It might be by a long process, combining the policy of men in power with the interests of a debased priesthood, and the inventions of ingenious poets, that the actual worship of created things, and imaginary beings, and senseless images, obtained among mankind.

That this was the religion of the people in Egypt, in Assyria, in Canaan, admits not of a doubt.

This, under various modifications, was the religion of Greece in her happiest era, and of Rome in her proudest days. Where the revelation of God was not enjoyed, it was the religion of man; and, in similar circumstances, it is the religion of half a thousand millions of men at this day. The terrible effects of idolatrous worship stare us in the face, in the institutions, the morals, the character, the doom, of every nation in which it has prevailed.

The system, false and ridiculous as it is, has always had attractions. Supported by the deepest principles, the most violent passions, and the most obvious interests of every class of men; sustaining, by its mysteries, the dignity of laws, and the sacredness of princes; enriching by its revenues, and exalting by its pretensions, multitudes of priests; enchanting the imagination by its splendours, and gratifying the senses by its spectacles and its indulgencies; alluring the speculative by its professed enigmatical disclosures of the future; animating the ambitious by the deification of heroes; employing the poet and the sculptor by the tales of its mythology, and the profusion of its statues; enticing nations and families by the soothing fictions of tutelary and domestic gods,-it commended itself to all.

Yet, the great charm of idolatry was its adaptation to the depraved propensities of fallen nature. Originating in these propensities, and depending on their activity for its existence, it afforded a patron for every vice, a plea for every cruelty: it consecrated every lust, and sanctioned every crime!

The world had never known a remedy for this immeasurable evil. Reason was overpowered by it. Conscience, if not stifled or soothed, was left to haunt the spirits of the guilty with the horror of despair. Cities and empires,-the world itself,— had been destroyed; mankind had been dispersed; traditionary notices of the truth had been handed down; but all without effect: man was still an apostate from God!

The single feeling which gave birth to this frightful and disgusting train of mischiefs, is dissatisfaction with the simple and authoritative institutions of "the only wise God." They "sought out many inventions;" and, "professing themselves wise, they became fools."

But it was in the mind of the true God, in whose presence all these abominations had been committed, to bring back an apostate world. And oh, how wonderful are the ways in which he reveals and accomplishes that purpose! He chooses Abraham from a family of idolaters; manifests himself to him; promises to bless his seed, and, in that seed, to bless all the nations; gives him a sign, which is perpetuated in his family; brings that family, by a mysterious providence, into a land, where idolatry is revelling in all its pomp; fulfils his promise to their great progenitor; and, with a strong arm, and in the presence of the heathen, leads them forth from their low and afflicted condition; pours his fury on the idols and their worshippers; makes a solemn covenant with the people, and becomes their Guide; announces himself to them as the God of their fathers; separates them from every other people; commits to them the institutions of his worship; governs them by a special providence; raises up in the midst of them a line of prophets, who denounce his wrath against idolatry, and gradually unroll the volume of his "hidden wisdom;" in the "fulness of the time" sends forth his own Son; and, "God manifest in the flesh," declares the Father, fulfils the law,-makes

atonement for sin,-promises the Spirit,-and, before he leaves our earth, commands his gospel to be preached to all nations, with the assurance of his efficacious presence, "to the end of the world.” Then, the times of ignorance, which God had winked at, were past, and he commanded all men every where to repent.

Now, it was to the people thus selected by his providence that these commandments were delivered. Just emerged from the insults and oppressions of a people who were slaves of idolatry,-designed to be the depository of the truth, for future ages, and for the whole world, and placed in circumstances of the last importance to the evidence, the establishment,' and the illustration of that truth, they are addressed in the weighty words of this commandment : "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image."

Fourthly: We have, in part, anticipated the observations suggested by this commandment, on the scheme of the divine administrations, which it so instructively discloses. One grand error of the systems of idolatry, an error congenial to a sinful being, consisted in supposing that an invisible God is a God that does not see,* and consequently does not regard, the conduct of his creatures. Now, this commandment is connected with the assurance, that, while God is a Spirit, his government is universal, and is, in fact, universal by extending to every individual agent, and every particular action. This assurance is intended to make every man who reads or hears it, feel, that, through every moment of his existence, he is under the inspection of Him who is to judge the secrets of his heart. These minute administrations of the divine and universal Judge are, likewise, active, just, and benevolent :- he visits, he visits sins, and he shows mercy.

In relation to the people originally addressed in

Ezekiel, viii. 12.

these commandments, the dispensations of God were extraordinary, because intended to accomplish a peculiar purpose: "visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children."

The rash and petulant spirit of infidelity has raised its peevish voice against this peculiarity in the divine arrangements. But the "disputer of this world" has not understood the native character and deserts of human beings, nor the particular relation subsisting between God and the Hebrew tribes, nor the harmony that pervades the system of the divine dispensations.

The general dealings of God with man must ever be viewed under the conviction of our universal and total apostasy. His dealings with the seed of Abraham must be examined on the principles of that national covenant into which he entered with that people; and all the dispensations of divine justice and grace, in the present state, must be studied in their reference to that period, when "the mystery of God shall be finished."

The separation of the Hebrews was connected, as we have already hinted, with a most extensive plan; a leading feature of which was, the maintenance of the truth respecting the nature and the character of God. For the sake of the Hebrews themselves, and for the honour of the true God,-in contrast to the false gods of the nations,-it was necessary that his presence and providence should be sensibly felt by his own people, and witnessed by every other; that his law should be enforced by rewards and punishments distributed in the present state; and that these rewards and punishments should be so distributed, as to evince his special interference. By these means, the minds of a people, incapable of lofty abstractions, and insensible to calculations of remote consequences, were impressed with notions of responsibility, and aided in their convictions of duty. A basis, too, was laid in the extraordinary providence under which they were placed, for proving,

through all ages, the reality and the authority of divine revelation. The existence of a supreme and universal government was thus most illustriously proclaimed; and the principles on which its administrations are conducted were most faithfully, and, as it were, in miniature, exemplified.

As the privileges of the Hebrews were given them for the purpose of maintaining the true religion, it was necessary, on every account, that the adulteration or neglect of that religion should be attended with the forfeiture of these privileges, and that the forfeiture, as well as the privileges, should extend to their posterity. It was from the favour of God to their great ancestor that these privileges were enjoyed at all; and the principle of still involving the chiidren in the temporal condition of the fathers, was a natural, just, and merciful provision. Appealing to the strongest instincts of nature, it guarded, most effectually, the purity of the true religion, by enlisting in its service the affection of a parent for its offspring, and grafting on that affection a salutary terror of the visitations of Heaven. As the fourth generation was the last that a father could hope to see, the temporal punishment of his transgression did not pass beyond that period,-a period necessary, in most cases, to produce a deep impression on national character, and sufficient to bring a people back, in weeping, and with supplication, to their offended God.

But the threatening is accompanied by an intimation of mercy. The temporal blessings of the Hebrews were not deserved, they were the gifts of mercy, yet vouchsafed to those only who rendered the obedience of love. The same principle of involving the children with the fathers is followed; but, mark the difference in the extent of its application! The visitation of anger was to reach the third, or the fourth generation: the display of mercy was to continue throughout thousands of generations!

When we consider, then, that God is a spirit, in