a God but they who bestow these things upon us and afford us a continual supply thereof for our use have been therefore accounted by us Gods which Gods are not different to different Nations as if the Barbarians and the Greeks the Southern and the Northern Inhabitants of the Globe had not any the same but all other different Gods But as the Sun and the Moon and the Heaven and the Earth and the Sea are common to all though called by several names in several Countries so one Reason ordering these things and one Providence dispensing all and the inferiour subservient Ministers thereof having had several names honors bestowed upon them by the Laws of several Countries have been every where worshipped throughout the whole World And there have been also different Symbols consecrated to them the better to conduct and lead on mens understandings to divine things though this hath not been without some hazard or danger of casting men upon one or other of these two inconveniences either Superstition or Atheism From which Testimony of Plutarch we have these things observable 1. That all Nations agreed in the worshipping of one Supreme and Universal Numen Reason and Providence governing all things 2. They agreed in worshipping his subservient Ministers the Instruments of Providence appointed by him over all the parts of the World which being honoured under several Names and with different Rites and Ceremonies according to the Laws of the Respective Countries caused all that diversity of Religions that was amongst them 3. That the Pagans did not worship the very Images or Statues for Gods but only as symbolical representations of their Gods 4. That these Images or Symbols were to conduct and lead on mens Understandings as sensible helps to Divine things 5. That Image-worship in the judgment of Plutarch was an In-let and occasion of Superstition and Atheism Thus far what the Pagans declared concerning their Images Behold now an admirable and sweet harmony and consent between the image-Image-worship of the Heathens and that now practised in the Romish Church 1. They likewise with the Pagans declare that the Religious worship given to the Image is not terminated there but referred to the Prototype as to its ultimate Object So the Council of Trent after having declared that due honour and reverence be given to Images adds this as one reason of it because the honour exhibited to them Concil Trident. Sess 9. is referred to the Prototypes which they represent so that through those Images which we kiss and before which we bare our heads and prostrate our selves we adore Christ and worship the Saints whose similitude they bear which is so like the Apology of the Pagan in Arnobius that I think it worth the while to produce it entire Sed erras inquit laberis Lib. 6. Contr. Gentes nam neque nos aera neque auri argentique materias neque alias quibus signa conficiunt eas esse per se Deos Religiosa decernimus Numina sed eos in his colimus eosque veneramur quos dedicatio infert sacra fabrilibus efficit inhabitare simulachris i. e. Thou art deceived and grosly mistaken for we the Heathen do not believe the substance of Brass or Gold or any other thing of which these Statues are made to be in themselves Gods but we worship the Gods in these and pay Religious Veneration to those Deities which by Consecration are brought to inhabit and dwell in those Images or Statues So that the Pagans arguing after the same manner as the Council of Trent or rather that Council giving the same reason for Image-worship with the Pagans and establishing the same thing upon the same grounds that they did it must needs be guilty of the same Crime of Idolatry likewise For if the Heathens in worshipping the Images and Statues of their Gods were declared by the express Sentence of God Almighty to be heynously guilty of Idolatry though in the mean time they never worshipped those Images or Statues for themselves but in reference to their Prototypes it is a clear consequence that the Popish Image-worship established upon the same grounds and reasons with the Pagan will necessarily fall under the same condemnation To this purpose there is a pretty story in an Italian who wrote Commentaries of the Affairs of India When the poor Barbarians of Nova Hispania Pietro Martire Hist delle Ind. l. 20. c. 11. in the Kingdom of Mexico had one day of a sudden found their Idols taken down and broken they sent four Principal Persons of their Country to Alfonsus Zuasus the Licentiate who had commanded it they complaining of the injury suppos'd also and told him they did believe it to be done without his consent or knowledge as knowing that the Christians had Idols and Images of their own whom they valued and adored and worshipped and looking up and espying the Image of S. Sebastian whom Alfonsus had in great Veneration hanging by his Bed-side they pointed at him with their finger saying The same regard which he had to the Image of S. Sebastian the same they had to theirs The Governour being troubled with this quick and not barbarous discourse turn'd him about a little and at last told them that the Christians did not worship Images for their own sakes but as they represented Holy Persons dwelling in Heavenly places and to demonstrate that took down the Image of S. Sebastian and broke it in pieces They reply'd that it was just so with them and that they were not so stupid as to worship the Images for their own regards but as they represented the Sun and Moon and all the Lights of Heaven Alfonsus being yet more troubled was forced to say that the object was different though the manner was not that the Christians did by their Images pass honour to the great Creator of the World but they did it to Creatures to evil Spirits and false Gods But neither in this was there any difference between Alfonsus and the poor Indians since another Author Josephus Acosta affirms of the same Indians that they acknowledged the great and Supreme God and their worshipping of false Gods was equally true of Papists for by giving Religious worship to a good Angel or Saint that Angel or Saint is ipso facto made a false God and being so is all one with the Demons of the Heathens Now this Reference to the Prototype whether it be in Virtue of that Similitude the Images have with those Persons they represent or whether it be considered only as the Image is a Symbolical Presence at large it being not regarded whether the Symbol or Image have any Personal Similitude with the Party it represents or not but only as the Devotionist takes an occasion from that to direct his intention to the worship of Christ or any Saint let it be I say how it will yet it will no more excuse a Papist than a Pagan from Idolatry For the giving
God and worshipped Ashtoreth the Goddess of the Zidonians Chemosh the God of the Meabites and Milcom the God of the Children of Ammon And therefore it is very childish and ridion lous to imagine that Jeruboram would introduce that very Idolatry at his first coming for the practice of which God had threatned to pull the Kingdom out of the hand of his Master These two Examples do sufficiently and fully instruct us in the sâ—ose and meaning of God in the second Commandment that he forbid all worship of himself by an Image and that the making of designing any such Image though for his honour is palpable and gross Idolatry 8. I might now likewise for a conclusion of this Argument bring another instance of the grossest Idolatry that ever was committed by men solemnly practised by the Romists Church and injoyned by their Council of Trent and that is their worshipping of the Bread in the Sacrament which they can the Adoration of the Host than which besides the Idolatry involved in it I cannot find any Rite or Custom so barbarous in the whole Pagan Superstition unless I should bring in the Cannibals or Man-Eaters And if the Doctrine of Transubstantiation prove false as there is nothing more certain then by the testimony of Costerus the Jesuit there never was the like piece of Idolatry practis'd in the World before Take his own words Enchirid. Contr. c. 12. For the errours of those saith he were more tolerable who worship some Golden or Silver Statue or some Image of any other Materials for their God as the Heathen worshipped their Gods or a Red Cloth hung upon the top of a Spear as is reported of the Laplanders or some live-Animal as of old the Egyptians did than of these that worship a bit of Bread as hitherto the Christians have done all over the world for so many hundred years if the Doctrine of Transubstantion be not true From this Testimony then we are informed that if Transubstantiation be a Fiction then the Church of Rome is guilty of Idolatry and so gross a piece of Idolatry as a man can find no instance in Paganism to liken it to And that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is a ridiculous Figment a thing without Sense or Reason imposed upon the World I refer to those learned Authors who have on purpose discovered the falsity of it 9. I have shown that Almighty God by sending his Son our Saviour Christ Jesus into the World designed the replantation of his own blessed Nature and Image in mens Souls And that this might be the more fully and effectually accomplished he determined likewise to root out and extirpate all Idolatry which both debased the Majesty of the Great God and rendred mens Minds low contemptible and abject and having in the general discovered some of those Doctrines averred and maintained in the Church of Rome which directly overthrow this great Purpose of making men Partakers of a Divine and Godlike Spirit I shall now produce some other instances and shew how the practice of the Romish Church destroys those other two branches of the Divine Life that is Purity or Holiness and Love and Charity And for the first of these that is Purity and Holiness it is wholly evacuated by such Doctrines and Practices as minister to the Vices of men and reconcile Heaven and Salvation with the most licentious courses of sin and wickedness such as enervate all the Arguments used in the Gospel to promote a strict and holy Conversation and are apt to give allowance and incouragement to a wicked life 1. To this end and purpose the Doctrine of Purgatory is hugely subservient which besides that it is a Politick Device to squeeze and drain mens Money from them and so inrich the Clergy though with the Damnation of the Laity it is likewise fitted for the cherishing and pampering mens carnal lusts and affections and gives them hope of Salvation upon no difficult terms though they have not been so careful in providing for it in this life-time as Christ in his holy Gospel has commanded and injoyned them to be For since the worst of men amongst Christians if they take any care and use any competent circumspection may be dismissed from these Earthly Regions with fair hopes and assurances if not of going directly to Heaven yet at least of an entrance into Purgatory where-ever it be whether in a Torrid or Frozen Zone it must needs be a wonderful gratification to their Animal Faculties and Sensitive Lives to indulge and please them to the full and yet escape the torments of Hell at the last We have seen that if a wicked man live and die without the practice of Christian Virtues and with the habits of many damnable sins unmortified yet if at the last moment and conclusion of his life he have but an act of Attrition and confess to his Ghostly Father who is bound upon this to absolve him he shall certainly be saved which is incouragement enough to vicious persons to go on in sin and venture the odds of a surprize or sudden death upon such easie terms But if a man be so careless and wretchedly stupid as not to mind the making satisfaction for mortal sins in this life so long as he is assured by an Infallible Priesthood it may be done in the next the worst that can happen to him between Death and Judgment is only the state of Purgatory that is he must undergo some strange torment God knows where in Fire or Hail or Snow or Ice And this truly is a sad uncomfortable condition but still there is some hope left the redemption from this Dismal Prison prevents all despair of lying for ever under this severe Restraint Therefore this good natur'd Church of Rome bids them take heart and tells them that there is an Expiation of Sin after Death by the Prayers of the living It is the Doctrine of the Council of Trent That the Souls in Purgatory are delivered thence fidelium suffragiis potissimum vero acceptal ili Altaris saorificio Sess 25. i. e. by the Suffrages of the faithful but especially by the acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar And giving Directions to Bishops the Council says Let Bishops take care that the Suffrages of the faithful now living i. e. the Sacrifices of Masses Prayers Alms-deeds and other Works of Piety which according to the Constitution of the Church ought to be performed for the faithful deceased that they be done piously and devoutly c. And they Anathematize every one that shall say The Sacrifice of the Mass is a waked Commemoration of that Sacrifice on the Cross and not Propitiatory or that it only profits him that receives it and ought not to be offered for the Living and the Dead Sess 22. Can. 3. for Sins Punishments Satisfactions and other Necessities There is no great danger then that a Man should lye long in Purgatory if he have either Mony or Friends for either of
or shall your Wonder-working Priest give you an entrance into Heaven when the express Declarations of Christ Jesus exclude you thence No wonder that Papists have their Priests in such high esteem and Veneration no marvel they declare they cannot live without them when they are endued with such an Omnipotency as to change the setled order of things to alter the Decrees of Heaven and cancel the fixed Laws of life and death by shutting them out of the presence of God whom Christ Jesus is ready to receive and intromitting others that he has declared shall be for ever banished thence But be not deceived God is not mocked for whatever a man sows that shall he also reap He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting 6. Hitherto in general I have shewed the opposition of the Popish Doctrines to the Grand End and Purpose of God in the Gospel I shall now descend to the particulars afore-mentioned the first of which was this that in order to the replantation of the Divine Nature in the souls of men Almighty God designed the utter extirpation of Idolatry Now though the Church of Rome endeavours by many fine shows and specious pretences to free her self from the imputation of so foul and horrid a Crime yet he that impartially weighs things shall find her no less guilty than was the Pagan World before the coming of Christ And if this do not evidently appear to every candid and ingenious Reader I am well assured that 't is not from the weakness or inconclusiveness of the Arguments but from some partial and preconceived Opinion or some other prejudice his mind labours under and is prepossessed and preingaged withal for this I do confidently affirm that there is no truth of greater usefulness and concernment to Reformed Christendom nor any that can more clearly and irrefragably justifie the necessity of our separation from that Church than this That I may therefore make a clear and demonstrative proof of this Charge which I have laid against the Romish Church I must a little recur to what I have said of the Pagan Idolatry which mainly consisted in these two things 1. In that they worshipped besides one Supreme God other Inferiour Beings not as independent and self-existent but as so many created Deities and these were worshipped by them upon these two accounts either as thinking that the honour done to them redounded to the Supreme or else that they might be their Mediators and Intercessors Orators and Negotiators with him 2. In that they worshipped both the supreme God and likewise their subordinate Deities in Images and Statues This Foundation being laid it will be no difficult task to draw the parallel between the ancient Paganish Idolatry and that now practised in the Church of Rome That the Saints and Angels are worshipped both publickly and privately in the Romish Church needs no other testimony than the daily practice of Papists who express a greater fervour and zeal in their Invocation of the Saints than of God himself so that as a learned Person observes Sir Edwin Sands Europ Spec. for one prayer to God they put up ten to the Virgin Mary Nay so mad are they after this extravagant humour that Cassander ingeniously confesses that some and those no bad men have made choice of some certain Saints as their Patrons and place their trust and confidence in their Merits and Intercessions more than in the Merits of Christ Cassand Consult do Invoc Sanct. and so laying aside the Mediation of Christ they have substituted the Saints and especially the Virgin Mary in his room And hence Cardinal Hosius is not ashamed to say We ought to believe in the Saints They build Temples and Altars to the Saints and prostrate themselves with the most humble devotion before their Images They swear by the Saints not only in their common speech but in their more solemn Oaths and to them they direct their Vows likewise Now upon the same accounts that the Pagans worshipped their inferiour Deities do the Papists adore and worship the Saints and Angels 1. Because the honour done to them redounds to God himself It is for the Majesty and Grandeur of the supreme God to have a multitude of inferiour Deities under him says Plotinus It is not only suitable with the bountiful and noble disposition of God not to grant many graces and favours but by the Intercession of the Saints but likewise for his glory that the world should know this Answer to certain Questions propounded by King James says Fisher the Jesuit which he further illustrates by this similitude because says he 't is impossible to honour and praise the Boughs without honouring and praising the Root therefore when the Saints and Angels are invocated and adored it is for the honour of the supreme God the Root and Spring of all things 2. They make them Mediators and Intercessors between God and them which was the office and imployment of the Mediae Potestates or middle Deities of the Heathen and the ground or reason of this is given by S. Austin because they excel us Mortals in Merits De Civ Dei lib. 8. c. 22. And that the Papists urge the Merits of their Saints is evident from divers of their publick forms of prayer The Saints are in high grace and favour with God and for this reason we poor Mortals implore their Intercession say the Romanists as we make use of a Courtier to deliver a Petition to an Earthly Prince After this manner Celsus argues when he would perswade the Christians to the worship of Daemons that they ought to seek their favour as the Ministers of the Great God To whom Origen replies Origen contr Celsum l. 8. that the Christians allow indeed an honour and reverence to the blessed Angels as Gods Ministers in a sound sense but they are taught to give Religious Worship only to God and to his Son his Word and Image by whom they offer up their Supplications to God the Lord of all beseeching him who is the Propitiation for our sins that he would be pleased as our High-Priest to offer up our Prayers and Sacrifices and Intercessions to the great God And again God alone is to be adored and our Prayers are only to be offered to the only begotten Word of God the First-born of every Creature who as our High-Priest offers our Supplications to his God and our God to his Father and the Father of all those that live according to his Word But if the favour of many be to be sought for we learn from the Scriptures that thousand thousands minister unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him who afford their friendly assistance to those that humbly invoke the Supreme God and earnestly contend after Salvation disdaining not to be officious to them that worship the same God with themselves For as the
religious worship to any Creature whether to Saints and Angels or Demons and Heroes is a making or having other Gods before the true and everliving God and this being so expresly forbidden by the God of Israel it is most certain that all erecting Images to be bowed to or worshipped in reference to these is forbidden also But I am fallen upon the second Branch of the Parallel afore I was aware that is that as the Images of the Pagans so likewise of the Papists are Symbolical Representations of the Gods they worship That the Image of Christ or of the Virgin Mary or of this or that Saint should be like the carnal Figure of those Persons while they lived on Earth is extremely uncertain suppose now a devout Papist bowing down and worshipping the Image of the Blessed Virgin if this worship be given with respect to the Personal Similitude the Image hath with the Party it represents it will certainly fall upon some other perhaps wicked Person and not upon the holy Virgin The Picture of the beautiful Curtizan Phryne was placed upon a high Pillar at Delphos and according to the Features and Lineaments of this as of the most exquisite Beauty was drawn the Picture of the Goddess Venus and therefore 't is certain that the Strumpet Phryne and not the Goddess will be the ultimate object of the religious worship given to the supposed Picture of Venus This I say will follow upon account of Personal Similitude But that they account them symbolical Representations and worship Images as the Israelites worshipped the Golden Calf with reference to Jehovah and intended it as the Symbol of his presence is manifest from the Images they make of God wickedly representing the sacred and ever-to-be-adored Trinity under the Figure of an old Man in sacerdotal Vestments with a tripple Crown and a young Man and a Dove and this is proposed not only to be gazed upon but to be worshipped So Cajetan Images of the Trinity are painted in the Roman Church In 3. p. Tho. 9.25 ar 3. not only that they may be shewed or looked on as the Cherubims of old time were in the Temple but that they may be adored 3. The Papists agreeably to the Pagans affirm that they use Images in their religious worship as sensible helps to excite and stir up their Devotion and fix their Imaginations upon When the Council of Nice had established the worship of the Images of Christ the Virgin Mary and all the Saints according to the Excellency and Venerability of their Prototypes they add this Reason as Photius says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For even by these are we carried up into a certain Unitive and Conjunctive Vision and thereby are vouchsafed that divine and supernatural Conjunction or Contact with the highest of all desirables As if by the worshipping of Images the Souls of Men were transported beyond themselves and carried up in Ecstatical Raptures to an Union with God himself Which is no more than what Pope Adrian who influenced that Council writes to the Empress Irene and her Son Constantine In the whole Christian World says he the holy Images are honoured or worshipped by Believers Ut per visibilem vultum ad invisibilem Divinitatis Majestatem mens nostra spirituali affectu rapiatur i. e. That by that sensible Figure our Mind may be carried by a spiritual affection to the invisible Majesty of the Divinity By which Testimonies it is clear as the Meridian Light that the Romanists worship Images as helps to quicken and draw up their affections in a more inflamed and vigorous manner to the Deity they adore And though the great Sticklers for image-Image-worship use many Niceties and raise a Cloud of Dust by their subtil Distinctions to blind the Eyes of the People that they may not see to the bottom of this their gross Idolatry yet can they never clear themselves from that foul and detestable Crime For though the Council of Trent express no particular but only with great caution define that due honour and worship be given to Images yet by referring us to the second Council of Nice it is plain that the Council of Trent decreed the same that the Nicene Council had done before and the Nicene Synod decreed such worship to be due to Images as the Council of Franefort said was not due but condemned by the Scriptures and the constant Practice of the Primitive Church To this purpose there is a Story in Roger Hoveden P. 1. Annal An. 792. a Native Historian of the Affairs of Britain Charles the French King says he sent a Synodal into Britain directed unto him from Constantinople in the which Book many things out alas inconvenient and repugnant to right Faith were found especially it was confirmed almost by the unanimous consent of all the Eastern Doctors no less than three hundred or more That Images ought to be worshipped which thing the Church of God doth altogether detest and abhor Against which Synodal Book Albinus wrote an Epistle marvellously confirmed by Authority of Divine Scripture and carried the same to the French King together with the foresaid Book in the name of our Bishops and Princes And not only in Britain but in other places this abominable Practice of Image-worship was condemned by the best and wisest Men of the best times and ages The Council of Eliberis in Spain forbad the use of Pictures in Churches for this reason Eliber Can. 36. Lest that which is worshipped or adored be painted upon the Walls To the same purpose the fourth Council at Constantinople cites the same words of Epiphanius against placing Images in Churches Thus another Synod at Constantinople consisting of 338 Bishops under Constantius Copronymus An. Dom. 753. forbad all religious use of Images in Churches or out of them And so much of their Decree as prohibited the worship of Images was again confirm'd by the Council of Francfort where the Bishops of Italy France and Germany were assembled by the command of the Emperour Charles the Great to that purpose To these we may add the Council of Mentz and the second Council of Sens in which Image-worship was opposed and cautioned against And a Greek Historian informs us that when Frederick 1. the Emperour who led his Army to the Conquest of the Holy Land Njcetas Chron. l. 2. An. Dom. 1180. entered into Armenia the Christians of those Parts did lovingly receive them because the worship of Images was not admitted amongst them as amongst other Northern People And lastly for the Doctrine and Practice of the first and best ages of the Church it was very remarkable what is told by Aelius Lampridius in the Life of Alexander Severus That when Adrian the Emperour had commanded Churches to be built without Images it was supposed he intended them for the service of Christ Than which saith that learned Bishop Dr. Taylor there needs no greater Ductor dubit l. 2. c. 2. or clearer Instance of the
Intercessions to the Virgin Mary with Divine Prayers And moreover that in S. Austin's days Invocation of Saints was not used in the common Service of the Western Church but that it was brought in about the time of Pope Gregory the First Nor can this Paganish Idolatry be palliated and excused by that poor Subterfuge of distinguishing religious worship into Latria and Dulia the first of which is proper only to God the other to Creatures that is to Saints and Angels First because the true Object of religious worship is but one for God is one and therefore whatever Creature is worshipped with religious worship though inferiour to that which is given to the Supreme God is ipso facto by this made a God so far as it is possible for a Creature to be made a God 2. The words Latria and Dulia are promiscuously used in Scripture to denote the worship due to God alone as 1 Thes 1.9 Ye turned to God from Idols 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to serve the living and true God VVhich had been a Derogation if the Apostle had used a word that had signified any thing less than Divine worship I shall conclude this Particular with a Passage which I find cited out of Athanasius his fourth Oration against the Arrians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Why therefore do not these Arrians holding this reckon themselves amongst the Pagans or Gentiles since they do in like manner worship the Creature besides the Creator For though the Pagans worship one uncreated and many created Gods but these Arrians only one uncreated and one created to wit the Son or VVord of God yet will not this make any real difference betwixt them because the Arrians one created is one of those many Pagan Gods and those many Gods of the Pagans or Gentiles have the same nature with this one they being alike Creatures Wherefore these wretched Arrians are Apostates from the truth of Christianity they betraying Christ more than the Jews did and wallowing or tumbling in the filth of Pagan Idolatry worshipping Creatures and different kinds of Gods In which Passage of this Father these things are observable 1. That the Arrians are charged with Pagan Idolatry in the same words which St. Paul used against the Heathens That they did worship the Creature besides or in the room of the Creator for the Arrians constantly declared that they gave less worship to Christ the Son or Word of God he being by them accounted but a Creature than they did to the Father the Creator 2. That the Pagan Polytheism and Idolatry consisted in worshiping one only uncreated and independent and many created Gods 3. That the worship of the true God is not enough to excuse from Idolatry if any Creature be worshipped with religious worship together with him for then the Pagans cannot be charged with the guilt of Idolatry 4. That the Fathers of the Nicene Council if we may credit Athanasius affirmed that to give religious worship to any created Being whatsoever though inferiour to that worship which is given to the Supreme God is absolutely Idolatry and therefore the distinction of religious worship into Latria and Dulia as it was perfectly unknown to them so was it invented of late meerly to palliate and hide the odious Turpitude of Pagan Idolatry Because it is certain that the Arrians gave much an inferiour worship to Christ the Son or Word of God whom they contended to be a meer Creature made in time mutable and defectible than they did to that eternal God who was the Creator of him Now if the Arrians who zealously contended for the Unity of the God-head were nevertheless by those Fathers condemned as guilty of Pagan Idolatry for bestowing but an inferiour kind of religious worship upon Christ the Son or Word of God himself as he was supposed by them to be a Creature then certainly cannot Papists be excused from that guilt who bestow religious worship upon these other Creatures Angels and Souls of Men though inferiour to what they give to the Supreme Omnipotent God the Creator of all Because the Son or Word of God however conceived by these Arrians to be a Creature yet was looked upon by them as the first the most glorious and excellent of all Creatures and that by which as an Instrument all other Creatures as Angels and Souls were made And therefore if it were Idolatry in them to give an inferiour kind of religious worship to this Son and Word of God himself according to their Hypothesis then can it not possibly be accounted less to bestow the same upon those other Creatures made by him as Angels and Men deceased I confess there are many Pious and Learned Men both of our own and other Nations who cannot be induced to believe that the Romanists are Paganically Idolatrous in this Particular The Grounds and Reasons of this their Dissent seem to be these three especially which are laid down by Curcellaeus 1. In the Romish Church saith he the one Supreme God the Maker In Epist ad Adrian Tatium and Governour of Heaven and Earth is acknowledged and adored and the Saints are worshipped with an inferiour degree of honour as the Friends of God and such as are in great favour with him But the Pagans were ignorant of the true God and substituted the Sun and Moon the Souls of dead Men and Daemons in his place and worshipped them as Gods 2. There is no doubt but the Saints and Martyrs whom the Roman Catholicks worship are worthy of some veneration of the Mind for their excellent Virtues and constancy in Persecutions But to worship the Stars that have neither sense nor reason is ridiculous And no honour can be due to the Memory of Impious and Flagitious Kings such as Jupiter was And as for Daemons they ought to be detested by all good Men as haters of God and Virtue 3. The Romanists indeed attribute to their Saints a knowledge in some sense and measure Divine by which they hear our Prayers and take notice of our wants and necessities although the Scripture deny all such knowledge to the Dead as Eccles 9.5 6. Job 14.21 But this doth somewhat lessen their Errour that they profess that the Saints have not this knowledge of themselves but from the Gift of God But now the Heathens err inexcusably while they ascribe to their false Gods an independent Knowledge and Power which is only competible to the Supreme God Thus far Curcellaeus To which I reply To the first That it is a vulgar Errour to suppose the Pagans ignorant of the true God or that they did not worship the Supreme God the Maker of Heaven and Earth as not only appears from the Texts of Scripture cited already but is clearly and evidently demonstrated by a Person of singular Learning Dr. Cudworth's true Intellectual System of the Vniverse l. 1. c. 4. p. 462. who from Plutarch Heraiscus Asclepiades and others affirm these two to be Fundamental Points
of the Pagan Theology First that there is one Self-originated Deity who was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Maker of the whole VVorld Secondly That there are besides him other Gods also to be religiously worshipped that is Intellectual Beings superiour to Men which were notwithstanding all made or created by that one To the Supreme God they gave the highest worship but to those subordinate Deities they gave a lesser or inferiour kind of religious worship that is they adored and worshipped the Supreme God as the first Cause and Original of all things but their inferiour Deities as Mediators and Intercessors for them with the Supreme Numen And where I pray lies the difference now between the Papist and the Pagan save that the Dii Medioxumi of the Heathens are changed into Saints and Angels by the Papists And if it be said that the Pagans substituted these Subordinate Gods in the room of the Supreme God and worshipped them above or more than him I shall readily grant it and do likewise affirm the same of the Papists who by giving religious worship to Saints and Angels do really substitute them in the place of the true God and worship them above or more than him for so Sir Edwin Sands tells us that for one Prayer put up to God Europ spec there are ten offered to the Virgin Mary So that the Church of Rome are not so much the worshippers of the Man Christ Jesus as of the VVoman his Mother But that the Pagans did so worship their inferiour Deities as wholly to pass by and neglect the Supreme I utterly deny To the second I say That it is true the Saints and Martyrs are worthy of some regard and veneration but not of religious worship which to give them is down-right Idolatry but the honour and reverence which we pay to the Saints departed consists 1. In making an honourable mention of their Names as being great and glorious Lights in their times 2. in setting before our Eyes their Virtues and praying to God to give us Grace to follow their good Examples that with them we may be partakers of his Heavenly Kingdom And whereas 't is said that it was ridiculous in the Heathen to worship the Stars that have neither sense nor reason I find them utterly disclaiming this latter part forasmuch as they looked upon all the World and the several parts thereof to be animated at least with one great Soul and they that worshipped the Sun did not do it as supposing the Sun to be nothing but a dead and lifeless thing but as animated with some Intellectual Being For to deny the Worlds Animation and to be an Atheist or to deny a God was looked upon by them as one and the same thing because all the Pagans who asserted Providence held the World also to be animated and Epicurus denyed the Worlds Animation upon no other Reason but because he Atheistically endeavoured to exclude a Providence And though the Poets have introduced many absurd and impure Fables into their Religion concerning Jupiter yet certain it is that by Jupiter the Heathens understood the Supreme God the true Etymon of Jupiter being not Juvans Pater a helping Father as Cicero would have it but Jovis Pater Jove the Father of Gods and Men which Jovis is the very Hebrew Tetragrammaton only altered by a Latin Termination And Jupiter Pluto See Dr. Cudworth Intellect Syst l. 1. c. 4. p. 451. Neptune Juno Minerva c. in the Pagan Theology are nothing but the Polyonymy of one and the same Supreme Being in the various actings and manifestations of himself in the several things and parts of the world But if Jupiter were an impious King and the Heathens worshipped him after his death I do not doubt but to find many such Saints in the Roman Calendar Lastly for the Demons worshipped by the Pagans it is evident they looked upon them under another notion and did not conceive them to be haters of God and Virtue but Mediators and Intercessors and such who did negotiate Affairs between Mortals and the Supreme God So that this Argument like the former proceeding upon a false supposition leaves no other difference but what arises from the change of names between Papist and Pagan but the Popish Saints are exactly like the Demons of the Heathen To the third which extenuates the errour of Papists in their Invocation of Saints because they ascribe the Omniscience of the Saints whereby they hear their Suppliants throughout all the World to God as his gift I reply that the same may be said of the subordinate Gods of the Heathens who were altogether as Omniscient as the Romish Saints Nor did the Pagans ever look upon their Middle Gods as so many particular independent and self-originated Beings but were acknowledged to be the Creatures of the Supreme God and made by him what they were fancied to be by their Devotionists and all the honour conferred upon these subordinate Deities was judged by the Pagans to redound to the Supreme 7. Having now dispatched the first part wherein I affirmed the Pagan Polytheism and Idolatry to consist namely in worshipping many inferiour created Deities together with the Supreme God and drawn the Parallel fully and exactly between this Heathenish worship and that now practised in the Church of Rome I shall with the same clearness and evidence demonstrate the second Part viz. that Papists do egregiously Paganize in worshipping both the Supreme God and their other Inferiour Deities in Images and Statues And let not any man be mistaken and think that because Papists do not call Angels and the Souls of men departed Gods or Inferiour Deities but Saints that therefore the case is quite different between them and the Pagans for by giving Religious worship to them they do for that very reason make them Gods whether they call them so or not for neither did the Heathens believe their inferiour Deities to be so many self-existent and independent but created Beings made by the Supreme God but by performing Religious worship to them they made them Gods so far as any Creature can be made a God and upon this account they are called Gods in Scripture so that I cannot free the Romish Church from Polytheism and Idolatry any more than the Pagan VVorld who by all Christian VVriters has been justly branded with that heynous Impiety That the Pagans worshipped the Supreme God and likewise their subordinate Deities in Images and Statues I think is so evident as not to be denied however I shall offer something towards the proof of it And first that the Heathens worshipped the true God the Creator of Heaven and Earth in an Image appears from the story of the Inhabitants of Thebais who worshipped the Maker of VVorld under the name of Cneph in an Image or Statue of humane form and a blackish sky-coloured complexion holding in his hand a Girdle and a Scepter and wearing upon his head a Princely Plume and