ANSW. The sins forbidden in the second Commandment, are, all
devising, counselling, commanding, using, and any ways approving any
religious worship not instituted by God himself, tolerating a false
religion, the making any representation of God, of all, or of any of
the three Persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly, in any
kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever, all
worshipping of it, or God, in it, or by it; the making of any
representation of feigned deities, and all worship of them, or
service belonging to them, all superstitious devices, corrupting the
worship of God, adding to it, taking from it, whether invented and
taken up of ourselves, or received by tradition from others; though
under the title of antiquity, custom, devotion, good intent, or any
other pretence whatsoever, simony, sacrilege, all neglect, contempt,
hindering and opposing the worship and ordinances which God hath
appointed.
QUEST. CX. _What are the reasons annexed to the second Commandment
the more to enforce it?_
ANSW. The reasons annexed to the second Commandment, the more to
enforce it, contained in these words, [_For I the Lord thy God am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the
children, unto the third and fourth generation, of them that hate
me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep
my commandments_] are, besides God’s sovereignty over us, and
property in us, his fervent zeal for his own worship, and his
revengeful indignation against all false worship, as being a
spiritual whoredom, accounting the breakers of this commandment such
as hate him, and threatening to punish them unto divers generations,
and esteeming the observers of it, such as love him, and keep his
commandments, and promising mercy to them unto many generations.
Before we proceed to consider the subject-matter of this Commandment, we
shall premise something, in general, concerning the difference between
it, and the first Commandment. The first Commandment respects the object
of worship; the second, the manner in which it is to be performed.
Accordingly the former forbids, our not owning God to be such an one, as
he has revealed himself to be, in his word; as also the substituting any
creature in his room, or acknowledging it, either directly, or by
consequence, to be our chief good and happiness; the latter obliges us
to worship this God, in such a way as he has prescribed, in opposition
to that, which takes its rise from our own invention. These two
Commandments therefore being so distinct, we cannot but think the
Papists to be chargeable with a very great absurdity, in making the
second to be only an appendix to the first, or an explication of it; the
design whereof seems to be, that they might exculpate themselves from
the charge of idolatry, in setting up image-worship, which they think to
be no crime; because they are not so stupid as to style the image a god,
or make it the supreme object of worship; whereas this Commandment,
forbidding false worship, is directly contrary to their practice of
worshipping God thereby.
The method, in which this Commandment is laid down, is the same with
that of several others, _viz._ as we have therein, an account of the
duties required, the sins forbidden, and the reasons annexed to enforce
it. We shall therefore