не fond of falfe and fuperftitious religions, SER M. clinations, I Tim. vi. SER M.clinations, and entirely Servants and Slaves HI. to their pleasures; therefore the Apostle elegantly represents Thefe alfo, as figurative Idolaters; whofe God is there Belly, Phil. iii. 19; and who ferve not our Lord Jefus Chrift, but their own Belly, Rom. xvi. 18. HAVING thus at large explained the Nature, Kinds, and Degrees of Idolatry in the literal fense; and in what manner 'tis fometimes applied alfo figuratively to Other Vices: I fhall conclude with a general Obfervation, or two, upon the whole. And Ift, I OBSERVE, that Idolatry is a Crime which all men hugely deteft the Name of, and yet it is very apt to grow upon fuperftitious perfons by infenfible degrees. Thus the Jews, tho' God had given them the most exprefs Command in the World, that as they had never feen any fimilitude of him, so they should never reprefent him by any Image, or by the Likeness of Any Creature whatfoever; yet first they fet up in the wildernefs the golden Calf, upon a particular occafion; and afterwards they efta blished III. blished Jeroboam's calves, in Dan and SER M. Bethel, for a conftancy; as reprefentations of the True God and from thence they fell to worship the Image of Baal, who was a Falfe God: And, by degrees, the Gods of the Nations, whom the Lord had caft out from before them, crept in amongst them; Till at length they proceeded to that Heighth of Impiety, as to Sacrifice even their own children to Moloch. In like manner among Chriftians, departed Saints were at first very honourably spoken of, as having been Martyrs for the Word of God, and for the Teftimony of Jefus; and their Relicks began to be had in esteem, as Memorials of them. Afterwards, This veneration towards them increased, to the fetting them up as Advocates and Interceffors with God; which was directly idolizing them, them, to the great diminution of the Honour due to Christ our Only Mediator. the In order to preserve the Remembrance of these Saints better, Pictures and Images were introduced; first as hiftorical reprefenta tions only, to affift the Memory: But after SERM.after a while, peculiar Favours and Blef III. fings, and a fingular efficaciousness of Prayers, were believed to be annexed to the places wherein fuch Images, or fuch or fuch a particular Image was set up: Juft as Balaam, when God would not permit him to curfe Ifrael from One bill, fanfied he might curfe them from Another. And at laft, when This corruption arrived at its heighth, the Worship came to be paid directly to the Images themselves, even to wood and ftone; men who called themselves Chriftians, falling down to the stock of a Tree; to idols that have eyes and fee not, and ears and hear not: They that make them, are like unto them, and fo are all fuch as put their trust in them, Pf. cxv. 8. 2dly, I OBSERVE, that in the whole Scripture-history, there is no Crime attended with a greater general corruption of manners, or conftantly threatned with a feverer Punishment, than this of Idolatry in every kind and degree of it. Among the Heathens, for This cause, fays St Paul, (for their departing from the Law of Nature in This point,) God gave men up unto vile affections, and SER M. And for This cause originally, did God root F and unto III. |