sing sincere contrition for national or personal sins, and of averting the vengeance of heaven, justly denounced against all offenders;—in religious rejoicing for spiritual and temporal mercies;—and in suitable regard to festivals appointed in commemoration of the great events connected with the history of our redemption by Jesus Christ. §3. The inward dispositions which are requisite for the due performance of pure religious worship, and which are therefore recommended in this Commandment, are reverence ;-devotion;-a deep sense of our own weakness and wants, and of our absolute dependance on the bounty and will of God;-sincerity of heart in the expression of our petitions for future benefits, of gratitude for past mercies, and of our repentance of those sins which have rendered us un. deserving of any favour at the hands of God;-earnest attention, and mastery over our thoughts and feelings, during the act of worship;-faith ;-hope;charity;-and zeal. § 4. The outward tokens of devotion are the gestures which are naturally, or by custom, demonstrative of humility and respect, such as kneeling;-outward propriety of demeanour ;-acquiescence in all ecclesiastical ceremonies, which are lawfully decreed by the authority of the Church, as conducing to decency and order. $5. The practical virtues which contribute to the establishment and diffusion of pure worship, are among the plainest obligations of each individual, in his own sphere: the endeavour, for instance, to ob tain a right knowledge of the will of God respecting his own duty, by religious reading and communication; and to repress, so far as he may do it legally and charitably, all tendency to superstition and false worship in others ;-especial care in those whose function it is to ordain to the ministry, or to recommend for ordination, that they be not instrumental in furnishing the Church with any but duly qualified ministers and stewards of God's holy mysteries;contributing to the establishment and support of all seminaries of sound learning and religious education; -distribution of all books calculated to promote Christian knowledge, especially the Holy Scriptures, and judicious interpretations of them. § 6. The formal prohibition of the Commandment is to make any image or representation of God, or any likeness of created things for the purpose of paying divine worship to them; and in it is included, the offering to God any service which is either repugnant to, or unauthorized by, his revealed will. Under the title "images," are comprehended all superstitious rites and ceremonies, all vain corruptions and arbitrary perversions of pure and undefiled religion;-for all these are but different degrees of that species of idolatry, which is more particularly forbidden by the Second Commandment; namely, to worship the one true God under any representation, or through any unlawful medium. Under the same head may be enumerated the sins of substituting for the Word of God the traditions of men ; and of appealing to angels and saints as mediators and intercessors with God for us, which is also by implication forbidden in the First Commandment, but more directly here, § 7. We are not forbidden to make images, or sup posed likenesses even of the Son of God, in his human nature, and representations of things created, for any purpose, but solely for the purpose of bowing down to them or worshipping them under the idea that they are similitudes of the Deity, or that any divine energy dwells in them. No one act of religious worship, either mental or corporeal, is to be directed to any other object than the one true God; it is not to be paid to images, as unto God, nor to false gods under any form or supposition; nor is it to be paid to the one true God, under any representation of either of the three Persons of the adorable Trinity; for God is a Spirit, and they that would worthily worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth. All kinds of images, formed to be worshipped, therefore, are forbidden, whether graven, painted, carved, molten, or formed in any other way, even in imagination; together with all resemblances, for idolatrous purposes, of rational or irrational creatures, with which the firmament, earth, or sea, were peopled. But it is especially forbidden to make any figure or representation of the Deity himself, as being highly derogatory to the dignity and honour of the infinite and invisible God, that he should be made like unto any finite or visible creature; for by such vain attempts God is mocked,—his majesty is compromised,—and that insult is offered to him of which his abhorrence was distinctly marked, when at the delivery of the Law he warned the children of Israel against idolatry, by reminding them, that even at that awful moment, when he was more immediately present, and des scended on the Mount in fire, they saw no similitude or likeness which could tempt them to sin against his express decree. $8. The sanction of the Second Commandment is contained in the words: "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." The force of this solemn affirmation is observable in the terms made use of; as well as in the threats pronounced against the disobedient, and in the promises vouchsafed to those who fear and love the Lord. It is the Lord, JEHOVAH, the omnipotent one God, in every sense, under the covenant of grace, who declares himself to be a jealous God, not tolerating idolatry in his spiritual spouse the Church, jealous lest that honour and worship be paid to others, and that trust and regard be attached to worldly things, which ought to be devoted to him alone and this, not for the increase of his own felicity or glory, which are already infinite and incapable of augmentation or diminution, but for the advantage, the present and future happiness, of us his favoured creatures, who need only be obedient in order to be happy; and who by rebellion against God, or forgetfulness of his title to our service, lay the foundation, and heap up the measure, of evil for ourselves. This holy jealousy, so demonstrative of divine benignity, and so salutary to man, is evinced by the threatenings of punishment against those who transgress the Law, and by promises of grace to those who keep it. : 9. By visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children, is meant the permitting of the temporal effects of the father's sin to be felt for some generations in the posterity; that the Omniscient will search out in the latter the idolatrous propensities and acts which defiled the former; and that if the children be found to hate God, and to inherit the wickedness of their predecessors, the sins of both shall be remembered in the awarding of punishment-temporal and eternal. It is consistent with the equity of divine Providence, that punishment should be inflicted on the wicked son, who treads in an unrighteous father's steps, and partakes of the same guilt for which his father was amenable to the wrath of heaven; and it is no less just that this punishment should be aggravated on account of the parent's offence, in order that the offending parent may see the sad effects of his transgression in those who are the objects of his natural affection, even, if he live, unto the third and fourth generation. It is not, however, all the sons of the idolater who shall suffer actual punishment for the father's sin, but those only who inherit his disposition to evil. All shall suffer visitation in some way, but to those who forsake iniquity, and turn unto the Lord, the consequences of the father's condemnation shall not assume the character of penal inflictions, but shall rather work together for their good, inasmuch as they love God, though their ancestors despised him. § 10. The promise of mercy which is offered, is designed no less to invite to obedience, than the above awful threat, to deter from disobedience. God will shew mercy unto thousands of them that love E 4 |