“How absurd a tenet is this, which holds that there is some particular worship of God allowed, and not commanded? What new light is this which makes all our divines [i.e. theologians] to have been in the mist, who have acknowledged no worship of God, but that which God has commanded? Whoever heard of commanded and allowed worship?”
George Gillespie, A Dispute Against the English Popish Ceremonies (Naphtali Press, 2013).
Westminster Confession of Faith 21.1: “the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture (Deut. 12:32: Matt. 15:9….)
Deuteronomy 12:32: “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”
Matthew 15:9: “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”
Acts 17:25; Matthew 4:9 (see Deut. 4:15-20) Exodus 20:4-6.
