ur
simulacra Gentilico ritu, aut bracteas quibus ligneae imagines integantur,
aut quo homines idolis sacrificaturi amiciebantur_; so that the least
appurtenances of idols are to be avoided. When the apostle Jude(510) would
have us to hate garments spotted with the flesh, his meaning is,
_detestandam essevel superficiem ipsam mali sive peccati, quam tunicae
appellatione subinnuere videtur_, as our own. Rolloke hath observed,(511)
If the very covering of an idol be forbidden, what shall be thought of
other things which are not only spotted, but irrecoverably polluted with
idols? Many such precepts were given to Israel, as "Ye shall destroy their
altars, break their images, and cut down their groves," Exod. xxxiv. 13.
"The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not
desire the silver nor gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest
thou be snared therein; for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God,"
Deut. vii. 25, 26. Read to the same purpose, Num. xxxiii. 52; Deut. vii.
5; xii. 2, 3.

Secondly, God hath not only by his precepts commanded us to abolish all
the relics of idolatry, but by his promises also manifested unto us how
acceptable service this should be to him. There is a command "That the
Israelites should destroy the Canaanites," Num. xxxiii. 52, _evertantque
res omnes idololatricas ipsorum cui mandato_, saith Junius,(512)
_subjicitur sua promissio_, namely, that the Lord would give them the
promised land, and they should dispossess the inhabitants thereof, ver.
53; yea, there is a promise of remission and reconciliation to this work:
"By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit
to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as
chalk-stones that are beaten asunder, the groves and images shall not
stand up." Isa. xxvii. 9.

_Sect._ 4. Thirdly, The churches of Pergamos and Thyatira are reproved for
suffering the use of idolothites, Rev. ii. 14-20, where the eating of
things sacrificed to idols is condemned as idolatry and spiritual
adultery, as Perkins(513) noteth. Paybody, therefore, is greatly mistaken
when he thinks that meats sacrificed to idols, being the good creatures of
God, were allowed by the Lord, out of the case of scandal, notwithstanding
of idolatrous pollution; for the eating of things sacrificed to idols is
reproved as idolatry, Rev. ii.; and the eating of such things is condemned
as a fellowship with devils, 1 Cor. x. 20.