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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56393	Reasons for abrogating the test imposed upon all members of Parliament, anno 1678, Octob. 30 in these words, I A.B. do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, profess, testifie, and declare, that I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, at, or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever, and that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous : first written for the author's own satisfaction, and now published for the benefit of all others whom it may concern.	Parker, Samuel, 1640-1688.	1688 (1688)	Wing P467; ESTC R5001	62,716	138

to their Duty to himself among these the chiefest are Circumcision and the Sabbath which he instituted as it were the two Sacraments of the Jewish Religion or the Worship of the Creator of Heaven and Earth to distinguish them from their Neighbour Nations who Worship only his Creatures With Circumcision God sign'd his Covenant with Abraham which was the first Revelation of himself against Idolatry and the Foundation of the whole Mosaick Law which was seal'd to by this sacred Rite of Circumcision so that without it they were esteemed no better than Idolaters and an uncircumcised Man signifies no less than an Heathen This Reason is expresly given by God himself at the first Institution of it in his Covenant with Abraham I will establish my Covenant between thee and me and thy Seed after thee in their Generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God unto Thee and to thy seed after thee This is my Covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee every Male Child among you shall be Circumcised And you shall circumcise the Flesh of your Fore-skin and it shall be a Token of the Covenant betwixt you and me and therefore the uncircumcised shall be cut off from his People as having broken my Covenant i.e. renounced the true Religion which is as Grotius observes not reasonably to be understood of Infants but of Men grown to Years of Understanding whose Parents had neglected that Office in their Infancy and therefore if they did not supply that Defect when they came to Age it was looked upon as renouncing the Worship of the true God of which this was the first Sacrament or Ceremony of Admission into the Jewish Church which alone profess'd it and that is the Reason of St. Paul's Assertion Every Man that is circumcised is a Debtor to do the whole Law i.e. he that willingly and knowingly undergoes this initiating Ceremony by Vertue of that he obliges himself to the Observation of the whole Mosaick Law and all things commanded in it And for this Reason no Proselyte was admitted to the Paschal Festival the most sacred Solemnity of the Jewish Religion without Circumcision When a stranger shall sojourn with thee and will keep the Passover to the Lord let all his Males be circumcised and then let him come near and keep it and he shall be as one that is born in the Land for no uncircumcised Person shall eat thereof This seems to be the meaning of that Passage Ioshua 5. 9. when God commanded Ioshua to circumcise all the People that were born in the Wilderness and that indeed is all then living for those that came out of Egypt were dead and when Ioshua had done it God tells him This day have I rolled away the Reproach of Egypt from off you the Reproach of Egypt was their Idolatry which they had now renounced by the Sacrament of Circumcision And accordingly in the Persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes to abolish the Jewish Religion and establish Idolatry the Jews are commanded to leave their Children uncircumcis'd and the Apostates endeavoured to blot out the Marks of their Circumcisioni and certain Women that had taken care to circumcise their Children were put to Death and the Infants hanged about their Necks That was the distinctive Mark through all Ages between a Worshiper of the true God and an Idolater So that it was the same thing not to be circumcised and to apostatise to Idolatry The second and indeed the greatest Bar of all against Idolatry was the Institution of the Sabbath in memory of Gods Creation of the whole visible World and for that reason this Doctrine of the Sabbath was reputed as fundamental an Article in the Jewish Church as the Doctrine of the Cross in the Christian because all other Articles of their Religion depended upon the belief of their God's Creation of the World. And therefore when God had given Moses a compleat Body of Laws for his own Worship he ratifies and as it were comprises them all in a vehement and reiterated pressing that one Law of the Sabbath Exod. 31. v. 12. to the end of the Chapter And after the Children of Israel had committed Idolatry in worshiping the Golden Calf for which God had for some time cast them off he is at last prevailed upon by Moses to renew his Covenant with them upon a new Contract First That they worship none of the Gods of the Heathen Nations nor ever use any of their Rites and Ceremonies And then that they be more careful to observe the Passover and the Sabbath Exod. 34. 12. And the Observation of the Sabbath is again enforced in the very beginning of the next Chapter as the Bond and Epitome of the whole Law And Moses gathered all the Congregation of the Children of Israel together and said unto them these are the words which the Lord hath commanded that ye should do them Six days shall work be done but on the Seventh day there shall be to you a Holy day a Sabbath of rest to the Lord whosoever doth work therein shall be put to death As if the Sabbath alone were the whole Law according to that Saying of the Talmud Whosoever denies the Sabbath denies the whole Law. Because that 's an Acknowledgment of the Creator of the World as the Author of the Mosaick Law. And for that reason the Almighty upon all occasions styles himself in Scripture Creator of Heaven and Earth which we improperly enough translate Possessor of Heaven and Earth and indeed the History of the Creation it self and the whole Pentateuch seem to have been written on purpose to prevent Idolatry or the Worship of Created Beings and therefore Moses doth not set down the Creation of the Universe in gross but of every part by it self particularly of the Sun Moon and Stars And that is in it self a sufficient Security against giving them that were meer Creatures the Worship that is only due to the Creator And this seems to be the reason of the particular form of words in the Fourth Commandment Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy for in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh day As if he had said be sure that you be particularly mindful of this Commandment of the Sabbath above all others for it is a Day dedicated to the Eternal Memory of the Creation and therefore enjoyn'd to be observ'd every Seventh Day that it may continually bring to mind that great work and never suffer it to decay out of thy Memory And from hence it is that the Precepts of not worshiping Idols and observing the Sabbath are so frequently coupled together in the Scriptures as if they were inseparable Exod. 23. 12 13. Six days thou shalt do thy work and on the seventh day thou shalt rest and make no mention of the Names of other Gods neither let them be heard out of thy mouth Levit. 19. 34. Ye shall keep my

Let this be Printed WHITEHALL Decemb. 10. 1687. Sunderland P. REASONS FOR ABROGATING THE TEST Imposed upon All Members of Parliament Anno 1678. Octob. 30. In these Words I A. B. do solemnly and sincerely in the Presence of God profess testifie and declare That I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any Transubstantiation of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ at or after the Consecration thereof by any Person whatsoever And that the Invocation or Adoration of the Uirgin Mary or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now used in the Church of Rome are Superstitious and Idolatrous First Written for the Author 's own Satisfaction And now Published for the Benefit of all others whom it may concern LONDON Printed for Henry Bonwicke at the Red Lyon in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXVIII REASONS FOR ABROGATING THE TEST THE TEST imposed upon all Members of Parliament October 30. 1678. ought I humbly conceive to be repeal'd for these Reasons First Because it doth not only diminish but utterly destroy the natural Rights of Peerage and turns the Birth-right of the English Nobility into a precarious Title So that what was in all former Ages only forfeited by Treason is now at the mercy of every Faction or every Passion in Parliament And therefore how useful soever the Test might have been in its season it some time must prove a very ill Precedent against the Rights of Peerage for if it may be allow'd in any Case there is no Case in which it may not be imposed And therefore I remember that in the First Transubstantiation-Test Anno Dom. 1673 the Rights of Peerage are indeed according to constant Custom secur'd by Proviso Provided always That neither this Act nor anything therein contained shall extend be judged or interpreted any ways to hurt or prejudice the Peérage of any Péer of this Realm or to take away any right power privilege or profit which any person being a Péer of this Realm hath or ought to enjoy by reason of his Péerage either in time of Parliament or otherwise And in the Year 1675. when this Test or Oath of Loyalty was brought into the House of Peers That it is not lawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King and by his Authority against his Person it was vehemently protested against as a Breach of Privilege No body could except against the Matter of the Test it self much less the Nobility who had generally taken it upon the Account of their several Trusts in the Militia So that the only Debate was Whether the very Proposal of it as a Qualification for a Right to sit in Parliament were not a Breach of the fundamental Right of Peerage And after some Debates upon the Point of Peerage it was without ever entring into the Merits of the Cause it self thrown out by an unanimous Vote of the House April 21. 1675. Before the putting of the Question this PROTESTATION is entred A Bill to prevent the Dangers which may arise from Persons disaffected to the Government The House resolv'd into a Committee to consider of it and being resum'd the Question was put Whether this Bill does so far intrench upon the Privileges of this House as it ought therefore to be cast out It was at first resolved in the Negative with this Memorandum That before the putting the abovesaid Question these Lords following desired Leave to enter their Dissents if the Question was carried in the Negative and accordingly did enter their Dissents as followeth We whose Names are underwritten being Peers of this Realm do according to our Rights and the ancient Usage of Parliaments declare That the Question having been put Whether the Bill entituled An Act to prevent the Dangers which may arise from Persons disaffected to the Government does so far entrench upon the Privileges of this House that it ought therefore to be cast out it being resolved in the Negative We do humbly conceive That any Bill which imposeth an Oath upon the Peers with a Penalty as this doth That upon the refusal of that Oath they shall be made uncapable of sitting and voting in this House As it is a thing unpresidented in former Times so is it in our humble Opinion the highest Invasion of the Liberties and Privileges of the Peerage that possibly may be and most destructive of the Freedom which they ought to enjoy as Members of Parliament Because the Privilege of Sitting and Voting in Parliament is an Honour they have by Birth and a Right so inherent in 'em and inseparable from 'em as that nothing can take it away but what by the Law of the Land must withal take away their Lives and corrupt their Blood upon which Ground We do here enter our Dissent from that Vote and our Protestation against it QVAERE How many of those Noble Lords voted for the Test in 1678. and then whether if they have preserved their Rights of Peerage they have preserv'd its Honour too But the Debate was kept up many Days till at last April 30. 1675. it came to this Issue It was at last resolved That no Oath shall by this Bill be imposed and pass'd into a general Order by the whole House Nemine contradicente as followeth Order'd by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled That no Oath shall be imposed by any Bill or otherwise upon the Peers with a Penalty in case of Refusal to lose their Places and Votes in Parliament or liberty of Debates therein and that this Order be added to the standing Orders of this House Secondly It ought to be repealed because of its dishonourable Birth and Original it being the First-born of Oats's Plot and brought forth on purpose to give Credit and Reputation to the Perjury Now I should think that when the Villainy of that is so fully laid open to the World it should not a little concern the Honour of the Nation but very much concern the Honour and Wisdom of the House of Peers to deface so great a Monument erected by themselves in honour of so gross an Imposture It is Shame enough to the present Age to have given any publick Credit to so enormous a Cheat and the greatest Kindness it can do it self is to destroy as much as may be all the Records of Acts done by the Government to abett it What will Posterity judge of the present Nobility to see such an unpresidented Law not only enacted upon so foul an Occasion but after the Discovery of the Cheat asserted with Heat and Zeal though to the Subversion of their own fundamental Rights and Privileges Besides the Roman Catholick Peers have suffered severely enough already by their own honourable House's giving Credit to so dull an Imposture And I think it is the least Compensation that they can in Honour make them only to restore 'em to their natural Rights What will foreign Nations and

believe or profess that there is a real or corporeal Presence as they Phrase it of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist This Declaration though it seem'd to be aim'd with a particular Malice against the Lutherans and their peculiar manner of Asserting and Explaining the real Presence yet it strikes at the general Doctrine it self held in all Churches And as these were the great Alterations made at that time so who were the Authors and Contrivers of 'em is so utterly unknown to Historians that they are not so much as able to conjecture Doctor Heylin would ascribe it either to the Convocation it self or some Committee appointed by it But this is the officious Kindness of the good Man to help out the poor oppressed Church at that time at a dead Lift having no Record or Authority for his Assertion Doctor Burnet has often heard it said That the Articles were fram'd by Cranmer and Ridley But whoever told him so knew no more than himself I am sure it is the meanest Trade in an Historian to stoop to Hear-says All that can be conjectured of it is That it was done at that unhappy time when Dudley Governed all who when he form'd his great and ambitious Designs first as the Historian Remarks endeavoured to make himself Popular and to this end among other Arts he made himself Head and Patron of the Calvinian Faction and entertain'd the Establish'd Church with Neglect and Contempt and therefore I find not Ecclesiastical Matters referr'd to the advice of the Regular Ecclesiastical Order but were either Transacted by Himself and his Agents in private or some incompetent Lay-Authority As to this matter of the New Liturgy and Articles there is no Record but an Act of Parliament by which they are Impos'd and Authoriz'd Whereas there hath been a very Godly Order set forth by the Authority of Parliament for Common-Prayer and Administration of the Holy Sacraments to be used in the Mother Tongue within this Church of England agreeable to the Word of God and the Primitive Church very comfortable to all good People desiring to live in Christian Conversation and most profitable to the Estate of this Realm upon the which the Mercy Favour and Blessing of Almighty God is in no wise so readily and plenteously pour'd as by Common-Prayers due using of the Sacraments and often Preaching of the Gospel with the Devotion of the Hearers and yet this notwithstanding a great number of People in divers parts of this Realm following their own sensuality and living either without Knowledge or due Fear of God do willfully and damnation before Almighty God abstain and refuse to come to their Parish Churches and other places where Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and preaching of the Word of God is used upon Sundays and other Days ordain'd to be Holy-days II. For Reformation hereof be it enacted by the King our Sovereign Lord with the assent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same that from and after the Feast of All-Saints next coming all and every person and persons inhabiting within this Realm or any other the King's Majesty's Dommions shall diligently and faithfully having no lawful or reasonable excuse to be absent endeavour themselves to resort to their Parish Church or Chapel accustomed or upon reasonable let thereof to some usual place where Common-Prayer and such Service of God shall be used in such time of Let upon every Sunday and other days ordained and used to be kept as Holy-days and then and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time of the Common-Prayer Preachings or other Service of God there to be us'd and ministred upon pain of Punishment by the Censures of the Church III. And for the due execution hereof the King 's most Excellent Majesty the Lords Temporal and all the Commons in this present Parliament assembled doth in God's name earnestly require and charge all Archbishops Bishops and their Ordinaries that they shall endeavour themselves to the uttermost of their Knowledges that the due and true execution thereof may be had throughout their Diocesses and Charges as they will answer before God for such Evils and Plagues wherewith Almighty God may justly punish his People for neglecting this good and wholesom Law. IV. And for their Authority in this behalf be it further likewise enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all and singular the same Archbishops Bishops and all other their Officers exercising Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction as well in place Exempt as not Exempt within their Diocesses shall have full Power and Authority by this Act to Reform Correct and Punish by Censures of the Church all and singular persons which shall offend within any their Iurisdictions or Diocesses after the said Feast of All-Saints next coming against this Act and Statute any other Law Statute Privilege Liberty or Provision heretofore made had or suffered to the contrary notwithstanding V. And because there is risen in the use and exercise of the aforesaid common Service in the Church heretofore set forth divers doubts for the fashion or manner of the Ministration of the same rather by the curiosity of the Minister and Mistakers than of any other worthy cause therefore as well for the more plain and manifest Explanation thereof as for the more perfection of the said Order or Common Service in some places where it is necessary to make the same Prayer and fashion of Service more earnest and fit to stir Christian People to the true honouring of Almighty God the King 's most Excellent Majesty with the assent of the Lords and Commons of this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same hath caused the aforesaid Order or Common Service Intituled The Book of Common-Prayer to be faithfully and godly perused explained and made fully perfect and by the aforesaid Authority hath annexed and joined it so explained and perfected to this present Statute c. In this new Office beside the forementioned alterations in the Liturgy it self there was order'd in the Rubrick the Abolition of Copes and Hoods neither is it altogether unobservable that at this time Hopkins his Psalms broke in upon the service of the Church But in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign when the Reformation was setled in that State in which it ever after continued that new Declaration of the Second Liturgy of King Edward was rejected together with the 29th Article and the First old Form of Distribution was restored And that 's a clear Declaration of the Sence of this Church for a real and essential Presence when it was so particularly concern'd to have all Bars against it remov'd And from that time forward the most eminent Divines in it were successively from Age to Age the most Assertors of it It were in vain to recite the numberless Passages to that Purpose it having been so often done by other Hands A List of the Names of the

Israel put away Baal and Ashteroth and served the Lord only And Samuel at the resigning of his Government upon the Election of Saul upbraids them with their continual Ingratitude against the Lord their God from their first Deliverance out of Egypt to that very Day in for saking the Lord to serve Baalim So plain is the practical Notion of Idolatry through the whole Sacred History Under the pious Reigns of David and Solomon the Sin of Idolatry was competently well retrench'd till the Dotage of Solomon when his Wives and Concubines turn'd away his Heart after other Gods So that Solomon went after Ashteroth the Goddess of the Zidonians and after Milcom the Abomination of the Ammonites But the great Revolt was made by Ieroboam upon the Division of the Kingdom tho rather upon a Political than Religious Account Ieroboam said in his Heart now shall the Kingdom return to the House of David if this People go up to do Sacrifice in the House of the Lord at Ierusalem whereupon he makes two Calves of Gold and said to the People It is too much for you to go up to Ierusalem behold thy Gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt It was only an Artifice to oblige the People to himself by restoring to them their old Egyptian Idolatry Some will have these Calves to have been set up in Imitation of Solomon 's Cherubin but this is fully confuted by the learned Visorius If Ieroboam saith he by his Calves design'd to imitate the establish'd Religion of his Country I pray you when he took these counterfeit Cherubs why not also the Ark the Propitiatory the Seat of God where the Divine Majesty appear'd most conspicuously in giving of Oracles the Tabernacle and the Temple Why if they were made only in imitation of the Cherubs why did he not call them by their own Name by which they were known to the People when that would have been a more easie way to deceive them Why did he not take the Priests of the Family of Aaron why did he banish them out of his Kingdom why did not the People comply for three whole Years if it had been an Imitation of their Old Religion under David and Solomon Why if they were nothing but Cherubins are they so often in Scripture styled other Gods Why should he Sacrifice to them when in the Law of Moses no Sacrifices were offered to the Cherubim So that it is plain that these Calves were set up by him as Idols or Symbols of a new or separate Religion from the Tribe of Iudah and tho he took up the old Egyptian Idol for his Foundation yet he seem'd to have erected a Motley Religion upon it like that of the Samaritans of old partly to invite the People of all Nations into his Kingdom where every Man worshiped his own God and partly by diversity of Religion more effectually to divide his own Kingdom from that of the Line of Solomon Tho not long after Rehoboam and the Tribe of Iudah revolt from the Worship of the true God as the Scripture aggravates it above all that their Fathers had done And from this time Idolatry or the Worship of Baal was the prevailing Religion in both Kingdoms tho sometimes check'd by the Piety of reforming Princes But it spread so fast that Elijah thought himself left alone tho for his comfort God informed him that he had the small remainder of 7000 in Israel all the Knees which have not bowed unto Baal But the Infection soon became universal and tho God Almighty sent his Prophets from time to time to reclaim them yet all in vain they still continued to worship the Host of Heaven and serve Baal till finding them irreclaimable he first delivered the Ten Tribes into the hands of Shalmaneser King of Assyria where they continue in Captivity to this Day and are a lost Nation But the Piety of Hezekiah at that time for a while repriev'd the Tribe of Iudah But his Son Manasseh built up again the High Places which Hezekiah his Father had destroyed and he rear'd up Altars for Baal and worshiped all the Host of Heaven and served them Upon this God by his Prophets denounces their Destruction Because saith he they have ever done that which was evil in my sight and have provoked me to Anger since the Day their Fathers came forth out of Egypt unto this Day or because they have forsaken me and burnt Incense unto other Gods that they might provoke me to Anger with all the work of their Hands therefore my wrath shall be kindled against them and shall not be quenched But the Execution of the Sentence is suspended during the pious Reign of his Son Iosiah but as soon as he is gathered to his Fathers Ierusalem and the Temple are destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and King Zedekiah with all his People are carried Captive into Babylon This is a compendious History of the old Jewish Idolatry and I think a sufficient Proof both of their strange Inclination to it to the highest degree of Madness and wherein it plainly consisted their forsaking the true invisible God to worship created Deities than which nothing is more evident through the whole Series of Scripture To this Evidence I might add a more ample Proof out of the Writings of the Prophets that are almost wholly imployed upon this Subject But I must not be too tedious and therefore I shall only observe that they generally express the greatness of this Folly under the Figure of ungovernable Lust. Thus Ezekiel the 23d God describes it to the Prophet under this Scheme Son of man there were two Women the Daughters of one Mother and they committed Whoredoms in Egypt they committed Whoredoms in their Youth there were their Breasts pressed and there they bruised the Teats of their Virginity and the Names of them were Ahola the Elder and Aholibah her Sister and they were mine and they bare Sons and Daughters Samaria is Ahola and Jerusalem Aholibah and Ahola played the Harlot when she was mine and she doted or run mad for her Lovers the Assyrians her Neighbours with all their Idols she defiled her self neither left she her Whoredoms brought from Egypt for in her Youth 't is in the Hebrew before she was ripe of Age they lay with her and they bruis'd the Breasts of her Virginity and poured their Whoredom upon her wherefore I have delivered her into the Hand of her Lovers into the Hand of the Assyrians upon whom she doted and after whom she ran mad The same is repeated of her Sister Aholibah who for her incorrigible Adulteries is delivered into the hands of the Babylonians nothing can be expressed with greater vehemence than this that is compared to the utmost lewdness of Female Lust and nothing more evident than that this Lewdness consisted in deserting the true invisible God to worship the false Deities of their Neighbours particularly the Gods of

Sabbaths I am Iehovah your God turn ye not unto Idols nor make to your selves molten Gods I am the Lord your God. Levit. 26. 1 2. Ye shall make ye no Idols ye shall keep my Sabbaths Ezek. 20. 18 20. Walk ye not in the statutes of your Fathers nor defile your selves with your Idols and hollow my Sabbaths that are for a sign between you and me that you may know that I am Iehovah your God for their hearts went after their Idols so v. 24. they polluted my Sabbaths And as these Commands are so frequently joyned together so is the violation of them as if they could not be parted Ezek. 20. 16. They polluted my Sabbaths and their eyes were after their Fathers Idols And King Ahaz when he set up Idolatry he in Contempt turn'd the Covert for the Sabbath out of the House of the Lord. 1 Mac. 1. 44. And many of the People consented to the command of the King and sacrificed to Idols and prophaned the Sabbath So necessary was it for the observation of the Sabbath and the Worship of the true God to run the same Fate or stand and fall together because the Sabbath was instituted in memory of the Creation of the World by the true God and therefore the belief and observation of it was an open Defyance to all Idolatry as the Psalmist joyns them together All the Gods of the Heathens are Idols But the Lord made the Heavens And this is the distinctive Character that God hath given between himself the only true God and the Heathen Idols or Vanities The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth shall perish from the Earth and from under the Heavens The Lord hath made the Earth by his Power he hath framed the Universe by his Wisdom and hath stretched out the Heavens by his Discretion Now the Observation of the Sabbath as instituted in honour of the invisible Creator of the visible or material World being the fundamental Article of Faith in the Jewish Church in opposition to Idolatry or giving the Worship of the supreme Deity to created Beings it is for that reason more frequently recited than any other Law and its Breach as severely punished as Idolatry it self the recital of this Command is almost half of the Law and the Prophets and the violation of it certain Death as a Crime of the same Nature with Idolatry it self So evident is it through the whole Series of sacred History that the Sabbath was instituted in opposition to Idolatry and that the Idolatry it was opposed to was the Worship of created Beings as the supreme uncreated Deity To conclude this Argument tho I designed to confine my self to the Testimony of Holy Scripture that is the only competent Witness in the case yet I find such a pregnant Passage cited out of St. Cyril of Alexandria to the same purpose with the Premises from his own Observation of the Train of Scripture History that it were great pity to rob the Reader of so fair an Authority After the Israelites says he left their own Country to sojourn in Egypt in process of time they lost all memory of their Ancestors and descent from the Line of Abraham so that their antient Customs being worn out by degrees and the Religion of their Forefathers disus'd they were at length debauched by conversation with the Egyptians to Idolatry and gave the worship of the supreme God to the Sun and under him to the Heavens Earth Moon Stars And therefore when God delivered them out of their Egyptian Bondage to bring them to the promised Land he peremptorily commands them to discard all their Egyptian Errors but because there was need of an evident sign by which they should as it were be forced to confess that Heaven was made by his Almighty Power and that the Sun Moon and Stars and all other Beings were the works of his hands he commands the Festival of the Sabbath as a Memorial and Imitation of himself and his work and therefore they that devote themselves to rest as their Creator rested by that acknowledge that all other things were the product of his Power and that is the natural design of the Sabbath Rest to affect them with a sense of the supreme Deity or Creator of all things In the second place a very great and considerable part of the Mosaick Law was enacted purely in opposition to the Old Heathen Rites and Customs Here I omit the Idolatry of the Zabii so much of late insisted upon by learned Men because I find no antient Footsteps of any such People in the World. The Mahometan Arabic Writers are the first that make any mention of them and their Divinity as the Arabians describe it is a meer Fanatick Rhapsody of Chaldaism or Astrologick Idolatry Iudaism or the History of the Patriarchs turned into Fables Gnosticism or the Worship of Demons and Angels Pythagorism or turning all things into Allegories and therefore must be of a much younger Date than Christianity The first time we read of them is in the Alchoran and Mahomet gives them that name of Zabii because they lay Eastward from Arabia for so the Word signifies Easterlings Or more probably from a Fanatick Imitation of the Old Testament that frequently and commonly styles the Heathen Idolaters by the Title of the men of the East i.e. the Chaldeans who were situated Eastward of Iudea After him we have no account of any such Nation as the Zabii till about Eight Hundred Years since For the Prophet and his barbarous Followers as they conquered destroyed all Monuments of Learning till being setled in Peace and Empire as is the manner of all Barbarians they betook themselves to the humour of Learning and translated Books out of other Languages not only Greek and Latin but of their Neighbour Nations into their own Tongue This is the most antient Account after all the noise that has been made of their extreme Antiquity that we have of any Zabian Writers so that setting that Modern Nation aside the Mosaick Rites were instituted in opposition to the more antient Idolatry of their Neighbour Nations particularly the Egyptians and the Canaanites of whom there was most danger by reason of their late conversation with the one and their new conversation with the other And therefore against these God arms them with a special Caution After the doings of the Land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt shall ye not do and after the doings of the Land of Canaan whether I bring you shall ye not do neither shall ye walk in their Ordinances This contrariety of the Jews to the Laws and Customs of all other Nations is made use of by Haman to King Ahasuerus to procure their Destruction Esther 3. 8. And Haman said unto King Ahasuerus there is a certain People scattered abroad and dispersed among the People in all the Provinces of thy Kingdom and their Laws are divers from all People neither keep they the Kings Laws

High Places These two things Idolatry and Adultery being so frequently joyned together in Scripture as the same Crime Thus far to mention no more it pleased God to provide against Idolatry by enacting special Laws in direct Opposition to the Heathen Rites When God had casher'd the more rank and notorious Acts of Heathen Worship he retained some of their more innocent Rites especially those that were derived from the antient Patriarchs before the later Corruptions were crept in lest if God had given a Law altogether new and abolished all their Old Customs People that are always fond of the Usages of their Fore-fathers should rather have revolted to the Heathen Idolatry than submit themselves to such a new and uncouth Religion and therefore out of condescention to their rudeness and weakness God permitted them to retain several of their former Rites and Ceremonies in his new Worship that by that Indulgence he might win them more easily to embrace his new Institution And this seems to be the Grammatical Sense of St. Paul's Expression That God suffered their Manners in the Wilderness Forty Years where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffered is taken from the Use or Language of Mothers or Nurses that are forced to humour and comply with the little Follies of their Children by any way to please them In allusion to this word God was pleased to express his Treatment of the Children of Israel who knowing the weakness of their rude and childish Understandings permitted and indulged them to enjoy not a few of their former Conceits together with his own Divine Law. And so Moses lets them know in his Farewel Speech That the Lord had all along born with them as a Father doth with his Child And so Grotius paraphrases that passage of St. Paul When we were Children we were in Bondage under the Elements of the World i. e. says he we were under subjection to those Rites and Usages that were common to us with the rest of the World as Temples Altars Sacrifices New Moons to which he might have added Oblations of First Fruits Purifications Festival Solemnities Tabernacles Dedication of Tenths the Ark the Cherubim or Teraphim for they are promiscuously used in Scripture and are of very antient use These and the like old Customs were enjoyned the People of Israel lest for want of them they should relapse to Idolatry And because these Customs were common to the Jews with the rest of the World therefore they are call'd the Elements of the World and weak and beggarly Elements and carnal Ordinances that were impos'd and born with till the time of Reformation in the Apostolical Writings when they would beat down the value of the Mosaick Law. But to omit the rest I shall only insist upon the Cherubim that God commanded to be placed over the Ark and all Divine Worship to be directed towards them And thou shalt make two Cherubims of Gold of beaten work shalt thou make them in the two ends of the Mercy seat c. That they were Statues or Images is out of doubt by their Description but of what particular Form is matter of Controversie among learned Men tho what ever they were I am not concerned it is enough that they were Images used in the Worship of God and then the use of Images is not in it self Idolatry That the Word originally and properly signifies an Ox is evident from Ezekiel who uses the Words promiscuously Chap. 1. 10. As for the likeness of their Faces They four had the Face of a Man and the face of a Lyon on the Right side and they four had the face of an Ox on the left side they four also had the face of an Eagle but Chap. 10. 14. the same things are thus described And every one had four faces the first Face was the face of a Cherub the second the face of a Man the third of a Lyon and the fourth of an Eagle And as an Ox or a Cherub was used by the Antients as a Symbol of Strength or Power so thence came they to signifie the thing it self so God tells the King of Tyre that he was his anointed Cherub i. e. that he had made him great and powerful Hence whenever God in Scripture is said to sit upon or dwell between the Cherubims it is when his Power particularly is represented Thus when the Israelites were defeated by the Philistins they agree at a Council of War to send for the Ark of God to save them out of the hands of their Enemies So the People sent to Shiloh that they might bring from thence the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of Hosts who dwelleth between the Cherubims So King Hezekiah in his Distress calling upon the Divine Protection and Deliverance from his Enemy And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said O Lord God of Israel that dwellest between the Cherubims thou alone art God of all the Kingdoms of the Earth So Psal. 99. 1. The Lord reigneth let the People tremble he sitteth between the Cherubims let the Earth be moved And for this reason were these sacred Images placed over the Ark as the Symbols or Hieroglyphicks to represent the Presence of the Divine Majesty so that as the Ark is styled God's Footstool the Cherubims are called his Throne And so when the Ark and Cherubims were brought into the Temple this Anthem was sung Lift up your Heads O ye Gates and be ye lifted up ye everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in Who is this King of Glory the Lord of Hosts the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in Battle In short these Images were the most sacred things in all the Jewish Religion what they were I will not determine some will have them to have been Statues of Beautiful Youths as they are now vulgarly represented Others the Statue of a young Bullock from the synonymous signification of the Words But the most learned conclude them as they suppose with good Authority from the Scriptures not to have been any one certain Form but mixt of several Forms in which that of a Bullock had the biggest share but compounded of these four shapes a Man's Face an Eagles Wings a Lyons Back an Oxes or Bullocks Thighs and Feet As they are described in the fore cited Chapters of Ezekiel 1. 10. And to this no doubt St. Iohn alludes in his Vision of the Four Beasts Rev. 4. 6 7. Round about the Throne were four Beasts and the first Beast was like a Lyon and the second like a Calf and the third had a face as a Man and the fourth was like a flying Eagle And they rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come In Allusion 't is no doubt to the representation of the immediate Divine Presence in the Ark by the Cherubims that were made up of these four Beasts that were probably pitcht