1

V.

our Saviour calls (in the words before the SER M,
Text) the True worshippers Worshipping
bim in Truth. Now This fort of Falfe
worship, is That which thofe Heathens
are charged with, Rom. i. 21. who, when
they knew God, yet glorified him not as

-but became vain in their ima-
God,-
tginations,- and changed the Glory of
1 the uncorruptible God, into an Image made
like to corruptible man, and to Birds and
four-footed Beafts and creeping things.
And the Jews were ftill more inexcufably
guilty of it, when in the wilderness they
worshipped the Golden Calf, most ab-
furdly, as an Emblem or reprefentation of
the God of Heaven; and in Jerufalem
itself, when they fet up high places, not
in oppofition indeed to the True God, but
in oppofition to the Temple, in oppofition
to that Place of worship, which he Him-
felf had chofen to place his Name there.
And when in Dan and Bethel they fet up
Calves, not indeed as Falfe Gods, like the
Worshippers of Baal; but as falfe and
abfurd representations of the God of If-
rael. And the Samaritans, 2 Kings xvii.
24. when they worshipped God, not as

the

SER M. the Supreme Lord of all things, but as

V.

the God of the Land, the God of That

And corrupt Chriinexcufably of all;

when, notwithstanding fo many repeated Declarations of the Will of God to the contrary, they yet continue to worship him thro' False Mediators, through the pretended Interceffion of Saints and Angels and of the Bleffed Virgin, whom he hath not appointed to any fuch Office: And when moreover, by introducing Images, not only of Chrift, but even of God himfelf, they totally deftroy the Spiritual Purity of the Gospel-worship

Now the reasons why this particular Species of Idolatry, this worshipping the True God under Falfe Images, is so severely condemned in Scripture; are principally

these two.

ift, BECAUSE it tends to fubvert the Great and Primary Foundation of all Religion, by giving men mean and unworthy Notions of God, confining his Prefence, and falfely fuppofing that there can be any fuch Thing as a Similitude or Reprefentation of him. Forafmuch (faith the Apostle)

postle) as we are the off-fpring of God, SER M (forafmuch as even we ourselves are ra- V. tional Beings, and our Minds far fuperiour to any corporeal Representation,) we ought not (faith he) to think that the Godhead is like unto (that is, can in any manner be represented by,) Gold or Silver, or Stone graven by Art and Man's device, Acts xvii. 29. The Heathens, knowing that God was every where present, first worshipped him in the Sun and Stars, as the most illuftrious Inftruments of his Power, and the best Visible Representations of his glorious Greatnefs and Goodness. Then they foon fell to worship the Sun and Stars, themfelves, inftead of the God who made thofe bright Luminaries, and whom they fuppofed to be in them. And from thence by degrees they descended to worship the meaneft plant; and at laft Wood and Stone, even the workmanship of their own hands. The Jews in like manner, I wish it could not be faid that Chriftians also, from beginning to make imaginary reprefentations of God, quickly fell by degrees from more refined Idolatry, to worshipping at laft, in the moft ftupid manner, even VOL I. Stocks

I

SER M. Stocks and Stones.

V.

Jer. x. 14.

Jon. ii. 8.

This being in the highest degree contrary to the Precept of worshipping God according to Truth, 'tis with great Elegancy and juft Sharpness of Reproof, that, in the Old Teftament, Idols are frequently ftiled Falfhood, and Am. ii. 4 Lyes, and Lying Vanities; and the Makers Hab ii. 18. thereof, Teachers of Lyes; and in the New Teftament likewife, Idolaters are called, by way of Eminence, Lyars, Rev. xxi. 8. and whosoever loveth or maketh a Lye, ch. xxi. 27, xxii. 15; and that they turn the Truth of God into a Lye, Rom. i. 25. To prevent fo great a Corruption of the first Principles of Religion in the Notion of a Deity, the fecond Commandment is delivered in larger and more explicit Terms than any of the reft: Thou shalt not make to thyfelf any graven Image, nor the Likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above, or in the Earth beneath, or in the Waters under the Earth; that is, Thou fhalt not think fo meanly and unworthily of God, as to imagine that He who made all things, can be reprefented by any Similitude of the things that are made. And 'tis with great elegancy of expreffion,

that

ye

that the Prophet Ifaiah derides the Makers SERM, of Images, ch. xl. 18. To whom will liken God. or what likeness will ye compare unto him? The workman melteth a graven Image, and the goldfmith Spreadeth it over with gold, and cafteth filver chains.

2dly, THE other reafon, why this Idolatry is fo feverely condemned in Scripture, is because it always tends to corrupt mens Manners, and to introduce all fort of Wickedness. St Paul, in his whole first chapter to the Romans, largely fhows, how the Heathens, when they changed the Truth of God into a Lye, were confequently given up unto vile affections among themselves; and their own Hiftories show, that, departing from the natural Notion of God, they came at length even to hu- Tantum man Sacrifices, and fuch other Cruelties, potuit fuareligio as no other principle, how corrupt foever, dere mabut only This of Idolatrous Superftion, could have led men to. The Jews in like manner, whenever they fell into Idolatry, their whole History shows, how it totally destroy'd all Sense of Virtue out of their minds, and they came at laft to facrifice even their own children to Moloch.

I 2

And

fad

lorum.