purpose, that I fhall never henceforth return to them any more.

How is this furprising change to be accounted for? When God faid, "Ephraim ❝is joined to idols," he immediately pronounced that awful decree, "Let him a"lone." Hereby a restraint was laid upon every outward inftrument. All the creatures were charged by the highest authority, to give him no disturbance in the courfe of his idolatry, but to leave him entirely to his own conduct, and the unabated influence of the idols he had chofen.

By what means then was his recovery brought about ?-Had Ephraim the honour to discover the delufion by his own fagacity, and to break the enchantment by his own ftrength ?-We find an anfwer to these questions, ch. xiii. 9. "O Ifrael, thou “hast destroyed thyfelf, but IN ME is thy

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help." Had God faid, I am determined to let Ephraim alone, there would have been an end of him at once, though the whole creation had been left at liberty to exert its utmost activity for his help: but it deferves our notice, that though God laid a

restraint

restraint upon the agency of the creatures, yet he laid no restraint upon his own, but referved to himself the full exercife of his effential and unalienable prerogative, to be the free and fovereign disposer of his grace.

In this character he is introduced at the ift verse of this chapter, where he iffues forth his royal command, and clothes it with power: "O Ifrael, return unto the "Lord thy God, for thou haft fallen by "thine iniquity."-In order to encourage their hope of acceptance, he teacheth them in the following verfes how to pray, and even dictates the very form of surrender they were to make: "Take with you "words, and turn to the Lord, fay unto "him, Take away all iniquity, and re"ceive us graciously: fo will we render "the calves of our lips. Afhur shall not "fave us, we will not ride upon horses, "neither will we fay any more to the "works of our hands, Ye are our Gods: "for in thee the fatherlefs findeth mercy." After which, to remove that diftruft and jealoufy which neceffarily fpring from a consciousness

:

consciousness of guilt, he goes on to declare his fovereign purpose, expreffed in the most comprehensive and abfolute terms, of dif penfing to them, and conferring upon them, his pardoning mercy and fanctifying grace: "I will heal their backfliding, I will love "them freely for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Ifrael," &c. In confequence whereof, he foretels, in the words of my text, that Ephraim, who till then had been joined to idols, fhould find himself disposed and enabled to fay, not with his lips only, but from an effectual principle of new life in his heart, What have I to do with idols any more?

From this view of my text, as it ftands connected with other paffages in this book that relate to Ephraim, and more especially with the verfes immediately preceding, four obfervations obviously arife, which I propofe to illuftrate in the following difcourfe.

1. That a finner, in his natural state, is joined to idols.

2. That

2. That to separate a finner from idols, is a work that is altogether peculiar to God.

3. That this separation is effected by the discovery and application of pardoning mercy and fanctifying grace.-And,

4. That every one who is a partaker of thefe important benefits, will, and must, adopt the words of Ephraim in their most extenfive meaning, and fay, as he did, What have I to do any more with idols &

I. My firft obfervation is, That a finner, in his natural state, is joined to idols.

Herein confifteth the effence of man's apoftafy. Something that is not God is the object of his fupreme love, and pof feffeth that place in his heart which is due only to the living and true God; and that thing, by what name foever it may be distinguished, is properly an idol.

Now

this world, and the things of the world, its riches, and pleasures, and honours, which the Apostle John, by a strong and fignificant figure, calls "the luft of the

eye, the luft of the flesh, and the pride "of life;" these are the great rivals of

God,

God, which, ever fince the fatal apoftafy, have ufurped the throne in the human heart.

I am unwilling to mention the profane rites by which fome of thefe idols are worfhipped by many: they are too fhocking to be named, and at the fame time fo notorious as to render a detail of them fuperfluous. It is by no means neceffary for proving the charge of idolatry, that I fhould lead your imagination through the various fcenes of injuftice, oppreffion, and cruelty; or into the foul haunts of lewdnefs and riotous excefs. Many of thefe vices may be deemed unnatural to man even in his fallen ftate: and though the carnal mind may be enmity against God, yet I am verily perfuaded, that the carnal mind itself doth often fuffer a confiderable degree of violence, before it can be fully reconciled to the practice of them. It is fufficient for my purpofe to affirm, what daily obfervation puts beyond all doubt, viz. that this prefent world, in one shape or other, is loved and ferved in preference to God, by every man, without exception, who hath no other principle of life than what he derived from the