from attending the facred Ministrations, provoke the Anger of God, and have Reason to expect a Feeling the bitter Effects of it.

In Ezek. xxii. 26, 31. the righteous God fays, Her Priests have violated my Law, and have profaned mine boly Things: They have put no Difference between the Holy and Profane, neither have they fhewed Difference between the Unclean and the Clean, and barve bid their Eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. I have confumed them with the Fire of my Wrath: Their own Way have I recompenfed upon their Heads, faith the LORD God. Thefe Paffages fhew, that thofe Minifters of God in facred things, who (regardless of their Duty) admit ungodly Perfons to those divine Ordinances which are the peculiar Privilege of the Righteous, and reject the Righteous for whom they were appointed, and who will not look into, and obferve the Laws of the Sabbath, to keep it holy, have Reason to be afraid, that the juft God will pour out his Indignation upon them, and confume them in the Day of his Vifitation for Sin.

Happy for them will it be, if those Ministers of the Word of God, who are the Objects of the Threatnings mentioned, fhall confider and lay them to Heart, and make the right Improvement of them.

II. Profane Perfons, who fcoff at ferious Things, who deride the Providence, or the Word, or the Commandments, or the Sabbaths, or the Ordinances, or the Worship, or the People of God, are Objects of his Vifitation and Wrath.

The Words and Actions of these Persons fhew an Enmity against God, and an impious Contempt of his Authority, and Laws, and a proud Difdain of his People: And they bring upon themselves the Character of Scorners, or of being scornful.

In Prov. iii. 33, 34. it is faid, The Curfe of the Lord is in the House of the Wicked-furely be scorneth the Scorners. And in Prov. xix. 29. it is declared, That Judgments are prepared for Scorners. And therefore this Sort of Sinners have Reason to think, that divine Judgment will come heavy upon them in the Day of the Lord's Vifitation.

Scorners are dangerous Inhabitants of a City, for it is faid, Prov. xxix. 8. Scornful Men bring a City

into a Snare.

These are Tranfgreffors of the first Command, which, as it forbids the having any other God, so it fignifies, that it is our Duty to acknowledge, love, and reverence the true God, and have Respect to all his Statutes, and Ordinances, which these Sinners contemn and despise.

III. IDOLATERS. There are two Sorts of Idolatry; one, a Tranfgreffion of the first of the Ten Commandments, the other, a Violation of the Second of them.

And those Persons are guilty of tranfgreffing the first Commandment, who own, or acknowledge any Creature as God, or who pay religious Refpect or Reverence, by any inward Action of their Minds, or Gesture of their Body, to any Creature as God and the Object of their Worship.

These Actions are an Acknowledgment of fuch a Creature as God, and is the having another God before the Face, or befides JEHOVAH, the one only living and true God; and is the Sin, the Idolatry forbidden in Exod. xx. 3. where the Almighty fays, Thou fbalt have no other God, before Me.

And this is a moft heinous Impiety; because it is an Acknowledgment of divine Perfections, Wif dom, Knowledge, Holiness, Power, and Goodness, to be the Attributes of fuch a Creature, and a giving to fuch a Creature the Glory due to God alone.

And

And fince God has given to Man an Understanding to know Things, and a reafoning Faculty to draw proper Conclufions, it is the more abfurd and irrational in Man, to entertain an Apprehenfion, that any material Substance is poffeffed with the Attributes of that Being who formed it,

The fecond Commandment forbids Mens making any Images to be the Means of religious Worshiping the true God-As the firft Commandment relates to the Object of divine Worship, fo the Second to the Means of it. It fays, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven Image, or any Likeness of any Thing that is in Heaven above, or that is in the Earth beneath, or that is in the Water under the Earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor ferve them. (Vid. Exod. xx. 4, 5.)

And as the Law forbids the making any Representations, as the Means of Worship, and the performing any bodily Actions expreffive of Reverence to them; fo it must be understood for the fame Reafons, to forbid those internal Acts of the Mind, which fignify a religious Devotion to them.

Worshipping the true God by Means of a molten or graven Image, was the Idolatry of the Children of Ifrael. When the golden Calf was made, the People faid, Thefe be thy Gods, O Ifrael, which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, Exod. xxxii. 4. q. d. This Image is to reprefent God, who delivered us from our Bondage to the Egyptians, we will keep in Remembrance our Deliverance, and express our Reverence of Jehovah our God, by Acts of Adoration to this Image.

For they kept a Feaft to Jehovah, by Means of that golden Calf.

Aaron made Proclamation, and faid, To-morrow is a Feaft to the LORD, i. e. Jehovah. (Exod. xxxii. 5.) and ver. 6. it is faid, They rose up early on the

Morrow,

Morrow, and offered Burnt-offerings, and brought Peace-offerings, (i. e. to Jehovah) and this they did by Means of the Golden Calf, by performing their Acts of religious Worship to it, as a Representation of God, who had brought them out of the Land of Egypt.

Now from what has been obferved, the Nature of the Sin of Idolatry is very manifeft, and the Idolatry forbidden by the fecond Commandment, is a very heinous Iniquity; obfcuring from the Idolaters, the Brightness, the Glory of the divine Majefty, by making Images of Creatures, or other, real or imaginary, Representations of God, because such Representations can only excite falfe and debafing Ideas of a Being who is invifible, who never was seen, or can be feen; and whofe Glory it is to be unlike all fenfible Objects, and infinitely to transcend the moft excellent Creatures. To whom then will ye liken God? Or what Likeness will ye compare to him? fays the infpired Prophet Isaiah xl. 18. and v. 25. To whom then will ye liken me? or shall I be equal? fays the holy One.

It is a vile Indignity to the great God, to make any Reprefentation, or Image to be the Means of worshiping him; a Practice very provoking of his Anger.

How terrible did the holy God resent it, when the Ifraelites were guilty of it.

The Lord faid unto Mofes, Go, get thee down; for thy People which thou broughteft out of the Land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned afide quickly out of the Way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten Calf, and have worshiped it, and have facrificed thereunto, and faid, Thefe be thy Gods, O Ifrael, which have brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt. v. 7, 8.--Now therefore let me alone, that my Wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may confume them. v. 10. C

Mofes

Mofes indeed prayed for the People, and God did not deftroy them, though many of the Idolaters by his Appointment were flain.

Mofes bewailed their Idolatry, and faid, O this People have finned a great Sin, v. 27, 28.-And the Lord plagued the People, because they made the Calf which Aaron made.

Surely the fad Examples of the Ifraelites herein, and the Manifestations of God's Wrath against them, fhould make all Men ever after afraid of worshiping even the true God by Means of any Images whatever.

It was the fame Sort of Idolatry which Jeroboam King of Ifrael established by his Authority. He took Counsel and made two Calves of Gold, and faid unto them, (i. e. his Subjects) It is too much for you to go up to Jerufalem: Behold thy Gods, O Ifrael, which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt. And he fet the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. 1 Kings xii. 28, 29.

And thus did Jeroboam bring the Children of Ifrael to fin against the Lord their God.

And whoever, to exprefs, or fignify their Reverence or Worship of the most high God, fhall perform Acts of Homage, Reverence, and Worship to any Image, molten, graven, or painted, is guilty of the like Idolatry.

God has, in very many Paffages of his Word, threatned to punish Idolaters in the Day of his Vifitation for Sin. And there are many Instances upon Record in the facred Scriptures of his having done fo; and it concerns every one that is guilty of this Sin, to confider that Idolaters fhall not inherit the Kingdom of God. 1 Cor. vi. 9.

IV. Proud Perfons are another Sort whom the holy God has threatened to punish in the Day of his Vifitation for Sin.

Various is the Fuel for Pride, viz. fine Houses, the Ornaments for Apparel, Furniture, Gardens,

Riches,