from bis Kindred, and from his Father's SER M. boufe, Gen. xii. 1. And afterwards in III. the kingdom of Ifrael, Baal; concerning whom we find Elijah thus fpeaking to the people; If Jehovah be God, follow, Kings him; but if Baal, then follow him; This xvii. 21. Baal (I fay) was no other than [ Belus] an antient King of Affyria, whose Worship Abab had established in fuch direct oppofition to the Worship of the God of

Heaven.

idolatry of those

2. THE next Species of Idolatry, is, when men fet up Falfe Gods, not indeed totally in exclufion of, but in conjunction with the Worship of the One True God of the Universe. Of This kind was the Heathens, who though they knew and acknowledged the True God, from that Light of Nature and Reafon and the Works of Creation, which the before-mentioned more stupid Idolaters had no regard to; yet at the fame time they worshipped also many Other imaginary Deities, as Parts or Branches or particular Manifeftations of the Supreme Being, in particular Places or VOL. I.

E 2

1

upon

SER M. upon particular occafions. Not much unIII. like to which, was the Practice of those

Samaritans, 2 Kings xvii. 33 and 4I. who feared the Lord, and yet at the fame time, as the Text tells us, ferved alfo their own Gods after the Manner of the Nations. Under the fame Head, may be reduced the opinion of the Syrians in Ahab's time; who fancied that different parts of the World, were under the dominion and government of different Gods: Concerning whom we read, 1 Kings xx. 28. that the Syrians faid, The Lord is God of the Hills, but he is not God of the Vallies. Laftly, of the same kind was the idolatrous notion of the phantal Manichees in later times, even fince the ma idolo- times of the Gofpel; who taught that Jays Irene-Good proceeded from a Supreme AlmighValenti- ty Good Being, and that at the fame time nian Ema- Evil proceeded from another equally Supreme All-powerful Evil Being.

Habentes

latriæ.

us of the

nations.

3. A Third Sort or Degree of Idolatry, is, when men worship indeed the True God, and Him Only, but yet after an idolatrous Manner; reprefenting him under vifible and corporeal Images.

God

III.

is a fpiritual Being; a Being of infinite SER M. Greatness, Power and Majefty; whom the Heavens, and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain. And 'tis the greatest indignity imaginable to conceive, that he who made the World and all things that are therein, who giveth unto All Life and Breath, and whofe Offspring (or the Work of whofe hands) even Men and all rational Spirits are, fhould himself be like unto (or can be represented by). gold, A&s xvii. or filver, or ftone graven by Art and 29. Man's Device. And therefore 'tis with great Juftice that St Paul reproves even the Heathen-world, in that, when they knew God by the Light of Nature and Reason, yet, contrary to reafon, they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God, into an Image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beafts, and creeping things, Rom. i. 23. To the Jews, God, in the Second Commandment, confirmed this Law of Nature, by a literal and exprefs prohibition, that they should 'not make to themselves any image or reprefentation of him, under the fimilitude of any creature whatsoever; of any thing ei

E 3

ther

SERM. ther in the Heavens, Earth, or Water;
III. of Sun, Moon, or Stars; of Men, Beafts,

or Fifoes. To reprefent God, the in-
vifible Author of all Good, under the
likeness of thofe moft excellent of all
the vifible parts of the creation, those
most beneficial inftruments and conveyers
of his Bleffings to Mankind, the Sun,
Moon, and Stars; which in Scripture
is called worshipping the Hoft of Hea-
ven: To This, I fay, one may poffibly
conceive, how in the days of ignorance
there might be fome Temptation: And
therefore, not
not without very apparent
reason, the Scripture is diftinct and par-
ticular, in fetting forth how all these
things were brought into Being, merely
by His Will and Power; that for His
pleasure alone they Are, and were created;
that the Heavens are the Work of His
bands, and that 'tis His Sun that fhineth
on the evil and on the good. Alfo, Man
being the Lord of this lower world; that
weak minds fhould be tempted to repre-
fent God under a Humane fimilitude,
This likewife may cafily be accounted

for.

for. But that any one fhould ever be foSER M. abfurd, as to represent the Almighty Lord III. and Father of the Universe, under the likeness of Birds, and Beafts, and creeping things; This is a degree of ftupidity that would be altogether incredible, did not profane history affure us of the Folly of the Egyptians in this kind, and the sacred biftory give us a very particular Account how the Jews themselves in the wilderness changed their glory into the fimilitude of a calf that eateth hay; faying, This is the God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and proclaiming a Feast to it under the Sacred Name of Jehovah; And Feroboham, in after times, caufed Ifrael to fin again the fame Sin, by fetting up Calves in Dan and Bethel, as Representatives of the God of Heaven, who had commanded himself to be worshipped without Any Image in the Temple of Jerufalem. Nay, even after the greater Light of the Gospel; Christians, as they stile themselves, in the Church of Rome, have not been a whit behind the groffeft antient Idolaters, in their corruptions of This kind; making Pic