An Arrow Against Idolatry, Chapter 6
CHAP. VI.
A Conclusion Dehortary from this sin.
THE wares of idolatry being so common and universally spread by the merchants of the whore, and conveighed into all nations: it commeth to passe that many are interessed in this Mart, buy and sell, partake and communicate with these evils, not being aware of the danger they come into hereby. To warn them therefore of the mischiefe ere they fall into it, or to help them out if they be fallen, hauehave I penned this Treatise: and add, to the things fore written, these few advertisements.
2 This sin is direct against the Majesty of God, whose honour is to be regarded aboue our own liues; aboue the peace or tranquility of nations. The sin provoketh the anger of God, as adultery provoketh the rage of a man injured in his private bed. As he aPro. 6.34.will not spare in the day of vengeance, and can not bear the sight of any ransom: so the Lord is a bEx. 20, 5gealous God, and visiteth the sin of the fathers upon the children, even to the third and fourth generation of those that hate him.
3 Idolaters, as they are shut cRev. 22.14.15.out of the citie of the Lord, the Church of Christ, the heavenly Ierusalem; so hauehave they further this doom against them, they d1 Cor. 6.….10.shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The cōmunicating with idols, depriveth men of cō munion with God; for there is e2 Cor. … 14.16.no fellowship of righteousnes with unrightousnes, no agreement betwixt the Temple of God and idols. The partakers therfore in this evill, (though perhaps not authors, inventors; nor open maintainers of the same,) shall come unto shame and confusion before God; for fIsa. 44.1all that are of the fellowship thereof, shall be confounded.
4 Folly is a blot and shame unto men, which they fayn would shun: but wisedom is mans honour, and gEccl. 8.…maketh his face to shine. Of all foolishnesse, idolatry is the greatest; depriving men of sound judgement in the best & heavenly things, and possessing their minds with habituall vanity. Therefore is this vice resembled by a hPro. 9.1foolish woman, ignorant, & knowing nothing; yet troublesome and talkatiue, iPro. 7.1& lowd in her babling: of a smooth and kPro. 2.1 & 5.3.8.9flattering tongue, and her mouth more soft then oil; yet cruel also and malicious, lPro. 6.2… & 9.18.hunting for the precious life of a man; bringing him to beggery, death and hell. But true religion, or the fear of the Lord, is resembled by mProv. 8 1.4.6.wisedom, which uttereth her voice to the children of men, & speaketh of excellent things; the words …. 8.9.…1.of her mouth are all righteous & plain, her instructions better then fine gold, and all her pleasures are not to be compared unto her. Blessed …ers. 33.35.is the man that heareth her, watching daily at her gates, and giving attendance at the posts of her dores: for he that findeth her, findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord, but he that sinneth against her, hateth his own soule; all that hate her, louelove death.
5 To worship and serv the Divill▪ is a thing horrible in religion, and even in nature; worthy of vengeance from the hand of God. Though all manner sin pertaineth to the Divils service: yet idolatry aboue all is counted and called the worship of Divils, and so shall be punished. The Heathens albeit they Rom. 1.…0.21.had some knowledge of the true God, and worshipped Act. 17.…3.him ignorantly; yet their worship is reckoned to Satan, for 1 Cor. 10 …0.the things which they sacrificed they sacrificed to Divils, and not unto God. Ieroboam made account he served the true God, 1 King. 2.28.even the God that had brought Israel out of Aegipt land: notwithstanding the Lord hath thus testified of him, that they were 2 Chron. …1.15.Divils which he made, when he made his calues, for to worship God by. And Israel before him made uExod. 3… 1, &c.a calfe for like use; but Moses doth blame them as having offered unto xLev. 17.…Divils, and gone a whoring after them: and prophesyeth that their children yDeut. 32 17.would also run into like blot. Antichristians would seem to bee worshippers of God; yet the Holy Ghost chargeth them to zRev. 9.2…worship the Divils, when they think to serv God by idols. Forasmuch then as all idols are Divils, though fools count them Saints: to partake with them, is to forsake God, and to bring our selues into satans damnation: for the Spirit hath protested, that wee a1 Cor. 1… 21.cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of Divils; we cannot be partakers of the Lords Table, and of the table of divils.
6 Many fearful judgements are threatned of God, against this sort of sinners, and hauehave come upon them. By Moses he bLev. 26.16. Deut. 28.3… 59, &c.denounced hastie, fearfull, and consuming plagues, aches, and botches, and incurable sicknesses, sore diseases and of long durance; which punishment hee brought even upon the c2 Chr. 2… 18.19.Kings for their idolatry. Hee threatned famine and drought, dLev. 26.…9 20.making heaven as yron, and earth as brasse, that the land should not giuegive her increase, nor trees their fruit: as came to passe in the e1 Kin. 17 Luk. 4.25.daies of wicked Achab, when heaven was shut, three years and six moneths, that it sent down neither rain nor dew, wherby great famine was throughout all the land, because they had forsaken the Lord, and 1 King. 18.18.followed Baalim. Wilde gLev. 26.22.beasts he menaced to send upon them, which should spoil them and their cattell, and make their high waies desolate; of which plague they tasted in Samaria, when the Lord, whom they feared not, h2 King. 17 25.26.sent Lions among them which slew them. Hee said Levit. 26 25.hee would send the sword upon them, which should avenge the quarrell of his covenant: and this plague k2 Chr. 12 …, & 28.5 6, &c.the Israelites often felt, because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers. Hunger and misery was prophesyed unto them, that Lev. 26.26 Deut. 28.…3—57. Ier. 19.9. Ezek. 5.10they should eat and not be satisfied, that men and women should eat their own children, and after births, and every man eat the flesh of his friend, fathers should eat their sonns, and sons their fathers, when all things should lack in the seige and streightnes wherein their enemies should inclose them: which extremities God m2 Kin… 6.29.brought upon Israel in K. I…r…ms daies, and after, when nLam. … 11.12.children & sucklings swooned in the streets, & gaue up the ghost in their mothers bosome, for want of bread and drink; and oLam. 4.the hands of the pittifull women sod their own children for their meat; and did eat their fruit, even pLam. 2.children of a span long. The Lord threatned qLev. 2… 30.31, &destruction of their high places and images, and to cast their carkesses on the bodies of their idols; & that his soul should abhor them▪ hee would make their cities desolate, and bring their sanctuary to naught, & would not smel the savour of their sweet odours, but scattred them among the Hethens, & draw the sword out after them: all which, with other like calamities came upon the idolaters, whose r2 King 23.16.2…dead bones were taken out of their graues & burned upon their polluted altars; and the idolatrous Priests sacrificed upon them. Ierusalem the holy citie, sIer. 52.13.10.was broken up, and all the men of war, fled; the house of the Lord, & al great houses burnt with fire; Kings captived in chains, Princes & nobles killed; the Lord trode …am. 1.15under foot, all the valiant men; Sion mourned, and there was none to comfort her; the …am. 2.1, ….beauty of Israel was cast down from heaven to earth, God cut off all the horn thereof in his fierce wrath, which he powred out like fire; vers. 6.7.causing the feasts and Sabbaths to bee forgotten in Sion, and despising in the indignation of his wrath, both King and Priest; forsaking his Altar, and abhorring his Sanctuary; so that peoples eyes vers. 11.failed with tears, their bowels swelled, their liver was powred upon the earth; for vers. 17.the Lord performed that which hee had purposed, and fulfilled his word determined of old; doing that to Ierusalem Ezek. 5.6which hee never did before, neither would doe any more the like, because of all their abominations; and Ier. 8.3, 7.29.death was desired rather then life, of all the residue of that wicked family; for the Lord had rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
7 All these, and Rom. 15.4 Cor. 10.11whatsoever else God threatned unto, or brought upon Israel, for their idolatries; are examples written for us upon whom the ends of the world are come: that we should not sin like them, lest we be partakers of like punishments. It is dHeb. 1… 31.a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God. For ever. 26.2if we sin willingly, after that we hauehave received the knowledge of the truth; there is left no more sacrifice for sins: but a fearfull looking for of judgement, and a violent-heat of fire which shall devour the adversaries.
8 Wherefore, unto the children of men, thus saith the wisedom of God; fPro. 1.22 23.O yee foolish, how long will yee louelove foolishnesse, and scorners take pleasure in scorning, and fooles hate knowledge? Turn you at my correction, loe I powr out my minde unto you: gProv. 2.2 4.5.12.cause your eares to hearken unto Wisedom, incline your hearts to understanding; seek her as silver, and search for her as for treasures, then shall you understand the fear of the Lord, and finde the knowledge of God, which will deliver you from the evill way, hPro. 6.24 25.from the flattery of the tongue of the strange woman. Desire not her beauty in your heart, neither let her take you with her ey-lids: iProv. 5.8 9.11.keep your way far from her, and come not neer the dore of house; least you giuegive your honour unto others, and your years to the cruel; and mourn at your end, when you hauehave consumed your flesh and your body. For kProv. 2.18.19.surely her house tendeth to death, her pathes unto the dead; all they that goe unto her, return not again, neither take they hold of the waies of life. Children keep, l1 Io…. 5.21.your selvs from Idols. Amen.
FINIS.
End of the text · Henry Ainsworth, An Arrow Against Idolatry (1624)