Select Page

Q&A 43-44 Of the Preface to the Commandments

How can Deliverance out of Egypt, be an Argument to them that never were in Egypt?  A. As that Deliverance was a Type of our Deliverance, so it is an Argument to us, and an Argument from the less to the greater; so it obligeth us more than them, Luke 1:74-75 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the Hand of our Enemies, might serve him without Fear, in Holiness and Righteousness before him all the Days of our Life.

Q&A 45 Of the First Commandment

How doth the Idolatry forbidden in the first, different from that forbidden in the second Commandment? A. The Idolatry forbidden in the first Commandment is a Sin respecting the Object of Worship, when we set up any Thing in the Place of God, which by Nature is not God, Gal 4:8 Howbeit then when ye knew not God, ye aid Service unto them which by Nature are no Gods.  But that against the second Commandment is, when we pretend to worship the true God, but do it by such Means, and in such a Manner as he hath not required, or hath forbidden, Exo 32:4-5 And he received them at their Hands, and fashioned it with a graving Tool, after he had made a molten Calf, and they said, These be thy Gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the House of Egypt.

Q&A 49 Of the Second Commandment

Do they [the Roman church] not clear themselves from  Idolatry, by telling us they only worship God before, or by them, but not the Images themselves?  A. No, they do not; for the Use of Images in God’s  Worship is expressly condemned in this Commandment and if this would excuse the Papists it had also excused the Israelites in worshipping the Calf, Exo 32:4–[see quote above, he only uses part of it again “these be…”, note that Flavel uses the English text he has though his interpretation (which is correct) assumes that the Israelites were attempting to worship the true God by the golden calf]