These Sections teach —

1st. That the obligation to render supreme worship and devoted service to God is a dictate of nature as well as a doctrine of revelation.

2d. That God in his word has prescribed for us how we may worship him acceptably, and that it is an offence

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to him and a sin in us either to neglect to worship and serve him in the way prescribed, or to attempt to serve him in any way not prescribed.

3d. That the only proper objects of worship are the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and that since the fall these are to be approached only through a Mediator, and through the mediation of none other than Christ alone.

4th. That religious worship is upon no pretence to be rendered to angels or to saints or to any other creature.

1st. That it is a dictate of natural reason and conscience that a Being of infinite and absolute perfection, the Creator, Possessor and sovereign Lord, the Preserver and bountiful Benefactor of all creatures, and the absolute moral Governor of all moral agents, should be adored, praised, thanked, supplicated, obeyed and served, is self-evident, and is witnessed to by the common consent of all nations of all ages. The reasons for this are — (a.) His absolute perfection in himself. (6.) His infinite superiority to us. (c.) His relation to us as Creator, Preserver and moral Governor, (d.) Our absohite dependence upon him for every good, and our obligations for his infinite goodness to us. [e.) His commands requiring this at our hands. (/.) The impulse of our nature as religious beings and morally responsible agents, (g.) The fact that our faculties find their highest exercise, and our whole being its highest development and blessedness in this worship and service.

2d. We have already seen, under Chapter i., that God has given us in the Holy Scriptures an infallible, authoritative, complete and perspicuous rule of faith and practice. That " the whole counsel of God, concerning all

things necessary for his own glory and man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced fropa Scripture." It hence necessarily follows that since God has prescribed the mode in which we are acceptably to worship and serve him, it must be an oifence to him and a sin in us for us either to neglect his way, or ^''1 preference to practice our own. It may well have been that in the natural state of man and in his moral relations to God in which he stood before the fall, his natural reason, conscience and religious instinct might have sufficed to direct him in his worship and service. But since man's moral nature is depraved, and his religious instincts perverted, and his relations to God reversed by sin, it is self-evident that an explicit, positive revelation is necessary not only to tell men that God will admit his worship at all, but also to prescribe the principles upon which, and the methods in which, that worship and service may be rendered. As before shown from Scripture, not only all teaching for doctrine the commandments of men, but all manner of will-worship, of self-chosen acts and forms of worship, are an abomination to God. At the same time, of course, there are, as the Confession admits. Chapter i., § 6, some circumstances concerning the worshij) of God and the government of the (-hurch, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the word. These relate obviously to the application of the principles and " general rules" laid down in Scripture for our guidance in worship and ecclesiastical government to the varying times and circumstances of the

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case in hand. But we have in no case any right, npon the ground of taste, fashion or expediency, to go beyond the clear warrant of ScTipture.

3d. That the divine worship is to be addressed equally to Father, Son and Holy Ghost follows necessarily from what we have proved under Chapter ii., § 3 — that Father, Son and Holy Ghost being distinct persons, ai-e yet each equally, in the same absolute sense, the one supreme God. That God can now be acceptably approached only through a Mediator is proved by what we have already proved (a) as to the guilt of man by nature and in consequence of habitual transgression, (b) as to the justice of God, and (c) as to the fact that God has from eternity determined to deal with men, as the subjects of redemption, only through a Mediator. If Christ as our High Priest truly represents the elect before the Father, in obeying and suffering vicariously in their stead and in making intercession in their behalf, and if he is the medium through which all gracious benefits come to us from God, it follows that all our approaches to God should be made through him. That God is the only proper subject of worship, and that Christ is the only Mediator through whom we may approach God, will be shown under the next head.

4th. Religious worship is upon no pretence to be offered to angels, nor to saints, nor to any other creature, nor to God through any other mediator save Christ alone.

The most authoritative Standards of the Church of Rome teach — (a.) That the Virgin Mary, saints and angels are to receive true religious worship, in proportion to their respective ranks. (6.) That they are to be

invoked to help us in our times of need.* (c.) That they are to be invoked to intercede with God or with Christ for us. (d) Some of their most authoritative books of worship teach that God is to be asked to save and help us on the ground of the merits of the saints ; (e) that the pictures, images and relics of saints and martyrs are to be retained in churches and worshipped.!

To avoid the charge of idolatry made upon them for these practices, tliey distinguish between (a) Latvia, or the highest religious worship, which is due to God alone, and (6) Douliaj or that inferior religious worship which is due in various degrees to saints and angels, according to their rank. Some also mark a middle degree of worship, which is due to the Virgin Mary alone, by the term Hyperdoulia, They also distinguish between (a) that direct worship which is due severally to God, to the Virgin or to the saints and angels, and (6) that indirect worship which terminates upon the picture or image which represents to the worshipper the direct object of his worship.

The objection to this entire system is —

(1.) That it has, neither as a whole nor in any element (.>f it, a shadow of support in Scripture.

(2.) That the reasons for worshipping God apply to the worship of no other being. That reason and revelation unite in teaching us that a Being of infinite and absolute perfection, our Creator, Preserver and moral Governor, stands apart from all other objects, and therefore is not to be classed as an object of worship with any other.

* Council of Trent, Sess. 25 : " Bonum atque utile esse, .... ad eorum orationes, opetn, auxiliumque confugere." Cat. Rom., iii. 2, 10; iv. 5, 8; and iii. 2, 8.

t Council of Trent, Sess. 25 ; Cat. Rom. iii 2, 23. and iii. 2, 8.

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(3.) The sin of worshipping other gods and angels is explicitly forbidden. Ex. xx. 3, 5; Col. ii. 18. When the people of Lystra proposed to worship Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas, " they rent their clothes and ran among the people, saying,^' "We also are men,'' "and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God." Acts xiv. 14, 15.

(4.) The worship of images, or of God, Christ or samts by images, is forbidden in the Second Commandment. Ex. XX. 4, 5.

(5.) The distinctions they make between the different degrees of worship due to God and to holy creatures, and between the indirect worship which terminates upon the image or picture and the direct worship which terminates upon the person represented by it, are not their peculiar property, but, as every missionary to the heathen knows, are common to them with the educated class among all idolaters. If the Romanists be not idolaters, the sins forbidden in the First and Second Commandments have never been committed.

(6.) The invocation of the saints is a pure absurdity, for unless they are omnipresent and omniscient, they cannot hear us, and in many cases, unless they are omnipotent, they cannot help us. The Romish explanation, that God may perhaps tell the saints what we pray, in order that the saints may in turn tell God, is worthy of the doctrine it explains.

(7.) The saints and angels are not mediators between us and God or us and Christ, because (a) it is explicitly asserted that Christ is the only Mediator between God and man. 1 Tim. ii. 5. (6.) Christ has exhaustively •lischarged every requisite mediatorial function, both

on earth and in heaven. Heb. ix. 12, 24; vii. 25; x. 14. (c.) Because we are "complete" in Christ, and we are exhorted to come immediately to God through Christ, and to come with the utmost boldness and sense of liberty. Col. ii. 10; Eph. ii. 18; iii. 12; Heb. iv. 16; x. 19-21. The very suggestion of supplementing the work of Jesus Christ with that of other mediators is infinitely derogatory to him. (d) There can be no room for intercessors between us and Christ, because Christ is our tender Brother (Matt. xi. 28), and because it is the office of the Holy Ghost to draw men to Christ. John vi. 44; xvi. 13, 14. (e.) Even if there was need for other mediators, the saints would not be fit for the place. They are absent; they cannot hear when we cry. They are dependent ; they cannot help others. As we have seen, they have no supererogatory merits, and therefore cannot lay in our behalf a foundation for our acceptance with God. They are busy worshipping and enjoying Christ in person, and have neither the time, the opportunity nor the ability to manage the affairs of the world.

In this section the object of religious worship is defined.

1. Our Confession affirms that religious worship is to be given to God alone. While the first commandment forbids us to have any other gods before him, it requires us to worship him alone. Most explicit, too, was the answer which Chiist gave to Satan, when he would have our Saviour to fall down and worship him. " It is written," he replied, " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou

serve." — IVIatt, iv. 10. And when the Apostle John attempted to offer religions worship to an angel, either through surprise, or through a mistake of him for .Jesus Christ, the angel said unto him, "See thou do it not; worship God" (Rev. xxii. 8, 9); thereby intimating that God alone is to be worshipped.

There can be only one true God, but there are three distinct persons in the Godhead; these three persons are designated the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and religious worship is due to each of these persons. Although Christians usually address their supplications to the Father, in the name of the Son, and by the assistance of the Holy Ghost, yet divine worship may be performed to any of the adorable Three immediately. And it must ever be remembered, that when any one of the persons of the Godhead is immediately addressed, the other two are included. These divine persons are only one object of worship, because they are only one Being — one God.

2. In opposition to the Papists, who maintain, that not only God, but good angels and departed saints, being canonized by the Pope, ought to be worshipped, even in a religious manner, our Confession affirms that neither angels, nor saints, nor any other creature, ought to receive religious worship. The worshipping of angels is expressly forbidden by the Apostle Paul (Col. ii. 18): " Let no man beguile you of your reward, in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels." And when the Apostle John was going to worship the angel, he absolutely refused it, and ordered him to direct his worship to God himself : " I fell at his feet to worship him ; and he said unto me, See thou do it not : I am thy fellowservant; worship God." — Rev. xix. 10. Papists are likewise guilty of gross idolatry, in worshipping saints departed, especially the Virgin Mary. To the saints they pray, make vows, swear by them, consecrate altars and temples to them, offer incense, and, in short, render to them all the honours which are paid to God himself. They, no doubt, pretend that the worship which they give to the saints is not precisely the same in kind and degree with that which they give to God ; but, however they may distinguish in theory, the greater part make no distinction in practice. To render any kind of religious worship to departed saints cannot be vindicated by Scripture. Christians are desired to remember them that had the rule over them (Heb. xiii. 17), but no intimation is given of worshipping them. Several of the apostles and first Christians, particularly James the Great and Stephen, had suffered martyrdom when the Epistles were written; but no mention is made of offering prayers to them.

216 CONFESSION OF FAITH. []CIIAP. XXT.

The invocation of saints implies either that they are everywhere, or that they know all things ; but omnipresence and omniscience are divine perfections, incommunicable to any creature.

Our Confession condemns the worshipping not only of angels and saints, but also of " any other creature." And Papists have a multiplicity of objects of worship besides those here specified. They not only worship departed saints themselves, but even their relics. The Council of Trent authorised the adoration of relics ; and they continue in high esteem among the Papists to the present day. But as God effectually guarded against the superstition into which the Jews might have fallen with respect to the remains of Moses, by taking care that his body should be buried in such a manner that "no man knew of his sepulchre" (Deut. xxxiv. 6); so this certainly justifies us in doing no further honour to the bodies of saints than merely interring them. We know that the early Christians took no further care about Stephen's body than to bury it with decency. — Acts viii. 2, And as the worshipping of relics is directly contrary to the practice of the primitive Christians, so it is utterly irreconcilable with common sense. It was also decreed by the Council of Trent, that "due honour and veneration " be given to the images of Christ, of the blessed Virgin, and other saints.* Papists, accordingly, bow down to images, kiss them, offer incense, and pray to them. They may tell us that they do not terminate their worship on the image itself, but worship God in and by it. The same thing might have been said both by enlightened heathens and by the Jews, yet this did not exempt them from the charge of idolatry. The Israelites professed to worship Jehovah by the golden calf (Exod. xxxii. 5) ; and the calves set up at Dan and Bethel, by Jeroboam, were intended only as means whereby to worship the true God. — 1 Kings xii. 26. Not only the worshipping of images themselves, but the use of them in worship, even when the true God is worshipped in and by them, is called idolatry in Scripture.

This section likewise refers to the medium by which acceptable worship must be offered to God. In the state of innocence man had liberty of access to God at all times, and needed none to mediate between him and his Creator ; but, since the fall, no acceptable worship can be given to God without a mediator. And, in opposition to Papists, who maintain that angels, departed saints, and chiefly the Virgin Mary, are mediators and intercessors between God and man, our Confession affirms, that there is no other mediator but » Con. Trid., Sess. 25.

Christ alone. The Scripture expressly assures us that " there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." — 1 Tim. ii. 5. Christ declares of himself, " I am the way; no man cometh to the Father but by me" (John xiv. 6); and " by him we have access to the Father." — Eph. ii. 18. Papists grant that Jesus Christ is the alone mediator of redemption ; but they join angels and saints with him as mediators of intercession. On this point, indeed, they are not agreed among themselves. Some hold that, along with our now glorified Mediator, the holy angels and departed saints intercede with God for us. Others hold that they only act as mediators between Christ and us. The Scripture, however, gives no warrant for these distinctions. It represents the intercession of Christ as founded upon the invaluable merit of his atoning sacrifice. He who is our Advocate with the Father is also the propitiation for our sins. — 1 John ii. 1, 2. He is JSIediator of intercession, because he is Mediator of redemption; and iipon this account his intercession is effectual. Glorified saints are indebted to free grace for their own admission into heaven, and they have no merit to apply to others. To solicit their intercession supposes that they hear our prayers and are acquainted with our circumstances; but this is a gratuitous assumption. To employ them to intercede for us with God, is highly derogatory to the honour of Christ; for it implies that he is either unmindful of his ofiice, or that he has not interest enough to obtain from God the blessings we need. To employ them to intercede for us with Christ himself is also dishonouring to him ; for it must imply, that they are more disposed " to sympathize with us than our merciful High Priest, who is touched with a feeling of our infirmities, and was, in all points, tempted like as we are." While the doctrine of the Church of Rome upon this subject degrades the Lord Jesus Christ, it invests departed saints with the honours and attributes of Deity. It must import that they are omnipresent and omniscient; for how could the Virgin Mary, for example, otherwise have any knowledge of the prayers which are addressed to her at the same time in ten thousand places, and, it may be, by millions of individuals 1 Protestants, therefore, with good reason, reject the notion of angelical and human intercessors, and rely solely on the intercession of that glorious Mediator whom the Father always heareth.