part of the Scriptures are the Writings of the Old Testament And yet these were communicated to all of that Dispensation who were commanded by Christ to search them and who did educate their Children in them continuing that Holy care to a high degree even to this Day Now except it be said that it is sitter all be kept under Darkness in the new Dispensation than was in the Old no account can be given for the Zeal is used in any Church to keep their Children in such ignorance and yet this is a part of the distinguishing Characters of the new Dispensation from the Old that Light hath appeared in it Now all may know how guilty those of Rome are in this What pains are taken to detract from the Authority of the Scriptures how they quarrel sometimes its Darkness sometimes its Ambiguousness sometimes the genuineness of its Originals and always complain of its being too much perused and therefore let as little of it be put in vulgar Tongues as can be read it publickly in an unknown Tongue and permit no private Person the use of it without allowance from his Confessor Of which tho in some places the Reformation hath made them more liberal yet where there is no hazard of that they betray their aversion for the Scriptures too palpably in all their Writings and Discourses But now to pursue my Design more closely I must call to mind the first Branch of the Christian Religion which teacheth how God is to be worshipped in a pure and spiritual Way and see how far this is contradicted And here I must consider the Idolatry of the Gentiles which was of two kinds The one was when the True God was worshipped in a false manner The other was when Divine Adoration was offered to those who were no Gods. Of the first I shall reckon two kinds the first was when an Image or Figure was erected for representing the Deity to the Senses and adoration offered to God through it In which case though perhaps the Herd did formally worship the Image yet their Philosophers declared they meant these only for exciting the Senses and Imagination and not for being worshipped much less that the Deity should be conceived like unto them as we find both in Celsus Julian and Maximus Tyrius Now this form of Adoration is contrary both to the Divine Essence and Command For God must either be conceived like such an Image or not If like to it then a great indignity is done the Divine Nature greater than if a Toad or Worm were set out as the Image of a King to have civil Reverence paid to it since he is of his own Essence Incomprehensible and Invisible and so hath no Shape or Figure In a word it abases our thoughts of God when we figure him to our selves But if we conceive God not like such an Image then why is it used except to be a Snare to the Vulgar who will be ready to think God like unto it And certain it is that whatever the more refined or abstracted Wits may conceive of these Images yet the Vulgar offer up their Adorations directly to them and conceive God to be like unto them This Worship is also contrary to the Divine Precept who made it one of the Ten Commandments which himself delivered to his People Exod. 20.4 That no graven Image nor Likeness should be made to be worshipped And the reason given shews the Law was perpetual for God is ever jealous of the Glory due to him Now what kindness those of Rome have to this Command may be guessed by their striking it out of their Catechisms as if it were only an Appendix of the first But if we read the whole Old Testament it will furnish us with large discoveries of God's Displeasure at this kind of Worship to which the Jews were so inclinable but God would not give his Praise to graven Images Isa 42.8 Now here it is to be remembred that the Jewish Dispensation was low and carnal when compared to that to which we are called If then this Worship was not allowed of to them it is much less to be allowed of among Christians Another part of the false Worship of the Heathens was that they believed the Deity and Divine Power was by mystical and magical ways affixed to some Bodies as the Sun or Stars are or to some Temples and to some Ancilia and Palladia which they believed came down from Heaven Acts 19.35 to which they held God to be present and adherent and therefore worshipped them And of kin to this was the Israelites their worshipping the Calf in the Wilderness Exod. 32. for it is clear they looked on it as their God who had brought them out of Egypt therefore could not possibly be adoring the Egyptian God that was an Ox but the Feast that was to Jehovah and the Psalm 106. vers 20. that says they changed their Glory into the similitude of an Ox do shew that they worshipped the True God though in a false manner Neither is it to be imagined that Aaron the Prophet and Saint of the Lord though very guilty in this Matter could for all that be so criminal as to make a false God But the most satisfying account of his Fault is that when he saw God in the Mount Exod. 24.10 God appeared in that Figure that was afterwards in the most Holy Place which was to be framed after the Pattern seen in the Mount. And if so then God appeared between the Cherubims now the Figure of a Cherub was the same with that of a Calf in its hinder parts Ezek. 1.7 And if we compare vers 10. of that Chap. with Ezek. 10.14 what in the first place is called the Face of an Ox is in the second called the Face of a Cherub which tells us clearly what was the Figure of the Cherub And therefore Aaron seeing the People desired a sensible Symbol of God's Presence among them he made choice of that he had seen in the Mount about the Divine Glory and yet all that did not excuse his Fault in the sight of God. In like manner after the Tabernacle and Temple were set up wherein were the Cherubims when Jeroboam revolted he set up Calves 1 King. 12.28 29. as is probable upon the same account but no doubt continued in all Points the Worship of the True God as it was at Jerusalem as might be proved from many Particulars but the Sin wherewith he made Israel to sin was the worshipping of the True God by a false Symbol The like account is to be given of the Idolatry of Gideon's Ephod Judg. 8.27 And of the worshipping the Brazen Serpent 2 King. 18.4 where certainly the True God was adored and yet the People went a whoring from him in that Worship And here the Title of Whoredom given to Idolatry so often in the Old Testament is to be considered the importance whereof is that God by covenanting with his People is married to them
the Books of the Old Testament have the Doctrine of Vertue Purity Humility and Meekness laid open very fully but without derogating from these it must be acknowledged that as the Doctrine of Christianity teacheth all these Precepts with clearer Rules and fuller Directions so they were in it recommended by the example of its Author backed with the strongest Motives and enforced with the greatest Arguments In these are the Lessons of Purity Chastity Ingenuity Humility Meekness Patience and Generosity so clearly laid down and so fully evinced that no Man who is so much a Man as to love these things whereby his Mind may be improved to all that is truely great and noble but must be enamoured of the Christian Religion as soon as he is taught it The fourth Design of Religion is to unite Mankind in the closest Bonds of Peace Friendship and Charity which it doth not only by the Rules prescribed for the tempering our Passions forgiving of Injuries and loving our Enemies and by the Doctrin of Obedience to those in Authority over us but likewise by associating us into one Body called the Church wherein we are to worship God jointly and to be coupled in one by the use of the Sacraments which are the Ligaments of the Body Having thus viewed the great designs of the Christian Religion in the several Branches and Parts thereof I shall add to this the main distinguishing Characters of our Religion which are also four The first its its verity that it is not founded on the tattles of Persons concerned nor on the reveries of Dotards nor received with a blind credulity being founded on the Authority of the great God which appeared visibly in those that published it chiefly in the Person of Jesus Christ who by his Miracles that were wrought in the sight of all the People even his Enemies looking on and not being able to deny them but chiefly by his Resurrection from the Dead was declared to be the Son of God which was seen and known by many who followed not cunningly devised Fables but were the Eye-witnesses of his Majesty who went in his Name and published it to the World confirming it by Miracles and mighty Wonders attesting it notwithstanding of all the Persecutions they met with most of them confirming it with their Blood And this Doctrine was received and believed by the better part of Mankind though it being contrary to all the Interests of the flesh whose mortification it teacheth its reception cannot be imputed to credulity or interest The second Character of our Religion is its genuine simplicity and perspicuity that all its Doctrines and Rules are clearly and distinctly held out to us not like the Heathen Divinity much whereof lay in dark Oracles in the Books of the Sybils and in other pretended Mysteries which none but the Priests might handle and expound The Jewish Religion was also vailed with Types and Figures so that it was not easie to see the Substance and Truth through all these foldings and shadows But the Glory of the Christian Religion as to this particular is nobly laid out by St. Paul in these words 2 Cor. 3.18 But we all with open face as in a glass beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. The third Character is the Reasonableness of the Christian Religion it containing none of these absurd incredible things which abounded among the Heathens nor of these Rites of Judaism the Reasons whereof besides the Will of God in enjoyning them could not be assigned but both the Doctrines and Precepts of the Christian Religion are fitted for Mankind and so congenial to his Nature that they well deserve the designation of reasonable Service or rational Worship God having made our Souls and them of a piece And the fourth Character of our Religion is its easiness Christ's Yoke is easy and his Burden light Mat. 11.30 Wherein we are freed from all the barbarous and cruel Rites of Gentilism and from the oppressive Bondage of Judaism which was a Law of Ordinances and a Yoke that our Fathers were not able to bear but that we are called to by Christ is so simple so easy and so plain that well may we say his Commandments are not grievous 1 Joh. 5.3 Having given this hint of the Design and Characters of the Christian Religion I hold it not necessary to dwell on a further deduction of those Generals into more particular Branches nor to make this Scheme of Religion good by any longer Proof the Position I have laid down being so obvious to the Reason of every considering Person wherefore I go on to examine if there be any such System of Doctrins or Opinions among Pretenders to Christianity which tends to the overthrowing and enervating of this whole Design and whose Characters are directly opposite to these I have mentioned and the less avowed and the more disguised that Society be as it is more likely to prevail since Error and Vice are not so formidable in their own colours as when vailed with the pretences of Truth and Vertue so it will better agree with that great Character the Prophecies give of this defection that it was a Mystery and had Mystery on its Fore-head Rev. 17.15 And here remains the sad part of my Discourse for what lover of Mankind can with pleasure either satisfy his own Reason or convince the Judgment of others in a Matter the issue whereof is to prove so great a part of the Christian Societies to be Antichristian and adulterate and certainly if my love to Truth and the honour of my Redeemer and his Gospel and by consequence a zeal for Souls did not engage me to this Search I could easily quit the Task and chuse more easy and pleasant Subjects for the exercise of my Thoughts but the Wisdom of God having declared it a part of Wisdom to observe the Characters of the Antichristian Beast I therefore though not without pain engage in the survey of it And first in the entry it will be a bad Omen of no good to be expected from any Society that shall study to keep her Members in Ignorance and to bar them the study of the Holy Scriptures which being the Revelation of the whole Counsel of God and written by plain and simple Men and at first directed to the use of the rude illiterate Vulgar for teaching them the Mysteries of Godliness and the Path of Life it is a shrewd indication that if any studied to hide this Light under a Candlestick and to keep it in an unknown Tongue or forbid the Body of Christians the use of it though its native tendency be to enlighten the Understanding and to enflame the Will it being given out by God for that end that those must be conscious to themselves of great deformity to that Rule and apprehend that if it were more known their Doctrin would be less believed especially since the hardest
to be their God and the conjugal Duty they owe him is Adoration When therefore other Creatures have any share of that bestowed on them spiritual Whoredom is committed Now how sad the Application of this to the Christian Church must be all may judg who know how great a part of Christendom worship God by Images and how the adored and incomprehensible Trinity is painted as an Old Man with a Child in his Arms and a Dove over the Child's Head tho no Man hath seen the Father at any time John 6.46 And the Son as God can no more be represented by an Image than the Father and the Holy Ghost though once appearing in the symbolical representation of a Dove cannot without Idolatry be represented and worshipped under that Figure Neither can any Apology be offered for this which could not with the same Reason have cleared both Jews and Gentiles of Idolatry And whatever more abstracted Minds may think of these Images yet none that considers the simplicity of the Vulgar the frailty of Man and his inclination to apprehend all things as sensible can doubt but that the Rabble do really conceive of God as like these Figures and do plainly worship them It is further to be considered that though the Son of God was Man yet as Man he is not to be worshipped and therefore the setting out of Figures and Statues for his Humane Nature which on the way are no real Adumbrations but only the Fancies of Painters and worshipping these as the Images of the Son of God is no less Idolatry than to worship the Father as an Old Man. And further the Worship of the Mass is Idolatry as evidently as any piece of Gentilism ever was For if it be certain that Christ is not in the Hostie which shall be afterwards made out then to adore him as there must be Idolatrous Neither will it serve for excuse to say that Christ is truly worshipped as present and if he be not there it is only a mistake about the Presence but no Idolatry can be committed the Worship being offered to a proper Object who is God. But if this Apology free them of Idolatry it will also clear those Heathens who worshipped some Statues or Creatures in which they conceived God was present so that they might have pleaded it was the Great and True God they adored believing him there present as their Fathers had formerly believed But he were very gentle to Idolaters who upon such a Plea would clear them of that Crime What then is to be said of that Church that holds it the greatest piece of her Religion to adore the Bread with the same devotion they would pay to Christ were he visibly present who call the Bread God carry it about in Processions and worship it with all the Solemnity imaginable And finally the Worship they give the Cross is likewise an adoring of God under a Symbol and Representation And thus we have seen the Parallel of Rome-Heathen and Rome-Christian runs but too too just But the next kind of the Heathens Idolatry was their worshipping of others beside God whom they held of two ranks Some that were so pure that they never dwelt in Bodies Others they judged to be the Souls of deceased Men after their Death acknowledged and honoured with Divine Honour And this kind of Idolatry was first begun at Babylon where Ninus made the Statue of his Father Belus be set up and worshipped it And from him all these lesser Gods were called Belim or Baalim Now concerning these the Heathens believed that they were certain intermedial Powers that went betwixt God and Men by whom all good things were conveyed to Mortals by whom also all our Services were offered to the Gods. Thus the Nations had Gods many and Lords many 1 Cor. 8.5 And these lesser Deities or Daemons they adored by erecting Statues to them about their burial Places where they built Temples for them and worshipped them And from this Hint of Babylon's being the Mother of this kind of Idolatry we may guess why the Apostacy of that City which in St. John's days did reign over the Kingdoms of the Earth Rev. 17.18 is shadowed forth under the Name of Babylon to hold out that the Corruption it was to fall into was to be of a kind with that begun in Babylon and the Character of the Whore doth likewise agree well with this Now if we compare with this the worship of Angels and Saints in the Roman Church we shall find the parity just and exact For after the Conversion of the Roman Empire it is not to be denied but that in order to the gaining of the Heathen World to a complyance with Christianity the Christians did as near as was possible accommodate themselves to the Heathenish Customs And therefore in stead of their Gods they set up the Daemon and Baal-Worship to the Apostles and other Saints and Martyrs which Theodoret doth most ingenuously acknowledg to have been set in the stead of their Gods. They became afterwards so exact in the parallel that as the Heathens had of these lesser Gods for every Nation so there was a Saint appointed for every Nation St. Andrew for Scotland St. George for England St. Patrick for Ireland and many more for other Nations And as every House among the Heathens had their houshold God so every Person was taught to have a tutelar Saint and Angel. And as among the Heathen there were Gods for all Trades for all Sicknesses and for every Vertue so in Antichristianism there were Saints for every Disease for every Profession and for all the Graces And as the Heathens built Temples for them so did also Babylonish Rome And here an odd Remark is in my way of this conformity that the Pantheon at Rome dedicated in Augustus his time to Cybele the Mother of the Gods and to all the Gods was afterwards consecrated to the Virgin and all the Saints And as the Heathens offered Prayers made Vows observed Days brought Presents used Processions in honour to these lesser Gods and worshipped their Statues and Images so all this by degrees crept into Rome-Christian as might be branched out in more particulars than the nature of so short a Discourse will allow of It is true the Worship of Images came not in before the eighth Century but after that time it engaged all that received it into a high degree of madness for advancing that Heathenish piece of Worship And shall I here tell what is known to all who have seen the forms of that Church how you shall find their Churches all over dressed up with Images and Statues gorgeously apparelled and well adorned where the poor vulgar are lying prostrate before them saying their Devotions and perhaps washing the feet of their Shrines with their Tears and with great affection kissing the Hem of their Garments And if through the tricks of the Priest the Image seem to nod or smile on them which is not unfrequent with