Divers practical cases of conscience satisfactorily resolved ... to which are added some counsels…

Rule 3. Do nothing of things Sacred without Gods command: nothing in things Civil without Gods allowance; Offer not with strange fire. In Gods worship you must see you be well able to answer that question, Who hath required these things at your hands? Here the command must be observed without adding or diminishing. Deut. 12. 32. yet understand this with two Cautions.

1. Though men may not stamp their invented Ceremonies with a moral signification, nor impose nor use them, though with good intentions of edifying the people by devised means. Matth. 15. 9. As if Christ had not sufficiently provided for the edifying of his people without their devices: And though nothing may be used as a part of worship that God hath not commanded, Col. 2. 23. (for it is enough to make any thing rejected by the Lord (of divine worship) if he shall say [I commanded it not, spake it not, neither came it into my mind.] Jer. 7. 31. and 19. 5. Yet nevertheless those things that are merely circumstantial, and are in their general kind necessary, and not intended as any part or means of worship, may be determined of by humane prudence according to the general Rules of the Word, which must always be observed, 1 Cor. 14. 26. 40. And for want of understanding, many have ignorantly ⟨p. 52⟩condemned preaching by an Hour-glass, in a high Place, in Churches, by way of Doctrine and Use, &c. running from one extreme to another.

1. Though men may not stamp their invented Ceremonies with a moral signification, nor impose nor use them, though with good intentions of edifying the people by devised means.