Article 7: “The Rule of this Knowledge, Faith, and
Obedience, concerning the worship and service of God, and all other Christian
duties, is not man’s inventions, opinions, devices, laws, constitutions, or
traditions, unwritten whatsoever but only the word of God contained in the
Canonical Scriptures.” (John 5:39; 2 Tim. 3:15-17; Col. 21:18, 23; Matt. 15:9)
Article 8: “The rule of this knowledge, faith, and
obedience, concerning the worship of God, in which is contained the whole duty
of man, is (not men’s laws, or unwritten traditions, but) only the word of God
contained [viz., written] in the holy Scriptures; in which is plainly recorded
whatsoever is needful for us to know, believe, and practice; which are the only
rule of holiness and obedience for all saints, at all times, in all places to
be observed.” (Col. 2:23; Matt 15:6,9; John 5:39, 2 Tim. 3:15,16,17; Isa. 8:20;
Gal. 1:8,9; Acts 3:22,23)
An
Orthodox Creed (1679)
Article 40: “The Light of Nature sheweth there is
a God, who hath a Sovereignty over all, but the holy Scripture hath fully
revealed it; as also that all Men should worship him according to God’s own
Institution and Appointment. And hath limited us, 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 Representations whatsoever, or any
other way not prescribed in the holy Scriptures…” (Rom. 1.19, 20. & 2.15; I Chr. 16.29;
Psalm 95.6, 7, 8 & 99.7 & 99.5; Deut. 8.6; Psalm 103.7 & 14.6; Mark
7.7; Psalm 99.8, 9 & 106.29, 39; John 4.24; Rev. 9.20)
Second
London Confession (1677/1689)
Chapter 22” “…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 imagination and devices of
men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any
other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures.” (Texts cited in relation to
this article of faith are Jeremiah 10:7; Mark 12:33; Deuteronomy 12:32; and
Exodus 20:4–6)
John Spilsbery (1593–1668)
“…whatsoever is done in the worship of God, in
obedience to Christ, without His command, or apparent example approved of by
Christ, is of man, as a voluntary will-worship, after the commandments and
doctrines of man; the which Christ testifies against as a vain thing…The holy
Scripture is the only place where any ordinance of God in the case aforesaid is
to be found, they being the fountain-head, containing all the instituted Rules
of both of Church and ordinances.” (Spilsbery, A Treatise Concerning the Lawfull Subject of
Baptisme, 1643/1652)
Hercules Collins (b.?-d. 1702)
“It is sufficient that the Divine Oracles commands
the baptizing of Believers, unless we will make ourselves wiser than what is
written. Nadab and Abihu were not forbidden to offer strange Fire, yet for
doing so they incurred God’s Wrath, because they were commanded to take Fire
from the Altar.” (Matt. 28.18-19; Mark 16.16; Lev 9.24, 10.16) (An
Orthodox Catechism, 1680)
William Kiffin (1616–1701)
“...no part of God’s law, or worship, whether we
respect the manner or form, or the matter and substance thereof, is to be
altered without the express order and direction of GOD himself...where a rule
and express law is prescribed to men, that very prescription is an express
prohibition of the contrary.” (Kiffin, A Sober Discourse of Right to Church
Communion, 1681)
John Gill (1697–1771)
“…for an act of religious worship there must be a
command of God. God is a jealous God, and will not suffer anything to be
admitted into the worship of him, but what is according to his word and will;
if not commanded by him, he may justly say, Who
hath required this at your hands?” (Gill, A Body of Practical Divinity: Or a System of
Practical Truths, Deduced from the Sacred Scriptures, 1796, p. 899)
John Fawcett (1739–1817)
“No acts of worship can properly be called holy,
but such as the Almighty has enjoined. No man, nor any body of men have any
authority to invent rites and ceremonies of worship; to change the ordinances
which he has established; or to invent new ones. This appears to us so clear a
case, that we need not to enlarge upon it.The divine Word is the only safe
directory in what relates to his own immediate service. The question is not
what we may think becoming, decent or proper, but what our gracious Master has
authorized as such. In matters of religion, nothing bears the stamp of holiness
but what God has ordained.” (Fawcett, Sermon, The Holiness Which Becometh the House of the
Lord, April 20, 1808, p. 25)
John
Leadley Dagg (1794-1884)
“It is our
duty to maintain the ordinances of Christ, and the church order which he has
instituted, in strict and scrupulous conformity to Holy Scriptures…When the
finger of God points out the way, no place is left to us for human
preferences.” (Dagg, “Duty of Baptists,” in Manual of Theology, Volumes 1-2,
1859, p. 300)
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892)
“‘Thus says the Lord’ is the only authority in
God’s Church. When the tabernacle was pitched in the wilderness, what was the
authority for its length and breadth? Why was the altar of incense to be placed
here, and the brazen laver there? Why so many lambs or bullocks to be offered
on a certain day? Why must the Passover be roasted whole and not boiled? Simply
and only because God had shown all these things to Moses on the holy mount; and
thus had Jehovah spoken, ‘Look that you make them after their pattern, which
was shown you on the mount.’
“It is even so in the Church at the present day;
true servants of God demand to see for all church ordinances and doctrines, the
express authority of the Church’s only Teacher and Lord.” (Sermon, Sunday Morning,
September 25, 1864, “Thus says the Lord”—or, The Book of Common
Prayer Weighed in the Balances of the Sanctuary)
James Madison Pendleton (1811-1891)
It may be laid down as a principle of common sense
which commends itself to every unprejudiced mind that a commission to do a thing or things authorizes only the doing of the
thing or things specified in it. The doing of all other things is virtually
forbidden. There is a maxim of law: Expressio
unius est exclusio alterius.* It must be so; for otherwise there could be
no definiteness in contracts between men, and no precision in either the
enactments of legislative bodies or in the decrees of courts of justice. This
maxim may be illustrated in a thousand ways. Numerous scriptural illustrations
are at hand; I will name a few. God commanded Noah to build an ark of gopher-wood. He assigns no reason why
gopher-wood should be used. The command, however, is positive, and it forbids
the use of any other kind of wood for that purpose…The institution of the
passover furnishes a striking illustration, or rather a series of
illustrations. A lamb was to be killed—not a heifer; it was to be of the first
year—not of the second or third; a male—not a female; without blemish—not with
blemish; on the fourteenth day of the month— not on some other day; the blood
to be applied to the door-posts and lintels—not elsewhere.” (Distinctive
Principles of Baptists, pp. 18-19 1882)
* “The expression of one thing is the exclusion of
another.”
David
Wise (date unknown)
“The church is to observe and uphold the
commandments of Jesus Christ. We have not been given any authority to add to or
take away from the commandments of Jesus Christ for our conduct in the Church,
but rather our commission is to observe and keep the commandments of Jesus Christ
and the ordinances of the Church in the exact original manner that they were
given and prescribed by Jesus Christ.”
“We affirm that God regulates his worship by
insisting upon the non-negotiable elements of worship. We deny that it is ever right to admit into the
public worship of God elements because he has not forbidden them. Worship is always a matter of what
God commands, never a matter of what he has not condemned. Worship is always a matter of what we must do, never a matter of what we may do.”
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