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 Topheâ— 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 plâ—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 contradictâ—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
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 Printed 1667. A Short Catechism with an Explication upon the same Q. 1. WHat doth God require of us in our dependance on him that he may be glorified by us and we accepted with him Answ. That we a Worship him b in and by the wayes of his own appointment a Matth. 4.10 Rev. 14.7 Deut. 6.13 chap. 10.20 b Lev. 10.1 2 3. Exod. 24.3 Gen. 18.19 Joshua 23.6 8. Zach. 14.16 Explication By the Worship of God inquired after not that which is naturall on morall which is required in the first Commandment is intended Such is our faith and confidence in him our fear of him our subjection of soul and conscience unto him as the great Soveraign Lord first cause last end Judge and Rewarder of all men the Law whereof was originally written in the heart of Man and hath been variously improved and directed by new Revelations and Institutions And this Worship is called naturall upon a double Account First Because it depends on the nature of God a due perception and understanding whereof makes all this Worship indispensibly necessary for none can know God but it is his duty to glorifie him as God that is to believe in him love him trust him and call upon him which all are therefore cursed that do not Psalm 79.6 2 Thes. 1.8 And Secondly Because it was in the principle of it concreated with the nature of man as that which suited directed and enabled him to answer the Law of his Creation requiring this obedience of him in his dependance on God And this Worship is invariable but it concerneth those outward wayes and means whereby God hath appointed that faith and love and fear of him to be exercised and expressed unto his glory And this kind of Worship though it depend not upon the nature of God but upon his free and arbitrary disposal and so was of old liable unto alterations yet God did ever strictly require in the several states and conditions that his Church hath gone through in the World And this is that which most commonly in the Scripture is called by the name of the worship of God as that whereby all the acceptable actings of the souls of men towards him are expressed and the only way of owning and acknowledging him in the World as also of entertaining a visible intercourse with him This therefore he calls for and requires indispensibly of all that draw nigh to him and that because he is the Lord our God Rev. 14.6 7. Mat. 4.10 Deut. 10.12 13. For his observance hereof doth he so approve of Abraham Gen. 18.19 And sets it down as an everlasting Law unto all others that in a holy observation thereof he will be sanctified in all that draw nigh unto him Lev. 10. 1 2 3. his commands also concerning it are multiplyed in the Scripture with the approbation of all those that attend unto them We may not think to find acceptance with God or to inherit the promises if supposing our selves to adhere unto him in Worship internall and naturall we neglect that which is externall and of his free appointment for besides that we renounce thereby our inward dependance on him also in not observing his commands as Adam did in transgressing an Institution we become wholly useless unto all the ends of his Glory in the World which is not the way to come to an enjoyment of him Neither do we only express and profess our inward morall naturall worship of God hereby by which means it becomes the principall way and instrument of faith and trust exerting themselves in our obedience but also it is a most effectual help and assistance unto the principle of that natural worship strengthening the habit of it and exciting it unto all sutable actings unto its increase and growth Qu. 2. By what means do we come to know that God will thus be worshipped Answ. That God is to be worshipped and that according to his own will and appointment is a a principall branch of the Law of our creation written in our hearts the b sense whereof is renewed in the second Commandment but the wayes and means of that worship depend meerly on Gods c Soveraign pleasure and Institution a Rom. 1.21 chap. 2.14 15. Acts 15.16 17. Acts 17.23 24 25 26 27 28 29. verses b Exodus 20.4 5 6 c Jer. 7.31 Exod. 25.40 Heb. 3.1 2 3 4 5 6. John 1.18 Explication These two things all men see by nature First That God however they mistook in their apprehensions of him would be and was to be worshipped with some outward solemn worship So that although some are reported to have even cast off all knowledge and sense of a divine being yet never any were heard of that came to an acknowledgement of any God true or false but they all consented that he was constantly and solemnly to be worshipped And that not only by individuall Persons but by Societies together that so they might own and honour him whom they took for their God And thus far outward worship is required in the first Commandment namely that the inward be exercised and expressed When we take God for our God we take him to worship him Deut. 10.12 13. Other thoughts namely of inward worship without outward expression at all or any time or in any way are but a covert unto Atheism And Secondly This also they are lead to an apprehension of by the same light whereby they are a Law unto themselves Rom. 2.14 that God would be worshipped in the way and by the means that he himself appointed and approved whence none among the Heathen themselves undertook to appoint wayes and Ceromonies of Worship but still they pretended to derive the knowledge of them from the Gods themselves of whom they reckoned that every one would be worshipped in his own way And because notwitstanding this pretence being left of God and deluded of Satan they did invent false and foolish wayes of worship not only not appointed of God but such as were unsuited unto those inbred notions which they had of his nature and excellencieâ— the Apostle convinces and disproves them as men acting against the light of nature and principles of reason Rom. 1.21 they might have seen that in their Idolatry they answered not their own inbred conceptions of the Divine power and Godhead so as to glorifie him as God And in the like manner doth he argue at large Acts 17.23 but beyond this the inbred light of nature could not conduct any of the Sons of Men This alone is contained in the first Precept that God was to be worshipped they knew and that he was to be worshipped by wayes and means of his own appointment they knew but what those wayes and means were they knew not These alwayes depended on Gods Soveraign will and pleasure and
spoken concerning the appointment of this sort of Elders in the Church their usefulness in the necessity of their work and employment is evident For whereas a constant care in the Church that the conversation of all the members of it be such as becometh the Gospel that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be not evil spoken of is of great concernment and importance and the Pastors and Teachers being to give up themselves continually unto prayer and the ministry of the word cannot attend unto the constant and daily oversight thereof the usefulness of these Elders whose proper and peculiar work it is to have regard unto the holy walking of the Church must needs be manifest unto all But whereas in most Churches there is little or no regard unto the personal holiness of the members of them it is no wonder that no account should be had of them who are ordained by the Lord Christ to look after it and promote it The qualifications of these Elders with the way of their call and setting apart unto their Office being the same with those of the Teaching Elders before insisted on need not be here again repeated Their authority also in the whole rule of the Church is every way the same with that of the other sort of Elders and they are to act in the execution of it with equal respect and regard from the Church Yea the business of rule being peculiarly committed unto them and they required to attend thereunto with diligence in an especial manner the work thereof is principally theirs as that of labouring in the word and doctrine doth especially belong unto the Pastors and Teachers of the Churches And this institution is abused when either unmeet persons are called to this Office or those that are called do not attend unto their duty with diligence or do act only in it by the guidance of the Teaching Officers without a sence of their own authority or due respect from the Church Quest. 32. Is there no other ordinary Office in the Church but only that of Elders Answ. Yes of Deacons also Quest. 33. What are the Deacons of the Church Answ. Approved men chosen by the Church to take care for the necessities of the poor belonging thereunto and other outward occasions of the whole Church by the collection keeping and distribution of the Alms and other supplyes of the Church set apart and commended to the grace of God therein by Prayer Acts 6.3 5 6. Phil. 1.1 1 Tim. 3.8 9 10 11 12 13. Explication The Office of the Deacon the nature end and use of it the qualification of the persons to be admitted unto it the way and manner of their Election and setting apart are all of them plainly expressed in the Scripture Acts 6.1 2 3. There arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because the Widdows were neglected in the daily ministration then the twelve called the multitude of the Disciples unto them and said it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve Tables wherefore Brethren look ye out among you seven men of honest report full of the Holy-Ghost and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business and the saying pleased the whole multitude and they chose Stephen c. whom they set before the Apostles and when they had prayed they laid their hands on them 1 Tim. 3.8 9 10 11 12 13. Likewise must the Deacons be grave not double tongued not given to much Wine not given to filthy lucre holding the mystery of the faith in a pure Conscience and let these also first be proved then let them use the Office of a Deacon being found blameless the Husbands of one Wife ruling their Children and their own house well for they that have used the Office of a Deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus These things are thus plain and express in the Scrâ—pture But whereas many have grown weary of the observation of the institutions of the Gospel this Office hath for a long time been lost amongst the most of Christians By some the name is retained but applyed to another work duty and employment than this to which it is peculiarly appropriated in the Scripture Their proper and original work of taking care for the poor they say is provided for by others and therefore that office being needless another unto another purpose under the same name is erected Such are Deacons that may read Service Preach and Baptise when they have license thereunto But this choice to rejâ—ct an Office of the appointment of Christ under pretence of provision made for the duties of it another way and the erecting of one not appointed by him seems not equall But whereas it is our duty in all things to have regard to the authority of Christ and his appointments in the Gospel if we claim the priviledge of being called after his name some think that if what he hath appointed may be colourably performed another way without respect unto his institutions that is far the best But omitting the practice of other Men the things that concern this Office in the Church are as was said clear in the Scripture First The persons called unto it are to be of honest report furnished with the gifts of the Holy-Ghost especially with wisdom Acts 6.3 And those other endowments usefull in the discharge of their duty mentioned 1 Tim. 3.8 Secondly The way whereby they come to be made partakers of this Office is by the choice or election of the Church Acts 6.2 3 5. whereupon they are solemnly to be set apart by prayer Thirdly Their work or duty consists in a daily ministration unto the necessities of the poor Saints or Members of the Church Vers. 1 2. Fourthly To this end that they may be enabled so to do it is ordained that every first day the Members of the Church do contribute according as God enables them of their substance for the supply of the wants of the poor 1 Cor. 16.2 And also occasionally as necessity shall require or God move their hearts by his grace Fifthly Hereunto is to be added whatever by the providence of God may be conferred upon the Church for its outward advantage with reference unto the end mentioned Acts 4.34 35. Sixthly These supplyes of the Church being committed to the care and charge of the Deacons they are from 〈◊〉 to minister with diligence and wisdoâ— unto the necessities of the poor that so the needy may be supplyed that there may be none that lack the rich may contribute of their riches according to the mind of Christ and in obedience unto his command that they which minister well in this office may purchase to themselves a good degree and boldness in the faith and that in all the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified with praise and thanksgiving It belongs therefore unto Persons called unto this Office First To