Thoughts upon Idolatry

So long as man keeps his thoughts and ideas within the limit of the Word of God, and the command of God, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God! The Lord is One," so long we are safe and all is well; but the moment we let these thoughts and ideas go only one step further, and attach them to persons or to substances, or to any visible thing, that moment we become Idolaters.

Because even Persons are Substantive; thoughts and ideas are not so. Persons and substances are limited and confined, and, therefore, we lose at once in them the Divine attribute of Omnipresence.

All the divine attributes, or divine Perfections, we attribute to God, must be Omnipresent, as well as Omniscient and Omnipotent.

If we even attempt to divide and attach to each of the Divine Attributes of Power, Wisdom, Righteousness, Justice, Mercy, Goodness, and Truth, and attach to any one of them separately eternal duration, we are guilty of Idolatry, because we make of each one of these Divine Attributes a distinct and separate God.

Idolatry in act, is only one step further than Idolatry in thought, idea, or mind, for actions are our thoughts and ideas consummated; and they are never consummated until they are wrought out in actions.

"The act of speaking, of of "taking the name of a strange* God into our mouths," is as much an act of Idolatry as carving Idols of Gold, Silver, Brass, Wood, or Stone--the only difference is, the former is the act of the mouth and lips, and the latter the act of our hands.

* As there cannot be but only one True Almighty God, the naming of "God the Son" is "taking the name of a Strange God into our mouths."

And hence the naming of "Three Distinct Persons* or Personalities," (instead of the only one true and living God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,) and these "three persons in one God," is gross idolatry, because one of them is a Person Visible and Incarnate, and, therefore, cannot be Omnipresent, and cannot be the Invisible, Incorporeal God, "without Body, Parts, and Passions," and hence is Idolatry consummated and confirmed, and made substantive instead of only a Quality, Property, or Attribute.

* This is exactly what Archbishop Charnock has done in his work "On the Divine Attributes;" he has written upon all of them separately, and added eternal duration to each--"God the Father, of God the Son, and of God the Holy Ghost," as Christians call their Three Gods, or PERSONS.

And is as much Graven in our mouths, and by our tongues, by the act of speaking, and is as much an act as if we were to graven Molten Gods of Gold, Silver, Brass, Wood, or Stone, with our hands, and is as gross Idolatry consummated and confirmed in act; for is not speaking and writing an act as much as carving and casting? and in either, is the mind and body both being employed in thought and action, in Idolatry, in making to ourselves more than "only One True God," and will be deceiving to ourselves and depending upon "Gods that cannot save."