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from all dregs and tainture of this cursed disposition, which the Jews were BO scourged for, and hardly* driven from.
4. Again, consider GocVs jjunishments in this kind. As we see, Rev. ix. 20, where the Turk is said to be raised up against all these idolaters, that would not be kept from worshipping the devil and the image of the beast ; yet for all this, it is said, ' they did not repent.' And so the Jewish church was still pimished with enemies raised up against them for their idolatry. And it is to be expected that the idolatry of these western churches will at length pull down antichrist himself, which must be before the conversion of the Jews. For what hinders their conversion now ? The world is full of idolaters, even Christians ; and therefore there must be a confusion of antichrist's idolatrous worship before the conversion of the Jews, who will not retiu*n whilst that scandal is in their eye. Therefore, that we may help forward that glorious work, let us labour as much as we can to purge the church of this, in drawing others from idolatry, that we may help to make way for those glorious times a-coming ; for this Scripture specially hath relation unto the calling of the Jews, not to be fulfilled till then, when * Ephraim shall say. What have I now any more to do with idols ? ' with that for which we have been so plagued for in former times.
5. And withal let us consider this, that the end of all false worship, when it is left, is grief and shame, befooling and shaming of ourselves for it. ' Ephraim at length shall say. What have I any more to do with idols ? ' to cherish pride and self-conceit ? which, if ever I come to heaven, I must renounce, hating myself for my own pride and foUy.
6. And so for idolaters themselves, why shoidd ive consort ourselves xvith these, of whom ive shall sag one dag, What have we ang more to do ivith them? We must be separated from them here, or in hell live with them for ever. What will then be the hell of hell ? Mutual cursing of one another. Thy familiarity and acquaintance, thy provocations and allurements, brought me into these torments ! If we belong to God, late or soon, there must be these speeches, ' A\1iat have I now any more to do with such and such lying vanities ? '
Therefore let us not think will-worship a slight matter ; for, we see, popery is nothing else but a bundle of man's devices. We see in Scrip- ture, when the dearest friends of Christ came unto him with devices of their own, and good intentions, Christ notwithstanding saw the devil in them. Peter made a great confession, ' Thou art the Son of the living God,' Mat. xvi. 16, and then he came ' Master, spare thyself,' ver. 22 ; whereunto Christ replied, ' Get thee behind me, Satan,' ver. 23. God is never more provoked than when men think to honour him with their own devices ; stablishing a false, and neglecting his own true, worship. And there is usually little amendment of these kind of persons, because they carry with them a show of wisdom, as Paul saith. Col. ii. 23, and great humility ; which things being so carried with a show of some grace and wisdom (though they be desperate folly in the conclusion), men hardly wUl part withal. As we see of corporal adultery', few of them are re- claimed, because it hath a bewitching, alluring power ; which is most time of the spiritual adulterers. There are few of them reclaimed, until God, by some severe judgment, alter and bring down the proud imagination to serve him as he will be served ; so as to say with Epln-aim here, ' What have I now any more to do with idols ? '
Well, that we may abhor idolatry the more, consider two or three direct * That is, ' with difficulty.'— G.
388 TEE RETURNING BACKSLIDER. [SeRMON XJ.
places. ' Who required these things at your hands ? ' saith God, Isa. i. 12. When we think to please him with voluntary devised things, this will strike them dumb then. The things that God requires being so easy and so fev>', yet we to omit them all, and to devise new things of our own, our reward shall be, 'Who requu-ed these things at your hands?' And then again saith God, ' In vain they worship me, teaching for my precepts the devices of men,' Mat. xv. 9. See then the vanity of idolaters, who, though they would do nothing in vain, yet do all their will-worship in vain. It is not only idolatry, but obstinate idolatry, the Romish doctrine. ' We would have cured Babel, but she would not be cured,' Jer. li. 9. Is this a light cause of our coming out of Babylon ? Do we leave them for trifles, when they stand guilty of abominable idolatry ? You may see here, if so be Ephraim out of holy affection say, ' What have I now any more to do with idols ? ' what to think and judge of those that would bring God and idols together. If Ephraim had been of the temper that many men now are, he might have said, ' Tush! what need we care for idols, crucifixes, and the like ? There is not such a distance betwixt them and us, why may not both religions stand together ? This new-fangled niceness is but the dis- tempered devices of some few giddy-headed men, who know not what they would have.' This is the wisdom of many men in our times, who reckon that there is not an eternal, irreconcilable distance between hght and dark- ness, the service of God and that of idols. * We cannot serve two masters,' saith Christ, Mat. vi. 24. Yes, they say, we may serve two masters. Anti- christ and Christ, God and Belial. Oh ! but what saith Ephraim ? ' What have I now any more to do vnth idols ? ' There can be no mixture, you know, where there is abomination. That church, Rev. iii. 15, which was neither hot nor cold, may parallel many now in our times, who are neither hot nor cold, papists nor protestants, but politic atheists, who will be both or neither, whatsoever may best serve and advance their worldly ends. How doth God look upon such ? Saith he, * I will spue them out of my mouth.' God hates such most of all : ' now I would thou wert either hot or cold.' If this be the affection of God's people toward idols and idolaters, an utter aversation ; and shall we think to jumble and mingle contrary things together, to serve God and the de\al, Christ and anti- christ ?