_The nature of idolatry.—Satan’s design to corrupt the worship of
God.—The evidences thereof, with the reasons of such endeavours.—His
general design of withdrawing the hearts of men from God to
his service.—The proof that this is his design.—Upon whom he
prevails.—That professions and confidences are no evidences to the
contrary.—His deceit of propounding sin as a small matter.—The
evidences of that method, and the reason thereof._
Thus have I considered the temptation as blasphemous. I proceed next
to consider it as idolatrous. The words ἐὰν πεσὼν προσκυνήσῃς, if thou
wilt fall down and worship, do give us the true notion of idolatry. The
word which we call _worship_ comes from κύω, which signifies to kiss,
or from κυὼν, which signifies a dog, both being to the same purpose,
and signifying any action of reverence by which we signify the respect
of our minds. To kiss the hand, or to fawn as a dog, are gestures
which express the honour we would give, and being applied to divine
worship before, or with respect unto, an undue object, is idolatry;
and as such doth Christ reject it in his answer, ‘Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.’ We worship God, when
in ways and actions commanded or prescribed, we testify our belief
and resentment of his incommunicable attributes. It is idolatry when
either we use the same actions of prescribed worship to that which is
not God, or when we testify our respects to the true God in an undue
way of our own devising. Here might I take occasion to shew the vanity
of the popish subterfuges; their distinction of _latria_ and _dulia_
is, as Dr [Henry] More observes, hereby overthrown.[462] Satan doth not
here set himself up as the omnipotent God, for he acknowledgeth one
superior to himself, in that he confesseth that the power he had of
the kingdoms of the world was given to him, Luke iv. 6, and therefore
not the _latria_ but the _dulia_ is required of him; and yet this,
Christ denies him as being idolatry, in that no religious worship—for
that must needs be the sense of his answer—is due to any but God
alone. Their other distinction of worshipping an idol, saint, angel,
cross, &c., and before such a creature, is also hereby crushed, as
is commonly observed:[463] for what the evangelist Matthew expresseth
by προσκυνήσῃς μοι, Luke calls ἐνώπιόν μου, before me; so that the
Scripture makes no difference betwixt these two, shewing it to be
idolatry to use religious worship to that which is not God, or before
it. But these things I shall not prosecute; keeping therefore to my
design, I shall observe,
_Obs._ 7. _That it is one of Satan’s great designs to corrupt the
worship of God._ That this is so will appear,
(1.) First, _If we consider what varieties of worship hath been in
the world_. God gave a fixed and stable law, and yet this so little
prevailed, that men were upon new inventions presently. I shall not
need to reckon up the almost numberless varieties of this kind among
the heathen. The instance is plain enough in those that professed the
name of the true God; they were still changing for new fashions in
religion, borrowing patterns from their neighbours, so that if there
were but a new altar at Damascus, or a new idol in any strange city,
they must presently have the like, till, as the prophet tells them,
‘according to their cities so were their gods,’ [Jer. ii. 28.] He that
will call to mind that the husbandman did first ‘sow good seed in his
field,’ and that there is such variety of tares and false worship,
notwithstanding the plain and positive command of God, fixing and
determining his worship, must needs conclude that an enemy, Satan, hath
done it.
(2.) Secondly, _If we call to mind how in all ages there hath been
a constancy in this inconstant variety_. We hear of it among the
heathens. We read enough of it among the Jews, and when they were out
of the humour of more shameful idolatries, they yet corrupted the
worship of God by their traditions; and of these they were so fond,
that they caused the law of God itself to give place to them, and made
it void by them. The times of the gospel were not free. Though Christ
came to seek such worshippers as should ‘worship him in spirit and in
truth,’ yet before the apostles’ deaths, while yet they were persuading
to the contrary, there arose up some that corrupted the worship, by
leading the people back again to the Jewish ceremonies, and others
laboured to bring in ‘worshipping of angels,’ and at last to ‘eat
things offered to idols,’ with greater defilements. Since the apostles’
days the same design hath been carried on in the churches. Rome hath
patched together a great deal of Jewish and heathenish ceremonies;
and when the man of sin shall be revealed, yet a higher flood of such
abominations is to be expected. Who hath wrought all this, but Satan?
This is still the same design, and though the work be not in all parts
like itself, yet the whole of it evidenceth the working of the same
spirit in all.
(3.) Thirdly, _Let us observe how early this began_. We cannot say
but that in the days of Adam, who doubtless had received particular
commands from God, in which he would not fail to instruct his children,
they were seeking to themselves ‘many inventions,’ Gen. iv. 26. At the
birth of Enos, as some conjecture, there were such defilements brought
into use in worship, that Seth had respect to it when he called his son
Enos, _Sorrowful_, as lamenting that profanation which was then begun
in ‘calling upon the name of the Lord,’ for so do many interpret that
passage, which in our English we read thus, ‘Then began men to call
upon the name of the Lord.’ The word in the original is הוחל, which
signifieth both to _profane_ and to _begin_, and may be as properly
translated, then ‘profaned they in calling upon the name of the Lord.’
And there are several reasons that move learned men[464] to fix upon
this translation. As (1.) That it is not probable that men began then
to call upon God, or publicly to do so, as some would interpret, and
not before, as the present English would imply. (2.) That age was noted
as corrupt, and therefore it is noted as a rarity that Enoch walked
with God. (3.) The Rabbins generally translate חלל to _profane_; but
if we should grant the present English, ‘Then began men to call upon
the name of the Lord,’ it would imply that the worship practised by
Adam and Abel had been corrupted, and now it was restored again and
reformed; which will make the corruption of worship to be yet more
early. And after that we read of corruption crept into the family of
Seth, as well as now in the family of Cain, Gen. vi. 2; so that the
worship of God stood not long in its honour, though Adam and Seth were
alive to instruct them; which shews that it was a rebellious departure
from the way, fomented and brought on by the malignant spirit Satan.
(4.) Fourthly, But to make all sure, _the Scripture lays all these
kinds of corruption of worship at Satan’s door_. The defilements of
worship taught in Thyatira, by Jezebel, are called ‘the depth of
Satan,’ Rev. ii. 24; the corruptions introduced by antichrist, are from
‘the workings of Satan,’ 2 Thes. ii. 9. What was promoted by false
apostles to that purpose, they had it from their great teacher Satan,
who ‘transforms himself for such ends into an angel of light,’ 2 Cor.
xi. 13, 14; so that nothing can be more plain than that this is an old
and constant design of Satan.
The particular ways by which Satan effects this design I shall not now
touch, but shall in lieu of that give you the reasons of his endeavours
this way.
[1.] First, _He knows that this is a sin of a high provocation_.
Worship is the proper tribute that is due to God, and it is peculiarly
his prerogative to prescribe the way and manner of it. Neither of these
honours will he give to any other, but will express his jealousy when
any invasion is made upon these his sole prerogatives. Now his worship
cannot be corrupted, but one of these at least will in some degree or
other be touched. If we set up another object of worship, we deny him
to be God; if we worship him in a way of our own invention, we deny
his wisdom, and set up ourselves above him, as if we could order his
worship better than he hath done in his word.
[2.] Secondly, _If the worship be corrupted, all the exercise of the
affections of the heart, and all the service itself is lost, and become
unacceptable_. He knows that such worshippers shall meet with this
answer, ‘Who hath required this at your hands?’ [Isa. i. 12.]
[3.] Thirdly, _Corruption in worship_, Satan by long experience knows
to have been the ground of those hatreds, quarrels, persecutions,
and troubles under which the church hath groaned in all ages, every
difference imposing their way and persuasion upon all dissenters, to
the disturbance of peace, breach and decay of love, hindrance of the
growth of piety, to the biting and devouring of one another.
[4.] Fourthly, Besides God is provoked by this to _leave his
sanctuary_, to remove his glory and his candlestick, to make his
vineyard a desolation, and his churches as Shiloh.
[5.] Fifthly, Satan is the more industrious in this, because _his ways
are capable of many advantages to further his design, and many specious
pretences to cover it_. In Col. ii. 8, he made use of philosophy to
corrupt religion, and by unsound principles of some heathens famous for
that learning, introduced ‘worshipping of angels.’ What that could not
effect he laboured to perform by ‘the traditions of men,’ and where
that came short, ‘the rudiments of the world’—the Mosaical ceremonies
were so called here, and in the Epistle to the Hebrews—were his engine
by which he battered the plain worship of the New Testament. And as to
pretences, the apostle doth there and elsewhere note that decency and
order, humility, wisdom, and self-denial, are things very taking, and
yet usually pretended for such bold innovations as may corrupt the pure
streams of the sanctuary.
_Applic._ Hence may I leave with you a few memorials.
[1.] First, _This may make us jealous of any alterations in the way
of Gods worship_. We have reason under the most plausible pretexts to
suspect the hand of Satan, because it is one of his main businesses to
corrupt the worship.
[2.] Secondly, _This may justify those that out of a conscientious
fear of complying with Satan’s design, dare not admit of a pin in
the tabernacle beside what God hath prescribed, nor leave behind a
shoe-latchet of what he hath enjoined_.
[3.] Thirdly, _This will tell us that that worship is best and safest
that hath least of mixture of human invention_. We cannot offend in
keeping close to the rule, though the worship thereby become more
plain, and not so gorgeous in outward appearance. We may soon overdo it
by the least addition, and cannot be so certain of God’s acceptation,
as we are of pleasing the senses of men, by such introducements.
This motion of Satan, ‘Fall down and worship me,’ is now in the last
place to be considered as a particular instance of Satan’s general
design _of drawing the hearts of men from God his service and ways, to
the pleasures of sin_; as if he should say to him, follow my advice,
give up thyself to my service, and thou shalt be gratified with all
the delights that the world can give thee. To this doth the bait here
offered most fitly agree. Hence observe,
_Obs._ 8. _That it is Satan’s general design to withdraw the hearts of
men from God, that they may be enslaved to him in the service of sin._
That the devil doth level all his endeavours to this, cannot be
doubted; for,
(1.) First, _He hath a kingdom in this world_, from which he is
denominated ‘the prince of this world.’ And this is not only a rule of
exterior force, such as conquerors have over their captivated slaves,
who are compelled to subject their bodies, while yet their minds are
full of hatred against him who hath thus forced them to subjection;
but it is a rule over the hearts and affections of men, working in
‘the children of disobedience’ a love and liking of these ways, and
begetting in them the image of Satan; so that what work he imposeth
they are pleased withal, and ‘love to have it so.’ Therefore he is not
only called their prince, but their god and their father: ‘Ye are of
your father the devil,’ in that with a kind of inward devotion they
will and endeavour to perform the lusts which he propounds to them.
(2.) Secondly, _This kingdom is contrary to Gods spiritual kingdom_,
that being of darkness, this of light; and it is managed by Satan with
an envious competition and co-rivalship to that of God; so that as God
invites men to the happiness of his kingdom, and sends his Spirit in
his word and ordinances to persuade them, Satan doth the like. He sends
out his spirit, which the apostle calls ‘the spirit of the world,’
1 Cor. ii. 12, and employs all his agents to engage men for him. He
requires the heart as God doth, he promiseth his rewards of pleasure,
honour, riches, if they will fall down and worship him. Now it is so
natural to prosecute an interest thus espoused in a way of opposition,
especially to any other that set up for themselves in a contradictory
competitorship, that the very natural laws of Satan’s kingdom will
engage him to stand up for it, and to enlarge it all he can.
Those upon whom he prevails are of two sorts—
(1.) First, _Some are visibly in his service_. These answer the
character which was given of Ahab, 1 Kings xxi. 20, ‘who sold himself
to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord.’ The first expression
shews that such are wholly in Satan’s power and disposal—as things sold
are in the possession and power of the buyer—they are at Satan’s will.
If he say to them, ‘Go, they go,’ and if he say, ‘Come, they come.’
Their bodies and spirits are Satan’s, they are not their own; and they
are his for the ends of sin, for that employment only, so that they are
‘wholly corrupt and abominable.’ The latter expression, that he did so
‘in the sight of the Lord,’ manifests their shameless impudency in sin,
that they ‘declare their sin as Sodom, and hide it not,’ that they do
not blush, but openly wear the devil’s livery and avouch his service.
As the works of the flesh are manifest, so these in their practice
of such works are manifestly Satan’s subjects. These kind of men are
frequently in the Old Testament styled ‘sons of Belial,’[465] a name
very significant, shewing either their devoting of themselves to the
devil’s service, in that they reject the yoke of God’s law, in that
they ‘break his bonds, and cast his cords from them,’ or their pride
that they will have none above them, not considering that there is a
God, or that the Most High rules, or their averseness to what is good,
being ‘wholly unprofitable, and to every good work reprobate.’ [Titus
i. 16.]
(2.) Secondly, _Some are secretly his servants_. They come to the
devil, as Nicodemus did to Christ, by night. They will not openly
profess him, but yet their hearts are wholly his. Such are called by
the name of hypocrites. The pharisees and scribes seemed to declare for
God, called themselves Abraham’s seed, fasted, gave alms, made long
prayers, and yet were a ‘generation of vipers,’ and ‘of their father
the devil.’ The secrecy of this underhand engagement to hell is such,
that many who are in a league with the devil, and at an agreement with
death, do neither know nor believe it concerning themselves. For,
[1.] First, _This private covenant may be where there are the greatest
seeming defilements of Satan and high professions of service to God_.
The pharisees, as have been said, were the devil’s servants, under
all the fair show they made of religion and zeal for the law, and yet
when Christ plainly told them that they were not Abraham’s seed but
the devil’s seed, they with high indignation and scorn throw back the
accusation to Christ, ‘Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil; we are
Abraham’s children,’ [John viii. 48,] so little believed they the truth
when it was told them.
[2.] Secondly, _This may consist with some designment and intention
to give God glory_. The Jews, though they submitted not to the
righteousness of God, yet, by the testimony of Paul, they had a zeal
to God. The very heathens that sacrifice to devils had not formal
intentions so to do, as appears by their inscription on the altar at
Athens, Acts xvii. 23, ‘To the unknown God.’ The true God, though
unknown, they propounded as the object of their worship; yet falling
into those ways of devotion which the devil had prescribed, these
intentions could not hinder but that they became his servants.
[3.] Thirdly, _Men may be servants to Satan under great assurances and
confidences of their interest in God_. Many go to hell that have lived
with _Lord, Lord_ in their mouths. Those mentioned in Isa. xlviii. 2,
that had no interest in truth and righteousness when they solemnly
sware by the name of the Lord, ‘yet they called themselves of the holy
city, and stayed themselves upon the God of Israel,’ [Isa. xlviii. 2.]
_Obj._ If it seem strange to any that these professions, intentions,
and confidences are not enough to secure men from this charge, but that
they may be secretly slaves to hell, I answer,
_Ans._ 1. First, _That those do not necessarily conclude that the heart
of such men is right with God_. Formality, natural conscience, and
the power of education may do much of this; for though we grant that
such are not conscious to themselves of any real design of serving
Satan, yet they may either so far miss it in the way of their service,
offering that as well-pleasing to God, which indeed he hates, and
that through wilful and affected ignorance, as those of whom Christ
speaks, John xvi. 2, that should think the killing of God’s children
a piece of acceptable service; or they may be so mistaken as to the
sincerity of their hearts that they may think they have a design to
please God in doing of what he requires in order thereunto, when indeed
it may not be singly for God but for themselves that they work, in
a self-gratification of their natural zeal for their way; or their
esteem, credit, and advantage may privately influence them, rather than
a spirit of life and power.
_Ans._ 2. Secondly, _The work which they do, and the ends they serve,
will be evidence against professions and intentions_. It is a sure
rule, that the work shews to whom men are related as servants, and it
is laid down as a certain standard to measure the hearts of men by,
when pretences and persuasions seem to carry all before them: Rom.
vi. 16, ‘His servants ye are to whom ye obey;’ 1 John iii. 8, 10, ‘He
that committeth sin is of the devil: in this the children of God are
manifest, and the children of the devil’—that is, when it becomes a
question to whom a man belongs, whose child and servant he is, it must
be determined by the works he doth. If he engage in the ways of sin,
he is of the devil, let him profess what he will to the contrary. This
same balance Christ useth to try the truth of the Jews’ pretences to
God: John viii. 34, ‘Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin;’
they boasted high, but he shews them that seeing their designs and
works were hatred, envy, murder, &c., which are apparently from Satan,
it was evident they had learned these of him; and he concludes by this
proof, ver. 44, ‘that they were of their father the devil.’ Thus may
we say of those that pretend they honour God, they deify the devil,
they intend well, if yet they give themselves up to the pleasing of
the flesh, if worldly-minded, if they live in pride, strife, envy,
maliciousness, &c.,—which are works of the devil,—it is not all their
pretences that will entitle them to God, but they are, for all this,
the devil’s servants, as doing his works.
_Applic._ This may put men upon inquiries, _Who are ye for? whose
servants are ye?_ There are but two that can lay claim to you, and
these two divide the whole world betwixt them. There is no state of
neutrality: you are either God’s servants or the devil’s. Ye cannot
serve them both; ‘now if the Lord be God, serve him.’ Satan’s service
is base, dishonourable, slavish; the service of God, freedom, honour,
life, and peace; there is indeed no comparison betwixt them. Happy,
then, is that man that can say the Lord is his lot and portion; that
can come into God’s presence, and there in his integrity avouch the
Lord for his God—that can stand upon it. ‘My soul hath said unto the
Lord, Thou art my God, and I have none besides thee; other lords have
had dominion over us, but we will make mention of thy name only,’ [Isa.
xxvi. 13.]
This temptation, though it were in itself horrid, and as a brood
of vipers knotted together, which at once could send out several
stings, and make many wounds,—as hath been noted,—yet in the way of
propounding, Satan seems to insinuate the largeness of his proffer, and
the smallness and inconsiderableness of the service required, as if he
should say, ‘See how free I am in my kindness; I will not stick to give
thee the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and all this for
so small a matter as bowing before me, or doing me a little reverence.’
This gives us to observe,
_Obs._ 9. _That when Satan doth design no less than to enslave men to
his service, yet he will propound sin as a small thing, or but one act
of sin, as a thing not valuable, to engage them to him._ Not but that
he desires to run men to excess in wickedness, and delights to see them
with both hands earnestly work iniquity with greediness; yet where
he sees the consciences of men squeamish, and that they cannot bear
temptations to open and common profaneness without danger of revolt
from him, there he seems modest, and requires but some small thing, at
least at first, till the ways of sin become more familiar to them, and
then when they can better bear it, he doubles the tale of bricks, and
with greater confidence can urge them to things of greater shame and
enormity. That this is his way appears,
[1.] First, _From the common argument which he useth at first to those
whom he would draw off from a more careful conversation_, which is
this: Do such a thing, it is but for once, and but little; others do
the like, and demur not, or the best do as great matters as this comes
to. It is but a small thing, considering the strait, or the advantage
that may accrue. This is his usual note to candidate iniquity, as
experience of all doth testify.
[2.] Secondly, That this is so is also evident from a consideration
of _the several ways and courses of sinners_. Some are tempted and
overcome by one kind of sin, and not at all urged to others. Some go
to hell in a way of covetousness; others are pretty unblameable in
most of their carriages, but are overcome by a proud humour; others
are given to drink, and yet will not steal nor deal falsely; others
take a more cleanly way to hell, rely upon their own righteousness, or
are engaged in error, and their life otherwise smooth and fair. The
Jews in Christ’s time were only engaged against Christ, and for their
traditions, but not molested with temptations to open idolatry as
formerly. Those who are ignorant are not troubled with temptations to
despair, or inward terrors. The reasons of his dealing thus are these:—
[1.] First, _He sees that one sin heartily prosecuted is enough
to signify homage to him, and to give him possession_. As we take
possession of land by a turf or a twig, so by one sin admitted with
full purpose of mind, Satan is let into the heart. As a penny will be
sufficient earnest for a bargain of a thousand pounds, so may one sin
be a pledge or earnest for the whole soul in a league with hell.
[2.] Secondly, _He knows that one sin persisted in may be enough to
destroy the soul_; as one wound may kill, one leak may sink a ship.
[3.] Thirdly, _He knows that one sin breaks the covenant of God_, and
turns the heart from him, if men give up themselves to it.
[4.] Fourthly, _One sin wilfully pursued makes a man guilty of the
breach of the whole law_. It destroys love and respect to God,
undervalues his authority, contemns his threatenings and promises.
[5.] Fifthly, _One sin is enough to make way for more_. Where Satan
would have more, yet at first he is pleased with it as a hopeful
beginning. It makes room enough for the serpent’s head, and then he
will afterwards easily wind in his whole body.
_Applic._ This may warn us not to be emboldened to any sin by the plea
_of diminution_; not to venture because it may seem little, or be but
for once. A true Christian should be a perfect universalist; he should
be universally against all sin, and universally for all duty.