“The Second Commandment lays down the regulative principle of worship: it forbids idolatry." James Harper, An exposition in the form of question and answer of the Westminster Assembly's Shorter catechism (United Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1905) 221. “Lately Professor of Theology in the Theological Seminary, Xenia, Ohio.”
This is the earliest I've found the phrase in this form; the British form occurs earlier; it is in the 1903 Psalmody conference papers and Harper has this form using law for principle in his 1883 entry on Psalms in a bible dictionary:
“1. To worship God otherwise than he has appointed is 'will-worship,' more or less gross. The law regulative of worship is not that we may use both what is commanded and what is not expressly forbidden, but that we must be limited to the use of what is either expressly or implicitly appointed by God (Deut. xii. 32; Matt. sv. 9, xxviii. 20).”
A Religious Encyclopædia, Or, Dictionary of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology, edited by Philip Schaff, volume 3 (Funk and Wagnals, 1883), p. 1960.
This is the earliest I've found the phrase in this form; the British form occurs earlier; it is in the 1903 Psalmody conference papers and Harper has this form using law for principle in his 1883 entry on Psalms in a bible dictionary:
“1. To worship God otherwise than he has appointed is 'will-worship,' more or less gross. The law regulative of worship is not that we may use both what is commanded and what is not expressly forbidden, but that we must be limited to the use of what is either expressly or implicitly appointed by God (Deut. xii. 32; Matt. sv. 9, xxviii. 20).”
A Religious Encyclopædia, Or, Dictionary of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology, edited by Philip Schaff, volume 3 (Funk and Wagnals, 1883), p. 1960.
