The Theater of Gods Judgments, Book 1 · Chapter 22
CHAP XXII. Touching the transgressors of the second Commandement, by Idolatry.
WE have hitherto seene how and in what sort they, that either by malice, or impiety, or Apostasie, or heresie, or otherwise have transgressed the first Commandement have been punished: Let us now consider the judgements that have befallen Idolaters, the breakers of the second Commandement. But before we proceed, wee must know, that as it is required of us by the first Commandement, to hold God for our true and onelyonly God, to repose all our whole trust and confidence in him, and call upon him, serve and worship him alone; so in the second to this the contrary to this is forbidden; which is, to doe any manner of service, honour, and reverence by devotion to Idols, forasmuch he is a Spirit (that is to say, of a spirituall nature and Essence, which is infinite and incomprehensible) so loveth he a spirituall Iohn 4.worship and service, which is answerable to his nature, and not by Images and pictures, and such other outward and corruptible means, which he hath in no wise commanded: wherefore Isaiah the Prophet reproving the folly and vanity of Idolaters, saith, To whom will you liken God, or what similitude will you set up unto him: Therefore if it be not Gods will, that under pretence and colour of his owne name, any Image or picture should be adored (being a thing not only inconvenient, but also absurd and unseemly) much lesse can hee abide to have them worshipped under the name and title of any creature whatsoever. And for this cause gave he the second Commandement, Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image &c. which prohibition Chap. 40. 18.the Israelites brake in the desart, when they set up a golden calfe, and bowed themselves before it after the manner of the Paynims, giving it the honour which was onelyonly due to God: whereby they incurred the indignation of Almighty God, who is strong and jealous of suffe…ing any such slander to be done unto his name: wherefore he caused th…e thousand of them to be stroken and wounded to death by the hand of the Levites, at the commandement of Moses, to make his anger against Idolatry more Exod. 32.manifest, by causing them to be executioners of his revenge, who were ordained for the ministry of his Church, and the service of the Altar and Tabernacle. Howbeit for all this, the same people not long after, fell back into the same sin, and bowed themselves befere strange gods, and through the allurements of the daughters of Moab, joyned themselves to Belphegor: Numb. 27.for which cause the Lord being insenced, stroke them with so grievous a plague, that there died of them in one day about twenty and foure thousand persons.
And albeit that after all this, being brought by him into the land of promise, he had forbidden and threatned them, for cleaving to the Idols of the nations, whose land they possessed, yet were they so prone to Idolatry, that notwithstanding all this, they fell to serve Baal and Astaroth: wherefore the fire of Gods wrath was inflamed against them, and he gave them over to be a spoyle and prey unto their enemies on every side, so that for many yeares, sometimes the Moabites oppressed them, otherwhiles the Madianites, and ever after the death of any of their Iudges and Rulers which God raised up for their deliverance, some grievous punishment befell them: for then (being without law or government) every man did that which seemed good in his owne eyes, and so turned aside from the right way.
Now albeit these examples may seeme to have some affinity with Apostasie, yet because the ignorance and rudenesse of the people was rather the cause of their falling away from God, than any wilfull affection that raigned in them, therefore we place them in this ranke, as well as they have bin alwaies brought up and nuzled in Idolatry.
One of this c…w was Ochosias King of Iuda, sonne of Ioram, who having 2 Chron 22.before him an evill president of his wicked father, and a worse instruction and bringing up of his mother Athaliah, who together with the house of Achab pricked him forward to evill, joyned himselfe to them and to their Idols, and for that cause was wrapped in the same punishment and destruction with Ioram the King of Israel, whom Iehu slew together with the Princes of Iuda, and many of his neere kinsmen.
And to be short, Idolatry hath been the decay and ruine of the kingdome of Iuda, as at all other times, so especially under Ioachas sonne of Iosias, 2 Kings 23.that raigned not above three moneths in Ierusalem, before he was taken and led captive into Aegypt by the King thereof, and there died: from which time the whole land became tributary to the King of Aegypt.
And not long after, it was utterly destroyed by the forces of Nabuchadnezzar King of Babel, that came against Ierusalem and tooke it, and carried 2 Kings 24. 25King Ioachim with his mother, his Princes, his servants, and the treasurers of the Temple, and his owne house, into Babylon; and finally tooke Zedechias that fled away, and before his eyes caused his sonnes to be slaine: which as soone as he had beheld, commanded them also to be pulled out, and so binding him in chaines of yron, carried him prisoner to Babylon; putting all the Princes of Iudah to the sword, consuming with fire the Temple, with the Kings Palace, and all the goodly buildings of Ierusalem. And thus the whole kingdome (though by an especiall prerogative, consecrated and ordained of God himselfe) ceased to be a kingdome, and came to such an end, that it was never re-established by God: it is no marvell then if the like hapned to the kingdome of Israel, which was after a sort begun and confirmed by the filthy idolatry of Ieroboams calves, which as his successors maintained or favoured more or lesse, so were they exposed U idel. 1. c. 19to more or lesse plagues and incumbrances.
Nadab, Ieroboams sonne, being nuzled and nurtured up in Idoll worship, 1 Kings 15. 27after the example of his father, received a condigne punishment for his iniquity: for Baasa the sonne of Ahijah put both him and all the off spring of Ieroboams house to the sword, and raigned in his stead: who also being no whit better than those whom he had slaine, was punished in the person of Ela his sonne, whom Zambri also his servant slew. And this againe usurping the crowne, enjoyed it but seven dayes, at the end whereof (seeing himselfe in danger in the city of Tirza, taken by Amri, whom the people had chosen for their King) went into the palace of the Kings house, and burned himselfe.
As for Achab, he multiplied Idolatry in Israel, and committed more wickednesse than all his predecessors, wherefore the wrath of God was stretched out against him and his; for he himselfe was wounded to death in battell by the Syrians, his son Ioram slain by Iehu, and threescore and ten of his children put to death in Samaria by their governors and chiefe of the city, sending their heads in baskets to Iehu.
Above all, a most notable and manifest example of Gods judgement was seene in the death of Iezabel his wife, that had been his spurre and provoker to all mischiefe, when by her Eunuchs and most trusty servants, at the commandement of Iehu, she was throwne downe out of a window, and trampled under the horse feet, and last of all devoured of dogs. Moreover, the greatest number of the kings of Israel that succeeded him, were murthered one after another: so that the kingdome fell to such a low decline, that it became first tributary to the King of Assyria, and afterward invaded and subverted by him, and the inhabitants transported into his land, whence they never returned, but remained scattered here and there like vagabonds, and all for their abhominable Idolatry. Which ought to be a lesson to all people, Princes, and Kings, that seeing that God spared not these two Realmes of Iuda and Israel, but destroyed and rooted them out from the earth, much lesse will he spare any other kingdome and Monarchy which continue by their Images and Idol-worship, to stirre up his indignation against them.