sign and indication of but naturally consequent upon the former and as absolutely requisite as is the publick external exercise of Religion the greater advancement of God's Glory and the acknowledgment of his superiority over one part of us as well as another it being necessary if for no other reason to glorifie God in our Bodies as well as Spirits because they are both God's and an unanswerable argument that external actions must bear a part in the due performance of Religious Worship is this That otherwise we could never be certain of any false Worship in the World since the internal actions of the mind do not fall of themselves within human cognizance As to the former part of this Worship the internal veneration and submission of our Souls there is no doubt at all but that he who gives that to Creatures or any Images of them gives them Religious Worship with a witness the only difficulty lies in the external actions of the Body as Bowing of the Head Genuflexion c. which being capable of different Constructions Civil as well as Religious the main point of our present enquiry must be how to know when such actions become of a Religious signification for when they do so they become acts of external Adoration which the common notions of mankind ever since the world began have determin'd to be parts of Religious Worship And whence I pray should such actions take the particular denomination of Religious but from what Physical Actions receive any other appellations and that is either positive appropriation to such an use or from the Circumstances of Time Place Occasion Object and the like as well as intention of him that does them Thus for instance acts of Sacrifice and Incense become acts of Religious Worship because God appropriated them to his Service Thus the Prostration which the Devil requir'd of our Saviour was by him interpreted Religious Worship because the occasion was argument enough that he could demand no other Thus tho a man may kneel bow his head or incline his body to his Friend his Father or his King and still keep within the bounds of Civil Decency and Decorum yet if he should use the Solemn Rites appointed for a Religious Performance consecrate his friend place him not only in the Church but upon the Altar and at the set times of Prayer there pay the same external acts of respect to him no man would stick to pronounce them religious from the natural notions we have of such actions so circumstantiated accordingly we find St. Austin in one place insisting upon the particular circumstance of placing their Statues over the Altar to prove that the Heathens constructively took them for Gods i. e. gave them Divine Worship Quod numen habeant pro numine accipiant illam statuam ara testatur c. Nemo mihi dieat non é Deus non é numen for it seems they stood upon the goodness of their Intentions too utinam ipsi sic norint says he quomodo nos novimus sed quid habeant pro quâ re habeant ara testatur Thus again when S. John in an Extacy fell down at the Feet of the Angel that action likewise came under the notion of Religious Worship which he bid him therefore give to God because the Angel the Object to which it was done was of a nature Superior in Power and Perfection to his own For such respects proceeding not from any civil Relations to such beings of which they are not capable but from a strange awful Apprehension of some secret Power and Superiority they have over us they partake of the formal Reason of the Worship of God himself and must therefore be look'd upon as Religious Upon the same ground doubtless did St. Peter interpret the Worship Cornelius gave him to be Religious from the extraordinary Sentiments which he saw he had of his Person as of one above the Power and Perfection of humane Nature as sufficiently appears from the Apostles bidding him stand up for that he also was a man Acts 10. And thus all mankind naturally judg of such Actions without the least Hesitancy or Demur tho perhaps they never state the Point unless upon occasion nor attend to the reasons why they do so And what has been said of such Actions in relation to animate Beings will for the very same reasons hold good of them when performed with regard to the Images of such Beings besides that the Worship of the Images being referr'd to the thing represented it must of necessity be the same and not a different kind of Worship Thus much then for the Explication of the term of Religious Worship The next and most natural advance now is to examine whether or no by the Authentick Doctrine and the best authorized Practice of the Church of Rome any such Worship given to Images And first I shall examine them in relation to the first and principal part of it the internal Veneration and Submission of the mind This I presume being the most considerable Part of that worship they are pleas'd to call Latria for that as the second Council of Nice describes it is done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Spirit or Mind That St. Thomas as the Phrase is and his numerous Adherents determin'd the worship of Latria and consequently the most interior Devotion of the mind to be given to the Images of Christ is notoriously known and yet St. Thomas may vye with any Bishop in Europe in Approbations from Rome witness the Elogies and noble Testimonies concerning him and his Doctrine by John the 22 d who Canoniz'd him by Paul the 5th Innocent the 6th Clement the 8th Vrban the 5th Pius 5th in their several Bulls or other Discourses relating to this Saint But because Testimonials signify nothing perhaps when urg'd the wrong way and that reason is altogether as satisfactory to those they call Hereticks as a naked Authority I shall show That this Opinion of Aquinas is undeniably consequent both upon the Doctrine and Practice of their Church First Upon the Doctrine The reason assign'd for the Worship of Images in the Council of Trent is Because the Honour which is exhibited to them is referr'd or as the second Council of Nice more clearly expresses it does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pass on or go through to the Prototypes which they represent Now says Aquinas who quotes this Reason from Damasus the Worship that is given to the Prototype Christ himself is certainly latria and consequently so must that be too which is given to his Image for otherwise how can the Worship be said to be referr'd to or pass on from the One to the Other if it be not the same but a different sort of Worship A Reasoning this as old as the second Council of Nice it self where it is urg'd without the least Contradiction by John the Vicar of the Oriental Bishops and they may refute it at their
leisure unless by a modern sort of Logick it be Answer sufficient to disavow a Consequence evidently deduc'd from Principles allow'd i. e. to hold fast the Premisses and yet deny the Conclusion But secondly this Doctrine of Aquinas is most undeniably consequent upon the Practice of the Church the best Comment upon her Doctrine and that in relation particularly to the Images of the Cross where I shall need only barely to relate the Prayers addressed to them and then leave any man to judge whether or no the great Doctor of the Schools and his Followers who expresly found their Opinion thereupon concerning the latria that is to be given them did not argue like Men of both that Sincerity and Logick which were to be desir'd in later Writers of that Communion In their Breviary then of as good Authority as the Council of Trent could make it by whose Order it was restored we find this Hymn to the Cross Arbor decora fulgida for I 'll repeat the words in their own Language for fear of a Misrepresentation ornata Regis purpurá electa digno stipite tam sancta Membra tangere O Crux ave speâ—â—â—ita in hoc Paschali gaudio ange piis justitiam reisque doua veniam To which the Antiphona subjoyns O Crux splendidior cunctis astris mundo celebris hominibus multum amabilio sanctior universis quae sola fuisti digna portare talentum mundi dulce lignum dulces clavos dulcia ferens pondera salva presentem catervam in tuis hodie laudibus congregatam Where the Crux the Arbor decora electa digno stipite and the dulce lignum to which these notable Petitions are addressed are so expresly distinguish'd from the sancta membra the talentum mundi and dulcia pondera which they bore upon them that 't is not in the power of all the Figures in Rhetorick to construe them as put up to Christ himself unless Christ may be stil'd the Cross the Tree the Wood chosen of a worthy Trunk as well as the Person that hung upon it And but to add one word more The Rubrick in the Pontifical determining the manner of Procession at the Reception of the Emperour orders the Cross of the Legate to have the Right-hand quia debetur ei latria without any distinction or farther explication of the term If to what I have prov'd from Authorities very little inferiour to a positive Decree of Council be oppos'd the silence of the Trent-Fathers in the matter and I see nothing else at present that can be objected I answer First That their silence in a Point which they ought to have condemn'd had they disliked ought certainly to pass for a tacite Approbation Secondly That I have already made it appear from the Reason of Image Worship assign'd in the very Decree of the Council that the Images of Christ are to be worship'd with latria the most proper Divine Worship imaginable Thirdly That they still retain'd those Prayers and Hymns to the Cross which the best Heads of that Communion grounded their Opinions upon as is evident from the Breviary restored by their Order publish'd and revis'd since by several of their Popes And fourthly and lastly That the Council plainly enough countenances this Doctrine as well as any other for defining only in general That due Worship and Veneration is to be given them any man certainly may give the Images of Christ and the Cross the Worship of latria who thinks it their due especially when back'd with the Practice of the Church the best Expositor of what the Council meant by their due Worship And thus much in proof That the internal Veneration of the Mind is paid to Images After which it will be no hard matter to prove that the acts of external Adoration are perform'd to them likewise tho upon the account of their relation to their Originals which alters not the Object but only the Reason of such Worship And for this I might appeal not only to the Epistle of Tarasius Patriarch of Constantinople at the time of the second Nicene Council to Constantine and Irene besides infinite other places but to the very Definition of that Council in the seventh Action where they are anathematiz'd who deny it I only observe that the word by which the Council expresses such Worship is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same whereby the Holy Ghost stil'd that which the Devil requir'd of our Saviour which Tarasius in the forementioned Epistle explains by the exterior actions of Kissing Bowing Prostration c. the internal signification of which Actions he there affirms to be improv'd and augmented by the addition of the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the obsolete Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all which that Council adds in its very Definition the burning of Lights and Incense As for the Synod of Trent which confirms it the Fathers there expresly decree the exterior acts of Adoration to be done to Images The Trent-Catechism tells us they are plac'd in the Church ut colantur that they may be worship'd The Pontifical informs us That in the Benediction of a new Cross the Priest flexis ante crucem genibus ipsam devotè adorat osculatur The Choir sings upon a Good-Friday upon uncovering the Cross to the People Venite adoremus which they accordingly perform by Prostration and such-like Actions The Head of the Church himself good Man on that day goes between two Cardinals ad adorandum to adore the Cross says the Ceremonial bowing himself in great humility to it Now all these exterior actions being perform'd with all the Formalities Occasions Circumstances and Solemnities which the common sense of Mankind pronounces sufficient to denominate them Religious as at set Times of Religious Worship fix'd Places of it in Temples and before Altars with burning of Lights oblation of Incense and with Intention of worshiping the Image thereby for otherwise 't is all but Mockery and Grimace as several of their own Authors irrefragably argue and a Man only plays the fool with an Image for the sake of its Original such Actions I say must therefore inevitably fall under the Notion of Religious Adoration a necessary part of Religious Worship and consequently Religious Worship as it relates to the actions of both Body and Mind is given to Images themselves in the Church of Rome But because these Men have sought out many Inventions to vacate rather the force of this Law than totally to recede from a Doctrine and Practice repugnant to it when once decreed by Infallible Church let us in the last place briefly examine how they qualifie the matter and palliate the Cure which they resolve not to perfect And first as to the Images of the Trinity which he must be a very bold man who affirms it unlawful either to make or to worship in the Church of Rome they tell us That they are not intended for Representations of the Divine Nature as it is in it self
A DISCOURSE Concerning the Worship of Images Preached before the UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD On the 24th of May 1686. By GEORGE TVLLIE Sub-Dean of York c. For which he was Suspended IMPRIMATUR Apr. 7. 1689. Z. Isham R. P. D. Henrico Episc Lond. à Sacris LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church Yard MDCLXXXIX To the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God HENRY Lord Bishop of London one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council My LORD SInce the true Reasons of Punishments inflicted upon such private and obscure Persons as my self are many times not rightly understood by some and misrepresented by others and thereby leave a Stain behind them and that this I found was my Case at the time of my Suspension I thought I should be wanting to my self if at this Juncture when God be thank'd an honest Zeal against Popery is no longer Criminal I did not publish that Sermon which brought the Rage of the Papists and a Suspension upon me My Lord 't is not from any Opinion I have of the Performance it self that I now make it publick for I am too well acquainted with the excellent Tracts which the Divines of our Church have publish'd as upon others so likewise upon this Argument since the time of my preaching this Sermon to entertain any such foolish conceit of it Nor shall I here take occasion to reflect upon that venerable Body the Dean and Chapter of York who were pleas'd immediately upon the receit of a Letter from the King to Suspend me there for this Discourse preach'd before the University of Oxford and that without as much as the least Summons Citation or ordinary Civility of a private Letter to acquaint me with their Summary proceedings against me tho 't was visible enough that as the management of their Censure was unpresidented and then a leading Case so had it not been without fatal Effects upon the Clergy had not your Lordship in a most generous and heroick Manner put a stop to it here in the very same Case of the Reverend the Dean of Norwich My Lord as I had the Honour for such even then I esteem'd it to be the first Clergy-Man in England who suffer'd in those days in the Defence of our Religion against Popish Superstition and Idolatry So I humbly beg that your Lordship's being shortly after made the greatest and most eminent Instance of Suffering in the same excellent Cause may excuse the Presumption of this Dedication in My LORD Your Lordships most Obedient and Devoted Servant GEO. TULLIE EXOD. XX. ver 4 and part of ver 5. Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the water under the earth Thou shalt not how down to them nor worship them THese Words being an express Law or Command of a Moral and therefore perpetual Obligation enforc'd upon us above any of the other not only with the particular Reason of it The Jealousy of that Great God in Relation to his Honour who himself promulg'd it but likewise with a most severe and terrible Sanction of visiting this great Iniquity as the Breach of it seems peculiarly to be stiled unto the third and fourth Generation and lastly with the most ample Reward of shewing Mercy unto thousands of them that keep it who seem here to be said by way of Eminency to Love God as they who violate the Command to Hate him It concerns doubtless the Christian as highly as ever it did the Jewish Church to enquire into the true Sense and import of that Law which God himself has bound so fast upon us lest some of us Christians also whilst we trifle and distinguish to palliate an unwarrantable Practice in the Church become Idolaters as were some of them My present business therefore shall be I. To assert and explain the genuine Sense and Meaning of this Commandment II. To enquire into the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome in relation to this way of Worship III. To consider how they justify themselves from the Imputation consequent upon it And this with what brevity the Copiousness of the Argument and with what plainness the Nature of it will admit And first I am to assert and explain the genuine Sense and Meaning of this Commandment In order to the distinct understanding whereof I find it absolutely requisite First To remove those false Glosses and Constructions which the Sophistry of some Men have put upon it which if left untouched would darken and perplex the otherwise most evident Proofs of its true Sense and Import Now that Exposition which restrains the Images and Similitudes mention'd in this Command to the Representations of false and fictitious Gods and the worship prohibited to the worshipping them for Gods being the most usual amongst our Adversaries and the likest to stand in our Light we had best I think for brevity's sake confine our selves to the consideration of that and shew 1st That they have no reasonable Colour for restraining the Images here spoken of to the Representations of false Gods. And that 2dly Neither Gentile nor Jewish Idolaters did ever worship such Representations for Gods and consequently such worship could never be intended in this Prohibition before us First That our Adversaries have no reasonable Colour for restraining the Images here mention'd to the Representations of false Gods only And here one would have expected some shrewd Authority and convincing Reason for so straitlac'd a Construction of a most plain full and comprehensive Law and yet after all the burden of the Argument miserably ends in the pretended Signification of the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which it seems the Seventy had the good luck to Translate the Hebrew word Pesel in their version of this Law. And thus behold a pure Logomachy or Strife of words made the chief Foundation of an aukward Sense of so express so important a Commandment a jejune and insipid sort of Contest This I confess but the misery is a Defendant is obliged to follow a litigious Plaintiff into what Court soever he thinks fit to remove his Cause And here tho one would think 't were every whit as reasonable to have recourse to the import of an original Word for the Sense of a Law as to a Version of it a word most properly significative of any thing carv'd or engraven a word render'd by the same Seventy almost constantly in that large Sense by the Chaldee and Syriac Interpreters of the place Image by Jerome and other Latin Translators Idolum Sculptile and Imago indifferently by their own dear Vulgar Latin Sculptile in this very place yet to throw them all this in for quietness sake how comes Clemens of Alexandria a great Critick as well as a Divine reciting this Law to use the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of this so
to give that and not rather the great Object design'd to be worshipped by 't the incommunicable Name of Jehovah as he does in the Proclamation of the Feast upon this occasion Or did they take the Man Moses for their God For for ought I see they only desired one in his Capacity upon the occasion of his Absence Vp make us gods or as Nehemiah has it a God which shall go before us for as for this Moses who went before us out of the land of Egypt we wot not what is become of him So that they either before took Moses that living Symbol of the Divine Presence amongst them for a God or did not now take the Calf for one but only for a Symbolical Representation and Presence of him agreeable to the Worship of Egypt Or must we lastly to shew that these Jews were worse than other People suppose them indeed so compleatly Sottish as to have really taken the Calf for the God that brought them out of the Land of Egypt even before it was made whilest the divine stupid thing lay yet scatter'd in the Ear-rings of its future Votaries If from this Calf in the Wilderness we pass on to those at Dan and Bethel we find them likewise design'd for no other end than visible Symbols of the true God of Israel Jeroboam who set them up never pretending an alteration in the Object but only in the place of the Peoples worship as is evident from hence that the Sin of Ahab who actually introduc'd the worship of a false God is loaded with much greater Aggravations than this of Jeroboam that the Worshippers of Ahab's God Baal are mention'd in Contradistinction to those who worship'd the Lord 1 Kings 18. 21. The generality whereof did at that time worship him by Jeroboam's Calves That Jehu stiles his Zeal against the Worshippers of Baal a zeal for the Lord i. e. the establish'd Worship of the Kingdom at Dan and Bethel by the two Calves to which he adhered 2 Kings 10. 16. And indeed Jeroboam must have been as much out of his Policticks of which he was perfectly Master as some Men are out of their Divinity had he gone about to have secured the Revolt made to him the only end he design'd in the Change made of their Worship by the Introduction of strange Gods into it that being the very cause for which as Ahijah had but just lately told him the Divine Vengeance rent the Kingdom from Solomon and gave it to him his Servant 1 Kings 11. 11 31 33. and yet for all Jeroboam's good Intentions of directing his Worship to a right ultimate Object the God of Israel by the Calves we know what that God thought of him for it Thus lastly were the Graven and the Molten Images of Micha in the 17th of Judges dedicated unto the Lord says the Text to the worship of the only true God. As is farther evident from the Opinion he had that the Lord would do him good for what he had done especially since he had got a Levite to Officiate in his little private Oratory which he had little reason to expect if he worshipp'd them either beside or in Opposition to that Lord from whom he expected the Blessing I should now come to make out the same Sense of this Commandment from the third Medium I propos'd The Sentiments of the Church in its purest Ages showing that the Fathers utterly condemn'd all manner of Images set up for Religious Worship such as respected God particularly and not meerly those of the Heathen World on considerations peculiar to them and this upon the strength of the Prohibition in the Text or other Places of the same import with it But what I have said being sufficient to give light to the true meaning of the Law and the evincing of this Truth consequent upon it That in the Scripture-notion a man may be guilty of Idolatry who Worships a right ultimate Object by an Image I must be content to dismiss this last Argument because it would require so just a Discourse of it self that it cannot possibly be comprised within the limits allotted to this I proceed to the second thing I propos'd The consideration of the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome in relation to the Worship here prohibited and because an Image being made a Medium of Worship becomes likewise an intermediate Object of it the Original being worshipped in and by that Worship which is relatively given to the Images and because this will appear in the Sequel of this Discourse to be the true intent and meaning of the Church I shall consider their Doctrine and Practice under the term of Image-worship But cannot but justly complain before I go any further of the great insincerity that has of late been us'd in representing their Doctrines to the World. If we 'l believe the modern Palliators and Expositors we have been upon a false Scent all this while our Forefathers poor Men either fondly or wilfully pursued the mistaken Ideas of their own Imagination instead of attending to the Intention of the Church and there needs now no more than an innocent turn to the State of any Controversy betwixt us finally to decide it So that in truth we have more ado now to know what their Doctrines are than to refute them as if they too as well as their secret Disciples were for a time to go in disguise amongst us Now of all the Points in dispute betwixt us and them there has certainly none been more artificially dress'd up than this concerning the Worship of Babies as if Paint and Varnish were as requisite to the Doctrine as the Subject of it Our Eyes every day inform us if indeed we may trust the Testimony of our Eyes that they solemnly consecrate them carry them in Pomp and Procession set them up in their Churches over their very Altars places most proper for Religious Worship kiss them prostrate themselves to 'em burn Lights and Incense to their Honour and yet they worship them no not they honest Men God forbid They are only Incentives to their Devotion Remembrancers of their great Prototypes and serve to fix their otherwise distracted Thoughts upon their right Objects So that to speak precisely and according to the Ecclesiastical Stile when they honour the Image of an Apostle or Martyr their intention is not so much to honour the Image as to honour the Apostle or Martyr in presence of or before the Image says the Bishop of Meaux in his Palliation of the Doctrine of Image-worship and from him the Representer To wipe of which Fucus I shall prove in the first place That that which is given before or in the presence of Images call it here what you will has relation or is given to Images not only before them And secondly because the same Learned Prelate and his unhappy Imitator the Representer would again qualify the matter by the softer terms of Honour Reverence Respect such a decent Regard as
measures and by different methods But now the proper Reason of Religious Worship being the Supreme Soveraignty and Power of Almighty God and that being utterly incommunicable to a Creature which is infinitely distant in its whole nature and kind how excellent soever it be neither can any part or parcel of Divine Worship which is founded thereupon in any respect whatsoever be given to any thing besides himself and therefore tho I may for instance give inferior degrees of civil respect to a Subject without intrenching upon the Honour due to a King because they are both of the same kind of Beings to which civil respects belong differing not specifically in their Natures but politick Capacities only yet cannot I therefore give an inferior degree of Religious Worship to a Creature much less to its Image or any Image of God which is a Creature still because it is different in the whole kind from him as different only as Finite is from Infinite and does not in the least partake of the reason of such worship And therefore again tho I may Honour my Prince as the Representer argues by relatively honouring his Image for his sake because my Prince has not forbid it and is a Being of such a Nature as to admit of a Representation and of Honour by it yet cannot I therefore worship God by an Image not only by reason of the natural incapacity of the object as before but because he has expresly prohibited such Worship and as a Reason thereof has been pleas'd to acquaint us that He 's a Being of such a Glorious and Infinite Nature as neither can be represented nor receive any honour by Graven Images Agreeable to what has been said we may observe that the Law now before us prohibits the lowest sort of worship that we can possibly bestow on them the external acts of bowing down to them and the like as the Text words it and that in a relative sense too it being the scope and intent of the Commandment to prohibit the Worship of God by them as we have before evinc'd Thus likewise the worship which the Devil requir'd of our blessed Lord was no more than the bare exterior act of falling down not only to but before Him as we have before already observ'd out of St. Luke which yet our Saviour denied him and that not upon considerations peculiar to that infernal Spirit but for such a Reason as will hold against any other Creature and much more its Image because God the Great God was the only true and adequate Object of what he requir'd Accordingly we find the Fathers frequently insisting upon these two places now alledged as utterly irreconcileable with all use of Images in the business of Divine Worship and indeed had they once broke in upon these comprehensive Precepts as comprehensive as words can make them by Salvo's and Distinctions the trash and refuse of School-Divinity it cannot well be imagined how they could have oppugn'd the Heathen Philosophers in this particular who generally acknowledging one supreme God gave only a relative and inferior worship to all created Beings and images of them as they themselves abundantly testify or how they could have escaped the same condemnation with the Heathen world in general who owning several inferior Deities could consequently give them and their images or rather them by their images no more than an inferior worship How could they if the business of relative Worship had then been thought sufficient to excuse from Idolatry even where the ultimate Object is right have condemn'd the Gnostics of it who terminated the worship they gave to Images of Christ upon Christ himself as is on all hands confessed How could they again admitting this distinction so unanimously have pronounc'd the Arrians Idolaters for worshipping Christ under the notion of a Creature notwithstanding those Hereticks alledg'd they worshiped Him only as the Image of God the Father upon whom they ultimately terminated the the worship which they relatively gave to him So repugnant are their distinctions with the comprehensive Precepts of God in relation to his Worship and the sense of the purest Antiquity the best Rules we have to walk by I might farther in the last place evidently display the utter inconsistency of one distinction and of one Doctor 's Opinion with another in this matter but that the time will not give me leave and therefore I shall content my self to shut up this Argument with this brief Reflection That the repugnancies amongst them and the almost unintelligible subtilties they are driven to in desence of their respective Doctrines upon this subject are upon the whole to any unprejudic'd person a strong indication of a desperate cause And now is it not an amazing consideration to find the worship of those things grown up into an Article of our Christian Faith and a condition of Salvation it self which some of the ablest Writers of the purest Ages of the Church such as Clemens of Alexandria Origen and Tertullian thought it unlawful for a Christian even to make which the Fathers of those and after-times generall thought improper at least for the Churches of God which were afterwards introduc'd into those sacred places upon the unhappy supposition they would prove proper motives to draw the Gentile world who had been us'd to them to their Assemblies and the Christian Profession and were of no other than ornamental and historical use there which when began first to be worship'd had no other Votaries than the ignorant and superstitious and which no part of the whole Christian Church ever made any object of Religious adoration for Seven hundred eighty seven years together a Doctrine nourish'd in its growth by notorious Treason and Rebellion advanc'd and confirm'd by trifling Reasonings frivolous or false Quotations fabulous Stories lying Miracles and all that idle trash extant God be thank'd at this day in that glorious Council of Nice which first establish'd Baby-worship by a Law a Doctrine and Practice that originally deriv'd from Gentile superstition remains an everlasting obstruction to the Conversion of the Jew is without the least countenance from the written VVord of God in the confession of our Adversaries themselves the very Council of Nice the great Aquinas Suarez and others founding it only upon that hopeful Basis of I know not what Tradition A Practice lastly not only besides the Rule of our Religion but particularly repugnant to the Nature and Genius of the worship if requires a worship in Spirit and Truth that would be perform'd with as deep an abstraction from sense as the complex'd condition of humanity will admit a worship that ought to ascend to its great object above in steddy and direct rays of fervour and devotion without the least refraction from sensible intermediate Objects which clog retard and frequently cut short its flight in any ones experience who attends to the Actions of his own mind in this particular And therefore are Images so far from being any assistance
to us in our Devotions as is pretended That first as to the Vulgar the far greatest Part every where and who carry no distinctions to Church with them they inevitably plunge them into the Commission of the most crass and profound Idolatry as has been frequently and sadly complain'd of by several sober Writers of that Communion and is at this day a most deplorable Spectacle in those Countries where these dumb Instructors of the Ignorant as they would have them thought abound in greatest numbers No nor Secondly Can the Devotion of the most intelligent abstracting Persons escape considerable Corruption and Alloy by this way of Worship which I think demonstrable from hence That the wisest Men being made up of Soul and Body as well as the rest and the Operations of one part being in every ones experience limited and depress'd by the weight and contrary tendency of the other visible Objects do in spite of our selves most sensibly affect us and consequently a visible Representation of an invisible Object suppos'd too to bear some Analogy to its Original actually courting our Senses in the Duties of Devotion which of all our Actions ought to be the most purely spiritual and refined will by insensible advances work its self into an internal Respect and Veneration in the minds of its Votaries will tye down the best of their Devotions to the Object of their Eyes and gradually engross a greater share in them than the thing represented For a further Confirmation whereof I desire only with St. Austin to appeal to the Observation and Conscience of any who ever repeats the Experiment Quis adorat vel orat intuens simulacrum qui non sic afficitur ut ab eo se exaudiri putet ac ab eo sibi praestari quod desiderat speret in Ps 113. And therefore Men may talk of their Intentions in the performance of such Actions as long as they please God who knows what is in Man better than he himself is acquainted with the utmost stretch and extent of his Faculties Judges thus of them and so indeed will any Man too who attentively reflects upon them himself Thus for instance does the Divine Wisdom tell us That he who commits any known Sin casts his Laws behind him says in his heart God sees it not or that the God of Israel doth not regard it and the like tho no Man perhaps ever actually intended or thought of any such thing at the time of the Commission of his Sin and would be ready to deny the Justice of the Imputation which yet upon Examination appears undeniably true every such Sin implying a proportionable degree of Atheism as the Divine Wisdom interprets it Let us therefore make his declared Will not our foolish Intentions the Rule and Standard of his Worship and why should it not be the measure of that as well as of our Obedience to any other of his Commands Let us in a word heartily bless God for the Reformation of our Church from the Fopperies and Idolatrous Practices of the Romish Communion and never through Fear Cowardice Levity of Mind Temporizing Goldness and Indifferency Interest or any other Motive unworthy of a Man Christian or Protestant desert our excellent and establish'd Profession till we find another more Orthodox in her Doctrine or more pure and decent in her Worship and then who knows how soon God may arise and have Mercy upon our Sion for it is time O Lord that thou have Mercy upon Her yea the time is come FINIS Books lately Printed for Richard Chiswell DR Patricks Parable of the Pilgrim The 6th Edition Corrected Exposition of the Ten Commandments 8 vo Private Prayer to be used in difficult times Sermon before the Prince of Orange at St. James's 20th January 1688. Sermon before the Queen at Whitehall March 1. 1688. Dr. Burnets Collection of Tracts and Discourses written after the Discovery of the Popish Plot from the years 1678 to 1685. To which is added A Letter written to Dr Burnet giving an Account of Cardinal Pools Secret Powers The History of the Powder Treason with a Vindication of the Proceedings thereupon An Impartial Consideration of the Five Jesuits Dying Speeches who were executed for the Popish Plot 1679. His Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England In which is demonstrated that all the Essentials of Ordination according to the Practice of the Primitive and Greek Churches are still retained in our Church Reflections on the Relation of the English Reformation lately Printed at Oxford In two Parts 4 to Animadversions on the Reflections upon Dr. BVRNETs Travels 8 o. Reflections on a Paper intituled his Majesties Reasons for withdrawing himself from Rochester An Enquiry into the Present State of Affairs and in particular whether we owe Allegiance to the King in these Circumstances And whether we are bound to Treat with Him and call him back or no A Sermon Preached in St James's Chappel before the Prince of Orange 23 d. December 1688. A Sermon Preached before the House of Commons 31. January 1688. being the Thanksgiving day for the Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power His Eighteen Papers relating to the Affairs of Church and State during the Reign of King James the Second Seventeen whereof were written in Holland and first Printed there the other at Exeter soon after the Prince of Orange's Landing in England A Letter to Mr. Thevenot Containing a Censure of Mr. Le Grand's History of King Henry the Eighth's Divorce To which is added a Censure of Mr. de Meaux's History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches Together with some further Reflections on Mr. Le Grand 1689. Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Lateraria a Christe natâ— usque ad Saculum XIV Facâ—lâ— Methodo â—â—gesta Qua de Vita illorum ac Rebus gestis de Secta Dogmatibus Elogio Stylo de Scriptâ— genuinâ—s dubâ—â—â— supposititâ—â—â— ineditis deperditis Fragmentis deque variis Operum Editionibus perspicue agitur Accedunt Scriptores Gentiles Christiana Religionis Oppugnatores câ—yâ—sves Saculi Breviarium Inseruntur suis locis Veterunt aliquot Opujâ—ula Fragmenta tum Graeca tum Latina hactenus inedita Praemissa denique Proâ—â—gomena quibus pâ—erâ—ma ad Antiquitatis Ecclesiastica studium spâ—ctanâ—a traâ—untur Opus Indicibus necessariis instructum Autore GULIELMO CAVE SS Theol. Profes Canonico Windesoriensi Accedit ab Alia Manu Appendix ab 〈◊〉 Saeculo XIV ad Annum usque MDXVII Fol. 1689.