The history of the Old Testament methodiz'd according to the order and series of time wherein the several things therein mentioned were transacted ... to which is annex'd a Short history of the Jewish affairs from the end of the Old Testament to the birth of our Saviour : and a map also added of Canaan and the adjacent countries ... / by Samuel Cradock ...

II. Commandment. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image, &c.

THe First Commandment determined the right and true Object of our Worship. The Second directs, and limits the manner of expressing and exercising it, and forbids the manner practised by Heathens, of Worshipping their false Gods by Images and Corporeal Shapes and Representations.(s) We ought not to think, says the Apostle, Acts 17.29. that the Godhead is like unto Gold, or Silver, or Stone graven by art, or man's device. Most reasonable therefore is this Prohibition of making any resemblance of what kind soever by Picture, Sculpture or Tusion, to represent God, or for Religious use,(t) and to bow down or Prostrate our selves before it. For

there being but one true Object of our Worship, the Eternal, Invisible God, whose glorious Excellencies infinitely transcend our Comprehension, and consequently of whom we cannot devise any resemblance not infinitely beneath him, unlike to him and unworthy of him. It must needs be therefore a great prophaneness to pretend the repre∣senting Him by any Image. Moses, Deut. 4.15. reports to the people of the Jews the ground of this Prohibition, Take good heed to your selves (says he) for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake to you in Horeb, out of the midst of the Fire, lest you corrupt your selves, and make you a graven Image. No shape representing God did then appear at his uttering of these Laws to prevent their framing any re∣semblance of Him, and practising this sort of Idolatrous Worship. For God foresaw that men would be very prone to be pleased with, and to dote upon sensible Represen∣tations, and averse from raising up their minds to Him, as endued with pure, intellectual, and spiritual Perfections. So that He expresly forbids making any Images, or Simili∣tudes in order to worship Him thereby. And in this Prohibition we may conceive this positive Precept to be also implied and intended, viz. that in our Devotions and Re∣ligious Services which we perform to God, we should raise our minds above gross sense and phantasie, and should labour for high and worthy Conceptions of God, and should apprehend Him incomparably superiour to all things which we do see and know; and we should direct our minds to him as to a Being transcendently perfect in Wisdom, Holiness, Goodness, Justice, and Power, and should (as our Saviour Commands) Wor∣ship him in spirit and truth, Joh. 4.24. and perform such Worship to him as is agreeable to his spiritual Nature, and is commanded by Himself. And the Lord was pleased to add this reason to this Prohibition, For I the Lord thy God am a jealous(u) God; that is, a God very tender of my Honour, and of my Right, impatient of any Competitor or Sharer with Me in the Duties and Services which properly and incommuni∣cably are due unto Me. I am the Lord; (saith God by the Prophet Isaiah) that is my Name, and my Glory I will not give to another, nor my Praise to graven Images, Isa. 42.8. This jealousie doth imply not only a great dislike, but a fierce displeasure against the Infringers of this Law.

Visiting the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation of them that hate(x) me.

God hereby intimates, that he shall look upon those that transgress this Law, and commit this kind of Idolatry here forbidden as Enemies, and haters(x) of him, because their actions signifie a disposition of mind in them repugnant to his Mind and Will. When a man loveth God less than his Idol, that may well be esteemed hatred of God. 2ly, He declares, That He will not only punish these persons them∣selves who commit this Idolatry, (whereby He is so much wronged and dishonoured) but to deter men the more from it, He declares, That it shall go ill with their Posterity for their sakes. Their Children to the third and fourth Generation shall be more strictly and severely dealt with, and upon this score shall receive less of Favour and Mercy from him than otherwise they might have received. Not that God will arbitrarily inflict undeserved Punishments upon the Children of bad men for the Faults of their Ancestors. He disclaims such kind of dealing, Ezek. 18.20. Deut. 24.16. Jer. 31.30. The Son shall not bear the Iniquity of the Father; the Soul that sinneth it shall die. Every one shall die for his own Iniquity. Every man that eateth sowre Grapes his own teeth shall be set on edge, &c. But notwithstanding God may justly, for the Sin of the Parents, withhold his free Favours from their Children, which else, according to the general course of his goodness, they might have been capa∣ble of. As particularly He may withhold that measure of Grace from them that might have effectually retained them from Sin, and consequently have prevented their Guilt, and so their Punishment. But if such Children do fall into personal sins,

God may (without Impeachment of his Justice and Goodness) severely visit them, and sharply punish them for them, and that not only upon their own, but their Fa∣thers account also. And therefore the Lord is pleased to add this Commination the more to deter and restrain men from committing this sin of Idolatry, it being like to bring damage to their Children and Posterity,(y) of whom Parents (of all things) use to have the tenderest regard, and are afraid to be the causes of their Ruine and Calamity.

Shewing mercy unto Thousands of them love me and keep my Commandments.

And as God deters from violation of this Precept, by threatening a long train of Punishments to the Transgressors of it, so he encourageth to yield Obedience to it, by a Declaration of his intention, not only graciously to Reward the obedient Persons them∣selves, but their Posterity also, unto a thousand Descents. God will shew mercy and deal more favourably with the Children of good Parents, for a long tract of time, for their Father's sake. And though God will punish the offending Children of good Pa∣rents, yet their Misdeeds shall not interrupt his kindness towards the rest of their Posterity, or quite abolish the remembrance of their Fathers(z) goodness. And here we may take notice how the expressions of God's Mercy do exceed those of his Justice. He will visit the Iniquities of disobedient Fathers unto the third or fourth Generation, but He will shew Mercy to a thousand Generations of them that love and obey Him. And further we may observe, That loving God, and keeping his Command∣ments are conjoyned as terms equivalent: They are indeed inseparably connected; Love being a certain cause of Obedience, and Obedience an infallible sign of Love. See Joh. 14.21.

Notes

• (s)

  To wor∣ship an Idol in∣stead of God is Idolatry for∣bidden in the First Command∣ment. When the true God is worshipped in, or by an Image, 'tis Idolatry forbidden by the Second. Inward Idolatry is opposed to the First Commandment, and Outward to the Second.
• (t)

  The civil use of Images is not forbidden, but Images made and used for Divine Worship. Neither are those Images only forbidden which are the Images of false Gods, but of the true also. Papists by worshipping Saints and Angels, offend against the first Commandment. By making Images of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and worshipping these Images, or worshipping God by these Images, they offend against the Second.

  As for the Cherubim made by Solomon, and the brasen Serpent by Moses, they were made by God's special Com∣mand, but not to be worshipped. The Cherubim seem intended as an Emblem, to represent the natures and services of the holy Angels, and not any likeness of God, they being full of zeal, and always upon the Wing (as it were) and ready to obey God's Will. The brasen Serpent was made not to be worshipped, but as a Type of Christ; and now Christ is come, all Types are to vanish.
• Ne{que} tantum imagines facie∣bant multorum Deorum Cul∣tores, sed & magico ritu ex∣istimabant spi∣ritum quen∣dam aetherium in eas deduci imagines. Ter∣tullianus libro de spectaculis, Daemones ait operari in si∣mulacris. Mi∣nutius Foelix, isti impuri spi∣ritus sub statu∣is, & imagini∣bus consecratis delitescunt. Et huc pertinet ni failor locus Zach. 10.2. Grotius in explicatione Decalogi.
• (u)

  There is great danger in Idolatrous Worship, lest the heart of the Creature be thereby drawn away from God. Therefore the breach of this Commandment is called Scortatio, Persidia, Violatio foederis conjugalis. God is angry for the breach of any Commandment, but he is jealous lest his Worship be corrupted, and his Glory given to Creatures.
• (x)

  Populus, Dei sponsa vo∣catur, foedus conjugium, Ido∣lolatria scorta∣tio. Quemad∣modum amoris signum est fide∣litas conjuga∣lis, sic fidei vi∣olatio odii testi∣monium est. Riv. Deum odisse, in sacris literis peculiariter, imo unicè ait Maimonides, illi dicuntur qui falsos deos colunt.
• (x)

  Populus, Dei sponsa vo∣catur, foedus conjugium, Ido∣lolatria scorta∣tio. Quemad∣modum amoris signum est fide∣litas conjuga∣lis, sic fidei vi∣olatio odii testi∣monium est. Riv. Deum odisse, in sacris literis peculiariter, imo unicè ait Maimonides, illi dicuntur qui falsos deos colunt.
• (y)

  Examples of which pro∣ceeding do in the Divine History often occur; As in Solomon, in Re∣hoboham, in Baasha, in A∣hab, in Jehu.
• (z)

  So we may see that God dealt with Abraham and the Patriarchs passing by (in memory of their faithful Obedience to him) the ma∣nifold Provo∣cations of their Cildren.