respect unto the means of worship, whereby we are bound to worship God according to the means of his own appointment and no other.

Q. 2. What is the way and means which God hath appointed for his worship?

A. The only way and means which God hath appointed for his worship, are his ordinances which he hath appointed in his word.

Q. 3. What are the ordinances which God hath appointed in his word to be the means of worship, and in be observed by his people?

A. The ordinaces which God hath appointed in his word, to be the means of his worship, and to be observed by his people, are, 1. Prayer unto God with thanksgivings, and that publicly in assemblies, privately in families, and secretly in closets, Phil. iv. 6. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God, Eph. v. 20. Giving thanks always for all things unto God, and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Luke i. 10. And the whole multitude of the people were praying. Jer. x. 25. Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name, Matth. vi. 9. But thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which is in secret will reward thee openly. 2. Reading and searching the scriptures, Acts xv. 22. For Moses

read in the synagogue every sabbath-day, John v. 39. Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. 3. Preaching and hearing of the word, 2 Tim. iv. 2. Preach the word, being instant in season, and out of season: reprove, rebuke, exhort-with all longsuffering and doctrine, Isa. Iv. 2. Hear, and your soul shall live. 4. Singing of psalms, Psalm cxlix. 1. Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints, James v. 13. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 5. Ad ministrating and receiving the sacraments, both of

baptism and the Lord's supper, Mat. xxviii. 19. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. xi. 23, 24, 25. For I have received of the Lord, that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had 'supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood; this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 6. Fasting, Luke v. 1. But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. 7. Instructing of children and hourshold in the laws and ways of the Lord, Gen. xviii. 19. For I know him, that he will command his children, and his houshold after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, Deut. vi. 6, 7. And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, Eph. vi. 4. And ye fathers, provoke not your children unto wrath: but bring them up in the nur ture and admonition of the Lord. 8. Conference and discourse of the things of God, Mal. ii. 16. They that feared the Lord, spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, Deut. vi. 7. Thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 9. Meditation, Psal. lxxvii. 15. I will meditate of all thy works, 1 Tim. iv. 15. Meditate on these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear unto all. 10;. Vows to the Lord, Psal. lxxvi. Vow and pay unto the Lord. 11. Swearing by the name of the Lord, when lawfully called, Deut. vi. 12. Thou shalt fear the Lord God, and serve him, and swear by his name. 12. Exercise of church discipline, Mat. xviii. 15, 16, 17. If thy brother trespass sgainst thee, go and tell him of his fault between thee and him alone. If he will not hear thee, then take with

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thee one or two more: and if he neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: But if he neglect to hear the church let him be unto thee as an heathen man, and a puplican.

Q. 4. What doth God require in the second commandment, in reference to his ordinances and means of worship?

A. God in the second comandment, doth require a reference to his ordinances and means of worship: 1. The receiving of them. 2. Observing of them.3. Keeping of them pure and entire.

Q. 5. What is it to receive God's ordinances?

A. The receiving of God's ordinances, implieth an approving of them with the mind, embracement of them with the will.

Q. 6. What is it to observe God's ordinances?

A. The observing God's ordinances, implieth a doing what is required in them, a making use of them, and attending upon God in them.

Q. 7. What is it to keep pure and entire God's ordinaces?

A. The keeping pure and entire God's ordinances implieth a doing what in us lyeth to preserve the ordinances from corruption, not suffering any thing to be added to them, or taken away from them, Deut. xii. 33. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it thou shalt not add thereunto, nor diminish from it.

Q. 8. How doth it appear that the receiving, observ. ing, keeping pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed, is required in the second commandment, when it doth only forbid, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image? &c.

A. God's forbidding the making any graven image, and worshipping it doth clearly imply: 1. That God must be worshipped by some means. 2. That it is a sin to worship God by graven images. 3. That by consequence it is a sin to worship God by the means which he hath not appointed. 4. That therefore it is a duty to worship God by the means which he hath appointed, which being his ordinances, they must be received, observed, and kept pure and entire.

51. Q. What is forbidden in the second commandment?

A. The second commandment forbiddeth, the worshipping of God by images, or any other way not ap pointed in his word.

Q. 1. What is the first great sin forbidden in the second commandment?

A. The first great sin forbidden in the second com mandment is the sin of idolatry.

Q. 2. How doth the idolatry forbidden in the first commandment, differ from the idolatry forbidden in the second commandment ?

A. The idolatry forbidden in the first commandment, hath a respect unto the object, when we give that worship and honour which is due only to God unto another. The idolatry forbidden in the second commandment, hath a respect unto the means, when we worship God by images.

Q. 3. How many ways may persons be guilty of idolatry in worshipping of God by images?

A. Persons are 'guilty of idolatry in worshipping of God by images: 1. When they worship false or feigned gods (apprehending them to be cruel) by images and representations; such was the heathens idolatry, in worshipping Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, Diana, and other feigned gods, and goddesses, by their images in their idolatrous temples. 2. When they worship the true God, in or by any image or representation of him, whether it be by any thing in heaven or in the earth, or in the waters, as in the commandment: Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image, or the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or earth beneath, or water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down to them and serve them, Deut. iv. 15, 16. Take ye heed therefore to yourselves, for ye saw no manner of similitude in the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb, lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, Exod. xxxiii. 8. They have made them a molten calf, and ye have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, these be thy gods,

Israel, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt. 3. When they have in their worship carnal imaginations, and representations of God in their minds, as if he were an old man sitting in heaven, or the like.

Q. 4. Why, may we not make use of images for our help in the worship of God?

A. No. 1. Because God hath absolutely forbidden it. 2. Because images are not a real help, but an hinderance of devotion; they tending to lessen God in our esteem, who being the living God, and superlatively excellent, and infinitely removed above all his creatures, cannot without great reflection or dishonour upon him, be represented by a dead image.

Q. 5. Is it not lawful to have images, or pictures of God by us, so we do not worship them, nor God by them?

A. The images or pictures of God are an abominanation, and utterly unlawful, because they do debase God, and may be a cause of idolatrous worship.

Q. 6. Is it not lawful to have pictures of Jesus Christ, he being man as well as God?

A. It is not lawful to have pictures of Jesus Christ, because his divine nature cannot be pictured at all, anci because his body as it is now glorified, cannot be pictured as it is; and because if it do not stir up devotion, it is in vain; if it do stir up devotion, it is a worshipping by an image or picture, and so a palpable breach of the second commandment.

Q. 7. What is the second great sin against the second commandment?

A. The second great sin against the second commandment is superstition.

Q. 8. What is the superstition forbidden in the second commandment?

A. The superstition forbidden in the second commandment, is the worshipping of God by any other way, or by any other means than what he hatlı appointed in his word: and thus adding human inventions unto God's institutions, which is will-worship, and condemned by the apostle, Col. ii. 20, 21, 22, 24.