best Satisfaction for at the last Day 't will be no Excuse to be deceived by another a Man must be his own Expositor Minister Bishop and Council for these will not bear his Punishment he must bear it himself Those Powers and Authorities given to others was the Cause of making and multiplying Creeds and Rules of Faith which ever were modelled according to the present Interests and Animosities of prevailing Parties in very deed Creeds were the spiritual Revenges of Dissenting Parties upon one another 'T is observable that the whole Aim of our Saviour in the Gospel is to use a Clearness of Direction for Practice When he speaks in Parables 't is to make Things familiar to those whose Apprehensions more readily conceive and retain what is express'd by Similitudes because they are acquainted with them in common Practice such is the Parable of the Seed thrown into barren Ground the Tares among the Corn and many others used in that easy and familiar Manner to make every thing descend into the meanest Capacity and be retained by the shortest Memories In all his Expressions in that admirable Sermon on the Mount there are no hard Words or dark Doctrines it being his blessed Will to give Light to all not to reserve or keep any thing dark or vailed 't was private Design Interest and Faction that invented hard Words puzling Expressions or unintelligible Notions and Doctrines had such a Method been conducing to Salvation he that was the Redeemer would not have omitted any thing necessary to the Redemption I design to examine whether any particular Points controverted in Religion if they had never been mentioned or thought of had been a Prejudice to the serving of God and following the full Directions of the Gospel But first it may be proper considering the strange and wild Fancies and Opinious that have been taught and exercised as Parts of Religion to examine as I propounded sometime before whether probably the Priests themselves did or could believe those most ridiculous things which they themselves taught and imposed Though 't is no Wonder that the People should be perswaded to believe such Variety of Extravagancies for as I have shown Men have ever had a Proness rather to believe than to examine and all Religions are alike easily taught and nurss'd up from Infancy and every one is equally fierce for that in which he has been educated Hence comes the strange Zeal of the poor Indians to lay down to be crush'd to Death under the heavy Wheels that carry a Virgin representing their Goddess Amidio and of others of them that stretch out an Arm in Devotion towards Heaven so long that they are never able to draw it back and thereupon presume that they are sufficiently sanctified Some Turks have also been so zealous that after having seen the Alchoran they have put out their Eyes that they might never more see a Profane Sight while Christians wonder at these Extravagancies they perhaps yield to others as much Detestation or Scorn for some of their ridiculous and impossible Doctrines and superstitious Parts of their Devotion When the Morocco Ambassador attended King Charles the Second at Newmarket the King observing the large Sleeves they wore ask'd Lucas one of the chief of the Ambassador's Retinue How they could believe that the Moon should come into a Sleeve which they said they wore so large for that Use Lucas answered him with another Question How Christians could believe that our Lady's Chappel at Launretta flew thorow the Air 200 Miles and pitched it self where it now stands This Lucas had been a great Traveller he had been at Lauretta as well as at Mecha where Mahomet's Sepulchre is I believe there are equal Causes for the Miracles at both Places Thus all Religions are equally easy to be imbibed from the first Milk and other-ways it were impossible the World should continue in such different divided and absurd Faiths but we see plainly that Generations continue in the same Opinions about Religion as well as in the same Natural Descents as if one were as natural as the other 'T is true that by the Help and Light of the Gospel some have broken these Fetters and step'd into the Freedom of Reason but then the Priests always apply themselves to their last and best Argument Persecution to prevent the Increase of reasonable and honest Men. The Heathens were more to be excused who continued in blind Obedience to their Priests for they had nothing to guide and direct them but what their Priests invented from time to time but Christians have a Revealing Gospel plain and easy enough to direct to the Doctrines Means and Ways of Salvation and to redeem People from dark and blind Obedience by the clear Discovery there made of the Being and Vnity of God and the as clear Precept of Catholick Love and Charity thus laying an evident and certain Foundation of Eternal Happiness on what is equally rational and intelligible He that has redeemed us from Mystery and Sin has insisted chiefly on the plain and decent Methods of Justice performed to one another and in his Rule of Prayer he makes the Forgiveness we implore from God to depend on a Covenant of doing the same to others that we desire of him Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us In our Saviour's Sermon on the Mount all those excellent Rules are delivered after a most explicit and plain Manner there we find no Footsteps nor the least Rise given for such Mysterious Fancies and Opinions as the Priests teach and injoin in the Church of Rome all such Doctrines and Impositions arose from nothing but Priest-craft to support and to inlarge their Interests and Power If they practised only as true Disciples of Christ and taught after his plain and blessed Manner and Method they would then exercise themselves wholly in a sincere and plain Example of Life and make such an Example the Scope and End of their Teaching and thereby by infuse the Power of Religion into the Minds and Hearts of Men. But instead of this they teach and impose the Power of themselves and their dark and disputable Points cannot be necessary no nor sutable to the Ends of the Gospel there being nothing there prescribed to breed Perplexities or to alter and transfer its own Rule and Power to the Interpretations and Power of Men. Mystery therefore is used only as a Means to this Perswasion that Power and Knowledg is in the Priests and Persecution is the heavy Rod to awe and terrify Men from questioning their Doctrine But though Education shows us that Men may be bred up to and may be taught all Religions alike and it may be in part excused by the Ignorance of the People occasioned by the Multiplicity oâ— Cares and Business yet there is not the same Cause or Apology for Priests to continue in their old Elusions and Deceits The People are generally forbid to reason and examine they must submit to the
so whilst an Eternal Existence or Being seems too hard to be believed of God the same Difficulty must be believed of no God For if there were not an Omnipotent and an Eternal Power by which all things are made and disposed it follows necessarily that all things must have been without a Beginning so that such a One must believe the World to be what he cannot believe God is And while he doubts of a Creator of all things he must believe all things created themselves or were Eternal and Infinite without a Creation the former of which is to imagine not one God but many the other supposes that Absurdity in Philosophy Ex Nihilo Aliquid or Effects without not only a Competent but any Cause Or if he imagins a thing called Nature the Cause of all things he acknowledges a God only under a borrowed name for whatever was without a Beginning the Cause and the Disposer of all things is that Infinite Power and Wisdom Hermes being ask'd what God was answered well the Maker of all things an Eternal and most Wise Mind Diogenes calls him the Soul of the World Plato says God is a Mind the Cause and Orderer of all things and Seneca that he is Mens Vniversi When Labienus desired Cato to consult the Oracle of Jupiter Ammon in their present hard Condition Cato answered from a Breast more truly Inspired than any Oracle those Priests could give by a Divine Way of Questioning What was the Throne and Seat of God but the Earth the Sea the Air and Virtue What farther Inquiry therefore saith he ought to be made when God is whatever is seen or moves or has a Being Thus all several Names Titles and Appellations must determine in an Infinite Power which is the Life and Disposer of them nor has any Person entertained a settl'd Opinion that things disposed themselves or that they gave themselves their own Life and Being or that they were without a Beginning as now they are without being the Effects of an Infinite Cause The World in general was ever so far from believing no God that they were prone to believe many Gods and from the Infancy of it that Opinion grew and increas'd with it An Opinion much cherish'd by Priests in all Ages because their Dominion Power and Riches encreased of Course and in the Nature of the Thing by the Multiplication of Divinities or Objects of Adoration and Worship and it seems indeed impossible that without some Direction and Design such various and phantastic Divinities and Opinions about them should enter into the Minds of Men more ready for Impression than Invention and having once made an implicit Resignation of their Sense and Reason they follow with even a zealous Submission those to whom they have resigned Upon this Foundation Priests raised themselves to Veneration and to an Equality with Princes mingling their Divine Interest with Earthly Ambition and Kings themselves thought it an Addition to their Titles to assume the Name of Priests In Suetonius you may see with the Titles of Roman Emperours that of Priest joined Among the Egyptians the Priests were next in Dignity to the Kings and of Counsel to 'em in all Business of importance from among them he was chosen or if out of the Souldiery he was forthwith invested in the High-Priesthood and instructed by the Priests in their Mysteries and Philosophy which were delivered under the cover of Fables and Aenigmatical Expressions And as I design in this Discourse to shew how the Priest-craft and Power have been continued to this time by the same and like Methods and Practices so I shall begin with taking notice of their continuing in that Ambition Dignity and Power which is so evidently practised and shown in the Church of Rome The Pope the High-Priest there has exceeded all his Priestly Predecessors in pretending a Power above all Princes even to the devesting them at his Pleasure of their Authority and Power over their own Subjects This Paramount Soveraignty was derived from Infallibility in virtue of both 't was easy for him to require Men to believe whatever was any way his Interest to invent taking his Pattern from the Heathen Priests as well in their Methods and Tricks of Devotion as in their Ways of supporting and propagating what they taught in all Ages of Mystery and Persecution The Heathen Priests however seem more excusable in their Inventions than Christians that follow and imitate them For the former had no Word of God in a revealing Gospel to direct and limit their Belief so that they were at large to teach and practise such things as they believed must make the most to them advantagious Impression on Men as many Gods and the lesser to be Mediators betwen the superior Gods and Men the Adoration of their Images giving Sanctity to Shrines and Pillars But for Christians who pretend to believe a revealing Gospel to continue in those Heathenish Doctrines and Methods seems to be continued by somewhat a greater degree of that Priest-craft which had been so long practised with Success God himself declares with Jealousy this Aptness in Men to receive and believe in many Gods and to worship strange and helpless things in the First Commandment he says Thou shalt have no other Gods but ME and in the Second Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image or the Likeness of any thing that is in the Heavens above or in the Earth beneath or in the Water under the Earth These large and comprehensive Words forbidding every thing that was in Nature to be worshipped shew plainly that God saw and considered how ready Mankind was to be misguided under a Notion of Religion into extravagant Worships We hear very early of many Gods which probably were Men Deified as Saturn Jupiter Mercury Apollo Neptune Pluto Bacchus and also of divers Female Deities Mr. Bochart observes hereupon that Noah and his three Sons were the same with Saturn and his Sons Jupiter Neptune and Pluto He takes notice of several Appellations in Scripture as Vir Belli pro Milite Vir Brachii pro Robusto Vir Sanguinis pro Homicidâ but that of Noah is Vir Terrae and is so taken by the Mythologists as if he had married the Earth or the Goddess Tellus and the Earth were the same with Rhea the Wife of Saturn Noe coepit esse Vir Terrae plantavit Vineam but to Saturn also the Antients ascribed Agriculture and the planting of Vines And as Noah was drunk with Wine so the Feast of the Saturnalia was celebrated with Drunkenness C ham was cursed for seeing his Father Noah's Nakedness and the Poets affirm that such a Law proceeded from Saturn that none should escape unpunished that saw any of the Gods naked Therefore in the Hymns of Callimachus when Tiresias was struck blind for seeing Minerva naked the Goddess excuses it to his Mother saying She was not the Cause of taking away his Sight but that it was a
Law that came from Saturn The Fable of the Punishment of Actaeon for seeing Diana naked relates also to this Saturn and his Wife Rhea were said to come from the Ocean as Noah did and Macrobius says that in the Medal of Saturn there was a Ship on the one side and his Head on the other he cites also Alexander Polyhistor that Saturn foretold the Flood which answers to Noah's being forewarned of it by God and his taking on his thereupon to be a Preacher of Righteousness to that Generation Mr. Bochart shows farther that Cham or Ham was worshipp'd under the Name of Jove the Egyptians calling him by the Name of Jove Amoun or Hammon by the like manner of Comparison and by their various Appellations he finds Japhet to be Neptune Canaan to be Mercury Nimrod to be Bacchus of the Reasonableness and Probability of these Conjectures any one may be satisfied by reading that Learned Author I have set down these things to show how early the Corruption of Deifying of Men was though at the same time they acknowledged also a superiour Sort of Daemons who never were Men as I shall show in the progress of this Discourse together with the Reason why I insist on this Variety of Gods There were also Houshold Gods called Penates which were Teraphim or little Images The Holy Scripture takes notice that Rachel stole her Father 's Teraphim and in the Prophet 't is said the King of Babel consulted the Teraphim and look'd into the Liver These were so relied on for Blessings and Protections that they were always carried about When Hector's Ghost appeared to Aeneas he remembers him of this piece of Devotion commending to him the carrying these Penates or Houshold Gods with him as Companions of his Fortune Suosque tibi commendat Troja Penates hos cape Fatorum comites Virgil. lib. 2. So also in his third Book when Aeneas takes Shipping to fly from his destroyed Country he takes care of the Penates as a part of his Family Feror exul in altum cum sociis natoque Penatibus magnis Diis When Jacob fled from Laban his Wife Rachel stole her Father 's Teraphim Penaies or Images and when Laban overtook them he first expostulates with Jacob why he would use him so as to carry away his Daughters like Captives and not suffer him their Father to take a kind Farewel but then secondly and chiefly that he had also stolen his Teraphim Rachel in the mean time sate upon these Teraphim to conceal them from her Father believing them to be useful for their Protection in their Travel to Canaan The strange Readiness and Inclination to worship Images by those very Persons that made them seems very unlikely to proceed from their own Opinion of their own Work The excellent Reasons of the Prophet Isaiah seem to demonstrate this He says The Workmen if they were gathered together would be ashamed The Smith with the Tongs both worketh it in the Coals and fashioneth it with Hammers He is hungry and his Strength fails he drinketh no Water and is faint The Carpenter stretcheth out his Rule he marketh it out with a Line he sitteth it with Planes He maketh it after the Figure of a Man according to the Beauty of a Man that it may remain in the House He heweth down Cedars he taketh the Cypress and the Oak he planteth an Ash and the Rain nourishes it then shall it be for a Man to burn for he will take thereof and warm himself and will also bake Bread of the Residue he will make a God and worship it a Graven Image and will fall down thereto He burneth part thereof in the Fire with part he eateth Flesh he also warms himself therewith the Residue he maketh a God worships it prays unto it says to it Deliver me for thou art my God Thus useless Gods are a Burden to the weary Beasts that carry them They lavish Gold out of the Bag and weigh Silver out of the Ballance they hire a Goldsmith and he maketh it a God but they cry to him and he cannot answer nor save out of Trouble But to all this the Prophet adds Remember this and shew your selves to be Men bring things again to mind O ye Transgressors These Words seem plainly to intimate that the People who did these things were abused and misled by others and therefore 't is that he admonishes them to shew themselves Men by using their own Consideration and that they should bring again to mind what a ridiculous Fancy 't is that they could make a God who had that Power which themselves the Makers of him wanted or that there is so great a Difference in the same Piece of Wood that one part is fit only to serve them in Houshold Offices the other part is qualified to save them and their Families Assuredly this Distinction arose not from the Imagination of the Artificer that used the Wood or Silver but from the Priests who having gained an Opinion among Men of their Spiritual Power pretended by their Consecration to make the Difference and pronounced by their Divine Authority that these were Gods There are many Authorities that make it clear that 't was not the People nor the Artisans who first broached the Belief that their Images were Gods but the Priests who by virtue of their Consecration pretended to make the Images and Pillars Sacred and sit to be filled with the Spirits of Daemons Hermes Trismegistus says their Forefathers had devised an Art to make Gods and to call the Souls of Demons and Angels and put them into those Images or Gods Jamblichus calls these Consecrated Idols Images filled with Divine Spirits and again Animated Statues filled with Spirit and Sense Arnobius sets down the Excuse of the Heathens that they did not worship the Gold and Silver or other Materials of which the Images were made but they worshipp'd the Divine Spirits that were brought to inhabit those Statues and Images Arnob. l. 6. ad Gentes Eos in his colimus eosque veneramur quos Dedicatio infert fabrilibus efficit habitare simulachris Which also extended to Pillars and Columns as may be inferred from Leviticus 26.1 Ye shall make you no Idols nor Graven Image neither rear you up a standing Image the Margin for standing Image readeth Pillar to bow down unto it This same Method of Priest-Craft is continued in the Church of Rome the Romish Saints and Angels answer to the Daemons and Heroes Deified by the Heathen Priests and their Idol of Bread Divinity infused into Crosses Images Agnus Dei's and Relicks correspond to the Pillars Statues and Images consecrated by Pagan Priests When St. Paul at Athens preached Jesus Christ risen from the dead they took this for a Part of their Doctrine of Daemons which Word is expresly used in the Original Our Translation saith Others said He seemeth to be a Setter-forth of strange Gods but in the Original 't