) and those that are but local, personal, or alterable laws;
lest you think that you are bound to all that ever God bound any
others to. The universal laws and unalterable are those which result
from the foundation of the universal and unalterable nature of persons
and things, and those which God hath supernaturally revealed as
suitable constantly to all. The particular, local, or temporary laws
are those, which either resulted from a particular or alterable nature
of persons and things as mutually related, (as the law of nature bound
Adam's sons to marry their sisters, which bindeth others against it,)
or those which God supernaturally enacted only for some particular
people or person, or for the time. If you should mistake all the
Jewish laws for universal laws, (as to persons or duration,) into how
many errors would it lead you! So also if you mistake every personal
mandate sent by a prophet or apostle to a particular man, as obliging
all, you would make a snare of it. Every man is not to abstain from
vineyards and wine as the Rechabites were; nor every man to go forth
to preach in the garb as Christ sent the twelve and seventy disciples;
nor every man to administer or receive the Lord's supper in an upper
room of a house, in the evening, with eleven or twelve only, &c.; nor
every one to carry Paul's cloak and parchments, nor go up and down on
the messages which some were sent on. And here (in precepts about
worship) you must know what is the thing primarily intended in the
command, and what it is that is but a subservient means; for many laws
are universal and immutable as to the matter primarily intended, which
are but local and temporary as to the matter subservient and
secondarily intended. As the command of saluting one another with a
holy kiss, and using love-feasts in their sacred communion, primarily
intended the exercising and expressing holy love by such convenient
signs as were then in use, and suitable to those times; but that it be
done by those particular signs, was subservient, and a local,
alterable law; as appeareth, 1. In that it is actually laid down by
God's allowance. 2. In that in other places and times the same signs
have not the same signification and aptitude to that use at all, and
therefore would be no such expression of love; or else have also some
ill signification. So it was the first way of baptizing to dip them
over-head; which was fit in that hot country, which in colder
countries it would not be, as being destructive to health, and more
against modesty; therefore it is plain that it was but a local,
alterable law. The same is to be said of not eating things strangled,
and blood, which was occasioned by the offence of the Jews; and other
the like. This is the case in almost all precepts about the external
worshipping gestures: the thing that God commandeth universally is a
humble, reverent adoration of him by the mind and body. Now the
adoration of the mind is still the same; but the bodily expression
altereth according to the custom of countries: in most countries
kneeling or prostration are the expressions of greatest veneration and
submission: in some few countries it is more signified by sitting with
the face covered with their hands: in some it is signified best by
standing: kneeling is ordinarily most fit, because it is the most
common sign of humble reverence; but where it is not so, it is not
fit. The same we must say of other gestures, and of habits: the women
among the Corinthians were not to go uncovered because of the angels,
1 Cor. xi. 10, and yet in some places, where long hair or covering may
have a contrary signification, the case may be contrary. The very
fourth commandment, however it was a perpetual law as to the
proportion of time, yet was alterable as to the seventh day. Those
which I call universal laws, some call moral; but that is no term of
distinction, but signifieth the common nature of all laws, which are
for the governing of our manners. Some call them natural laws, and the
other positive: but the truth is, there are some laws of nature which
are universal, and some that are particular, as they are the result of
universal or particular nature: and there are some laws of nature that
are perpetual, which are the result of an unaltered foundation: and
there are some that are temporary, when it is some temporary,
alterable thing in nature from whence the duty doth result: so there
are some positive laws that are universal or unalterable, (during this
world,) and some that are local, particular, or temporary only.[32]
_Direct._ XIII. Remember that whatever duty you seem obliged to
perform, the obligation still supposeth that it is not naturally
impossible to you, and therefore you are bound to do it as well as you
can: and when other men's force, or your natural disability, hindereth
you from doing it as you would, you are not therefore disobliged from
doing it at all; but the total omission is worse than the defective
performance of it, as the defective performance is worse than the
doing of it more perfectly.[33] And in such a case the defects which
are utterly involuntary are none of yours imputatively at all, but
his that hindereth you (unless as some other sin might cause that). As
if I were in a country where I could have liberty to read and pray,
but not to preach, or to preach only once a month and no more; it is
my duty to do so much as I can do, as being much better than nothing,
and not to forbear all, because I cannot do all.
_Object._ But you must forbear no part of your duty? _Answ._ True: but
nothing is my duty which is naturally impossible for me to do. Either
I can do it, or I cannot: if I can, I must (supposing it a duty in all
other respects); but if I cannot, I am not bound to it.
_Object._ But it is not suffering that must deter you, for that is a
carnal reason: and your suffering may do more good than your
preaching. _Answ._ Suffering is considerable either as a pain to the
flesh, or as an irresistible hinderance of the work of the gospel: as
it is merely a pain to the flesh, I ought not to be deterred by it
from the work of God; but as it forcibly hindereth me from that work,
(as by imprisonment, death, cutting out the tongue, &c.) I may
lawfully foresee it, and by lawful means avoid it, when it is
sincerely for the work of Christ, and not for the saving of the flesh.
If Paul foresaw that the preaching of one more sermon at Damascus was
like to hinder his preaching any more, because the Jews watched the
gates day and night to kill him, it was Paul's duty to be let down by
the wall in a basket, and to escape, and preach elsewhere, Acts ix.
25. And when the christians could not safely meet publicly, they met
in secret, as John xix. 38; Acts xii. 12, &c. Whether Paul's suffering
at Damascus for preaching one more sermon, or his preaching more
elsewhere, was to be chosen, the interest of Christ and the gospel
must direct him to resolve: that which is best for the church, is to
be chosen.
_Direct._ XIV. Remember that no material duty is formally a duty at
all times: that which is a duty in its season, is no duty out of
season. Affirmative precepts bind not to all times (except only to
habits, or the secret intention of our ultimate end, so far as is
sufficient to animate and actuate the means, while we are waking and
have the use of reason). Praying and preaching, that are very great
duties, may be so unseasonably performed, as to be sins: if forbearing
a prayer, or sermon, or sacrament one day or month, be rationally like
to procure your help or liberty to do it afterward, when that once or
few times doing it were like to hinder you from doing it any more, it
would be your duty then to forbear it for that time (unless in some
extraordinary case): for even for the life of an ox or an ass, and for
mercy to men's bodies, the rest and holy work of a sabbath might be
interrupted; much more for the souls of many. Again I warn you, as you
must not pretend the interest of the end against a peremptory,
absolute command of God, so must you not easily conclude a command to
be absolute and peremptory to that which certainly contradicts the
end; nor easily take that for a duty, which certainly is no means to
that good which is the end of duty, or which is against it. Though yet
no seeming aptitude as a means, must make that seem a duty, which the
prohibition of God hath made a sin.
_Direct._ XV. It is ever unseasonable to perform a lesser duty of
worship, when a greater should be done; therefore it much concerneth
you to be able to discern, when two duties are inconsistent, which is
then the greater and to be preferred: in which the interest of the end
must much direct you; that being usually the greatest which hath the
greatest tendency to the greatest good.
_Direct._ XVI. Pretend not one part of God's worship against another,
when all, in their place and order, may be done. Set not preaching and
praying against each other; nor public and private worship against
each other; nor internal worship against external; but do all.
_Direct._ XVII. Let not an inordinate respect to man, or common
custom, be too strong a bias to pervert your judgments from the rule
of worship; nor yet any groundless prejudice make you distaste that
which is not to be disliked. The error on these two extremes doth fill
the world with corruption and contentions about the worship of God.
Among the papists, and Russians, and other ignorant sorts of
christians, abundance of corruptions are continued in God's worship by
the mere power of custom, tradition, and education; and all seemeth
right to which they have been long used: and hence the churches in
south, east, and west continue so long overspread with ignorance, and
refuse reformation.[34] And on the other side, mere prejudice makes
some so much distaste a prescribed form of prayer, or the way of
worship which they have not been used to, and which they have heard
some good men speak against, whose judgments they highliest esteemed,
that they have not room for sober, impartial reason to deliberate,
try, and judge. Factions have engaged most christians in the world
into several parties, whereby Satan hath got this great advantage,
that instead of worshipping God in love and concord, they lay out
their zeal in an envious, bitter, censorious, uncharitable reproaching
the manner of each other's worship. And because the interest of their
parties requireth this, they think the interest of the church and
cause of God requireth it; and that they do God service when they make
the religion of other men seem odious: whenas among most christians in
the world, the errors of their modes of worship are not so great as
the adverse parties represent them (except only the two great crimes
of the popish worship: 1. That it is not understood, and so is
soulless. 2. They worship bread as God himself, which I am not so able
as willing to excuse from being idolatry). Judge not in such cases by
passion, partiality, and prejudice.[35]
_Direct._ XVIII. Yet judge in all such controversies with that
reverence and charity which is due to the universal and the primitive
church. If you find any thing in God's worship which the primitive or
universal church agreed in, you may be sure that it is nothing but
what is consistent with acceptable worship; for God never rejected the
worship of the primitive or universal church. And it is not so much as
to be judged erroneous without great deliberation and very good proof.
We must be much more suspicious of our own understandings.
_Direct._ XIX. In circumstances and modes of worship not forbidden in
the word of God, affect not singularity, and do not easily differ from
the practice of the church in which you hold communion, nor from the
commands or directions of your lawful governors. It is true, if we are
forbidden with Daniel to pray, or with the apostles to speak any more
in the name of Christ, or are commanded as the three witnesses, Dan.
iii. to worship images, we must rather obey God than man;[36] and so
in case of any sin that is commanded us: but in case of mere different
modes, and circumstances, and order of worship, see that you give
authority and the consent of the church where you are their due.
_Direct._ XX. Look more to your own hearts than to the abilities of
the ministers, or the ceremonies or manner of the churches' worship in
such lesser things. It is heart-work and heaven-work that the sincere
believer comes about; and it is the corruption of his heart that is
the heaviest burden, which he groaneth under with the most passionate
complaints: a hungry soul, inflamed with love to God and man, and
tenderly sensible of the excellency of common truths and duties, would
make up many defects in the manner of public administration, and would
get nearer God in a defective, imperfect mode of worship, than others
can do with the greatest helps;[37] when hypocrites find so little
work with their hearts and heaven, that they are taken up about words,
and forms, and ceremonies, and external things, applauding their own
way, and condemning other men's, and serving Satan under pretence of
worshipping God.
[18] Read on this subject a small book which I have written, called
"Catholic Unity."
[19] See Rom. xiv. xv; 1 Cor. viii. 13.
[20] Lev. xix. 2; xx. 7; 1 Pet. i. 16.
[21] The second commandment. Cicero de Nat. Deor. lib. i. p. 46,
saith, that Possidonius believed that Epicurus thought there was no
God, but put a scorn upon him by describing him like a man, idle,
careless, &c. which he would not have done if he had thought there was
a God.
[22] Matt. xv. 2, 3, 6; Mark vii. 3-14; Col. ii. 8, 18, 22.
[23] But with the barbarous it is otherwise, saith Acosta the Jesuit,
p. 249. l. 2. 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 saith in vita Gr. Neocœs. that they
turned the pagans' festivals into festivals for the martyrs, to please
them the better. Which Beda and many others relate of the practice of
those times.
[24] Rom. iii. 7.
[25] Read Plutarch of Superstition.
[26] Isa. ii. 3; i. 10; xlii. 4; Mic. iv. 2; Heb iii. 2, 3, 5; x. 28:
Acts vii. 37, 38; iii. 23; Psal. xix. 7; Isa. v. 24.
[27] Rom. xiii. 9; Matt. xxii. 37; Isa. viii. 16, 20; Acts viii. 25;
xv. 35, 36; xxvi. 17, 18; 1 John i. 9; Neh. i. 6; Lev. xvi. 21; Phil.
iv. 6; Psal. l. 14; lxix. 30; c. 1, 2, 4; Eph. v. 19; Psal. ix. 11;
xcv. 1; Luke xi. 2, 3, &c.; Matt. xxviii. 19; 1 Cor. xi. 23-26, 28;
xiv. 5, 12, 26; 2 Cor. x. 8; xiii. 10; Rom. xv. 2; 1 Cor. xiv. 40;
Rom. xiv. 15, 20; 1 Cor. ix. 20-22; viii. 10; x. 19, 28; 2 Cor. vi.
16.
[28] Second commandment, Col. ii. 18, &c.; 1 John v. 21; Rev. ii. 14.
[29] Matt. xxviii. 19: Rom. x. 7, 8; Acts xiv. 23; ii. 42; xx. 7, 28;
Eph. iv. 11, 14; Mal. ii. 7; Ezek. iii. 17, 21; 1 Cor. xii. 17, 28;
Col. i. 28; Acts xxvi. 18; 1 Thess. v. 12; Heb. xiii. 7, 17; Acts
viii. 37; ii. 37, 38; viii 20, 23; 1 Cor. x. 16; ix. 13, 14; Acts xx.;
2 Cor. ii. 11; Heb. xii. 15; Deut. x. 8; 2 Tim. iv. 1-3; Matt. xviii.
15-17; 2 Thess. iii.; 1 Cor. v. 11; 2 John 10, 11; Tit. iii. 10; 1
Cor. v. 3-8; Rom. xvi. 17; 1 Tim. v. 17; Luke x. 16; xii. 42; Acts
xiii. 23.
[30] Tit. i. 5, 9; 1 Tim. iii. 5; 1 Pet. v. 1-4; Rev. i. 10; Acts xx.
7; 1 Cor. xvi. 2.
[31] Of which I have spoken more fully in my Disput. 5. of Church
Government, p. 400, &c.
[32] See the advertisement before my book against Infidelity.
[33] See Mr. Truman's book of Natural and Moral Impotency.
[34] Majus fidei impedimentum ex inveterata consuetudine
proficiscitur: ubique consuetudo magnas vires habet; sed in barbaris
longe maximas: quippe ubi rationis est minimum, ibi consuetudo radices
profundissimas agit. In omni natura motio eo diuturnior ac
vehementior, quo magis est ad unum determinata. Jos. Acosta de Ind. l.
2. p. 249.
[35] See Bishop Jer. Taylor's late book against Popery.
[36] Acts iv. 17, 18; v. 28.
[37] Jam. iii. 15-17.