Com. 27 trous worship, and whatever may be occafions of it, or whatever hath been, or may be abufed to it; purging the house of God from corrupt and infufficient minifters and corrupt members.

But let us fee, in the next place, what is forbidden in this command, and how it is broken.

In the first command, what immediately reflecteth upon God himself, is forbidden; here, what immediately reflecteth on his ordinances and appointments, contradicting them, and him in them, is discharged. There is none of the commands more frequently broken, and yet men moft readily think themselves free of the breach thereof; and therefore ye fhould confider that it is broken,

1. In doctrine, or doctrinally. 2. In practice. 3. In both,when the doctrines, vented and published against truth, have external practices following on them, as that doctrine of image-worship hath, which we have fpoken to already, and is the grofs breach of this command; and the Lord inftanceth it as being the greateft,because, where this is,all forts of idolatry are: for it fuppofeth idolatry against the first command, and that fome efteem and weight is laid upon that creature we worship, beyond what is its due; as if there were in it fome divinity or ability to help, whereby it is thought worthy of fuch honour; whereupon followeth that external worship which is given to it upon that account: and fo, becaufe faints are thought able to hear and help, men pray to them; and, because the crofs is thought holy, men worship it, &c. And as this idolatry is manifold among the Papifts, fo it is palpable when prayer is made to faints, reliques, bread, the crofs, images, &c.

Now, that we may further explain this, confider, that this command is three ways broken doctrinally; (all which have a great influence upon mens breaking of it in their practice) or, the fervice and worship of God is three ways wronged by the doctrines of men. (1.) When fomething is added to his fervice, which he hath not commanded; and this is fuperftition and will-worship largely fo taken. Of this kind are, 1. The five Popifh facraments added to those two the Lord appointed. 2. Other and more mediators than the one Mediator Chrift. 3. More meritorious caufes of pardon and juftification than the blood and merits of Chrift. 4. More officers in his houfe than he hath appointed; fuch as, bishops,

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cardinals, &c. 5. More ceremonies in worship, as falt, fpittle and cream added in baptifm to water, and kneeling, &c. in the Lord's fupper. 6. More holy-days than God hath inftituted. 7. Other things to be acknowledged for the word of God than the fcripture, as the traditions, Apocrypha, &c. and many fuch things, whereof (for the most part) Popery is made up.

(2.) It is broken when his ordinances are diminished, and any thing which he hath commanded is taken away from them, as is clear from Deut. 4. 2. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither fhall ye diminish ought therefrom. And thus they break this command, by taking away the cup from laicks (as they call them) in the Lord's fupper, and the ufe of the bible from the people in their own language, Alfo it is broken by taking away baptifm from infants, and difcipline or excommunication from the church, and by taking away the fabbath-day and publick finging of pfalms, or fuch like; not to fpeak of that blafphemous, and fome-way Pagan herefy of Quakerifm, overturning most, if not all the ordinances of God, deftructive to all true religion and chriftianity, and introducing, at least having a native tendency to introduce, old Paganism and barbarity.

(3.) This command is broken by corrupting of God's worfhip; as when the word is mifinterpreted and mifapplied, prayers are used in a ftrange tongue, the word is mixed with errors, and the church both left without difcipline, and abufed in civil things, which tendeth to the corrupting of God's fervice; unqualified men put into the miniftry, and kept in it; when facraments are refted on and worshipped: even as the brafen ferpent was abufed; and the temple, tho' appointed by God at firft for good ends, was afterward refted on and idolized.

Again, this command is practically broken four ways, I. By grofs profanity, and neglect of the practice of known duties of worship. This way are guilty all profane contemners of facraments, word, difcipline, &c. all neglecters of them when they may have them; and all these that fet not themselves to go rightly about them, in fecret, in fa→ milies, or in publick: and when many opportunities of gofpel-ordinances are, this fin is the more frequent. And fo all atheists that contemn religion, and thefe that would only

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Com. 2. ferve God with a good heart and intention, as they pretend, without any outward worship, are condemned here; and alfo thofe, who for fear or advantage give not teftimony to the truth and ordinances of Chrift, when such a testimony is called for.

2dly, Men fin against this command, when they practise will-worship and fuperftition, in ferving God by duties he never required: Whether, 1. It be will-worship in respect of the fervice itself; as when that is gone about as duty, which is not in itself lawful; as when fuch and fuch pilgrimages and penances are appointed by men to be done as fervice to God: Or, 2. When worship or service under the gospel is aftricted to fuch a place, as if it were holier to pray in one place than in another, and that therefore God did hear prayer there more willingly and cafily than in another place. Or, 3. In respect of bodily posture, as if there were more religion in one pofture than in another; as in receiving the Lord's fupper kneeling, or praying in fuch and fuch a pofture, except in fo far as it is decent, and otherwise rightly regulate by rules of prudence and nature's light. 4. When it is without a divine warrant tied to fuch a time only; as Christmas (commonly called Fule) Eafter, Pafch, &c. which is an obferving of times that God hath not appointed. 5. When it is tied to fuch an occafion or accident, as to pray when the clock ftriketh, or when one neefeth, which Plinius marked of Tiberis, who was no religious man, yet could not abide one who lifted not his hat when he neefed, and faid not, God bless; and he observeth it among these things he can give no reason for: The prayer is good, but the timing of it fo, and aftrieting it to that thing, is fuperftitious. So your light-wakes and diriges (as ye call them) are upon this account to be condemned, either as fuperftitious, or as profane, or at the best as the reliques and caufes or occafions of both: For, 1. Once in times of Popifh darkness they were fo used, or rather abufed. 2. Why are your visits ftinted to fuch a time more than another? It profiteth not the defunct, and it hurteth the perfon you come unto; a multitude not being fit for comforting or inftructing; and yet it cannot be called a mere civil vifit, being tryfted with fuch an occafion; but certainly it fuiteth not, nor is it a chriftian carriage toward the dead, and after the burial of the dead, to fpend time together in fucha way as is commonly used. Befide, it is fuperftitious,

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when a thing without reafon is aftricted to fuch a time or occafion, as giving and receiving gifts on New-years-day, too too common amongft chriftians, tho' a heathenifh custom; which day, as Gratian obferves, was dedicated to their devil-god, Fanus: He afferts like wife, That fuch chriftians, as in his time did obferve it, were excommunicated. And Alchuinus, with others, write, That the whole catholick church appointed once a folemn publick faft to be kept on a New-years-day, to bewail those heathenifh interludes, sports, and lewd idolatrous practices that had been used on it. 6. When some weight is laid on the number of words, or fet repetitions of prayers, Ave Maria's, or Pater nofter's, or on the reading fo many chapters, or faying fo many prayers. 7. When any take a word of fcripture at the opening of the bible, or by a thought fuggefted, as more befitting their condition because of that, without weighing the word itself,and lay more weight upon that word than upon another that hath the fame authority and fuitablenefs to their cafe; which is to make a weerd or fortune-book of the book of God, for which end he never appointed it. Thus alfo men are guilty, when they account facraments more valid, or lay more weight on them, because dispensed by fome minifters, than when difpenfed by others, tho' having the fame warrant, or because of the difference of perfons that partake therein with them.

However fome of these things may be in themselves good, yet they are abufed by fome one circumftance; as in unwarrantable timing them, or in laying that weight on them which is not warranted in the word: which, 1. Altereth the way that God has laid down. 2. Bringeth us to prefer one circumftance to another, without any warrant. 3. Maketh a neceffity where God has left us free, and fo bringeth us into bondage.

3dly, We may go wrong in practising lawful duties many ways, as to the manner of performing them, when they are not fo done as is required: As, 1. When we do not propose to ourselves the right end we fhould have before us. 2. When they are not done from a right inward principle. 3. When they are done in hypocrify and formality, and refted on. All which may go along with men in all duties and ordinances; and generally all our fhortcomings in the right manner of commanded duties ftrike against this commandment.

4thly, We may also consider the breach of this command, by taking a view of what is oppofite to every thing required; and fo want of reverence in worship, want of zeal against error or false worship, not ftretching ourselves in all lawful endeavours to entertain and maintain the true worship of God, are here forbidden: fo likewife the putting in, and keeping in unworthy minigers; the traducing, holding out, and putting out of faithful men; the withdrawing and fequeftring their maintenance from them; the diminishing of it, or ftraitning them in it: Horrid fins, tho' little thought of,and lightly look'd on by men, drawing no lefs deep before God than obftructing the free courfe of the gofpel, breaking up the treaty of peace betwixt God and finners carried on by faithful ministers, as the ambaffadors of Jefus Chrift; and faying on the matter, that he fhall not fee of the fruit of the travail of his foul in the falvation of the fouls of men, to his fatisfaction, so far as they can impede it, by outing and difcountenancing his minifters, the inftruments made ufe of by him for bringing about that. And thus alfo, all facrilege, Simony, and the like, come in as breaches of this command; and all partiality in church-proceedings, toleration of errors, countenancing the fpreaders of them, flighting of difcipline, converfing unneceffarily and unwarrantably with fuch as are excommunicate, and all unwarrantable innovating in the external worship of God; and when we are not aiming and endeavouring to have our children and fervants, and all under our charge, brought under fubjection and conformity to the ordinances and fervice of God, as well as ourselves.

But, because this command in an especial manner looketh to publick ordinances, let us fee a little more particularly how it is broken in thefe; 1. In refpect of preaching and hearing. 2. Publick prayer. 3. Praifing. 4. Sacraments. 5. Fafts; and, in all thefe, there are faults of three forts. (1.) Some going before the performance of thefe duties. (2.) Some following after. (3.) Some going along in the performance of them. And again, 1. Some are guilty of the breach of this command, by neglecting thefe duties. 2. Some are guilty in the wrong manner of going about them.

And, 1, Before hearing the word, men break this command, 1. In not praying for the speaker. 2. In not praying for themselves, in reference to this end, that they may profit by the word. 3. In not fetting themselves to be in a fpiritual

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