Five disputations of church-government and worship

§. 44. 4. And though the taking of an Oath be a sort of ⟨p. 412⟩worship, yet not the natural worship of the first Commandment, nor the Instituted of the second, but the Reverent use of his name in the third; so that it is not primarily an act of worship, but Reductively, and Consequentially: It being the principal use of an Oath to Confirm the Truth, and End strife, by appealing to God, which appellation is indeed an acknowledgement of his Government and Justice. And the laying the hand upon the Book, or Kissing it, is but a Professing sign of my own Intentions, such as my words themselves are: and therefore is left to humane choice, and a lawful thing. And I have met but with very few, among all our Ceremonies, that questioned this.

§. 44. 4. And though the taking of an Oath be a sort of ⟨p. 412⟩worship, yet not the natural worship of the first Commandment, nor the Instituted of the second, but the Reverent use of his name in the third; so that it is not primarily an act of worship, but Reductively, and Consequentially: It being the principal use of an Oath to Confirm the Truth, and End strife, by appealing to God, which appellation is indeed an acknowledgment of his Government and Justice. And the laying the hand upon the Book, or Kissing it, is but a Professing sign of my own Intentions, such as my words themselves are: and therefore is left to humane choice, and a lawfull thing. And I have met but with very few, among all our Ceremonies, that questioned this.

§. 45. 5. And for Organs or other instruments of Music in Gods worship, they being a Help partly natural, and partly artificial, to the exhilarating of the spirits, for the praise of God, I know no argument to prove […] simply unlawful, but what would prove a cup of wine unlawful, or the tune and meter, and melody of singing unlawful. But yet if any would abuse it, by turning Gods worship into carnal Pomp, and levity, especially by such non-intelligible singing, or bleating as some of our Choristers used, the Common people would have very great reason to be weary of it, a accidentally evil.