Question 1 — What doth God require of us in our dependence on him, that he may be glorified by us, and we accepted with him?

Answer — That we ^aworship him ^bin and by the ways of his own appointment.
^aMatt. iv. 10; Rev. xiv. 7; Deut. vi. 13, x. 20.
^bLev. x. 1–3; Exod. xxiv. 3; Gen. xviii. 19; Josh. xxiii. 6–8; Zech. xiv. 16.

Explication — By the worship of God inquired after, not that which is natural or moral, which is required in the first commandment, is intended. Such is our faith and confidence in him, our fear of him, our subjection of soul and conscience unto him, as the great sovereign Lord, First Cause, Last End, Judge, and Rewarder of all men; the law whereof was originally written in the heart of man, and hath been variously improved and directed by new revelations and institutions. And this worship is called natural upon a double account:—

First, Because it depends on the nature of God, a due perception and understanding whereof makes all this worship indispensably necessary: for none can know God but it is his duty to “glorify him as God,” — that is, to believe in him, love him, trust him, and call upon him; which are all therefore cursed that do not, Ps. lxxix. 6; 2 Thess. i. 8.

And, secondly, Because it was in the principle of it created with the nature of man, as that which suited, directed, and enabled him to answer the law of his creation, requiring this obedience of him in his dependence on God. And this worship is invariable: but it concerneth those outward ways and means whereby God hath appointed that faith, and love, and fear of him to be exercised and expressed unto his glory. And this kind of worship, though it depend not upon the nature of God, but upon his free and arbitrary disposal, and so was of old liable unto alterations, yet God did ever strictly require in the several states and conditions that his church 448hath gone through in the world. And this is that which most commonly in the Scripture is called by the name of “The worship of God,” as that whereby all the acceptable actings of the souls of men towards him are expressed, and the only way of owning and acknowledging him in the world, as also of entertaining a visible intercourse with him. This, therefore, he calls for, and requires indispensably of all that draw nigh to him, and that because he is “the Lord our God,” Rev. xiv. 6, 7; Matt. iv. 10; Deut. x. 12, 13. For his observance hereof doth he so approve of Abraham, Gen. xviii. 19; and sets it down as an everlasting law unto all others, that in a holy observation thereof “he will be sanctified in them that come nigh him,” Lev. x. 1–3. His commands, also, concerning it are multiplied in the Scripture, with the approbation of all those that attend unto them. We may not think to find acceptance with God, or to inherit the promises, if, supposing ourselves to adhere unto him in worship internal and natural, we neglect that which is external and of his free appointment: for besides that we renounce thereby our inward dependence on him also, in not observing his commands, as Adam did in transgressing an institution, we become wholly useless unto all the ends of his glory in the world; which is not the way to come to an enjoyment of him. Neither do we only express and profess our inward moral-natural worship of God hereby, by which means it becomes the principal way and instrument of faith and trust exerting themselves in our obedience, but also it is a most effectual help and assistance unto the principle of that natural worship, strengthening the habit of it, and exciting it unto all suitable actings, unto its increase and growth.