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.

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 Com∣mandment; 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 na∣ture.

First, That God, however they mis∣took 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 wor∣shipped. And that not only by indivi∣duall 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 re∣quired 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 expres∣sion 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 worship∣ped in the way, and by the means that he himself appointed and approved, whence none among the Heathen themselves un∣dertook to appoint wayes and Ceromo∣nies 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 notwitstand∣ing 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 excellencie••, 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 be∣yond this, the inbred light of nature could not conduct any of the Sons of Men▪ This alone is contained in the first Pre∣cept, that God was to be worshipped they knew, and that he was to be wor∣shipped 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 Sove∣raign will and pleasure, and he made them known to whom he pleased, Psalm 147.19, 20. And although some of the

wayes which he doth appoint, may seem to have a great compliance in them unto the light of nature, yet in his worship he accepts them not on that account; but meerly on that of his own institution; and this as he hath declared his will about in the second Commandment; so he hath severely forbidden the addition of our own inventions unto what he hath appointed: sending us for instruction unto him alone, whom he hath endowed with Soveraign Authority to reveal his will, and ordain his worship, John 1.18. Matth. 17.5. 1 Chron. 16.13.