Q. 173. What particular directions for order of studies and A CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY: OR, A SUM OF PRACTICAL THEOLOGY, AND CASES OF CONSCIENCE. DIRECTING CHRISTIANS, HOW TO USE THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND FAITH; HOW TO IMPROVE ALL HELPS AND MEANS, AND TO PERFORM ALL DUTIES; HOW TO OVERCOME TEMPTATIONS, AND TO ESCAPE OR MORTIFY EVERY SIN. IN FOUR PARTS. 1. CHRISTIAN ETHICS, (OR PRIVATE DUTIES.) II. CHRISTIAN ECONOMICS, (OR FAMILY DUTIES.) III. CHRISTIAN ECCLESIASTICS, (OR CHURCH DUTIES.) IV. CHRISTIAN POLITICS, (OR DUTIES TO OUR RULERS AND NEIGHBOURS.) PART III. CHRISTIAN ECCLESIASTICS, (OR CHURCH DUTIES.) A CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY. PART III. CHRISTIAN ECCLESIASTICS: OR, DIRECTIONS TO PASTORS AND PEOPLE ABOUT SACRED DOCTRINE, WORSHIP, AND DISCIPLINE, AND THEIR MUTUAL DUTIES. WITH THE SOLUTION OF A MULTITUDE OF CHURCH CONTROVERSIES, AND CASES OF CONSCIENCE. READER, THAT this Part and the next are imperfect, and so much only is written as I might, and not as I would, I need not excuse to thee, if thou know me, and where, and when I live. But some of that which is wanting, if thou desire, thou mayst find, 1. In my "Universal Concord." 2. In my "Christian Concord." 3. In our "Agreement for Catechising," and my "Reformed Pastor." 4. In the "Reformed Liturgy," offered to the commissioned bishops at the Savoy. Farewell. CHAPTER I. Of the Worship of God in general. THAT God is to be worshipped solemnly by man, is confessed by all that acknowledge that there is a God. But about the matter and manner of his worship, there are no a Qui totos dies precabantur, et immolabant, ut sui liberi sibi superstites essent, VOL. V. B small dissensions and contentions in the world. I am not now attempting a reconciliation of these contenders; the sickness of men's minds and wills doth make that impossible to any but God, which else were not only possible, but easy, the terms of reconciliation being in themselves so plain and obvious as they are. But it is Directions to those that are willing to worship God aright, which I am now to give. Direct. 1. Understand what it is to worship God aright, lest you offer him vanity and sin for worship. The worshipping of God is the direct acknowledging of his Being and perfections to his honour.' Indirectly or consequentially he is acknowledged in every obediential act by those that truly obey and serve him: and this is indirectly and participatively to worship him: and therefore all things are holy to the holy, because they are holy in the use of all, and Holiness to the Lord is, as it were, written upon all that they possess or do (as they are holy): but this is not the worship which we are here to speak of; but that which is primarily and directly done to glorify him by the acknowledgment of his excellencies. Thus God is worshipped either inwardly by the soul alone, or also outwardly by the body expressing the worship of the soul. For that which is done by the body alone, without the concurrence of the heart, is not true worship, but an hypocritical image or shew of it, equivocally called worship". The inward worship of the heart alone, I have spoken of in the former Part. The outward or expressive worship, is simple or mixed: simple when we only intend God's worship immediately in the action; and this is found chiefly in praises and thanksgiving which therefore are the most pure and simple sort of expressive worship. Mixed worship is that in which we superstitiosi sunt appellati: quod nomen postea latius patuit. Qui autem omnia, quæ ad cultum Deorum pertinerent, diligenter retractarent, et tanquam relegerent, sunt dicti religiosi, ex relegendo, ut elegantes ex eligendo, à diligendo diligentes, ex intelligendo intelligentes. Ita factum est in superstitioso et religioso; alterum vitii nomen, alterum laudis. Cic. Nat. D. ii. 72. b If they that serve their God with mere words, and ceremony, and mimical actions, were so served themselves, they might be silenced with Aristippus's defence of his gallantry and sumptuous fare, Si vituperandum, ait, hoc esset, in celebritatibus deorum profecto non fieret. Laert. in Aristip. So Plato allowed drunkenness only in the feasts of Bacchus. |