LECTURE III.

SECOND COMMANDMENT.

EXODUS, XX. 4—6.

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: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity 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.

THERE is a close connexion between the commandments of this first table. The first commandment is intended to regulate our views and feelings, in relation to the object of our supreme homage; the second has respect to the medium through which that homage is expressed; the third regards the spirit which is to accompany us in all the solemnities of truth and of religion; and the fourth, the appropriation of a portion of our time to his service, thus to indicate our subjection to his government, and our willingness to be entirely consecrated to his glory. They all require that internal character, of which the outward conduct is only the result. They are summaries of duty, amplified in all the following precepts that refer our thoughts to God, and are themselves amplifications of the comprehensive law: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and mind, and. soul, and strength."

To perceive the import of the second commandment, it is desirable to have in view, as far as possible, the facts and principles which rendered such a prohibition necessary, and which explain the peculiar manner in which it is announced. Having stated these, we shall mark the evils condemned, and the virtues required in this commandment.

I. The facts and principles associated with the announcement of this prohibition are these: First, The spirituality of God.

When Moses was commissioned to visit the Hebrews, he shrunk from the task; and even when constrained, by the authority of God, to go, in opposition to his previous inclinations, he appears to have been painfully alive to the degraded conceptions of his countrymen. Aware of their ignorance of God, from long habituation to the polytheism and idolatries of the Egyptians, he inquires: "When they shall say unto me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM that I AM." The idea of a Being who is invisible, self-existent, and immutable, is ineffably sublime; and yet, unless connected with some other idea, more obvious to our senses, it is too sublime to be appreciated, or even understood. In the message delivered by Moses to his brethren, therefore, we see this idea linked with another; and a name is assumed by the Supreme Being, and remembrances are awakened, and promises are given, which endear that name to their thoughts and feelings: "The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,-appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt; and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt." Now, to convince the Hebrews that this God, in contrast to all false deities, is a Spirit, incapable of being perceived by the external senses, was a matter of the highest moment. For this purpose they were taught, that there is no resemblance to him in any thing that he has made;

that it is impossible to represent him by any figure or fancy; that the attempt to imagine any such similitude, or devise any such representation, is not only absurd in itself, but dishonourable to God, debasing to the human spirit, fraught with the most mischievous effects on the character and the happiness of society, and stamped with the wickedness of a most blasphemous lie.

The spirituality of God is a practical principle, demanding corresponding spirituality, in the worship of which he is the object, and in the religion of which he is the Author. It is the worship of the heart: it is the religion of thoughts, principles, and affections. "The true worshipper shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit."

Secondly: The absolute and sole right of God to prescribe in matters relating to his own worship. That he will be worshipped by his intelligent creatures, he has positively declared in the first commandment. It is his pleasure that his worship shall be solemnized by outward observances. No man, nor body of men, has a right to prescribe these observances. God himself prescribes. He knows what actions are most significant of inward principle, most suited, both to his nature and to our's, and, therefore, best adapted to the excitement, the growth, or the expression of devout sentiments and affections.

That there is a disposition in human beings to devise and to act for themselves, in these respects, has been too fully demonstrated in the history of mankind: and, that such a disposition is rebuked in this commandment, is apparent from what is said to the Hebrews, after the completion of their religious institutions," When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, take heed to thyself that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so

unto the Lord thy God, for every abomination which he hateth have they done unto their gods. Whatsoever thing I shall command you, that observe to do it thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it."*

The right of him who is the Author of our existence, and the object of our worship, to dictate what we shall observe, is not likely to be questioned. But there is in the heart of man the presumption, that would divide this prerogative with God. It is this presumption that provokes the Most High to jealousy. Again and again do we read in Scripture of his anger against this entrenchment on his incommunicable distinction, denounced in terms most appalling,-burning with the fierceness and vehemence of indignant majesty. He asserts his own right in this commandment. He has continued to assert it in every part of his revelation. He has guarded it by the most terrific threatenings; and, in the procedure of his providence, recorded in history, or foretold by inspiration, he has taught us how these threatenings are to be understood, and with what unrestrained wrath he is determined to inflict them: I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God.

Thirdly: A fact of great consequence to the right understanding of this commandment, is found in the state of society at the time when it was given. With scarcely any exceptions, the whole world was given to idolatry.

After the deluge, the prescribed worship of the true God was maintained in the family of Noah; but, in the migrations of their descendents to the distant regions of the earth, the true religion was corrupted.

The known history of human nature would have led us to suspect that the corruption was gradual;

• Deuteronomy, xii. 29.

and the language of this commandment warrants the conclusion, that it commenced in dissatisfaction with the simplicity, or forgetfulness of the authority, of divine institutes.

The minds of men, starting from this common point, and wandering amidst the conjectures of reason and the creations of fancy, associated their vague notions of a superior power with the palpable realities by which they were surrounded: and, in every light of heaven, in every element of nature, they imagined they beheld the movements of a presiding deity. In a short time, the grove, the mountain, the valley, the stream, the ocean, were peopled with divinities.

The consciousness of dependence, and the hope of good, drew the thoughts of mortals to the apparent sources of their enjoyments. These became, at first, the medium of their worship to an unseen God. In course of time other memorials of a God, whom they imagined to be absent, were introduced; and, in commemorative pillars, and hieroglyphical representations, the priests affirmed, and the people be lieved, they saw the mystic images of the Divinity.

But men were unable, or unwilling, to trace their evil and their good to the same source. Hence, defeat and captivity,-disease and death,-the lightning and the thunder,-the storm and the earthquake,

-were assigned to the control of malignant spirits; and these, as they were invisible, had their emblems and their temples.

The supremacy and the unity of the true God being thus obscured, it was not wonderful that other affections, besides gratitude and fear, should aid the suggestions of the imagination, and draw the mind still farther from the truth. It was natural that the pride of monarchs, the ambition of heroes, the servility of courtiers and priests, and the veneration due to the memory of departed legislators, patriots, and princes, should have swelled the catalogue of gods.