The Second Commandment.

From The Voice in the Wilderness,
Vol. 5, No. 118; November 15, 1850. 

The first commandment, as we have seen, respects the object of worship; it enjoins that we have Jehovah, the only true God, as our God. This second commandment again respects the exercise of worship.

Idolatry seems to have taken its rise from viewing prominent and influential objects as symbols or manifestations of the deity; a further and subsequent step was to make images of those objects, that they might thus be brought near, and, whenever it was desired, presented vividly to the mind. What the second commandment expressly enacts is, that this use be not made of images in the worship of God - "thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them." Notwithstanding this enactment, images are largely used in the worship of the Church of Rome. A certain degree of honour is rendered to the images themselves; but the special office professedly assigned to them is, that of representing the true objects of worship, to which, through them, the worship offered is directed. Viewed even in this light, the use of them in divine worship is wholly to be condemned. God - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - is the only true object of worship; and any attempt to make an image of God we cannot but regard as a daring impiety. What image can represent him who is incorporeal and infinite? Does not the very idea that it is possible to make an image of him present a derogatory view of his perfections? But it may be thought that images of Christ cannot be objected to on this ground. But Christ is God, and it is only the view of him that embraces his godhead, that forms a proper basis for the worship which we offer to him. But such a view of him no image can present. Nay an image of him would necessarily exclude his godhead from the conception of him which it conveyed.

But, though it were practicable to make an image of God; the use of images in worship would still be unwarrantable and sinful. It is not as he may be pictured by the imagination, but as he is discovered by faith, that God is to be viewed in the exercise of worship. The imagination can no more picture the true God, than an image can represent him. But it is only an imagination that an image addresses; it is only the word that addresses faith. Besides, we shall have no true intercourse with God in worship, if he do not communicate himself to us; and he will not communicate himself to us otherwise, than by the means which he himself has appointed, and among those means images have no place. There is a twofold adaptation necessary in means of grace - they must be adapted to our nature, and they mast be adapted to God's method of communicating saving benefits. This latter adaptation can be imparted to them only by divine institution. It is only through such channels as he himself has opened, that God can be expected to convey eternal life.

The fact that the use of images has not been appointed by God lays it open to the further objection, that it is a corruption of divine worship. The worship of God should, clearly, be such, in all respects, as he himself has prescribed. It cannot be supposed that a worship, in some respects, different will be more acceptable to him; and to alter or modify what he has instituted, is to exalt our own wisdom above his. Thus the principle of strict adherence to divine institution in religious worship, is the only principle on which we can warrantably proceed. The improvements, as they are presumptuously regarded, which man introduces, are regarded as improvements, because it is assumed that they have a greater power to impress the mind than the unamended instituted services possess. This is all that can be advanced in their favour; and, admitting it to its full extent, what it leads us to expect is, that the greater impression which they will make will be looked upon as spiritual emotion, or, at least, as all that should be felt on the occasion; while it is a mere natural impression of not the least religious value. We believe, that, in multitudes of cases, this deplorable self-deception is produced by the religious worship of those communions, which have been supplied by human invention with an imposing ritual.

Hitherto, we have viewed the use of images in worship merely as unsanctioned by divine institution; it is however expressly forbidden. In Deut., 4th chap. Moses, after warning the children of Israel "not to add to the word which he had commanded them, neither to diminish from it," and that with special reference to the worship of God, as is evident from the enforcement of the warning - "your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor" - proceeds to remind them that when the Lord gave them the law from Sinai they "saw no manner of similitude;" and then addresses to them the earnest exhortation "take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves, lest ye corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image." And it is not the worship of images, as ultimate objects of worship, against which they are warned, but the use of them in the worship of God, for one of the calamities threatened, as the punishment of this use of them, is that in the countries into which they should be scattered they should serve idols "the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear." (verses, 2, 3, 15, 16, 28.) The prohibition in our text is exactly parallel. It may seem, indeed, from the prohibition "thou shalt not bow down to them nor serve them," that it is the use of images, as ultimate objects of worship, that is intended; but the language of the prohibition may be regarded as determined rather by the fact, that, when images are used in the worship of God, the worship offered will not be really rendered to God, but rather to the images themselves, and will therefore be idolatrous.

The second commandment in prohibiting the grossest corruption of the worship of God prohibits by implication all other corruptions of it. The greatest of the sins forbidden is chosen, in this and in other prohibitions, as the representative of the entire class, for the purpose, probably, of conveying a stronger impression of the abhorrence with which God regards those sins. Thus he would have us consider, that, however much we may be disposed to make light of some of the sins forbidden in the second commandment, he looks upon them as sins of the same class and of the same general character with the heinous sin of the use of images in his worship.

We corrupt the worship of God when we add to its instituted services or diminish from them. We have, hitherto, directed attention only to the corruption of it, of which those are guilty, who add to its instituted services. But with a view to the correction and regulation of practice among ourselves, it is more necessary to advert to the corruption, or, rather, mutilation of it, of which those are guilty who pursue the opposite course - who diminish from its instituted services. What then are the instituted services of God's worship? Are not secret prayer, family worship, and the devout reading of the Scriptures of the number? If, then, you neglect any or all of these, or neglect them in a great measure, do you not mutilate the worship of God? And are not the services of the sanctuary, as they recur from Sabbath to Sabbath, a portion of instituted divine worship? And are not those by whom they are neglected, even partially, guilty of mutilating this worship? If the standard of some were adopted what religious services would remain to us? None of the private exercises of religion, and of its public exercises only scattered fragments - an observance of ordinances occurring so seldom and so irregularly, that it could not fail to cease very soon altogether. Instead of a readiness - an eagerness - to reduce the observance of religious ordinances within the narrowest limits the aim should he to abound in the observances of them; and this is ever found to be the aim of those who are at all in earnest in seeking salvation.

The prohibition of the second commandment implies a requirement, that we carefully and zealously preserve the purity of divine worship. An important rule here and in every such case is, to resist the first and even the least deviations. Small deviations may be thought to be innocuous; but it should be borne in mind, that it is the nature of error to grow, and that it cannot be foreseen what height an error, now small, may reach in the course of ages. And, besides, it does not consist with faithfulness to God, that we should not anxiously endeavour to preserve the perfect purity of his worship. We must ever be careful that we do not treacherously sacrifice the claims of God, in treating with indulgence even the errors of man.

And we are required to extend the same zealous care to the whole order and government of Christ's house. Besides that faithfulness must be exercised at this point, as well as at every other, a departure from divine institution, in matters of organisation and government, will open the door, as history emphatically testifies, for departure from it in matters of worship The very fact, that divine worship is conducted under an unscriptural organisation, is itself a corruption of it.

The requirement now under consideration applies also to the proclamation of divine truth, which forms an important part of the public services of religion. The careful preservation of purity of doctrine terms an essential part of the duty prescribed to us in the second commandment. The truth is the immediate instrument which God employs in acting savingly upon the souls of men; the truth also conveys the highest revelation of himself which he has given to us; from a regard alike, therefore, to his glory, and to our own and the church's good, we should, at whatever cost, preserve the truth pure and entire. Beware of the miserable and cruel charity that is liberal of the truth.

A further implied requirement is, that we render to God a worship embodied in outward acts. It is necessary, but it is not enough, that we cherish the inward feelings which those acts are intended to express; it is necessary, further, that we perform the outward acts themselves. It is needless to resort to general reasoning on this subject; it is sufficient for us to know, that God requires the outward exercise of worship. We may observe, however, that those who would dispense with it, would contravene the constitution of our nature, no less than the express appointment of God. We cannot hold intercourse with another by means of inward feelings and desires. That the proper feelings and desires may be cherished, certainly that they may be ardent, they must be expressed. If expression be denied them, they will languish and subside.

We should be very thankful for the access which we have to God in the exercise of worship. As sinners we deserved, as the sentence righteously pronounced upon us bore, total and eternal banishment from his presence. But, notwithstanding, in consideration of Christ's atonement, a new and living way of access to him has been opened for us. And it is chiefly in the exercise of worship that we are to draw near by this way. How thankful ought we to be, then, that God has appointed for us certain acts of worship - that he authorises and even commands us to approach him, and at the same time, informs us how we may approach him acceptably.

And shall we not approach him - shall we not approach him often, and without fail at all appointed times? Shall we refuse - shall we be reluctant to render him the homage to which he is entitled; and shall we despise and forfeit the exceeding great and precious blessings which he offers to bestow upon us?

But let us be careful, that we engage in the worship of God with an earnest purpose - that it be indeed our desire to render due homage to him and to obtain his blessing. If we be not on our guard, we shall reduce his worship to a lifeless unmeaning service - to a series and routine of outward acts, in which the heart takes no part. This there is reason to fear is the character borne by the public worship of multitudes. All the part they take in the prayers, is that they stand while they are offered; and all the part they take in the praise, is that they look listlessly at the psalm.

We must never forget that our worship, being the worship of sinners, must be offered through the Mediator. If only for his sake we can expect that our services will be accepted, and our applications favourably regarded. There is no greater corruption of the worship of God, than to present our services without due reference to Christ and exclusive reliance on his mediation. It is a grievous corruption of it to have many mediators, but it is also a grievous corruption of it to have none.