fine brasse will discerne their vaine-glorious pride and stampe them and their Idols to powder To close up this note though not so fit for this quire yet not to be skipt because prickt in the rules of my text let all the Dispencers of Gods holy mysteries by the Apostles example strive in their preaching to winne soules to Christ not applause to themselves to pricke the heart not tickle the eare to leave in their hearers minds a perswasion of their doctrine not opinion of their learning and eloquence that is in the Apostles phrase to esteeme to know nothing save Jesus Christ JESUS d Maâ—t Epigâ— l. 9. Nomen cum rosis violisque natum Quod hyblam sapit atticosque flores Quod nidos olet avis superbae Nomen nectare dulcius beato A name sweeter to the smell of the soule than roses or violets or all the Arabian spices in the Phoenix nest and sweeter also to the taste than the Athenians hony or Nectar it selfe Nothing relished St. Augustine without it Ignatius calleth Jesus his love and onely joy Jesus amor meus crucifixus Jesus my love is crucified This name Jesus was imposed by an Angel e Mat. 1.21 Mat. 1. and acknowledged by the Divel f Act. 19.15 Jesus â—e know Act. 19. and highly advanced by God himself above all names g Phil. 29. A name aboâ—t all names Phil. 2. Three in the old Testament bare this name and they were all types of Christ Jesus Nave or Josua was a type of Christ as a King Jesus in Zechary as a Priest and Jesus the son of Syrach as a Prophet to reveale the secrets of his Fathers wisdome As all Josephs brethrens sheaves rose up did homage to Josephs sheafe so all the attributes of God and other names of our Redeemer after a sort rise up and yeeld a kind of preheminence to this name which the Apostle stileth a g ver 10. a name above all names at which every knee must bow And the reason hereof is evident to all that have yeelding hearts and bending knees and are not like the pillars in the Philistims Temple which were so fast set in their sockets that they needed a Sampson to bow them For there is majesty in God there is independent being in Jehovah there is power in Lord there is unction in Christ there is affinity in Immanuel intercession in Mediator helpe in Advocate but there is h Act. 4.12 salvation in no name under heaven but the name of Jesus Doct. 2 Which may bee taken either as a proper name or as an appellative if it bee taken as a proper name it exhibiteth to the eye of our faith infinity defined immensity circumscribed omnipotency infirme eternity borne that is God incarnate It designeth a single person of a double nature create and increate soveraigne and subject eternall and mortall It is the name of the Sonne of God begotten of a Father without a Mother and borne of a Mother without a Father God of God and Man of woman God sent from God Man sent to man God to save man Man to satisfie God God and Man to reconcile God and man Doct. 3 If the word Jesus be taken appellatively it signifieth Saviour or him that saveth us from 1 The wrath of God 2 The power of Satan 3 The guilt and dominion of sinne 4 The sentence of the law 5 The torments of hell And to know Jesus in this acception is to know a soveraigne salve for every sore of the conscience a remedy against all the diseases of the minde a sanctuary for all offences a shelter from all stormes a supersedeas from all processe and an impregnable fortresse against all the assaults of our ghostly and bodily enemies and can you then blame the Apostle for making so much of the knowledge of Jesus which is also Christ Christ that is anointed a blessed and tender hearted Physitian professing his manner of curing in his name which is by unction not by ustion by salving and plaistering not burning and lancing Vulnera nostra non ustione urans sed unctionâ— To know Christ is to know our King Priest and Prophet For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a thrice sacred person anointed with oyle above all his brethren and appointed by God Doct. 4 1 A Prophet to us 2 A Priest for us 3 A King over us 1 A Prophet to teach us by his Word 2 A Priest to purge us by his Blood 3 A King to governe us by his Spirit Of Christs propheticall function Moses prophecieth saying i Deut. 18.15 A Prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you like unto me unto him ye shall hearken his Priesthood God confirmeth to him by k Psal 110.4 oath his Kingdome the Angell proclaimeth l Luk. 1.32.33 The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his Father David and hee shall reigne over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdome there shall bee no end Priests were anointed as Aaron by Moses and Prophets as Elizeus by Elias and Kings as Saul by Samuel Christ was therefore thrice anointed as King Priest and Prophet yet is hee not three anointeds but one anointed And it is not unworthy our observation that Christs three functions are not onely mystically figured but also after a sort naturally represented in the oyle wherewith hee was anointed 1 Oyle maketh a cheerefull countenance so doth Christ as a Prophet by preaching the glad tidings of the Gospell unto us 2 Oyle suppleth and cureth wounds so doth Christ as a Priest the wounds of our conscience by anointing them with his blood 3 Oyle hath a predominancy amongst liquors if you powre wine water and oyle into the same vessel the oyle will bee uppermost so Christ as a King is above all creatures and is Soveraigne over men and Angels This his Kingly office typically shined in the Myter of Aaron as his Priesthood was engraven in the Jewels of his breast-plate as for the third office of our Lord his propheticall function it sounded in the golden bels hanging with the pomegranats at the high Priests skirts By this glympse you may see know what it is to know Jesus Christ This Jesus had not bin a Jesus to us if he had not bin Christ that is anointed by God and enabled by his threefold office to accomplish the perfect worke of our redemption neither could Christ have beene our Christ if hee had not beene crucified to satisfie for our sinnes and reconcile us to God his Father by his death upon the crosse therefore the Apostle addeth and him crucified Crucified And so I fall upon my last Note a Note to bee quavered upon with feare and trembling in the Antheme set for Good-friday yet it will not be amisse to tune our voice to it at this time For this is also a Friday and next unto it and in sight of it and wee all know that if there bee many Instruments on a
which is the first place we speak not so properly when we say that God hath any vertue as when we attribute to him all vertue in the abstract all wisdom all justice all holines all goodnes Goodnes is the rule of our will but Gods will is the rule of goodnes it selfe we are to doe things because they are just good but contrariwise things are just good because God doth them therfore if vertue be the load-stone of our love it wil first draw it to God whose nature is the perfection of all vertue As for beauty what is it but proportion colour the beauty of colour it self is light light is but a shadow or obscure delineation of God whose face darkneth the sun dazleth the eies of the Cherubins who to save them hold their wings before them like a plume of feathers A glympse wherof when the Prophet David saw he was so ravished with it that as if there were nothing else worthy the seeing it were impossible to have enough of so admirable an object he crieth out d Psa 105.4 seek his face evermore not so much for the delight he took in beholding it as for the light he received from it For beholding the glory of God as in a mirrour with open face we are changed into his image after a sort made partakers of the divine nature ô my soul saith a Saint of God mark what thou lovest for thou becommest like to that which thou likest Si coelum diligis coelum es si terram diligis terra es audeo dicere si Deum diligis Deus es if thou sincerely perfectly lovest heavenly objects thou becomest heavenly if carnall thou becomest sensuall if spirituall thou becomest ghostly if God thou becomest divine Let us stay a while consider what a wonderful change is wrought in the soule of man by the power of divine love surely though a deformed Black-a-moor look his eies out upon the fairest beauty the world can present hee getteth no beauty by it but seems the more ougly by standing in sight of so beautiful a creature the sun burns them black darkeneth their sight who long gaze upon his beams but contrarily the Sun of righteousnes the more we looke upon him the more he enlighteneth the eies Poulin in opusc Illum amemus quem amare debitum quem amplecti chastitas cui nubere virginitas c. maketh them fair their faces shine who behold him as Moses his did after he came down from the Mount where he had parley with God O then let us love to behold him the sight of whose countenance will make us fair lovely to behold let us conform our selvs to him who wil transform us into himself let us reflect the beams of our affection upon the father of lights let us knit our hearts to him whom freely to love is our bounden duty to embrace is chastity to marry is virginity to serve is liberty to desire is contentment to imitate is perfection to enjoy is everlasting happines To whom c. THE ROYALL PRIEST A Sermon preached in Saint Maries Church in Oxford Anno 1613. THE XXXVII SERMON PSAL. 110.4 The Lord sware and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech Right Worshipfull c. THere are three principall attributes of God Wisedome Goodnesse Power Wisedome to comprehend all the good that can bee Goodnesse to will all that which in wisedome he comprehendeth Power to effect all that in goodnesse he willeth and decreeth for the manifestation of his justice and mercy to his creatures These three attributes of God shine most clearely in the three offices of Christ 1 Kingly 2 Priestly 3 Propheticall Power in his Kingly Wisedome in his Propheticall Goodnesse in his Priestly function For Christ by his Princely authority declareth especially the power by his Propheticall he revealeth the wisedome and by his Priesthood he manifesteth the goodnesse of God to all mankinde Christ as a Prophet in wisedome teacheth us what in his goodnesse he hath merited for us as a Priest and by his power he will bestow upon us as a King freedome from all miserie in the Kingdome of glory And on these three offices of Christ the three divine graces 1 Faith 2 Hope 3 Charity have a kinde of dependance 1 Faith holdeth on him as a Prophet 2 Hope as a King 3 Charity as a Priest For Faith buildeth upon the truth of his Prophesie Hope relieth upon the power of his Kingdome Charity embraceth the functions of his Priesthood whereby he washeth us from our sinnes in his owne bloud and maketh us a Apoc. 1.5 6. Kings and Priests unto God and his Father In this Psalme David as Christs Herauld proclaimeth these his titles First his Kingly Sit thou on my right hand ver 1. Be thou ruler in the midst of thine enemies ver 2. Secondly his Propheticall The people shall come willingly in the beautie of holinesse ver 3. Thirdly his Priestly The Lord sware thou art a Priest ver 4. To obscure which most cleare and evident interpretation of this Propheticall Psalme although some mists of doubts have beene cast in former times yet now after the Sun of righteousnesse is risen and hath dispelled them by his owne beames nothing without impietie can be opposed to it for b Mat. 22.42 43 44. there he whom David meaneth openeth Davids meaning he whom this Prophesie discovereth discovereth this Prophesie he to whom this Scripture pointeth pointeth to this Scripture and interpreting it of the Son of man sheweth most evidently that he is the King who reigneth so victoriously ver 1. the Prophet that preacheth so effectually ver 3. and the Priest that abideth continually according to the words of my text which offer to our religious thoughts three points of speciall observation 1 The ceremony used at the consecration of our Lord The Lord sware 2 The office conferred upon him by this rite or ceremonie Thou art a Priest 3 The prerogatives of this his office which is here declared to be 1 Perpetuall for ever 2 Regular after the order 3 Royall of Melchizedek First the forme and manner of our Saviours investiture or consecration was most honourable and glorious God the Father performing the rites which were not imposition of hands and breathing on him the holy Ghost but a solemne deposition of his Father with a protestation Thou art a Priest ceremonies never used by any but God nor in the investiture of any but Christ nor his investiture into any office but his Priesthood Plin. panegyr Trasan Imperium super Imperatorem Imperatoris voce delatum est nihil magis subjecti animo factum est quam quod caepit imperare At his coronation we heare nothing but the Lord said Sit thou on my right hand The rule of the whole world is imposed upon our Saviour by command and even in this did Christ shew his obedience
after what order our Popist Priests are made whether after the order of Aaron or Melchizedek If after the order of Aaron then are they to offer bloudie sacrifices and performe other carnall rites long agoe abrogated if after the order of Melchizedek then they are very happie For then they are to be Kings and Priests then they are not to succeed any other nor any other them then as hath beene shewed they are singular everlasting and royall Priests We may put a like interrogatorie to many of our Brownists or Anabaptisticall Teachers who run before they are sent and answer before they are called being like wandering starres fixed in no certaine course or wilde corne growing where they were not sowne or like unserviceable pieces of Ordnance which flie off before they are discharged If men though endowed with gifts might discharge a Pastorall function or doe the worke of an Evangelist without a lawfull mission St. Pauls question had beene to little purpose u Rom. 10.15 How shall they preach unlesse they be sent What calling have these men ordinarie or extraordinarie If ordinarie where are their orders if extraordinarie where are their miracles If Christ himselfe would not take upon him the Priesthood till he was called thereunto as Aaron what intolerable presumption is it in these not to take but to make their owne commission and to call men by the Gospell without a calling according to the Gospell It is not more unnaturall for a man to beget himselfe than to ordaine himselfe a Priest But because these men will not be ordered by reason I leave them to authority and come to the Sixth observation which is the Prerogative of Christ Obs 6. who was ordained a Priest of Melchizedeks order whereby he was qualified to beare both offices Kingly and Priestly For that Christ alone may execute both charges besides the faire evidence of this Scripture Uzziahs judgement maketh it a ruled case who presuming to burne incense to the Lord incensed the wrath of God against himselfe A rare and singular judgement and worthy perpetuall memorie he who not content to sway the royall Scepter would lay hold on the Censer and discharge both offices was for ever discharged of both and even then when he tooke upon him to cleanse the people was smitten with a foule and unclean x 2 Chr. 26.20 disease So dangerous a thing is it even for Soveraigne Princes the Lords Annointed to encroach upon the Church and assume unto themselves and usurpe Christs prerogative Whereof the Bishops of Roane and Rhemes were bold to bid their Sovereigne Lewis the then French King beware informing him Quod solus Christus fieri potuit Rex Sacerdos that it was the prerogative of Christ alone to beare both offices And Pope y Causab l. de libert Eccles Gratian. dist 96. cum ad verum Nicolas himselfe concurreth with them in judgement When the truth that was Christ saith he was once come after that neither did the Emperour take upon him the Bishops right nor the Bishop usurp the Emperours because the same Mediatour of God and man the man Christ Jesus distinguisheth the offices of each power assigning unto them proper actions to the end that the Bishop which is a souldier of Christ should not wholly intangle himselfe in worldly affaires and againe the Prince which is occupied in earthly matters should not be ruler of divine things viz. the preaching of the Word and administration of the Sacraments To make a medley saith z Syn. â—p Synesius of spirituall and temporall power is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is great difference between the Scepter and the Censer the Chaire of Moses and the Throne of David the tongue of the Minister and the hand of the Magistrate the materiall sword that killeth and the spirituall that quickeneth To the King saith St. a De verb. Esa Chrysostome are the bodies of men committed to the Priest their soules the King pardoneth civill offences and crimes the Priest remitteth the guilt of sinne in the conscience the King compelleth the Priest exhorteth the Kings weapons are outward and materiall the Priests inward and spirituall A like distinction St. b Hieron ad Heliod Rex nolentibus praeest Episcopus volentibus c. Jerome maketh betweene them The King ruleth men though unwilling the Bishop can doe good upon none but those that are willing the King holdeth his subjects in awe with feare and terrour the Priest is appointed for the service of his flocke the King mastereth their bodies with death the Priest preserveth their soules to life But the farthest of any St. c Bern. de consid ad Eugen. Reges gentium dominanturâ—â—s vos non sic aude ergo usurpare aut Dominus Apostolatum aut Apostolicus Dominatum Bernard presseth this point and toucheth Pope Eugenius to the quicke It is the voice of the Lord Kings of the Nations rule over them c. But it shall not be so with you goe to then usurp if thou dare either an Apostleship if thou art a Lord or Lordlike dominion if thou art an Apostle thou art expressely forbid both if thou wilt have both thou shalt lose both But why doe I prosecute this point Doth it concerne any now adayes Doth any one man beare both these offices I answer affirmatively the High-priest at Rome doth For he compasseth his Mitre with a triple Crown and as if he bare this name written upon his thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords challengeth to himselfe a power to depose Kings and dispose of their Kingdomes Doth any one desire to know who is that man of sinne spoken of by the d 2 Thes 2.3 Apostle who opposeth and exalteth himselfe above all that is called God Let him learne of the Prophet who are called gods Dixi dii estis e Psal 82.6 I have said ye are gods and it will be no matter of great difficultie to point at him who accounteth that hee doth Kings a great honour when he admitteth them to kisse his feet hold his stirrop serve him at table and performe other baser offices prescribed in their booke of ceremonies I can tell you who it was that made the Emperour Henrie the fourth with his Queene and young Prince in extreme frost and snow to waite his leisure three dayes barefooted and in woollen apparell at the gates of Canusium it was Gregory the seventh otherwise called Hildebrand I can shew you who set the Imperiall Crowne upon the head of Henrie the sixt not with his hand but with his foot and with the same foot kicked it off againe saying I have power to make Emperours and unmake them at my pleasure it was Pope Coelestine I can bring good proofe who it was that would not make peace with Frederick the first till in the presence of all the people at the doore of St. Markes Church in Venice the Prince had cast his body flâ—t on the ground and the Pope
Prophet I rather gather from these words the great honour which Nathan the Prophet received from David the King than the direction or advice that David the King received from Nathan the Prophet The King said Though Kings are e Bils suprem p. 1. supreme Commanders for the truth yet they are not the supreme or sole directers unto truth for in scruples of conscience and perplexed controversies of Religion they are to require the law from the mouth of the Priest to aske counsell of the Prophets and generally in all matters appertaining to God to heare the Ministers of God declaring to them the will of God out of his Word Symmachus was bold to tell Anastasius the Emperour that as Bishops owe subjection to Gods Sword in Princes hands so Princes owe obedience to Gods Word in Bishops mouthes f Causab de lib. eccles Defer Deo in nobis nos deferemus Deo in te O Emperour heare God speaking by us and wee will feare God ruling by thee The same God who hath put a materiall sword in thy hands to smite malefactors in their body hath put a spirituall sword in our mouth to slay sinne in the soule The Magistrate is the hand of God but the Preacher is his mouth And for this cause all wise and religious Kings have given them their eares and taken some of them into their bosome as David doth here Nathan to receive instruction and direction from them how to sway the royall scepter within the walls of the Church Let it not seeme burthensome unto you my dearest brethren upon so just occasion as is offered mee in my Text to speake somewhat of the honour of that calling which calleth you all to God From whose mouth doe ye heare the glad tidings of salvation From whose hands doe ye receive the seales of grace Who have the oversight and charge of your soules Who are the meanes under God to reconcile God unto you by their prayers and bring you unto God by their powerfull ministerie but your faithfull and painfull Pastours who in performing these holy duties of their calling are termed g Prosp de vit contem l. 1. c 25. Hisunt Ministri verbi Adjutores Dei Oracula Sp. S. coadjutores Dei as it were fellow-labourers with God Per istos Deus placatur populo per istos populus instruitur Deo All other lawfull callings are from God but this was the calling of God himselfe other offices he appointed this he executed others he commends this he discharged When he tooke our flesh upon him and lived upon earth he would not be made a King nor sit as a Judge upon a Nisi prius of inheritance yet performed he the office of a Preacher through his whole life and of a Priest at his death offering himselfe by the eternall Spirit upon the high Altar of the Crosse where he was both h Confes l. 10. c. 42. Pro nobis tibi Victor Victima ideo Victor quia Victima pro nobis tibi Sacerdos Sacrificium ideò Sacerdos quia Sacrificium faciens tibi nos de servis filios Victor and Victima ideo Victor quia Victima as St. Austine playeth sweetly in a rhetoricall key May the civill Magistrates glorie in this that God calleth them gods and may not they that serve at Christs Altar take as great comfort in that God himselfe calleth his Sonne a Priest saying i Psal 110.4 Thou art a Priest for ever Wherefore if the glorious titles wherewith God himselfe graceth the Ministerie of Stewards of his house Dispencers of his mysteries Lights of the world Angels of the Church if the noble presidents in Scripture of Melchizedek King and Priest David King and Prophet Solomon King and Preacher suffice not to redeeme the sacred order from the scandall of profane men and contempt of the world yet methinkes sith the Son of God and King of glorie hath taken upon him the office and executed the function of a Priest all men should entertaine a reverend opinion of the Priesthood of the Gospel and not to use the word Priest as a reproach to man which was one of the three dignities of God himselfe much lesse seeke to disgrace their persons who are Gods Instruments to conveigh grace into their soules What shall I say more Nay what can I say lesse He that honoureth not the name of Christ which signifieth k Luke 4.18 Annointed to preach the Gospel is no Christian he that conceiveth basely or speaketh contumeliously of the sacred order of Priests is worse than an Infidell For the heathen l Ca sar Com. de bello Gal. French and English in Julius Caesars time placed their Priests which they called Druides above their Gentrie yea and most of the Nobilitie appointing the chiefe of them to beare on his breast the Image of Truth engraven in a rich Jewell The m Bodin de repub l. 3. c. 8. Turkes Moores and Arabians have their Priests which they call Mophtae in highest estimation and devolve the most important matters of State and doubts of their law to their definitive sentence and order The Syrians adorne their Priests with a n Philost de vit Apo. Tâ—â—â—nâ— 2. Crowne of gold the Brachmans with a Scepter of gold and Mitre beset with precious stones The Romans stiled their chiefe Flamen Regem sacrorum adoring that name in their Priests which they abhorred in their Princes and Consuls Lastly the Egyptians Athenians o Strab. geog l. 7. Josâ—ph l. 14. c. 15 Sub Dionâ—â—o Archonte principe Sacerdotum Apud quos Lycurgus Legislator Sacerdos erat Apollonis Virgil. â—â—n 3. Râ—x â—dem Anius Phoebique Sacerdos Liv. dec 1. Numa Sacerdos Nymphae Aegeriae Suet. in Aug. Tit. Ovid. â—ast l. 3. Caesaris innumeris quos maluit ille merei Accessit titulis Pontificalis honos Lacedaemonians and almost all the Heathen who either had Kingly Priests or sacrificing Kings shall condemne such Christians at the day of Christ then they shall see of that calling which seemed so vile darke and obscure in their eyes some glistering as Pearles in the gates others sparkling as Diamonds in the foundation and no small number shining as Starres in the arch of the heavenly Jerusalem and amidst them the Sunne of righteousnesse Christ Jesus exercising his royall Priesthood and making intercession to his Father for all those and those onely who honour his Priestly function here upon earth in his Ministers by maintaining and countenancing them and in themselves by sacrificing their dearest affections to him But I list not to dwell on this argument but rather with the Kingly Prophet in his house of Cedars I dwell in an house of Cedars In these words David findeth not fault with the beautifull roofe of his Princely Palace but the meane and vile covering of the Arke it troubled him not that he was so well provided for but that the Arke was so ill Princes may dwell in houses of
24. corruptible man but also of beasts and fowles and creeping things The difference which Cardinall Bellarmine maketh between an Image and an Idoll viz. that an Idoll is the representation of that which hath no existence in nature but an Image the likenesse of something really existent is false and repugnant to Scripture For the Cherubims in the Aâ—ke were Images yet never was there any thing in nature existent in such a forme as they were expressed viz. in the face of a childe with six wings And no man doubteth but that the Image which Aaron made the Nehustan which Hezekiah brake downe Bell and the Dragon Rempham Baal and Dagon were Idols and the worshippers of them Idolaters yet were these figures the representations of things existent in nature viz. of a King a Beast a Serpent a Starre the Sunne and a Fish and therefore what arguments the ancient Fathers Origen Arnobius Lactantius and Minutius Felix use against the Heathenish Idols will serve as strong weapons to knocke downe and batter in pieces all Popish Images What a q Divin instit l. 2. c. 2. Quae igitur amentia est aut ea fingere quae ipsi postmodum timeant aut timere quae finxerint Non ipsos inquiunt timemus sed cos ad quorum imaginem sunt facta quorum nominibus consecrata sunt nempè ideò timetis quod eos esse in coelo arbitramini Neque enim si dii sunt aliter fieri potest cur igitur oculos in coelum non tollitis cur ad parietes ligna lapides potiùs quà m illò spectatis ubi eos esse creditis Hominis imago tum necessaria videtur cùm procul abest supervaâ—uâ— futura cùm praesâ—o adest Dei autem cujus spiritus ac numen ubique dâ—â—â—â—sum aâ—esse nunquam poâ—â—st semper â—â—quâ—mago supervacanâ—a est madnesse is it saith Lactantius either to make that which they ought to feare or to feare that which themselves have made If yee worship the Images for themselves yee are more senslesse and blockish than they for they if they had life and sense as ye have would not suffer you to worship them but themselves would fall downe and worship you their makers But if as some will colour the matter yee worship not the Image but God by the Image why then lift yee not up your eyes to heaven where yee know God sitteth in his majesty why cast yee them downe why in offering up your prayers to him turne yee to a carved stone or painted post The use of an Image is to preserve the memory of those that are dead or absent therefore sith God is alwaies alive and present with us his image is alwaies superfluous And in our devotion to turne to it is all one as if a man in the presence of his friend or a servant in the presence of his master having a message to deliver to him-should turne from him and tell a tale to his picture And is it not a strange thing that sottish men should performe such a deale of respect and ceremony to the image bow downe before it bring presents and burne incense to it and yet all this while make no reckoning at all of the goldsmith whose creature it is Questionlesse there can bee no r Orig lil 8 cont Celsum Simulachra Deo dicanda non sunt fabrorum opera c. visible or bodily image made to resemble the nature of the invisible God but if wee will draw a picture of him it must be in the Å¿ Minutius Felix in dial Deus in nostro dedicandus est pectore quod simulachrum Deo fingam cùm fi recté existimes sit Dei homo ipse simulachrum table of our hearts by expressing his divine vertues and attributes t Lactant. loc supr cit Simulachrum Dei non est illud quod digitis hominis é lapide aut aerâ—â—lâ—â—â—e materiâ fabricatur sed ipse homo quoniam sentit movetur multas magnasque actioneâ— habet Recté Seneca in moral Simulachra deorum venerantur illis supplicant illis per totum assident diâ—m 〈◊〉 â—stant illis stipem jaciunt victimas cedunt cùm haec tantoperé suspiciunt fabros qui illa feceâ—â— contemnunt Is not man himselfe made after Gods image what an incongruity then were it for man to thinke of making or dedicating any other image to God who is it himselfe What abjectnesse and basenesse is it for him who beareth the image of the living God to cast himselfe downe before and adore the images of dead men and women We reade of a barbarous and savage act of a cruell tyrant who bound living men to dead carkasses till the one corrupted the other and both rotted together Is not the cruelty of those Heathen Emperours as barbarous who perforce couple the living images of God the soules of men to dead images to corrupt them thereby Which of these battell-axes is not as serviceable altogether to knocke downe Popish Images as to maule and deface Heathenish Idols And this may suffice for the paralleling of Baalites and Papists in generall as they are Idolaters let us now compare them in speciall 1. As the Papists plead for themselves that they worship not Idols that is the representation of things feigned and devised by man but images of things truly existent so the Baalites might varnish over their idolatry saying that the image they worshipped was not of any feigned deity but of that which all men and women saw which was not only visible but also most glorious to wit the Sunne 2. As the Baalites stood upon the multitude of Baals worshippers and ministers For to one Priest or Prophet of God that durst shew his head they had above foure hundred that followed the Court and had their table there albeit indeed there were more than seven thousand in Israel that never bowed the knee to Baal yet these played least in sight and there were more than seventy times seven thousand in all Israel that for ought appeares either willingly or by constraint bowed to him in like manner the Papists at this day brag of nothing so much as of the multitude of their professours and paucitie or latencie of those especially in former ages that professed the reformed religion or impugned the Roman faith 3. As the priests of Baal called him Baal Samen King or Lord of heaven so doe the superstitious Papists call the blessed Virgin the Queene of heaven 4. As the Baalites erected divers images to Baal which received names from the places where they stood as Bal Peor Baal Zephon Baal Tamar so have the Papists erected divers images to our Lady which they in like manner denominate from the cities where they are set up as the Lady of Loretto the Lady of Sichem the Lady of Mount Seratto the Lady of Hailes Nostre Dame de Paris de Rouen c. 5. As the servitours of Baal were distinguished into