Q1. What God Requires: Worship in His Appointed Ways

Q. 1. What does God require of us in our dependance on him, that he may be glorified by us, and we accepted with him?

Answ. That we (a) worship him (b) in and by the ways of his own appointment. (a) Matthew 4:10. Revelation 14:7. Deuteronomy 6:13. chap. 10:20. (b) Leviticus 10:1, 2, 3. Exodus 24:3. Genesis 18:19. Joshua 23:6, 8. Zechariah 14:16.

Explication.

By the worship of God inquired after, not that which is natural or moral, which is required in the first Commandment is intended. Such is our faith and confidence in him, our fear of him, our subjection of soul and conscience to him, as the great sovereign Lord, first cause, last end, judge and rewarder of all men; the law whereof was originally written in the heart of man, and has been variously improved and directed by new revelations and institutions. And this worship is called natural, upon a double account.

First, because it depends on the nature of God, a due perception and understanding whereof, makes all this worship indispensibly necessary: for none can know God, but it is his duty to glorify him as God, that is, to believe in him, love him, trust him, and call upon him, which all are therefore cursed that do not (Psalm 79:6; 2 Thessalonians 1:8).

And secondly, because it was in the principle of it concreated with the nature of man, as that which suited, directed, and enabled him to answer the law of his creation, requiring this obedience of him in his dependance on God. And this worship is invariable: but it concerns those outward ways and means whereby God has appointed that faith, and love, and fear of him to be exercised and expressed to his glory. And this kind of worship — though it depend not upon the nature of God, but upon his free and arbitrary disposal, and so was of old liable to alterations; yet God did ever strictly require in the several states and conditions that his Church has gone through in the World. And this is that, which most commonly in the Scripture is called by the name of the worship of God; as that whereby all the acceptable actings of the souls of men towards him are expressed, and the only way of owning and acknowledging him in the World, as also of entertaining a visible intercourse with him. This therefore he calls for, and requires indispensibly of all that draw nigh to him, and that because he is the Lord our God (Revelation 14:6, 7; Matthew 4:10; Deuteronomy 10:12, 13). For his observance hereof, does he so approve of Abraham (Genesis 18:19). And sets it down as an everlasting law to all others, that in a holy observation thereof, he will be sanctified in all that draw nigh to him (Leviticus 10:1, 2, 3); his commands also concerning it, are multiplied in the Scripture, with the approbation of all those that attend to them. We may not think to find acceptance with God, or to inherit the promises, if supposing ourselves to adhere to him in worship internal and natural, we neglect that which is external and of his free appointment: for besides, that we renounce thereby our inward dependance on him also, in not observing his commands, as Adam did in transgressing an institution, we become wholly useless to all the ends of his glory in the World, which is not the way to come to an enjoyment of him. Neither, do we only express and profess our inward moral natural worship of God hereby, by which means it becomes the principal way and instrument of faith and trust exerting themselves in our obedience, but also it is a most effectual help and assistance to the principle of that natural worship, strengthening the habit of it, and exciting it to all suitable actings, to its increase and growth.