pack, begone, I will never have any more to do with you, Isa. xlvi. 6.' And so in thatlsa. ii. 20, 'In that day,' that is, in the day of his people ; ver. 17, * A man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to Avorship,to the moles and to the bats.' In the day when God should exalt himself in the souls of his people, and before the eyes of his people, they should express such disdain and iudignation against their idols that they should not take only those made of trees and stones, but even their most precious and costly idols, those that were made of silver and gold, and cast them to the moles and to the bats ; that is, they should cast them into such bhnd holes, and into such dark, filthy, nasty, and dusty corners, as moles make underground, and as bats roost in. So when Christ, and grace, and holiness comes tp be set up in men's hearts and lives, then all their darling sins, their bosom lusts, which are their idols of silver and their idols of gold, these are with a holy indig- nation cast to the moles and to the bats ; they are so loathed, abhorred, abandoned, and cashiered, that they desire they may be for ever buried in oblivion, and never see the light more. Idols were Ephraim's bosom sin : Hosea iv. 17, ' Ephraim is joined,' or glued, as the word signifies, * to idols, let him alone.' But when the dew of gTace fell upon Ephraim, as it did in chap. xiv. 5-7, then saith Ephraim, ' What have I any more to do with idols ?' ver. 8. Now Ephraim loathes his idols as much or more than before he loved them ; he now abandons and abominates them. Though before he was as closely glued to them as the wanton is glued to his Delilah, or as the enchanter is glued to the devil, from whom by no means he is able to stir, as the words in the fountain' imports, when it was the day of the Lord's power upon Ephraim, then Ephraim cries out, ' What have I any more to do with idols V Oh ! I have had to do with them too long, and too much already ! Oh ! how doth my soul now rise against them ! how do I detest and abhor them ! Surely I will never have more to do with them. The Scripture tells us, Deut. xiii. 6-9, that if father, or mother, or brother, or sister, or kinsman, or friend, should go about to draw a man from God, his hand should be first upon him to put him to death. Now, bosom sins, complexion sins, they seek to draw a man's heart from God, and therefore a gracious soul can't but rise up against them, and do his best to stone them, and to be the death of them : ' The days of mouruing for my father are at hand,' saith bloody Esau, 'then will I slay my brother Jacob,' Gen. xxvii. 41. It is a bloody speech of a vindictive spirit, whom nothing would satisfy but innocent blood. So saith the gracious soul. The days of" mourning for the death of my dear Saviour are now at hand, and therefore I will slay my bosom lusts, my constitution sins ; now will I 1)0 revenged on them for all the dishonours that they have done to God, and for all the wounds that they have made in my conscience, and for all the mercies that they have embittered, and for all the favours that they have prevented, and for all the afflictions that they have procured, and for all the duties that they have hindered. Samson pleads bard with GoJ, that he might be avenged on the Philistines for his two eyes, Judges xvi. 28 ; and so doth tht; gracious soul plead hard with God,
' After the return of the Jews out of Babylon, tlicy so liateil and abhorred id'J.s that in tlie times of tlie Romans they chose rather to die than to sulfer tlie caple, wliich wna tlie imperial arms, to be set up in their temple. * The original 'Hebrew.' — (i.
Chap. II.] a cabinet of jewels. 359