THE ELEVENTH PROPOSITION.
Concerning Worship.
All true and acceptable worship to God is offered in the
inward and immediate moving and drawing
of his own Spirit, which is neither limited to
places, times, or persons; for though we be to
worship him always, in that we are to fear before
him, yet as to the outward signification thereof in
prayers, praises, or preachings, we ought not to
do it where and when we will, but where and
when we are moved thereunto by the secret
inspirations of his Spirit in our hearts, which God
heareth and accepteth of, and is never wanting
to move us thereunto, when need is, of which he
himself is the alone proper judge. All other worship
then, both praises, prayers, and preachings, which man sets about in his own will, and at his own appointment, which he can both begin and end at his pleasure, do or leave undone as himself sees meet, whether they be a prescribed form, as a liturgy, or prayers conceived extemporarily, by the natural strength and faculty of the mind, they are all but superstitions, will-worship, and abominable idolatry in the sight of God; which are to be denied, rejected, and separated from, in this day of his spiritual arising: however it might have pleased him (who winked at the times of ignorance, with respect to the simplicity and integrity of some, and of his own innocent seed, which lay as it were buried in the hearts of men, under the mass of superstition) to blow upon the dead and dry bones, and to rake some breathings, and answer them, and that until the day should more clearly dawn and break forth.