-13 Chapter 13. Of Instituted worship.

2-13 Chapter 13. Of Instituted worship.

SECOND COMMANDMENT: YOU SHALL MAKE NO GRAVEN IMAGE
1. INSTITUTED worship is the means ordained by the Will of God to exercise and further NATURAL worship.
2. All such means ordained by God are declared in the Second Commandment, by forbidding all contrary means of worship devised by men under the title of Graven Image. Seeing that of old they were the chief inventions of men corrupting the worship of God, they are most fitly (by a Synecdoche that is frequent in the Decalogue) put in place of all devices of man’s wit pertaining to worship.
3. This worship does not depend in specie,968 and immediately upon the nature of God, or upon that honour which we owe to God by virtue of our Creation, but upon the most free institution of God.
4. Hence this worship was diverse according to the diverse constitution of the Church — one before Christ was exhibited, and another after.
5. It is a means related to the natural worship of God; otherwise it would not be worship. This is because one cannot give that honour to God which is due to him — touching the essence of the act — any other way than by Faith, Hope, and Love, whereby we receive from God, with due subjection, those things he propounds to us to be received. And with the same subjection, we offer to him those things which may be offered by us to his honour. But because the acts themselves are in a special manner exercised in those things which God has instituted for his honour, they include a certain secondary worship, and a certain partaking of the former.
6. But in respect to that natural worship, instituted worship has the affection of an effect, which exists by virtue of the former worship; and the affection of a means and instrument whereby Faith, Hope, and Love (in which that worship is contained) exercise their acts; and it has the affection of an adjuvant cause,969 whereby those acts are furthered; and also the affection of an adjunct,970 to which those acts are subjected.
7. But it is properly called worship, as it is a means and helping cause of that primary worship.
8. But the command of God being given, it depends on and flows from the primary worship of God. Thus it is often persuaded and urged by those arguments which are taken from the inward and essential manner of worshipping God, as in the Second Precept. Those who love me, and keep by Commandments.971 Deuteronomy 10:12-13, What does the Lord your God require of you, but that you fear the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, that you love him, worship the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul: observing the precepts of the Lord, and his Statutes.
9. Therefore that rule of interpreting the Scriptures which tends to be delivered by some — that all those moral and immutable duties, have moral and immutable reasons joined to them 972 — is not universally true, unless it is understood that those duties follow upon those reasons, with no special command coming between. Leviticus 11:44. I am the Lord your God that sanctifies you, that you may be holy as I am holy: do not therefore defile yourselves with any creeping thing.
10. No worship of this kind is lawful, unless it has God as its the Author and ordainer. Deuteronomy 4:2, Keep all things which I shall command you; Do not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it. Deuteronomy 12:32, Everything which I command you, observe to do it: do not add to it, nor take from it. 1 Chronicles 15:13, Our Lord broke in upon us, because we did not seek him aright.
11. That is declared in these words of the Second Commandment,973 You shall not make for yourself — that is of your own brain or judgment. Though the particle “for yourself” sometimes abounds in meanings, or has another intent, here multiple meanings are excluded by the most accurate brevity of these Commandments. It is manifest that the vanity of man’s cogitations is excluded by other places of Scripture pertaining to the same thing: such as Amos 5:26, Which you made for yourselves.974 Numbers 15:39. That you do not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which when you follow; you go a whoring.
12. The same is also declared by that universality of the prohibition, which is explained in the Commandment by a distribution of the things which are in Heaven above, or in the Earth beneath, or in the Waters under the Earth.
13. For none besides God himself can either understand what will be acceptable to him, or can add that virtue to any worship whereby it may be made effectual and profitable for us. Nor can there be anything honorable to God which does not come from him as the author of it. Nor, finally, do we read that such a power was at any time given to any man by God, to ordain any worship at his own pleasure. Matthew 15:9. In vain they worship me, teaching for doctrines the precepts of men.
14. Hence implicitly, and by the interpretation of God himself, we make someone our god, and give him the honour due to God, when we subject ourselves to that person’s authority or ordinances in religious worship.
15. In this respect also, men are sometimes said to worship the Devil, when they observe those types of worship which the Devil brought in. 1 Corinthians 10:20. Leviticus 17:7. Deuteronomy 32:17.975
16. But we must observe the worship which God has appointed, with the same religion as we receive his word, or will, or call upon his name: Deuteronomy 6:17-18; Deuteronomy 12:23, Deuteronomy 12:28, Deuteronomy 13:18, Deuteronomy 28:14.976
17. Some of the means that God has ordained for this kind of worship, properly and immediately provide for exercising and furthering Faith, Hope and Charity: such as public and solemn preaching of the word, celebrating Baptism and the Lords Supper, and Prayer.
Some of them are means for the right performance of those former duties, such as combining the faithful into certain Congregations or Churches, Election, Ordination, and Ministration of Ministers ordained by God, together with the care of Ecclesiastical Discipline.
18. Those former duties are most properly the instituted worship of God; yet the rest are also worship — not only in that general respect in which all things are said to be acts of worship and religion, which in any way flow from or are guided by religion; but also in their special nature — because the adequate end and use of them, is that God may be rightly worshipped.
19. All these therefore, both general and special in nature, ought to be observed by us as they are appointed by God; for God must be worshipped by us with his own worship, totally and solely. Nothing here must be added, taken away, or changed. Deuteronomy 12:32.977
20. Some go about excusing their additions, saying that only an addition which corrupts is forbidden, but not an addition which conserves. That is a very empty distinction; because every addition, as well as detraction,978 is expressly opposed to observing or conserving the commands of God, and so it is a corruption. Deuteronomy 12:32.
21. Of a similar stamp, is that evasion by which they say that only the addition of essentials is forbidden, and not the addition of accidentals. For First, although there are accidents or certain adjuncts of worship, yet there is no worship that is to be called simply accidental, because it still has in it the very essence of worship. Secondly, the least commands of God, even to Iotaes and Tittles,979 are to be religiously observed, Matthew 5:18-48; Matthew 6:1-34; Matthew 7:1-29; Matthew 8:1-34; Matthew 9:1-38; Matthew 10:1-42; Matthew 11:1-30; Matthew 12:1-50; Matthew 13:1-58; Matthew 14:1-36; Matthew 15:1-39; Matthew 16:1-28; Matthew 17:1-27; Matthew 18:1-35; Matthew 19:1-30
So additions which seem very small, are for the same reason to be rejected. Thirdly, Moses seals up even those laws about the place of Divine worship, of the manner of it, of abstinence from blood, and the like, which must refer to accidental worship if there is any such thing, with this very caution of not adding, or taking away. Deuteronomy 12:32.
22. This observation in a special way is called obedience, because by it we do what seems right in the eyes of the Lord, though some other way may seem more right in our eyes. Deuteronomy 12:25; Deuteronomy 12:28.
23. Opposed to this instituted worship, as being unlawful, is that WILL-WORSHIP which is devised by men. Matthew 15:9; Colossians 2:23.981
24. The sin which is committed in will-worship, is called by the general name superstition.
25. SUPERSTITION is that by which undue worship is yielded to God.
26. For in superstition, God is always the object and the end in some measure, but the worship itself is unlawful.
27. It is called undue worship, either in respect to the manner or the measure of it, or in respect to the matter and substance of the worship. In the former manner, the Pharisees offended about the Sabbath, when they urged its observation as to outward rest, above the manner and measure appointed by God. And they also offended in the manner of its substance, in observing and urging their own traditions, Mark 7:8.982
28. Hence superstition is called an excess of religion, not in respect to the formal power of religion, because none can be too religious; but in respect to the acts and means of religion.
29. This excess is not only in those positive exercises which consist in the use of things, but also in abstinence from the use of some things, such as from meats which are considered unclean and unlawful, and the like.983
30. Yet every abstinence, even from lawful things, although they are considered unlawful, is not superstition properly speaking, unless there is some special worship and honour intended to God by that abstinence. 984
31. This undue worship is either properly opposed to that worship in which instituted worship is directly put forth and exercised — that is, in Hearing the Word, celebration of the Sacraments, and Prayer — or it is opposed to that which respects the means of worship.
32. Opposed to the hearing of the word is First, teaching by images devised by men, Deuteronomy 4:15-16. Isaiah 40:19; Isaiah 41:29; Jeremiah 10:8; Jeremiah 10:14; Habakkuk 2:18.985 Secondly, a vaunting of traditions, propounded as rules of religion, Matthew 7:8.
33. Religious teaching by IMAGES is condemned, First, because they are not sanctified by God to that end: Secondly, because they can neither represent God himself to us, nor the perfections of God; Thirdly, because they debase the soul, and turn the attention away from spiritual contemplation of the Will of God; Fourthly, because once they are admitted into the exercises of worship, the worship itself, by the perverseness of man’s wit, at least in part, will be transferred to them — as it is declared in those words of the Second Commandment. You shall not bow down to them, nor worship them.
34. Of a similar kind as Images, are all those ceremonies which are ordained by men for mystical or religious signification.
35. For such ceremonies have no determinate power to teach, either by any power put into them by nature, or by divine institution. And they can receive none by human institution, because man cannot effect this either by commanding (seeing that it is beyond his authority), or by obtaining (seeing that God has promised no such thing to the one that asks).
36. Nor can men take to themselves any authority in ordaining such ceremonies, because it is commanded to all Churches that all things be done decently, and in order, 1 Corinthians 14:40. For the respect of order and decency does not require that some holy things be newly ordained, but rather that those which are ordained by God, be used in that manner which is agreeable to their dignity. Nor do order and decency pertain only to holy things, but also to civil duties — for confusion and indecency in both, are vices opposite to that due manner which is required to attain their just end and use.
37. To the Sacraments are opposed. 1. Sacrifices, properly so-called, whether they are bloody or unbloody, as the Papists feign of their Mass: for after Christ was exhibited, all the old sacrifices were abrogated. Nor is there any new ordinance, because once the sacrifice of Christ was offered, we had no need for other types than those which pertain to the exhibition and sealing of Christ bestowed on us — which by God’s ordinance, is sufficiently performed in the Sacraments (without Sacrifices).
38. Also the ordination and use of new seals or ceremonies, sealing some grace of God, is opposed to the Sacraments: for it belongs to God to seal grace, to whom it also belongs to give it.
39. To prayer is opposed that relative use of Images, whereby God is worshipped at them, or before them, even though the worship is not subjectively referred to the Images themselves, as some say, but objectively referred by them to God alone.
40. Superstition of this kind is called idolatry. Exodus 32:4-5; Psalms 106:20; Acts 7:41.986
41. If they are idols which are worshipped in themselves instead of God, it is that idolatry which is against the First Commandment; but when the true God is worshipped at an Image, or in an Image, this is idolatry which is against the Second Commandment.
42. For although the intention of the one that worships is not to offend in the primary or highest object, yet from the nature of the thing itself, he always offends against the formal worship of God; and interpretatively, a new god is also pretended for the object, who is delighted with such worship; and religious worship is also given to the Image itself, even though it is not done with the purpose that such worship is finally bounded in the Image, but that it would be directed also to God himself.
43. Hence we must shun not only this idolatry, as well as that absolute idolatry which violates the First Commandment; but also the very idols, and idolothytes, or the things that are dedicated to Idols; and all the monuments (properly so-called) of Idols, 1 John 5:21; 1 Corinthians 8:10; 1 Corinthians 10:18-19; 1 Corinthians 10:21; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Numbers 33:52; Deuteronomy 12:2-3; Exodus 23:13.987
44. Superstition of the second kind is found in human forms of the Church, such as Churches that are visibly, integrally, and organically Ecumenical, Provincial, and Diocesan, brought in by men; also in the Hierarchy that is agreeable to them; and in the orders of religious persons who are found among the Papists; and in the functions and censures which are exercised by them.
45. The audaciousness of those men is intolerable, who either omit the Second Commandment, or teach that it ought to be so maimed, that it should now be read under the New Testament, You shall not adore or worship any likeness, or Image.988