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A53671 A brief instruction in the worship of God, and discipline of the churches of the New Testament, by way of question and answer with an explication and confirmation of those answers. Owen, John, 1616-1683. 1667 (1667) Wing O721; ESTC R9489 80,905 231

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for therein through Christ we have an access in one spirit unto the Father Eph. 2.18 as it is expressed Heb. 10.19 20 21. having therefore boldness to enter into the holyest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh and having an High-Priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water This is the glory of Gospel worship and the beauty of it whose consideration whilest the minds of men are diverted from to look for beauty in the outward preparation of ceremonies they lose the priviledge purchased for Believers by the blood of Christ. Instead then of farthering the beauty and comeliness of Gospel worship they are apt to lead men into a dangerous errour and mistake namely that the beauty and excellency of it consists in such things as upon a due consideration will appear to be mean and carnal and far beneath those ceremonies and ordinances of the Old Testament which yet in comparison of the Worship of the Gospel are called Worldly carnal beggarly and are said to have no glory Thirdly They do not in the least tend unto the preservation of due order in the celebration of divine Worship All order consists in the due observation of rule The rules of actions are either natural or of his special appointment Both these take place in religious worship the institutions or commands of Christ containing the substance thereof in their observation principally consists the order of it Whatever is of circumstance in the manner of its performance not capable of especial determination as emerging or arising only occasionally upon the doing of that which is appointed at this or that time in this or that place and the like is left unto the rule of moral prudence in whose observation their order doth consist But the super-addition of ceremonies necessarily belonging neither to the institutions of worship nor unto those circumstances whose disposal falls under the rule of moral prudence neither doth nor can add any thing unto the due order of Gospel Worship So that they are altogether needless and useless in the Worship of God Neither is this the whole of the inconvenience wherewith their observance is attended for although they are not in particular and expresly in the Scripture forbidden for it was simply impossible that all instances wherein the wit of man might exercise its invention in such things should be reckoned up and condemned yet they fall directly under those severe prohibitions which God hath recorded to secure his worship from all such additions unto it of what sort soever Yea the main design of the second precept is to forbid all making unto our selves any such things in the worship of God to add unto what he hath appointed whereof an instance is given in that of making and worshiping Images the most common way that the sons of men were then prone to trangess by against the institutions of God And this sense and understanding of the commandment is secured by those ensuing prohibitions against the adding any thing at all unto the commands of God in his worship Deut. 4.2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God Chap. 12.32 what things soever I command you observe to do it thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it Chap. 17.3 to the same purpose were the places before mentioned Matth 15.9 as also is that severe rule applyed by our Saviour unto the additions of the Pharisees Verse 13. Every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up And there is yet farther evidence contributed unto this intention of the command from those places where such evils and corruptions as were particularly forbidden in the worship of God are condemned not on the special account of their being so forbidden but on that more general of being introduced without any warrant from Gods Institutions or commands Jer. 7.31 they have built the high places of Tophe● which is in the valley of the Son of Hinnom to burn their Sons and their Daughters in the fire which I commanded not neither came it into my heart Chap. 19.5 they have also built the high pl●ces of Baal to burn their Sons with fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal which I commanded not nor spake neither came it into my mind These things were particularly forbidden but yet God here condemns them as coming under the general evil of making additions unto his commands doing that which he commanded not nor did it ever enter into his heart The Papists say indeed that all additions corrupting the worship of God are forbidden but such as farther adorn and preserve it are not so which implyes a contradict●on for whereas every addition is principally a corruption because it is an addition under which notion it is forbidden and that in the worship of God which is forbidden is a corruption of it there can be no such preserving adorning addition unless we will allow a preserving and adorning corruption Neither is it of more force which is pleaded by them that the additions which they make belong not unto the substance of the worship of God but unto the circumstances of it for every circumstance observed religiously or to be observed in the worship of God is of the substance of it as were all those ceremonious observances of the Law which had the same respect in the prohibitions of adding with the most weighty things whatsoever Qu. 15. Whence may it appear that the right and due observation of Instituted worship is of great importance unto the glory of God and of high concernment unto the Souls of Men Answ. This is fully taught in the Scriptures as 1 God would never accept in any state of the Church before or since the fall moral Obedience without the observation of some institutions as tryals tokens and pledges of that obedience And 2 in their use and signification by his appointment they nearly concern the principal mysteries of his will and grace And 3 By their celebration is he glorified in the World And therefore 4 As he hath made blessed promises to his people to grant them his presence and to bless them in their use So 5 Being the tokens of the mariage relation that is between him and them with respect unto them alone he calls himself a jealous God And 6 hath actually exercised signal severity towards the neglecters corrupters or abusers of them 1 Gen. 2.16 17. Gen. 4.3 4. Gen. 17.9 10 11. Exod. 12.24 Exod. 20. Math. 28.19 20. Math. 26.26 27. Eph. 4.11 12. Rev. 1.13 Rev. 21.3 2 Gen. 17.10 Exod. 12.23 24. Rom. 6.3 4 5. Math. 26.27 1 Cor. 11.25 26 27. 3 See question the eighth and ninth 4 Exod. 29.42