A. 2. It is a mercy to be delivered from idolatrous places, because o{ the greatness of the sin of idolatry. It is giving that glorv to an image, which is due to God. All divine worship God doth appropriate to himself; it is a flower of his crown. The fat of the sacrifice God laid claim to, Lev, iii. 3. : divine worship is the fat of the sacri- fice whicli God reserves for himself. The idolator devotes this woi'ship to his idol, which the Lord will by no means endure, Isa. xlii. 8., " My glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven imag- es." Idolatry is spiritual adultery, Ezek. xxiii. 37,, " With their idols have they committed adultery." To worship any other than God is to break Avcdlock ; this makes the Lord disclaim his interest in a people, Hos. ii. 2., " Plead with your mo- ther, plead she is not my wife." And Exod. xxxii. 7., " Thy people have corrupt- ed themselves ;" no more my ]»cople, but thy people. God calls idolatry, blas})hemy, Ezek. XX. 27, 31., " In ihis your fathers have blasphemed me." Idolatry is devil- worship, Deut. xxxii. 17., " They sacrificed to devils, not unto God ; to new gods." These new gods were old devils, Lev. xvii. 7., " And they shall no more offer their sa- crifice unto devils;" the Hebrew word /a- shcgjiirim, is ' the hairy ones,' because the devils were hairy, and appeared in the forms of satyrs and goats. IIo^v dreadful a sin is idolatry ; and what a signal mercy is it to be snatched out of an idolatrous place, as Lot was snatched by the angels out of So- dom !
A. 3. It is a mercy to be delivered out of idolatrous places, because idolatry is such a silly irrational religion. I may say, as Jer. viii. 9., " What wisdom is in them ?" Is it not folly to refuse the best, and choose the worst ? The trees in the field of Joth- am's parable, desj)ised the vine-tree which cheers both God and man, and the olive which is full of fatness, and the fig-tree whicli is full of sweetness, and cliose tlie bramble to reign over them; this was a foolish choice, Judg. ix. : so, for us to refuse the living God, who hath power to save us, an! to make choice of an idol, that hath eyes and sees not, feet hut ^yalks not, Ps. cxv. 5, 7., what a prodigy of madness is this? Tlierefore to be dc-
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fivercd from committing such folly, is a mercy.
A. i. It is a mercy to be delivered from id«»latroiis places, because of the sad judg- ments inflicted upon idolaters. This is a 'Bin which enragetli (Jod, and makes the fury come up in his face, Ezek. xxxviii. 18. Search through the whole book of Ciod, and you sliail find no sin God hath followed witli more plagues than idolatry, Ps. xvi. 4., " Their sorrows shall be multiplied, that hasten after another god." Ps. Ixxviii. 58, 59., " They moved him to jealousy with their graven images." When Cod heard this, " he was wroth, and gi-eatly abhorred Israel ;' ver. 60., " So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh." Sliiloh was a city belonging to the tribe of Ephraim ; there God set his name, Jer. vii. 12. ; but, for their idolatry (iod forsook that place, gave his ]»eople up to the sword, caused his priests to be slain, his ark to be carried away captive, and it never returned to Shi- loh Juiy more. How severe was God a- gainst Israel, for worshipping the golden calf? Exod. xxxii. 27. The Jews say, that in everv miserv that befalls them, there is undo aurei vitu/i, — au ounce of the golden calf in it. Rev. x\'iii. 4., " Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her phignes." Idolatry, lived in, cuts men off from heaven, 1 Cor. vi. 9. : so then it is no small mercy to be delivered out of idola- trous places.
Use 1st. See the goodness of God to our nation, who hath brought us out of mysti- cal Egypt, delivering us from popery, which is Romish idolatry, and hath caused the light of his truth to break Ibrth gloi iitusly among us. In former times, and more lately in the Marian days, England was overspread with idolatry, — we worshii)ped God after a false manner, that is idolatry, not only to worship a false (iod, but the true (iod in a false manner, — this w;ls our case formerly, we had purgatory, indul- gencies, the idolatrous mass, the Scrij)tures locked up in an unknown tongue, invoca- tion of saints and angels, image-worship. Images are teachers of lies, Ilab. ii. 18. Wherein do they teach lies? Because tliey represent God in a bodily sha[)e, whereas