The Marrow of Divinity, Religious treatise · Chapter 4
CHAP. IV. Questions, and Cases about Adoration or Worship.
Quest. WHat is Adoration?
Answ. Its the part of Gods Worship, whereby a man, upon a vile and base esteem of himself, as being but dust and ashes, submits, and subjects his soul to the Majesty and Glory of God.
Quest. What are the principal Grounds in the heart?
Answ. Two. 1. Abnegation, or denial of our selves, when we esteem our selves to be meerly nothing.
Exaltation, or advancement of Gods Majesty, above all things in the world. So Gen. 18.27. Isa. 6.2. Dan. 9.7. Ma…. 15.27.
Quest. How manifold is Adoration?
Answ. Twofold, Religious, or Civil.
Quest. What is religious Adoration?
Answ. Its the Worship of God, in which Religion and Godlinesse is exercised, expressed, and signified.
Quest. What is to be considered herein?
Answ. The inward intention of the minde, wherein God is conceived as an absolute and omnipotent Lord, knowing all things, yea, the heart of man, hearing all our prayers, at all times, in all places, and being the Author, Preserver, and Giver of all good.
The outward prostrating of the body, as bowing the knee, lifting up the hands, &c. to testifie our subjection unto God as our absolute Lord.
Quest. What is Civil Adoration?
Answ. It belongs to the Second Table, and is termed Sociall, because its the Adoration, or Worship that fellow-creatures give one to another.
Quest. What is to be considered herein?
Answ. The inward intention of the minde, which must be this: that the creature worshipped is endued with excellent gifts by God, or that he hath Power and Government over us.
The Action, or outward gesture of the body, in token that the creature worshipped is endued with excellent gifts, and graced with authority over us. So that the bodily gesture both in religious Worship and this, is, and may be the same, and the difference stands only in the intention of the minde.
Quest. To what things is Adoration due, and in what manner?
Answ. The things are of three sorts, 1. God the Creator. 2. The creatures. 3. The works of the creatures.
Quest. VVhat Adoration is due to God?
Answ. It must not be Sociall, (for we are not Gods companions,) but Religious, which is due to him, and to him alone, Mat. 4.10.
Quest. VVhat Caveats are to be remembred herein?
Answ. If Adoration be given to god with a false and erroneous intention, it makes him an Idol. As if our bodies be bowed to worship God out of the Trinity, as the Turks do: or if he be worshipped out of the Son, as the Jews do, we worship not the true God, but an Idol. For God must be so conceived of us, as he hath manifested himself in his Word, and not otherwise.
To worship God in, at, or before a creature, is superstition and idolatry: and God so worshipped is made an Idol.
Quest. VVhy so?
Answ. Because he that so worships him, binds his presence, operation and grace to those places, to which God never bound himself, nor his Presence, &c.
God hath not appointed Images to be Pledges of these things, eithet by Promise or Precept. He therefore that worships God otherwise then he requires, or looks to be heard where God will not hear, is an Idolater.
God expresly forbids the VVorship of his Majesty, in, at, or before any creature in heaven or earth, Deut. 4.16, 17, 18, 19.
Obj…ct. But I intend not to worship the Image, but God in the Image?
Answ. It matters not what thy meaning is, seeing God detests that manner of Worship; the Israelites worshipped not the Calfe, but God in the Calfe, Exod. 32.8. yet they are said to worship an Idol.
Obj. God was worshipped before the Ark, and there he promised to hear the prayers of his people?
Answ. They had an expresse Command from God to worship before the Ark, and a Promise that they should be accepted and heard, which the Idolater hath not.
Obj. Subjects kneel before the Chaire of State, though the King be absent, in token of their subjection due to him, therefore much more may we to the Images of God, and the Saints in Heaven?
Answ. Kneeling before the Chaire of State is a meer Civil VVorship, only to shew our subiection to our lawful Soveraign, and so is commanded by God: but we have no such warrant to bowe to Images: neither is it Gods VVill, that they should be Tokens of his Presence.
Quest. VVhat Vertues are required in religious Adoration?
Answ. Feare, which is a great part of Gods VVorship, Isa. 29.13. with Mat. 15.8, 9. where feare and worship a…e taken for one and the same.
Inward obedience of the hidden man of the heart: which is preferred before sacrifice, 1 Sam. 15.22. and this stands in two things.
1. In yielding subjection of the Conscience to the Commands, Threats, and Promises of God, so that we are willing to be bound by them.
2. VVhen the rest of the powers of the soul, in their place and time, perform obedience to God, 2 Cor. 10.5.
Patience, which is, when a man in his afflictions submits his VVill to Gods, and quiets his heart, because its the Lords doing, Psal. 37.7. and 39.9. 2 Sam. 15.26.
Thankfulnesse to God, which shewes it self in two things.
1. In acknowledging that our selves and whatsoever we have is Gods, and proceeds from his blessing alone.
2. In consecrating our bodies, soules, callings, labours, and our lives to the honour and service of God▪
Quest. VVhat Adoration is due to the creatures?
Answ. The creatures are either, 1. Evil spirits. 2. Good Angels. 3. Living men. 4. Saints departed.
Quest. Is any Adoration due to the evil spirits?
Answ. No: for they are Gods enemies, and accursed of him, therefore no honour is due to them: neither are we to have any dealing with them at all, but utterlie to renounce whatsoever comes from them, or their instruments, as Spells Charmes, Enchantments, &c. which serve to work wonders, but have no such vertue from God, either by Creation, Nature, Word, or Institution.
Quest. VVhat Adoration is due to the good Angels?
Answ. If they did appear to us, and we certainly knew them, we might adore them, but only with a civil and sociall worship. So Gen. 19.1. they refuse Religious worship, Rev. 19.10.
Quest. VVhat Adoration is due to men?
Answ. That which is meerly civil, and that in respect of the gifts of God that we see in them, as also of the authority, and place they have amongst us. Enjoyned in the fifth Commandment. So we see in Abraham, G…n. 23.7. which Adoration must be according to the laudable custome of the Countrey where we live.
Quest. May not religious, or mixt Adoration be given to them?
Answ. By no means. Peter blamed Cornelius for it, Acts 10.25, 26. Mordecai refused to give it to Haman, Esther 3.2. Kissing the Popes toe is therefore unlawful, because its a Civil worship, mixed with Religious; tendred to him as to Christs Vicar, and is not done to any Potentate on the earth.
Quest. VVhat Adoration is due to the Saints departed?
Answ. All the worship that we owe them, is no more but a reverend esteem of their persons, and imitation of their vertues: No religious worship is due to them, they having nothing to do with us, nor we with them.
Quest. Doth any Adoration belong to the unreasonable creatures?
Answ. No, there belongs nothing to them, but a reverend and holy use of them. For Adoration is a signe of subjection in the Inferiour to the Superiour: but Man is their Superiour, and therefore is not to worship them: therefore not the reliques of Saints, or the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament.
Quest. Is any Adoration due to the works of the Creatures, viz. Images?
Answ. None at all: For
1. Its expresly forbidden in the Second Commandment.
2. The Superiour must perform no Adoration to the Inferiour: Now man is a more excellent Image of God then any other Image, and therefore better then it: yea, the meanest worme which is Gods VVorkmanship, is better then any Image made by man: therefore we may better worship a worme, then an Image.
Mr. Perkins, Vol. 2. p. 84, &c.