(2.) Secondly, If we call to mind how in all ages there hath been a constancy in this inconstant variety. We hear of it among the heathens. We read enough of it among the Jews, and when they were out of the humour of more shameful idolatries, they yet corrupted the worship of God by their traditions; and of these they were so fond, that they caused the law of God itself to give place to them, and made it void by them. The times of the gospel were not free. Though Christ came to seek such worshippers as should ‘worship him in spirit and in truth,’ yet before the apostles’ deaths, while yet they were persuading to the contrary, there arose up some that corrupted the worship, by leading the people back again to the Jewish ceremonies, and others laboured to bring in ‘worshipping of angels,’ and at last to ‘eat things offered to idols,’ with greater defilements. Since the apostles’ days the same design hath been carried on in the churches. Rome hath patched together a great deal of Jewish and heathenish ceremonies; and when the man of sin shall be revealed, yet a higher flood of such abominations is to be expected. Who hath wrought all this, but Satan? This is still the same design, and though the work be not in all parts like itself, yet the whole of it evidenceth the working of the same spirit in all.
(3.) Thirdly, Let us observe how early this began. We cannot say but that in the days of Adam, who doubtless had received particular commands from God, in which he would not fail to instruct his children, they were seeking to themselves ‘many inventions,’ Gen. iv. 26. At the birth of Enos, as some conjecture, there were such defilements brought into use in worship, that Seth had respect to it when he called his son Enos, Sorrowful, as lamenting that profanation which was then begun in ‘calling upon the name of the Lord,’ for so do many interpret that passage, which in our English we read thus, ‘Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.’ The word in the original is הוחל, which signifieth both to profane and to begin, and may be as properly translated, then ‘profaned they in calling upon the name of the Lord.’ And there are several reasons that move learned men[464] to fix upon this translation. As (1.) That it is not probable that men began then to call upon God, or publicly to do so, as some would interpret, and not before, as the present English would imply. (2.) That age was noted as corrupt, and therefore it is noted as a rarity that Enoch walked with God. (3.) The Rabbins generally translate חלל to profane; but if we should grant the present English, ‘Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord,’ it would imply that the worship practised by Adam and Abel had been corrupted, and now it was restored again and reformed; which will make the corruption of worship to be yet more early. And after that we read of corruption crept into the family of Seth, as well as now in the family of Cain, Gen. vi. 2; so that the worship of God stood not long in its honour, though Adam and Seth were alive to instruct them; which shews that it was a rebellious departure from the way, fomented and brought on by the malignant spirit Satan.
(4.) Fourthly, But to make all sure, the Scripture lays all these kinds of corruption of worship at Satan’s door. The defilements of worship taught in Thyatira, by Jezebel, are called ‘the depth of Satan,’ Rev. ii. 24; the corruptions introduced by antichrist, are from ‘the workings of Satan,’ 2 Thes. ii. 9. What was promoted by false apostles to that purpose, they had it from their great teacher Satan, who ‘transforms himself for such ends into an angel of light,’ 2 Cor. xi. 13, 14; so that nothing can be more plain than that this is an old and constant design of Satan.
The particular ways by which Satan effects this design I shall not now touch, but shall in lieu of that give you the reasons of his endeavours this way.
[1.] First, He knows that this is a sin of a high provocation. Worship is the proper tribute that is due to God, and it is peculiarly his prerogative to prescribe the way and manner of it. Neither of these honours will he give to any other, but will express his jealousy when any invasion is made upon these his sole prerogatives. Now his worship cannot be corrupted, but one of these at least will in some degree or other be touched. If we set up another object of worship, we deny him to be God; if we worship him in a way of our own invention, we deny his wisdom, and set up ourselves above him, as if we could order his worship better than he hath done in his word.
[2.] Secondly, If the worship be corrupted, all the exercise of the affections of the heart, and all the service itself is lost, and become unacceptable. He knows that such worshippers shall meet with this answer, ‘Who hath required this at your hands?’ [Isa. i. 12.]
[3.] Thirdly, Corruption in worship, Satan by long experience knows to have been the ground of those hatreds, quarrels, persecutions, and troubles under which the church hath groaned in all ages, every difference imposing their way and persuasion upon all dissenters, to the disturbance of peace, breach and decay of love, hindrance of the growth of piety, to the biting and devouring of one another.
[4.] Fourthly, Besides God is provoked by this to leave his sanctuary, to remove his glory and his candlestick, to make his vineyard a desolation, and his churches as Shiloh.
[5.] Fifthly, Satan is the more industrious in this, because his ways are capable of many advantages to further his design, and many specious pretences to cover it. In Col. ii. 8, he made use of philosophy to corrupt religion, and by unsound principles of some heathens famous for that learning, introduced ‘worshipping of angels.’ What that could not effect he laboured to perform by ‘the traditions of men,’ and where that came short, ‘the rudiments of the world’—the Mosaical ceremonies were so called here, and in the Epistle to the Hebrews—were his engine by which he battered the plain worship of the New Testament. And as to pretences, the apostle doth there and elsewhere note that decency and order, humility, wisdom, and self-denial, are things very taking, and yet usually pretended for such bold innovations as may corrupt the pure streams of the sanctuary.
Applic. Hence may I leave with you a few memorials.