Son of God the making of the Universe as they plainly sound and either wanted such confidence as the Socinians or rather such Grammatical subtlety by which they wrested them to a very different sense The places of Scripture which I mean are such as these All things were made by the Word and without him was not any thing made that was made Christ is the Image of the invisible God the first-born of every Creature For in or by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers All things were created by him and for him And he is before all things and by him all things consist These words together with all other places of a like nature the Socinians do industriously and violently draw to a scope at which they were never aimed It is true that the aim of St. Paul in the place now cited has not been so particularly and critically discerned by some of the most Catholick Commentators But in general all of them well understood that these Expressions The Worlds Things visible and invisible all things that were made things in Heaven and things on Earth were such as no Jews or Christians commonly used in speaking of the founding the Christian Church and making the new world of the Gospel And where it is said That every house is built by some man but he that built all things is God there to interpret it after this fashion of Gods revealing the Christian Oeconomy as they may if they please for the same Key may serve for all such places is an absurd Comment which hath no need of confutation But with them who have denied first the Satisfaction of Christ and for the sake of that error his Divinity and then for the sake of that second error his Praeexistence and Creative power The beginning of the Logos is at the beginning of the Gospel and the Creation of all things is the new Creation in Evangelical truth and righteousness how harshly soever these Interpretations sound to the ears of the Judicious Why go they not on and say that God is called the Creator of Israel and therefore may mean the first words of the Book of Genesis of that people and not of the Material World Why do not they Comment in this manner on the words in the Acts God that made the World and all things therein that is the Gospel with all its appurtenancies seeing that he is Lord of Heaven and Earth that is of the new Evangelical Heaven and Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness dwelleth not in Temples made with hands They err who think the Apostle in that place to the Colossians did in Allegorical manner allude to Moses No he plainly opposeth himself to Gnosticism which was then on foot though put afterwards into many new dresses and to the Simonian Scheme of the world more like to that of Pythagoras than that of Moses though Moses has been thought to Platonize as some speak which to me does not so plainly appear from the words he has left us St. Paul calleth Christ the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Image of God and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first-born of every creature not thereby affirming that Christ was not very God but his first creature of a different substance but opposing him to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Images and the Beginning of the Platonick Simonians He therefore seems to me to speak to this effect You boast of I know not what first-borns and Beginnings which created other things Behold here the true First-born and Beginning who indeed made the World Thus Ignatius opposeth to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Gnosticks the Son of God affirming that there was one God of the Old and New Testament and one Mediator betwixt God and Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the creating and governing of all things and those who believe otherwise he in the following Page condemneth as the Disciples of Simon Magus The Thrones Dominions Principalities Powers mentioned in the next Verse are in like manner opposed to the Principles or Angels which those Hereticks fancied to be subordinate Creators and Governours of the visible World Epiphanius in his Twenty-third Heresie of the Saturnilians declareth their odd opinion concerning one Unknown Father and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Virtues Principalities and Powers made by him and of the inferior creatures made by them And in his Twenty-sixth Heresie of the Gnosticks he setteth down the order of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Heavenly Principalities How little now do these names differ from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dominions the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Principalities the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Powers of St. Paul the Apostle And that Apostle doth no more assert in this place the creation of such Orders than he doth the making of the Gnostick AEons in the first Chapter to the Hebrews where he affirmeth of Christ that he made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In such places he said in effect that the Logos was the true Principle which they mistook in their notion and miscalled by other names though they were in a kind of pursuit of him but in the dark and in false ways That it was he that made the World visible and intellectual by what names soever they called it or into what Classes soever they had disposed it and that this was not the effect of any such powers as they dreamed of they having no existence but in the shadows of their own imagination In the following Chapter he opposeth the Principles of Christian Religion to the Elements of their Philosophy And in the next Verse he opposeth to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Simonians the fulness of the Deity which dwelt in Christ. And after that he twice mentioneth his Headship over all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Principalities and Powers And thence he most aptly proceedeth to the condemnation of the worship of Angels For of them the Gnosticks made egregious Idols I am the more confirmed in this Discourse upon St. Paul's words by those of Irenaeus God said he in his refutation of the Gnostick Heresie did make all things both visible and invisible sensible and intelligible not by Angels or other Virtues But by his Word and Spirit This God is neither Beginning nor Virtue nor Fulness That is as I suppose it was read in the Greek Copy which the Learned world much wanteth neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no Gnostick Principle but true and very God Neither am I concerned at the Objection of those who ascribe these Terms to Valentinus for 't is plain he was not the Inventer It appeareth by the studiousness of Socinus in order
be invisible and the Son to be visible are exceedingly different from those of the Arians For the Arians degrading the Son to the condition of a Creature another a lesser a second God as Eusebius of Caesarea is bold to call him They suppose him to consist of a visible substance So Maximinus the Arian remembred by St. Austin makes the Son invisible only as the Angels by non-appearance and the Father invisible by reason of his superior and immutable essence In the mean time this was the Creed of the Catholicks that the whole Trinity was invisible in one Divine substance It was also their belief that the Son appeared and not the Father not from any difference of nature but of order only the Father being as it were the root or head of the Trinity and therefore not so fitly appearing as his Substitute the second Person And they could perceive no more mutability in the Logos when he appeared than in the Father when he not in shape but by voice did own him as his only begotten Son And by this reason Saint Austin might have answered the Arians without asserting as he does that in the Old Testament the whole Trinity appeared For the manner in which this Appearance of the Son of God was effected I conceive it to have been done by the Assumption of some principal Angel upon the greatest and most solemn occasions without any vital or personal union and by the ministry of some other holy spirits together with an extraordinary motion sometimes in the air and thence in the brain and sometimes in the brain only And in this opinion I have been the more confirmed since I found the concurrence of the very learned and judicious Mr. Thorndike in great measure If I were now to guess what Angel was assumed I would fasten my conjecture on Michael the Arch-angel whom the Hebrews call the Prince of Faces or the Prince of the Presence By the Son the Father made the World and what if I say he governed it also as by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Word For in God we do not distinctly apprehend his way of working but conceive of it under the more general notion of his will and command If I declare that the Son always acted in the Father's name I make but the same Profession which Tertullian did many ages ago and avoid the Anathema which Marcus Arethusius or rather which others in the Council of Sirmium denounced against all who confess not that the Son ministred to the Father in the Creation of all things and who maintain that when God said Let us make man the Father said it not to the Son but to himself Accordingly where God is said in the Old Testament to have appeared they seem to mistake who ascribe it to an Angel Personating God and not to the second Person as the Shechinah or as Tertullian calleth him the Representator of the Father To this purpose it hath been often noted by others and ought by me in this argument to be again brought to remembrance how often there is mention in the ancient Paraphrases of the Jews of the Word of God Neither doth it enervate the force of this observation that what we translate the Word does often signifie I Thou or He. Both because several of the places will not admit of that other sense and because the Jews themselves so commonly own this and so often mention the Logos or Word of the Father Philo is very frequent in speaking of the Divine Logos as the Substitute and Image of the invisible God both in his Book of Dreams and of the Confusion of Tongues It is said Philo in that latter Book a thing well becoming those who so join together fellowship and science to desire to see God If that cannot be they must content themselves with his sacred Image his Word A saying which Eusebius esteemed worthy of an Asterick and accordingly transcribed it into his Book of Evangelical Preparation The same Jew giveth to the Logos the title of the shadow or Portraict of God adding that God Almighty used him as his instrument in framing the World It is true that by the Logos Philo doth often understand the World which by the greatness order and beauty of it declareth naturally the Power Wisdom and goodness of God and pleadeth with him in the quality of the Workmanship laid before the feet of the Workman But it is as true and manifest that he speaketh also of the Logos of this inferior Logos as the maker and governour of it In his Book de Mundi Opificio he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divine Word or the Word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Image of God And he says further of it that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a super-coelestial Star the fountain of all the sensible or visible Luminaries And he had said in the former Page That the World was the Image of the Image or Archetypal Exemplar of the Logos of God PART 3. Of the Shechinah of God from Adam to Noah THis Substitute and Shechinah of God made Adam and he that gave him his Being gave him most probably the Law of it For so the Fathers interpret that in St. John The Word was God That or He was the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world And in this sense we are to expound St. Justin the Martyr where he speaketh of the Knowledg of God in Socrates by the Word He meaneth not that he was naturally a Christian but that so far as he was indued with such principles of Religious reason as Christianity owneth he had derived it from the Logos or Word of God who made the World and in it man a reasonable Creature To him he appeared as well as to others who sprang from him helping the mind as soon as it was seated in this thicker region of bodily fantasms And to Adam the Logos appeared I know not whether I should say in the shape of man or in the way of a bright cloud moving in Paradise when the wind began to rise and asking with a voice of Majesty after his rebellious subject And that this was the Son of God is insinuated by the Targum of Onkelos in the eighth verse of the third of Genesis The Text of Moses is thus translated And when they our first Parents heard the voice of the Lord God But this is the sense of the words of Onkelos And they heard the voice of the Word of the Lord God And amongst Christian Writers I may alledg Tertullian and St. Hilary of Poictiers who aboundeth in this Argument as also Theophilus Antiochenus whose words are so pertinent that I cannot forbear the enlarging of my discourse with the translation of them You will object said Theophilus that I teach that God cannot be circumscribed and yet that I say
the Son of God whom the Father hath appointed to judg the world Eusebius thinketh he hath warrant to say from the words of the same Moses For so the Father interprets the Prophet when he speaks of this Lord the Word the sensible descending Shechinah raining from the Lord or invisible Father fire and brimstone out of Heaven or the Region of the Clouds And in this particular the Council of Sirmium is so peremptory and so severe that it anathematizeth all who affirm those words The Lord rained from the Lord to have been spoken not of the Father and the Son but of the Father raining from himself that dreadful fire and brimstone This Lord then is the same with him of whose appearance we read in the Chap. 17. of Genesis It is said in the 22 verse of that Chapter That God went up from Abraham so runs the Hebrew Text. But the Chaldee Paraphrast calleth him who ascended Fulgur Dei that is the luster of the Divine Shechinah drawn up as it were towards the firmament of Heaven Of the appearance of Three in human shape to Abraham St. Hilary of Poictiers discourseth at large And in that Discourse he contendeth That the person to whom Abraham did particularly address himself calling him his Lord was the Son of God attended then only but with two visible Angels And this interpretation seemeth more probable than that of S. Cyril of Alexandria who because three appeared and Abraham spake as unto one concludeth thence an Apparition of the Trinity in Unity The same S. Hilary conceiveth the same Lord to have formerly appear'd to Hagar whom he observeth to give to him the like titles of Lord and God and to have receiv'd from him the promise of a numberless off-spring Moses himself before he mentions these titles given by Hagar had indeed call'd him who appear'd to her by the name of an Angel or the Messenger or Officer of the Lord. But even that name if spoken with emphafis is not improperly ascribed to the second Person or Logos who was the Shilo that is as Grotius doth interpret it the sent of God Of the name Angel there given to the Shechinah S. Hilary delivers his opinion after this manner To Agar saith he spake the Angel of God And he was both God and Angel God of God and called Angel as being the Angel of the Great Council So he is called saith Tertullian and styled a Messenger not as a name designing his Nature but his Office And they are superficially skill'd in Philo the Jew who know not that he calls the Logos both Gods Image and his Angel Jusiin Martyr also sheweth to Trypho the Jew that the God who appeared to Abraham was the Minister of the Universal Creator and he afterwards gives this as the reason why the Word is call'd an Angel to wit that he may be known to be the Minister or Substitute of the Father of all things Justin Martyr might here have respect to the words of St. Paul who teacheth that all things are of the Father and by the Son The Son was that Angel of God who strove with and blessed the Patriarch Jacob. Hence Jacob in grateful memory of that blessing call'd the place Peniel having there seen the Face that is the Shechinah or Image of God personated by the Logos his Son That Shechinah though it appeared without human figure might not unfitly be called the Face because it was that Divine Presence to the Majesty of which as to the Face of a Prince the religious subjects of the true God made their application This again is the opinion of Eusebius and St. Hilary and Justin Martyr our three former witnesses This last-named Father telleth Trypho the Jew That it was the Son of God who appear'd both to Abraham and Jacob and that it was absurd to think the Immensity of the Godhead leaving the Heavens should it self appear in a narrow and limited space on earth And the forementioned Fathers of the Council of Sirmium denounced in their Creed a solemn Curse against those who should maintain that it was the unbegotten Father and not the Son who strove with Jacob. Whilst God by such appearances as these encouraged true Religion in the holy Line the ungodly Race especially of Cham did further blot out the Image of God by receiving the impressions of numberless Idols of which some excelled others but none were worthy the veneration they paid to them The Idols which admitted of much better apology than many of their fellows and which approached nighest the Shechinah of God on earth when figured were mighty Potentates and Benefactors And so the Author of that Book de Mundo which hath been commonly ascribed to Aristotle representeth God as some Puissant King of Persia sitting in his Royal Palace at Susa or Ecbatane and giving Laws to all Asia and receiving intelligence of all its affairs Besides this more generous Idolatry there were many other kinds and those so apparently ridiculous that barely to repeat them were in effect to deride the Nations guilty of them Amongst other places Egypt was the nursery of these Follies There every thing which could help or hurt or represent and be assumed by a Daemon or acted by one of his Impostures was conceived to have in it a Divine power and received Religious worship The Rains of AEthiopia swell their River and break over into fruitfulness and the Nile is straitway a God Some natural or political cause preventeth or removeth some annoyance and the effect is ascribed with Divine Praises to the vain and insufficient Talisman for as Jamblicus speaking professedly of their Mysteries doth inform us They conceived a Divine Power able to procure or prevent good and evil did straightway adjoin it self to that piece of matter which was congruously chosen and figured according to some Coelestial aspect The Constellations are by fancy and such as is sometimes injudicious enough formed into the shapes of certain Creatures on earth and those Creatures are worshipped after having been supposed either eminently to contain the virtues or with singular perception to be sensible of the operations of such knots of Stars The seed of Abraham sojourning in this Land which abounded with Idols and with a great number of external rites and being by custom very prone to them and as it were moulded into a ritual temper it pleased that God who condescendeth sometimes as an indulgent Father to lisp with Infants to consider their infirmity when he led them out of bondage by the hand of Moses He therefore by the same Moses gave to that people such an Oeconomy a dispensation containing a visible Shechinah and a great many Ceremonies as might innocently gratifie their busie tempers and sensitive inclinations and divert them from the worship of false gods and from those abominable formalities with which in Egypt those Idols were
and Causes of Idolatry being considered I intend in the next place to inquire into the time of its Birth so far as the silence or uncertainty of Tradition will permit It is one of the Aphorisms of Philo the Elder if he were the Author of the Book of Wisdom that Idols were not from the beginning And it is a question among the Learned whether Idolatry was any of those pollutions which defiled the old World and brought the deluge upon it It doth not appear that it was extant before the flood and many believe it to be no older than Cham. Tertullian it is true was of opinion that Idolatry began in the days of Seth and that Enoch restored true Religion and is for that Reason said in Scripture to have walked with God He hath given us his opinion but he hath concealed the grounds of it And I can think of nothing so likely to move him to this belief as the reverence he had for the fictitious Prophesie of Henoch which he often citeth and in which are contained severe Comminations both against the makers and worshippers of Idols S. Cyril of Alexandria is much of another mind affirming in his first Book against Julian the Apostate That all men from Adam to the days of Noah worshipped that God who by nature was one And he strengtheneth his opinion with this Reason Because no man is by Moses accused as a worshipper of other gods and impure Demons If that false Religion had then set foot in the World it would scarce have escaped that Divine Historian but he would in likelihood both have mention'd it plainly and severely reproved it For this is no sin of a mean stature It is in the judgment of Tertullian the principal crime of mankind the chief guilt of the world the total cause of Gods judgment or displeasure He meaneth that it is a kind of Mother-sin containing in it all other evils on which the Judg of the World passeth sentence of condemnation Lactantius goeth higher still in his censure of it giving to it the name of an inexpiable wickedness And S. Gregory Nazianzen sheweth what apprehension he had of the greatness of this guilt when he calleth it The last and first of evils So monstrous a sin if it had been in those early times committed it would a man would think have been as soon reflected on by Moses as the violence or injustice which then filled the earth or the unclean mixtures of the sons of God with the daughters of men That is as I guess in the same sense in which the tall Trees of Lebanon are called the Cedars of God the unbridled appetites of the High and Potent who made their Power subservient to their lust In the infancy of the World there were many Causes which might prevent the sin of Idolatry By the fresh date of it from the Creation in which God almost beyond miracle it self discovered his Almighty Being and Oneness by the appearance of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Son of God to Adam and others of which appearance largely afterwards by the long-lives of Adam and Seth and the rest of the Holy Line who could often inculcate to their families what themselves were so abundantly assured of and possibly also by the conviction of him who was the head of the degenerate Line unrighteous Cain himself who having seen God in his Shechinah could not propagate either direct Atheism or Idolatry though he was the Father of evil manners By these and perhaps by other Causes to us unknown it might come to pass that the worship of Idols was either not in being or at least not in frequent exercise in those first Generations We know nothing of those times but by the Pen of Moses and a doubtful word of his hath inclin'd some to refer the Origine of Idolatry to the days of Enos In his time saith Moses men began to Profane as some would render his Text instead of translating it as our Church doth to call upon the Name of the Lord. It is true that the Hebrew word Hochal doth sometimes signifie Prophaned But there is no Reason which may enforce such an exposition of it in this place the Name of God having been formerly profaned and with great irreverence abused in the irreligious Families of Cain and Lamech Neither is the termination of our worship on the creature instead of the Sovereign God the only prophanation of his Holy Name A rude Tongue and an immoral Life commit that offence and not only an Idolatrous mind or body Such profaneness the Arabian Metaphrast imputeth to that time whilst he thus turneth the Hebrew of Moses Then began men to recede from their obedience to God But to me the Chaldee Interpreter seemeth to come nigher to the scope of the Words the sense of which he expresseth in this manner In those days men began to make supplications in the name of the Lord. That is the numbers of Families increasing in the days of Enos they appointed more publick places for Gods service in which at set-times they might together and in a more solemn Congregation worship their great Creator I must confess that this exposition doth much disagree with the mind of Maimonides For he doth not only refer the beginning of Idolatry to the times of Enos but he accuseth Enos himself of that gross and stupid wickedness For thus he begins that short Book which he hath written on that Subject In the days of Enos men erred very greatly and the minds of the wise-men of that age were overborn with stupidness Even Enos himself was one of them who thus erred Now this was their error the worship of the Stars A very rash and rude reflexion upon so holy a Patriarch and relishing of Rabbinical dotage For certainly divers of those Writers if any others have had a flaw in their Imaginations though Maimonides amongst them all may be allowed the largest intervals of sobriety From Cham therefore rather than from Enos the Learned derive the beginning of Idolatry though I know not whether under him it may not be dated a little too soon The heart of Cham being before the flood deeply depraved it was rather hardened by the escape than warned by the mighty danger of that general Deluge Insomuch that it was just with God to give him up to the further seducement of his sensuality and to the visible power of the old Serpent who may seem to have been for a time chained down by the Curse in Paradise but was now as I conjecture let loose again for the punishment of those whom Gods severe and miraculous discipline did not cleanse of their folly He therefore is esteemed the Father of Idolatry that Monster in Religion which in his corrupt Loyn was by degrees multiplied into innumerable heads But S. Cyril of Alexandria in two places beginneth Idolatry at the confusion of Languages and with Belus rather than
Temples Altars Priests or Prayers though by such worship he Idolized the Heavens the Earth and Man Let this then from the Premises be the conclusion of the present Chapter that the Gods of the Heathen are Idols and Vanities and unworthy the submission of any reasonable creature CHAP. VI. Concerning the Idolatry of the Jews and particularly of their worshipping the Golden Calf Also of the Egyptian Symbol of Apis as at that time not extant And of the probable Reasons which set up Moses as the Original Apis. PART 1. Of the Provisions made by God against Idolatry among the Jews THE Israelites by their Constitution were of all Nations a people the most averse to Idolatry Their first Commandment prescribeth the Worship of one God Their second forbiddeth external religious honour to graven Images which by the exhibition of that honour whatsoever they were before become very Idols Wherefore St. Cyprian thus renders the sense of the Command Thou shalt not make to thy self an Idol And the contention about the Translation of Pesel by Graven thing Idol or Image is with respect to the design of Moses an unnecessary Grammar-War This second Command against the Worship of Images the Jews have esteemed the great Command of all Their very Moneys have had on the Obvers the name of Moses inscribed and on the Revers that second precept or prohibition Their third Command Thou shalt not take or bear in thy mouth the name of Jehovah thy God in vain may seem also to discountenance Idols and to forbid all Oaths of promise made by them in the name of God by which they often called their false Deities It may seem to forbid not so directly the breach of Neder a Vow to the Lord as Schefugnah according to the distinction of the Jews a Vow by the Lord or by his Name when that Name was used in signifying some Idol I say it may seem so to do for that it does so I rather guess than affirm In this conjecture I am helped by Tertullian That Father discoursing concerning the unlawfulness of naming the Gods of the Gentile-world maketh use of this distinction he teacheth that the bare naming of them is lawful because it is necessary in Discourse but he condemneth the naming of them in such manner as if they were really Gods After this distinction he pursueth the Argument in this manner The Law saith You shall make no mention of the names of other gods neither shall they be heard out of your mouths This it commanded that we should not call them gods For it saith in the first part or Table of it Thou shalt not take up the Name of the Lord thy God in vain that is in an Idol He therefore fell into Idolatry who hononred an Idol with the name of God But if they must be called gods I should add something by which it may appear that I do not own them to be Gods For the Scripture it self calls them gods but then it addeth by way of discrimination their gods or the gods of the Nations In such manner David called them gods when he said the gods of the Nations were Devils It is a customary wickedness to say Mehercule And it proceeds from the ignorance of some who know not that they swear by Hercules Now what is swearing by those whom in Baptism you have forsworn or renounced but a corrupting of the Faith with Idolatry For who does not honour those he swears by To this purpose are those words in Hosea Though thou Israel play the Harlot yet let not Judah offend and come not ye unto Gilgal neither go ye up to Beth-aven or Bethel now become a house of iniquity vanity or Idolatry nor swear the Lord liveth That is seeing they worship the Golden Calves which are really Idols though they give to them the name of Jehovah as setting them up for his Symbol yet use not you that word there or the form of their oath by Jehovah for thereby you will take up the name of God and the name by which he is most eminently distinguished in vain or in an Idol Idols are Elilim or vanities they are very lyes at once to use the terms the Prophet gives them and to allude to the Syriack Version of the third Command Thou shalt not take up the name of the Lord thy God with a lye He therefore who sweareth by them without distinction calling them gods or giving them any names which signifie Divine Power He that sweareth or voweth by Coelum or Coelus that is the Heavens by Pluto or the Earth such a one does not only dishonour the name of the true God but he doth also by interpretation forswear himself for he sweareth by an Idol lie or vanity vowing by its help to perform his Oath which therefore he cannot by that means perform because he trusteth to an helpless thing though by his trust he honoureth it as a Divine Power Further one great end of the fourth Command was the prevention of Idolatry The seventh day was observed as a Memorial of that one God the Creator of the World and the God of Israel and they who kept it holy kept it holy to Jehovah and made profession hereby that they were not Gentiles who worshipped many Gods but the seed of Abraham who served but one the God of that Patriarch and of Isaac and Jacob. This saith Mr. Mede was the end of the Sabbath that thereby as by a Symbolum or sign that people might testifie and profess what God they worshipped He ought it may be to have spoken this with limitation and called it a great end and that it was such is evident from the Text of Moses than whom no man better understood the Levitical Oeconomy To him God spake saying Speak thou also to the children of Israel saying Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that ye may know that I am the Lord who doth sanctifie you or set you apart as my Worshippers distinct from those who worship Idols Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their Generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth and on the seventh day he rested or ceased and was refreshed or was pleased with that exceeding good and beautiful frame of things which his Wisdom Goodness and Power had made A like end there was of the Levitical Sacrifices God needed them not the Sacrifice of a pure and humble mind was more agreeable to him who is an Intellectual Spirit But the Israelites doted on such a gross manner of expressing their devotion And seeing they must needs offer Sacrifice it pleased God to give them a Law which might at once indulge them in their inclination and restrain them from sacrificing unto
to the eluding of the force of such places that he believed an acknowledgment of Christ as Creator was in effect a confession of his Godhead This then being by Arius granted and by Socinus denied that Christ created the Natural World it is that single point in which Arius apart from Socinus is chargeable with Idolatry And certainly he is not accused upon slight and idle suspicion if the charge be drawn up against him either from Scripture or Reason In the Scripture God himself doth prove himself to the World to be the true one God by his making of all things In what other sense will any man whose prejudice does not bend him a contrary way interpret the following places Who hath measured out the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out the Heavens with a span and comprehended the dust of the Earth in a measure and weighed the Mountains in scales and the Hills in a ballance Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord or being his counseller hath taught Him Thus saith the God the Lord he that created the Heavens and stretched them out He that spread forth the Earth and that which cometh out of it He that giveth breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein I am the Lord that is my name and my Glory I will not give to another Thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob and formed thee O Israel Fear not Before me there was no God formed neither shall there be after me The Lord is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King or the King of Eternity Thus shall ye say unto them the Nations The gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens He hath made the Earth by his Power he hath established the World by his Wisdom and hath stretched out the Heavens by his Discretion Thus speaketh the Scripture In the next place let it be considered whether Reason can dissent from it What notion will Reason give us of the true God if it supposeth such wisdom and power in a creature as can make the World For does not Reason thence collect her Idea of God conceiving of him as of the mighty and wise framer of the Universe thus the very Americans themselves I mean the Peruvians did call their supreme God by the name of Pachaia Chacic which signifies as they tell us the Creator of Heaven and Earth In this then Arius is particularly to be condemned in that he supposeth the Creator a Creature and yet professeth to worship him under the notion of the Maker of all things It is true that Arius gave not to Christ the very same honour he did to the Father And his Disciples in their Doxologies were wont in cunning manner to give Glory to the Father by the Son And such a Form Eusebius himself used and we find it at the end of one of his Books against Sabellius Glory be to the one unbegotten God by the one only begotten God the Son of God in one holy Spirit both now and always and through all Ages of Ages Amen Neither do the Arians give any glory to Christ but that which they pretend to think enjoined by God the Father But if Christ had been a Creature the Creator would not by any stamp of his Authority have raised him to the value of a natural God and such a God they honour whatsoever the terms be with which they darken their sense for he is honoured by them as Creator and Governour and dispenser of Grace PART 3. Of the Idolatry of the Socinians THe point in which Socinus offendeth by himself is the Worship he giveth Christ whilst he maketh him but a man and such a man as is but a machine of animated and thinking Matter for though he declineth not the word soul or spirit I cannot find at the bottom of his Hypothesis any distinct substance of a Soul in Christ. If that Principle had been believed by him why doth he suppose the Lord Jesus bereaved of all Perception as long as his Body remained lifeless in the Grave Why do his Followers maintain that the dead do no otherwise live to God than as there is in him a firm purpose of their Resurrection for so the Vindicator of the Confession of the Churches of Poland written by Shlichtingius is pleased to discourse We believe said he not only that the Soul of Christ supervived his Body but also that the Souls of other men do the like But if Cichovius thinketh that the dead do otherwise live to God than as it is always in the hand and power of God to raise them up and restore them to life let him go and confute Christ where he saith I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Now Reason the great Diana of Socinus though he often took a cloud of fancy for his Goddess can't but judg it a disparagement to the Idea of a God to suppose such Divinity as can govern the World and hear and act in all places at once as Christ is by Socinus confessed to do in a portion of living Matter not six-foot square reserved in the Heavens and perceiving by the help of motion on its organs Arius advanced the Idea of Divinity to a much higher and more becoming pitch for he overcome with the plain evidence of Scripture maintained the Praeexistence of the Logos and supposed him to be a distinct substance from Matter And he might consequently affirm with consistence to his Principles that Christ could know without the mere help of motion and be spread in his substance to an amplitude equal with that of the Material World For the Material World is but a Creature one Body of many Creatures and it implieth no contradiction to say of God that he can make one Creature as big as the collection of all the rest But notwithstanding such amplitude there would still be wanting infinite Wisdom For in the Idea of God we have no other notion of it than as of such a Wisdom as sufficeth to frame the World and to govern it after it hath been framed Now this latter Point is that in which both Arius and Socinus are together condemned whilst both worship Christ as one who under God disposeth and governeth all things It is true that he is such but such he had not been if he had not been consubstantial with the Father In that sense he is the Father's Wisdom and whilst Arius and Socinus adore him as Gods Wisdom yet not as God they ascribe to the Creature the Attribute by which the Creator is known For the Scriptures they in opposition to all other gods do as well ascribe the Government as the Creation of the World to that one God of Israel Hear them speaking in this matter with so
loud and plain a voice that he who is dull of hearing cannot mistake them unless he by obstinacy make himself deafer still and will not distinctly hear them In them we find this Prayer made by the pious King Hezekiah when he was distressed by Sennacherib O Lord of Hosts God of Israel that dwellest between the Cherubims Thou art the God even thou alone of all the Kingdoms of the Earth Thou hast made Heaven and Earth Incline thine ear O Lord and hear open thine eyes O Lord and see and hear all the words of Sennacherib who hath sent to reproach the living God Of a truth Lord the Kings of Assyria have laid wast all the Nations and their Countries and have cast their Gods into the fire for they were no gods but the work of mens hands wood and stone therefore they have destroyed them Now therefore O Lord our God save us from his hand that all the Kingdoms of the Earth may know that thou art the Lord even thou only Other places there are to the same purpose and amongst them these Let them the Nations or Gentiles give glory unto the Lord and declare his praise in the Islands The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man He shall prevail against his enemies I have declared and I have saved and I have shewed when there was no strange god among you therefore ye are my witnesses saith the Lord that I am God Yea before the day I was he I will work and who shall let it Thus saith the Lord the Redeemer I am the Lord your holy one the Creatoâ—… of Israel your King He that raiseth you out of mean estate and ruleth over you Thus saith the Lord who maketh a way in the Sea and a path in the mighty waters Who would not fear thee O King of Nations The stock is a doctrine of vanities but the Lord is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain so the Lord shall make bright clouds and give them showers of rain to every one grass in the field For the Idols have spoken vanity The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole Earth The King of Chaldea shall gather the captivity as the sand and shall scoff at Kings Then shall his mind change and he shall pass over and offend imputing this his power unto his god Art thou not he from everlasting O Lord my God mine Holy One we shall not die O Lord thou hast ordained them the Powers of Chaldea for judgment and O mighty God! Thou hast established them for correction Who hath f directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his counsellor hath taught him with whom took he counsel and who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment Behold the Nations are as a drop of a bucket See here the Spirit of God asserting the Divinity of the one God of Israel against Idols by displaying his Wisdom and Power in the Natural and Political Government of the World But lest the evidence of these places should be weakened by any as Scriptures of the Old Testament relating to times before our Lord was actually made by the Eternal Father the King of the World I will add a few more which may tend to the preventing of such an Evasion Isaiah prophesying of the Baptist and of the blessed times of the Gospel introduceth that voice thus crying out to Jerusalem and Judah Behold your God Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him He shall feed his flock like a shepherd In the same Isaiah for I scarce seek further than that Evangelical Prophet the God of Israel repeateth this profession Before me there was no God framed neither shall there be after me Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts I am the first and I am the last and besides me there is no God And yet of the Logos the Socinians will profess as did Nathaniel Thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel and as doth the Book of the Revelation that he is Alpha and Omega the first and the last The God of Israel had said also in the foregoing Chapter I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour Is there a God besides me yea there is no God I know not any Yet of the Logos Socinians and Arians make confession in the words of St. John saying That he was in the beginning with God the Father The design of all these places ought not in reason to be baffled by saying with confidence these two things First That the Power which Christ had was given him by God and in order to his Glory Secondly That it is not unlawful but our duty to worship a Creature by Gods command though without his permission it be Idolatry If Christ had not been more than a creature God would not have enjoined us so high a Worship of Him neither would it have been consistent with his incommunicable Omnipotence and Wisdom to have given him all power in Heaven and in Earth This as Athanasius speaketh were to turn his Humane Nature into a second Almighty The Logos was so before all Worlds and ceased not to be so by assuming the Humane Nature into Unity of Subsistence To say then that Christ is a Creature yet made such a God who can hear all Prayers supply all wants give all Graces needful to his Body the Church know all the secrets of all Thoughts not directed to him govern and judg with Wisdom all the World and to Worship him under this Divine Notion what is it else than the paying an homage to a presumed Creature which is due only to the one very God for what apprehensions greater than these do we entertain concerning the true God when we call upon him confide in him or revere him He then that meeteth such an Inscription in Racovia as he may find often in Misna in this manner D. O. S. and at length Deo Omnipotenti Sacrum and meant of Christ to whom in the Verses set underneath the application is particularly made How must he expound it He must either interpret it of Christ Transubstantiated as 't were by their fancy into the Father or worshipped like Neptune in the D. M. at Rome in the quality of the true God whilst he is confessed to be but a Creature For they will own but one God in nature and person and yet will give to Christ not acknowledged as a coeternal Subsistence that which belongeth in eminent manner to his Idea His Idea sure it is for that Being appeareth to our mind as the best and greatest which with such mighty Goodness Power and Wisdom governs the insensible sensible rational and Christian World I end this Chapter with the
That it is a fond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture but rather repugnant to the Word of God Now what can we judg of that Worship which hath for its object something else besides God and is contrary to the Scripture We cannot but think it not a mere impertinence but a wicked act an act which by contradicting his Authority diminisheth his honour and being an act of Worship nothing less than one degree of Idolatry Again in its twenty-eighth Article it teacheth concerning the consecrated Elements That they were not by Christs institution or ordinance reserved carried about lifted up and worshipped By which words it noteth the Adoration of the Host in the Church of Rome not as an innocent circumstance added by the discretion of that Church but as an unlawful worship though it doth not expresly brand it with the name of Idolatry In the Rubrick after the Communion the Adoration of the consecrated Elements is upon this reason forbidden Because the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very natural substances And it is there added That they so remaining the Adoration of them would be Idolatry to be abhorred by all faithful Christians This Rubrick doth in effect charge the Church of Rome with gross Idolatry for it supposeth the Object which they materially worship to be in its natural substance still a creature and a creature disjoined from Personal union with Christ and not according to the words of their St. Thomas inserted into their Missal a Deity latent under the accidents of Bread and Wine And it concludeth that the worship of such a substance is such Idolatry as Christian Religion abhorreth It doth not indeed affirm in terms that the worship of such a substance by a Romanist who verily thinks it to be not bread but a Divine body is Idolatry but it saith that whence such a conclusion may be inferred It saith that the bread is still bread in its substance and if it be really such whilst it is worshipped the mistake of the worshipper cannot alter the nature of the thing though according to the degrees of unavoidableness in the causes of his ignorance it may extenuate the crime Upon supposition that still 't is very bread in its substance Costerus and it may be Bellarmine himself would have condemned the Latria of it as the Idolatrous worship of a Creature even in Paul the simple of whom stories say that he was extreamly devout but withal that he knew not which were first the Apostles or the Prophets And here it ought to be well noted that there is a wide distance betwixt this saying That Idolatry is a damnable sin and this assertion That Idolatry in any degree of it and in a person under any kind of circumstances actually damneth I would here also commend it to the observation of the Reader that the Church of England speaketh this of the worship of the corporal substance of the Elements present in the Eucharist after consecration and not of the real and essential presence of Christ. And for this reason it left out the terms of Real and Essential used in the Book of King Edward the sixth as subject to misconstruction Real it is if it be present in its real effects and they are the essence of it so far as a Communicant doth receive it for he receiveth it not so much in the nature of a thing as in the nature of a priviledg But I comprehend not the whole of this Mystery and therefore I leave it to the explication of others who have better skill in untying of knots In the Commination used by the Church of England 'till God be pleased to restore the Discipline of Penance a curse is denounced against all those who make any carved or molten Image to worship it And it is the curse which is in the first place denounced on Ash-Wednesday It is true that it is taken out of the Book of Deuteronomy and it is the sense of a verse in that Book used at large in the former Common-Prayer-Book in these words Cursed is the man that maketh any carved or molten Image an abomination to the Lord the work of the hands of the craftsman and putteth it in a secret place to worship it That is though it be done without scandal to men and in such private manner as to avoid the punishment which the Law inflicteth on known and publick offenders But the Church of England repeating this Law in its Commination doth thereby own it to be still of validity and to oblige Christian men The Homilies which are an Appendage to our Church do expresly arraign the Roman-Catholicks as Idolaters in the learned Discourses of the peril of Idolatry Also English Princes and Bishops have declared themselves to be of the same perswasion King Edward the sixth in his Injunctions reckoneth Pictures and Paintings in the Churches of England as adorned by the Romanists amongst the Monuments of Idolatry Of the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth this is the Thirty-fifth That no persons keep in their houses any abused Images Tables Pictures Paintings or other Monuments of feigned Miracles Pilgrimages Idolatry and Superstition Of the Articles of Inquiry in the first year of her Reign this is one and pertinent to our present Discourse Whether you know any that keep in their Houses any undefaced Images Tables Pictures Paintings or other Monuments of feigned and false Miracles Pilgrimages Idolatry and Superstition and do adore them especially such as have been set up in Churches Chappels and Oratories This likewise is one of the Articles of Visitation set forth by Cranmer Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the second year of Edward the sixth Whether Parsons c. have not removed and taken away and utterly extincted and destroyed in their Churches Chappels and Houses all Images all Shrines Pictures Paintings and all other Monuments of Idolatry and Superstition Bishop Jewel's opinion is so well known that his words may be spared And that Confession of Faith which he penned and which maketh a part of his Apology for the Church of England and in which he calleth the Invocation of Saints in the Church of Rome a practice vile and plainly Heathenish is put into the collection of the Confessions of the Reformed under the Title of the English Confession But the Churches Confession it cannot be called with respect to her Authority which did not frame it whatsoever it be in its substance and in its conformity to her Articles For others of the Church of England a very Learned person the Hannibal and Terrour of Modern Rome hath named enough T. G. hath indeed excepted against many of the Jury but whether he hath not illegally challenged so many of them remaineth a Question or rather it is with the Judicious out of dispute The sentences of private men spoken on this occasion both here and beyond the Seas either broadly or indirectly are scarce to be
the people And it would be very strange if they should herein have been defective seeing the very Heathens were not We worship not said they the very Images themselves but those whom they represent and to whose names they are sacred H. T. in his Manual called the Abridgment of Christian Doctrine proposeth this Question to his Disciple Is it lawful to give any honour to the Images of Christ and his Saints And then he teacheth him to make this Answer Yes an inferior or relative honour inasmuch as they represent unto us heavenly things but yet not Gods honour nor yet the honour due to his Saints The same Author a while after propoundeth this Query Do not Catholicks pray to Images and Relicks And then to this he answereth No by no means We pray before them indeed to keep us from distraction and to help our memories in the expression and apprehension of Coelestial things but not to them for we know well that they can neither see nor hear nor help us There is some measure of sobriety in these words but some other of their writers ought to have had their Pens removed from them with as much reason as we take away the swords of madmen Amongst them I reckon Cornelius Curtius the Augustinian This Romanist thus spendeth some of the heat of his zeal I care not at all for Luther Calvin Wickliff and that most filthy Magdeburgian sink of impudence and blasphemy I say it and say it again that the most sacred Nails of our Redeemer do merit worship even the highest worship But we have heard better things from the Council of Trent and some who follow it And by such declarations their Church denieth to the Image it self the worship of the heart in Prayer Thanksgiving and trust and teacheth us to interpret the Forms used in their Letter to them as not to them directed Such a Form is that of Hail holy Cross our only hope the scepter of the Son the Bed of Grace Increase righteousness in the pious and to the guilty vouchsafe pardon All this it seems howsoever it soundeth must be meant not to the very matter and form of the Cross which Dr. Bilson will have to be adored in the Church of Rome but only to Christ crucified And this also I suppose they would suggest by the Cross pictured in their Books of Devotion and particularly in the front of their Missal of Paris together with these words of the Apostle God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord. Where St. Paul intended not to magnifie the wood of the Cross but the Sacrifice upon it And this way of speaking used by the Apostle is followed in our Litany in which we desire of Christ deliverance by his Cross explaining it by his Passion But still there are outward signs of Veneration given to the Image it self for Christs sake not indeed as brass or silver or gold or wood or stone or as a piece of excellent Art but yet as it relates to him and is his image Given however they are to the image though they are ultimately referred to Christ. Due honour saith the Council of Trent is to be given to them and the honour which is given to them is referred to the Prototypes We Christians said Leontius in the Synod of Nice adoring the figure of the Cross honour not the nature of the wood but the sign and ring and image of Christ. And again he that feareth God honoureth and adoreth Christ as the Son of God and the figure of his Cross and the images of his Saints In Images saith g the Synod of Bourges we worship not the matter but him that was represented As if it were one Act and the Image were worshipped together with Christs Godhead as is the Humanity by reason of its Personal union with it They that speak thus have deprived themselves of the usual Evasion that the Church of Rome owneth one God only and therefore cannot by her own principle worship an Image with absolute Latria For in the worship of that one God or the Divinity of Jesus Christ God-man they take in the worship of the Image or Relick as of a body made one with him To that effect there are dangerous sayings in the second Synod of Nice related by Photius It was there said by Adrian from Epiphanius Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus that a King having his Statue or Image is not presently two Kings but one together with his image It was there affirmed though not particularly and in those words decreed That by the worship of Images which seems divided we are carried up undividedly unto the indivisible Deity And again that in such worship we are carried up into a certain unitive and conjunctive vision As if we adhered to God by clinging with devout embraces to an Image made by humane Art Yet this in effect is said by many of their Doctors who tell us that Latria is given to the Image not absolutely but relatively not by it self but by accident as they are considered in conjunction with the Prototype and making one thing with it Suarez himself is one of these rash men and affirmeth that the Prototype in the Image and the Image for the Prototype may be adored with one interior and exterior Act. But amongst the Honourers of Images and Relicks there are not many sure who fly higher in their devotion than Cornelius Curtius He does not say things we hear every day and therefore let us listen to him a while in this present Argument Let us now see saith that Idolizer of the Nails of the Cross what kind of Veneration we owe to these Nails Divines distinguish three kinds of Worships which are wont to be expressed by the Greek words of Latria Hyperdulia and Dulia which because they terminate either in God or in intelligent natures therefore none of these do properly belong to the Nails as being things without life or reason and consequently not capable of such worships Wherefore to speak to them as such and to ask any thing of them would be a sign of madness and superstition So all Catholicks unanimously conclude Notwithstanding this because we may and we usually do adjoin the Nails to Christ in our cogitation hence it comes to pass that by reason of this connexion we may give them a certain right or direct worship for if we contemplate his Humanity we then give to the Nails the worship of Hyperdulia If we think of his Divinity we owe to them the Honour of Latria But for Dulia we bid it keep its distance as being less worthy Neither ought it to seem a wonder to any man that we give that Honour to Iron which we acknowledg to be proper to God alone for this is not given to this metal in respect of its nature but in regard of the person by whose contact or union into oneness
too that God walked in Paradise Hear the answer I make to this Objection God indeed and the Father of all things is neither shut up in a place nor found in it For no place is there in which God can in such manner dwell In the mean time his Word by which he made all things being the Power and Wisdom of the Father himself personating the Father who is Lord of all came into Paradise in his Person and spake unto Adam who in the Scripture is said to have heard the voice of God Now Gods voice what is it else but the very Logos or Word of God which is likewise his Son After Adam was driven out of Paradise the Logos appointed a kind of Shechinah in the appearance of Angels to guard the way of the Tree of Life These I conceive were a Cherub and a Saraph and that the latter an Angel in the opinion of Maimonides himself was meant by the flaming-sword turning every way the versatile tayl of a Saraph or flame-like winged Serpent not being unaptly so called And this conceit when I come to explain my self about Urim and the brazen Serpent will seem less extravagant than now it may do in this naked Proposal And yet as 't is thus proposed 't is not so idle as that of Pseudo Anselm who will have this guard to be a Wall of Fire incompassing Paradise In process of time when Cain and Abel offered to God their Eucharistical Sacrifices the Son of God again appeared as Gods Shechinah and testified it may be his gracious acceptance of the Sacrifice of Abel by some ray of flame streaming from that glorious visible Presence and re-acting to it whilst he shewed himself not pleased with the offering of Cain by forbearing as I conjecture to shine on his sheaves or to cause them to ascend so much as in smoke towards Heaven And with this conjecture agreeth the Translarion of Theodotion in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Lord had respect to the oblations of Abel and set them on fire That seemeth to be the most ancient way of answering by Fire some obscure characters of which we may discern in that lamp of fire which passed betwixt the pieces of Abrahams Sacrifice And much plainer footsteps of it are to be seen in the contest of Elijah with the Prophets of Baal whom that true Prophet of the God of Israel vanquished by that sign triumphing also thereby over that false Deity which they so vainly and with Battologie invoked I doubt not but God vouchsafed to men many other appearances of his glorious Shechinah besides those granted to Adam and Abel before he expressed his high resentment of the immorality of the world in the Flood of Noah But we have no large Registers of the Transactions of those times PART 4. Of the Shechinah of God from Noah to Moses THis eminent declaration of God as a God of judgment by sending such a deluge not having its due effect on Cham God with great justice withdrew as I conceive this glorious Shechinah from him and his Line which continued his wickedness as well as his name From them he withdrew it especially though to the rest it appeareth not to have been a common favour Cham and his race being thus left to the vanity of their own brutish minds that race in the first place worshipped the Sun as the Tabernacle of the Deity that being the object which next to Gods Shechinah did paint in the brain an Image of the most venerable luster and perhaps likest to that glorious flame of Gods Shechinah which had formerly appeared for so glorious was that Planet in the eyes of the very Manichees in after-times that they esteemed it the seat of Christ after his Ascension and Installment in Heaven I have guessed already that this kind of Idolatry was exercised and with design promoted at the building of the Tower of Babel Now towards the prevention of that impious design the Shechinah of God appeared on the place For so Novatianus argueth from those words in the Eleventh of Genesis Let us go down It could not said he be God the Father for his Essence is not circumscribed nor yet an Angel for it is said in Deuteronomy That the most high divided the Nations It was therefore he that came down of whom St. Paul saith He who descended is he who ascended above all Heavens So that the Arabick Version the Angels came down must be interpreted of that part of the Shechinah which is made up by their attendance on the Son of God Whilst God was thus angry with the race of Cham it pleased him to vouchsafe though not in the quality of a daily favour the appearance of his Shechinah to that separate or holy seed from whence his Son not yet incarnate was to take the substance of his flesh A great Instance of it we have in the appearance which he vouchsafed to Abraham who often saw the Shechinah of God and in that manner communed with him so great was the ignorance of the Jews and causless their malice when they raged against the Son of God because he professed himself to have existed before that ancient Patriarch Such fall under the heavy sentence of the Council called at Sirmium a City of the lower Pannonia where the Eastern Bishops concluded on a Creed against Photinus who Haeretically maintained That Christ appeared not before he was born of the Virgin Of that Creed this is one of the Decretory clauses Whosoever saith that the unbegotten Father only was seen to Abraham and not the Son let him be accursed The second Chapter of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius is wholly spent in the proof of the Pre-existence of Christ. And in that place as also in his Book of Evangelical Demonstration he insisteth amongst many other Examples on that of Abraham to whom Almighty God did once by his Son shew himself a while in the common similitude of a man at the Oak of Mamre the Shechinah in its especial luster being for a short season intercepted That Place from this occasion was for many ages esteemed sacred so high a respect there is in man for the visible presence of a Divine Power But such things being apt to degenerate into abuse the same place by degrees became sacred in the sense of the Heathens that is polluted with many idolatrous superstitions At length the Piety of Constantine the Great did there erect a Church for the worship of Christ who had appeared in that place in a like form they say to that which he afterwards assumed with personal union Another appearance was vouchsaf'd to Abraham when the Judgment of Fire was imminent over Sodom Moses witnesseth That he who revealed this overthrow to the Patriarch was truly God whilst he introduceth Abraham using towards him the Divine style of the Judg of all the earth and that this Lord and Judg was
the probability of this new and odd conceit I offer the following Conclusions which I desire the Reader jointly to consider ere he derides it First The word Saraph it self is used in signifying a fiery flying Serpent This is its signification in the Book of Numbers where it is said That the Lord sent Seraphim or fiery serpents among them And again it is there remembred how God said to Moses Make thee a Saraph and set it upon a Pole To which I add that in the Book of Deuteronomy a Burning Serpent is called Nachash Saraph Secondly There were in Egypt Arabia Lybia and other places flying fiery Serpents The Prophet Isaiah mentioneth such creatures and Kimchi on the place saith they are found in Ethiopia meaning it may be the Arabian Ethiopia They were called Fiery not only because of the heat of their venom causing extraordinary inflammations and thirsts in the body bitten by them but also because they appeared such when they flew in the Air being a kind of animated Meteors Hence Abarbanel saith of such flying Serpents that they were reddish after the colour of brass If that was their natural colour great addition might be made to it by the swift motion of their wings and the vibration of their tayls in the bright Atmo-spheres of Arabia and Egypt Thirdly In the earliest Ages and inhabited Countries of the world the creatures on earth principally reverenc'd were Oxen and Serpents That Oxen were so has been already shew'd as likewise that the Cherubim Appendages to the Sâ—…echinah in the most holy Place had the faces of such Beasts Serpents were lately worship'd in America as appeareth from Acosta and the Discoverers in Hackluit And we read in Mr. Gage of the great Golden Snakes adjoin'd to the Idols Tezcatlipuca and Vitzilopuchtli And of old Serpents were sacred in Egypt Herodotus mentioneth the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sacred Serpents about Thebes which when they were dead were buried by the superstitious in the Temple of Jupiter We see no Table of Isis or Osiris or Bacâ—…hus without a Serpent The sacredness of that Beast is said by Pignorius to have prevail'd among the Arabians Baâ—…ylonians Carthathaginians Baeotians Epirots Sicyonians Epidaurians Romans He might have added the Indians with Maximus Tyrius and with Erasmus Stella the Borussians and Samogetes And the Hereticks call'd Ophitae or Ophiani have not escaped the notice of any who have looked into the History of the Christian Church For the worship both of Serpents and Oxen together it is represented in the Egyptian Hieroglyphick of a winged Ox with humane face vomiting flames having a Globe on its head and under its feet an undulated Serpent Serpents were thus honoured for many reasons Because they could twine themselves into all figures Because there was a mighty Energy in their venom Because of their mighty Bulk by which some of them were able saith Diodorus to conquer Elephants Because saith Vossius they live to great Age are of quick and piercing sight renew their youth by putting off their skin Last of all by reason saith Pignorius that the Heathen were overpowered with the craft malice and pride of the Devil who deluded man in that shape and would as it were redeem the loss he sustained in the curse of that creature by turning it into a venerable Idol Fourthly Serpents thus sacred were not the ultimate objects of worship but the symbols or shrines of some Angels or Daemons Thus the Serpents of Thebes spoken of by Herodotus are said by him to be sacred to Jupiter And the Symbol of Cneph was the Symbol of an Agatho-demon Fifthly There were not only such living Symbols and shrines but also Images made by mens hands Such we see in the Tables of Isis and in the Images of Cartari Such we read of in the Scripture under the name of Teraphim which were much in use in the world a while after the flood In the Ramessean Obelisk a good Daemon is represented by an Asp sitting next Osiris And a Dragon a creature of the Serpent-kind is usually annexed to the statue of AEsculapius Sixthly Such good Angels as made up a part of the Shechinah of the Logos and also ministred in the world seem to have given some occasion to such Symbols and Images by their appearance as in the form of winged Oxen or Cherubim so by their appearance as of the most eminent sort of winged Serpents with beautiful faces it may be of men as had the Harpies though they had the tail of a Serpent or rather of Eagles if they appeared not with Serpentine heads The sacred One in the Sphinx of Kircher had the head of an Hawk or Eagle so had the famous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Egypt as Eusebius relateth from Zoroaster The Egyptians call'd him Cneph the Phenicians a good Daemon Now if the Seraphim had not appeared in some such form it would be very difficult to give any tolerable account of the temptation of Adam and Eve by a Daemon in the shape of a Serpent That Serpent is ridiculously painted in the form of a creeping one before the fall and it is impossible to conceive our first Parents so stupid as to have entered into Dialogue with such a creature without any astonishment But being used to the Shechinah of the Logos and to the appearance of ministring Angels shewing themselves in some such winged form for that they abode not one night in Paradise is by many judicious persons esteemed a groundless fancy it is easie to conceive upon that supposition how they might entertain some familiar discourse with a creature assuming that Image in very splendid and glorious manner The Text assureth us that the form is now changed by Gods curse and sure the change was more considerable than the alteration spoken of by Mr. Mede who thinketh that the Serpent went formerly on the ground though with his head and breast reared up and advanced It seemeth a more probable opinion by far that the change was made from the form of a splendid flying Saraph to that of a mean creeping Serpent not moving aloft in the air but licking the dust And much more probable doubtless it is than that dream which Kircher chargeth on Maimonides as if that Rabbi had affirmed that the Devil deceived Eve in the shape of a Camel But Maimonides saith only from the Rabbies in Medrasch that the Serpent was rode on and was as big as a Camel and that he who rode on him was Samael or Satan Methinks a part of the punishment of Adam and Eve declares the shape of the Serpent or Daemon by whom they were tempted For it is said that God guarded Paradise against them by a Cherub and a Flaming-sword which as hath been noted already was esteemed by the Jews a second Angel and may be aptly imagined a Saraph or flaming-Angel in
wings the mysteries of the Ark how strongly from thence I will not say that there is a more deep sense of the Text of Moses PART 6. Of the cure of Idolatry by the Image of God in Christ God-man AMongst the Mosaic Symbols the Ark certaâ—…nly was none of the meanest This Holy vessel without peradventure had most singular reference to Christ as God-man who at least from his Baptism hath been in that quality of God-incarnate exhibited to the World as the Divine Shechinah At Bethlehem the Son of God was Born the Town where the settled place for the Ark of God was discovered to David So much we learn from the words of Solomon in the sixth verse of the Hundred and second Psalm He there repeateth a saying of David his Father concerning the Ark Lo we heard of it at Ephrata Castalio plainly confesseth that he understood not what that expression meant For my part whilst I am in pursuit of the present Argument I cannot think the Text to be tortur'd by St. Hilary who will have it to confess Christ as the true Ark of God discovered typically at Bethlehem to David and afterwards manifested in the flesh to the World in the same City of David It is heard of in Ephrata Ephrata saith he is the same with Bethlehem where our Lord was born of the Virgin Mary There therefore the rest of God is heard of where first of all the only begotten God inhabited a body of humane flesh This is the Ark which rested in the Tribe of Judah for out of that Tribe our Lord sprang To this Ark as soon as he came into the World the very Princes or Wisemen of the Gentiles bowed down in the Cave at Bethlehem the star or miraculous meteor as an appendage of the Shechinah standing above it This Ark tabernacled among men and they saw his Glory when Baptized when transfigured This Ark giveth through Jordan or the Baptismal Laver a passage into the mystical Canaan On this Ark or Holy vessel of Christs body when he was Baptized by John in Jordan the glory of the Shechinah appeared a mighty lustre as Grotius hinteth hovering after the fashion of a Dove upon these waters of the second Creation On him the Holy Ghost dwelt or rested as God was said to do in the Tabernacle In him as the Law of God in the Ark and the Will of God known from the Oracle of the Shechinah were deposited all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg He is the great Oracle of God whom by a voice from Heaven out of a bright Cloud or Gods excellent Glory we are commanded to hear In him was the sum of the Law and the Prophets and he was the light of Israel of the Gentiles of the whole world To this Logos Clemens Alexandrinus ascribeth the mysteries of the Jews and Gentiles as to the great Teacher of them before his Incarnation So that he as a Divine subsistence and substitute of the Father giving the Law of Reason to Adam the Jewish Law to that people by Moses and to all the world the Christian Law or Will of God no Title could be more proper for him than that of the Divine Word And this Logos was not only the Wisdom but the Power of God and meriteth the name of the Ark of Gods strength In him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily The Deity sojourn'd in an Ark of flesh or within the vail of it And in this sense I think some of the Ancients are to be interpreted who called Christ so often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a God-carrying-man as our Language may truly though harshly render the Greek word though Nestorius abus'd the signification of it so far as to make it intimate a duality of persons in Christ. This Ark was the face or visible presence of God and he that had seen him as Messiah had in that sense seen the Father This body was not the very Godhead as Muggleton blasphemeth but the Godhead did in it shew forth it self to men in signs of mighty Power Holiness and Wisdom This Evangelical Ark was the Image of the invisible God not indeed the very picture or statue but as St. Hilary stileth him the Personator of his Essence It is true he saith of some of the Jews That they had never seen the shape of the Father his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Appearance And this he saith truly in two respects though him they saw when he thus spake to them For first there were none of them who saw him baptized or transfigured for in the same place he denies that they ever heard the voice of God And then these were unbelieving Jews and therefore saw him as meer man as one of the worst of men in their conceit an Impostor and Magician and not as the Messiah the Son the Incarnate Shechinah of God To such therefore as under those misapprehensions of him he saith elsewhere Why call you me good there is none good save one that is God However Christ in truth though not to the eyes of Infidels was the Image of the invisible Father and one whose design was to put all the Idols and Images of the Superstitious world under his feet Of this the Prophets foretold and this the world hath seen fulfilled Oracles by degrees ceasing and now scarce any footsteps remaining of that Triumvirate of gods for their gods had been men and those some of them no Heroes in virtue Jupiter the god of the Heavens Neptune of the Sea Pluto of the Earth It is said by the Arabick Author of the Prodigies of Egypt that when Noah named one God Idols fell prostrate It is more true of him who began the new world of the Gospel that when he appeared as the Image of the one true God Idolatry vanished before him And the Fathers will have it that when in his Childhood he went into Egypt and was brought to Memphis the Egyptian Idols fell at his feet And St. Hierom whose manner is as much to cite in his Commentaries the opinions which he had collected as to set down his own does tell of some who applied to Christ and the Virgin those words of Isaiah Behold the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud and shall come into Egypt and the Idols of Egypt shall be moved at his Presence From this Image of God in his Son Incarnate this Ark of flesh Divinity often shone on earth before his Instalment at Gods right hand The mighty power of God in his Life Miracles Preaching and sometimes in his Attendants the Angels and in his very bodily appearance Thus at his Transfiguration his raiment shone as the light he being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of the Glory or Shechinah of God And afterwards such Heavenly Majesty shewed it self in him that those who came to apprehend him as a Malefactor fell
c. 22. p. 392. Sic Cher. Ser. aurea in Arcâ figuratum exemplum certè simplex ornamentum accommodata suggestui longè diversas habendo causas ab Idoiolatriae conditione ob quam similitudo prohibetur c. g T. G. Cath. 〈◊〉 Idol p. 20â—… a In Tom. 1. Op. S. Hieron p. 123 124. b Socr. Eccl. Hift. p. 191. l. 3. c. 18. c See Epist. S. Hieron ad Ripar Presbyt op Tom. 2. p. 118. d See Bishop Whites Orthod Faith p. 111. Capit. Caroli Magni c. 26. p. 271. Dr. Still against T. G. p. 710 711 c. e In Votâ—… pro Pace p. 41. a Act. 14. 8 tâ—… 13. b Exod. 28. 30. a Philo Jud. de Prosugis p. 466 B. b Dr. Jackson in vol. 3. p. 803. c H. Grotius in Exod. 28. 4. And Munster in v. 5. p. 653. Crit. Maj. d Exod. 28. 5 8. a Breast-plate an Ephod a Robe a broider'd Coat a Miter a Girdle v. 36. a Plate of gold e Hosea 3. 4. f LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. sine urim g Doctiss. D. Spenc. in Dissert de Urim Thummim c. 5. sect 2. p. 251 252 253. h S. Hier. Tom. 3. ad Dam. p. 117. Seraphim sicâ—…t in interpret nom Hebr. invenimus Ardor aut Incendium interpretantur Tom. 5. p. 29. Seraphim interpretantur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the LXX who in Isa. 6. 2. use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod nos â—…e possâ—… Incendentes seu comburentâ—…s i In Judic c. 17. v. 4. p. 2123. ap C. M. k S. Hiâ—…ron ad Marcell Tom. 3. op p. 72 73. l Exod. 26. 31. With Cherubims shall it be made Vers. Arab. With Pictures a S. Hieron in Isa. 6. p. 29. Tom. 5. op In Cherubim ostenditâ—…r Dominus ex Seraphim ex parte ostenditur ex parte celatur Idem Tom. 3. op ad Damasum Papam p. 121. Super Cherubim sedere Deum scriptum est super Seraphim verò sedere Deum nulla script commemorat ne ipsa quidem Seraphim circa Deum stantia excepto present loco viz. Isa. 6. in SS invenimus b Exod. 25. 18 19 20 21 22. c Levit. 8. 8. a Numb 2â—… 6 8. b Deut. 8. 15. c Herod l. 2. p. 132. â—…ic de Nat. Deor. l. 1. d Isa. 14. 29. e Abarb. Com. in Leg. fol. 305. ap G. Moebium de AEneo Serpente Exerc. 2. c. 2. sect 11. f Gages Survey of the West-Indics p. 117. g Herodot in Eâ—…ter p. 132. h See Pignor. de Mâ—…â Isiacâ p. 23. a Max. Tyr. dissert 38. p. 373. b Eras. Stel. ad Init. l. 1. de Antiq. Boruss samog c See Tertullde paescrip Her c. 47. p. 220. d Kircher in Oedip synt 18. p. 508 509. c. 1. e Wisd. 16. 5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f See Porphyr de Abstin l. 4. p. 155. giving the like reason for the worship of the Egâ—…ptian Hawk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. g Diod. Sic. l. 3. c. 10. p. 143. See Max. Tyr. diss 38. p. 373. h Voss. de Idol l. 9. c. 11. p. 234. i Pignor. de mensâ Isiaca p. 24. k Herod l. 2. p. 132. A. l Euseb. de praep l. 1. c. 10. p. 41. a Kirch Oed. Tom. 3 p. 160 199. b Macrob. l. 1. Sat. c. 20. p. 295. c See Cartari's Imag. p. 156. d Kirch Sphinx mystagoga p. 57. e Eus. de praep Evang. l. 1. c. 10. de Phaen. Theol. p. 41 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. f Elucid Pseudo Anselmi l. 1. c. 15. p 461. Disc. Quamdiu suerâ—…nt in Paradiso Mag. Septem al. Sex horas a Mr. Mede's Works p. 292. b Oëdip Egypt Synt. 3. c. 4. c Maimon More Nevochim par 2. c. 30. p. 280. d Id. ibid. par 1. c. 49. p. 73. e Isa 6. 2 6. a Tertull. de Praescr Haer. p. 220. C. Iftum suisse serpentem cui Eva ut filio Dei crediderat b Id. adv Val. c. 2. p. 251. Illa i. e. Columba a primordio Divinae Pacis Praeco I lle i. e. Serpens a primordio divine Imaginis Praedo c Maim More Nev. par 3. c. 45. p. 476. d S. Hier. in Isa. c. 6. Tom. 4. p. 29. e See Doctiss. D. Spenceri Diss. de ur Thum. p. 16 17 18. f Levit. 8. 8. a I Sam. 23. 11 12. The Lord said by the Ephod he will descend they will deliver ye up * See notwithstanding Dr. Spencer Dissert de ur Thum. p. 34 c. b Exod. 28. 1 2 3 4 5 6. c Numb 21. 8. Ar. Mont. vers Fac Tibi Saraph a Numb 21. 8. Lxx. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ar. Mont. super vexillum b Joh. 3. 14. c D. Jackson vol. 2 p. 916 917 c. * Marius ap Moëb de AEn Serp. Ex. 2 e. 2. Sect. 15. Atque ità lignum â—…oc Crucis gessisset figuram sicuti Christi 〈◊〉 Typum gessit hic Sâ—…rpens d Wisd. 16. 7. See Chald. Par. in Num. 21. 8. He shall recover if he direct his heart to the Word of the Lord. Targ. Hieros If he lift his face to his Father in the Heavens a Diod. Sic. l. 1. Bibl. c. 75. p. 66. b AEl var. Hist. l. 14. c. 34. c See LXX Scalig. de Emend Temp. l. 7. p. 654. * Consider Exod. 24. 7. a Grot. in Heb. 9. 4. p. 4268. in M. C. b Joseph 8. 2. c King 8. 9. d 2 Chron. 5. 10. e Exod. 16. 33. f Numb 17. 10. g Heb. 9. 3 4. h Judg. 18. 12. i 1 Sam. 28. 6. a Diod. Sic. l. 1. c. 87. p. 76. * Psal. 119. 142 151. * Psal. 19. 7. * Psal. 119. 96. b Ecclus. 33. 3. Sec. Vers. LXX c. 36. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Scal. de Emend Temp. p. 654. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h. e. tanquam urim Thummim c Joh. 1. 17. d Deut. 33. 8. e Munster in Exod. 28. de urim Thummim Quales fuerint Res nemini mortalium constat a Josh. 5. 13 14 15. b See Hen. Valesii not in Euseb Eccl. Hist. l. 1. c. 2. p. 7. d Usher in Annal vet Testam p. 21. Ed. Paris a See Bisterfeld contr Crell l. 1. Sect. 2. c. 30. p. 298. b Psal. 17. 15. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d 1 Kings 8. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. e 1 King 8. 12 13. f 2 Chron. 6. 1. g 2 Chron. 5. 13. h Matt. 17. 5. i 1 King 9. 2. k 1 King 3. 5. l 1 King 19. 8 10 14 15. m S. Hieron Tom. 5. oper fol. 211. D. n Isai. 6. 1 2 3 4. o John 12. 41. p See Ezek. 10. 18. c. 11. 23. q Cippi Hibraici p. 24. r Pseudo Anselmi Elucidar c. 24. p. 476. a See Othon Lex Rabbin p. 476 477. b Dan. 7. 9 to 15. c S. Hier. in Dan. p. 587. Also Euseb. in l. 1. c. 2. Eccl. Hist. p. 10. a See
doth the Scripture ever say that God answered by Thummim It saith not that God did forbear to answer Saul by Urim and Thummim but only that he did not answer him by Urim For the Moral Law was a standing Rule and not an Extemporary Oracle And we may observe from Diodorus Siculus that the Egyptian Judg whom he speaketh of when he put on his glorious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sign or image called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had also the Law in Eight Books laying before him AElian and Diodorus tell this story in differing manner and it may be the thirty Judges were so many of the seventy Elders and the Eight Books of Law were the Ten Commandments and the Saphire or Gems in the Pectoral were the twelve precious stones according to the number of the Tribes all used by the High-Priest of the Jews at Heliopolis where was Schismatically aped the worship and judgment of Jerusalem For in such matters the blunders of Historians are often more shameful than these Nay what if the Book containing the worship of the gods and bound about with scarlet-threads mentioned by the same Diodorus should be the Copy of the Moral Law in the Ark whose outside was wrought with gold with blue with purple with scarlet and fine-twined linnen This is none of my Faith yet many such imperfect Narrations are to be found in him and other Historians who write of things in such ancient and dark times For the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though that was given to the Pectoral or to the illustrious Gem or Gems on it and not particularly to the Law yet to the Law of God it well agreeth David saying concerning it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thy Law is Truth As congruous is the name of Thummim or Perfections the same Royal Prophet saying Thy Law is perfect 'T is perfect and without blemish in it though the Laws of men are stained with divers spots and imperfections It is perfect as a straight Rule it bendeth not to mens corrupt wills It is a compleat Rule extending to all our needful cases It is exceeding broad whilst there is an end of all other pretended Perfections Of the perfection of this Law the Son of Sirach speaketh saying A man of understanding trusteth in the Law and the Law is faithful unto him as an Oracle or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the reading of the Alexandrian Copy of the Seventy as the asking of or the answer to the Interrogatory at Urim In which words let the Reader well consider whether the Author does not oppose the Law to the Oracle as the Thummim to the Urim saying in effect The Law laid up in the Ark is as certain a Rule to go by in the Moral course of a mans life as the Oracle from above the Ark where the Urim was an appendage of Gods Shechinah was a direction in extraordinary cases And whereas Urim is only mentioned why Scaliger should say the meaning is The Law is faithful to him as Urim and Thummim he himself best knows But it may be thought from the force of the Premisses that he has in effect rendred the saying such a kind of Tautology as this The Law is faithful as the Law Another place there is worthy our observation in this Argument and the rather because it is a more Canonical portion of Scripture It is that of S. John who saith that the law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. These words if I will serve my Hypothesis I must thus Paraphrase The Thummim or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Law was received from Gods substitute the Logos by Moses who delivered it to the people but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Christian Law of the Gospel of Grace came not only from but by Jesus Christ the Logos made flesh as was said a verse or two before and he even God-incarnate did publish it with his own mouth If this notion hath any truth in it then that Prayer of Moses or blessing of Levi Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy One may be thus expounded let thy Law the ordinary Rule preferable before any extemporary Oracle and also thy extraordinary inspiration together with thy blessing be present with the linage of Aaron consecrated to the Priest-hood though thou wert angry with him for his carriage at the waters of Meribah or Massah and for that reason deniedst him an entrance into the land of Canaan But I will plainly acknowledge that notwithstanding all here said by me that may be true which Munster said That no mortal man can now tell what the Urim and Thummim were But in aiming with our conjectural Bolts at Truth as in shooting if the white be not hit it is some kind of felicity to come nigh the Mark. Now though the Logos appeared on the Ark both in the Tabernacle and the Temple and though he was also present with this lesser Ark the Pectoral yet he did not limit himself to these holy Instruments and the places of them He appeared elsewhere sometimes when the emergent occasion was remote from these Arks and when the privacy of the Revelation to those who were not High-Priests was expedient or necessary unless we should say that the less solemn and less majestick Apparitions were made by Angels That it was the Logos who shew'd himself to Joshuah giving to him a promise of defence is the joynt opinion of Justin Martyr Eusebius and Theodoret and likewise of one more modern yet not unworthy to be named amongst them the most learned Archbishop of Armagh But a fragment of an antient and venerable Greek Scholion produced by Valesius will have it to be Michael and not the very Son of God Be it the one or the other I hold â—…ot my self much obliged to concern my self as a party in the dispute Only I am inclined to think it the Logos because the place of the appearance was sacred Joshuah pulling of his Shoes in token of a Divine rather than of an Angelical presence Little is recorded of Gods Shechinah from the time of Joshua to David But David in his Psalms is very frequent in celebrating Gods presence in the Sanctuary on Mount Sion And of his being there where God was present by his Image or Shechinah in the Temple though not in the holiest place of it after deliverance from his enemies who stood in his way both to the holy City and holy Temple some interpret these words of his in the 17th Psalm As for me I will behold thy face or Shechinah in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Or as I find it expounded in the Septuagint when I shall see thy glory or glorious presence Thy Temunah the word in the Hebrew thy Image of the Logos In Solomon's time the Ark was placed in a most magnificent Temple which
when it had received the holy Vessel a Cloud and the Glory of the Lord a most venerable mixture of light and darkness filled the holy House It is called in the Book of Kings thick darkness i. e. such whose solemnity hindred the sight of any other object but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or glory of the Shechinah which dazled the eye rather than enlightned the medium In the first Book of Kings this is omitted by the Lxx but in the 2d of Chronicles it is mentioned And by those Interpreters 't is called barely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or darkness But they had before called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cloud of the Glory of the Lord a cloud like that which in S. Matthew is called a bright one and said to overshadow the Apostles when Christ was transfigured and owned as Gods Son by a voice out of the Cloud After the dedication of this House God appeared in a dream a second time to Solomon having done so once before at Gibeon and made a promise to him that his eyes and heart that is his especial presence should be in that consecrated House In the time of Ahab Elijah being in Israel and not in Judah though he worshipped not God in the Sanctuary yet the Logos of God when he was fled as far as Horeb Gods Mountain instructed him in a still small voice after his spirit was made solemn by wind earthquake and fire for it was the Lord saith the Text that spake then to him not a created Angel But that God ever spake at Dan or Bethel or appeared in any Glory we neither read nor believe So that the setting up the Symbol there was presumption and the trusting that God was present there Idolatry for that was an act due to Gods true presence misplaced on his false one and such as was not only false but in terms forbidden In the times of Isaiah S. Hierom observeth that the Idolatries of the people were exceedingly encreased yet himself saw the Shechinah in a vision And St. John sheweth that it was a vision of the Logos saying that Isaiah saw Christs glory The Israelites rather increasing than repenting of their provocations it pleased God to withdraw his presence and as he is represented in the visions of Ezekiel to go up from the earth and to permit the powers of Babylon to destroy the holy Temple and to suffer the glory of it the Ark to depart and never to appear again in its former condition for the 2d Temple did in this particular especially come short of the first And I know not what to make of a passage in the Jew whose Cippi Hebraici are translated by Hottinger and who there mentions a part of the Ark extant in Sion in his time unless I esteem it for sure 't is no other a Jewish fable That it may not go alone I will add a story of equal credit out of the Elucidarium ascribed to S. Anselm There the Disciple asking what became of the Ark of the Covenant the wise Master answers thus It was hid at Gods command by Jeremiah in the Sepulcre of Moyses when Hierusalem was ready to be destroyed by the Babylonian forces And in the last times it will be brought out by Enoch and Elias God revealing it to them PART 6. Of the Shechinah of God from the Captivity to the Messiah Such Jews as had true apprehensions of the God of Israel and sincere devotion to his service did in such sort honour his Shechinah that when the Holy Chest and the Temple were no more to be seen they worshipped God towards the plaoe where they formerly stood Thus in Chaldaea did the Prophet Daniel Both the Jews in banishment and the Jews in the land were that way to direct their faces in Prayer And the Rabbins say that a devout Jew had on purpose a Chamber with a window that way and that the Babylonian Jews prayed with such direction in the Chamber of Daniel an antient House of stone To Daniel as to one highly favour'd of God and to a Prophet living in the dawning of the Gospel God discovered his presence in a more ample and distinct manner than so far as we read he had formerly done more eminently than to Isaiah or Ezekiel Damiel in a vision beheld the Shechinah of God as it were in Heaven The Father and the Son were personated in this Scene or rather the Godhead and the word Incarnate This I find to be the opinion of St. Hierom who expoundeth Daniel by St. Paul where he speaketh of the Logos as equal with God yet taking upon him the form of a Servant In those days God vouchsafed such plain visions to the Prophets and such plain Prophecies of the Messiah that the two Tribes the issue of the true worshippers in Judah where Gods Shechinah dwelt though they returned from Chaldea a soyl as fertile in producing Idols as Egypt it self yet they had them in greater abhorrence than before They looked back many of them on their punishment of exile and bondage for former Idolatries They looked on their present miraculous restitution by the Power and Mercy of the God of Israel and they look'd forward towards the Messiah the Image of God whose Kingdom was at hand and these thoughts preserved them in great measure from pollution with Idols though the Ark was perished and Prophecy ceased and the Holy Pectoral said to be worn even out of the City by the High-Priest in his meeting of Alexander was rather an Ornament than an Oracle At length after the ceslation of Prophets for more than 400 years after the apparition of an Angel to Zachariah in the Temple a sign that the Oracles of the Ark and Urim had ceased it pleased him to come in the flesh whom Daniel saw as in Glory and to be for a season on earth as it were the eclipsed Shechinah of God Such an appearance for a time our infirmity and the Oeconomy of the Gospel required To this Messiah as God-man the things in the ritual Law of Moses had especial respect though a vail was upon them And indeed it would seem to derogate from the Wisdom of God and the nature of his worship which is chiefly spiritual to conceit that all the Apparatus of the Temple reached no further than the amusement of the eye They therefore that will reach the sense of the Law must suppose a mystery in it Thus did St. Stephen and St. Paul those excellent Interpreters of Moses These the Christian Fathers have followed as their patterns Clemens Alexandrinus alluding to those words in the seventh of Isaiah Nisi credideritis non intelligetis addeth words to this purpose Unless ye believe in Christ ye will not understand the Old Testament which he by his own presence expounded And S. Gregory Nyssen concludeth from the material Cherubims covering with their