in addressing the early Christians, who being surrounded by idolaters, were in a danger similar to that of the Israelites, says: "What say I then? that the idol is anything? or that that which is sacrificed to idols is anything? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils."[1]
"We may now perceive why Jehovah, in frequent appeals to the Israelites, as well as in the proclamation of this first Commandment from Mount Sinai, insisted so strenuously on their refraining from idolatry. But there was still another and a more interior reason. The Jewish Church, by means of its representative worship, had communication with heaven. For even though they did not understand the signification of the representative ceremonies enjoined upon them, yet while they performed those ceremonies in a spirit of obedience, and from an externally holy principle, good spirits could thereby be present with them, and thus was maintained a certain degree of conjunction with heaven. And on this conjunction the preservation of the human race depended; for should communication with heaven cease, mankind would perish. Influx comes to man from the Lord through heaven: as the Scripture declares, "A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven."[2] This, then, was the chief reason why the Israelites were so earnestly commanded and warned to keep the laws and ordinances laid down for them, all of which
