PCEA

The Lawful Use of the Law

From The Voice in the Wilderness,
Vol. 5, No. 113; September 2, 1850.

THE law, from the first bore a twofold character - it formed the rule according to which we were to serve God - and it prescribed the conditions on which life was promised to us. The condition which it thus prescribed was perfect obedience, and, while it promised life on that condition, it threatened death as the punishment of its non-fulfilment. Now the prescribed condition has not been fulfilled - it has been violated - man has disobeyed. The threatening has therefore become absolute; its terms no longer are, "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," but, simply, "thou shalt surely die." Thus it has become impossible to attain to life by obedience to the law. The law having been transgressed, and its curse incurred, life, as attached to man's own obedience, has been for ever forfeited. Hence it is evident that the law is not used lawfully, if men expect to obtain life by their own obedience to it. The promised life has already been forfeited, and, though perfect obedience were now rendered, the forfeiture could not be undone.

But it is not even on an obedience perfect for the future, but on a partial obedience, that so much reliance is placed. The expectation entertained is, that a sincere though very imperfect obedience, (being viewed in connection with what Christ has done,) will be accepted. The use thus made of the law is altogether unsanctioned and unlawful - neither in accordance with the law itself nor yet with the gospel. This use of the law the apostle rejects in the preceding content - "the end of the commandment," he says, "is charity, faith unfeigned." There must first be "faith," giving an interest in Christ's righteousness, "a good conscience" - a conscience purified by faith from dead works and from conscious guilt - and "a pure heart" - a heart renewed by grace - and then love, by which faith works, will spring up and be expressed in the life; and the righteousness of the law will thus be fulfilled. It is only, accordingly, in the case of those who are righteous by faith, and therefore live, that it is fulfilled. Thus life must precede instead of being obtained by the fulfilment of it.

Let us now consider the lawful use of the law, which we may comprehend under two heads - the use of it as conveying the knowledge of sin - and the use of it as guiding in the path of new obedience.

The law, while we consider it under its covenant form, confining the promise of life to perfect obedience, and threatening death as the punishment of disobedience, discovers to us that having ourselves disobeyed, we have forfeited the promised life, and become liable to the threatened punishment. What the law thus discovers as an outward revelation, it discovers inwardly when applied to the conscience by the Holy Spirit - impressing upon the soul a sense of guilt and wrath. Thus one design and use of the law is "that every mouth may be stopped - and all the world may become guilty before God." Accordingly, we use it lawfully, when, by contemplating it as a broken covenant, and applying its denunciation to our own souls, we seek to impress upon them a sense of our guilt and ruined condition; and when, with this view, we consider its curse as attached not only to our past disobedience, but also to the multiplied sins of our daily conduct. And, while we view our condition in the light of the denunciation of the law, we should view our conduct in the light of its requirements. The demand for obedience which it makes upon us is unabated - nothing less will satisfy it than the full measure of the service which it originally prescribed - that we love the Lord with all our heart, and that we give in every respect, adequate expression to this love in ourselves. When we compare our conduct with this high demand and with the rule thus set before us, we must perceive that our sins, fearfully multiplied, are gone over our heads - that in every thing we offend and come short of the glory of God. When we see that the law is exceeding broad - that it is spiritual, taking cognizance of the thoughts and intents of the heart, we must be still more impressed with the multiplicity of our sins - with their perversion of our whole activity.

We should also set the law before us as the rule prescribed to us, and endeavour after conformity to it. This endeavour will discover to us, as it did to the Apostle Paul - if we be taught by the Spirit - our utter impotency. In this case, when the commandment came sin revived and he died - he found that he was dead - the melancholy fact became increasingly and painfully evident.

Thus we see one use we should make of the law - we should use it to discover to us the guilt which we have contracted, the cure under which we lie while unbelieving, the sinfulness of our lives, and our utter impotency. That the law may convey to the unbelieving the knowledge of sin, as committed by them and as enslaving them, they must of course, recognise the authority of the law and the obligation under which they lie to obey it fully. In the absence of such obligation, sinful conduct would not be sinful, and there would be no reason to deplore inability to do that which is good.

In the case of believers also, the use now described is to be made of the law.

The further use of the law - a use which believers only can make of it - is the use of it as a rule to guide in the service of God. Though believers are not under the law as a covenant, they are under it as a rule of life - they are not without law to God, but under law to Christ. And they are, accordingly, to use the law and to refer to it continually as a rule - endeavouring to be conformed to it in heart and life. When they consider that Christ has delivered them from the curse of it as a covenant, gratitude may well impel them to honour him by observing it diligently as a rule. They may not entertain the vain and pernicious imagination, that they have been set free from authority of the law even as a rule of life. This were no privilege, any more than it would be a privilege that license were given them to continue unholy - that is, deformed, vile, incapable of happiness.

The constitution of our nature as moral agents, and the circumstances in which we are placed, bind us, necessarilly, to render to God the service which the law prescribes to us - until, therefore, those elements are abstracted from our nature which render us moral agents, and until we are placed in totally different circumstances, we cannot be set free from the authority of the law. The law, as outwardly given, does not create the obligation to serve God; it merely declares it - that obligation is engraven upon our nature and our circumstances.

In conclusion we would address three classes of persons - the self-righteous - unholy professors - and true believers.

The self-righteous may see from what has been advanced, that they use the law unlawfully, and that the expectation which they ground on this use of it is wholly without warrant. They have disobeyed; any obedience to which they can pretend is therefore imperfect - this they know; and, yet, while they know also that it is only to perfect obedience that the law promises life, they expect life on the ground of their own obedience! Can any thing be more infatuated and presumptuous than to cherish such an expectation, in the face of the explicit and awful denunciations of the law, and while the lawgiver and the judge, declares, that heaven and earth may pass away, but that one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Besides, if they looked narrowly at their obedience, they would discover that it is worse than imperfect - that what they trust in as obedience is rebellion.

Unholy professors prove that they are destitute of that faith, which, instead of making void, establishes the law. Faith works by love, and love is the fulfilling of the law. So when there is no love, and while the practical fulfilling of the law in which it expresses itself is not found, there is there no faith - "The law of the Spirit of life had made us free after the Spirit." Rom. viii. 2-4. Know yourselves by your fruits - you are not vines if you do not bear grapes.

True believers, see that you be able to say, each one for himself, I delight in the law of the Lord after the inward man. You have been made partakers of the divine nature - renewed after the image of God - how therefore can it be otherwise than that you should delight in the law of God?

You have been laid under peculiar and strong obligations to serve God; see that you serve him accordingly. You have this great and essential advantage for observing the law as a rule that you are not under it as a covenant, but are under grace.

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The Grounds On Which God Claims Obedience.

From The Voice in the Wilderness,
Vol. 5, No. 115; October 1, 1850. 

God, proceeding to promulgate the summary of his law contained in the ten commandments, sets forth the grounds on which he claims obedience. The obedience which he requires is a rational service, and cannot therefore be rendered if we do not see that it is due. If it consisted in mere outward acts, such acts might be performed mechanically, while there was no recognition that they ought to be performed; but, as certain inward affections form an essential part of it, it was necessary that considerations fitted to awaken those affections should be presented. This is accordingly done in our text, which stands as a preface to the ten commandments, and sets forth the grounds on which God claims obedience, or the motives from which we should render it.

The first of these is that he who gives the law to us is the Lord.

The LORD Or Jehovah is the most distinctive name of God. It declares his self-existence and independence, and is therefore incommunicable. How glorious is the being to whom this name is applicable - a being who has life - an infinite fulness of life and blessedness eternally, necessarily, and independently in himself, and necessary existence implies that every perfection is an attribute of his nature and adorns his character!

The only ground on which we can conceive it could be maintained that we do not owe obedience to such a being is, that he stands in no relation to us, and that therefore he has no claim upon us. Though the state of the case permitted us to take this ground, would it not indicate a wofully depraved moral taste and wofully depraved dispositions, if we did not regard such a being with the highest admiration and love, and if our will were not so in accordance with his, that our conduct should be such as he would prescribe? A person who was altogether insensible to the various forms of beauty to be met with among the creatures, we should consider to be most unhappily constituted; but how unspeakably more deplorable the state of that soul that is insensible to the glorious beauty and infinite excellency of God!

But it is not the fact that God stands in no relation to us. He stands in several relations to us and those the most close and important of all our relations. He, who alone is uncreated and who is the source of all derived existence, is our creator. He formed us with the powers of body and of mind which we possess; and it is he that continually sustains us, not only by supplying our wants and protecting us from destructive evils, but also by a mighty though secret influence and support. And he created and sustains us that we might be to the praise of his glory. What is thus the end of our being should be the aim of our activity. We should glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits, guided in doing so by his own will.

The second of the grounds on which he claims obedience is that he is our God. By sin we have forfeited the friendship of God and all access to the enjoyment of him. In the covenant of grace, however, he has, so to speak, restored himself to us, and thus becomes our God. To all men under the gospel God offers himself to be their God. He calls upon them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that he may be their God and that they may be his people. And, as he thus offers himself to them, they owe him the homage which they would yield by accepting this offer. He has a right to be acknowledged by them as their God.

But on believers he has actually bestowed himself as their God in Christ; and, that he might fully sustain this relation to them, he has enabled them to receive him as their God in Christ. Thus he does not merely offer himself to them and claim to be received by them as their God, but he has actually become their God, and they have received him as such.

By the relation in which he thus stands to them two things are secured - that he will work in them and for them all that may be necessary to their safety and to the ultimate perfection of their holiness and - and that he will satisfy them with good - or, in other words, that he will do all that may be necessary on account of their weakness and their circumstances as active beings - and that he will give all that may be necessary on account of their dependence and poverty as sentient beings.

As regards the former, there are certain duties which they must perform and certain means which they must employ, that they may glorify God, and that they may, if he so favour them, have communion with him now, and that they may attain to that holiness which will fit them for the full enjoyment of him hereafter. But they have no strength to perform those duties or employ those means.

The statement that God is their God implies, that he will impart strength to them, and enable them by his grace to do all that he requires at their hands. Their sufficiency is of him, and even when they perform duties and use means in his own strength, there is no efficacy in what they do and it establishes no claim for them. He will, however, command his blessing upon them according to the riches of his grace.

And, while they should be weak, though they had only to contend with the difficulty of the work before them, they are opposed by numerous and mighty enemies. In the midst of those enemies the Lord is their defence - their buckler and their shield. He strengthens them for the warfare in which they are engaged, and makes them more than conquerors. In short he is their God, in every respect, as regards the exercise of power.

And he is their God further, in as much as he will satisfy them with good. Their souls are so constituted and of such capacity that they cannot find satisfaction in any thing created. They derive some limited enjoyment from creatures, for this is necessary that they may be relieved from the irksomeness which would otherwise attach to their intercourse with the creatures. But, as this enjoyment is limited and wholly insufficient in degree, it is also limited in duration. It will terminate wholly with this life. Now the Lord as their God, imparts himself to them and fills them, sometimes even in this life, with much exalted joy, and will satisfy them hereafter with the fulness of joy.

That the Lord might thus be in covenant with sinful men, and might be their God, it was necessary that an atonement should be made for their sins. This has been done; and the fact furnishes the third and last of the grounds on which God claims obedience. The law, as given from Sinai, having been addressed in the first place to these Jews, the Lord, in describing himself as the redeemer of his people, mentions expressly only the deliverance of the Jewish nation from Egypt. This deliverance typified the redemption of God's people from spiritual bondage. It thus served to represent God as the author both of temporal deliverance and of spiritual redemption.

It is the latter that claims our chief attention. God in his great love to sinners gave his Son to make atonement for their sins. Christ finished the work which the Father had thus given him to do; by his obedience unto death, he made an end of sin and brought in an everlasting righteousness. When God by his grace brings sinners to believe in Christ, they become interested in what he has thus done, and are delivered from the guilt and the bondage of sin. They are thus reconciled to God and brought into friendly relations to him.

Such are the grounds on which God claims obedience - he claims it as due to him because he is Jehovah - the self-existent - independent - and infinitely glorious God - who at the same time is our creator and preserver - because he is our God who will do all things for us and give all things to us, or at least offered to us and justly claiming to be received by us as our God - and because he is our redeemer.

From what has been now presented to your attention - you may see the perpetual and necessary obligation to obedience under which we lie. God's perfections, his relations to us, and his dealings with us being such as our text describes - it cannot be but that we must always owe him supreme love and the practical expression of this love according to his will. God's claim to such love and obedience cannot possibly cease, and, therefore, our obligation to cherish such love and render such obedience cannot cease. It is impossible that God should dispense with this love and obedience, for that were to sanction the practical denial of his right to them, and, at the same time, to authorise his creatures to cherish a spirit that would render them incapable of happiness.

Nothing can render any incapable of this love and obedience but the wickedness of their hearts; and this can be no excuse to them. You may see further the great sinfulness of disobedience to the law of God; for disobedience is a practical denial that he is entitled to service on any of the grounds set forth in our text. Is not the self-existent and glorious Jehovah entitled to supreme love at your hands? Disobedience is a denial that he is. And do you owe him no service as your God? Disobedience is a denial that you do. Has he no claim upon you as your redeemer? Disobedience is a denial that he has. Nay it is a denial that he is Jehovah - your God - and your redeemer.

It is evident that the obedience required is a spiritual obedience. It does not consist in unmeaning outward acts; an acknowledgment in the heart that he to whom it is rendered is Jehovah, our God, and our redeemer, is essential to it; and outward acts derive their value and propriety from being the expression and carrying out in the life of this inward acknowledgment.

The statement of our text received by the heart affords the only entrance through which we can gain access to the acts of obedience prescribed in the following commands.

True obedience is evangelical in its spirit. It views God as our covenant God and as our redeemer. It is not to gain his favour that it is rendered, but to express our gratitude for the favour with which he already regards us - it is rendered in the strength which we receive from him, and in the exercise of the liberty into which he has introduced us. It is the response of the soul to his claim, not its endeavour to merit his blessing.

If you would stir yourselves up to obey God, contemplate him in the light of our text, and awaken your hearts to acknowledge him as Jehovah, as your God, and as your redeemer. This is what prevents obedience, that men's hearts do not thus acknowledge God; and what renders obedience so difficult and the measure of it so small is, that when men's hearts thus acknowledge God the acknowledgment is so feeble. Acquaint yourselves therefore with God that you may obey him.

There should be in each of us a prevailing tendency towards the contemplation of God. There are objects that draw us to think of him; how melancholy if the character of God and our relations to him have not this power!

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The First Commandment.

From The Voice in the Wilderness,
Vol. 5, No. 117; November 1, 1850. 

This commandment lays the foundation of all true obedience; for it sets forth the claims of God, and there can be no true obedience if there be not a recognition of those claims. Thus it stands properly at the beginning of the decalogue; and we should regard the duty which it prescribes as our first and most essential duty, We are apt to attach importance to duties in proportion as they are outwardly palpable and imposing; but, while outward duties should not be neglected or their importance underrated, it is inward duties - the frame and exercises of the heart - that rank first in importance. It is of primary necessity that the heart be right, and, particularly, that it be properly affected towards God. So much is this the case, that love - an inward affection cherished in the heart - is represented as the fulfilling of the law. If the heart be not right there can be no true obedience in the life, for true obedience is but the practical embodiment and expression of love.

This commandment, as you will perceive, is in the form of a prohibition - "thou shalt have no other gods before me." In explaining and applying it, therefore, the rule is to be observed, that prohibitions presuppose and imply the corresponding requirements or positive commands. Accordingly, when the Lord says "thou shalt have no other gods before me," this prohibition implies that he requires of us that we have him as our God. The object is not to withhold us from idolatry merely, but to raise and restrict us to the acknowledgement and worship of the true God. The commandment is thus directed against atheism as well as against idolatry.

It is required of us, then, as our first duty, that we have the true God, as our God. That we may have him as our God, in accordance with the full import of this requirement, we must receive him as such in the manner proper to our nature in its whole extent - as intelligent and as active. We receive him in the manner proper to our nature as intelligent, when we know him and assent to the truths respecting him. The knowledge of God is clearly necessary at the outset, and as a basis for the further reception of him. It is by knowledge that our souls take the first cognisance of any object presented to them, and enter into communication with it.

The knowledge of God is, of course, opposed not only to ignorance, but also to erroneous and defective views. Indeed such views are but a form of ignorance; and it is the more necessary that we be on our guard against them as they are very prevalent, and as, from various causes, there is a strong tendency towards them in the human mind. Our views of God must be those which he himself communicates to us in his word. We may not distort or modify them, to render them more conformable to our previous notions or in any way less offensive.

It is the more necessary that we be at pains to attain to those views, as they are not presented to us, and could not be presented to us with the intended advantage, in a brief abstract statement. Such a statement would not be fitted to interest our affections, and to afford to us the requisite practical guidance. Accordingly it is very much in the light of history that God is revealed to us in the Bible - in the light of the history of creation, of redemption, and of various providential dealings. It is necessary therefore that we carefully trace this historical manifestation of the character of God, observing the influential bearing of his character upon man and his interests, and learning thus its bearing upon ourselves. We most not rest in such bare statements as that God is just and that he is merciful; we must learn and ponder how his justice and his mercy have been displayed, particularly in Christ's mediatorial work. The views at which we arrive will thus not only be more accurate, but also possess more practical power - they will be fitted to tell more upon the heart and the life.

Our knowledge of God must embrace his relations to us; it must exhibit him as our Sovereign, our Saviour, and our portion.

And knowing God, we must assent to the representations from which our knowledge of him is derived; we must adopt it as our belief, that he is God and that he alone is God.

Having thus received God as our God, in the manner proper to our nature as intelligent, we must further receive him in the manner proper to it as active. Here we must distinguish between internal and external activity - the former consisting particularly in the exercise of affections and the latter in our words and deeds. Now we receive God as God, in the manner proper to our nature as capable of inward activity, when we regard him with the affections with which such a being ought to be regarded - when our hearts are properly affected by the knowledge of him - when, as he is great and greatly to be feared, we fear him greatly; and, as he is worthy of supreme love, we love him supremely.

Here we must guard against making the benefits which he has bestowed, or which we suppose he has bestowed upon us, the sole or chief ground of our love, or the terribleness of his wrath the sole or chief ground of our fear. While we give to these their legitimate influence, our fear and our love must be mainly awakened by what he is in himself; otherwise, they will not properly have him for their object; but somewhat distinct from him and extraneous to him.

From the due reception of God by the heart, the due reception of him in the life, or in the manner proper to us capable of outward activity will necessarily follow, for out of the heart are the issues of life. We give him this reception when we sustain the character of his servants and worshippers - doing all things in obedience to his will and with a view to his glory, and intermingling with the ordinary business of life the exercises of worship as he directs us.

Such is the positive requirement of this commandment; let us now attend to its prohibition "thou shalt have no other Gods before me." It need scarcely be remarked that it is not against the more gross and other forms of idolatry merely that this prohibition is directed, but against idolatry under all its forms, not excepting the most disguised and hidden. We shall at present notice three different ways in which men have other gods than the true God.

1. They are guilty of this great sin, when, intending to have the God of the Bible as their God, and believing that he is their God, their views respecting him are so erroneous, that it is a totally different being that they represent to themselves - not the God of the Bible, but another god that exists only in their own imaginations. Thus the god whom many acknowledge does not hate sin. That they entertain this view respecting him is very evident, for, though they commit sin, not from infirmity or when surprised by temptation only, but allowedly, still they do not fear his displeasure - they expect his blessing. They will say that he hates sin; but of what force are those words in opposition to the distinct and uniform declaration of their practice, that they do not believe that he hates it.
   The God of many is not omnipresent or omniscient. They are often where he is not present - he is indeed never with them - and there is much in their character and conduct that is wholly hidden from him. This is their practical belief - the belief that is in actual operation with them; there is an opposite article in their creed, but it is a dead letter, and serves only to condemn them.
   The God of many does not administer a kingdom that ruleth over all. He leaves them to accomplish much for themselves, indeed, as regards the entire department of ordinary life, he leaves them thus to their own resources. And, as they are abandoned by him, they feel on their part at liberty to overlook him - to prosecute their plans and designs without any reference to him. Their notion seems to be, that in the meantime they are far off from him and he far off from them - that the journey of life will carry them over the intervening distance, and that it is only at the close of this journey that they shall find themselves in his presence. They do not, however, by any means very distinctly recognise, that they shall find themselves in his presence even then.
   Those who entertain such views evidently violate the prohibition before us - they have another god and not the God of the Bible.
2. Men violate the prohibition of the first commandment, when they practically exalt any object above God. The test here is man's solicitude and efforts. What are they anxious to secure? Is it the glory of God and an interest in his favour, or is it some worldly advantage or some carnal gratification? If it is the latter, then they exalt this advantage or gratification above God - they idolize it. Hence the scriptures testify that covetousness is idolatry, and they speak of some whose god is their belly and who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. And to what are men's efforts directed? Is it to the realizing of some temporal result, which they view exclusively in its bearing upon themselves? It is evident that, stopping short at such a result and resting in it, they do not rise to the recognition of the true God. The case is widely different when men enter into the design of the divine Government, and, seeking the great ends to which the administration of it is directed, seek temporal results in their relation and in subserviency to these, and as means of reaching them.
   It is the idolatry to which we have now referred, that the apostle John describes and condemns when he says, "if any man loves the world and the things that are in the world the love of the Father is not in him." It is against it that our Lord warns, when he declares that we cannot serve God and mammon, and when he teaches that the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things choke the word in many.
3. Those violate the prohibition before us, who, from the fear of man, or from regard for the opinion and customs of the world, contravene the will of God. Multitudes rather than offend man and forfeit his favour, offend God - and multitudes will far sooner turn aside from the path which God prescribes, than turn aside from the path which the world prescribes. As they cannot walk in both they walk in the latter. Some, indeed, endeavour to walk in both but the attempt is vain. Accordingly the apostle, in claiming his due for God - "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service," considered it necessary to call off from conformity to the world, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God."

The concluding words of the commandment, "before me," point out an aggravation of the sin which it forbids, and present a strong reason for carefully avoiding that sin. If we commit this sin, we commit it under God's eye and in his very presence, and thus insult him to his face. He will not therefore pass it by - as it must be highly offensive to him, he will deal with it according to its great heinousness.

You learn from this commandment what forms the life and radical principle of true obedience - that whatsoever we do we do it in acknowledgement of the character and claims of God, or, in other words, from love to him. It is not at a few points only that we are to hold intercourse with God. He is in contact with our whole being, and we are to have reference to him and to hold intercourse with him in all things. We are to have him as our God and therefore to be wholly for him and to do all things to his glory.

In every case our first and, in a sense, our only inquiry should be, what do we owe to God - what is the service which we should render to him in this instance? When we have answered this question, we have ascertained what we ought to do, and no consideration whatever can discharge us from the obligation to do it. It is only with the view of discovering what we owe to God that we may institute other inquiries; when we have discovered it, inquiry must terminate. Further inquiry would indicate a desire to evade and not to perform our duty. For whatever our own claims or the claims of those around us may appear to be, they can in no way invalidate the claims of God. His claims are paramount. Besides, taking a large and comprehensive view, when we duly acknowledge and respect the claims of God, we satisfy all other claims.

But may the claims of God be ascertained? If they could not, he would not require that we should acknowledge them. He has given his law to us for the very purpose of setting forth his claims; has he not, then, succeeded in setting them forth intelligibly? If his claims be just any thing that our views may make them, of what use then is the law? If we set up our own views for a rule, we not only abolish the law, but we dethrone God; for how can God be a king, if we are left to walk every man in his own way? "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man," but that does not make it right, and therefore it is added, "the end thereof are the ways of death." - Prov. xiv. 12.

Every act we perform is service to some god, and the spirit which animates us is, under every character which it assumes, an acknowledgement of some god. Hence, when we act without any reference to the true God or to his claims, we render service to another god and are guilty of idolatry. We not only withhold from the true God the service that is due to him, but we render that service to an idol. Such being the case to how grievous an extent are most men guilty of idolatry. They form plans and devote themselves to the execution of them, they propose objects to themselves and prosecute the operations by which they hope to accomplish them, without the least reference to the true God, or the least acknowledgement of him, either as having authority over them, or as entitled to service at their hands, or as alone able to prosper them in their undertakings, or as himself the only source of true happiness. The claims of God being thus overlooked and practically rejected, the object which is supreme in their regard is put in his place, and receives from them the service which they should render to him. Or, rather, whatever the object may be which they thus exalt, whether pleasure, or possession, or power, or honour; self is still their idol. Whatever they pursue, they pursue it in obedience to self and for the gratification of self. The character which they sustain throughout is that of "lovers of their own selves." In multitudes of cases the service which men seem to render to the Lord is rendered to self; for they render it not in acknowledgement of his claims or from love to him, but with a view wholly to their own advantage. Thus, even here, where it might be supposed it would not enter, the idolatry of self prevails. It intrudes into the very temple and mingles itself with the very worship of God.

Consider the guilt of withholding from God the service to which he is entitled and transferring it to an idol. When men do not serve God, they practically deny that he is entitled to service - in other words, they deny that he is God, for he is not God if he is not entitled to the service which he claims. And then, before his face, they render this service to another, and thus declare that that other is entitled to it though he is not. All this may be done in the spirit of actions which are outwardly praiseworthy and altogether such as they ought to be; and the sinfulness of it may thus be concealed from the eye of man. But God sees it, and sees that it is fearfully great. Multitudes are satisfied with themselves, because their lives are free from marked and prominent transgression; but this is the great and radical transgression - that men reject the claims of the true God; and have other gods before him. Inquire whether you are guilty of this transgression. You have been guilty of it, and, if it does not now characterize the whole conduct of some of you, even then you are still guilty of it to a great extent; consider then how grievous a transgression it is, how dishonouring it is and how offensive it must be to God, and what daring rebellion on your part it involves.

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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.