expend words enough about things of less importance But you please your self with the commendation of what you had written on this subject in your Fiat as full of Christian Reason convincing Reason and Sobriety and how it would have prevailed upon your own judgement had you been otherwise minded You seem to dwell far from neighbours and to be a very easie man to be entreated unto what you have a mind unto But you might not have done amiss to have waited a little for the praise of others This out of your own mouth is not very comely And I shall only take leave once more to inform you that an opposition to the Institution of Christ the command of the Apostle the Practice of the Primitive Church with the faith and Consolation of Believers such as is your Paragraph about Communion in one kind whatever overweening thoughts you may have of the product of your own fancy cannot indeed have any one grain in it of Sobriety or Christian Reason CHAP. 24. Heroes of the Asses Head whose Worship was objected to Jews and Christians YOur last end endeavour consists in an exception to somewhat affirmed in the twentieth Chapter of the Animadversions directed unto your Paragraph about Saints and Heroes And I am sorry that I must close with the Consideration of it because I would willingly have taken my leave of you upon better terms then your discouse will allow me to do But I shall as speedily represent you unto your self as I am able And then give you my Salve aeternumque Vale. You tell us in your Fiat that the Pagans defamed the Christians for the worship of an Asses head and you give this reason of it because the Jews had defamed our Lord Jesus Christ whose head and half Portraicture Christians used upon their Altars even as they do at this day of his great simplicity and ignorance Two things you suppose 1. That the Christians placed the Head and half Portraicture of our Saviour in those dayes on their Altars which is alone to your purpose 2. That this gave occacasion to the Pagans to defame them with the worship of an Asses head because the Jews had so blasphemed the Lord Christ as you say These things I told you are fond and false and destitute of all colour of Testimony from Antiquity That the worship of an Asses head was originally charged on the Jews themselves and on Christians no otherwise but as they were accounted a Sect of them or their off spring and that what in the same place you assert of the Jews accusing the Christians for the worship of Images or the Christians using the Picture of Christs head or his half Portraicture on their Altars are monsters that none oâ— the Antients ever dreamed of What plead you 〈…〉 your Vindication quite omitting that what 〈◊〉 alone you are concerned you only undertake to prove that the worship of an Asses head was 〈◊〉 used to the Christians as well as to the Jews which you say I deny and say that it was not charged on the Jews at all And the reason of this charge you say was because they were reckoned among the Jews in odiosis and accounted of them So well do you mind what you had said before of the rise of that imputation on the Christians from the blasplemy of the Jewes So 1. In your Fiat you say no hiâ—g of the Jews at all but only that by their 〈◊〉 the Pagans took occasion to slander the 〈◊〉 being now better instructed by the Animadversions in the rise of that foolish calumny you change your note and close in with what is in them 〈◊〉 2. You unduely affirm that I deny this to have been charged on the Christians when I grant it was and that in the very same manner and on the same account that your self now contrary to what you had written before acknowledge it to have been He must be as much unacquainted with these things as some body else whom I shall not name honoris gratia seems to be who knows not that this foolish impiety was imputed in process of time to the Christians by the Pagans among a litter of other follies as well as unto the Jews Caecilius in Minucius tells us audio â—os ineptissimae pecudis Caput Asini consecratum inepta nescio qua persuasione venerari I heer that by a foolish perswasion they worship the head of an Ass a vile beast And Tertullian Apol cap. 16. Nam quidam somniastis Caput Asininum esse Deum nostrum Some of you dream that an Asses head is our God presently declaring thereon that this imputation was derived on them from the Jews who first suffered under that Fable And if any thing gave new occasion unto it among the Christians it was not the Picture of Christ despised by the Jews as you imagine but the report of his riding on an Ass which Athanasius takes notice of Homil. ad Pagan they said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the God of the Christians who is called Christ sate on an Ass. But you will prove what you say out of Tertullian say you the same Tertullian in his Apologeticks adds these words The Calumnies saith he invented to cry down our Religion grew to such an excess of impiety that not long ago in this very City a picture of our God was shewn by a certain infamous Person with the ears of an Ass and a hoof on one foot cloathed with a gown and a book in his hand with this inscription Onochoetes the God of the Christians And he adds that the Christians in the City as they were much offended with the impiety so did they not a little wonder at the strange uncouth name the villain had put upon our Lord and Master Onochoetes forsooth he must be called Onochoctes In this Testimony of you know not what you triumph and conclude are you not a strange man to tell me that what I speak of this business is notoriously false nay and that I know it is false and that I cannot produce one Authentick Testimony no not one of any such thing but this is your Ordinary Confidence Seriously Sir I wonder where you got this Quotation out of Tertullian Let me desire you to be wary in receiving any thing hereafter from the same hand out of Authors that you want the Confidence to venture upon your self The words of Tertullian which your Translator hath abused you in are these Sed nova jam Dei nostri in ista Civitate proxime editio publicata est ex quo quidam in frustrandis bestiis mercenarius noxius picturam proposuit cum ejusmodi inscriptione Deus Christianorum Ononychites is erat auribus Asininis altero pede ungulatus librum gestans togatus risimus nomen formam Sed illi debebant adorare statim biforme numen qui canino leonino capite commistos Deos receperunt Lately in that City that is Rome there was a publick shew made of our God wherein a
nature and causes of things here below though they know well enough that there was never any agreement amongst the wisest and severest that at any time have been engaged in that disquisition nor is it likely that ever there will be so And herein they can countenance themselves with the difficulty obscurity and importance of the things inquired after But as for the high and heavenly mysteries of the Gospel the least whereof is infinitely of more importance then any thing that the utmost reach and comprehension of humane wisdom can attain unto they may be neglected and despised because there are contentions about them Hic nigrae succus loliginis haec est Erugo mera The truth is this is so far from any real ground for any such conclusion that it were utterly impossible that any man should believe the truth of Christian Religion if he had not seen or might not be informed that such contention and differences had ensued in and about it for that they should do so is plainly and frequently foretold in those sacred oracles of it whereof if any one be found to fail the veracity and authority of the whole may justly be called into question If therefore men will have a religion so absolutely facile aud easie that without diligence endeavour pains or enquiry without laying out of their rational abilities or exercising the faculties of their souls about it without foregoing of their lusts and pleasures without care of mistakes and miscarriages they may be securely wrapt up in it as it were whither they will or no I confess they must seek for some other where they can find it Christianity will yield them no relief God hath not proposed an acquaintance with the blessed concernments of his Glory and of their own eternal condition unto the sons of men on any such terms as that they should not need with all diligence to employ and exercise their faculties of their souls in the investigation of them in the use of the means by him appointed for that purpose seeing this is the chiefest end for which he hath made us those souls And as for them who in sincerity give up their minds and consciences unto his Authority and guidance he hath not left them without an infallible dâ—rection for such a discharge of their own duty as is sufficient to guide and lead them in the middest of all differences divisions and oppositions unto rest with himself and the difficulties which are cast upon any in their enquiring after truth by the errour and deviation of other men from it are all sufficiently recompenced unto them by the excellency and sweetness which they find in the truth it self when sought out with diligence according to the mind of Christ. And one said not amiss of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I dare say he is the wisest Christian who hath most diligently conâ—idered the various differences that are in and about Christianity as being built in the knowledge of the truth upon the best and most stable foundations To this end hath the Lord Jesus given us his holy word a perfect and sure Revelation of all that he would have us to believe or do in the worship of God This he commands us diligently to attend unto to study seach and enquire after that we may know his mind and do it It is true in their enquiry into it various apprehensions concerning the sense and meaning of sundry things revealed therein have befallen some men in all ages and Origen gives this as one occasion of the differences that were in those dayes amongst Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 3. Con. Celâ— 1. When many were converted unto Christianity some of them variously understanding the holy Scripture which they joyntly believed it came to pass that heresie ensued For this was the whole rule of faith unity in those dayes the means for securing of us in them imposed on us of late by the Romanists was then not heard of not thought of in the world But moreover to obviate all danger that might in this matter ensue from the manifold weakness of our minds in apprehending spiritual things the Lord Jesus hath promised his holy spirit unto all them that believe in him and ask it of him to prevent their mistakes and miscarriages in the study of his word and to lead them into all that truth the knowledge whereof is necessary that they may believe in him unto the end and live unto him And if they who diligently and conscientiously without prejudices corrupt ends or designs in obedience to the command of Christ shall enquire into the Scriptures to receive from thence the whole object of their faith and rule of their obedience and who believing his promise shall pray for his Spirit and wait to receive him in and by the means appointed for that end may not be and are not thereby secured from all such mistakes and errours as may disinterest them in the promises of the Gospel I know not how we may be brought unto any certainty or assurance in the Truths of God or the everlasting consolation of our own souls Neither indeed is the nature of man capable of any further satisfaction in or about these things unless God should work continual miracles or give continually special revelations unto all individuals whch would utterly overthrow the whole nature of that faith and obedience which he requires at our hands But once to suppose that such persons through a defect of the means appointed by Christ for the instruction and direction before mentioned may everlastingly miscarry is to cast an unspeakable reproach on the goodness grace and faithfulness of God and enough to discourage all men from enquiring after the truth And these things the Reader will find further cleared in the ensuing discourse with a discovery of the weakness falseness and insufficiency of those rules and reliefs which are tendred unto us by the Romanists in the lieu of them that are given us by God himself Now if this be the condition of things in Christian Religion as to any one that hath with sincerity consulted the Scripture or considered the Goodness Grace and Wisdom of God it must needs appear to be it is manifest that mens startling at it or being offended upon the account of divisions and differences among them that make profession thereof is nothing but a pretence to cloke and hide their sloth and supine negligence with their unwillingness to come up unto the indispensable condition of learning the truth as it is in Jesus namely obedience unto his whole will and all his commands so far as he is pleased to reveal them unto us With others they are but incentives unto that diligence and watchfulness which the things themselves in their nature high and arduous and in their importance of everlasting moment require at your hands Further on those who by the means formentioned come to the knowledge of the truth it is incumbent according as they are
by Gods providence called thereunto and as they receive ability from him for that purpose to contend earnestly for it Nor is their so doing any part of the evil that attends differences and divisions but a means appointed by God himself for their cure and removal provided as the Apostle speaks that they strive or contend lawfully The will of God must be done in the wayes of his own appointment Outward force and violence corporal punishments swords and faggots as to any use in things purely spiritual and religious to impose them on the consciences of men are condemned in the Scripture by all the antient or first writers of the Church by sundry Edicts and Laws of the Empire and are contrary to the very light of Reason whereby we are men and all the principles of it from whence mankind consenteth and coalesceth into civil society Explaining declaring proving and confirming the truth convincing of gainsayers by the evidence of common principles on all hands assented unto and right reason with prayer and supplications for success attended with a conversation becoming the Gospel we profess is the way sanctified by God unto the promotion of the truth and the recovery of them that are gone astray from it Into this work according as God hath imparted of his gifts and spirit unto them some in most ages of the Church have been engaged and therein have not contracted any guilt of the evils of the contentions and divisions in their dayes but cleared themselves of them and faithfully served the interest of those in their generation And this justifies and warrants us in the pursuit of the same work by the same means in the same days wherein we live And when at any time men sleep in the neglect of their duty the envious one will not be wanting to sow his Tares in the field of the Lord which as in the times and places wherein we live it should quicken the diligence and industry of those upon whom the care of the preservation of the truth is by the providence of God in an especial manner devolved and who have manifold advantages for their encouragement in their undertaking so also it gives countenance even to the meanest endeavours that in sincerity are employed in the same work by others in their more private capacity amongst which I hope the ensuing brief discourse may with impartial Readers find admittance It is designed in general for the defence and vindication of the truth and that truth which is publickly professed in this Nation against the solicitation of it and opposition made unto it with more then ordinary vigilancy and seeming hopes of prevalency on what grounds I know not This is done by those of the Roman Church who have given in themselves as sad an instance of a degeneracy from the truth as ever the Christian world had experience of from insensible and almost imperceptible entrances into deviations from the holy rule of the Gospel countenanced by pecious pretences of piety and devotion but really influenced by the corrupt lusts of ambition love of preheminence and earthly mindedness in men ignorant or neglective of the 〈◊〉 and simplicity of the Gospel their Apostâ—cy hath been carried on by various degrees upon advantages given unto those that made the benefit of it unto themselves by political commotions and alterations until by sundry artifices and sleights of Sathan and men it is grown unto that stated opposition to the right wayes of God which we behold it come unto at this day The great Roman Historian desires his Reader in the perusal of his discourses to consider and observe quae vita qui mores fuerint per quos viros quibusque artibus domi militiaeque partum auctum imperium sit Labente â—einde paulatim disciplina velut dissidenâ—â—s primo mores sequatur animo deinde at magis magisque lapsi sint tum ire caeperint praecipites donec ad haec tempora quibus nec vitia nostra nec remedia pati possumus perventum est What was the course of life what were the manners of thâ—se men both at home and abroad by whom the Roman Empire was â—rected and enlarged as also how antient discipline insensibly decaying far different manners ensued whose decay more and 〈◊〉 increasing at length they began violently to decline untill we came unto these dayes wherein we are able to beare neither our vices nor their remedies All which may be as truly and justly spoken of the present Roman Ecclesiastical estate The first Rulers and members of that Church by their exemplary sanctity and suffering for the truth deservedly obtained great renown reputation amongst the other Churches in the world but after a while the discipline of Christ decaying amongst them and the purity of his doctrine beginning to be corrupted they insensibly fell from their pristine glory untill at length they precipitantly tumbled into that condition wherein because they fear the spiritual remedy would be their temporal ruine they are resolved to abide be it never so desperate or deplorable And hence also it is that of all the opposition that ever the disciples of Christ had to contend withall to suffer under or to witness against that made unto the truth by the Roman Church hath proved the longest and been attended with the most dreadful consequents For it is not the work of any one Age or of a few persons to unravel that web of falshood and unrighteousness which in a long tract of time hath been cunningly woven and closely compacted together Besides the Heads of this declension have provided for their security by intermixing their concerns with the Polity of many Nations and moulding the constitutions of their Governments unto a subserviency to their interests and ends But he is strong and faithful who in his own way and time will rescue his Truth and Worship from being trampled on and defiled by them In the mean time that which renders the errors of the Fathers and Sons of that Church most peâ—nitious unto the professors of Christianity is that whether out of blind zeal rooted in that obstinacy which men are usually given up unto who have refused to retain the Truth in the love and power of it or from their being necessitated thereunto in their Councils for the supportment and preservation of their present interests and secular advantages they are not contented to embrace practice and adhere unto those crooked paths that they have chosen to walk in and to attempt the drawing of others into them by such wayes and means as the light of Nature right reason with the Scripture directs to be used in and about the things of Religion which relate to the minds and souls of men but also they have pursued an imposition of their conceptions and practises on other men by force and violence untill the world in many places hath been made a stage of oppression rapine cruelty and war and that which they call their Church a very Shambles
observed reproved condemned and written against Only unto what shall be discoursed unto this pnrpose I desire liberty to premise these three things which I suppose will be granted Dabitur ignis tamen et si ab inimicis petam The first is that What is by any previously condemned before the embracing and practice of it is no less condemned by them than if the practice had preceded their condemnation Though you should say that your avowing of a condemned errour would make it no errour yet you cannot say that it will render it not condemned for that which is done cannot be undone say you what you will Secondly that Where any opinion or practice in Religion which is embraced and used by your Church is condemned and written against that then your Church which so embraceth and useth it is condemned and written against For neither do Protestants write against your Church or condemn it on any other account but of your opinions and practices and you require but such a writing and condemnation as you complain of amongst them Thirdly I desire you to take notice that I do not this as though it were necessary to the security and defence of the Cause which we maintain against you It is abundantly sufficient and satisfactory unto our consciences in your casting us out from your communion that all the wayes whereby we say your Church is fallen from her pristine purity are judged and condemned in the Scripture the Word of truth whither we appeal for the last determination of the differences between us These things being premised to prevent such evasions as you have accustomed your self unto I shall as briefly as I can give you somewhat of that which you have now twice called for 1. Your Principle and Practise in imposing upon all Persons and Churches a necessity of the observation of your Rites and Ceremonies Customes and Traditions casting them out of Communion who refuse to submit unto this your great Principle of all the Schisms in Europe was contradicted written against condemned by Councels and Fathers in the very first instance that ever you gave of it Be pleased to consider that this concerns the very Life and Being of your Church For if you may not impose your Constitutions observances and customes upon all others actum est there is an end of your present Church State Let us see then how this was thought of in the dayes of old Victor the Bishop of Rome An Dom. 96. condemns and excommunicates the Churches of Asia because they would not joyn with him in the Celebration of Easter precisely on the Lords day Did this practise escape uncontrolled He was written against by the great Irenaeus and reproved that he had cast out of Communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whole Churches of God for a triviall cause His fact also was condemned in the justification of those Churches by a Councell in Palestine where Theophilus presided and another in Asia called together for the same purpose by Polycrates Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 5. cap. 22 23 24 25. This is an early instance of a considerable Fall in your Church and an open opposition by Councels and Fathers made unto it And do not you S r deceive your self as though the fact of Victor were alone concerned in this censure of Irenaeus and others The Principle before mentioned which is the very life and soul of your Church is condemned in it It was done also in a repetition of the same Instance attempted here in England by you when Austine that came from Rome would have imposed on the Brittish Churches the observation of Easter according to the custome of the Roman Church the Bishops and Monks of these Churches not only rejected your Custome but the Principle also from whence the attempt to impose it on them did proceed protesting that they owned no subjection to the Bishop of Rome nor other regard than what they did to every good Christian. Concil Anglican p. 188. 2. Your Doctrine and Practise of forcing men by carnall weapons corporall penalties tortures and terrors of death unto the embracement of your profession and actually destroying and taking away the lives of them that persist in their dissent from you is condemned by Fathers and Councels as well as by the Scriptures and the light of Nature its self It is condemned by Tertullian Apol. cap. 23. Videte saith he ne hoc ad irreligiositatis elogium concurrat adimere libertatem Religionis interdicere optionem Divinitat is ut non liceat mihi colere quod velim sed cogar colere quod nolim with the like expressions in twenty other places All this externall compulsion he ascribes unto profaneness So doth Clemens Alexand. Stromat 8. So also did Lactantius all consenting in that Maxim of Tertullian Lex nova non se vindicat ultore gladio The Law of Christ revengeth not its self with a punishing sword The Councell of Sardis Epist. ad Alexand. expresly affirms that they disswaded the Emperour from interpesing his Secular power to compell them that dissented And you are fully condemned in a Canon of a Councell at Toledo Cap. de Judae distinc 45. Praecipit sancta Synodns nemini deinceps ad credendum vim inferre cui enim vult Deus miseretur quem vult indurat The holy Synod commandeth that none hereafter shall by force be compelled to the faith for God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Athanasius in his Epistle ad Solitar falls heavily on the Arians that they began first to compell men to their heresie by force prisons and punishments whence he concludes of their Sect atque ita seipsam quam non sit pia nec Dei cultrix manifestat it evidestly declares it self hereby to be neither pious nor to have any reverence of God In a Book that is of some credit with you namely Clemens his Constitutions you have this amongst other things for your comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ left men the power of their wills free in this matter not punishing them with death temporall but calling them to give an account in another world And Chrysostome speaks to the same purpose on Joh 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He asked them saying Will you also go away which is the Question of one rejecting all force and necessity Epiphanius gives it as the character of thesemi-Arâ—ians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They persecute them that teach the Truth not confuting them with words but delivering them that believe aright to hatreds wars and swords having now brought destruction not to one City or Countrey alone but to many Neither can you relieve your selves by answering that they were true believers whom they persecuted you punish Hereticks and Schismaticks only for they thought and said the same of themselves which you assert in your own behalf So Salvian informs us Haeretici sunt sed non scientes denique apud nos sunt Haeretici apud se non
to your Question What it is that can settle any man in the Truth of Religion and unite all men therein And then because you object this unto us as if we were at some loss and incertainty therein and your selves very secure I shall consider what are the grounds and principles that you proceed upon for the same ends and purposes namely to settle any man in the Truth of Religion and to bring all men to an harmony and consent therein Now I shall herein manifest unto you these two things I. That the Principles which the Protestants proceed upon in the improvement whereof they obtain themselves assured and infallible settlement in the Truth and labour to reduce others unto the Unity of Faith are such as are both suited unto and sufficient for the end and work which they design to effect by them and also in themselves of such unquestionable Truth Certainty and Evidence that either they are all granted by your selves or cannot be denied without shaking the very Foundations of Christianity 2. That those which you proceed upon are some of them untrue and most of them dubious and questionable none of them able to bear the weight that you lay upon them and some of them such as the admission of would give just cause to question the whole Truth of Christian Religion And both these S r I crave leave to manifest unto you whereby you may the better judg whether the Scripture or your Church be the best way to bring men unto settlement in Religion which is the thing enquired after 1. Protestants lay down this as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the very beginning and first Principle of their confidence and Confession that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God as the Holy Ghost teacheth them 2 Tim. 3. 16. That is that the Books of the Old and New Testament were all of them written by the immediate guidance direction and inspiration of God the hand of the Lord as David speaks 1 Chron. 28. 19. being upon the Penmen thereof in writing and his Spirit as Peter informs us speaking in them 1 Pâ—t 1. 11. So that whatever is contained and delivered in them is given out from God and is received on his Authority This Principle I suppose you grant to be true do you not if you will deny it say so and we will proceed no farther untill we have proved it I know you have various wayes laboured to undermine the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Holy Scriptures many Queries you put unto men How they can know it to be from God to be true from Heaven and not of men many scruples you indeavour to possess them with against its Authority it is not my present business to remove them It is sufficient unto mee 1. That you your selves who differ from us in other things and with whom our contest about the best way of coming to settlement in the Truth alone is do acknowledg this Principle were proceed upon to be true And 2. That yee cannot oppose it without setting your selves to digge up the very foundations of Christian Religion and to open a way to let in an inundation of Atheism on the world So our first step is fixed on the grand fundamentall Principle of all the Religion and acceptable worship of God that is in the world 2. They affirm that this Scripture evidenceth it self by many infallible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be so given by Inspiration from God and besides is witnessed so to be by the Testimony of the Church of God from the dayes of Moses wherein it began to be written to the dayes wherein we live our Lord Christ and his Apostles asserting and confirming the same Testimony which Testimony is conveyed unto us by uninterrupted Catholick Tradition The first part of this Position I confess some of you deny and the latter part of it you generally all of you pervert confining the Testimony mentioned unto that of your present Church which is a very inconsiderable part of it if any part at all But how groundlesly how prejudicially to the verity and honour of Christian Religion in generall you do these things I shall briefly shew you Some of you I say deny the first part of this Assertion so doth Andradius Defens Concil Trident. Lib. 3. Neque enim saith he in ipsis Libris quibus Sacra Mysteria conscripta sunt quicquam inest Divinitatis quod nos ad Credendum qua illis continentur religione aliqua constring at Neither is there in the Books themselves wherein the holy Mysteries are written any thing of Divinity that should constrain us by vertue of any religious respect thereunto to believe the things that are contained in them Hence Cocleus Lib. 2. de Authoritate Eccles. Script gathers up a many instances out of the Book of the Scripture which he declares to be altogether incredible were it not for the Authority of the Church I need not mention any more of your Leaders concurring with them you know who is of the same mind with them if the Author of Fiat Lux be not unknown to you Your resolving Vniversal Tradition into the Authority of your present Church to which end there is a Book written not long since by a Jesuit under the name of Vincentius Severinus is no less notorious Some of you I confess are more modest and otherwise minded as to both parts of our Assertion See Malderus Episcop Antwerp de Object Fidei qu. 1. Vaselius Groningen de Potestat Eccles. Epist. ad Jacob. Hock Alliacens in Lib. 1. Sentent Artic. 3. Gerson Exam. dos part 2. Consid. 1. Tom. 1. sol 105. and in twenty other places But when you come to deal with Protestants and consider well the Tendency of this Assertion you use I consess an hundred rergiversations and are most unwilling to come to the acknowledgment of it and rather then suffer from it deny it downwright and that with Scurrilous reflections and Comparisons likening it as to any characters of Gods truth and Holiness upon it unto Livy's Story yea Aesops Fables or a Piece of Poetry And when you have done so you apply your selves to the canvasing of Stories in the Old Testament and to find out appearing Contradictions and tell us of the uncertainty of the Authors of some particular Books that the whole is of its self a dead letter which can prove nothing at all enquiring Who told us that the Penmen of it were divinely inspired seeing they testify no such things of themselves and if they should yet others may do and have done so who notwithstanding were not so inspired and ask us Why we receive the Gospel of Luke who was not an Apostle and reject that of Thomas who one with many the like Cavilling Exceptions But 1. That must needs be a bad Cause which stands in need of such a Defence Is this the voice of Jacob or Esau Are these the expressions of Christians or Pagans from whose
Scripture that they shall be accursed of God if they do receive Images into his Worship after the manner of your prescription Secondly They affirm an hundred times over that Images are religiously to be adored and worshipped that is with Divine Worship So in the Confession of the same Theodosius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so of the rest I confess consent unto receive embrace or salute I worship or adore the Image of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Blessed Virgin and of the Apostles and Martyres The same is affirmed in the Epistle of Hadrian recited in the second Act of the Synod which they all approve and afresh curse all them that dogmatize or teach any thing against that worship of Images And Gregory the Monk no small man amongst them affirms that he hoped by his Confession of this Doctrine he believed he should obtain the forgiveness of his sins Act. 2. And John who falsly pretended himself to be delegated from the Oriental Patriarchs when he was sent only by a few ignorant Monks of Palestine prefers Images above the Word its self Act. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Image is greater then the word and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honourable Images are equivalent to the Gospel And they prove the worship they intend to be divine by their wise explication of that Text The Lord thy God shalt thou worship and him only shalt thou serve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnto the Word Thou shalt serve only is subjoyned but not unto the word Worship so that it is lawfull to worship Images but not to serve them A wise business but it discovers sufficiently what is the worship which they ascribe unto Images even the same that is given unto God for if we may believe them other things are not excluded from Communion with God in this matter of worship and adoration Whence the Council of Frankeford doth expresly charge them that they taught that Images were to be adored with the honour due to God Act. 4. And so much weight do they lay upon this devotion that they approve the Councel given by Theodorus the Abbot unto the Monk whom the Devil vexed with temptations for worshipping the Image of Christ who told him that he had better resort to all the Stews in the Town then cease worshipping of Christ in his Image 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it seems it was uncleaness that the Devil tempted him unto as well knowing that Spiritual and Corporal fornication commonly go together Thirdly In every Session they instance in some particulars wherein the Adoration of Images which they professed did consist as in particular in religious saluting of them kissing of them bowing before them and so adoring of them To this purpose their words are very express Now all these were ever esteemed tokens pledges and expressions of Religious or Divine Worship and were the very wayes whereby the Heathen of old expressed their veneration of their Images and Idols Job intimating the way whereby they worshipped the Sun Moon and host of Heaven which crimes he denyes himself to be guilty of tells us that when he considered the Sun and the Moon his heart did not seduce him that he should put his hand to his mouth that is to salute them for this saith he had been to deny God above Job 31. 26 27. As Catullus Constiteram Solem exorientem sorte salutans Cum subito à laeva Roscius exoritur He stood saluting or worshipping the rising Sun And that also was their meaning in kissing of them or kissing their hands in saluting of them Hos. 13. 2. Let them kiss the Calves that is worship them express their religious adoration of them by that outward sign As Cicero in Ver. 4. Herculis simulacrum non solum venerari sed etiam osculari soliti fuerunt So Minutius Felix tells us that his companion Caecilius coming where the Image of Serapis was set up admovit manum ori osculum labris pressit put his hand to his mouth and kissed it as worshipping of it And for creeping kneeling or bowing it is so certain an evidence of Divine Worship that all Worship both false and Idolatrous or true is oftentimes expressed thereby So the worshipping of Baal is called bowing the knee to Baal They that bowed the knee unto him or his Image in their so doing worshipped him 1 Kings 19. 18. Rom. 11. 4. And where God promiseth to bring all Nations to the worship of himself he sayes they shall bow the knee to him Rom. 14. 11. So that these are all expressions of Religious worship and they are all accursed over and over by the Council who do not by these means express their worship of Images This is the Doctrine this is the practice which the Tridentine decree aprroves of and sends us to learn of the second Synod of Nice And this they express in most places in those very termes that were used by the Pagans in the worship of their Idols making indeed no distinction but that whereas the Pagans worshipped the images of Jupiter and Minerva and the like they in the like manner worshipped the Images of Christ and his Apostles And therefore in the Indies the Catholick Spaniards took away the Zemes or Images of their Idols that the poor natives had before and gave them the Images of Christ and his Mother in their stead This being the Doctrine of the Council it may not be amiss to consider a little how they proved and confirmed it Two things they principally insisted on 1. Testimonies of Scripture 2. Miracles Some sayings also they produced out of some antient writers of the Church but all of them either perverted or forged The Scriptures they insisted on were all of them gathered togethered in the Epistle of Pope Hadrian which was solemnly assented unto by the whole Council And they were they these God made man of the dust of the Earth after his own Image Gen. 1. Abel by his own choise offered a Sacrifice unto God of the first lings of his flock Gen. 4. Adam of his own mind called all the beasts of the field by their proper names Gen. 2. Noah of his own accord built an altar unto the Lord Gen. 8. Abraham of his own free will erected an altar to the Glory of God Gen. 11. Jacob having seen in his sleep seen the Angels of God ascending and descending by the ladder set up the stone on which his head lay for a pillar Gen. 28. And again he worshipped on the top of his staffe Gen. 29. Moses made the brasen Serpent and the Cherubims Esaiah saith in those dayes there shall be an Altar unto the Lord and it shall be for a sign and a Testimony Chap. 19. David the Psalmist sayes Confession and beauty are before him and again Lord I have loved the beauty of thine house And again Thy face Lord will I seek Psal. 26 And again The rich among the people shall bow themselves before thy face Psal. 44.
The first beginning of their use arising from Heathens as Eusebius declares Lib. 7. cap. 18. But if you intend your Roman Catholick Councils and Practice your Assertion is as devoid of Truth as any thing you can possibly utter What kind of Assistance in devotion these your sacred Figures do yield we shall anon consider It is added in the Animadversions that it was God who appointed these Cherubims to be made and placed where they were never seen of the people and that his special dispensation of a Law constitutes no general rule so he commanded his people to spoil the Aegyptians though he forbid all men to steal This was said on supposition that they were Images or adored both which I shewed to be false And it is the answer given by Tertullian When he was pleading against all making up of pictures which we do not Now do you produce Gods special command for the makeing use and veneration of your Images and this contest will soon be at an end But whereas God who commanded these Cherubims to be made hath severely interdicted the making of Images as to any use in his worship unto us what conclusion you can hence draw I see not To this you reply in a large discourse wherein are many things Atheological I shall briefly pass through what you say Thus then you begin We must know you as well as I that God who forbids men to steal did not then command to steal as you say he did when he bad his People spoil the Aegyptians under the species of a loan Malum omen You stumble at the threshold Did I say that God commanded men to steal porrige frontem the words of the Animadversions lay before you when you wrote this and you could not but know that you wrote that which was not true This immorality doth not become any man of what Religion soever he be Stealing denotes the pravity of taking that which is another mans This God neither doth nor can command for the taking of that which formerly belonged unto another is not stealing if God command it for the reason which your self have stumbled on as we shall see afterwards The Aegyptians were spoyled by Gods Command but the People did not steal for his Command who is the Soveraign Lord of all things the great possessor of Heaven and earth dispenced with his Law of one mans taking that which before belonged unto another as to that particular whereunto his Command extended in reference whereunto stealing or the pravity of that act of alienation consists and so it is in other Cases It is murder for a Father to slay his Son Neither can God command a man to murder his Son and yet he commanded Abraham to slay his To so little purpose is your following attempt to prove that the Hebrews did not steal and that God did not command them to steal which â—ou fancied or rather feigned to be asserted in the Animadversions that you might make a pretence of saying something so that it had been much better to have passed over this whole matter with your wonted silence which relieves you against the things which you despair of returning a reply unto You say the Hebrews might have right to those few goods they took in satisfaction for their long oppression and it may be their own allowance was not paid them But this right whatever it may be pretended was only ad rem a general equity which they had no warrant to put in execution by any particular instance And therefore you add Secondly Because it is a thing of danger that any servant should be allowed to right himself by putting his hand to his Masters Goods though his Case of wrong be never so clear therefore did the Command of God intervene to justifie their action But why do you call this a thing of danger only is it not of more then danger even expresly sinfull Then is a thing morally dangerous when there may be sin in it not when unavoidably there is then indeed there is danger of punishment or rather certainty of it without repentance but we do not say then there is danger of sinning It may be you do it to comply with your Casuists who have determined that in some Cases it is lawful for a servant himself to make up his wrongs out of his Masters Goods which caused your friends some trouble as you know in the Case of John de Alva You proceed and insist upon the Command of God proceeding from his Soveraignty and Lordship over all warranting the Hebrews to take the Aegyptians goods and so spoil them and that rightly But this say you can no way be applyed unto Images nor could God command the Hebrews to make any Images if he bad absolutely forbidden to have any at all made Sir This is not our Case God forbad the Hebrews to make any images so as to bow down to them in a way of Religious Worship and yet might command them to make Hieroglyphical representations of his care and watchfulness and to set them up where they might not be worshipped But let us suppose that you speak â—d idem and pertinently let us see how you prove what you say For this say you concerns not any affair between neighbour and neighbour whereof the Supreme Lord hath absolute dominion but the service only and â—â—ration due from man to his Maker which God being absolutely good and immutably true cannot 〈◊〉 dispense with Nor doth it stand with his nature and Deity to change dispence or vary the first table of his Law concerning himself as he may the 〈◊〉 which concerns neighbours for want of that 〈◊〉 ever himself which hâ— hath over any creaâ—â—◠〈◊〉 away its right to preserve or destroy it 〈…〉 pleaseth and therefore you conclude that 〈…〉 his people to set up no Images 〈…〉 hâ—ve commanded them to set up any beâ—â—◠〈◊〉 would imply a contradiction in himself A very 〈◊〉 Theolâ—gical discourse which might becâ—â—â— one of the Angelical or Seraphical Doctors of your Church But who I pray told you that theâ—e was the same resason of all the Commands of the 〈◊〉 Table Vows and Oaths are a part of the worship of God 〈◊〉 in the third Commandment yet 〈◊〉 God can do your Pope takes upon himself 〈◊〉 dispense with them every day He so dispeâ—â—ed with the Oath of Ladisâ—aus King of Hungerâ—â— made in his Peace with the Turks to the extream danger of his whole Kingdom the irrepâ—rable loss and almost ruine of all Christendom So he dispensed with the Oath of Henry the Second of France which ended in his expulsion out of Italy his loss of the famous Battail at St. Quintins and the danger of his whole Kingdom The strict Observation of the Sabbath by the Jews was commanded unto them in a Precept of the first Table and wâ—s not a matter between neighbours but belonged immediately to the worship of God himself according to your Divinity God could not dispense
with them to do any labour that day But our Lord Jesus Christ hath taught us that by his Command the Priests were to labour on that day in killing the Sacrifice by vertue of an after exception And your Book of Macchabees will inform you that the whole people judged themselves dispensed withal in case of imminent danger The whole fabrick of Mosaical worship was a thing that belonged immediately to God himself aod was not a matter between neighbours which had its foundation in the second Commandment and yet I suppose you will grant that God hath altered it changed it and taken it away So excellent is your Rule as to all the precepts of the first Table which indeed holds only in the first Command Things that naturally and necessarily belong to the dependance of the rational creature on God as the first Cause last End and Supreme Lord of all are absolutely indispensable which are in general all comprized as to their nature in the first precept wherein we are commanded to receive him alone as our God and consequently to yield him that obedience of faith love honour which is due to him as God but the outward modes and wayes of expressing and testifying that subjection and obedience which we owe unto him depending on his arbitrary institution are changeable dispensable and lyable to be varied at his pleasure which they were at several seasons before the last hand was put to the Revelation of his will by his Son And then though God did absolutely forbid his people the making of images as to any use of them in his Worship and Service he might by particular exception have made some himself or appointed them to be made and have designed them to what use he pleased from whence it would not follow in the least that they who were to regulate their obedience by his command and not by that instance of his own particular exception unto his institution might set up any other images for the same end and purpose no more then they might set up other Altars for Sacrifice besides that appointed by him when he had commanded that they should not do so Supposing then that which is not true and which you can give no colour of proof to namely that the Cherubims were Images properly so called and set up by Gods command to be adored Yet they were no less still under the force of his prohibition against the making of Images then if he had never appointed any to be made at all It was no more free for them to do so then it is for you now under the New Testament to make five Sacraments more of your own heads because he hath appointed two So unhappy are you in the Confirmation of your own supposition which yet as I have shewed you is by no means to be granted And this is the substance of your plea for this practice and usage of your Church which whether it will justifie you in your open transgression of so many express Commands that lye against you in this matter the day that shall discover all things will manifest You proceed to the vindication of another passage in your Fiat from the Animadversions upon it with as little success as the former you have attempted Fiat Lux sayes God forbad forreign Images such as Moloch Dagon and Astaroth but he command his own Sir Moloch and Astaroth were not Images properly so called whatever may be said of Dagon the one was the Sun the other the hoast of Heaven or the Moon and Stars but the Animadversions say that God forbad any likeness of himself to be made they do so and what say you to the contrary why You may know and consider that the Statues and graven Images of the Heathen towards whose land Israel then in the wilderness was journeying were ever made by the Pagans to represent God and not any devils although they were deluded in it But 1. Your good friends will give you little thanks for this concession whose strongest plea to vindicate themselves and you from Idolatry in your image worship is that the Images of the Heathen were not made to represent God but that an Idol was really and absolutely nothing 2. God did not forbid the people in particular the making Images unto Molock Dagon or Astaroth but prohibits the worshipping of the Idols themselves in any way but he forbids the making of any Images and similitudes of himself in the first place and of all other things to worship them But what of all this why then say you there was good reason that the Hebrews who should be cautioned from such snares should be forbidden to make to themselves any similitude or likeness of God Well then they were so forbidden this is that which the Animadversions affirmed before and Fiat Lux denyed affirming that they were the ugly faces of Moloch that were forbidden Moses say you p. 294. forbad prophane and forraign images but he commanded his own but here you grant that God forbad the making of any similitude or likeness of himself the reason of it we shall not much dispute whilest the thing is confessed though I must inform you that himself insists upon another and not that which you suggest which you will find if you will but peruse the places I formerly directed you unto But say you what figure or similitude the true God had allowed his people that let them hold and use untill the fulness of time should come when the figure of his substance the splendor of his glory and only image of his nature should appear and now since God hath been pleased to shew us his face pray give Christians leave to keep and honour it I presume you know not that your discourse is Sophistical and Atheological and I shall therefore give you a little light into your mistakes 1. What do you mean by figure or similitude that the true God had allowed his people Was it any figure or similitude of himself not of Moloch which you were speaking of immediately before and which your following words interpret your meaning of where you affirm that in the fulness of time he hath given us the image of himself have you not denyed it in the words last mentioned have you no regard how you jumble contradictions together so you may make a shew of saying something Do you intend any other likeness or similitude why then do you deal sophistically in using the same expression to denote diverse things 2. It is Atheological that you afâ—â—â—â— Christ to be the image of the nature of God He is and is said to be the image of his fathers person Heb. 1. 2. And when he is said to be the image of the invisible God the term God is to be taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Person of the Father and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the nature or substance or essence of God 3. Christ is the essenâ—eal image of the Father in his Divine nature in