And therefore the commandments are set down in the highest pitch of the sin, to shew that we should avoid all the degrees under that which leads to so great a breach, and that we should hate all those steps and leadings to the sin itself. We should therefore beware of popish writers, and do with them as was done with the magic books in the Acts, bum them all, lest they corrupt ourselves and others, Acts xix. 19. Learn we this of the papists, who hate our books, burn them, or lock them up safe ; yea, hate the very names of Luther and Calvin, much more their books.
In this case it is with the soul of man as with water, that relisheth of that soil through which it runs, if it run through a hot soil, as baths through a sulphury soil, it tastes of that. So the spirit of a man tastes of those authors he runs through. Therefore such who converse much in popish writings, unless ministers who have a calling that way to confute them, are in danger to be ensnared b}' them.
Use 4. And then, again, if we must hate all idolatry, tee ynust take heed of occasions. Not hke some looser Christians, which make no matter of crucifixes. How doth the spirit of Ephraim here agree with such ? A crucifix is but a teacher of lies, representing only the outside, and that falsely ; for there is no expression in Scripture, what kind of man Christ was. And if there were, yet the apostle sheweth, ' that we must now no more know him any more after the flesh,' 2 Cor. v. 16. Not as such a man, as tall and fair, &c. ; but know him as the Mediator, as king of
382 THE RETUKNING BACKSLIDEE. [SeKMON XI.
heaven and earth, avoiding all lewd, base conceits of him. People in this kind are too bold, and ran too near popery. A father saith well, ' No man is safe that is near danger.' We are commanded to ' fly from idolatry,' 1 Cor. X. 14. We must not come near the pit's brink, lest we fall in. Run and fly from it as from a serpent, dally not with the occasions.
But to leave this gross idolatry, to speak of something which more nearh' concerneth us, and which we are prone to. Though we hate the gross idolatries, yet there be some we are more nearly addicted to ; as,
First of all, there is a proneness in us, in our worship, to conceive false conceptions and ideas of God ; and so in place of worshipping God, we wor- ship an idol of our own bi'ain.
Quest. It may be said, How shall we conceive of God when we worship him?
Ans 1. First of all, negatively, do not dishonour God in imagining any character of an infinite incomprehensible God, but conceive of him as an in- finite essence.
2. And then, conceive not absolutely of God, but of God distinguished in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; or else we conceive an idol. For there are three persons in one common nature ; and in our prayers we must not conceive the nature without the persons.
3. In the third place, we must not in our prayers conceive of God, with- out Christ the Mediator. For even as God was only to be known and spoken to towards the tabernaclej; so Christ is the tabernacle now, where God mani- fests his gracious presence, and will be worshipped in him the Mediator. For God, considered out of Christ, is a ' consuming fire ; ' without Christ, no converse with God. Let us therefore take Christ along with us, when we go to God. Go to him by God in our nature, our Immanuel ; and so we shall conceive of God axight, and not worship an idol of our own brain.
4. Again, there is another thing which is a common abuse among Chris- tians, wherein they come near to idolatiy, wJien they transform God to be like themselves in their affections, as it is the property of all unregenerate men to do so. Idolatry is so natural, it cannot but transfonn God to be like itself. As for instance, a man that is not a gracious man, in the pride of his sinful course, thinks that God is like unto him. ' Thou thoughtest that I was like unto thyself; therefore I will come against thee,' &c., Ps. 1. 21. As oppressors, and such who grow great by iU courses, they justify thus much. Would God let me alone if he did not approve of my courses ? So they make God like themselves. And so the good fellows of the world, they make God to allow all their dissoluteness, because he lets them alone. So those that are fierce and cruel by nature, who delight in cruelty, vexa- tion, and blood, they transform God, as though he delighted in such things, and make him a God of blood. So others transform God to be all mercy. This is to make God an idol, and as ill as if they transformed him into this and that creature ; worse than the heathens, in regard of their light under the gospel ; yet this is the disposition of many Christians uow-a-days.