The workman made it; therefore it is not God

The workman made it; therefore it is not God.

There are two arguments why their calf was not God.

First, from the workman that made it.

Secondly, because it should be taken in pieces. It's the greatest folly to look upon that which has its excellency from ourselves to be superior above us, and that in the highest degree. To forsake that God that made us, and to make that to be a God to us that we have made ourselves: the Father looks upon his child as inferior to him, because he was the instrument of his being, and so he may well. If any man have maintenance by one, or is raised by him, he expects that he should be serviceable to him. Only idolatry makes men go against the very principles of reason: they made it and yet they accounted it their god.

And an especial note from hence: that man by any work of his own cannot put a divinity upon a creature. They made it, therefore it is not God. Man by any work that he can do cannot put divinity upon a creature; no, he cannot so much as put holiness into a creature. All the workmanship of man by his consecration or anything that he can do cannot make stones and mortar to be holy, so as now it should be a sin to use them to any common use. Man takes too much upon him to think to raise the creature so near to a divinity; he cannot by any work of his put any religious respect on any creature so as that God shall be nearer to him, or he nearer to God than in any other place. Whatever is of man's work in God's worship it perishes in the use of it; surely then man's creation cannot be God. The workman made it, therefore it is not God.

Indeed there is a creation of man that the Scripture speaks of that is called God, but not truly, not God really, rather a metaphorical God. That creature that the Scripture speaks of in (1 Peter 2:13) he calls their kings and governors man's creation, man made them; and you know the Scripture calls governors, gods. I have said, you are gods. But it is said, they die like men: this text will show it: if man made them they cannot be Gods. And the former Scripture tells us that kings and governors are man's creation. In your books it's translated man's ordinance but it is in the Greek, man's creation: man made them and therefore they are not Gods; therefore we must not give them the honor of a God, to subject our consciences to them. No, neither are we bound to subject our outward estates and liberties and lives to their humors and lusts, merely to their own wills, for this is proper to God to subject all to his will, merely because it is his will. But seeing man made them they are not truly God, and therefore they must not have the honor that is due to God.

If all the art and skill, power and riches, if all the men in the world were put together, and all the wisdom and power of angels joined to it, to extract all excellency in all things in all creatures, and to make that which should have all created excellency in it, yet this surely could not be a God to us. I say, if we conceive all art, skill, power, and riches of all the world brought together into one man, yes, all the skill and power of angels put into him too, and if he were able to make an extract of all the excellencies of all creatures and put it into one thing, yet this could not be a God to us; because it was made. And shall we say further, God himself by his infinite power cannot make anything to be a God to us. I say, God himself by his infinite power cannot make anything to be a God to us; if he himself were made he could not be God to us; no, if God himself were made he could not be God. Therefore surely that which the workman has made cannot be a God.

How vile then are our hearts, and how do we debase ourselves, to subject ourselves to every vanity, as if it were a God, when all the power in God himself cannot raise a created excellency to that height as to be a God to us? How vain is the heart of men that makes pleasure their god, as the voluptuous his belly; that makes money his god, as the covetous; that makes honor and the applause of men, as the ambitious, to be a god to us. Bernice and Agrippa came with great pomp, they came with much fancy as the word signifies; the excellency that all their pomp had, it was but that which fancy put upon them.

In this God shows the excellency of an immortal soul, that it is in that excellency that only an infinite eternal being that is of himself can be a God to us.

Again, this is an argument against the idol of the Mass — a vile priest, a filthy whoremonger makes it a God: what a deity is that that is from his maker? Is there any greater stumbling-block to Jews, Turks, or heathens, to keep them from Christian religion than this, that Christians should make their God, and eat him when they have done? That's the first argument: it is no God, because the workman made it.

Secondly: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

No God surely. He speaks here with indignation (it is not God, it is a calf) as he does in that of the Psalmist, he made a calf that ate grass. It shall be broken in pieces, it shall not be able to help itself, much less help them; it shall be as Dagon before the Ark, broken all to pieces.

Hierom upon the place says that he learned from a Hebrew (this word, broken in pieces — the word is not a verb, but a noun, shall be breakings in pieces) he learned from a Hebrew that this word signified a thin web, like spiders' webs in the air. As you see in some times of the year in the fields, thin webs, and upon the grass, thin webs like spiders' webs that presently dissolve into atoms; so that their calf shall be like to those thin webs, like to spiders' webs that dissolve and come to nothing. All the confidence and hopes in anything we set up in the place of God, it's such to us. What difference is there between such a thing and a strong rock and a high tower, such as God is to his people?

And again, the word signifies saw-dust that comes from timber that is sawn, and so it shall be broken in pieces: look as the calf in the wilderness was broken even to dust, to powder, and Moses made the people drink of it; so God will serve this calf.

And then further observe: idols are to be broken in pieces; so God commanded (Exodus 34:13; Deuteronomy 7:5; Ezekiel 20:7), with many other Scriptures; and thus godly magistrates have ever done, broke idols in pieces. And blessed be God for that that has been done of late among us that so many idols, and that great idol that was in the eminent place of the city, that God put a spirit into those that were in authority to break it in pieces: it must be done by the magistrate.

I remember Austin in his sixth sermon upon Christ's sermon, speaking of that place in Deuteronomy 1:5, first, says he, you must possess the land, and then, you must overthrow their altars. And then notes, that those which have the possession of the land, as now those public places, men only in authority have the possession of them, and therefore it is for them to break the idols in pieces. In the city of Basil we read, that every Ash-Wednesday (as they call it) is observed a festival instead of the Popish fast on that day, because of the burning of Popish images, and they account it a great mercy. And though we have no such warrant to observe such a day as a holy day, yet certainly as a day of an outward civil rejoicing, we have cause to observe those times wherein notorious and abominable idols have been broken in pieces.

Again, whatever it is that is subject to be broken in pieces, certainly we are not to make it to be our God. Now all creatures in the world are subject to breaking, your estates are in danger to be broken in pieces, therefore they are not Gods; that's the argument of the Holy Ghost here: yes it may be many of your estates are broken in pieces already, Oh what poor Gods were those that you made to yourselves before, and so any creature whatever? Therefore Oh let us trust in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength (Isaiah 26:4).

The last note from hence is this, that the putting too much upon a creature, the bringing a creature too near to God, and deifying of it makes way for the destruction of that creature. The calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces because it was made an idol: if you will make use of your estates as a servant to you, to fit you for God's service you might keep it, but if you would set it up in God's place, it is just with God it should be broken in pieces. Whatever you set your hearts upon and make a God to you, it is just with God it should be broken in pieces; if you set your husband, your wife, your child, your friend, in the place of God, it is the only way to undo them, to undo them in respect of you at best. Many great instruments of God, God has been fain to break them to pieces, because that men have set them up in the place of God, and made even Gods of them. It follows.