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Canaanitish idols and heathenish abominations
(J. C. Philpot, "The
Mighty Watcher" 1847)
"You shall destroy their altars, and break down
their images, and cut down their groves, and burn
their engraved images with fire!" Deuteronomy 7:5
Our hearts are by nature full of Canaanitish idols and
heathenish abominations, which must be destroyed!
Lusts after evil things,
adulterous images,
idolatrous desires,
strong hankerings after sin—
along with evils which have the impudence
to wear a religious garb—such as . . .
towering thoughts of our own ability,
pleasing dreams of creature holiness,
swellings up of pride—dressed out and painted
in all the tawdy colors of Satanic delusion—how
can these abominations be allowed to run rampant
in the human heart?
The altars and religious rites of Canaanites were to be
destroyed as much as their idols! And thus we may say
of that very religious being—man, that his false worship
and heathenish notions of God must be destroyed—as well
as his more flagrant, though not more dangerous, lusts
and abominations.
The sentence against both is, "Destroy them!" They
must not stand side by side with Immanuel, who is
to have the preeminence in all things, and who is
"the Alpha and the Omega—the first and the last."
And O what a mercy it is to have both our
FLESHLY and
RELIGIOUS abominations both destroyed! For I am sure
that God and self never can rule in the same heart—that
Christ and the devil can never reign in the same bosom
—each claiming the supremacy!
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