Note 20 — Chapter XVI · OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD UNDER THE OLD COVENANT.

In images made with hands. In chap. XV. art. 14, there we have showed such a kind of worship to be irrational. But if it be done by the command of a city, to whom the written word of God is not known nor received, we have then showed this worship (in article 18) to be rational. But where God reigns by way of covenant, in which it is expressly warned not to worship thus, as in the covenant made with Abraham; there, whether it be with or without the command of the city, it is ill done.