and spiritual. The latter, or spiritual idolatry, is an evil which, by the apostasy of our nature, attaches to all mankind, whether inhabiting christian or pagan regions, except those individuals whose hearts have experienced a renovation by the Spirit of God. It is to the former, or literal idolatry, that the prophet in the text refers: this the connexion shews, where mention is made of those idols of silver and gold, which the converted idolaters would cast away. The progress of Christianity was, from the first, marked by the cessation of idol worship; and this was effected by the same means which are still to be employed. Men were called to turn from their dumb idols to serve the living God. The abandonment of a false worship must prepare the way for a moral revolution: men must cease from the adoration of images, before they can in any sense be worshippers of the true Jehovah.

There are two principal points of view in which we may regard the evil nature and effects of idolatry; its aspect toward God, and its aspect toward

man.

In the former aspect, it appears as a crime; in the latter, as a calamity: thus contemplated, it appears as an evil destructive equally to the divine glory, and to human happiness. Man naturally tends to this evil; and one generation after another gradually accumulated the follies of superstition, till it reached the monstrous extreme of gross idolatry.

1. The word of God everywhere reprobates idolatry as an abominable thing which the soul of

God abhors. To provide against this, was a principal object in the political and municipal department of the Mosaic law. It is expressly prohibited by the first and the second commandment of the moral law; the first being designed to confirm the worship of the true God; the second, to exclude every idolatrous form of worship. Idolatry makes a material symbol of the invisible God; but so jealous is the Divine Being of his own honour, that he has forbidden, not only the worship of any other or false god, but even the worship of Himself by the medium of a graven image. The golden calf was a representative of the God of Israel; and the calves set up by Jeroboam were the same: yet the worship of the golden calf occasioned the slaughter, by the divine command, of three thousand persons; and the executioners of divine vengeance were extolled for having forgotten the feelings of nature toward their nearest kindred: every man was commanded to slay his brother or his son, and so to consecrate himself to the Lord.* Where God's honour was so deeply concerned, men were to lose sight of common humanity. When the Israelites were tempted by the artifices of Balaam to commit idolatry at Baal Peor, twenty-four thousand were slain at once; the memory of Phinehas was immortalized on account of the holy zeal he displayed in the destruction of certain conspicuous offenders; and the Moabites were devoted to extermination, because, in this respect, they had proved a snare to Israel. According to the divine appointment,

* Exod. xxxii. 29.

credit was to be denied to the testimony of an idolater, and his life was to be taken by his nearest relative. All this marks the disposition, with regard to idolatry, of that Being, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. If he does not now punish it as he once did, it is not that he hates it now less than formerly: but he spares men, that they may be brought to the knowledge of his will and his salvation: Now he commands all men every where to repent, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world by Jesus Christ: and he desires that we, who have received the gospel, should carry the tidings of this command to all mankind.

Idolatry is, with respect to the government of God, what treason or rebellion is with respect to civil government. It is the setting up of an idol in the place of the Supreme Power; an affront offered to that Majesty, in which all order and authority is combined and concentered, and which is the fountain of all social blessings. Hence, in the eye of God, nothing can dilute the turpitude, or diminish the guilt of this offence. It makes no difference what may be the character of the rival : there is still an entire transfer of allegiance from the blessed and only Potentate to a palpable usurper; and the guilt remains the same. Were we even to suppose the character of the idol, immaculate as that of Jesus Christ and God himself, the case would not be materially altered; an invasion would still be committed on the immense empire of the Most High. Were the idol even cast in a mould

of the purest moral beauty, it would still, as an idol, be a monster deserving universal execration.

Idolatry is an evil which, where it exists, taints every apparent virtue; because it destroys the soul of duty, which is obedience to the divine will, conformity to the divine command. Though there exists an eternal rectitude, independent of written revelation; yet we, short sighted-creatures, must resign ourselves to be guided by the revealed will of God: conformity to this is our only sure standard. And the Scriptures everywhere assure us that nothing is acceptable to God that is not done under the influence of a sincere regard to his will. This is perfectly reasonable. Suppose a person to do accidentally, unintentionally, just what you would wish to have done; yet if, in so doing, he had no design to please you, will his conduct satisfy you as if he had acted from a regard to your wish, as your devoted servant? Your will, your authority, never entered into his views and motives; and can he expect that you should reward him? Thus nothing is done rightly, nothing to any good purpose, where GOD is not regarded: the single eye is wanting; and, that wanting, the whole body is full of darkness. Men may do much good from merely self-interested or ambitious motives; and they may have their reward, the only reward they ever sought, in success and applause. Nebuchadnezzar was employed by God as a rod to scourge his guilty people; and, having served that purpose, was cast aside. Pagan philosophers and heroes have exercised the virtues of temperance

and moderation without the least advertence to the Divine will; and hence, as Augustine remarks, their virtues can only be regarded as splendid sins. “God was not in all their thoughts;" God was as much forgotten in their virtues as he was in their vices; they remained as dead in sin, because as dead to God, as ever. They sought to be admired and idolized in a world they were so soon to quit by creatures whose applause was of no value; and they were just as destitute of spiritual vitality as the most profligate of their fellow-mortals! Just as, amidst the awful solemnities of the last day, we may imagine the impassioned admirer of nature or art beholding with regret so many fair objects and heart-ravishing scenes, in which he once delighted, all alike consigned to the final conflagration; even so the christian may be supposed, on that occasion, touched with a momentary pang, to see many who here excited his admiration, many who perhaps obtained his esteem and awakened his tenderest sympathies, yet numbered at last with them that are lost!-although he must then be satisfied, in a degree inconceivable at present, of the justice of their condemnation; inasmuch as, (whatever they might have been besides,) they were dead to God; they worshipped the creature more than the Creator; they were, in the essence of character, idolaters.

With respect to the origin of idolatry, it is probable that men began by raising images to the memory of departed heroes, and afterwards transferred their homage to the image itself; until they