Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

which has ever been difcovered by mankind, and the dreadful confequences of it with refpect to the depravity which it has never failed to introduce into the fentiments and hearts of men, and the abominable and horrid customs which it has occafioned refpecting fociety. Idolatry has never failed to infinuate itfelf, under fome form or other, isto every difpenfation of religion, infomuch, that even chriftianity has by no means efcaped this dreadful corruption.

Having undertaken to exhibit what it is that we learn from revelation, I fhall also endeavour to give fome idea of the relative importance of every article of faith, by noting the degree of ftrefs which the facred writers lay upon each of them; and I do not think that I can do my duty, and fulfil my engagements in this refpect, without reciting a confiderable number of paffages from the books both of the Old and New Teftament on this fubject, and more especially from the former, which relates to the times in which idolatry was peculiarly prevalent. To preferve in the world the knowledge and worship of the one true God, feems, indeed, to have been the principal object of the whole Jewifh difpenfation; and, therefore, we are not furprized that our attention is conftantly kept up to it through the whole of the Old Teftament hiftory. Befides, we are apt to lofe our idea, not only of the relative, but also of the real import

ance

ance of this doctrine, without recurring to, and reflecting upon what we read in the Old Teftament concerning it.

[ocr errors]

The firft of the Ten Commandments pronounced by an audible and fupernatural voice from mount Sinai, in the hearing of all the Ifraelites, relates to this fubject only, Ex. xx. 3. "Thou fhalt "have no other gods before me.' The fame doctrine of the unity of God, and the fentiments which refult from it, are also frequently inculcated in all the writings of Mofes; as Deut. vi. 4. "Hear, O Ifrael, the Lord our God is one Lord; " and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all "thine heart, and with all thy foul, and with all "thy might."

28-30,

This paffage of Mofes is alfo quoted by our Lord, as containing the first and the most important of all the commandments in the Law, Mark xii. "And one of the fcribes came and asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? "And Jefus anfwered him, The first of all the "commandments is, Hear, O Ifrael, the Lord 66 our God is one Lord; and thou fhalt love the "Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all "thy foul, and with all thy mind, and with all "thy ftrength. This is the first commandment."

The divine being himself, in a very emphatical manner, afferts his fole title to divinity in If. xliv. 6. Thus faith the Lord, the king of Ifrael, and

"his his redeemer, the Lord of hofts. I am the firft, " and I am the laft, and befides me there is no "God. Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not "I told thee from that time, and have declared "it? Ye are even my witneffes. Is there a God " befides me? yea, there is no God, I know not «any."

The fame doctrine is not only always fuppofed, but it is likewife frequently and very exprefsly inculcated in the New Teftament; as in 1 Tim. ii. 5. "There is one God, and one mediator be"tween God and men, the man Christ Jesus ;" and, 1 Cor. viii. 4. &c. "We know that an "idol is nothing in the world, and that there is

none other God but one. For though there be "that are called gods, whether in heaven or in

earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many). "but to us there is but one God, the Father, of "whom are all things, and we in him; and one "Lord Jefus Chrift, by whom are all things, and "we by him." The Apostle James also mentions this doctrine in fuch a manner as plainly fhews that he confidered it as the most incontestable maxim in religion. Jam. ii. 19. "Thou believeft "that there is one God; thou doft well."

The worship of the true God by images, or fymbols, &c. is also most exprefsly forbidden in the Old Testament. This fpecies of idolatry was commonly practised at the time of the promulga

tion of the Law, and the fecond of the Ten Commandments is appropriated to the prohibition of it. Ex. XX. 4, &c. "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 waters under "the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyfelf "to them, nor ferve them: for I the Lord thy "God am a jealous God, vifiting the iniquity of "the fathers upon the children unto the third and "fourth generation of them that hate me; and "fhewing mercy unto thousands of them that love "me, and keep my commandments."

To enforce this command, Mofes is particularly careful to remind the Ifraelites, that when God fpake to them from mount Sinai, they faw no refemblance whatever, but only heard a voice, Deut. iv. 12. &c. "And the Lord fpake unto you out "of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of "the words, but faw no fimilitude, only ye heard "a voice. Take ye, therefore, good heed to "yourfelves, for ye faw no manner of fimilitude "on the day that the Lord fpake unto you in Ho❝reb, out of the midst of the fire, left ye corrupt

ઃઃ

yourfelves, and make you a graven image, the "fimilitude of any figure, the likeness of male or

female; the likenefs of any beaft that is on the "earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, the likeness of any thing that creep• eth

"eth on the ground, the likeness of any fifh that "is in the water beneath the earth. And left thou

lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou "feeft the fun, and the moon, and the stars, even "all the hoft of heaven, fhouldeft be driven to "worship them, and ferve them, which the Lord "thy God hath divided unto all nations under the "whole heaven. But the Lord hath taken you, " and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, 66 even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of "inheritance, as ye are this day."

The reafon of this prohibition feems to be, that, in confequence of making ufe of images, though only as fymbols, or tokens of the divine prefence, divine powers will at length, by the natural affociation of ideas, be transferred to them, and will be fuppofed to refide in them, and to belong to them. This, indeed, has always been, in fact, the progrefs of human fentiments. Otherwife different images of the fame god in the heathen world, or of the fame faint in popish countries, could never have been imagined to be poffeffed of different powers, which is well known to be the cafe; so that whatever may have been the origin of this mode of worship, and in whatever light it may be viewed by the more intelligent of thofe who practife and apologife for it, with the common people, at least, it is, in reality, nothing but the worship of wood, and tone, and metal; and in this light

it

« AnteriorContinua »