What is required in the second commandment?
The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances, as God hath appointed in his word.
Proofs
- The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances, as God hath appointed in his word. (Deuteronomy 32:46; Matthew 23:20; Acts 2:42)
Additional Exposition
Section 1
May civil honour be given to creatures?
Answer: Yes.
Proof: Thy father’s children shall bow down before thee, (Genesis 49:8)
But is divine worship due only to God?
Answer: Yes.
Proof: Him only shalt thou serve, (Matthew 4:10)
Is the light of nature sufficient to direct us in the worship of God?
Answer: No.
Proof: Whom ye ignorantly worship, (Acts 17:23)
Should we therefore have recourse to the written word?
Answer: Yes.
Proof: And (Joshua 8:31)
Practical response
Should all God’s ordinances be received?
Answer: Yes.
Proof: Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, (Job 22:22)
And observed?
Answer: Yes.
Proof: Ye shall observe my statutes, (Leviticus 19:37)
And kept pure without adulteration?
Answer: Yes.
Proof: And thou not unto his’ words, (Proverbs 30:6)
And entire without diminution?
Answer: Yes.
Proof: Ye have not kept my ways, but “have been partial in my law, (Malachi 2:9)
Is this especially the duty of ministers?
Answer: Yes.
Proof: The good thing which was committed to thee keep, (2 Timothy 1:14)
Section 3
May not our own fancies be the rule of our worship?
Answer: No.
Proof: Remember the commandments of the Lord, and seek not after your own heart, and your own eyes, (Numbers 15:39)
Nor the customs of men?
Answer: No.
Proof: After the doings of the land of Egypt, and after the doings of the land of Canaan, ye shall not do, (Leviticus 18:3)
Nor the prescriptions of superiors?
Answer: No.
Proof: Be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy Gods, (Daniel 3:18)
Should we therefore keep close to God’s word as our rule?
Answer: Yes.
Proof: And look that thou make them after the pattern, (Exodus 25:40)
Nor be affrighted therefrom by the greatest reproaches or sufferings?
Answer: No.
Proof: None of these things move me, (Acts 20:24)