it may be concluded that all Governours in this world Ecclesiastical and Civil all Princes and Magistrates all Patriarchs Archbishops Bishops Superintendents and Presidents are so many Idols and Ordinances dishonourable to God and his Son But judicious men will consider that the Governments on earth are not the patterns of the invisible world Here God ruleth in this manner not for his own sake but for ours we being mortal men and needing the aids of men like our selves whilst we sojourn in this body and for him to administer immediately to our outward infirmities in this world were for him to be always grosly incarnate This conceit of the invisible world as modelled like the visible hath brought forth that excuse of a voluntary humility in the Romish Suppliants who as if the Court of Heaven were like that on Earth dare not presume to come immediately to the King but apply themselves to him by the mediation of some of his Officers A King is but a man and cannot hear all complaints in person and redress all grievances Could he do it with the Power and Wisdom and Grace and easie operation of a Deity all might then have immediate access to him or to him by the Prince his Son supposed to be of a like nature and quality And who on earth when he is invited by the Monarch himself to apply himself to him immediately or to him by his Son addresseth himself to neither but to some meaner Favourite of whose interest for the dispatch of his Affair he hath no assurance given him Thirdly should we lay aside this consideration of that Presidentship and Patronage to which the Romanists entitle so many Saints yet the very frequency used in addresses to them though by mere request of their Praiers for us would not a little tend to the diminution of the honour of God and Christ. It is notorious to those who pass the Seas in the same Bottoms with Romish Mariners that those Seamen in a storm apply not themselves immediately to God but repeat the Hymn to the holy Virgin of Hail Star of the Sea To this purpose is that which Lipsius telleth of Thirteen men in peril by a Tempest in their passage to Antwerp Amongst them the Master conceiving no hope of saving the Vessel or the lives of the Passangers exhorted them to submit themselves wholly to God and so to pass to a better state after the loss of this But it seems one amongst them suggested Vows and Invocations to the Lady of Halla and his counsel is embraced Straightway says he a light shone on the Vessel and the Tempest ceased and the Vessel arrived at the Haven with loss of goods but not of the Passengers who repaired to Halla and profesled themselves to owe their life to the Virgin and paid with faithfulness the Vows they had made It had been more pious surely to have thanked God and the Virgin or rather God alone who it may be by other means or by himself was their deliverer But superstitious men judg of Causes by the concomitancie of the effects and not by the virtue which produceth them And this is not only the fruit of superstition in the rude and ignorant but in the politest of the Ecclesiastics The very Jesuites for so did Father Garnet at his execution afford God the less of their Application by being so busied at their last hour with their aforesaid Mary Mother of Grace Mother of Mercy defend us from the enemy and protect us in the hour of death which Versicles say the composers of the confession of Saxony we heard a Monk a Professor of Divinity inculcate very often to a dying man without any mention of Christ Jesus And it hath been commonly observed as a great blot in the Romish devotions That they use many Ave Maria's to one Pater Noster Which Collects by the way being repeated by them with such careless haste the jabbering of any thing in an indistinct heedless way is by us called patering Labbe a learned Jesuite though in his sickness he was not forgetful of Christ his Saviour yet he mentions the frequency of his addresses to the Virgin during the rage of his Feaver This a stander by not knowing his principles would have judged to have been the effect of his distemper Thus then this new Marian devotion much diminisheth and sometimes quite justleth out the ancient and unquestionable worship of Jesus as they say S. Ambrose is almost forgotten already at Milan through the newer veneration of S. Charles Borromee Two things now may be perhaps jointly pretended towards the disabling the foregoing Discourse and I will return a brief answer to them First It is taken for confessed That those to whom the Romanists pray as unto Patrons and Patronesses are real Saints in Heaven Secondly The Romanists pretend to prove that God hath declared himself to have conferred such honourable office place and power upon these Patrons by the miracles they have wrought for the behoof of their Clients For the first suggestion It is confessed that they worship none but such as have been thought professors of Christianity and such who are reputed to be exalted above either Hell or Purgatory Notwithstanding this I dare not avouch the eminent Saintship and glorified estate of all that are canonized They who read without partiality the History of S. Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury will be inclined to think him put into the Kalender by as much mistake as many other things are put into our vulgar Almanacks I see that even some of the Roman Communion do impute his saintship rather to the fervour of his zeal than to the ground of his Cause What can a man that reverenceth God think of the Saintship of St. Bernardin of Siena when he considereth of his Doctrine apt to give pain to the modesty of the Virgin almost in Heaven it self This Saint after a logn comparison betwixt God and Blessed Mary thus thus blasphemously concludeth If then we give to each their due in that which God hath done for man and which the Virgin hath done for God himself you see for your comfort that Mary hath done more for God than God for man whence God for the Virgins sake is much obliged to us Methinks by these words he is just such another Saint as the Author of the Conformities who writes the parallel of Christ and St. Francis and giveth to St. Francis the preheminence What can a peaceable Christian think of the Saintship of Pope Hildebrand or St. Gregory the seventh Was it not he who imbroiled the World who taught that Kings and Dukes had their original from those who not knowing God did by pride rapines perfidiousness murthers and by almost all manner of wickednesses through the instigation of the Devil the Prince of this world affect to domineer over their equals or other men with blind ambition and intolerable presumption who deposed Henry the fourth King of
him an homage more agreeable to his Divine and to their own reasonable though humane nature They would then serve him with that pure Religion or sincere Christianity which is not adulterated either with Idolatry or Superstition Of these the notions being so commonly entangled that Hesychius expoundeth the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a superstitious person by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Idolater and the translators of the Psalms * render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vain or empty that is the exceeding vanities of Idols by superstitious vanities I will in the first place offer to the Reader a distinct consideration of them Superstition if we have regard only to the bare derivations of its names in the Greek or Latin Tongues is no other than a single branch of Idolatry It is the worship of the Divi coelestes semper habiti as the Law of the twelve Tables speaketh that is of the Sempiternal Daemons and also of those Quos in coelum merita vocârunt as the same Law distinguisheth of such Hero's and superexisting Souls as were through their eminent and exemplary virtue translated from Earth to Heaven Yet in the notion of Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Superstition consisteth not so much in the bare worship of such invisible Powers as in that servility and horror of mind which possessed the worshippers and inclin'd them like those who flatter Tyrants to hate them and yet to fawn on them and to suppose them apt to be appeased by ceremonious and insignificant crouchings Use hath further extended the signification of the word insomuch that sometimes it comprehendeth not only all manner of Idolatry but also every false and offensive way which disguiseth it self under the colour of Religion Thus Socrates the Historian when he mentioneth the signs which Julian gave of his proneness to Superstition he meaneth by that word the whole Religion of the Gentiles But there is still behind its proper and especial notion and the Synod of Mechlin hath attempted to set down a true description of it The Council of Trent having commanded the abolishing of all Superstition the Fathers of this Synod go about to explain the meaning of that Precept and they do it after the following manner This Synod say they teacheth that all that use of things is superstitious which is performed without the warrant of the Word of God or the Doctrine of the Church by certain customary rites and observances of which no reasonable cause can be assigned And when trust is put in Them and an expectation is raised of an event following from such Rites and not hoped for without them from the intercession of the Saints Also when in the worship of Saints they are done rather out of rashness and lightness than out of Piety and Religion But this description is in many respects defective For many of the Usages which it decrieth do not relate to Religion and they deserve rather the names of follies impertinences and ludicrous inchantments unless a man would distinguish concerning the kinds of Superstition and call some the Superstitions of common life and others the Superstitions of worship The rites of the former kind become the more Superstitious if their event be expected from some presumed Saint for then an impertinent custom becomes an impiety or the usage of a Magical charm by which invisible powers are depended on for the production of visible effects If for instance sake a man shall fall into that conceit which hath possesled many even Origen himself that certain names signifie by nature and not by institution and that an event will follow from a certain ceremonious pronunciation or other use of them he meriteth the Title of a Trifling and Credulous Philosopher But if he maketh such use of words suppose of Adonai or Sabaoth which Origen believeth to lose their vertue if turn'd into any other language and hopeth thence for the event from God through the intercession of some Spirit he deserveth the reproof due to a superstitious man who by supposing a Divine attendance on his Trifles doth highly dishonour God and his Saints Neither doth the Synod of Mechlin absolve such Rites from the guilt of Superstition by adding to the intercession of Saints the prescription of the Church for that cannot alter the nature of things though it may render some Rites indifferent in their nature expedient not to say necessary in point of obedience for the preservation of Peace and Order If Riâ—…es of worship are exceeding numerous under Christianity if they are light and indecent if being in themselves indifferent or decent in their use they are imposed or observed as necessary duties the stamp of Authority does not much alter the property of them Wherefore others have in more accurate manner defined Superstition A worship relating to God proceeding from a certain inclination of mind which is commonly called a good intention and springing always from mans brain separately from the Authority of the Holy Scriptures But neither in this definition are we to rest For if the reason of mans brain answers the Piety of his intention the worship which he offereth though not commanded in Scripture if not forbidden by it may be grateful to God I should therefore chuse in this manner to describe Superstition It is a corruption of publick or private worship either in the substance or in the Rites of it whereby men actuated by servile motives perform or omit in their own persons or urge upon or forbid to others any thing as in its nature Religious or Sinful which God hath neither required nor disallowed either by the Principles of right Reason or by his revealed Will. It is the paying of our Religious Tribute to God or an Idol in Coin of our own mintage The positive part of it is the addition of our own numberless absurd or decent inventions to the prescriptions of God in the quality of Laws and Rites equal or superior to those by him enacted First An observance of a very great number of such Rites and Ceremonies in the worship of God as admit of excuse or praise in their single consideration is a part of this Superstition For it prejudiceth the substance of our duty by distracting our attention and is unagreeable to the Christianity which we profess because it is not as was the Mosaic a Typical Religion The Greek Church as well as a great part of the Latin aboundeth with Ceremonies and the Rituals are of so great a bulk that they look like Volumes too big for the very Temple much more for the Church Neither probably should such a number of Rites have ever been imposed on the Jews if their ritual temper their conversation with a people of like ritual disposition and the use of Types in shadowing out the Messiah had not mov'd the Wisdom of God to prescribe them The late pretender to the Latin Text and English Translation of the Order and Canon of the Mass
by the instance of the Brazen Serpent set up by one of Gods Vicegerents and upon its abuse destroyed by another and by that of the Cup of Joseph This Cup by which he Divined was probably an instrument used in some Sacrifice some drink-offering and in the use of which God vouchsafed him a Spirit of Prophesie with relation to the affairs of Egypt Now if the Egyptians afterward made use of this Cup or any other in form of it without any precept or promise from God Almighty and trusted in it as in the cause of Divination they then were Idolaters in this last kind of that impiety And this one would think was the Egyptian practice who readeth Lucian in his Book of Sacrifices and observeth him there deriding the Egyptians because they made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a drinking Pot a God And such a Cup may that be thought which is described in the hand of Isis in her Mystical Table rather than a Measure as Pignorius contendeth as likewise that mentioned by Arnobius in the right hand of Bacchus who often makes a Figure in the forementioned Table But this as it referreth to Joseph is but conjecture scarce so much as opinion I therefore dismiss it Yet I must not dismiss the Argument it self till I have further distinguished both concerning the Objects or Idols of that Honour which is given from God and the ways by which it is translated from the proper to the false Deity These Idols are either Personal Internal or External Objects By Personal Objects I mean the Idolaters themselves who become their own Statues and worship their very selves by the estimation they have of their Persons as Christs or of their Souls as real portions of the Essence of God the fancy of some followers of Plotinus of old who said Their Souls at death returned to the seminal Reason and of some Quakers at this time who say as Edward Burroughs the morning before he departed this Life That his Soul and Spirit was centred in its own being with God Internal Objects are the false Idea's which are set up in the fancy instead of God and his Divine perfections For he who fancieth God under the Idea of Indefinite Amplitude or Extension of matter or of Light or Flame or under the notion of an irresistible Tyrant and applies himself to him as such without the use of any visible external Statue or Picture is as certainly an Idolater as he who worshippeth a Graven Image for he giveth Divine Honour to an Idea which is not Divine Only here the Scene being internal in the Fancy the scandal of the sin is thereby abated External Objects are such which have a subsistence distinct from the Phantasms which are by motion impressed on the Brain And the Catalogue of these is a kind of Inventory of nature I will here give only a summary account of them for the particulars are endless Idolaters have worshipped Universal Nature the Soul of the World Angels the Souls of men departed either by themselves or in union with some Star or other Body They have likewise worshipped the Heavens and in them both particular Luminaries and Constellations the Atmosphere and in it the Meteors and Fowls of the Air the Earth and in it Man together with the accidents of which he is the subject such as Fortitude and Justice Peace and War And further on earth they have deified Beasts Birds Insects Plants Groves Hills artificial and artless Pillars and Statues Pictures and Hieroglyphics mean as that of the Scaribee it self resembling the Sun so many ways as Porphyrie fancieth together with divers fossils and terrestrial Fire They have furthermore adored the Water particularly that fruitful one of the Nile and in it the Fishes and Serpents and Insects as likewise the creatures which are doubtful Inhabitants of either Element such as the Crocodile in Egypt Kircher hath found the Temples of many of these Idols even in that polite Nation of China For he hath a Scheme containing the Temple of the Queen of Heaven the Temple of Heaven the Altar of Heaven the Temple of Demons and Spirits the Temple of the Planet Mars the Altar of the God of Rain the Altar of the King of Birds the Altar of the Earth the Temple of the President of Woods the Temple of Mountains and Rivers the Temple of the Spirit of Medicine the Temple of Gratitude and of Peace the Temple of the President of Mice and of the Dragon of the Sea Menander from Epicharmus summeth up the Idols of the World under these fewer heads of the Wind the Water the Sun the Earth the Fire But he is therefore deficient in his computation neither was it his purpose to make it accurate Thus the Image of God who made all things has as in a broken mirror been beheld without due attention in the several parts of the frame of the World and by the foolish Idolater distinctly adored And this adoration being used towards external Objects and not confined to mans secret thoughts hath with the more success and scandalous dishonour to God been propagated in the World And this remindeth me of the distinction which I designed also to make betwixt the ways by which Gods Honour is derived on creatures For it is either done by the inward estimation of the mind directing its intention in an Act or course of internal Worship or by the external signs of Religious Reverence It is done by both these together or by either of them apart There is no publick worship without manifest signs of it the heart in it self not being discern'd by mans eye but discovering it self by external tokens The Ifraelites saith St. Cyril worshipped the Calf and they did it by crying out these are thy gods f In them the mind and the outward signs of it went together But others by the meer outward shews of Adoration how unconcern'd soever they may have kept their minds have committed Idolatry Such as the Thurificati in the Primitive Church who believing the Gospel offered Incense before an Heathen Idol that being made a sign of their departure from Christianity and their approbation of Gentilism They thereby did an act of open dishonour to the true God and they used external means apt to incline others either to worship Idols instead of Him or to confirm them if they were already Idolaters in their detestable profaneness Such Idolaters it may be were some Englishmen who went to Sea with Mr. Davis in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth in order to the discovery of a North-West passage to Cataia China and East-India On the 29th of July in the year 1585 they discovered Land in 64 degrees and 15 minutes of Latitude bearing North-East from them They found this Land an heap of Islands on one of which they went on shoar There some few of the Natives made towards them and amongst that little herd of barbarous people one pointed first upwards wirh his
hand to the Sun and then smote his breast with very vehement force The English aptly interpreting this sign as an acknowledgment of the Deity of the Sun and an Oath by that Idol of fidelity and peace used the same sign themselves gaining thereby Friendship and Traffick with a few Salvage People at the expence of the most valuable thing the Honour of God Of this external Honour he is jealous and he reserved it to himself amongst the Jews whom he had espoused by express command saying Lo tischtachaveh Thou shalt not before an Image or Idol put thy Body into such a figure as is a sign of worship In the same sence ought to be interpreted the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Seventy Thou shalt not bow down the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not denoting there a meer act of the mind but of the body either by bowing of its whole frame or its head or knee or which the notation of the word particularly importeth by the kissing of the hand a common ceremony among the Gentile Idolaters and ancient as the times of Job Three ways of exhibiting such external reverence are suggested by the Psalmist where he calls upon the people to worship with prostration to bow to kneel before God their Creator For the sake of external worship solemn Days and publick Assemblies have in great part been appointed By it our Light which retained in the heart only is as a Lamp burning in a Sepulchre doth so conspicuously shine before men that it induceth them to an happy consent in glorifying God with us By it is maintain'd the visible Society of Gods Church whose outward communion is preserved by the external signs of words gestures and actions relating to the Christian Religion and making up the profession of it This Communion he in effect renounceth who pretending to the heart of a Christian hath the tongue of a Blasphemer or the gesture of an Idolater who whatsoever secret thoughts he entertaineth concerning God saith openly of him that he is not Supreme or what inward hatred soever he conceiveth against Idols sitteth in their Temples and eateth of their Sacrifice External Ceremonies as is said by the Fathers of the Synod of Rhemes are therefore appointed that by them a declaration may be made of our affection towards God And common Reason teacheth that by giving away the outward signs of worship we are prodigal of the internal Honour of God which cannot be preserved or advanced amongst Societies of men meerly by a secret and invisible Intention Hitherto I have pursued the notion of Idolatry in a positive way according to the proper nature of Worship in which the Act passeth towards the Object But it may not be amiss to take a little notice of a kind of negative impiety which precedeth this positive false-worship and to which some it may be would give the name of negative Idolatry I mean by this that denial of any thing in the Idea of God which is proper to it succeeded by a Worship of Him according to that maimed and unagreeable Idea For the Idea of God being so intire that by any diminution it becometh the Idea of something else he that first removes part of the Idea and then adores the remainder adores as God that which is not like him He for instance sake who denies the constancy of Gods knowledg of human affairs yet worships him at certain times in which he owneth him to have that knowledg after the manner of those foolish Gentiles who worshipped the Sun by day and revelled by night when they thought he saw not such a one by breaking of such a necessary part of Gods Idea as renders it not his Image and yet adoring it as such first makes an Idol and then doth it homage So the god of the Muggletonians rob'd of his Spirituality immensity subsistences what is he but their Idol The Premisses being considered it will thence follow That in giving the Honour of God supreme or subordinate to any other thing be it internal Idea or personal Principle or outward Object with respect to any supposed inherent Divine Power original or derived or to any external Relation by internal worship and by the external signs of it or by either of them consisteth the Notion of Idolatry the thing designed in this Chapter CHAP. III. Of the Causes and Occasions of Idolatry in the World IT hath appeared in the foregoing Chapter what kind of evil Idolatry is and how it hath spread it self into numberless branches In this Chapter my purpose is to proceed further and to inquire into the Root of it and to consider from what Causes and Occasions it hath sprung and on what rotten and irrational grounds it is bottom'd The general Cause of Idolatry is the degenerate estate of the Soul exerting it self in the headiness of the Will which hurrieth men to folly under the wild conduct of Imagination and Sense The Scripture calleth this distemper The vanity of the mind and to it it ascribeth the Worship of Idols Of such Worshippers St. Paul observeth That when they knew God or had means of knowing him by the reasoning of their minds excited by the beauty order and excellence of his Works of Creation and Providence they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imagination and their foolish heart was darkened In this estate of moral darkness they mistook and confounded the Objects they met with and honoured the Creature instead of God It is difficult if not impossible at this distance from persons and things to tell the causes and occasions of all their mistakes Neither could it have been done fully by the wisest of those times For the love of Idols in some like that of Persons in others was an unaccountable passion That therefore which I here undertake is not a full certain and manifest but a competent and probable account Those who worshipped Universal nature as an entire Object or the several visible parts of it distinctly were led to such adoration by one more general Cause and by divers which were more special The more general cause of the worship of material nature either in its own form or in the shapes put upon it by Art is the natural inclination of the mind in this body to help it self by sensible Objects The substance of God Almighty is not an Object which our mind can comprehend much less is our acutest sight able to reach it This Principle many own'd amongst the Heathens Such were they mention'd by Porphyrie who that they might signify the invisibility of Gods Essence painted his Statues with black Such were the Egyptians remembred by Plutarch who did therefore make the Crocodile an emblem of God because that creature by the help of a pellucid membrane descending from his forehead was able as they vulgarly conceited to see with closed eyes without being seen Now man living as it were in the confines of
Analogy I mean such Objects as bear some Metaphorical proportion to some excellencies of God though they be not the proper Images Statues or Pictures of them Such an Image was that of Jupiters remembred by Vignola in his Discourse of the five Orders in Building He mentioneth there a Capital in which were the Images of four Eagles instead of Stalks and instead of Fruits and Flowers four Jupiters faces with Thunderbolts under them A Representation this may be judged of the power piercing eye quick execution of will in their own Jove in the four Quarters of the World Such an Analogical Image of the true God do some Papists esteem the Statue or Picture of an aged man whose years and experience are apt to signifie the Eternity and Wisdom of God and that of a Dove to signifie his purity and simplicity in a manner suitable to our conception In both these Instances I think they are mistaken Daniel as shall be shewed in the last Chapter did not mean the Godhead or the Father by the Ancient of Days Neither ought his transient Vision which had something humane mixt with it be made a standing-pattern in Religion Such Visions being impressed on the fancy could not be there represented without some earthly Imagery which the enlightned reason of the Prophet could separate from the Diviner part which is the thing principally intended Now to bring the whole scene with its glory and its imperfection before the eyes of the people in Gods standing-worship is to confound in their Imaginations things sacred and secular and to adulterate their Devotion Then for the Image of a Dove the Text in the Gospels proveth no more than that the Spirit imitated the gentle hovering of that Bird And the learned think it did so in the appearance of a bright cloud hovering with gentle motion over the waters and the Person of our Lord baptized in them It is plain by the words of St. Austine that he thought it Idolatrous to contemplate God in our mind according to the extent of those expressions which we use in speaking of him And the like certainly he judged of contemplating God according to Dreams and Visions which are partly humane and partly divine Thus then that great Light of Africa discourseth We believe that Christ sitteth at the right hand of the Father Yet thence are we not to think that the Father is circumscribed with humane form so as to occur to our mind contemplating of him as one that has a right and a left hand or as one sitting with bended knees left we fall into that sacriledg for which the Apostle condemneth those who turned the glory of the Incorruptible God into the similitude of corruptible man Such a Statue is not without impiety erected to God in a Christian Temple much more in the heart where the Temple of God is truly situate if it be purged from earthly concupiscence and error St. Austin then as Spalatensis reflecteth on these words would have advised that the Visions of Daniel and other of that nature produced by Bellarmine should be contemplated with the mind and not be pictured especially in Churches that they should be resolved into their true signification and not impressed upon the brain lest through the Picture of an Old man or Dove the defects of Age wings and bill possess the imagination There is danger in using any Images of Animals as Statues or Pictures of God for they will be made not Images only of Analogy but of representation by the ignorant whilst shape and life are personally set forth But there is not so great danger in the Images of things without life especially if they be flat Pictures not Protuberant Statues nor Pictures which the Artist hath expressed with roundness The worse and the more flat the work is the less danger there is of its abuse Titian hath painted the Virgin and the Child Jesus so very roundly that as Sir Henry Wotton a very good judg both of the pictures and dispositions of men saith of it a man knows not whether to call it a piece of Sculpture of Picture In some kinds of Pictures if there be found analogy and that analogy be discreetly expressed as by the name Jehovah or according to the Jewish modesty Adonai incircled with clouds and rays of glorious Light I know no sin in the making of it or contemplating in it in a Metaphorical way some of the Perfections of the infinite God in such manner expressed A devout man would not put a Paper with such an impression to vile uses He would think it fitter for his Closet than for his Chamber of Grimaces though he would not think it the representation of God or give it Divine honour by inward estimation or outward signs By Images of memory I mean such Objects as contain in them no analogy to the Divine Perfections nor any pretended representation of them but yet are apt to put us in mind of God being erected as Pillars or Monuments in places where he has done some great and excellent work Such was the Pillar of Jacob and in the making of such there is no unlawfulness nor in exhibiting before them such signs of honour as are proper to be shewed before a monument of Divine Wisdom Power or Goodness unless in times and places where other such Statues are erected to false gods and the erection and honour of them is by common construction the mark of their Worshippers Such Images of memory are often exhibited by God himself Such was the pillar of Salt into which the body of Lots Wife was converted a pillar of Remembrance of Gods justice and of admonition to them who look back towards the pollutions which they have escaped Such was the adust earth which Solinus speaks of in those places where the inhabitants of Sodom were destroyed by Sulphureous flames from Heaven though it was no pillar yet was it a monument of Divine power and severity towards their unnatural lusts And he that carves engraves or paints these holy Histories may be an useful Artist By Images of Representation I mean Statues or Pictures made by art with intent to exhibit the likeness of the person The making and worshipping such Images of him God himself condemneth appealing to the world whether there be any thing in nature to which he can be resembled Such a Representation is undue though made according to the best pattern in the visible world and much more if it be made in viler and as the Heathen were wont to do in the Images of Priapus and Attis in immoral figures And the Worshipper who gives to it veneration as to an Image of God does highly dishonour him by changing his essential glory into such similitudes And it is not so ignominious for Caesar to be painted in the similitude of an Ass or of the worst Monster in the Sculptures of Licetus as for God to be represented in the pretended likeness of his Deity by
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
that great Wit to rail at Opinions without offering reasons for his contrary judgment and here he offereth two The First he taketh from those first words of the Epistle to the Hebrews God who at divers times and in divers manners spake to our forefathers by the Prophets hath in these last times spoken to us by his Son The Second he taketh from the second and third verses of the second Chapter in which the Holy Author preferreth the Gospel before the Law because the Law was given by Angels that is saith he by the Angel sustaining the person of God and for that reason mentioned by St. Steven in the singular number and by many more such spirits making up that glorious train but the Gospel by the Lord Jesus the Son of God Upon the seeming force of such Reasons I find Curcellaeus and others agreeing in the sentence of Grotius Now for the first Objection I may remove it out of the way by saying no more than that God spake formerly by his Son as his Logos or Minister and in the latter times by him as his Son Incarnate or as begotten by the Holy Ghost of the substance of the Blessed Virgin The same Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews saith of the Throne of Christ as Gods Logos that it was from everlasting and yet we well know that his Kingdom as Messiah Mediator Incarnate or the Word made flesh was but then at hand when his Harbinger John took upon him the Office of Baptist And Justin Martyr thought not himself in an error when he said That the Logos both spake by the Prophets things to come and also by himself being made subject to like infirmities with us The Word was Gods Minister before and under the Law but not in the same quality as under the Gospel In those times he spake not himself immediately for how can a Divine Subsistence be meerly of it self corporally vocal But he spake I conceive by some principal Angel assumed as hath been said without personal union assisted by him in a miraculous motion of the air or brain Under the Gospel he spake with his own mouth as having assumed human nature into unity of Person This word Person if I may make a digression of two or three lines deserveth not the clamour with which Socinians hoot at it especially when we consider it as now we do with relation to Christ as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Face or personating Shechinah of God They then that rightly distinguish betwixt Christ as Gods Word and Shechinah under the former Covenants and as Mediator and Gods Son incarnate under the Gospel will not much be perplexed with such places of Scripture as speak sometimes of Christs Praeexistence and oftner of his coming into the world in the fulness of time And thus much Monsieur le Blanc himself taketh notice of in his Theological Theses He there favoureth the opinion of Christs praeexistence He owneth him as the Minister of God of old but not properly as Mediator which he saith including Christs Priestly Office did of necessity require not only a mission of one Divine Person by another but a Divine Person incarnate Now from that which I have suggested in this answer to the first Objection of Grotius it will be a matter of small difficulty to infer a Reply unto his second For an assumed Angel being us'd by the Divine Logos as the immediate Minister of himself to the people and Christ speaking with his own mouth under the Gospel as God-man and the great mystery of the Gospel consisting in the manifestation of God in the flesh the Apostle had sufficient reason to prefer the Gospel before the Law We have before us a matter of lesser astonishment when we think of Divinity speaking by an Angel to which it is not vitally united than when we contemplate it as manifesting it self in the quality of God-man in unity of Person with human nature Such were the thoughts of St. Hilary of Poictiers who in our present Argument thus discourseth Then God only was seen in the shew of man He was not born Now he who was seen is also born For Athanasius he contendeth that Christ was call'd the Son long before he was incarnate and that Moses himself knew of the future Incarnation as well as he saw the present Appearance of the unincarnate Logos I conclude then notwithstanding these Objections That there is almost as good warrant for reading the Preface to the Decalogue in this manner Christ spake all these words and said as the ancient Saxon Prefacer had thus to read as he does that part of the fourth Commandment For in six days Christ made the Heaven and the Earth God who by his Logos gave all Physical Laws to Nature did also by the same Word give the Moral Law to Israel In the beginning of that Law saith St. Austin God prohibited the worship of any Image besides one the same with himself that is to say the Logos his Son whom Moses saw it being promised to him that God should apparently converse with him and that he should behold the similitude or Image or as the Seventy render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Glory or glorious Shechinah of God Whether at the giving of the Law Moses saw the Shechinah in human figure his Text does not inform us yet it doth not necessarily follow that Moses or Aaron saw no figure because the people did not For there was much more danger in them who had had the education of slaves and who labour'd under gross and sensitive apprehensions than there was in Moses a Learned and Prudent person of abusing such similitude in the framing of Idols and one would think that at the receiving of the Tables he saw something in human figure for he is said to have seen the back-parts of God or his Shechinah or the shew of a man inverted or rather a less degree of luster in the Shechinah neither he nor any man living being able to behold the face or full luster of it which perhaps might then appear to the attending-Angels So that the desire of Moses was in effect like that of Eudoxus who desir'd to see the Sun just by him If it should have been granted he must have pay'd down his life as the expence of his curiosity And indeed the seeing of the Face of God in that sense was at that season the less necessary because God had just then made a promise of his Shechinah or presence in the Tabernacle to go along with him and to support him against the incredulity of the people to whose eyes such a Shechinah as they could bear was in wisdom to be accommodated Whilst Moses was beholding this Pattern in the Moant and receiving Laws from the Presence of God the people seeing neither as at his departure they had done the Glory of God in Clouds and Flame nor as in the
glory vastly differing from and surmounting any Image all Images of things visible or invisible in in this Creation So 't is fitly expressed saith he in Heb. 7. 29. He was made higher than the Heavens He was heightned to a splendour enlarged to a capacity and a compass above the brightest beyond the widest Heavens From this Heavenly Throne Christ will come at the day of Judgment in a Shechinah of Clouds and flaming-fire the mention of which fire sometimes in the Scripture and in the Commentaries of the ancient Fathers without express addition of that great day has as I conjecture accidentally led part of the Christian World into its mistakes about Purgatory in relation to which place I must yet confess my self to be one of the Nullibists This Shechinah in milder but most inexpressible luster I suppose to be that which the Schools call the Beatifick Vision and which the Scripture intendeth in the promise of seeing God face to face PART 7. Of the Usefulness of this Argument of Gods Shechinah THis Argument of Gods Shechinah may be many ways useful if Intelligent persons draw such inferences from it as it offereth to their judgment I will hint at some of them for to insist on any unless it be those which concern the worship of Angels or Images is beyond my scope And first of all by due attention to the premisses an Anthropomorphite may blush at his rude conceit about the humane figure of the Divine substance whose spiritual and immense amplitude is incapable of any natural figure or colour though God by his Logos using the ministry of inferiour creatures hath condescended to a visible Shechinah Hence secondly those people who run into the other extream the Spiritualists and abstractive Familists may be induced to own the distinct substance of God and the visible person of Christ and not to subtilize the Deity and its Persons and all its appearances into a meer notion or into some quality act or habit of mans spirit or to bow down to God no otherwise then as he is the pretended light or love in their own breasts Thirdly If this consideration had entered with sobriety into the minds of those German Anabaptists who with zeal contended that the very essence or substance of the Father was seen in the Son and the very substance of the Spirit in the Dove their disputations would have been brought to a speedy issue or rather they would never have been begun They would have known how to have distinguished betwixt the invisible God and the visible face or Shechinah not as the very shape but as the emblem and significative Presence of the Divinity Fourthly For want of some such notion as this many other men of fanatick heads such as were most of the Hereticks who introduced novelty and tumult into the Church about the Persons of the Trinity and nature of Christ have plunged themselves into unintelligible conceits Of this number were the Basilidians who call'd the body of the Dove the Deacon and the Valentinians who stil'd it the spirit of cogitation which descended on the flesh of the Logos thereby darkning the understanding with phrases If they had apprehended the Logos in his Praeexistence or Incarnation as the Shechinah of God and would have expressed that notion without phantastical or amusing terms they might have instructed others and seen the truth also better themselves when they had clothed it in fit and becoming words Fifthly This notion may not be unuseful for the unfolding the Scriptures which speak of the Praeexistence of Christ before he was God-man and explain them naturally and not with such force and torture as they are exposed to in the Soâ—…inian Comments He that saith Abraham saw the Shechinah of the Praeexisting Logos and thence inferreth that Christ was before that Patriarck speaketh plain sense But he that says Christ was not till more than 2000 years after Abrahams death yet that he was before him because he was before Abraham was Abraham or before all Nations were blessed in his seed the Gentiles not being yet called such a one speaks like a Sophist not an honest Interpreter and forgets that Christs answer before Abraham was I am follows upon this Interrogatory of the Jews Thou art not yet fifty years old and hast thou seen Abraham Sixthly This notion may further shew the error of those Semi-Socinians such as Vorstius and his Disciples who confound the Immensity of the God-head and the visible Glory of the Shechinah which God hath pleased as it were to circumscribe They will allow this King of the world no further room for his Immense substance than that which his especial Presence irradiates in his particular Palace Which conceit though in part it be accommodable to the Shechinah yet is it a presumptuous limitation of the great God when it is applied to his substance which Heaven and Earth together cannot contain Furthermore it is from hence in part that we see and pity the blindness of some of the modern Jews who notwithstanding they are the professed enemies of Divine Statues and Images and have reason enough to believe that the Ark of God hath dwelt among us in a body of flesh and now shineth in the Heavens do yet hope some say for an especial presence of God by furnishing with a Chest and Roll of their Law the places of their Religious Assemblies Again by considering with St. Chrysostome the Temple of Solomon as a Type not only of the sensible but also of the invisible world and by considering further the Shechinah and Ark of God more especially in the Holiest of all than in the Sanctuary and more exterior Courts and spaces we may illustrate that very useful and most probable notion of the degrees of Glory and of the several Mansions prepared for several Estates in the Kingdom of Glory where notwithstanding every part will be so far though inequally filled with luster that all may be said with open face to behold the Glory of God and not those only next the Coelestial Ark or Throne in the most holy place But these things as I said are beyond my scope though appertinencies to my Argument and therefore I will no further pursue them but proceed to those uses of the notion which lye more directly in the way of my design The first of them concerneth the worship of Angels the second of Images PART 8. Of the Usefulness of this Argument of Gods Shechinah with relation to the Worship of Angels and Images FIrst The Worshippers of Angels plead for their practice from those places in the Old Testament which seem to speak of high Veneration used towards them T. G. argueth from the Prayer which indeed is rather the wish of Jacob where he saith The Angel who delivered me from all evils bless these Children The Manual called the Abridgment of Christian Doctrine would prove the Worship of Dulia to belong to Angels from the falling of