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
two grand singularities of his History and the main things that gave it popular Vogue and Reputation with his Party and were these two blind Stories and the Reasons depending upon them retrench'd it would be like the shaving of Samson's Hair and destroy all the strength peculiar to the History The Design was apparently laid before the Work was undertaken that industriously warps all things into Irenical and Erastian Principles and the vain Man seems to have been flattered by his Patrons into all that Pains to give Reputation to their Errors And here lay the Fondness for the Stillingsteetian Manuscript that it so frankly and openly asserted Erastian and Sacramentarian Principles as the Bottom of the Reformation But if such an unprov'd and unwarrantable piece of Paper without any certain Conveyance or Tradition without any Notice of so publick a Transaction in any contemporary Writer without any other Evidence of its being genuine than that it was put providentially into the Hands of Dr. St. when he wrote his Irenicum must be set up for undoubted Record against all the Records of the Churches our great Historian would be well advis'd to employ his Pains in writing Lampoons upon the present Princes of Christendom especially his own which he delights in most because it is the worst thing that himself can do than collecting the Records of former times For the First will require Time and Postage to pursue his Malice but the Second is easily trac'd in the Chimney Corner And therefore I would desire these Gentlemen either to give a better Account of the Descent and Genealogy of the Paper than that it came to Dr. St. by Miracle or else to give it less Authority But to proceed a new Office for the Communion-Service was drawn up in the same Year by the Bishops in compiling of which Cranmer had the chief hand and by his great Power over-ruled the rest at Pleasure in this Service he retains the old Form of Words used in the ancient Missals when there was no Zuinglianism or Doctrine of figurative Presence in the Christian World and the real Presence was universally believed as appears by the very Words of Distribution The Body of our Lord Iesus Christ which was given for thée preserve thy Body and Soul unto everlasting Life And the Blood of our Lord Iesus Christ which was shed for thée c. This was the Form prescribed in the First Liturgy of Edward the 6th and agreeable to this are the King 's own Injunctions published at the same time where the Eucharist is call'd the Communion of the very Body and Blood of Christ by which Form of Words they then expressed the real Presence as oppos'd to Zuinglianism This Liturgy being thus established and withal abetted by Act of Parliament for some time kept up its Authority in the Church against all Opposition though it was soon encountred with Enemies enough both at Home and abroad out of the Calvinian Quarters At the end of the Year ensuing Peter Martyr a rank Sacramentarian came over and after much Conversation with Cranmer he was plac'd Regius Professor in Oxford where he soon raised Tumults about the Zuinglian and Sacramentarian Doctrines But Bucer that prudent and moderate Reformer came not till some time after though invited at the same time And so either came too late or departed too soon for as he came over in Iune so he dy'd in Ianuary so that tho he were a great Assertor of the real Presence as our Church-Historian himself often observes he had not a Season to sow his Doctrine and Martyr reigning alone and being a furious Bigott in his Principles it is no wonder if Zuinglianism spread with so much Authority But the most fatal Blow to the Reformation of the Church of England was given by Calvin's Correspondence with the Protector and afterwards with Dudley taking upon him to censure expunge reform impose at his own Pleasure the Malignity of whose Influence first discovered it self in the Ceremonial War against a Cap and a Tippet but soon wrought into the Vitals of the Reformation especially as to the Liturgy and the Eucharist both which must be removed to give way to the Zuinglian Errors This Alteration was made in the 5th Year of the Kings Reign tho precisely when and by what Persons is utterly unknown only it is remark'd by our Church-Historian to have followed immediately after the Consecration of Hooper When as he observes the Bishops being generally addicted to the Purity of Religion spent most of this Year in preparing Articles which should contain the Doctrine of the Church of England Among which the 29th condemns the real Presence as the new Liturgy to which they are annexed had before almost run it up to the Charge of Idolatry For they were not content to abolish the old Missal Form of Distribution The Body of our Lord Iesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy Body and Soul unto everlasting Life Take and eat this c. But instead of it appoint this Zuinglian Form Take and eat this without any mention of the Body and Blood of Christ in remembrance that Christ died for thée c. Neither were these Innovators whoever they were satisfied with the Alteration of the old Form but add a fierce Declaration to bar the Doctrine of Real and Essential Presence Whereas it is ordered in this Office of the Administration of the Lord's Supper that the Communicants should receive the same Kneeling which order is well meant for a signification of our humble and grateful acknowledgment of the benefits of Christ therein given to all worthy Receivers and for avoiding such Prophanation and Disorder in the Holy Communion as might otherwise ensue Yet least the same Kneeling should by any Persons either out of Ignorance and Infirmity or out of Malice and Obstinacy be misconstrued and deprav'd it is here declared that no Adoration is intended or ought to be done unto any real or essential Presence of Christ's natural Flesh and Blood for the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very natural Substances and therefore may not be ador'd for that were Idolatry to be abhorr'd by all faithful Christians and the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven and not here It being against the Truth of Christ's natural Body to be at one time in more places than one And whereas a body of Articles was composed at the same time it is declared in the 29th Article That since the very being of humane Nature doth require That the Body of one and the same Man cannot be at one and the same time in many places but of necessity must be in some certain and determinate place therefore the Body of Christ cannot be present in many different places at the same time And since as the Holy Scriptures testifie Christ hath been taken up into Heaven and there is to abide till the end of the World it becomes not any of the Faithful to
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
enough in the Cause by making a Noise upon these Two loud Engines they could at pleasure drown the Dispute Now ever since this Alteration of the State of the War between the Two Churches we hear little or nothing at all of the real Presence in the Cause but it is become as great a Stranger to the i.e. their Church of England as Transubstantiation it self but the whole matter is resolved into a meer Sacramental Figure and Representation and a Participation only of the Benefits of the Body and Blood of Christ by Faith. I know not any one Writer of that Party of Men that hath ever own'd any higher Mystery but on the contrary they state all the Disputes about the Eucharist upon Sacramentarian Principles and with them to assert the true reality of the Presence of our Saviour's Body and Blood in the Sacrament as naturally resolves it self into Transubstantiation as that does into Idolatry And the main Argument insisted upon by them is the natural Impossibility of the thing it self to the Divine Omnipotence which beside the prophane Boldness of prescribing Measures to God's Attributes in a Mystery that they do not comprehend 't is as appears by the Premises a Defiance to the Practice of all Churches who have ever acknowledged an incomprehensible Mystery not subject to the Examination of Humane Reason but to be imbraced purely upon the Authority of a Divine Revelation And therefore that ought to be the only matter of Dispute For if it be a Divine Revelation as all Christendom hath hitherto believed that determines the Case without any further Enquiry and if any Man will not be satisfied with that Authority he makes very Bold with his Maker And Men of those Principles would no doubt make admirable Work with the Definitions of Articles of Faith by the Four first general Councils But to let their new way of Arguing pass it is these Men that first set up Sacramentarian Principles in this Church and then blew them into the Parliament House raising there every Session continual Tumults about Religion and it is to their Caballing with the Members that we owe these new and unpresidented TESTS Perhaps to have their own Decrees and Writings established by Law and imposed upon the whole Nation as Gospel In short if they own a real Presence we see from the Premises how little the Controversie is between that and Transubstantiation as it is truly and ingeniously understood by all reformed Churches If they do not they disown the Doctrine both of the Church of England and the Church Catholick and then if they own only a figurative Presence and it is plain they own no other they stand condemned of Heresie by almost all Churches in the Christian World and if this be the thing intended to be set up as it certainly is by the Authors and Contrivers of it by renouncing Transubstantiation then the Result and Bottom of the Law is under this Pretence to bring a new Heresy by Law into the Church of England And yet upon this Foot I find the Controversie stands at this present Day between the Bishop of Rome or the Bishop of Condom on one part and little Iulian in the Back-shop with his Dragoons on the other part The Bishop establishes the Real Presence in Opposition to the Figurative His Answerer turns the whole Mystery into meer Type and Figure by seting up a figurative Interpretation of the Words of Institution and yet confesses it at the same time to be somewhat more than a Figure To this it is reply'd I would gladly know what that is which is not the thing it self but yet is more than a meer Figure of it To this it is answered That the Presence is Spiritual but yet Real but how a Corporeal Substance should have a real Spiritual Presence is a thing that requires more Philosophy to clear it up than Transubstantiation or in the Words of the Author himself We suppose it to be a plain Contradiction that Body should have any Existence but what alone is proper to a Body that is Corporeal This is their last Resolution of this Controversie that a true real Presence is a Contradiction and so I think is a real spiritual Presence of a bodily Substance This Scent the whole Chace follows and unanimously agree in this Cry That there is no Presence but either meerly Figurative and that shuts out all Reality and is universally condemned by all the Reformation or meerly Spiritual i.e. the present Effects and Benefits of the absent Body and Blood of Christ which hath been all along equally cashiered by all other Reformed Churches as the other grand Scandal of Zuinglianism Thus the London Answerer to the Oxford Discourses There can be no real Presence but either Figuratively in the Elements or Spiritually in the Souls of those who worthily receive them So Dr. St. All which the Doctrine of our Church implies by this Phrase is only a real Presence of Christ's invisible Power and Grace so in and with the Elements as by the faithful receiving of them to convey real and spiritual Effects to the Souls of Men. The Oxford Answerer to the Oxford Discourses allows no other real Presence but the virtual Presence that is the meer Effect So the popular Author of the Discourse against Transubstantiation makes no Medium between the meer figurative Presence and Transubstantiation so that all other Presence that is not meerly Figurative comes under the Notion of Transubstantiation Now the gentlest Character he is pleased to give of this Monsieur is this That the Business of Transubstantiation is not a Controversie of Scripture against Scripture or of Reason against Reason but of downright Impudence against the plain meaning of the Scripture and all the Sence and Reason of all Mankind But besides the intolerable Rudeness of the Charge against all the Learned Men of the Church of Rome as the worst of Sots and Ideots if there be no middle real Presence between Transubstantiation and the Figure he hath cast all the Protestant Churches into the same Condemnation of Sots and Fools But howsoever rash and preposterous it may be for Presons that believe the real Presence to abjure the Word Transubstantiation ye to determine any part of Divine Worship in the Christian Church to be in its own Nature Idolatry is inhumane and barbarous IDOLATRY is a Stabbing and Cut-throat Word its least Punishment is the greatest that can be both Death and Damnation and good Reason too when the Crime is no less than renouncing the true God that made Heaven and Earth Thus Exod. 22. 20. He that sacrificeth unto any God save unto the Lord or Iehovah only he shall be utterly destroyed Deut. 13. 6. If thy Brother the Son of thy Mother or thy Son or thy Daughter or the Wife of thy Bosom or thy Friend which is as thine own Soul entice thee secretly saying Let us go and serve other Gods which thou hast not known thou nor thy Fathers namely
defines it So that it is not the meer Image it self that is the Idol but the Image as representing a false God tho it be only a Symbol and not a Picture of him as most of the Heathen Images were of the Sun as the Calf and the Ram. These are the Vanities or Representations of False Gods in Use at that time among the Neighbour Nations that seem to be here properly interdicted in this Commandment As for the Fourth Commandment it is the very Sacrament of the Worship of the true God the Creator of Heaven and Earth in opposition to Idolatry or the Worship of his Creatures and therefore is prescribed as it were as the Holy Day of the Creation continually to mind the Iews that the God that they Worship was the God that made the World and all the Gods that their Neighbours worshiped particularly the Sun Moon and Stars his Creatures This then being set up as the great Festival of the Creator of Heaven and Earth from hence it was that the Precept of not Worshiping of Idols and Keeping the Sabbath are so frequently coupled together in Scripture and that the Breach of the Sabbath is punished in the same manner as Idolatry it self But I shall treat of this more largely when I come to a Review At present I have only given a narrow Prospect of the whole matter but upon a full and open View of the Mosaick History it will appear in full and undeniable Evidence by these Two Considerations First If we consider the great Propensity of the Israelites to renounce the Worship of the One True Invisible God and to return to their accustomed Worship of Idol Gods. Secondly If we consider that these Gods were nothing else but the Heavenly Bodies and that the Sun was worshiped as the Supreme Deity As to the first their continual Revolts and Rebellions against that Almighty God of whose Power they had had so much Experience could proceed from nothing less than the most inveterate and invincible Prejudices Their whole History from their first Deliverance to their last Captivity is nothing but a perpetual Series of Disloyalty against the God of Israel to play the Harlot as the Scripture expresses it or commit Fornication with the Idols of the Gentiles Psal. 78. We have an acurate Epitome of this whole History the Miracles that God wrought for them in Egypt in the Wilderness in the Land of Canaan notwithstanding all which as they made continual Attempts of Rebellion so they at last sunk into an universal Apostacy v. 58. Provoking him to Anger with their High Places and moving him to Iealousie with their Graven Images so that at length he gave them up into the Hands of their Enemies And first the Ten Tribes were lead away Captive and not long after the Tribe of Iudah as it immediately follows in the same Psalm God was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel so that he forsook the Tabernacle of Shiloh the Tent which he placed among Men and delivered his Strength into Captivity and his Glory that was the Symbol of his Divine Presence into the Enemies hand But to Trace a few Particulars The first Opportunity they could gain in the Wilderness after the miraculous Deliverance out of Egypt by the Absence of Moses they set up and worshiped the Golden Calf a Form of Worship they were accustomed to in Egypt what this Idol was is variously disputed by Learned Men some will have it to have been made in Imitation of the Cherubin when as yet God had made no Description of them Others and almost all the learn'd will have it to have been the Idol of Apis or Serapis or Osyris whom the Egyptians worshiped by that Symbol and that it was the same Idol is certain but I take it to be much more antient for as yet we find not any Footsteps of Divine Worship given to Men and Women That Folly is of a much younger Date and seems to have been brought in purely by the Grecian Vanity to derive the Originals of all Nations from Themselves and to People Heaven with their own Country-men Thus they tell us that this Apis was King of the Argives natural Son to King Iupiter by Niobe who marrying Isis left his Kingdom and went into Egypt who teaching the Barbarous People Civility and the Art of dressing Vines and Agriculture He was by common consent chosen their King and after he had Reign'd with extraordinary Wisdom and Mercy to the great Improvement of the Nation when he dyed they deify'd him and worshiped him under the Image of a Calf or Ox all which is pure Grecian Fable For Egypt had been a famous Nation many Hundred Ages before any of the Grecian Deities were born It was a flourishing Kingdom in the days of Abraham I am sure they knew how to dress their Vines and plow their Fields before there was any such Nation as Greece or any of its Cantons known by any Records There was no News of them till the Trojan War and that is the thing objected by all Writers to the Greeks both before and since Christianity that their remotest Antiquity is meer Novelty in comparison of the Egyptians and is confest by their own best and most antient Writers at least in these Antient Times there were no Men nor Women Deities Gods or Goddesses But when the Greeks had stollen their Religion from the Eastern Nations in requital they furnished them with Gods of their own and clapt the Heads of one of their own Country-men upon every antient Idol thereby gaining Reputation of Antiquity both to their Nation and Religion as if they had been as antient as the Egyptian and Oriental Idolatry Thus they fasten this old Idol of the Golden Calf upon King Apis whereas if there ever were any such Man for the Greeks have neither Faith nor Knowledge enough to be believ'd one Word in any matter of Antiquity either of their own or other Nations he was born many Ages after this Idol had been Famous in the World And in that unknown Interval of which there are no Historical Records and therefore the whole Story of him as well as of all the other Grecian Gods is nothing but Fable And much more probable it is that the Greeks were so far from bringing a God Apis into Egypt that they carried the very word thence Apis being the Hebrew and Egyptian Word to signifie a Calf or a Bullock and so it is rendred by the Septuagint Ieremiah 46. 15. in the Prophetick Burthen against Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why did your Apis fly or that your beloved Calf desert you because the Lord did drive him Tho we render it in the English Translation Why are thy valiant Men swept away So that the Calf can be nothing else than an Old Egyptian Idol or Symbol of some Deity that they had been accustomed to Worship And therefore thinking themselves betray'd or deserted by Moses after Forty Days Absence as for this
Moses the Man that brought us up out of the Land of Egypt we wot not what is become of him they force Aaron to restore to them the Symbols of their Old Gods to go before them instead of this new God that now seem'd to have deserted them and to those they ascribe their Deliverance out of Egypt and this is the first chearful Act of Devotion that they seem to have perform'd since their Deliverance For as for all their Worship of the True God especially at the Delivery of the Law it seems to be forc'd and uneasie to which they were rather over-aw'd by dreadful Appearances than inclin'd by their own Choice And the Solemn Sacrifice that was made immediately after was the Act of Moses rather than the People who rather seem'd Spectators than Actors and therefore as soon as they thought themselves quit of him which was immediately after they set up their Idol and were transported in their Devotions towards it to a Degree of madness They rose up early in the Morning and offered Burnt-Offerings and brought Peace-Offerings and the People sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play This Solemnity had been endear'd to them by Custom and Education and there could be no other ground of their great Joy than that they were restored to the Exercise of their former Religion and the Worship of their Old Gods of which the Calf was one of the most eminent Symbols so that when they say that was the God that deliver'd them out of Egypt their meaning is the God of which That was the Symbol or Representation according to the Language of those Times and indeed of the whole Old Testament to give the Name of the Deity to the Idol Now at that time we find no other mention of any other Deities than the Sun and Heavenly Bodies so that this Calf could be the Symbol of no other Gods than the Sun and therefore was ever reckoned among their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their holy Animals as the Egyptian Priest and Antiquary Manetho informs us of which Aries and Taurus were the chiefest and both of them consecrated in honour of the Sun being the two first Signs in the Heavens but the Festival of Aries was the most Solemn when the Sun entring into that Sign began the Joyful New Year In Opposition to which the Israelites were commanded to cut the Throat of the Paschal Ram upon that very Day with all the Ceremonies of Contempt as shall appear more afterward This invincible Obstinacy in their Old Religion notwithstanding the mighty Works God had wrought for their Deliverance is severely upbraided to them long after by God himself to his Prophet Amos Have ye offered unto me Sacrifices and Offerings in the Wilderness Forty Years O House of Israel But ye have born the Tabernacle of your Moloch and the Star of your God Remphan and their Images which ye made to your selves This is a plain Description of their great averseness to the Worship of the True God in the Wilderness when God declares that in reality they never Worshiped him at all but stuck close to their old God Moloch which is but a Synonymous Word for the God Baal i. e. the Sun and therefore they are promiscuously us'd in Scripture to express one and the same Deity Thus Ieremy 19. 5. They have built the High Places of Baal to burn their Sons in the Fire for Burnt Offerings unto Baal But Chapter the 32. v. 35. the same Crime is thus express They built the High Places of Baal to cause their Sons and Daughters to pass through the Fire unto Moloch by which it is undeniably evident that they were but Synonymous Terms for one and the same God and indeed they are Words of the same Signification denoting Supreme or Kingly Power and so were appropriated by them to the Sun as Sovereign Lord of the Universe This strange Inclination of the Israelites to Idolatry or the Worship of Baal and Moloch is so vehemently upbraided to them in the Scripture as shews it to have been inveterate and impetuous beyond Example So God himself upbraids it to them that when he did such mighty things for them in their Deliverance from Egypt and only required them to renounce the Idols of Egypt Yet they rebelled against me and would not hearken to me They cast not away the Abomination of their Eyes nor the Idols of Egypt And when Ioshua had setled them in the Holy Land he forewarns them to serve the True God sincerely and to put away the Gods which their Fathers served on the other side the Flood and in Egypt By which it appears they had not yet parted with their Old Gods but the next Generation made a total Revolt and the Children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim and they forsook the Lord God of their Fathers which brought them out of the Land of Egypt and followed other Gods of the Gods of the People that are round about them and bowed themselves unto them and provoked the Lord to Anger and they forsook the Lord and serv'd Baal and Ashteroth This whole Book is nothing else but a Narrative of their Sin by Idolatry their Punishment by Captivity their Repentance by imploring of the Mercy of the God of Israel till at last after so many Relapses they are thus answered by God in their Addresses and Supplications unto him And the Children of Israel cryed unto the Lord saying We have sinned against thee both because we have forsaken our God and also served Baalim And the Lord said unto the Children of Israel did not I deliver you from the Egyptians from the Ammorites from the Children of Ammon from the Philistins Also the Zidonians and the Amalekites and Maonites did oppress you and you cry'd to me and I delivered you out of their hand yet you have forsaken me and served other Gods wherefore I will deliver you no more go and cry unto the Gods that ye have chosen let them deliver you in the time of your Tribulations But upon their Reformation they are delivered and as soon relapse of which a Train of Instances are to be seen in that Book Here it may be observ'd all along that the Scripture Notion of Idolatry is renouncing and forsaking the True God to Worship other Gods or Baalim that is Idols of the Sun whom they commonly call'd the King of Heaven And so they sin on till God suffered his own Ark the Symbol of his own Presence to be carried into Captivity They apply themselves to Samuel to intercede for them Samuel returns them the old Answer that God himself had often made If ye return unto the Lord with all your Hearts then put away the strange Gods and Ashteroth from among you and prepare your Hearts unto the Lord and serve him only and he will deliver you out of the Hands of the Philistins Then the Children 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