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Originally Posted by panta dokimazete  Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnV I'm thinking that the term "prescription" might also serve to misdirect out intentions and meanings instead of clarifying them. After all, you don't find it in the Confessions in that context. | John, I may be misunderstanding, but help me understand what context prescribed is used here: Quote: |
I. The light of nature shows that there is a God, who has lordship and sovereignty over all, is good, and does 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.
| Why didn't the Divines use "commanded" if they did not intend prescription in the manner I have suggested? |
That's exactly what I was getting at. Only I was going about it from the opposite angle: if it is a prescription then what is meant by the word "command"?
The context of this word talks about requirement and regulation as outlined in the Scripture. It refers to those things explicitly covered in the Bible when it comes to worship. But when you say that the Psalms prescribe how worship in song is to be done, well you might be saying more in the use of that term than the WA said about worship in general when they used the same word.
I'm trying to figure this out too, JD. I didn't say that you were wrong to use the term. I'm just being careful about the admonition not to go beyond the witness of the Church and beyond her authority.