A BRIEF DISCOURSE OF Right Worship, AGAINST IDOLATRY AND Will-Worship.  
LONDON: Printed for the Author, 1684.   

A BRIEF DISCOURSE OF Right Worship, Against Idolatry & Will-Worship.  
Worship not Instituted Unlawful.  
THe word Worship in General from the Hebrew Shachah he Bowed, and the Greek Proskuneo, signifieth any bending, but in Particular, an Outward Expression of inward Reverence of the Mind, used to God or Men.  
The Question than is, What Expressions of Reverence and Honour to God, used by us towards him, is Accepted of him, and what is not? and we say,  
That whatsoever Expressions of Reverence to God he hath not Required, he will not Accept.  
As for the Distinctions between Matter and Manner of Worship, it is Frivolous, of Essential and Circumstantial parts, as time and place, by Speaking and Writing, etc. mentioned, as the Manner or Circumstance of the Acts, for the matter cannot be without the manner, as time and place all things do Require: They are so Essential and Material as that Worship or Expression of Reverence is most properly intended by it; for Reverence, which is the proper matter of Worship, is not so fully expressed in the word Shachah, to bow down the Body, or Worship as the Expression or manner of Reverencing, or manner of Worship; therefore to Exclude the manner of Worship from Worship, is Ridiculous: The matter of Worship, to Love, Fear, Reverence, Pray to, and Praise God, doth not of so much Necessity come under Positive Revealed Institution, as being Revealed by the Light of Nature, as the Heathen Poet could say without Scripture; Si Deus est Animus, nobis ut Carmina dicunt; hic tibi precipue sit pura Mente Colendus; and therefore, herein the Heathen Idolaters Agree with us by the Light of Nature, that the God who made all things should be Loved, Reverenced, Praised, and Prayed unto above all; and not only so, but even unto our Point in Controversy, and that by the Light of Nature; for Reason saith, and so say they, That as God only knows himself, so he alone can Declare what pleaseth the Divine Being; we can tell what would please a Man, because we are Men; but we cannot tell how to please God, unless we were Gods; So saith the Apostle, 1 Cor. 2.11. As the Spirit of Man only knoweth the things of Man, so the things of God (and his mind is the Main thing there spoken of, as is Explained in the last Verse, We have the Mind of Christ) knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God; Therefore the Heathen Priests persuaded them That their Image fell down from Jupiter, Acts 19.35. or it had not been used by them. Our Contest than is with Men of Grosser Opinions therein, than the Heathen, for they own Institution necessary to the manner of Reverencing God; Now, that he accepts not what he Requires not, he himself declares; wherefore else doth he ask who hath Required this at your hands, if he would accept it, although he did not Require it? for the meaning is, Did I ever Require such Wicked Men to tread my Courts? Isaiah 1.12.  
Again, In vain do you Worship me, teaching for Doctrines the Commands of Men, Mat. 15.8, 9, Isaiah 29.13.  
Israel's using a manner of their own Inventions, was the Devil-Worship they were Charged with, therefore they were bidden to bring their Sacrifice to the Door of the Tabernacle, that they Worshipped no more to Devils, Levit. 17.4, 7. They made a Calf, and after that manner which was the Egyptian manner, they Worshipped God, and yet said to be to Devils. Deut. 32.17. They Sacrificed to Devils, and not to God; 2 Cor. 11.14. And no Marvel; for Satan himself is Transformed into an Angel of Light; 1 Cor. 10.20. But I say, That the things which the Gentiles Sacrifice, they Sacrifice to Devils, and not to God; and I would not that you should have fellowship with Devils. Rev. 9.20.— That they should not Worship Devils; The like said of Jereboams Idolatry; 2 Chron. 11.15. And he Ordained him Priests for the high Places, and for the Devils, and for the Calves which he had made. Now, that this Devil-Worship Consisted in being Devised by their own Imaginations, the Scriptures following do Declare, 1 Kings 12.33. So he offered upon the Altar which he had made in Bethel, the fifteenth day of the eighth Month, even in the Month which he had Devised of his own heart:  
Of Israel 'tis said, Psal. 106.29, & 39 Thus they Provoked him to Anger with their Inventions: what they were, read Verse 28. in these words; They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, and eat the Sacrifices of the Dead. Verse 38 saith, They Sacrificed their Sons and their Daughters unto the Idols of Canaan, Verse 39 Thus were they Defiled with their own Works, and went a Whoring with their own Inventions. Psal 99.8. Thou Tookest Vengeance of their Inventions, Heb. Gnelilotham, their Do, meaning their Idolatry, which is elsewhere called, Walking after the Imagination of their own Heart: Jer. 9.14. Heb. Achare Sherirut Libbam, after the Stubborn perverse Imaginations of their Hearts, and after Baalam which their Fathers taught them: for farther Demonstration Consult. Jer. 23.17. & 7.24. Deut. 29.19. Rom. 1.21. 'Twas Death under the Dispensation of the Law, to alter the manner of the Worship Commanded by using their own Inventions, so as to offer in other places, or after another manner.  
And if God was so zealous of the Manner of his Worship then, as given forth by Moses, as to slay Nadab and Abihu for offering Fire not Commanded, Lev 10.1, 2, 3, etc. and smote 50000, as 1 Sam. 6.19. And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the Ark of the Lord. Vzzah for laying hold on it, 2 Sam. 6.3, 6, 7. Because they brought it not after the manner Commanded, Numb. 4.15. 1 Chron. 13.7, 8. and 9, 10. See chap. 15. 11, 12, 13. How can we Imagine God will bear with the Affront offered to his Son, by whom he hath completed the Revelation of his Will, who came out of the Bosom of God to show us fully how we shall be Accepted with him, and how we shall Express our Reverence to him; For persons to Reject this, and follow their own proud Inventions, they do more than we deny the Authority of Christ. For if God had left the Manner to ourselves, having given by Nature the Knowledge of the Matter, where is the Necessity of Christ's prophetical Office? Indeed Mr. R. B. to show his Invention, offers many Instances of Worship about the manner and ordering Gods Institutions, which he saith man may and must choose himself, without any particular Institution of God, page 4. Which he calleth the Right Ordering of God's Institutions, such as is commanded by him, and a Duty. Now how a man can Rightly Order Institutions without a Rule? How he can Order them as is commanded, and yet there is no command about Ordering of them. How this Duty can be performed while there is no Law to Require it, he should have showed, if he would not be thought contradictory to himself, But that's omitted. If he meaneth (or it hath no meaning) That there are General Laws Instituted to direct us in Right Ordering particular Institutions, so as to declare such a Mode, Manner or Order to be Commanded, and a Duty required in the Scripture, although in Totidem Verbis, they were not so expressed, We are agreed, and only desire him to do as he saith.  
But Mr. R. B. will needs go to Church, now Nonconformity is out of fashion, and would have all turn with him, though it look most like Babylon, while they are Persecuting the Saints; yet now is he Enamoured with its Beauty.  
In Brief, to present him the Features of that he hath forsaken, with what he hath Embraced, he may behold 

The True Church and Spouse hath Christ for its immediate and only Head and Governor, by the Appointment of the Father; and as such hath set in his Church, Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Teachers, Endowed with the Spirit for the Edification of the whole Body; until we come to the Measure of the Stature of the Fullness of Christ: Eph. 4. Unto a Perfect Man in Christ, unto which Head the Church is to be Obedient in all things, and to hear his Voice, and not a Strangers: John 10.4, 5.  
The False Church hath a Man for its immediate and only Head and Governor, under the Power of Satan, being not Converted: And as such Ordaineth Arch-Bishops and Bishops, and they Parsons and Curates, Endowed with a Liturgy; Constituted by, and may be Altered at Humane Pleasure: unto which Device and Appointment, they are to be in all points Obedient, into what shape soever Authority shall cause it to be Moulded.    
Now what Communion Christ hath with Belial, or Light with Darkness, The Temple of God with Idols, 2 Cor. 6.15, 16. shows, which is none at all.  
That to serve God in a manner of our own Devising is Idolatry, and the breach of the Second Commandment, is Evidently Signified by the Word Idolatry, or the Serving God by Images, which was a known Species of the Genus of Humane Devised Manner of Worshipping God, and therefore the Churchmen say on the second Command, there are two kinds of Idolatry forbidden, the worshipping a false God in the first Command, and the worshipping the true God after a false manner, by the second Command.  
Mr. R. B. would be left at Liberty, as to the Manner of Worship, and therefore may with the Papists leave out the second Command, and they are agreed.  
While all who desire to be Accepted with God, are warned to follow Divine Institution, or their Service will be Rejected.  
James Warner.