Charles Johnson
Puritan Board Junior
"'In will-worship,' ἐν ἐθελοθρησκεία. He begins to shew with what colors seducers were wont to paint this false wisdom. The first is, as you may call it, voluntary worship; i.e. not commanded or prescribed by God himself, but offered to him by human will and choice. This, then, is urged by impostors: "He who performs only those things which are bidden and commanded by God himself, does nothing but what is common; but he who goes beyond those precepts and worships God by certain voluntary works, to which he is not bound, he becomes as an angel among men; he lays up to himself merits of supererogation; he finally makes God a debtor to him. And this will-worship is very pleasing to human nature. For since there is a double will-worship; one when a person of his own accord chooses any creature to whom he offers the worship due to God; the other, when he worships the true God, but not in that manner, neither by those acts whereby he hath defined his worship, but by others, chosen by his own will: the former species of will-worship is condemned by almost all, because it clearly detracts from God what is his own, and transfers it to the creature; but this other is commended by many because it seems to offer to God what is his own, and something beyond it. It has, therefore, as it were, the appearance of a certain free-will offering."
From John Davenant, An Exposition of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians, vol. 1, translated by Josiah Allport (London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co., 1831), p. 529 - 539.
Full quote here.
From John Davenant, An Exposition of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians, vol. 1, translated by Josiah Allport (London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co., 1831), p. 529 - 539.
Full quote here.
