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IDOLATRY IN CHRISTIAN LANDS.

heathen into Christian lands: their names are, Mammon, Belial, and Moloch. Every greedy thought and covetous desire, is an act of worship paid to Mammon; every lustful thought and impure desire, is an act of worship paid to Belial; every spiteful and revengeful thought, every feeling of ill-will, every desire to do any one an injury, everything like pleasure at our neighbor's hurt-all these are acts of worship and heart-service paid to the hateful and cruel Moloch. Happy, and honorable, would it be for us, to give the Lord of Heaven and Earth as much as the worshipers of Moloch, and Belial, and Mammon readily give to them. [Hare's Discourses.]

510. (4.) If the Polytheism of the Gentiles is condemned by this precept, there can be no just ground of doubt, that the worship given to saints and angels, in the church of Rome, is equally forbidden.

Churches are dedicated to them as well as to God; the most solemn services of religion are performed in honor of them; pilgrimages are undertaken to the places which they are understood to favor, and in which their pretended relics are deposited; they are invoked in the most humble postures, and in the usual forms of supplication, -as being able everywhere to hear the suppliant; their assistance is implored, and thanks are returned to them for benefits, not only temporal, but spiritual, which they are supposed to have conferred; and, in short, they receive all the honors which the heathen pay to their male and female deities, and all the honors which are paid to God himself.

511. In regard to the kind of worship paid by them to saints and angels, the Romanists make certain distinctions in theory, but these distinctions are in a great majority of cases lost sight of in practice. Beside, there is no excuse for the worship they pay to such beings. If the Gentiles were condemned by an apostle because they did service to them who by nature were not gods, we cannot see how professed Christians should be excused who address their worship to similar objects.

512. Were the plea, which is sometimes made by the worshipers of the Virgin Mary and the saints, a true one that they only pray to them to intercede with God; yet it would be an insufficient one. For there is no reason to believe that they have any knowledge of such

REQUIREMENTS IN THE FIRST Precept.

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prayers; or, if they had, as there is one God, so there is one Mediator between God and man. And we have neither precept, nor allowance, nor example, in the whole Bible, of applying to any other, among all the absent inhabitants of the invisible world.

[Secker.]

II. Requirements involved in the First Precept.

513. (1.) This precept requires us to have our minds fully established in the doctrine of the existence of God; and to acknowledge Him only, to the exclusion of every rival, whether set up by heathens or by idolatrous Christians.

(2.) It requires us to entertain worthy sentiments of his character and perfections; and with this view to attend to the discoveries, which he has made of himself in his works, and particularly in the sacred scriptures.

(3.) It requires us to be duly affected by those discoveries; to cherish and exercise the affections of which He is the proper object, such as, reverence for his majesty, profound humility, trust in his promises, desires for his favor, dependence upon his care, and submission to his will; and, in a few words, to love him with all our strength, preferring him to all creatures in heaven and on earth, cultivating communion with him, and deriving our chief satisfaction from the uncreated source of felicity.

(4.) It requires us to render to Him the honor to which he is entitled, not only by those affections of our hearts, but by such outward expressions of homage as He has himself prescribed,-to pray to him, to praise him, and devoutly to observe all his institutes.

(5.) It requires us to make Him our ultimate end; and as he has created all things for his glory, to have this as our predominant wish, and constant aim, that we may honor him with our bodies and our spirits, which are his. [Professor Dick's Lectures; Dick's Philosophy of Religion; Hare s Discourses.]

483. Why, probably, was this law divided into two tables? 484. What unjustifiable freedom have some taken with the arrangement of the Ten Commandments?

485. What brief view may be given of the first four precepts of the Der alogue?

486. What was the preface to the moral law, and what particular im portance is to be attached to it?

487. How are men addressed in the Decalogue?

488. What does this precept forbid, in the first place?

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THE SECOND COMMANDMENT.

489. What is intended by explicit atheism?

490. What is meant by constructive atheism?

491. Against whom may a charge, similar to that against Epicurus, be fairly brought?

492. What is meant by practical atheism?

493. What does this precept forbid, in the second place?

494. When was Polytheism introduced, and how far has it prevailed? 495. What relation to Polytheism did the calling of Abraham out of his native country sustain?

496. What does history inform us concerning the number of false gods worshiped by heathen nations?

497. What system of Polytheism prevailed in ancient Egypt?

498. What kind of Polytheism prevailed among other ancient nations? 499. What is the state and extent of Polytheism at the present time? 500. What other variety of Polytheism may be noticed as condemned by the First Commandment?

501. What was the influence of ancient legislators and philosophers in relation to this idolatrous and immoral system?

502. What moral, or rather, what immoral effects have been produced by a departure from this fundamental law of the Creator?

503. What then is to be thought of the criminality of Polytheism? 504. What effects might be expected from Atheism or Polytheism, should they become universal?

505. What inference in favor of God's revealed law may be deduced from the foregoing facts and statements?

506. Does the prohibition of the first precept extend no further than to the adoration of pagan divinities or idols?

507. What, according to St. Paul's instructions, is the root and essence of idolatry?

508. What do we learn concerning idolatry from St. Paul's letters to the Colossians and Ephesians?

509. What three prominent idols have been introduced from heathen into Christian lands?

510. What other kind of worship is prohibited in this commandment? 511. Do not Romanists make certain distinctions, in regard to the kind of worship paid by them to saints and angels, which exculpate them from the charge of idolatry?

512. What plea is set up in favor of the worship of the Virgin Mary and other saints; and how is it proved to be insufficient?

513. Having considered the acts which are prohibited, what are the acts which are virtually required in the precept, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me?"

THE SECOND COMMANDMENT.

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them."

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514. THE first precept declares the proper object of worship the second prescribes the proper means, forbidding the use of images, and, consequently, of every other form of worship which has not been appointed by God. The first, binds us to acknowledge and worship Jehovah, as the true God; the second, binds us to the true worship of that God: it binds us not to worship him under any visible resemblance or form.

PROHIBITION IN THE FIRST PRECEPT.

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515. The terms graven image," and "likeness," here employed, unquestionably denote every external representation of visible or invisible objects as objects of worship, or for religious purposes.

516. Although the Jews have generally so regarded this precept, as forbidding the practice of the arts of sculpture and painting, and have regulated their practice accordingly, it will be seen, by examining the connection in which this precept stands, and other instructions of like nature in the Bible, that the use of these arts is only prohibited when designed for religious purposes; as supposed auxiliaries to devotion. Consult, for instance, Exodus xx. 4, 5; Deut. iv. 15-18; xxvii. 15.

It is no transgression of this precept to form representations of terrestrial or celestial objects for amusement and ornament; or to preserve the memory of the dead, and to do honor to those who deserve well of their country, or of mankind. If the design of the precept be considered, which is manifest from its connection, it will be found to relate solely to religion, and to condemn images or likenesses, whether engraven or drawn with the pencil, only when they are made the objects or the means of worship.

Moses received orders to construct in carved work the figures of the cherubim over the ark of the covenant; and also to form a brass image of a serpent: and Solomon was commanded also to employ the arts of sculpture and painting upon the temple. But none of these productions of art constituted emblems or representations of the Deity.

I.-Prohibition in this Commandment.

517. It condemns all outward representations of God. In consequence of the idolatrous tendency of human nature, when God manifested himself on Mount Sinai, it was in such a manner that no future representation could be made by sculpture or painting. The Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice."

The second precept, like the former, might, at first sight, appear to be unnecessary, if the almost universal practice of mankind had not taught us that there is no

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ABSURDITY OF THE USE OF IDOLS.

disposition which the human mind is more apt to indulge than to endeavor to bring the invisible and incomprehensible Divinity within the range of our senses, and to contemplate him as one like ourselves.

518. The Divine Being fills the immensity of space with his presence, and cannot be represented by a figure confined to a particular place. He is an invisible and spiritual Being, possessing the attributes of omnipotence, and of infinite wisdom and goodness. What madness is it to imagine that any configuration of matter bears a resemblance to a being who has no bodily parts, or can aid in furnishing just conceptions of a being so incomprehensibly great and glorious as Jehovah, the Creator of the universe of matter and mind!

Even the sun himself, with all his immensity of splendor, would form but a poor and pitiful image of Him whose breath has kindled ten thousand times ten thousand suns. How much less can a block of marble, or a stupid ox, shadow forth the glories of the King eternal, immortal, and invisible !

We are unable, indeed, at best, to speak or think worthily of Him: and we cannot well avoid using some of the same phrases, concerning him and his actions, which we do concerning the parts and motions of our own bodies. But we can very well avoid making sensible images or pictures of him, and the plainest reason teaches that we ought to avoid it, because they lower and debase men's notions of God; lead the weaker sort into superstitious and foolish apprehensions and practices; and provoke those of better abilities, from a contempt of such childish representations, to disregard and ridicule the religion that adopts them.

519. In the early ages of the world, says Archbishop Secker, many of the heathens themselves had no images of the Deity: particularly the ancient Persians had none. Nor had the first Romans; Numa, their second king, having, as the philosopher Plutarch, himself a Roman magistrate, though a Greek by birth, informs us, "forbidden them to represent God in the form either of a man, or of any other animal. And, accordingly, he says, they had neither any painted or engraved figure of him for one hundred and seventy years; but temples, void of any image of any shape; thinking it impious to liken a

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