i'se 5. If then the case be thus, how shall ive come to refoim it, for a use of direction, so as to fly fi'om all idolatry, and to say with Ephraim, ' What have I now any more to do with idols ?'
First of all, do hut consider GocVs hatred unto all soiis of idolaters ; for he accounts such to hate him, and so accordingly punisheth them. In the second commandment, those that are given to idolatry in any kind, are such as hate God, which is a horrible thing ; and yet, notwithstanding, this is the disposition of all such as are idolaters. So far forth as they are idolaters, they hate God, for the more we know God, the more we shall hate all idols, ' What have I now any more to do with idols ?'
VOL. II. B b
386 THE EETUKNING BACKSLIDER. [SeRMON XI.
2. Labour to grow in the sound knoidedge of God and of Chriat, and of their all-sufficiency. Mark St Paul's method, Col. ii., and in other places, when he would draw us from all outward things, he speaks gloriously of the fulness of Christ, ' In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,' Col. ii. 9 ; and, * In him you are complete.' When he would draw them from ' touch not, taste not, handle not, worshipping of angels, and from counterfeit humility,' Col. ii. 21, &c., he labours to dispossess them of these idolatrous conceits, and to possess them of the fulness of Christ. If in him we have fulness, why should we look for any thing out of him ? If we be complete in him, if aU fulness be in him, why do we seek any thing out of that fulness ? Thus the holy apostle shutteth up his first epistle, ' Babes, keep you from idols,' 1 John v. 21. What is promised there? Christ is eternal life, all is in him ; whereupon presently comes this, ' Babes, keep you from idols ?' If life and happiness, and all be in Christ, if we be com- plete in him, and the fulness of all be in him, why should we go out of him for anything ? When God would persuade Abraham to leave all idolatry. Gen. xvii. 1, and all things else, to depend wholly upon him, what doth he first possess him with ? ' I am God all-suificient,' &c. Know God in covenant all-sufiicient, and Christ in the fulness of his high perfections as Mediator, in whom is all fulness and life eternal, in whom we are complete ; we shall then be so far from going out of him for any thing, as we shall be of the same mind with Ephraim, ' What have I now any more to do with other intercessors and mediators ?' what have I to do with will-wor- ship ? what need I go to other cursed means, when God is all-suflicient ? It is the scope of the new covenant of grace, that we should glory in God only, who hath made Christ unto us ' wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,' 1 Cor. i. 30. And all this, because that whosoever glo- rieth in him, should not go out of him for any thing. The more we know therefore the fulness of Christ, and God's mercy in him, the more we shall abhor all idolatry, with the kinds and degrees of it.
3. Another help and means to cure this disposition in us is, to know that we are naturally wondrous prone to it in one degree or another. It is reckoned up, Gal. v. 20, as a work of the flesh ; and, naturally, man hath a working fancy, to set up somewhat in his heart and understanding above, and besides God, imaginations to adulterate things. Men live by sense, and imagination is next to sense, so that naturally aU men are idola- ters before conversion, in one kind or other, and doat so upon their own, that they will not be driven out of themselves unto God in Christ, without a great deal of grace. As men naturally love the child of their own body, so men love the children of their own brain.
Quest. What is the reason that it is so hard to convert a papist ?
Ans. Because it is will- worship, a device of their own brain, suiting their natural will and appetite. And what makes them so furious, as all idola- ters are cruel : though they be mild of their own nature, yet as idolaters, they are cruel. It is because it is a device of their own brain, a brat, a child of their own begetting, wherefore they strive to maintain it, because it is their own. Let us therefore conceive thus much, that it is no easy matter to free the soul from idolatry, and all the degrees of this cursed disposition. This will make us beg earnestly the Spirit of God, by which only we shall subdue this idolatrous proud conceit, Rom. viii. 5, and lay om-selves open to Christ, to be disposed of as he pleaseth. Beg the Spirit only, whereby we shall mortify the cursed deeds of the flesh, for nature will never subdue nature. The Spirit of God therefore is that which can, and must free us