The Worshipful Company of Grocers was incorporated in 1428.
The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London was incorporated by royal charter on 6 December 1617
Awesome; thanks for sharing facts with us. Seems the term 'worshipful' was used earlier than I had guessed, and may have been even more commonplace than I had thought.
Now, does the title imply that these Apothecaries and Grocers were full of worship? Does it make them at all religious?
Over time words can change meaning/s ... cool, sick, or whatever other slang is out there at present, I can't keep up with it. Gay used to mean light hearted and care free.
Why worshipful? I have no idea really. I guess the one thing that pharmacists, grocers and masons have in common is that they provide for the needs of others. ??
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth
We have certainly gone over its usages but I still do not understand how the word itself arose.
Why would anyone associate fulness of worship with grocers and masons?
For a complete answer you're better off looking at the development of the English language; specifically, the evolution of slang and idiom as relates to culture and era. I doubt you'll find more than an accident of incidents.