(Continued from p. 285.)
IN our previous article we discussed the Church’s power exercised in regard to creeds and confessions of faith. We come now to discuss the Church’s authority or power as exercised in regard to ordinances. It has been given, says Dr. Bannerman, to the Church to keep up the public worship of God in the Christian society, according to the method which He Himself has prescribed, to administer the outward means of grace which He makes effectual by His Spirit to the edification of the body of believers, to order and dispense that external provision for gathering and perfecting the visible society of His people in this world which He has appointed for their present good (Church of Christ, I. 322, 323). In dealing with the subject of the administration of Church power with respect to ordinances many points of interest arise.
- Let us begin with the public worship of God viewed in its general aspect. From what source is the duty of public religious worship derived? Is it merely a human institution that has been agreed upon by a few men, or a company of men, for purposes which they consider beneficial to their fellow-men or has it higher authority? When we turn to the Bible we will find that there has been a Church under both dispensations, the
members of which have been distinguished from the rest of the world by the faith which they held in common.
This association together with the profession of a common faith was not a mere arbitrary or human arrangement. It was an arrangement constituted by divine authority and regulated by His divine commands. After man’s disastrous fall it remained with God to say whether He would ever permit man to approach in the way of worship. It was not left to the worshipper to formulate the terms on which God would be worshipped. That was a prerogative belonging to Him alone and He kept it in His own hands. So from the earliest ages we find not only man’s obligation to worship God emphasised but the manner in which He is to be approached carefully prescribed and regulated by divine instructions.
It is true that the institutions of public worship have varied from age to age under different dispensations but it was always God that appointed these variations; they were not the outcome of commands given by Abraham, Moses or others. When we come to the New Testament God has not renounced His right and allowed men to decide whether they should worship Him in public or not nor has He left it with men to say the manner in which He ought to be worshipped. Public worship is a standing and perpetual ordinance of God and is regulated by divine appointment as Samuel Rutherford in his Divine Right of Church Government clearly points out.
The Westminster Divines in their chapter on Religious Worship say: “But 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 (chap. xxi. sec. i). The Church’s authority is, therefore, so limited that it is not to go beyond what is prescribed in God’s Word. And here it may be noted that there is a vast difference between the two leading principles recognised respectively by Episcopalians and Presbyterians. Episcopalians maintain that
what is not condemned in God’s Word is allowable in worship with the restriction that it is not contrary to Scripture: * while Presbyterians maintain that what is commanded (Matt. xxviii. 20) in God’s Word is only allowable in God’s worship. It has, therefore, been the contention of our Church that the Church in her General Assemblies had no right to sanction, instrumental music and hymns, in public worship. Nor has the Church the right to sanction holy days as religious festivals because these were not commanded by God’s Word.
The various parts of public worship set forth in the Confession of Faith are prayer; “the reading of the Scriptures with godly fear; the sound preaching and conscionable hearing of the Word, in obedience unto God, with understanding, faith, and reverence; singing of psalms with grace in the heart; as also the due administration and worthy receiving of the sacraments instituted by Christ; are all parts of the ordinary religious worship of God: besides religious oaths, and vows, solemn fastings, and thanksgivings upon special occasions, which are, in their several times and seasons, to be used in an holy and religious manner (chap. xxi. sec. 5). All these elements are part of a public ordinance and not of a private one. They are to be enjoyed by professing Christians in communion with one another.
It is because public worship does not rest for its authority on men but on God that it becomes a serious matter to withdraw from attendance on the public means of grace where His Word is purely preached, His ordinances scripturally administered and His worship conducted in accordance with the divine rule laid down in Scripture without reasons which will stand the test of God’s Word. If God intended that men might worship in private to the neglect of public worship that was being conducted according to His Word He would have made it plain to us. It is to guard against this that the Westminster Divines enter the caveat
“The Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies, and authorities in controversies of faith and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything that is contrary to God’s Word written” (Article, xx).
in connection with the “public assemblies which are not carelessly or wilfully to be neglected or forsaken, when God, by His Word or providence, calleth thereunto” (chap. xxi. sec. vi). In the Directory for Public Worship the Divines likewise exhort the people to attend public worship and not absent themselves “from the public ordinances through negligence, or upon pretence of private meetings.”
In regard to the exercise of Church power about the public worship of God our subordinate standards speak with no uncertain voice. In their chapter on “Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience” the Divines say: “God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to His Word, or beside it, in matters of faith and worship: so that to believe such doctrines or to obey such commandments out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience; and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also” (chap. xx. sec. ii). The Larger Catechism in answer to the question: “What are the sins forbidden in the Second Commandment?” answers: “… All superstitious devices, corrupting the worship of God, adding to it, or taking from it, whether invented and taken up of ourselves, or received by tradition from others, though under the title of antiquity, custom, devotion, good intent of any pretence whatsoever” (Larger Catechism, Quest. 109). The Shorter Catechism teaches that the Second Commandment “forbiddeth the worship of God by images, or any other way not appointed in His Word.” Dr. Bannerman summarises the teaching of our standards on this point as follows: “The Church has no authority in regulating the manner, appointing the form, or dictating the observances of worship, beside or beyond what the Scripture declares on these points—the Bible containing the only directory for determining these matters and the Church having no discretion to add or to alter what is there fixed” (Church of Christ I. 337, 338).