§. I.
The Duty of Man towards God lieth chiefly in these two Generals. 1. In an holy Conformity to the pure Law and Light of God, so as both to forsake the Evil, and be found in the Practice of those perpetual and moral Precepts of Righteousness and Equity. And 2. In rendering that Reverence, Honour and Adoration to God, that he requires and demands of us; which is comprehended under Worship. Of the former we have already spoken, as also of the different Relations of Christians, as they are distinguished by the several Measures of Grace received, and given to every one; and in that Respect have their several Offices in the Body of Christ, which is the Church. Now I come to speak of Worship, or of those Acts, whether private or publick, general or particular, whereby Man renders to God that Part of his Duty which relates immediately to him: And as Obedience is better than Sacrifice, so neither is any Sacrifice acceptable, but that which is done according to the Will of him to whom it is offered. But Men, finding it easier to sacrifice in their own Wills, than obey God’s Will, have heaped up Sacrifices without Obedience; True Worship and Duty to God-wards corrupted.and thinking to deceive God, as they do one another, give him a Shew of Reverence, Honour and Worship, while they are both inwardly estranged and alienated from his holy and righteous Life, and wholly Strangers to the pure Breathings of his Spirit, in which the acceptable Sacrifice and Worship is only offered up. Hence it is, that there is not any Thing relating to Man’s Duty towards God, which among all Sorts of People hath been more vitiated, and in which the Devil hath more prevailed, than in abusing Man’s Mind concerning this Thing: And as among many others, so among those called Christians, nothing hath been more out of Order, and more corrupted, as some Papists and all Protestants, do acknowledge. As I freely approve whatsoever the Protestants have reformed from Papists in this Respect; so I meddle not at this Time with their Controversies about it: The Popish Mass (Idolatry) denied, with all their Trumpery.Only it suffices me with them to deny, as no Part of the true Worship of God, that abominable Superstition and Idolatry the Popish Mass, the Adoration of Saints and Angels, the Veneration of Relicks, the Visitation of Sepulchres, and all those other superstitious Ceremonies, Confraternities, and endless Pilgrimages of the Romish Synagogue. Which all may suffice to evince to Protestants, that Antichrist hath wrought more in this than in any other Part of the Christian Religion; If Protestants have made a perfect Reformation.and so it concerns them narrowly to consider, whether herein they have made a clear and perfect Reformation; as to which stands the Controversy betwixt them and us. For we find many of the Branches lopt off by them, but the Root yet remaining; to wit, a Worship acted in and from Man’s Will and Spirit, and not by and from the Spirit of God: For the true Christian and Spiritual Worship of God hath been so early lost, and Man’s Wisdom and Will hath so quickly and throughly mixed itself herein, that both the Apostasy in this Respect hath been greatest, and the Reformation herefrom, as to the evil Root, most difficult. Therefore let not the Reader suddenly stumble at the Account of our Proposition in this Matter, but patiently hear us explain ourselves in this Respect, and I hope (by the Assistance of God) to make it appear, that though our Manner of Speaking and Doctrine seem most singular and different from all other Sorts of Christians; yet it is most according to the purest Christian Religion, and indeed most needful to be observed and followed. And that there be no Ground of Mistake (for that I was necessitated to speak in few Words, and therefore more obscurely and dubiously in the Proposition itself) it is fit in the first Place to declare and explain our Sense, and clear the State of the Controversy.