II. To consider the sins forbidden in this Commandment. The general scope and design hereof, as to what concerns the negative part of it, is God’s prohibiting all false worship, either in our hearts, outward actions or gestures, whereby we adhere to our own imaginations rather than his revealed will; which is the only rule of instituted worship. The things forbidden in this commandment may be reduced to three heads;
1. A not attending on the ordinances of God with that holy, humble, and becoming frame of spirit, that the solemnity of the duties themselves, or the authority of God enjoining, or the advantages which we may expect to receive by them, call for. When we do not seriously think what we are going about before we engage in holy duties, or watch over our own hearts and affections, or else worship God in a careless and indifferent manner, in which case we may be said to draw nigh to him with our lips, while our hearts are far from him.
2. We farther break this commandment, when we invent ordinances which God has no where in his word commanded; or think to recommend ourselves to him by such gestures, or modes of worship, which we have no precedent or example for in the New Testament; this is what is generally called superstition and will-worship. Thus we read in the degenerate age of the church, that the statutes of Omri were kept, and the works of the house of Ahab, Micah vi. 16. as intimating that false worship which was practised by them. And here we cannot but observe, that there are many things in which the Papists are chargeable with superstition and will-worship, if not with idolatry. As for instance,
(1.) Their worshipping the bread in the sacrament, as supposing it to be the real body and blood of Christ, and not barely the sign thereof; understanding the words of our Saviour, in which, in instituting this ordinance, he says, This is my body, Matt. xxvi. 26. in a literal sense; whereas it ought to be taken in a figurative. Again,
(2.) Their lifting up the bread in the sacrament, pretending that this is a real offering of Christ, and, at the same time, the people being obliged to shew all possible marks of sorrow; such as beating their breasts, shaking their heads, &c. as though they really saw Christ on the cross; whereas it is a profaning the Lord’s supper, to say that Christ is really and visibly offered therein by the hands of the priest; which is contrary to what the apostle says of his being but once offered to bear the sins of many, Heb. ix. 28.
(3.) They use several superstitious ceremonies in baptism, which have, indeed, a shew of religion, but want a divine sanction, and are no other than an addition to Christ’s institution. Thus they use spittle, salt, and cream, besides the water with which the child is to be baptised, and anoint it with oil, and use exorcism, commanding the unclean spirit to depart out of it, and signing it with the sign of the cross; at which they suppose the Devil to be so terrified, that he is hereby obliged to leave it, being by this means, as it were, frighted away. But the principal reason they give for their adding this ceremony to Christ’s institution, is to signify that the child is hereby obliged to fight manfully under Christ’s banner; which obligation is neither increased nor diminished thereby; and it is a sign which he makes no mention of.
(4.) Their frequent crossing of themselves, as a preservative against sin, and a means to keep them from the power of the Devil, and to render their prayers acceptable in the sight of God.
(5.) The splendor and magnificence of their churches, and especially the shape and figure of them, as accommodated to that of Solomon’s temple, and their situation east and west; and also their bowing to the altar, which is placed in the east; for which there is not the least shadow of argument in scripture, nor example in the purest ages of the church.
(6.) The ludicrous and unwarrantable ceremonies used in the consecration of churches, and the reverence that every one must shew to places thus consecrated, though it be not in the divine worship. And to this we may add, that there are many superstitious ceremonies in consecrating all the vessels and utensils that are used in their churches; yea, the very bells are baptised, or, as they express it, consecrated that so the Devil may be afraid of the sound thereof, and keep his distance from those places of worship in which they are fixed; which charms can be reckoned no other than the sport of the powers of darkness, or looked on by them with contempt.
(7.) They ascribe a divine, yea, a meritorious virtue, to the frequent repeating the Lord’s prayer in Latin, commonly called Pater noster, and the angel’s salutation of the virgin Mary, mentioned in Luke i. 28. called Ave Maria; which words they put a corrupt sense upon, contrary to the proper meaning thereof; which, if only recited, whether understood or no, it is reckoned acceptable service.