Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
For nature itself presupposes the following: (1) There is a God, or some first being, by whom all things exist, who is the ultimate end to whom all things aim, and who consequently is above all things.
(2) He must be worshipped, or, what is the same thing, life must be lived for him. For if we have all things from him, and we have them so that we may give them back to him, and if likewise he is over all things and more perfect than all things, certainly it is evidently that all these truths must be acknowledged with due reverence, and in doing so the worship of God is performed.
(3) This worship of God is not a work of nature, such as seeing, hearing, and walking, which accordingly do not require a rule to direct them. Rather, the worship of God is a certain art that must be directed by certain rules.
(4) The rule is not reason, because it is corrupted, as anyone who is rich in reason acknowledges, and something that is corrupt cannot be the measure of right. Neither is the rule the statutes of the wise, for they depend upon reason alone (which we have already excluded from this axiom), and from it they borrow their authority. ...
For more, see Pieter van Mastricht on the rule of worship.
(2) He must be worshipped, or, what is the same thing, life must be lived for him. For if we have all things from him, and we have them so that we may give them back to him, and if likewise he is over all things and more perfect than all things, certainly it is evidently that all these truths must be acknowledged with due reverence, and in doing so the worship of God is performed.
(3) This worship of God is not a work of nature, such as seeing, hearing, and walking, which accordingly do not require a rule to direct them. Rather, the worship of God is a certain art that must be directed by certain rules.
(4) The rule is not reason, because it is corrupted, as anyone who is rich in reason acknowledges, and something that is corrupt cannot be the measure of right. Neither is the rule the statutes of the wise, for they depend upon reason alone (which we have already excluded from this axiom), and from it they borrow their authority. ...
For more, see Pieter van Mastricht on the rule of worship.
