III. In Chapter XXI, Section i, of the Confession the principle regulative of worship is expressly and unequivocally formulated. It says: "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."
The following points may be made regarding this section.
1. It enunciates a principle that applies to all worship of God, a principle regulative of all worship. This principle is that God may be worshipped only in a way or in ways prescribed, instituted, or revealed in the Word.
2. That the regulative principle of worship enunciated in the Confession is that God may be worshipped only in a way prescribed in His Word is quite obvious from the following considerations:
(a) The Confession says, "the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself." If "instituted," it must be positively ordained and not left to human invention or imagination.
(b) The acceptable way is "limited by His own revealed will." True worship, therefore, is exercised within the limits of what God has revealed to be acceptable. Obviously, if we worship God in a manner or way which Scripture does not determine our worship cannot be within these limits, and is therefore, in terms of the Confession, unacceptable.
(c) The Confession is negative and exclusive as well as positive — God "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." This defines the extent of the limitation mentioned in the preceding clause, or it may be regarded as a consequence flowing from the said limitation. It is so limited that the succeeding are excluded.
A word must be said about the construction of this latter part of the section. At the end we have the alternatives "under any visible representation" and "any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture." The immediately preceding part of the sentence, namely, "may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan," applies to both. So the construction is to the effect that God "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." By the former negation human imagination or device and Satanic suggestions are to be given no quarter in exercising their ingenuity in the direction of visualizing the worship of God. The Confession apparently felt the need of making special mention of this corruption. By the latter negation there is the most unequivocal statement that every way not prescribed in the holy Scripture is excluded, and this means that any particular element of worship that is not able to plead divine prescription in the Scripture is forbidden. To state it more positively, God may be worshipped only in the manner prescribed in the holy Scripture.
IV. The Larger Catechism, Questions 108 and 109, and the Shorter Catechism, Questions 50 and 51, clearly enunciate the same principle as we have already found in the Confession. It is stated both positively and negatively in both Catechisms. We shall see that it is most important to note the principle of exclusion as well as that of inclusion.
In Question 108 the Larger Catechism says: "The duties required in the second commandment are, the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath instituted in his word" and the Shorter Catechism, Question 50, says: "The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed in his word." It might be argued that this positive statement, though it makes mandatory the worship of God instituted in His Word, yet does not rigidly exclude the propriety of worshipping God in ways not instituted in the Word. It is here that the effect of the principle of exclusion, formulated in Questions 109 and 51 of the respective Catechisms, becomes apparent. The Larger Catechism, Question 109, reads: "The sins forbidden in the second commandment are, all devising, counseling, commanding, using, or any wise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself," and the Shorter Catechism, Question 51: "The second commandment forbiddeth the worshipping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in his word."
Any further observation seems unnecessary other than to say that the worship authorized and enjoined is that instituted or appointed in the Word and that any religious worship or any way of worshipping God not appointed in the Word would be characterized in the language of Question 108 of the Larger Catechism as "false worship" and therefore to be disapproved, detested and opposed, and according to each one's place and calling, removed.
V. It remains to deal with "The Directory for the Public Worship of God," adopted by the Sixth General Assembly of The Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
There is an obvious distinction between the Confession, Larger and Shorter Catechisms on the one hand, and the Standards of Government, Discipline and Worship, on the other. The former are accorded a higher place in the constitution than the latter, inasmuch as the former are expressly mentioned in the formulae of subscription, whereas the latter are not thus mentioned, even though the approval of the government and discipline of the Church is required in some of the formulae.
It should be observed that the "Directory" is "The Directory for the Public Worship of God" and is more limited in its scope than the statements from the Confession and Catechisms dealt with already.
The relevant sections of the "Directory" may, however, be discussed briefly.
In Chapter II, Section 1, the "Directory" says: "Since the holy Scriptures are the only infallible rule of faith and practice, the principles of public worship must be derived from the Bible, and from no other source." In the succeeding sections some of these principles are formulated. The principle regulative of worship, found in the Confession and Catechisms, is not formulated, and there is no unequivocal statement affirming or denying it.
There are some remarks, however, that may be made.
1. Chapter II, Section 1, quoted above, says, "the principles of public worship must be derived from the Bible, and from no other source." Since the principle regulative of worship applies to public worship and since such a principle is enunciated in the Confession and Catechisms, this must be one of the principles the "Directory" says must be derived from the Bible, and from no other source. This means that, according to the "Directory," the regulative principle must be that taught in the Word of God. What this teaching is the "Directory" itself does not say.
2. In Chapter II, Section 7, the "Directory" says, "The Lord Jesus Christ has prescribed no fixed forms for public worship but, in the interest of life and power in worship, has given his church a large measure of liberty in his matter. It may not be forgotten, however, that there is true liberty only where the rules of God's Word are observed and the Spirit of the Lord is, that all things must be done decently and in order, and that God's people should serve him with reverence and in the beauty of holiness." It is possible that the phrase, "a large measure of liberty" might be appealed to as expressing a different principle from that already dealt with as taught in the Confession and Catechisms. Furthermore, it is possible that it may have been intended in this way by the framers of the "Directory." With respect to any such contention or intention two things must be said.
(a) The phrase "a large measure of liberty" refers to "forms for public worship." It is entirely reasonable to assume that "forms" refer to something different from that which comes within the scope of the regulative principle enunciated in the Confession and Catechisms. Surely this section should be interpreted as referring to the kind of fixed liturgical forms to which the framers of the Westminster Standards were consistently opposed. It can at least be said that the regulative principle of the Confession and Catechisms is not in the least inconsistent with such denial of fixed forms as is expressed in this section.
(b) The large measure of liberty must be exercised, according to this section, within "the rules of God's Word." It is not, therefore, unrestricted liberty, and so, if the regulative principle be a principle of God's Word, the liberty must be exercised within, and compatibly with, that principle or rule.
(c) Even supposing that the phrase, "a large measure of liberty" was intended to express a different principle from that enunciated in the Confession and Catechisms, the occurrence of this phrase could not have the effect of abrogating the plain and unequivocal statements of the other Standards.
Go to the next installment:
Song in the Public Worship of God: Part III