2 Kings 17.15, 16.

They followed vanity & became vain & went after yethe heathen that were round about them concerning whom yethe LdLord had said ytthat they should not do like them. And they left all yethe commandements of yethe Lord their God & made them molten images even two calves & made a grove & worshipped all yethe host of heaven & served Baal.

Having had formerly occasion to disourse of these words I told you how yethe designe of yethe place was to describe yethe captivity of yethe Israelites ten tribes by yethe Assyrians & yethe abominations for which they were captivated & yethe religion of yethe nations wchwhich yethe assyrians placed in Samaria in yethe seats of yethe captivated Israelites: wchwhich religion was that these nations joyned together yethe worship of yethe true God in yethe Calves of Iereboāam & yethe worship of yethe fals Gods of yethe Gentiles round about in their several Idols even as yethe Israelites had joyned them before. ffor yethe better understanding yethe tenour & force of yethe place I laid down these six particulars. 1st That yethe Israelites acknowledged & worshipped yethe true God at yethe same time that they worshipped yethe Gods of the Gentiles. 2 That they & yethe nations wchwhich succeeded them in yethe Cities of Lanaria worshipped yethe true God in yethe calves of Ieroboāam 3 That this worship was Idolatry notwithstanding that it was performed to yethe true God: & by parity of reason that yethe worship of yethe true God by any Image wchwhich he has not commanded, (as indeed he has commanded none) is Idolatry. 4 That generally yethe Israelites & Gentiles worshipped not mere Images as Gods themselves but only as dedicated to their several Gods. 5 That the ancient Idolaters, as many of them as acknowledged yethe true God, did not esteem any of their other Gods equal to him but accounted them only finite beings & for yethe most part the souls of men deceased, who for yethe eminent passage of their life here they supposed were after death rewarded with power more or less over this world, to do good or hurt therein not only subordinately not only to yethe supreme God but even to some others of their imagined Gods. Lastly 3that yethe glory of yethe true God wchwhich Idolaters gave unto their Idols, was not any of his attributes as some are ready to suppose, but only this: To love, to fear, to trust in, & to to seek unto those Gods for yethe temporal blessings of this life, for wchwhich yethe true God has appointed us to love fear trust in & seek unto none but himself immediately. To And consequently to do any of these things in a religious way to any other then the true god, is so far to depart from him & give his glory to another: the great crime of wchwhich Idolaters stand accused.

ffor evincing the first of these particulars * * that the Israelites acknowledged & worshipped the true God at yethe same time that they worshipped yethe Gods of yethe Gentiles. I produced several places of scripture wchwhich I shall not repeat: only yethe last of them I named, I shall remind you of that I may explain it a little further. It was in Ier 44.25, 26 where a hand of Iews wchwhich in yethe time of Nebuchadnezzars captivity fled into Ægypt, vowed in yethe lo name of yethe Lord to worship yethe Queen of heaven. The words run thus. Hear yethe word of the lord all Iudah that are in the Land of Egypt: Thus saith yethe Lord of hosts yethe God of Israel, saying Ye & yoryour wives have both spoken with your mouth & fulfilled wthwith your hands, saying, We will surely perform orour vows that we have vowed to burn incense to yethe Queen of heaven & to pour out drink offrings unto her: Ye will surely accomplish your vows & surely perform your vows. Therefore hear ye yethe word of yethe Lord all Iudah ytthat dwell in yethe Land of Egypt, Behold I have sworn by my great name saith yethe Lord that my name shall be no more named in yethe mouth of any man of Iudah in all yethe Land of Egypt saying; The Lord God liveth. In the 42th Chapter the remnant of the people which scaped the the hands of the king of Babylon, & remained in the land after the captivity & burning of Ierusalem, came to Ieremiah & said to him: Let, we beseech thee our supplication be accepted before the & pray for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant, that yethe Lord thy God may shew us yethe way wherein we4 we may walk & the thing that we may do. After a few days Ieremiah returned them answer from yethe Lord that if they went into Egypt, as they designed, they should surely be cut off there by yethe armies of the king of Babylon, but if they stayd in their own land it should be well with them. But this answer being contrary to their inclination, they replied to Ieremiah, Thou speakest falsly, The Lord our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt to sojourn there. Here you see the people acknowledged yethe true God, yethe God of Ieremiah whom they called their own God, & made their applications to him to know whether they should go into Egypt or stay in their Land. And when they received answer that they should stay they did not present thereupon reject their God, & say we will will not obey him but only blamed the Prophet as if he had lied feigned unto them, & not spoken to them from the Lord. Vpon this therefore they went into Egypt, & what they did there you have described in yethe 44th Chapter, vers 7 the 7th & following verses, where Ieremiah is sent to reprove them for their Idolatry, with this message. Thus saith yethe Lord, the God of hosts, yethe God of Israel, Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls to cut off from you man & woman child & suckling out of Iudah to leave you none to remain: In that ye provoke me to wrath wthwith yethe works of yoryour hands burning incence unto other Gods in yethe land of Egypt, whether ye be gone to dwell. – Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers & yethe wickedness of yethe kings of Iudah & the wickedness of their wives, & your own wickedness & the wickedness of your wives which they have committed in yethe land of Iudah & in yethe streets of Ierusalem? They are not humbled even unto this day Neither have they feared nor walked in my law nor in my statutes that I set before you & before yoryour fathers. Therefore thus; saith the lord of hosts yethe God of Israel 5Behold I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut of all Iudah. These men you see then were Idolaters in their own land before their captivity & in Egypt after it. In the midst of their abominations it was that they came to Ieremiah to enquire of the Lord, & now when Ieremiah was sent to em to tell 'em of denounce Gods judgments on 'em for their doings & exhort them to repentance & they replied that they would not still not hearken to him but keep to that worship wchwhich they & their fathers had used before in Ierusalem, the Prophet replies answers: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, saying ye & your wives have both spoken with your mouth & fulfilled with your hands saying: We will surely perform orour vows that we have vowed to burn incencse to yethe Queen of heaven & to pour orour out drink offerings unto her. Ye will surely accomplish your vows & surely perform yoryour vows Therefore heare ye yethe word of yethe Lord all ye that dwell in yethe Land of Egypt: Behold I have sworn by my great name saith yethe Lord that my name shall be no more named in yethe mouth of any man of Iudah in all yethe land of Egypt saying the Lord God liveth Hitherto then notwithstanding their Idolatry, the name of the Lord continued among them, & because they vowed by it to worship the Queen of heaven & upon Ieremiahs reproving them replied that they would perform their vows therefore God threatens that his name should be no more named among them to say, the Lord God liveth. You are to know ytthat this saying yethe Lord God liveth was their usual solemn usual way of invoking him God when they would swear solemnly sweare by him. An evident instance of this you have in Ier. 38.16, where Zedekiah yethe king of Iudah demanding yethe word of yethe Lord of Ieremiah, & Ieremiah fearing least the King should put him to death for telling it him it is said that yethe king sware secretly to Ieremiah saying As6As the Lord liveth that made this soule, I will not put thee to death. So; (as I told you formerly,) the Israelites when they went to worship yethe Calves at Bethel & Gilgal used to swear after this manner, & therefore in Hosea 4.15 God commands ytthat Iudah do not imitate Israel in this point: Though Israel, saith he, play yethe harlot, yet let not Iudah offend, & come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Bethaven, nor swear, The Lord liveth. This then was their solemn way of swearing, & as yethe ten Tribes used it in their religion toward yethe calves so yethe two Iews in Egypt used it in their religion towards their Idols ffor had not their vows to worship yethe Queen of heaven been done in yethe name of yethe Lord it would have been incoherent to say, bBecause ye have vowed to worship yethe QeenQueen of heaven & say ye will perform yoryour vows therefore my name shall be no more named among you, saying, yethe Lord liveth. Tis certain therefore that these vows were done in Gods name & consequently ytthat in yethe midst of their Idolatry they retained a religion toward yethe true God & thought their worshipping other Gods well pleasing to him: yea that they retained a more especial regard to yethe true God then to any other & performed their worship to others, with reverence to him. ffor why els did they not in yethe worshipping yethe Queen of heaven vow by her name rather then by the name of yethe Lord? Why did they plead their vow in such a manner as if they should be wanting in their religion to yethe duty to yethe true God if they did not acording to their vow worship the Queen of heaven? But how ever it be, this I have plainly shewed that theyse Idolaters both before they went into Egypt & when they were there retained some a religion towards yethe true God, & if you further consider that they continued it till they were destroyed for their Idolatry the way by wchwhich God 7God threatened to put an end to their vowing by his name you may perceive they continued it till, for their Idolatry, they were destroyed. Because, says God, ye have vowed to worship yethe Queen of heaven & say ye will perform your vows therefore my name shall be no more named in all yethe mouth of any man of Iudah in all yethe land of Egypt saying yethe Lord God liveth: – for all yethe men of Iudah ytthat are in yethe land of Egypt shall be cut off consumed by yethe sword & by the famin untill there be an end of them. This was the means by wchwhich God foretold them he would put an end to their swearing by his name & consequently they retained a religion to yethe true God & fals Gods together all yethe while they lived in Egypt.

Having thus at large given you yethe import of this place I shall now pass on to another. In Ezek 14. in yethe former part of yethe Chapter you have the Elders of Israel in the midst of their Idolatries committed before the captivity comeing to enquire of yethe true God & God rejects them because of their Idols. The place runs thus. Then came certain of yethe Elders of Israel unto me & sat before me. And yethe word of yethe Lord came unto me saying Son of man these men have set up their Idols in their heart, & put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them? Therefore speak unto them & say unto ym Thus saith yethe Lord God, Every man of yethe house of Israel that setteth up his Idols in his heart & putteth yethe stumbling block of his iniquity before his face & cometh to yethe Prophet, I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to yethe multitude of his Idols. That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart because they are all estranged from me through 8rtheir Idols. This place seems so evident as to need no explaining. But yet because there may be some scruple about their setting up Idols in their heart as if that expression might imply that they were not Idolaters in their external acts of worship but onely in their heart, I shall hereafter say something to cleare ytthat expression & then add an observation or two upon yethe place together with some other passages of scripture to yethe same purpose: by which I hope to make it appeare ytthat yethe Iews & Israelites scarce ever so followed other Gods as to forsake their own unlesse perhaps in yethe short reign of Ahab when Iezebel a forreign woman endeavoured to extirpate yethe religion of yethe Israelites & bring in that of her own Country.