falsely, i. e. vainly, idolatrously. Why? The Reason is given soon after; they swore likewise by their idols: How shall I pardon thee for this? thy Children hace forsaken me, and SWORN BY THEM THAT ARE NO GODST. Again, Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and SWEAR FALSELY, and BURN INCENSE UNTO BAAL, and walk after other Gods that ye know not [i. e. strange Gods]; and come and STAND BEFORE ME IN THIS HOUSE, which is called by my Name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? And in another place we find them thus expostulating with the Prophet,-Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this Evil against us? or what is our Iniquity? or what is our Sin that we have committed against the Lord our GoD §? and the Prophet answering them in this manner,-because your Fathers · have forsaken me, saith the Lord, and walked after other Gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my Law: And ye have done worse than have done worse than your Fathers | But is it possible they could be so excceding stupid or impudent as to talk at this rate, had they ever renounced the RELIGION, or the GoD of their Forefathers? EZEKIEL, likewise, shews plainly that their idolatries consisted in polluting the Religion of Moses with foreign worship: "Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling"block of their iniquity before their Face; SHALL "I BE INQUIRED OF at all by them? Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the "Lord GOD, Every man of the house of Israel, that "putteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the Chap. v. ver. 2. + Ver. 7. Chap. vii. ver, 9, 10, H Ver. 11, 12. "stumbling stumbling-block of iniquity before his face, and "cometh to the Prophet; I the Lord will answer hin "that cometh according to the multitude of his "idols," &c. And again: As for you, O house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but POLLUTE YE MY HOLY NAME NO MORE with your gifts, and with your idols †, i. e. with gifts offered up to me with idolatrous Rites. In another place he giveth a terrible instance of this horrid mixture: "They have committed adultery, and blood is "in their hands, and with their idols have they com"mitted adultery, and have also caused their sons, "whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through "the fire to devour them. Moreover, this they have done unto me: THEY HAVE DEFILED MY SANCTUARY IN THE SAME DAY, and have profaned 46 my Sabbaths. For when they had slain their Chil"dren to their idols, then THEY CAME THE SAME DAY INTO MY SANCTUARY to profane it: and "lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house." These, and innumerable other passages in the Prophets to the same purpose, evidently shew, that this defection from the God of Israel consisted not in a rejection of Him, or of his Law. 66 This appears still more evident, from the following considerations: 1. That, in the course of their idolatries, they abused the memorials of their own Dispensation to superstitious Worship. Such as the Brazen Serpent of Moses; to which, in the time of their kings, they paid divine honours §. And I am much mistaken if the monument of Twelve stones, taken out of Jordan, and Chap. xiv. ver. 3, 4. + Chap. xx. ver. 39. pitched pitched in Gilgal for a memorial of their miraculous passage*, was not equally abused. What induces me to think so, is the following passage of ISAIAH: "Draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed "of the adulterer, and the whore. Against whom de you sport yourselves?-enflaining yourselves with "idols under every green tree, slaying the children in "the valleys, under the clifts of the rocks? AMONG 66 THE SMOOTH STONES OF THE STREAM IS THY PORTION; they, they are thy lot: EVEN TO THEM HAST THOU POURED A DRINK-OFFERING, thou hast offered a meat-offering. Should I receive "comfort in these †?" 2. The Israelites were most prone to idolatry in PROSPEROUS TIMES; and generally returned to the God of their fathers in ADVERSITY, as appears from their whole history. Against this impotence of mind they were more than once cautioned, before they entered into the Land of Blessings, that they might afterwards be left without excuse. "And it shall "be (says Moses) when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy "fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities which thou build"edst not, and houses full of all good things which "thou filledst not, and wells digged which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive-trees which thou plantedst "not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee "forth out of the Land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and "serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall 86 not go after other Gods, of the Gods of the people Josh. iv. 3. 20, 21, 22. Isaiah lvii. 3. et seq. "which " which are round about you*." However, Moses himself lived to see an example of this perversity, while they remained in the Wilderness: But Jeshurun (says he) waxed fat and kicked: Thou art waxed fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness ; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation. And the Prophct HOSEA assures us, that the Day of prosperity was the constant season of their idolatry: Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: ACCORD ING TO THE. MULTITUDE OF HIS FRUIT HE HATH INCREASED THE ALTARS; ACCORDING TO THE GOODNESS OF HIS LAND THEY HAVE MADE GOODLY IMAGES . And again : And again: According to their pasture, so were they filled; THEY WERE FILLED, AND THEIR HEART WAS EXALTED; therefore have they forgotten me §. This, therefore, is a clear proof that their defection from the God of Israel was not any doubt of his goodness or his power, but a wanton abuse of his blessings. Had they questioned the truth of the Law, their behaviour had been naturally otherwise they would have adhered to it in times of prosperity; and would have left it in adversity and trouble. This the Deists would do well to consider. 3. The terms, in which God's warnings against this defection are expressed, plainly shew that their lapse into Idolatry was no rejection of him: he will have no FELLOWSHIP OF COMMUNION with false Gods. The names employed to design their idolatries are ADULTERY and WHOREDOM. And God's resentment of their defection is perpetually expressed by the same metaphor: which shews that his right over them was Deut. vi. 10. et seq. and chap. viii. ver. 11. et seq. Ch. x. ver. 1. § Ch. xiii, ver. 6. still acknowledged, just as an adulterous wife owns the husband's right, amidst all her pollutions with strangers. Where we may observe, that though their idolatry is so constantly styled ADULTERY, yet that of the Pagans never is; though it is very often called WHOREDOM. The reason of this distinction is plainly intimated in the following words of Ezekiel: "How weak is "thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou dost "all these things, the work of an imperious whorish "woman? In that thou buildest thine eminent place “in the head of every way, and makest thine high "place in every street; and hast NOT BEEN AS AN 64 HARLOT (in that thou scornest hire) but AS A 66 WIFE that committeth ADULTERY, which taketh strangers instead of her husband *." The Jews had entered into a covenant with God, which had made them his Peculiar: and when they had violated their plighted faith, they stood in that relation to him which an ADULTERESS does to her injured husband. The Gentiles, on the contrary, had entered into no exclusive engagements with their Gods, but the practice of intercommunity had prostituted them, as a common HARLOT, to all comers. Thus much, however, must be confessed, that though the very worst of their idolatry consisted only in mixing foreign Worship with their own; yet, in their mad attention to those abominable things, God's Worship was often so extremely neglected, that He says, by the Prophet, They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, just as the Saint-worshippers in the Church of Rome forsake God, when in their private devotions the Vulgar think only of their tutelary Saints. • Chap. xvi. ver. 30, 31, 32. The |