them has in all cases such power by commission that little motive is left for immediate application unto God and much trust and gratitude due to him is paid to these Delegates Fifthly The Angel whose protection Jacob implored for the safeguard of Ephraim and Manasses as having had himself experience of his aid was a Diviner Spirit than either Michael or Gabriel even the Logos of God This is the opinion of Novatianus declared once and again in his Book of the Trinity This is the opinion of many of the Fathers whose Testimonies shall be produced in my Fourteenth Chapter At present it may suffice to bring forth that plain one of St. Cyril of Alexandria in his Thesaurus An Angel is said to have striven with the Patriarch Jacob and this Divine Writ testifies but the holy man retaining him said I will not let thee go unless thou bless me Now this Angel was God which the words of the Patriarch shew whilst he saith I have seen God face to face Him appearing to him as an Angel he desireth to bless the Children And a while after he thus discourseth When Esau his Brother designed against him he did not invoke an Angel but God saying Take me O Lord out of the hands of my brother Esau for I stand in fear of him Sixthly The story of Raphael protecting Tobias is not found in Canonical Scripture But if it be notwithstanding a true report this being a peculiar favour of God in an extraordinary case it doth not encourage men in all emergencies to pray for the like without a promise from God He sendeth not all to be our guides who may sympathize with our estate The Angels who never sustain'd infirmity do not so neither doth the ministration of an Angel argue that of a Saint Nor doth it follow that God doth use such ministrations so frequently and visibly under the Gospel as under the Law in which dispensation his Shechinah in which the Angels attended was shewn often on Earth Seventhly If St. Roch once assisted the infected it is not proved thence that God sends him where-ever he sends that heavy judgment And how appeareth it that he ever helped at a distance in that dreadful sickness which requires a Domine Miserere Why because say they the infected prayed to him and were healed But the event is not always the effect and God in pursuance of his own greater and mysterious ends doth often answer the matter of the requests of the superstitious and the wicked And often there are other ordinary second Causes which men fancy by the event to have been more extraordinary and divine They who among the Heathens prayed to Lavina for her assistance in a cleanly cheat might impute the effect unto their Goddess though she never understood them and their own cunning brain and slight of hand brought the couzenage to pass with such undiscovered Art S. Austin will furnish us with a better instance a matter of fact In his Eleventh Chapter de Curâ pro mortuis he telleth of one Eulogius a Master of Rhetorick in Carthage who was perplexed with a knotty place in the Rhetoricks of Cicero which he was next day to interpret to his Schollars And in that night saith the Father I interpreted unto him in his dream that which he understood not Nay not I but my Image I being wholly ignorant of this affair and being so far beyond the Sea doing or dreaming some other thing and being wholly careless of his cares The mans brain was heated and amongst other Images that of S. Austin came in his mind he being then the fam'd Schollar in Africa and his dreams as often it happens were luckier than his waking thoughts and he imputed to St. Austin that which followed his Apparition in the brain though that was not the cause of it Eighthly if St. Michael was once sent to succour the Jews it is not to be thence concluded that Saints do the like or that he himself hath always the same Office in reference to the quality or the object of it or that Angels appear alike under the dispensation of the Logos substituted without union to manhood and that of him incarnate and installed King of the World nor do all the Learned think that by Michael is always meant an Angel In sum the Romanists are not so much charged with Idolatry for praying to such Saints as most sympathize in their conjecture with their present conditions as for trusting in them as such whom God hath impower'd to succour all Christians in equal circumstances and like places and for returning the thanks to them which are oftenest due to the immediate Providence of the Omnipresent God If they do not apply themselves to them as such why do they use such Forms in their Prayers Why do they give them the name of Patron and Guardian-Saints Why do they as well call on the Virgin as on the highest Angel for Guardianship Why do the Popes in their many Bulls declare them to be Patrons of such places and helpers in such particular cases Why are the people directed in the choice of them and advis'd to an especial affiance in them Why is there mention in their Authors of their appearance in person to their Supplicants with present aid and further assistance This is done by Bernardin de Bustis and recited in a Manual Printed at Paris with approbation in a Discourse of the seven Joys of the Virgin to wit in their account her Annunciation by the Angel her Visitation by Elizabeth the glorious Birth of Christ the Adoration of the Magi the Retrieve of her Son in the Temple the appearance of Christ after his Resurrection and her happy departure and Assumption into Heaven With these Joys saith Bernardin St. Thomas of Canierbury a devout servant of the Virgins did every day salute our Lady To him as he proceeds she one day appeared when he was at his Prayers and she assured him that his saluting her with her seven Joys on earth which sometimes were said to be but five was very agreeable to her but that the saluting of her with her seven Joys in Heaven to wit her Exaltation above the Angels her illuminating Paradise as the Sun does the World the reverence paid her by Angels Archangels Thrones and Dominions her being the Conveyer of all the Graces which Christ bestoweth her sitting at the right hand of her Son her being the hope of sinners in such sort that all who praise and reverence her are by the Father recompenced with eternal Glory the augmentation of her graces and favours in Paradice until the Day of Judgment was acceptable to her in a higher degree And she promised to him and to others also who should daily repeat these Salutations adjoining to each an Ave Maria that she would be present with them at the hour of death and that for her sake they should be saved In which instance we have the Patronage of the
of some few and particularly in that of Vesta the great observance was Chastity But the Scripture hath especially given to Idolatry that name of uncleanness because it was an alienation of the hearts and bodies of the Jews from the God of Israel who had as it were chosen that Church as his Spouse on Earth For the like Reason Witchcraft is a sort of Idolatry because it breaketh Covenant with God and entreth into solemn league and compact with Daemons Now if this common notion seemeth too briefly or too generally propounded I am ready to make a particular enlargement of it in the following definition Idolatry is a sin which by inward reverence or outward signs giveth to some other object in an act or habit of Religious Homage or Worship that Honour which is either essential to God or being communicable yet appertaining to God only till he hath declared his actual communication of it is either not at all communicated or not in that extent or continuance of vertue which seemeth thereby to be attributed to it This definition containeth in it three branches which are also three degrees of Idolatry First The Idolater giveth away sometimes the essential and incommunicable Honour of God This he doth two ways first when he dethroneth God in his imagination and setteth up some other object in his place Thus the Babylonians offended whil'st they adored the primitive Baal the Sun as the best and greatest Deity not only in their World or Empire but likewise throughout the Sphere of all things He doth it Secondly when admitting of God he addeth another principle equal to him for he that divideth the Empire of God diminisheth his Honour He makes him cease to be God that is to be One and Supreme This presumption Pliny chargeth in effect on Democritus giving to his two Principles the names of Poena and Praemium Punishment and Reward or as I think more properly Avenger and Rewarder The like fault is found in the Persian Theology which constituteth as they say two Principles the one the fountain of Good under the name of Oromasdes the other the source of Evil under the name of Arimanius Although it may appear from Theodorus in his Book of the Persian Magick that both according to Zarasdas or Zoroaster were the off-spring of Zaruam who was own'd as the Prince of all things and the Father of Hormisda and Satanas and called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Fortune Such Idolatry is likewise charged on the Americans of Mexico who are reported b to have had Two thousand gods and amongst them two principal ones Tezcatlipuca the god of providence and Vitzilopuchtli the god of the wars It may be that there was a Deity own'd by them superiour to both these For what else was intended by that great and superiour Image plac'd on the top of the Chappel of Idols in the City of Mexico It was either the Statue of the Supreme God or of the supreme Demon of their Precinct And why should it not be thought that Mexico own'd one God as well as Peru in which the Soveraign Principle as Acosta instructeth us was called Pachacamac and Viracocha inferiour to whom they esteemed the Sun and Thunder their two Principles as I guess of Good and Evil. In the next place the Idolater giveth to some other object that Honour which might have been communicated by Gods Authority but hath been entirely reserved by his Wisdom whilest no actual communication of it hath been any way declared This impiety of his is likewise of two kinds For he giveth the Honour which God hath wholly reserved to some other object either with respect to some inherent Power with which he supposeth it to be indu'd by God or with regard to some external Relation which he supposeth to be owned by him In the first kind the barbarous Goths offended whilst they worshipped Nocca a kind of Neptune amongst them as one to whom a superiour Power had committed the government of their Seas and Rivers whil'st that Idol possibly had not so much virtue communicated to him as might still one puff of Wind or crush a Bubble In the second kind they would have transgressed who in the Temple of Dagon should have done Religious though relative and inferiour reverence to his shapeless Trunk or even to his Statue in the perfection of its beauty God having never own'd it as his Image or the Image of any Deity or Angel substituted by him Lastly The Idolater giveth Honour to an Object which God owneth and replenisheth sometimes with virtue in the quality of the Fountain of that Virtue whilst God hath not indued it with that constant Power in it self but used it as the instrument of his Works The Power which healeth Diseases not curable by Physick doth not so essentially belong to the Prerogative of God that he cannot communicate it perpetually to Angel or Man and invest him in it without diminution of his own Omnipotence For it implyeth not a contradiction for a creature to be able to alter the whole Texture of so little a frame as mans body Neither is it impossible for man to be by God indued with a knowledg which in a certain precinct may by signs in nature to men unknown and past their finding out foretel several accidents which God determineth not to over-rule such as Plagues or healthful Seasons Famine or Plenty For this knowledg though it is not mans natural Talent is not Omniscience Yet whil'st this is done by Gods immediate Power and man is but instrumental in it he becomes an Idolater who owneth and thanketh man as the efficient cause And he is guilty two ways Either whilst he owneth the Instrument as the efficient Cause during the time that God maketh use of it or after God hath ceased to work by it In the first kind the Impotent people who were healed at the Pool of Bethesda had offended if they had given thanks to the Angel as to the principal Physician And against this kind of Idolatry St. Peter gave caution when seeing the multitude transported with admiration at the recovery of the Cripple He thus bespake them Ye men of Israel why marvel ye at this or why look you so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk The offence of the second kind is much greater than this first because it doth not only give to Gods Instrument the honour due to the Divine Efficient Cause but it also giveth Divine honour to that which is not now so much as the Instrument by which God worketh And this becomes a very Idol indeed a vanity or lie or nothing at all of that which it is esteemed to be The Magical Rod in the Temple of Isis in imitation of that of Moses was but an Idol if it was an Instrument of any wonders for it was not the Rod of God but of a Demon. This matter may also be illustrated both
of their Divinity and their Divine Precept words said to be used by Theodosius and Valentinian themselves Pacatus Drepanius in his Panegyric to Theodosius the Great describes the Emperour as one from whom Navigators expect a calm Sea Travellers a safe return and Soldiers Victory And of Constantine the Son of Constantius the uncertain Author of his Panegyrick affirmeth in deep Complement That his Beauty was great as his Divinity was certain But much of this flattery is so gross that it can scarce be swallowed by the common people who in private smile at their own publick fawnings For Spirits of all kinds men have seen some Apparitions and heard of more They have also had notions in the brain representing to them Images as spectres in the Air They have rightly judged the Soul so Divine in its operations as to superexist They have seen many external effects and could not guess at the Cause or ascribe it with such probability to Nature as to some higher invisible Power They have seen appearances in the Heavens and the very appearances have form'd in their fancy the counterfeit Idea of a Spirit For so the Heathen of the Eastern India believed the shadow of the Moon on the Eclipsed Sun to be a black Demon contending with it Men thus believing partly from good and partly from fanciful Reasons the existence of Demons and Ghosts and apprehending them truly as more spiritual active and superiour Beings it is not to be admired that their weakness ador'd them as dispensers of good and evil here below Touching Souls departed in particular Gratitude deified some but Admiration put more names into the Calendar The people were transported by their power and splendor on Earth and they thought their Puissance would increase in higher Regions Souls appeared otherwise to their mind than Bodies do to the eye to which they seem the lesser the higher they ascend And to this end the Devil was wont to represent Ghosts unto the eye or fancy of the Gentiles in vast proportions Such mighty figures Jamblichus where he writeth of the Egyptian mysteries ascribeth to Principalities and Archangels So that Solomon might aptly call the state of the dead the Congregation of Rephaim or Gyants Towards the advancement of the Souls of Heroes in the opinions of the Idolizers of them much was contributed by strange appearances real or invented at the time of their death So the Soul of Paul the Hermite was the more divinely esteemed of because S. Anthony as they tell us saw it flying to Heaven So Julius Caesar became one of the Roman gods whilst a Comet shining for Seven days together was judg'd to be his Soul receiv'd into Glory And this conceit they further inculcated by adding a Star to the top of his Statue Such Canonization of Heroes hath likewise been promoted by strange effects done or counterfeited at their Sepulchres and sometimes by their obscure manner of going out of the World which the people esteem'd an heavenly translation Empedocles hoping this way to arrive at Divine honour threw himself secretly into the flames of AEtna but his two Pattens which that Gulf of Fire cast up discovered his vain and miserable end Concerning the Soul of the World men seeing in all parts of the Creation motion and virtue judged erroneously of the greater World as they did truly of the lesser world of Man and made one Soul to be the Sovereign principle which actuated every part of it And some of the Stoicks esteem'd this Soul as a Form informing the Universe But the Platonists judged it rather a Form assistant imagining it unsutable to its Deity to be mixed with or vitally united to the grossest subcelestial matter and to have perception of all the motions of it This conceit is driven very far by the Indian Cabalists or Pendets Creation say those Doctors is nothing else but an extraction and an extension which God maketh of his own substance of those webs he draws from his own bowels as destruction is nothing else but a reprisal or taking back again of this Divine substance and these Divine webs into himself so that the last day of the World which they call Maperle or Pralea when they believe that all shall be destroyed shall be nothing else but such a general Reprisal This conceit in the superstitious maketh all things in nature adorable as parts of God And in the Atheistical it deifieth nothing at all for at the bottom of this imagination they think they see not God but Nature With them Coelum is the material Heaven Juno is the upper Air Neptune is the natural cause of water in the Caverns of the Earth Pluto is the thick Air next to this Globe and Rhea is the natural cause of showers Towards all the Idolatries already mention'd much was contributed by the figurative expressions of Orators especially by their Apostrophe's in the Encomiums of departed Hero's as also by the elegant fictions of Poets whose invention hath been justly reputed one of the great store-houses of Idols And for the Idolatry of Qualities I know not whence to fetch it so readily as by going thither For though the first ground of it was the consideration of many of these Qualities in their eminent degree as means by which the Pagan Heroes were Deified yet Poetry helped on that cause by shaping these Qualities into personal Powers negotiating as it were betwixt Heaven and Earth and conveighing them as the Angels did the Soul of Lazarus into a more heavenly habitation Poets design to move to surprize to make deep impression on the People They cannot do this so readily by proposing abstracted Truths to the mind as by cloathing them in such Metaphors and Pictures as may affect the brain Hence it is that they have used such a variety of fictions in which they have cloathed every thing they say with the appearances of a Person Peace and War Fame and Justice have such personal shape and action given to them as is necessary for the making a greater impression upon the Hearers For to give an ordinary instance in this matter it doth not so much affect us when a man says barely that a Kingdom shall want supplies of Bread as when he describes famine riding towards us pale and meager upon a Sceleton of Man or Beast attended with thousands of such ghastly objects from whence the uncloathed bones stare upon us and tell us that we after the dreadful extremities of hunger and thirst enforcing us to prey upon Toads and Serpents upon our Relations and our very selves shall become lean languishing dying as they By this transitory view of the Causes and Occasions of Idolatry so full of folly error and mistake it manifestly appeareth upon what weak and clay-like feet the Idols stand which the world hath worship'd with so vigorous a Devotion CHAP. IV. Of the Time in which the Vanity of Man introduced Idolatry into the World THe Nature
Lord Simmias and Socrates in some sort consenting to him turn his sentence into the plural of Lords and Gods Julian likewise though he professed the belief of one true God yet he assigned several Countries and Cities to the care of several Tutelar Gods So we find in Porphyry certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God 's that were conceived to be Presidents of Regions such amongst whom the Government of the lower World was parted The Gentiles indeed did not wholly exclude the supreme God but they worshipped him as one who had not reserved unto himself the greatest share of the Government Hence is it that we find among their ancient Inscriptions many such as that remembred by Elmenhorstius TO JUPITER THE BEST AND GREATEST Deity AND TO THE GENIUS or Demon OF THE PLACE They thought of the supreme Jove but they seldom thought of him without his Deputy Such Philosophy concerning the Lieutenancy of Demons is at this day on foot in China There the Litterati or those of the Sect of Confusio own one God and though they do not reverence him with any solemn worship as if he were a kind of unconcerned Epicurean Deity yet they have Temples for Tutelar Spirits The Sect of the Tausi also acknowledg one Great God and other lesser Ones that is Vicegerent Demons The same sort of Philosophy is found amongst the Benjans in the Eastern India The Sect of them called Samarath though it believeth one first Cause which created the World yet it assigneth to him Three Subftitutes Brama Buffiuna and Mais Brama they fay hath the disposal of Souls which he sends into such Bodies as Permiseer or the supreme God appointeth for them whether they be the Bodies of Men or Beasts Buffiuna teacheth the World the Laws of its God He hath also the oversight of Provisions for common life and advanceth the growth of Wheat Herbs and Pulse after Brama hath indu'd each of them with Souls Mais exerciseth its power over the dead This looks to me like a Tale of Jupiter Ceres and Pluto This Opinion of the Gentiles which ascribeth so much of the Government of this World to Demons as Gods Commissioners in certain Precincts and as Superintendents over Places Persons and Things is manifestly contrary to the tenor of the Scriptures They teach That God is the great disposer of Good and Evil in all Cities and Places and that his Providence extendeth to the fall of a little Sparrow and of a lesser thing than that an hair of our head That sheweth us how he used great importunity for the turning of Jew and Gentile from the confidence which they placed in their Genii This saith St. Cyril he would never have attempted if they had been Presidents of his own appointment His Angels minister before him but they do not properly govern under him much less is that true of Superexisting Souls The Angels of Graecia and Persia were such Spirits as did at that time serve his will in that particular employment But we have no cogent reason I think to perswade us that they always enjoyed a setled Lieutenancy over those Countries It was a rash conclusion which Vatablus drew from those Visions of Daniel to wit that to every Nation was assigned an Angel as President over it The whole of that Discourse in Daniel is a Vision and a representation of Heavenly things in a Scene upon Earth And they who make particular application of every circumstance without due attention to the main design of it forget that they confound Earthly and Heavenly things and lay their gross absurdities of fancy at the door of the Spirit of God Such for instance sake would they be who should think from this Vision that an Angel toucheth Gods Prophets with an hand at what time he inspireth them because Daniel so expresseth himself as if it were so done to him or who should believe that a good Angel ordained by God to comfort his Prophet could be detained by an evil one for one and twenty days until he prevailed against him by the assistance of Michael because the Scripture useth such an â—…umane Image and alludeth to the impediments of good men on earth who are not equal in power and motion to the ministring Angels who are quick and vigorous as Spirits or Winds and flames of Fire On such quickness and vigor God serveth his Purposes by the temporary Ministry of Angels but by Himself still and not by them as setled Delegates He dispenseth favours and severities Accordingly God inviting the Jews to renounce their Genii or inferior Deities and Patrons and not meerly to turn from evil Angels and to apply themselves to good ones promiseth by himself to send them that worldly plenty which they had sacrilegiously ascribed to their Idols And St. Paul endeavouring to draw the Lycaonians from their Vanities remindeth them of the testimony which God had given them of his Providence in sending them fruitful seasons This if it had been done by Commissioned Demons the Gentiles might have abated the force of the Apostles argument which proveth the care of the supreme God by the supplies of outward blessings The same St. Paul hath left us another Text most worthy of our attention in which he confirmeth the Government and the Providence of the supreme God rejecteth the Lieutenancy of Demons and owneth Christ alone as the Substitute of the Father Though there be said he such as are called Gods though there be many Superior and many Inferior Baalim Gods or Lords yet to us Christians there is but one God and one Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true God and Eternal life He is Gods Vicegerent who is the Everlasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Father and not the Platonick Demon called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that of the Valentinians which together with their Logos made the second Conjugation of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first whence they came being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind and Truth If then God by his Providence dispenseth immediately Good and Evil if his care reacheth to things below the Moon whose Orb some made the limits of it with equal vanity and boldness whilst others with Maimonides allowed a Providence over man but not over beasts If he useth his Angels as ministring not governing spirits as messengers of several kinds and not as Commission-Officers of his Court and administrators of the Affairs of his Kingdom as the Attendants ordinary or extraordinary of his Substitute Jesus Christ but not as fellow-Viceroys if he thus far only useth his Angels and it may be useth not departed Souls so far as this amounts to it is plain Idolatry to worship Demons as did the Gentiles in that quality of divine Lieutenants For from them they expect good and evil them they fear them they thank When God sendeth fruitful Seasons and by them Plenty they send
numbered Amongst them beyond the Seas I will name only Danaeus and Hottinger Daneus in his Appendix to the Catalogue of Heresies written by St. Austin recounteth the Hereticks who had offended as he thought in particular manner against the several precepts of the Decalogue And under the second Commandment he placeth the Simonians the Armenians the Papists and some others as notorious violaters of it Hottinger distributeth the false worship of the Papists into six kinds of Idolatry under the Greek names of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bread-worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Marian-worship to wit that of the Blessed Virgin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Saint-worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Angel-worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Relick-worship and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the worship of Images PART 2. Of the mitigation of the charge of Idolatry against the Papists THE learned Hugo Grotius especially in his Annotations on the consultation of Cassander in his Animadversions on the Animadversions of Rivet and in his Votum pro Pace The learned Mr. Thorndike in his Epilogue and in his Just Weights and Measures Curcellaeus in his Epistle to Adrian Patius These three together with some others have pronounced a milder sentence in this cause though they approved not of such Invocation of Saints and worship of Images as is practised in the Church of Rome But it is not my design to decide the controversie by the greater number of modern Authorities but rather to look into the merits of the cause And this I purpose to do so far only as Angels or rather Saints and Images are the Objects of this Disquisition Of Relicks and the Sacramental bread I forbear to say more than that little which follows For the first that which will be said concerning the worship of Images will help us sufficiently in judging of the worship of Relicks If they be made Objects of Religious adoration if they be honoured as pledges of Divine protection if they be trusted in as Shrines of Divine virtue at adventure and in all ages they become as the Manna which was laid up for any other than the Sabbath-day useless to the preservers offensive to God and unsavory to men of sagacious Noses Concerning that substance which after Sacramental consecration appeareth as Bread that excellent Church in whose safe communion I have always lived doth still call it Bread For the Priest after having consecrated the Elements and received the Communion himself in both kinds is required by the Rubrick of that Office to administer to others and when he delivereth the Bread to any one to use this Form The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy Body and Soul to Everlasting life Now a Discourse concerning the worship of that Substance which appeareth as Bread will in effect be a Discourse about the Corporal presence of Christ under the shews of that creature and run the Disputant into another Question which hath been industriously sifted by Thousands Neither are the printed Volumes touching this subject few or small There is a great heap of them written by the learned Messieurs Arnaud and Claud and Monsieur Aubertin hath obliged the World with a very large and laborious work about Transubstantiation in which may be seen the sense of the Ancients Forbearing then any further Discourse about the Worship of Relicks or the Sacramental bread I proceed to the Worship of Saints Angels and Images inquiring how far the Church of Rome doth by her Veneration render them Idols At the entrance of this Inquiry the trueness of her Faith in one God and three Persons is to be acknowledged and observed The Creed which is formed by order of the Council of Trent beginneth with the Articles of that of Nice though it endeth not without Additions And Dr. Rivet in his Reflections on those excellent Notes with which the acute Grotius adorned the consultation of Cassander doth in this point own the Orthodoxy of the Roman Faith In the Article of the Divine Trin-unity there is nothing saith he controverted betwixt Papists and Protestants And thus much is true if spoken of the generality of them for they herein adhere to Catholick Doctrine Thus do the Protestants of the Church of England but all do not so either here or beyond the Seas who commonly pass under the name of Protestants Curcellaeus for instance sake is called a Protestant yet may seem no other than a Tritheite as may appear by the first of those four Disputations which he wrote against his sharp Adversary Maresius The Romanists then professing the true Catholick Faith in the Article of the blessed Trinity and owning the second Synod of Nice which though it favoured Images so very highly yet it ascribed Latria to God only they seem injurious to them who do not only charge them with Idolatry but also aggravate that Idolatry as equal to the false Worship of the most barbarous Gentiles They seem unjust I say in so doing unless this be their meaning that the least degree of that crime under the light of Christianity be equal to the greatest under the disadvantages of Heathenism It is certain that the Romanists who worship the true God do not worship Universal Nature or the Sun or the Soul of the World in place of the Supreme Deity as did millions of Pagans Also for the Angels which they worship they justifie only the adoration of those Spirits who persisted in their first estate of unspotted Holiness and they renounce in Baptism the Devil and his Angels after the manner of the Catholick Church And when an Heathen is by them baptized the Priest after having signed him first on the Forehead and then on the Breast with the sign of the Cross does exhort him in this Form Abhor Idols Reject their Images But the Gentiles sacrificed to Devils and to such who by the light of nature might be known to be evil Daemons because they accepted of such Sacrifices as were unagreeable to the justice and charity and piety of mankind Sacrifices vile and bloody such whose smoke might be discerned by a common nostril to smell of the stench of the bottomless pit Yet some of the Heathens expresly denied the practice of such worship and made to the Christians this following profession We worship not evil Daemons Those Spirits which you call Angels those we also worship the Powers of the Great God and the Ministeries of the Great God For Hero's they worship those only whom they believe to have professed Christian Religion and to have been visible Members of the Catholick Church For into that whatsoever particular communion it was which afterwards they visibly owned they were at first Baptized Whereas the Gentiles worshipped many who had been worshippers of false gods Such worshippers were Castor Pollux Quirinus among the Romans These first worshipped false Deities and were afterwards worshipped themselves with the like undue honour
though it may be and it is certain they have not in all Ages known according to what is in the Prophesie of St. John what Jesus Christ will do next yet that still by the spirit of Prophesie as it were the Saints have been guided to seek for those things at the hands of God and Christ which he was about to accomplish Also that the Saints in Heaven before the day of Judgment have a share and an hand in Christs government of the world and that they have a knowledg by the Angels that are continually Messengers from Heaven to Earth of the great things that are done here And he that writeth the Epistle to the Reader maketh this Application of Mr. Goodwins Doctrine Now saith he what may we think the Saints in Heaven who within these ten years last past lost their lives in the Cause of Christ he meaneth the Army-Saints from the year forty-four to that of fifty-four who dy'd in maintenance of the Bad Old Cause are EMPLOYED ABOUT at this time they understanding by the Angels what great changes are come to pass on our Earth Those of whose Saintship we have better assurance though in a state of rest and light are esteemed by the Fathers but a kind of Free Prisoners not being acquitted by the publick Sentence of the General Judgment And their opinion who give them a Lieutenancy under God in the Government of the World before that day does recall to my mind the Argument used by that truly great man Sir Walter Raleigh in his own unhappy Case He pleaded that the grant of a Commission from the King did argue him to be absolved and that he who had power given him over others was no longer under a sentence against his own life Abraham and Isaac do not now rule us and it may be they are ignorantt of us which whilst I affirm I do not wholly ground my Assertion on the Text in Isaiah That soundeth otherwise whether we take it in its positive or hypothetical sense It s positive sense may be this Doubtless thou art our Father notwithstanding we live not under the care of Abraham or Isaac but are by many generations removed from them who therefore knew us not or own'd us not we being not men of their times we are their seed however though at a great distance and to such also was thy promise made And for the Hypothetical sense it may be this Be it supposed that Abraham knows nothing of us yet certain we are that thou art the God of Israel whose knowledg and care of thy people never faileth I admit here that the Saints pray for the Church in general that Angels are concerned in particular Ministrations but that Angels and even Saints have shares of the Government of the World though in subordination to God so as to be Commission-Officers under the King of Heaven and not only Attendants on his Throne and as it were Yeomen and Messengers of his Court the general condition of the Angels I cannot admit without peril of Idolatry This in my conceit is the great resemblance betwixt the Romanists and the Gentiles Both of them suppose the World to be ruled under God by several Orders of Daemons and Heroes though I have confessed already that they are not so exactly alike but that Rome-Christian may be distinguished from Rome-Pagan For the Gentiles so much hath been shewn already and it may appear further from the place of the Greek Historian cited in the Margent And for the Romanists that too hath already been manifested in part and shall be further declâ—…red and Rivallius in his History of the Civil Law or Commentary on the Twelve Tables does very honestly confess it He having commented on that Law which ordereth the worship of the Heathen gods both Daemons and Heroes letteth fall words not unfit to be here gathered up by us Christians saith he meaning those of the Roman Communion retain a Religion like to this for they worship God immortal and for those that excel in Virtue and shine with Miracles first with great pomp and inquisition they register them among the Deities or Saints and then they worship them and after that they erect Temples to them as we see in the case of S. John S. Peter S. Catherine S. Nicholas S. Magdalen and other Deities In this point then let us join issue and offer on our side the manifestation of these particulars First On what occasions this worship of Ruling-spirits came into the Church Secondly How it derogateth from the honour of God as Governour of the World Thirdly How it derogateth from the honour of Jesus as the Mediator and King ordained by God First For the occasions of this Worship I conceive them to be especially these two The Celebration of the Memory of the Martyrs at their Tombs and the compliance of the Christians with the Northern Nations when they invaded Italy and other places in hope of appeasing them and effecting their conversion First I reckon as an occasion of this Worship the celebration of the memory of the Martyrs at their Tombs and Monuments and Reliques and in the Churches sacred to God in thankfulness for their Examples The thankful and honourable commemoration of the Martyrs was very ancient and innocent at the beginning For as the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna concerning the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp testifies They esteemed the bones of the Martyrs more precious than Jewels They kept their Birth-days that is the days of their Martyrdom on which they began most eminently to live they pursu'd them with a worthy affection as Disciples and Imitators of Christ but they worshipped none but Christ believing him to be the Son of God But laudable Customs degenerate through time And this in the fourth Century began to be stretched beyond the reason of its first institution as appeareth by the Apostrophe's of St. Basil St. Gregory Nazianzen and others of that Age. Afterwards the vanity of men ran this Usage into a dangerous extreme and those who had been commemorated as excellent and glorified Spirits and whose Prayers were wished were directly invoked and worshipped as the subordinate Governours of Gods Church This Veneration of the Martyrs which superstition thus strained was occasioned by the Miracles which God wrought where his Martyrs were honoured Times of Persecution at home and of Invasion from abroad required such aids for the Encouragement of Catholick Christians and the Conversion of Infidels and misbelievers Thus in the days of St. Austin in whose Age the Getae or Goths sacked Rome and many of the barbarous people imputed the present misfortunes of Italy to the Christian Religion God pleased to work Miracles at the Bodies of the Martyrs Protasius and Gervasius in the City of Milan Thus as is reported by Procopius and Egnatius he miraculously saved those Christians at Rome and Pagans also both in the time of Alaricus and Theudoricus who
the Germans and absolved his Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance and who endeavour'd to set up a Papal Monarchy to the disquiet of all Nations Neither is it for the Honour of the Gospel of Peace to Saint either Pope Victor or Pope Stephen who first took upon them to be Bishops or rather Censurers out of the Diocess that belonged to them Nor did the ancient Church own them as Saints or Martyrs as doth the modern one of Rome Interest of State hath oftentimes exalted them to the Honour of Saints who had never obtained that high Title by their meer piety of life It hapned tolerably in respect of the person when Thomas Aquinas was registred among the Saints for he was a man of great Scholastick Learning and of a mighty zeal in the Roman way But for the true reason of his being Canonized it was secular enough For Pope John the Two and twentieth to depress the Franciscans who did for the most part adhere to the Emperour Lewis of Bavaria Excommunicated by him did canonize that Doctor and his Doctrine directly opposite to that of the Followers of St. Francis in the Article of the Virgins Immaculate Conception Money also maketh such gods being first made one it self And who knows whether it hath not sometimes Canonized evil men For they whom it thus bribeth are not usually beyond the outward colour and pretence respecters of Saintship Canonization they say secureth Christians from worshipping the damned instead of the blessed I wish saith the Archbishop of Spalato that it brings not to pass that very thing which they think it preventeth In this as he goes on are the faithful safe if they reduce their worship to the sole worship of God And here it is worthy our observation that Gregory the ninth complained on his death-bed of that vicious easiness of his whereby he listned to the dreams and visions of such who pretended to great sanctity and occasioned great schisms and disturbances in the Church He meaneth this in all likelihood of Catherine of Siena by whom he was deluded and thereby drawn into a desperate schism yet she is St. Catherine and her Clients are many It is a strange infallibility with which the Pope is invested if he can judg without error of the manners of such whom he has seldom in his eye and who want not their flatterers whatsoever is their party It is therefore much safer to own the ancient Saints such as St. Chrysostome and St. Ambrose whom the whole Church Canonized by its consent than such Modern ones as St. Catherine and St. Thomas of Canterbury whom the Authority of the Pope hath put into the Calendar Of some then the Saintship is doubtful and of some the very existence For are not the three Kings of Colen as such a very fiction yet are they worshipped in the Roman Church as Guardian-Saints And Horstius prayeth them to obtain for him the frankincense of devout Prayer the myrrh of Mortification and the gold of Charity Is not think you St. Almachius a substantial Patron yet such a one there is in some Roman Calendars the title of Sanctum Almanacum being first by mistake written too low against the first day of January yet a Saint he must be And Baronius is loth to part with him and in his Martyrology he will have him to be the same with St. Telemachus But secondly They will prove their Saints to be both Saints and Patrons by the miracles they work upon Invocation Thus the Popes in the Bullarium recite the many miracles wrought by their Saints and then they decree them a place in the Calendar Thus the Catechism of Trent proves the honour of Patrocinie to be due to the Saints by the wonders seen at their Sepulchres and Relicks Thus Baronius telleth of the Saintship and Miracles of the abovesaid Gregory the seventh and of a virtue in his Garments equal to that in the handkerchers of the Primitive Christians mentioned in the Acts. Thus Mr. White boasteth of the restitution of a leg cut off and buried four years to a young man who prayed to our Lady of Pilar affirming the story to be sufficient to convert the whole world To this second Allegation many things may be returned First When God wrought Miracles at the Tombs of the Martyrs he wrought them not as answers to them who invoked Martyrs for in those times they were honoured as Saints and as Soldiers dying in Christs cause and not invoked as Patrons but he thereby encouraged Christians in times of Persecution and honoured their Religion in the sight of the Heathen Secondly There is no reason to expect such Miracles in the setled Ages of Christian Religion though there might be at the first planting of it And Thirdly We have had a long time a fixed rule from whence we may learn the practical truth and duties of our Religion the Word of God Neither hath God left so great a part of his Worship as Prayer to be derived from the dreams of the Melancholy or the delusions of Satan or the Tales of men who write Legends for the advantage of their cause or other tricks of politick persons He hath required us in Scripture to call upon him through Jesus Christ and he hath confirmed this and his whole Gospel by the real Miracles of his Apostles after those of his Son and the Gospel being thus fixed we are not to expect any new discoveries of Evangelical duty by the voice or miracle of an Angel from Heaven who if he should be in such manner sent to us with any new Doctrinal or Moral Revelation ought to be looked on by us as one that trieth our Faith and not as one from whom a new rule of faith or manners is to be received Fourthly Many Romish Miracles are events not effects A Popish woman is extremely sick in body she causeth an Image of the Virgin as is the fashion now among some Romanists in England to be hanged within her curtains at the feet of her bed She invoketh the Virgin and useth Physick she recovers by Art by strength of nature by any other way of Gods Providence and the Virgin is entituled to the Cure because the event followed their Invocation of her Fifthly Many of the Miracles are too light to be ascribed to the Saints of Heaven The credulous Lipsius confirms the Invocation of our Lady of Halla by stories some of them very strange and some very ludicrous He tells of a Boy raised by her from the dead after three days Of a Taylor whom she helped to his needle and thread after they had been swallowed down by him Of a Soldier who by Miracle lost his nose having threatned to cut off that of her Image So Cantapratanus and Antoninus tell at large how the Virgin mended the hairy shirt of Saint Thomas of Canterbury Sixthly Many of them are mere cheats performed by cunning men under
of object it deservedly obtaineth that high honour This is strange language from the Provincial for Belgium But the Fathers of Trent spake more modestly and we will take their words into further consideration They allow external signs of worship both before and to an Image The external signs mentioned by them are saluting uncovering the Head kneeling bowing or prostration And the Synod of Cambray teacheth that the external signs of that Honour Worship and Invocation which they refer to the thing signified such as are bending of the knee and other signs of the like kind are given rightly to Images And it would not have this seem absurd or impious to any man whilst by the signs they worship the Prototypes This declaration of honouring the Image it self Mr. Thorndike taxeth as an idle thing he might also have proceeded and called it perillous and a means of scandal For the external honour of Christ is his honour though not the only honour which is due to him And sometimes Hypocrites promote his Honour in the world by the meer shews of it and sometimes men blindly devout betray it by exhibiting the signes of it where they are not due It is true that salutation is both a Civil and a Religious ceremony Coecilius in Minutius Foelix pointing to the Image of Serapis Kissed his hand in token of his devotion to that Idol And the Romans were wont when they complemented one another first to reach forth their hand and then drawing it up to their mouth to kiss it and this was called adoring and venerating of them So Tacitus saies of Otho that he stretched out his hand and adored the people and threw his Kisses among them And of Nero that he worshipped or venerated the Assemblie with his hand Also Bowing Kneeling Prostration are equivocal signes and as we use them towards God so we do the like towards Princes and before their empty Chairs of State Before them I say for to bow to them though it be not Idolatry yet it is a debasement of our reasonable persons For that external sign is the sign of an homage not due to them but to the absent Prince of whom they put us in mind and the Ceremonie interprets and declares that inward homage and submission to them whose Chairs they are Now though such signes are thus equivocal yet they are so determined by their Objects and Circumstances to their particular sense that a weak capacity can scarce commit an error in their interpretation He that sees a Cross made by a Shepherd on one of his Sheep does not think it signifies alike with the Cross impression which a Priest or metaphorical Shepheard makes at the Holy Font on the Forehead of a Child whom he hath just incorporated into his Flock He that sees another saluting him by pulling off his Hat and bowing and crying God save you cannot think he is thereby made a God or an Idol but he interprets all this as a sign of respect according to the usage of his Country But if he sees a second James Naylor riding on an Ass in triumph into Bristol and hears the women cry Hosannah and sees them bow their knees he hath cause to believe that they are both mad and idolatrous so much there is of Idolatry in that which the Quakers judged Religion and so little of it in that civility which they think is irreligion and the worship of the creature He thas sees an Artist in the Shop of a Statuary kneeling before the Image of Hercules and finishing his Foot will look upon him as a man employed in his mechanical Trade But if he finds him in a Church at the hours of Prayer kneeling or prostrate with uncovered Head with Beads in his Hands and Tears in his Eyes and Kisses from his Mouth at the Pedestal of a Crucifix or of an Image of Christ an Image set up for that use an Image consecrated and perfumed with consecrated Incense and rendred illustrious with consecrated Tapers he will not then think him at his ordinary work but at his earnest devotion Now it may here be properly demanded of a Romanist whether the sign of bowing kneeling or prostration be exhibited to the Image alone to God alone or to both of them and if to both whether in equal or unequal degrees It cannot be said that it is done only to the Image as a sign of civil respect and not to God because the man is exercising himself in such devotions as have God only the Romanists confessing it for their ultimate Object He is at his Prayers to God or some person in the Trinity and kneeling or bowing at such a time is as much the external part of worship as the submission of the mind is the part internal It cannot be said by a true Romanist to be done to God only because the Great Synod and the Rituals of that Church declare such external Ceremonies to be addresses to the very Images as Images of Christ Such Ceremonies the Synod of Nice seemeth generally to mean when it presseth the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worship or adoration of Images i. e. the veneration of the body of which men only can take cognizance Such veneration the Council of Trent as hath appeared already doth give by her decree to the very Images with regard to their divine Relation though not in respect to their matter or form The Missal commands the Priest after having fixed the Cross in a place prepared for it before the Altar to pull off his Shoos and adore the Cross that is not orare ad the old derivation of adorare to pray to it for it prescribes no form there but to bow to it and then to kiss it The Pontifical indeed speaketh sometimes of worshipping before an Image but in other places it râ—…quireth the worship of it For so in the benediction of a nâ—…w Cross the Bishop is required once and again to bow his Knees before it and to adore it devoutly Nay once it declareth that the worship Latria is due to the Cross. It cannot be said by a Romanist who regardeth his Creâ—…d that this external address is made to Christ and his Image in â—…qual degree for that were to give Honour properly Divine unto a Creature a sign of Honour being Honour An Act of acknowledgement in our selves and a means of procuring it amongst other persons They must then say if they will speak with shew of consistence that the mind doth apply the act of incurvation to the Image as a sign of inferior honour and to Christ as a sign of that honour which is supream That the Case is like to that of Naaman before his conversion unto Judaism for then he worshipped the Idol of Rimmon with religious worship and yet by the same act of external adoration or bowing he did testifie his civil respect to his Master that leaned on him But their worship is not so circumstantiated as
the form of a a flying fiery Serpent whose body vibrated in the air with luster and may be fitly described by the Image of such a sword And whereas Maimonides interpreteth this Sword of the property of an Angel of which the Scripture speaketh as of a flame of fire he saith nothing distinctly applicable to the second Angel but what was common also to the Cherub whilst something is pointed at in the Text as peculiar to the second Angel called a flaming-sword It may be further noted to our present purpose that the word Saraph or Seraphim is used in Scripture both to denote as was said a fiery flying Serpent and also an Angel of a certain order whom Isaiah representeth as having wings and flying to him with a coal from the Altar Accordingly Buxtorf in his little Lexicon in the word Saraph thus discourseth Saraph signifies a fiery and most venemous Serpent Seraphim is likewise a name of Angels who from the clearness and brightness of their Aspect are seen as it were flaming and fiery But there is an authority in this Argument to me more valuable not for the notation of the word but for the sense so accommodate to my notion It is that of Tertullian in two places The first place is in his Book de Praescriptione Haereticorum There he suggesteth from others That Eve gave attention to the Serpent as to the Son of God The second place is in his Book against the Valentinians There he saith That the Serpent from the beginning was one that sacrilegiously usurped the Divine Image This soundeth as if the Devil in Serpentine form had represented part of the Shechinab of the Logos and that Eve conceived him to be an Angel appertaining to his glorious presence and a minister of his pleasure and now come forth from him Now I here suppose the Seraphim or Urim to be two Golden winged Images not from the number of the word Urim for the Jews use that number frequently of a single thing or person but from that of the Images called Cherubim which were two Symbols placed on the Ark which is typed in the Pectoral And I do not think so much as doth Maimonides that the Cherubim were therefore two lest the form of a single one should have been mistaken for the Figure of the one God as that these two like the Model of the Temple had reference to Earth as well as Heaven and besides Angels represented Moses and Aaron as the Ministers of the Logos under the Law as the four Creatures in the Vision of Ezekiel typed out the four Evangelists as Christs servants under the Gospel Neither did the number of the Cherubim prevent misconstruction For St. Hierom reporteth of some that by the two Seraphim Cherubim he meaneth they understood the Son and the Holy Ghost In the Pectoral I suppose Seraphim and not Cherubim this being an Oracle for Civil affairs and not properly the Oracle of the Temple and the Cherubim being according to St. Hierom before cited the seven Spirits about Gods Throne and according to David the Chariots on which he rides and the Seraphim of inferior attendance though Appendages of the Shechinah and of more frequent ministration abroad in Temporal matters such as that of the Captivity of Judah in the declaration of which to Isaiah a Saraph assisted For the Answer of God by Urim I suppose it not to have been conveyed through the mouths of these Images which were to be put into the Ark whilst nothing is mentioned of the taking them out But it seemeth most probable that as the Logos spake with a voice out of the Glory above the Cherubim and not by them their mouths being turned from the High-Priest so the High-Priest who here was the Logos of the Logos the Substitute and Type of Christ spake by Inspiration over the Pectoral and Saraphs Neither is it fully proved from the Book of Samuel that God spake Vivâ voce as the Annotations published out of the Library of the Archbishop of York would have it to be for it may well be said that God spake when through miraculous inspiration he spake by the mouth of his Prophets or Priests The Urim or Seraphim were put into the Pectoral and not set upon it as the Cherubim were on the greater Ark not so much for the concealment of them from the eyes of the people prone to Idolatry as for some other cause for the Ark was often carried in Procession with the Cherubims on it unless we shall say that the upper cover of the Ark or Mercy-seat which is mentioned in Scripture as a distinct piece of Artifice from it was not taken along with it But to me this seemeth one reason the High-Priest was here the Type of Christ-Incarnate who in the days of his flesh though he had Angels ministring to him did not often please to occasion their appearance It may be here objected That this Notion of the Seraphim in the Ark ascribeth to God the setting up as part of his Shechinah the Image proper to the Devil for such is that of the Serpent I answer that the contrary is here true for the groveling Serpent doomed by God is such a Symbol and such a one the Heathens worshipped Neither was any other distinctly used in Egypt or so far as I have read in any other Country of the world For though the Egyptian Cneph had wings yet he was not a winged Serpent but a compounded Symbol of which the tayl of the Serpent was but a small part adjoined to the breast wings and head of an Hawk or Eagle And Eusebius relateth from Philo Byblius that the Egyptian Hieroglyphick of the World was a Circle of which the Serpent the Symbol of a good Daemon as they conceived was but the Diameter the whole figure being almost like to the great Θ of the Greeks And by that it appears that the sacred Egyptian Serpent was the creeping one and not the winged one of Arabia whose company they so detested that they deified the Bird Ibis for destroying it But now the glorious winged Serpent was the Symbol of a good ministring Angel And accordingly God used such a one in the Wilderness and it is known by the name of the Brazen-serpent or Saraph Of that inferior kind of Shechinah it is proper to speak here it being to be understood from the Contents of the foregoing Discourse This then seemeth no other than a winged Saraph put on a Pole or standard like a Roman Eagle and constituted as a Symbol of the presence of the Logos so far as concerned his Divine Power and Goodness in healing them by miracle who were bitten with fiery Serpents That this was some sort of the Presence of the Logos appeareth from himself in the New Testament where he opposeth to it as Antitype to Type the natural body of himself crucified As Moses said he lifted up the
44. 9 to 20. 45. 20. 46. 6 7. Hab. 2. 18 19 20. Zach. 10. 1 2. b De la Recherche de la verite Tom. 2. liv 6. c. 8. p. 327 328. c Plato de Legibus l. 11. p. 930 931. d Gage in Survey of west-Ind c. 20. p. 391 to p. 398. a Apud Reicheltum de Amuletis p. 36. b See Pincieri AEnigm l. 1. AEnig 7. p. 17 18. c Dion Halicarn Rom. Ant. l. 8. sect 10. p. 784 785. a Tertull. de Idol p. 89. Soccus Baxa deaurantur c. See Isai. 40. 19. b Porphyr de Stat. Brachman ap Bardes Syr. p. 283. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. c Vincent le Blanc in his Travels p. 50. d Le Blanc p. 125. e Della Valle in his Travels p. 114 115. a Lips Oper. Tom. 3. pag. 1250 1251. Ed. Vesal 1675. b P. D. Valle p. 129. c Arnob. contr Gent. l. 6. p. 209. a Arnob. l. 1. p. 22 23. b Gass. in vitâ Peiresk l. 2. p. 90. l. 4. p. 151 152. c See Isa. 46. 8. Remember this viz. v. 7. that Idols can't move or answer and shew your selves men Isa. 44. 19. There is no understanding to say I have burnt part of it in the fire d See Isa. 46. 1 2. e Arnob. l. 1. p. 22 23. Beneficia poscebam nihil sentiente de Trunco L. 6. p. 200. Amentia Deum credere quem tute ipse formaris supplicare tremebundum fabricatae abs te rei p. 202. Non videtis ' sub istorum simulachrorum cavis mures babitare in ore ab Araneis ordiri retia a Mr. Thorndike's Epilogue part 3. p. 298. b Amos 8. 6. a See Porphyr de Abstin l. 1. Sect. 57. p. 49. l. 2. Sect. 34. p. 78. And see upon his words there S. Cyr. Alex. cont Jul. l. 2. p. 60 61. b Alvarez Simedo in Hist. Sin Par. 1. c. 18. p. 86. c Jer. 10. 8. They are altogether brutish the stock is a doctrine of Vanities a De Exhort Martyr c. 1. p. 378. Non facies tibi Idolum b Hottinger in Cipp Hebraic p. 136. c Grot. in Decal p. 50. In Hebraeo non feres nempe in ore tuo quod idem est cum illo non sumes in os scilicet a See Fagius on Numb 30. 3. and see Deut. 20. 10. b Tertull. de Idololat Sect. 20. p. 97 98. c Exod. 23. 13. d Id. ib. in vanâ—… id â—…ft iâ—… Idoâ—… Aquilas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers Interlin iâ—… vanum a Hos. 4. 15. b So the vulg Latine renders Aven in Hosea 6. 8. Galaad civitas opexaâ—…tium Idolum See Josh. 23. 7. Neither make mention os the name os their gods nor cause to swear by them neither serve them nor bow your selves unto them See Jer. 5. 2 7. a Mr. Mede's Discours 15. of the Sabbath p. 73. b Exod. 31. 12 13 16 17. c S. Cyril Alex. contr Julian 〈◊〉 p. 126. a Id. ibid. p. 126 127. b Maim More Nevochim par 3. c. 29. p. 424. a Act. 7. 39 to 43. Amos 5. 25 26. * See Thorndik Epilogue c. 25. p. 298. b Josh. 24. 14 to 29. c Judg. 2. 8 9 10 11 12 13. d Judg. 2. 16 17 18 19. e 1 Sam. 4. f 1 Sam. 7. 3 4. a See Grotius on Judg. 2. 13. p. 2002. ap Crit. maj b 1 King 11. 1 to 8. c 1 King 7. 25. d Abulsarajus p. 55. Mortuus est Solomon sine poenitentiâ e 1 King 11. 9â—… 10 11 12. a 1 King 12. 27. b 2 Chron. 33. 3 to 7. * Diod. Sic. ap Phot. Bibl. p. 1150. de Statuâ Mosis Asino insidentis Undè Judaei forte dicti Asinarii c See 1 Mac. 1. d 1 Mach. 1. 43. e Vers. 60 61 62 63. a Philo Jud. in Flaccum p. 971 972 c. b See Diod. Sic. ap Phot. Bibl. p. 1154. affirming concerning the Jews that by reason of the Persian and Macâ—…donian Victories they suffered many alterations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Deut. 32. 8. See R. Sal. Francu p. 3. a See Menasseh Ben Israel in Quaest. 2. in Deut. p. 222. b R. Sal. France p. 2 〈◊〉 c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a See Leonclav Pand. Hist. Turcic p. 139. b Julian ap Cyr. l. 9. 306. c Seld. de Diis Syris Synt. 2. c. 17. p. 370 371. d Rabbin Prov. ap H. Othon Lex c. Rabbin in Judic S. S. in Joh. 20. 4. Omnia ad Coelum i. e. Omnia ad Gloriam Dei a Exod. 32. 21 â—…0 31. b See Moses Gerund ap Seld. Synt. de Diis Syris C. de vit Aur. p. 155. c Nehem. 9. 18. a Tertull. de Idol Sect. 3. p. 87. b Philo Jud. de vitâ Mosis l. 3. p. 677. C. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. c Lactant. l. 4. C. 10. de Vera Sap. p. 376. d S. Hieron in Hos. c. 4. v. 15. Tom. 6. p. 20. D. e Tostat. in Exod. c. 32. Quaest. 7. f Catech. Concil Trident. in 1. Praec Decal p. 388. Inter Hebraeos permulti fuerunt quiz ut Helias iis objiâ—… ciebat in duas partes claudicabant Quod Samaritae fecerunt qui Deum Israelis DeosGentiunt colebant g 1 King 16. 31 32. h V. 30. Ahab did evil above all before him V. 31. He out-sin'd Jeroboam i Hos. 4. 15. k Amo 4. 4 5â—… a Hos. 13. 1 2. Tobit 1. 5. 1 King 19. 18. compar with Rom. 11. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as Mr. Thornd in Epil Part. 3. p. 299. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or it may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b 2 King 10. 23. c 1 King 16. 26. d Vers. 25. a Judg. 17. 3. b Wisd. 14. 21. Men serving either calamity or tyranny did ascribe unto stones and stocks the Incommunicable name c Deut. 12. 13. Take heed to thy self that thou offerest not thy burnt-offerings in every place that thou seest d In Chap. 14. e Altis Sum. l. 1. c. 15. Non in quolibet signo adorandus eft Deus sed in proprio sicut Movses adoravit Deum in Rubo in quo loquebatur ei c. Abraham in Angelo undè non est adorandus in lapide esset enim Idololatria de non proprio signo Dei sacere proprium a Secundum Horum ap Macrob. Saturn l. 1. c. 7. p. 215. b Herod Euterpt p. 117 118. c 1 King 18. 22 23 c. d Exod. 8. 25 26. e Act. 7. 42 43. f Herod in Thal. p. 195 196. g Herod ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a See Is. Voss. de AEt Mundi p. 41. b See Pignor. de mensâ—… Isiacâ—… p. 36 37. c Exod. 8. 25 26. a Hence the Symbol of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is interpreted of not killing or not sacrificing Animals b Strabo l. 17. Geogr. p. 803. c See Vattier's Pref. to Muctadi's Prod. of Egypt p. 25 26. d Ovid. l. 4. Fast. Bos aret ignavam