Quest. What was the reason why the heathens worshipped Bacchus and Venus, such abominable gods ?
Ans. They, to countenance their lusts and drunkenness, deify them : an abominable sin of the heathen, for which God gave them up to other sins. Doth not our sin come near theirs, when we make God to countenance our sin, and cite Scripture for it, as if God can countenance sin in his word ?
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This is to transfonn God into our own abominable conceits. Those, there- lore, who bless themselves in any sinful course, they are guilty of idolatry in the worst kind that may be ; for it is as ill to transform God to allow of such courses, as to transform Christ to die for such who go on in their sins without remorse, or to transform him into the likeness of such and such vile creatures.
5. Further, there is another sort of idolatiy Clii'istians are subject unto — to set up somewhat in their hearts higher than God. There is no man with- out grace, but he doth so until his conversion. Nay, when a man is converted, he is prone to this, to idoUze and set up something above that which should be in the heart. Hereupon Paul, Col. iii. 5, calleth covetous- ness, idolatry ; because a covetous man placeth those afl'ections upon his own wealth, which should dwell in God : for, ' he saith to the wedge of gold. Thou art my confidence,' Job xxxi. 24, thinking his wealth shall bear him out in any ill cause whatsoever. And then, again, that time which he should spend in thinking of God and of a better life, he buried those thoughts in his muck and wealth, toiling and moiling in the world, when he should serve God. Thus the covetous man is an idolater.
6. And there are some guilty of idolatry, likewise, in another kind, such as have men's persons too much in admiration, that deify them, especially if they be in great place : such who will ofl'end God before they will offend them ; and whereas for God's glory they should deny themselves, they deny themselves, and make themselves fools, for men ; and to please them by whom they hope to rise, deny both mt and honesty. This is abominable idolatiy, and such are as far from heaven and salvation, as those that fall before an idol, if they repent not. Oh, if these men that study to please men, and deny themselves for them, would be as careful to please God, as they have been to please men, how happy, and what excellent Christians would they be ! As a gi'eat man-pleaser in his time said, ' If he had served God as well as he had served his master the king in that time, God had not left him so in his old years ' (w).* To set up any man so high in our affections, as for him to deny ourselves, crack our consciences, and do things unlawful, will be misery in the end. ' If I please men,' saith Paul, ' I am not the servant of Chi'ist,' Gal. i. 10. He meaneth sinful pleasing, for there ought to be service and respect. Due honom- must be given unto those who carry God's image, our governors, yea, great respect and honour, and nothing in this kind can be too much ; but to go beyond our bounds herein, is to commit idolatry. As the heathen did, when the government of Rome was turned into an emph-e, some of their emperors were made gods by them after Augustus's time, wherein they could not have devised to have done them gi-eater wrong, for they came most of them to fearful ends (c). It is ill for any man to have God his co-rival ; for no greater misery can befall a man, than to be set up in God's room, so to rule a man's honesty, will, and conscience at his pleasm^e ; for God is a jealous God, and will not endure such idolatry.
7. And so, in the next place, they frame Christ an idol, in taking him without his cross. They will be of the true religion ; but when they come to suffer anything, if it be but a frown, a reproach or disgi'ace, they give out and fall back. Such, they frame to themselves an idol, a false Christ ; for the knowledge of Christ is never without the cross, some cross or other, some persecution or other in some kind. ' All who will live godly in Christ, shall suffer persecution,' 2 Tim. iii. 12. A man may live godly,
* A Scottish Regent before his execution. See Note u. — G.
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arid not suffer persecution ; but lie that will live godly in Christ, so as he sheweth his nature to be altered, carrying an antipathy against all false courses, and so as the world may conceive that he is such an one, it is impossible that he should live in the world without persecution, because he shall meet with those that are of an opposite disposition. Therefore, to frame a smooth Christ, all comfort, is to frame a false Christ, and a false religion, — to frame an idol that hath no truth in it, that never was, nor never will be to the end of the world.