Question 18 — Whereas sundry of these things are founded in the light and law of nature, as requisite unto all solemn wo
John Owen A Brief Instruction in the Worship of God f discipline and rule of the church collected and settled; most of which have also sundry particular duties relating unto them, and subservient unto their due observation. a Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; Acts ii. 41, 42; 1 Cor. xii. 28; Eph. iv. 11, 12; Matt. xviii. 17, 18; 1 Cor. iv.
17, vii. 17; Acts xiv. 23; Titus i. 5; 1 Tim. iii. 15. b 1 Tim. ii. 1; Acts vi. 4, xiii. 2, 3. c Eph. v. 19; Col. iii. 16. d 2 Tim. iv. 2; Acts ii. 42; 1 Cor. xiv. 3; Acts vi. 4; Heb. xiii. 7. e Matt. xxviii. 19, xxvi. 26, 27; 1 Cor. xi. 23. f Matt. xviii. 17–19; Rom. xii. 6–8; Rev. ii., iii.
Explication — These things, being all of them afterward to be spoken unto severally and apart, need not here any particular explication. They are the principal heads wherein gospel worship consisteth, and whereunto the particular duties of it may be reduced.
Question 18 — Whereas sundry of these things are founded in the light and law of nature, as requisite unto all solemn worship, and are, moreover, commanded in the moral law, and explications of it in the Old Testament, how do you look upon them as evangelical institutions, to be observed principally on the authority of Jesus Christ?
Answer — Neither their general suitableness unto the principles of right reason and the dictates of the light and law of nature, nor the practice of them in the worship of God under the Old Testament, does at all hinder them from depending on the mere institution of Jesus Christ, as to those especial ends of the glory of God in and by himself, and the edification of his church in the faith which is in him, whereunto he hath appointed them, nor as unto that especial manner of their performance which he requireth; in which respects they are to be observed on the account of his authority and command only.
Matt. xvii. 5, xxviii. 20; John xvi. 23, 24; Heb. iii. 4–6; Eph. i. 22, ii. 20–22; Heb. xii. 25.
Explication — The principal thing we are to aim at, in the whole worship of God, is the discharge of that duty which we owe to Jesus Christ, the king and head of the church: Heb. iii. 6, "Christ as a son over his own house, whose house are we." 1 Tim. iii. 15, "That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God." This we cannot do unless we consider his authority as the formal reason and cause of our observance of all that we do therein. If we perform any thing in the worship of God on any other account, it is no part of our obedience unto him, and so we can neither expect his grace to assist us, nor have we his promise to accept us therein; for that he hath annexed unto our doing and observing whatever he hath commanded, and that because he hath commanded us: Matt. xxviii. 20, "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the