God to extinguish the light of his Gospel, when we use it not to work by; but all our study and strife is how to snuff it. And thus much, in the general, touching the External Worship of God required in this Commandment.

ii. The SINS FORBIDDEN by it are two :.

Contempt of the worship of God; and

Superstition in performing it.

Concerning the former, I have already spoken largely, in giv ing you the Characters of a Profane Person.

"Survi

I shall, therefore, at present speak only of Superstition. Concerning the etymology of the word, both Tully and Lactantius are agreed, that it is derived from superstites; vors:" but about the reason of the notion they much differ. Tully saith*, Qui totos dies precabantur et immolabant, ut sibi sui liberi superstites essent, superstitiosi sunt appellati: i. e. "They, who immoderately prayed and sacrificed, that their children might survive them." But Lactantius is not content with this reason; and therefore gives another +: Superstitiosi autem vocantur, non qui filios suos superstites optant; omnes enim optamus: sed aut ii, qui superstitem memoriam defunctorum colunt; aut qui parentibus suis superstites, celebrant imagines eorum domi tanquam Deos Penates: i. e. "Men were called superstitious, not from desiring that their children might survive them: but because they celebrated the surviving memory of the dead; or because that surviving their parents they worshipped their images as their Household Gods."

But, whatsoever be the etymology of the word, we may take this short description of it: That it is a needless and erroneous fear, in matters of religion.

And this is twofold: either Negative or Positive.

Negative Superstition is, when men do fearfully abstain from and abhor those things as wicked and abominable, which God hath not forbidden, and therefore are in themselves lawful and harmless. And those, who are bigotted with this superstition, will be sure to cry out against all that do observe such things as they condemn, for miserably seduced and superstitious souls. Which is the exact humour of the men of our days; who, as Diogenes is said to have trampled upon Plato's pride with far greater pride, so these exclaim against superstition with far + Lactant. Instit. lib. iv. c. 28.

* Cicero de Nat. Deor. lib. ii.

greater superstition. For superstition is not, either the observing, or not observing of such things; but the doing of either with an erroneous fear, lest God should be displeased and provoked if we did otherwise. He is, therefore, negatively superstitious, who makes the not doing of that, which is lawful and harmless, a matter of conscience and of religion.

Positive Superstition is, when men do fearfully observe and perform those things, which either are forbidden, or at least no where commanded by God. Or, if you will, it is a restless fear of the mind, putting men upon acts of religion, which are not due or not convenient.

This Positive Superstition expresseth itself two ways. For, sometimes, it gives divine honours to that, which is not God: and, sometimes, it performs needless and superfluous services to the True God. Both these are the effects of superstition: but are commonly known by their proper names; the one being Idolatry, and the other Will-worship. And both these are forbidden in this Commandment:

1. Idolatry is a part and species of superstition.

So we find it expressly, Acts xvii. 16. compared with verse 22. In the 16th it is said, that Paul's spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city of Athens wholly given to idolatry. And in the 22d it is said, that Paul reproved them as being too superstitious. And, therefore, though all superstition be not idolatry, yet all idolatry is superstition; yea, and the blackest kind of it.

Now idolatry is nothing else, but the giving of religious worship unto an idol. And an idol is not only an artificial image or representation of anything, whether real or fictitious, set up to be worshipped; but any creature of God, whether angels or men, sun, or moon, or stars, &c. to which we give any religious honour and service. The worshipping of any creature, whether in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth, is idolatry; which is particularly and by name forbidden in this Commandment.

And, indeed, this is a sin so absurd and stupid, that it is a wonder it should ever be so bewitching, as to inveigle the far greater part of the world. The prophet Isaiah doth very frequently deride the folly and madness of idolaters: especially Chap. xliv. 16. He burneth part of his wooden god in the fire: he roasteth his meat with it, and is satisfied: he warmeth himself : and the residue thereof he maketh a God: he falleth down unto it,

and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my God. A most gross and bestial stupidity! as if there were more divinity in one end of a stick, than the other. And yet a sin most strangely bewitching: after which, all the heathen world ran a whoring; and from which, all the remonstrances and threatenings, which God makes to his own people of Israel, could not restrain them. Yea, and so strangely besotting is it, that a very great part, even of those who profess the name and doctrine of Jesus Christ, are most foully guilty of it: I mean the Papists : who, to hide their shame in this particular from the notice of the people, have covered it with a greater; and thought fit rather to expunge this Second Commandment, than to leave their image-worship to be censured and condemned by it. For, in all their catechisms and books of devotion, which they have published for the use of the vulgar, they have sacrilegiously omitted this Second Commandment; as fearing that the evidence of it would convict and condemn them of idolatry, in the consciences of the most ignorant and illiterate that should but hear it rehearsed.

Let us now proceed to consider, who may justly be condemned of idolatry, and the violation of this precept.

(1) He is an idolater, that prays unto any Saint or Angel. For he ascribes that unto the creature which is an honour due only unto God the Creator. Our faith and our invocation ought to be terminated in the same object: Rom. x. 14. How shall they call on him, in whom they have not believed? And, therefore, if we cannot, without blasphemy, say, that we believe in such a saint or angel; neither can we, without idolatry, pray unto that saint or angel.

(2) The most execrable idolatry that is, is that of entering into League and Correspondence with the Devil to consult and invoke him; and, by any wicked arts, implore or make use of his help and assistance.

And, of this are those guilty in the highest degree, who enter into any express compact with the Devil; which is always ratified with some homage of worship given to him. And, in a secondary and more low degree, those who apply themselves to seek help from such forlorn wretches, as use traditionary charms and incantations, or any vain observances, to free them from pains and diseases, or other troubles that molest them. For all those things, which have not a natural efficiency to produce that effect for which they are used, may very reasonably be suspect

ed to have been agreed on formerly between the Devil and some of his especial servants, and that all the virtue they retain is only from that compact: which as it was explicit in those that made it, so it is implicit in those that use them; for they still act in the power of that first stipulation and agreement.

(3) Whosoever bows down his body in religious Adoration of any Image, or other Creature, is guilty of idolatry; and doth most expressly transgress the very letter of this Command, Thou shalt not bow down before them, nor worship them.

It is but here a vain refuge, unto which the Papists betake themselves, when they excuse themselves from being guilty of idolatry, because, although they worship images, yet they wor ship the True God by them.

For,

[1] They worship the images of very many creatures, both men and angels.

For me now to examine their evasion concerning λατραδέλια, and vreρd, would perhaps be as improper in this auditory, as the distinction itself is vain and frivolous.

[2] Whereas, they pretend to worship the True God by an image, we reply, That it is most impious to attempt to represent God by any visible resemblance; and therefore much more to worship him, could he be so represented. For God, who is infinite, cannot be circumscribed by lines and lineaments; and, being invisible, cannot be resembled. And, therefore, God doth again and again inculcate it upon the Israelites, that, when he delivered the Law unto them, he appeared not in any shape; that they might not audaciously attempt to delineate him, and so be enticed to idolatry. Thus, Deut. iv. 12. Ye heard the voice of words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And verse 15. Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves, (for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire,) Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure. When therefore they plead, that they worship the Only True God by images; this is no better, than to excuse one horrid sin, by the commission of another.

[3] To worship the True and Only God by an image, is gross idolatry.

This the Papists deny and place idolatry, in worshipping of images set up to represent false and fictitious Gods; or, else, in worshipping them with a belief that they themselves are gods.

But,

1st. Upon the same account the Israelites were not idolaters, in worshipping the Golden Calf.

For they were not so brutish, as to believe that calf itself to be their God. Nay, it is most evident, that they intended to worship the True God under that representation. See Exod. xxxii. 4. These be thy Gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. They could not be so stupid, as to think that that very calf, which they themselves had made, had delivered them from Egypt; but they worshipped the True God, who had given them that great deliverance, under this hieroglyphic sign and resemblance: which appears, versé 5: Aaron made procla mation, and said, To-morrow is a feast to the Lord: in the original it is Jehovah, the proper and incommunicable name of the True God. And yet, that this worship of theirs, although directed unto the True God, was horrid idolatry, the Scripture abundantly testifies, verse 31. Oh this people have sinned a great sin, 1 Cor. x. 7. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Acts vii. 41. They made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol.

2dly. Micah and his mother were certainly guilty of idolatry, in making and worshipping their images: and, yet, that they were made to be symbolical representations of the True God, and erected to this very purpose that he might be worshipped by them, appears clearly from the history, as we have it recorded, Judges xvii. 3. I had wholly dedicated, saith she, the silver unto the Lord, (Jehovah, Heb.) for my son to make a graven image and a molten image. Which when he had done, he hired a Levite to be his priest. And, in confidence of the reward of so much piety, concludes, verse 13. that, certainly, now the Lord Jehovah would bless him, and do him good. Nothing can be clearer, than that all this worship was intended by him to the True and Only God; yet, being performed by images, it was no better than rank idolatry.

3dly. If the Papists, in worshipping the True God by images, be not idolaters; then neither was Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin, an idolater, in setting up his calves at Dan and Bethel.

For whosoever rationally considers the occasion and political grounds of this innovation, must needs conclude, that Jeroboam intended not to introduce a new God; which would have made the people to fall faster from him, than tyranny and oppression did from Rheoboam: but only to set up some visible sigus and re