the Spirit of God; which being wanting, we judge they cease to be the ministers of Christ.

But they, judging this life, grace, and Spirit no essential part of their ministry, are therefore for the upholding of an human, carnal, dry, barren, fruitless and dead ministry; of which, alas! we have seen the fruits in the most part of their churches; of whom that saying of the Lord is certainly verified, "I sent them not, nor commanded them, therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord." Jer. xxiii. 32.

CONCERNING WORSHIP.

All true and acceptable worship to God is offered in the inward and immediate moving and drawing of his own Spirit, which is neither limited to places, times, nor persons. For though we are to worship him always, and continually to fear before him; yet as to the outward significa tion thereof, in prayers, praises, or preachings, we ought not to do it in our own will, where and when we will; but where and when we are moved thereunto by the stirring and secret inspiration of the Spirit of God in our hearts; which God heareth and accepteth of, and is never wanting to move us thereunto, when need is; of which he himself is the alone proper Judge,

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 public, 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; 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 ap

prove whatsoever the Protestants have reformed from Papists in this respect; so I meddle not at this time with their controversies about it: 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 relics, the visitation of sepulchres, and all those other superstitious ceremonies, confraternaties, 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; 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 lopped 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 thoroughly mixed itself herein, that both the apostacy in this respect hath been greatest, and the reformation herefrom, as to the evil root, most difficult.

And first, let it be considered, that what is here affirmed, is spoken of the worship of God in these gospel-times, and not of the worship that was under or before the law: for the particular commands of God to men then, are not sufficient to authorize us now to do the same things; else we might be supposed at present acceptably to offer sacrifice as they did, which all acknowledge to be ceased. So that what might have been both commendable and acceptable under the law, may justly now be charged with superstition, yea, and idolatry.

Though a spiritual worship might have been, and no doubt was practised by many under the law in great simplicity; yet will it not follow, that it were no superstition to use all those ceremonies that they used, which were by God dispensed to the Jews, not as being essential to true worship, or necessary as of themselves for transmitting and entertaining an holy fellowship betwixt him and his people; but in condescension to them, who were inclinable to idolatry. Albeit then in this, as in most other things, the substance was enjoyed under the law by such as were spiritual indeed; yet was it veiled and surrounded with many rites and ceremonies, which it is n

ways lawful for us to use now under the gospel. Secondly; Albeit I say, that this worship is neither limited to times, places, nor persons; yet I would not be understood, as if I intended the putting away of all set times and places to worship: God forbid I should think of such an opinion. Nay, we are none of those that forsake the assembling of ourselves together; but have even certain times and places, in which we carefully meet together (nor can we be driven therefrom by the threats and persecutions of men) to wait upon God, and worship him. To meet together we think necessary for the people of God; because, so long as we are clothed with this outward tabernacle, there is a necessity to the entertaining of a joint and visible fellowship, and bearing of an outward testimony for God, and seeing of the faces of one another, that we concur with our persons as well as spirits: to be accompanied with that inward love and unity of spirit, doth greatly tend to encourage and refresh the saints.

But the limitation we condemn is, that whereas the Spirit of God should be the immediate actor, mover, persuader and influencer of man in the particular acts of worship, when the saints are met together, this Spirit is limited in its operations, by setting up a particular man or men to preach and pray in man's will; and all the rest are excluded from so much as believing that they are to wait for God's Spirit to move them in such