The substance of "The Puritan Principle of Worship" was delivered on December 18, 1957 at the Puritan Conference, London. The article was published serially in Blue Banner Faith and Life, vols. 14-16 (1959-61), edited by Johannes G. Vos. We have extensively reorganized the material for greater clarity of presentation. Editorial revisions by Sherman Isbell of this article and of its footnotes are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media, or mirrored at other sites without written permission of Sherman Isbell.

The Witness of the Reformed Creeds

The witness of the Reformed creeds to the regulative principle of worship is along the lines laid down by Calvin. The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) used in the German and Dutch Reformed churches, in response to Question 96, "What does God require in the second commandment?" gives as the answer, "That we in nowise make any image of God, nor worship him in any other way than he has commanded in his Word."(29) The Belgic Confession (1561) of Guido de Bres, in expounding the sufficiency of the Scriptures, declares in article 7: ". . .the whole manner of worship which God requires of us in written in them at large. . . ."(30) Likewise, in discussing the order and discipline of the church, article 32 of the Belgic Confession rejects "all human inventions, and all laws which man would introduce into the worship of God, thereby to bind and compel the conscience in any manner whatever."(31)

Among the Reformed creeds, the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms excel in the accuracy with which doctrine is formulated, and the balance with which the various elements of scriptural truth are set in relation to one another. These standards, it should be remembered, were the work of a body of divines consisting almost entirely of English Puritans. The following passages provide a succinct formulation of the regulative principle.(32)

"The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word: and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the Church, 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, which are always to be observed."(33)

"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, if matters of faith or worship. So that, to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands, 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."(34)

"The light of nature showeth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all, is good, and doth good unto all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. 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."(35)

The sense of the regulative principle may be rendered clear and precise by certain observations on the Westminster formulation, which we may safely take as the unanimous consensus of Puritan conviction on this subject. 1. The regulative principle is a consequence of the sufficiency of Scripture. Nothing need nor may be added to the Word of God as a rule of faith and practice. Therefore only what is prescribed by the written revelation may be admitted in the worship of God. 2. The mode of prescription need not be that of explicit command in a single text of Scripture. Approved example warrants an element of worship as surely as does an express precept. Moreover, good and necessary consequence can warrant acceptable worship. Without entering upon disputed questions as to the proper subjects of baptism, all would agree that Scripture warrants the admission of women to the Lord's table, although no express command or approved example can be adduced. There is a sound adage sometimes quoted by Reformed divines, that the sense of Scripture is Scripture.

3. The regulative principle does not entail an impossible demand that an indefinite number of minute circumstances concerning the worship of God should be deduced from Scripture. The time and place of worship for a Christian congregation are not minutely prescribed. 4. Yet this does not mean that all circumstances are adiaphora. The circumstances not prescribed by the Word of God are only such as are "common to human actions and societies," and only some such. 5. The general rules of the Word of God are to be observed in the ordering of these circumstances "by the light of nature and Christian prudence." This implies that acts of worship itself are regulated in a much more specific manner by Scripture than are other human actions. An act of worship is never a thing indifferent, something neither commanded nor forbidden by God, but some civil actions and even circumstances accompanying acts of worship may be classed among the adiaphora.

6. This distinction between acts of worship and civil acts is implied in the distinction between things contrary to God's Word and things beside God's Word. In all things, human laws contrary to the Word of God are not binding, though in some things human laws beside the Word of God may be binding, as in laws passed by the civil magistrate that may restrict conduct in things indifferent. With respect to matters of faith and worship, however, human laws beside the Word of God, even though not directly contrary to it, have no binding force. 7. The reason for this state of affairs is that the entire content of faith and worship is revealed in the Word of God. The argument closes with a return to its starting point, the sufficiency of Scripture revelation as prescribing the entire content of worship, including all the ways in which God may be worshipped acceptably.

Notes

(29) Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, 3:343.
(30) Ibid., 3:388.
(31) Ibid., 3:423.
(32) S. W. Carruthers' edition of the text is used, as taken from Cornelius Burgess' original manuscript, written in 1646: The Westminster Confession of Faith, with notes by S. W. Carruthers (Manchester: R. Aikman and Son, 1937).
(33) Westminster Confession, chap. I, sec. vi.
(34) Ibid., XX.ii.
(35) Ibid., XXI.i.

Go to the next installment:
The Puritan Principle of Worship: Part IV