A53671:54
A brief instruction in the worship of God, and discipline of the churches of…
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.
London : s.n., 1667
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
First, When in every Ordinance, we consider his appointment of it, and submit our souls and consciences unto his authority therein which if we observe any thing in his worship but what he hath appointed, we cannot do it. Not formality, not custom, not the precepts of Men, not any thing but the authority and command of God, is to be respected ⟨p. 27⟩in this obedience. This is the First thing that Faith regards in Divine Worship; it rests not in any thing, closeth nor with any thing, but what It discerns that God hath commanded, and therein it eyes his Authority as he requireth it, Mal. 1.6. If I be a Father, where is mine honour? if I be Master, where is my fear? Rom. 14.11. As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. Reverence then unto the authority of God appointing his worship, is a principal means of sanctifying the name of God therein. This was the solemn sanction of all his institutions of old, Deut. 6.4▪ 5, 6, 7. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might; and these words which I command thee this Day, shall be in thy heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. And the observation of them he presseth on this account, that the people might fear that glorious and dreadful name, the Lord thy God, Deut. 28.58. which name he had so often engaged in his ⟨p. 28⟩commands, saying thou shalt do it, I am the Lord. And in the New Testament, our Lord Jesus Christ proposeth his authority as the foundation of his commanding, and our observation of all the institutions of the Gospel, Mat. 28.18, 19, 20. Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given me in heaven and earth, go ye therefore, and teach all Nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And he is to be considered in all our obedience, as the great and only Law-giver of his Church, as the one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy,