' Such titles the Papists give their schoolmen, j
SERMON XY.
THE CHAMBER OF IMAGERY IN THE CHURCH OF ROME LAID OPEN;
OR,
AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST POPERY.
VOL. VIIL 36
SERMON Xy.
THE CHAMBER OF IMAGERY IN THE CHURCH OF ROME LAID OPEN.
Question : How is the practical love of truth the best preservative against
Popery ?
" If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." — 1 Pet. ii. 3.
When false worship had prevailed in the church of old unto its ruin, God showed and represented it unto his prophet under the name and appearance of " a chamber of imagery," Ezek. viii. 11, 12. For therein were portrayed all the abominations wherewith the worship of God was defiled, and religion corrupted. Things relating unto divine truth and worship have had again the same event in the world, especially in the Church of Rome ; and my present design is to take a view of the chambers of their imagery, and to show what was the occasion and what were the means of their erection : and in them we shall see all the abomination wherewith the divine Avorship of the gospel hatli been corrupted, and Christian religion ruined. Unto this end it will be necessary to lay down some such principles of sacred tiTith as will demonstrate and evince the grounds and causes of that transformation of the substance and power of religion into a lifeless image, which shall be proved to have fallen out amongst them. And because I intend their benefit principally who resolve all then- persuasion in religion into the word of God, I shall deduce these principles from that passage of it in 1 Pet. ii. 1-3.
The first verse contains an exhortation unto, or an injunction of, universal holiness, by the laying aside or casting out whatever is con- traiy thereunto: "Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings;" the rule whereof extends unto all other \n.cious habits of mind whatever.
And in the second, there is a profession of the vieans whereby this end may be attained ; namely, how any one may be so strengthened in grace, as to cast out all such sinful inclinations and practices as are
548 THE CHAMBER OF IMAGERY.
contrary unto the holiness required of us, — which is the divine word ; compared therefore unto food, which is the means of preserving natu- ral life, and of increasing its strength: "As new-boni babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby/'
Hereon the apostle proceeds, in verse third, to declare the con- dition whereon our profiting, growing, and thriving by the word doth depend; and this is an experience of its power, as it is the instrument of God whereby he conveys his grace unto us: " If so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious/' See 1 Thess. i. 5. Therein lies the first and chief principle of our ensuing demonstration, and it is this: —
Principle I. All the benefit and advantage tuhich any men do or may receive hy the word, or the truths of the gospel, depend on an experience of its jJower and efficacy in communicating the grace of God unto their souls.
This principle is evident in itself, and not to be questioned by any but such as never had the least real sense of religion on their own minds. Besides, it is evidently contained in the testimony of the a2:)0stle before laid down.
Hereunto three other principles of equal evidence with itself are supposed, and virtually contained in it.
Principle II. There is a power and efficacy in the word, and the jjreaching of it, Rom. i. 16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation."
It hath a divine power, the power of God, accompanying it, and put forth in it, imto its proper ends: " For the word of God is quick and powerful," Heb. iv. 12.
Principle III. The power that is in the word of God consists in its efficacy to communicate the grace of God unto the soids of men.
In and by it they "taste that the Lord is gi-acious;" that is its efficacy unto its proper ends. These are salvation, with all things requisite thereunto; such as the illumination of our minds, the reno- vation of our natures, the justification of our persons, the life of God in lioly worship and obedience, — all leading unto our eternal enjoy- ment of him. These are the ends whereunto the gospel is designed in the wisdom of God, whereunto its efficacy is confined.
Principle IV. There is an experience to he obtained of the j^ower and efficacy of the word.
In that place of the apostle it is expressed by " tasting." But there is something antecedent unto their tasting, specially so called, and something consequent unto it, both inseparable from it ; and therefore belonging unto the experience whereof we speak. Wherefore, —
1. The first thing required hereunto is light; that is, a spiritual, Rupernatm-al light, enabling us to discern the wisdom, will, and mind of God in the word, in a spiritual manner; -without which we can
THE CHAMBEK OF IMAGERY. 549
have no exj)erience of its power. Hence the gospel is hid unto them that perish, though it be outwardly declared unto them, 2 Cor, iv. 3. This is the only means which lets into the mind and con- science a sense of this efficacy. This, in the increases of it, the apostle prays for on the behalf of believers, that they may have this experience, Eph. i. 16-19, iii. 16-19; and declares the nature of it, 2 Cor. iv. 6,