to have a vifible Representation of the Divine Prefence with them, faying to Aaron (n), Make us Gods to go before us: Had they defired it as the ultimate Object of their Adoration, and not rather as a Medium whereby to adore God, Aaron would doubtlefs never have confented to a Compliance with their Demand; nor would they have propofed fuch a thing to him, who was the Prieft of God; it was certainly a very heinous Sin in him to confent to make them any Reprefentation of God; contrary to his exprefs Command delivered from Mount Sinai but a little before (o); but it would have been a much greater Sin in him to have made it as the final Object of their Worship; as very God! Befides, they had been brought out of the Land of Egypt by mighty Signs and Wonders, which they were fatisfied were wrought by the Power of an omnipotent Being; and therefore could not poffibly believe the Calf, that they themfelves faw made and fashioned before their Eyes, out of the golden Ear-rings which they gave Aaron for that Purpofe, could be that very God that had done all thofe Wonders for them. So that, when they cried out (p), Thefe be thy Gods, O Ifrael, which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt (which is the very Preface that God was pleased to make ufe of (q) before the Ten Commandments) they must mean only, that they thought the Divine Prefence of that great and omnipotent God, which had brought them out (n) Exod. xxxii. 1. (0) Exod. xx. 4. of of the Land of Egypt with fuch mighty Signs. and Wonders, and in fo miraculous a Manner, was refident in or with that golden Calf. And this may be further gathered from what Aaron himself did at that Time; for it is faid, he built an Atar before it, and made Proclamation, faying (r), To-morrow is a Feaft to the Lord; where, by the Word Lord, is meant the Almighty God, because the Word there ufed is the Word Jehovah, which, I think, is generally allowed never to be used in the Holy Scripture, but when the Almighty God is fpoken of. The Idolatry of the Calves, which Jeroboam made and placed in Bethel and Dan, was also of this kind: For he made thofe Images, fearing the People might return to their old Mafter (s) Rehoboam, the King of Judah, if they fhould go up at the stated Times to facrifice in the House of the Lord in Jerufalem; to prevent which, it is faid, he took Counfel, that is, he contrived to render their going up to worship at Jerufalem unneceffary, by providing them with visible Mediums, whereby to worship the invifible God, telling the People (t), that it was too much (too far) for them to go up to Jerufalem, but that nevertheless they might worship that God which brought them out of the Land of Egypt, by the Calves, the Symbols of his Prefence, which he had caufed to be made, and placed, for their greater Eafe and Convenience, in thofe two Places. His offering Sacrifice before these Calves (r) Exod. xxxii. 5. (s) 1 Kings xii. 27. was was paying divine Honour to a Creature, which is a Sin of fo heinous a Nature, as to be the Caufe that Jeroboam is feldom mentioned in Scripture without this particular Characteristick, that it was he that made Ifrael to fin. For the Sin laid to his Charge was not the worshipping thofe Calves as the final Object of his Worship, as being very Gods; but the worfhipping God by a Similitude, contrary to the fecond Commandment delivered to that People at Mount Sinai; for by that Commandment the outward and bodily Worship is forbid, as the inward and mental is by the firft. Nor could it be any Juftification of Jeroboam, that he intended the People fhould worship the true God by the Similitude of a Calf (as may be concluded from his ordaining Feafts (u) to be kept to them, like unto those which were in Judah) for whatever the Intention was, he was nevertheless guilty of Idolatry, becaufe worshipping any Similitude was forbidden (x); the tranfgreffing whereof was the Reafon of his being threatened to be fo feverely and exemplarily punished. It is also further to be obferved, that Jeroboam is blamed for having made Priefts of the high Places (y) out of the lowest of the People, which were not of the Sons of Levi; which he would not have been reproved for, had thofe Priests been defigned to ferve before thofe Calves, as falfe Gods; but it was their being defigned to ferve before them, (y) 1 Kings (u) 1 Kings xii. 32. (x) Deut. iv. 15, 16, 17, 18. 1 Kings xiii. 4. xii. 31. xiii. 33. xiv. 10, 11, 12, 13. as mages ap pointing those Priests a Sin to Jeroboam. It was their being ordained to that Office, contrary to the pofitive Command of God (who forbad (z) that any befides the Children of Aaron and Levi, fhould minister in his Service) which occafioned the cutting off (a) and the deftroying his Family from off the Face of the Earth. Jehu also served the Lord after the Manner of this forbidden Worship, and called the Priests of the Calves (b) the Servants of the Lord, in Contradiftinction to the Priefts of Baal, which laft he utterly deftroyed: The Worship of which falfe God was introduced by Ahab, with this emphatical Aggravation, that he was not content to continue the Worship of the Calves, which was the Sin of Jeroboam (c), but finned yet more, for he brought in the Worship of the Image Baal, an Idol of the Sidonians, made in Honour of the Sun. And Jehoram, the Son of Ahab, though he followed the Sins of Jeroboam, is faid (d), not to have finned like his Father Ahab, for he put away the Image of Baal which his Father had made. And that the Priefts of the Calves were thofe whom Jebu calls the Servants of the Lord, may be further gathered from hence, that he being King of Ifrael, and not of Judah, could have none of the Priests of the Lord of the Family of Levi, for he could not have any of the Children of Aaron for Priefts, or of the other Branches of the (z) Numb. i. 51. xviii. 22. (a) 1 Kings xiii. (b) 2 Kings x. 23. (c) 1 Kings xvi. 30, 31, 32, 33. (d) 2 Kings iii. 2, 3. 34. Houfe Houfe of Levi, to minifter in the other facred Offices; because the Children of Aaron and the other Levites officiated only in the Temple at Jerufalem, where the Worship of God was duly and rightly adminiftered, according to his own Appointment in the Law of Mofes. The Inference that I fhall draw from the long Account I have thus given of the Idolatry committed by the Children of Ifrael, in the Worfhip of the golden Calf in the Wilderness, and of thofe that were made by Jeroboam upon the Separation of the two Kingdoms of Ifrael and Judah, is this, viz. That fince God Almighty taxes the Children of Ifrael in both thofe Instances with being guilty of the heinous Sin of Idolatry, though thofe Images were made only as external Signs of God's Presence amongst them, and defigned by them to be only Helps to their Devotion, by being vifible Reprefentations, placed before their Eyes, which that grofs People fancied they ftood in Need of, to fix their Minds in the Adorations they were to pay to God Almighty by thofe Mediums: The Papifts are equally guilty of Idolatry, when they make use of any Images or Symbols placed before their Eyes, as intermediate Helps to fix their Thoughts upon God; who will have a truer and more fpiritual (e) Worship paid to him; and who has not only forbidden all Attempts to liken or represent him under the Jewish Law; whether by Gods of Silver or Gods of Gold, or by (e) John iv. 24. Isaiah xl. 18. 25. Exod. xx. 23. Levit. xxvi. 1. Deut. v. 8,9. |