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idols than one, We may find that we are not only idolaters, but are in fact the worshippers of many gods.-The great idol however, which has a seat and an altar in every unholy heart, is self. This is the Divinity which, under one similitude or another, is supremely loved, trusted in, doted on, and served. It is the good of self, which, with mankind in general, is studied and pursued, and the advancement of which all other objects and interests are made to subserve. How ardent, my friends, has been our love, and how obsequious and devoted our service, of this great but contemptible idol of mankind?

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It will follow, I think, from what has been said, that every natural unrenewed person is an idolater.Every person must have some object of supreme regard-something, towards which his affections centre, and on which they ultimately rest. But no unrenewed person ever made God the object of his supreme affection. No such person ever loved God with his whole heart, trusted in him with a filial confidence, looked to him as the fountain of all good, served him with fidelity and joy, and lived devoted to his glory. In other words, no unrenewed person ever regarded God as his God; or gave him that place in his heart, which he must have in the breast of every true worshipper: For if he had, he would not be an unrenewed person. He would be a saint, a child of God, and an heir of glory.

-But if the unregenerate person, like every other, must have some object of supreme regard, and if this is never the God who made him; then there is always something which he sets higher than God, which he loves better, and in which he trusts and rejoices more. It may be his property, his reputation, his pleasures, his personal qualities, his chil

dren, or his friends. At any rate, it is self, in some shape or other. This is the great idol of the unrenewed heart. This is the shrine before which the sinner bows, and to which he offers the incense of his soul.

The remarks which have been made should lead the people of God to inquire, whether they have become weaned from idols.-The true children of God know what it is to love their heavenly Father supremely, to trust and delight in him, to serve, glorify, and obey him. They know what it is to give God his place, and to worship him in spirit and in truth. But do they always feel thus? Are they effectually weaned from their idols? Are there no times, when the world, in some of its alluring shapes-its riches, its honours, its pleasures, or in some one of its thousand endearing objects, takes the uppermost place, and becomes the idol of their hearts? Are there no times when self, in one form or another, rises up, and usurps the throne which they had given to their God?-It becomes us, my dear brethren, to look well to this matter. We have to do with an all wise and jealous God, who perfectly knows us, claims the whole heart, and will never be satisfied with a secondary or unwilling service. Have we not all much reason to be humbled before him, and with sorrow to confess that we have dishonoured him? And while our sympathies are excited, and our hearts affected, in contemplating the idolatries of the hea-then; is there not sufficient reason why they should be deeply affected in contemplating our own ?

What a spectacle my brethren, does this world exhibit, to the holy eye of its Creator? It may be concluded from the Scriptures, that there is no sin more directly dishonourable and offensive to the Supreme Being, than idolatry. Yet, as his all pene

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trating eye runs over the earth, how much of this does he witness? Vast portions of the globe are covered with literal idols, and sunk in all the debasement and wretchedness which are necessarily consequent upon idol worship. A vast majority of our race are at this moment professed idolaters.-Turning therefore from these to lands where the true God is known, and where open idolatry is abolished; how much that he regards as idolatry still prevails? Some are setting up one thing, and some another, while the great God who made them is excluded from their hearts. In the multitude of their idols, they have no place, and no homage, for him.-And if he looks from these to his professing people, who have chosen him for their portion, and resigned themselves into his hands, and where of course he might expect a pure and constant service; even here the world is loved and pursued, and idols are admitted to a participation of those hearts which had been given to him forever. Even his own people are not effectually weaned from inferior objects, and attached and devoted to him alone.-And should he turn from these to the temples dedicated to his name, and the congregations assembled ostensibly for his worship; would he not find idolatry mingling and contaminating even here? when he follows with his eye those who enter the sanctuary, and sees them rise from their seats to praise, and pray, and unite in the worship of their infinite Creator; is he not often obliged to see that their souls are not sincere, and the homage of their hearts is rendered to other objects ?-Is it to be wondered at, my brethren, that our prayers are not more effectual? Is it not much more strange, that for our hypocrisy and idolatry we are not consumed, while in the act of offering them?

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IDOLATRY AMONG CHRISTIANS.

After the view here taken, may we not with an emphasis repeat the exclamation, What a spectacle does this world exhibit to the holy eye of its Creator! How little is there that he can approve! How much every where presents itself-not excepting even our most holy places-which he must regard with displeasure and abhorence!-Let us all then fall humbly before him, and fervently implore that he would pour out his Spirit, reform a wicked world, put an end to all idolatry whether among Christians or heathen, and cause the knowledge of his name speedily to cover the earth, as the waters do the seas.-Amen.

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DISCOURSE XVIII.

ON THE FUTURE STATE OF THE HEATHEN.

Romans, vi. 21.

"The end of those things is death.”

THE Apostle, in this verse and those connected with it, is addressing such as had been recently converted from heathenism to the faith of the gospel. And he reminds them, that in their former Pagan state, they had been " the servants of sin," and had "yielded their members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity." But in the text he assures them, that "the end of these things"-of the practices in which they had indulged-" is death. For," he adds, "the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." That the death here spoken of must be eternal death, is certain from its being contrasted with "eternal life." We have therefore in the text this affecting truth ;-The end of heathenism is eternal death. Or, in other words, the great body of those who live and die heathens, must finally perish.

I am aware, my hearers, that this proposition, if It is one sufficient to awaktrue, is an awful truth. en the sympathies, and rouse up all the energies of Christendom. Still, if it is true, we ought to know it. it is not the dictate of true benevolence, to shut our eyes upon the miseries of others, especially when we have it in our power to relieve them.

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