he should worship God still so he would but worship him also And therefore it is no reason to excuse the Church of Rome from Idolatry because they worship the Supreme God as well as Saints and Angels this they may do and be Idolaters still for Idolatry does not consist meerly in renouncing the worship of the Supreme God but in worshipping any thing else though we continue to worship him When the Jews worshipt their Baalims and false gods they did not wholly renounce the worship of the God of Israel and the Heathens themselves especially the wisest men amongst them did acknowledge one Supreme God though they worshipt a great many inferiour Deities with him 2. Our Saviour in his answer to the Devils temptation does not urge his being a wicked and Apostate Spirit an enemy and a rebel against God but gives such a reason why he could not worship him as equally excludes all Creatures whether good or bad Spirits from any right to Divine Worship Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Him and none else whether they be good or bad Spirits for our Saviour does not confine his answer to either and therefore includes them both When we charge the Church of Rome with too plain an imitation of the Pagan Idolatry in that worship they paid to their infâ—riour Daemons which was nothing more than what the Church of Rome now gives to Saints and Angels they think it a sufficient answer that the Heathens worshipt Devils and Apostate Spirits but they worship only the Friends and Favourites of God blessed Saints and Angels Now I shall not at present examine the truth of this pretence but shall refer my Reader to a more Learned person for satisfaction in this matter but if it were true yet it is nothing to the purpose if our Saviours answer to the Devil be good For let us suppose that the Pope of Rome who calls himself Christs Vicar had at this time been in Christ's stead to have answered the Devils temptations and let us be so charitable for once as to suppose that saving always his indirect power over the Kingdoms of this world in or line ad spiritualia he would not worship the Devil to gain all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them Consider then how the Pope of Rome could answer this Temptation All this I will give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me could he answer as our Saviour does It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve How easily might the Devil reply Is this indeed your infallible Opinion and the judgment and practice of your Church to serve God onely do you not also serve and worship St. Paul and St. Peter and the Virgin Mary besides a great many other obscure and doubtful Saints This is down right Heresie to confine all Religious Worship to God Here now is matter of fact against the Pope that he does worship other Beings besides God and if he will shew any reason for his not worshipping the Devil he must quite alter our Saviours answer and not plead for himself that he is bound to worship God and him onely but that he is bound to worship onely God and good Spirits and therefore the Devil being a wicked and Apostate Spirit it is not lawful to worship him So that if our Saviour gave a sufficient answer to the Devils temptation it must be equally unlawful to worship good and bad Spirits there may be some peculiar aggravations in having communion with Devils but the Idolatry of worshipping good and bad Spirits is the same 3. Our Saviours answer to the Devil appropriates all kinds and degrees of Religious Worship to God alone The Devil was not then so good a School-man as nicely to distinguish dispute the degrees of Religious Worship with our Saviour but would have been contented with any degree of Religious Worship He did not pretend to be the Supreme God nor to have the disposal of all the Kingdoms of the world in his own right but acknowledges that it was delivered to him and now by vertue of that grant he gives it to whom he will Now it is impossible in the nature of the thing to worship any Being as Supreme whom at the same time we acknowledge not to be Supreme And therefore the Devil asks no more of our Saviour than that he would fall down and worship him which is such an inferiour degree of Worship as Papists every day pay to Images and Saints and yet this our Saviour refuses to do and that for this reason that we must worship God only which must signifie that we must not give the least degree of Divine Worship to any Creatures or else it is not a satisfactory answer to the Devils Temptation who did not require any certain and determinate degree of Worship but left him at liberty to use what distinctions he pleased and to pay what degree of Worship he saw fit whether absolute or relative supreme or subordinate terminative or transient so he would but fall down and worship him any way or in any degree he left him to be his own Schoolman and Casâ—ist but of this more presently 11. As the Laws of Moses in general appropriate all Religious Worship to God command us to worship God and him only so the whole Jewish Rellgion was fitted only for the worship of the Lord Jehovah I suppose our Adversaries will not deny that the Tabernacle and Temple at Jerusalem was peculiarly consecrated to the honour and worship of the Lord Jehovah this was the house where he dwelt where he placâ—â— his Name and the Symbols of his presence It was a great profanation of that holy place to have the worship of any strange Gods set up in it and yet this was the only place of Worship appointed by the Law of Moses they had but one Temple to worship in and this one Temple consecrated to the peculiar worship of one God which is a plain demonstration that they were not allowed to worship any other God because they had no place to worship him in And this I think is a plain proof that all that worship which was confined to their Temple or related to it was peculiar to the Lord Jehovah because that was his house and then all the Jewish worship was so which was either to be performed at the Temple or had a relation and dependance on the Temple worship Sacrifice was the principal part of the Jewish worship and this we know was confined to the Temple Moses expresly commands Israel Take heed to thy self that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest But in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy Tribes there shalt thou offer thy burnt offerings and there shult thou do all that I command thee The Prophets indeed especially before the building of the Temple did erect Altars
prayers and help and aid to obtain blessings of God by his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who is our onely not Intercessor and Advocate but Redeemer and Saviour Now how they prove all this is not my business at present to enquire but my inquiry is whether such arguments as these be sufficient to oppose against the authority of an express Law and if they be truly I think it a very vain thing either for God or men to make any Laws For 1. I desire to know what these Gentlemen would prove by such kind of arguments as these Suppose we should grant them that the Saints are received into Heaven before the Resurrection and are actually possest of all that Glory and Happiness which they say they are suppose we should grant them that by some means unknown to us Saints and Angels are acquainted with all that we do and suffer in this world hear all our vocal or mental prayers which we offer to God or to themselves and that they do actually pray and intercede for us what follows from hence That therefore we may pray to Saints not I hope if there be an express Law against it These arguments at most can onely prove that in the nature of the thing it might be fitting and reasonable to pray to Saints if God thought fit to allow it not that we must pray to Saints though God has forbid it For those are powerful reasons indeed which can justifie Saint-worship against the express Law and declared Will of God Could they first prove one of these three things Either 1. that there is no such Law against the worship of any other Being besides God Or 2. that this is not the sence of this Law that they must not pray to Saints or Angels that the Law which forbids us to worship any Being but God does not forbid the worship of Saints Or 3. that though there was such a Law and this were the sence of it and this Law were never formally repealed by God yet it disappears of it self and obliges no longer since the discovery of such reasons as these for the worship of Saints and Angels I say could they prove any thing of this in the first place then there would be as much reason for the worship of Saints as there is strength and validity in their Arguments but no Reason can take place against an express Law till it be as expresly repealed For 2. If an express Law may be disobeyed as often as men fancy they see reason to do what the Law forbids this overthrows the whole authority of making Laws and makes every Subject a Judge whether the Laws of a Soveraign Prince shall be obeyed or not At this rate he has the greatest authority who has the best reason and since every man believes his own reason to be best every man is the Soveraign Lord of his own actions It is to be presumed that no Prince makes a Law but what he apprehends some reason for and to oppose any mans private reason against a Law is to set up a private mans reason against the publick reason of government and yet it is much worse to oppose our reason against a Divine Law which is to oppose the reason of Creatures against the reason of God unless we will say that God makes Laws without reason and those who can believe that may as easily imagine that God will expect that those Laws which he makes without reason should be obeyed without reason also and then to be sure all their reasons cannot repeal a Law nor justifie them in the breach of it It becomes every Creature to believe the will of God to be the highest reason and therefore when God has declared his will by an express Law while this Law continues in force as it must do till it be as expresly repealed it is an impudent thing to urge our reasons against the obligations of it So that since God has expresly forbid us to worship any Being besides himself unless we can prove that God has repealed this Law it will never justifie the worship of Saints and Angels though we could by the plainest and easiest arguments prove to the conviction of all Mankind that Saints and Angels are very fit objects of our Religious Worship and that it is no diminution to the glory of God to pay some degree of Religious worship to them 3. Especially when the matter of the Law is such that whatever reasons may be pretended on one side or the other it must still be acknowledged to be wholly at the will and pleasure of the Law-giver which side he will choose As for instance suppose there were no natural and necessary reason against the worship of Saints and Angels yet there is no natural and necessary reason for it neither and therefore God may either allow or forbid it as he himself pleases without assigning any reason why he does either And when it appears that God might forbid it if he pleases and that he has actually forbid it by an express Law it is time to leave off reasoning about it natural reason can give us no assurance of any thing which it cannot prove to be necessary whatever in the nature and reason of things may be or may not be can never be proved either to be or not to be by meer reason for it is a contradiction to say that there is no necessary reason why such a thing should be and yet that I can prove by reason that it must be which supposes that there is a necessary reason why it should be for I cannot prove that it must be unless I can prove that it must necessarily be that is that there is a necessary reason why it should be To apply this then to our present Case The Law expresly forbids us to worship any other Being besides the Supreme God the Church of Rome prays to Saints and Angels and Images which is an essential part of Divine Worship and without ever attempting to prove this Law to be repealed she justifies her worship by such reasons and consequences as I have now cited from their most celebrated Doctors and some of which are the principles whereon the Council of Trent founds their praying to Saints and Angels I ask then whether these arguments whereby they endeavour to justifie the worship of Saints and Angels prove that we must worship them that such worship is their natural right and our duty No this the Church of Rome will not own the most the Council of Trent says is that it is bonum utile good and profitable to do it but say I if they do not prove it to be necessary they prove nothing for if Saints and Angels have not a natural right to our worship though we should suppose them to be very fit objects of some degrees of worship yet it is at Gods choice whether he will allow it or not and they can challenge no worship and we must give none if God
himself gives why he forbids the worship of any Being besides himself or the worship of graven Images I am the Lord that is my Name and my glory will I not give to another nor my praise to graven Images Whatever is his true glory he reserves to himself and therefore never did forbid any act of worship which was truly so but he will not give his glory to another and for that reason forbids the worship of graven Images or any thing besides himself and if this was not his glory then much less the most perfect and excellent part of worship I know not how it should come to be his glory now unless the Divine Nature changes and alters too So that Gods having forbid by the Law of Moses the worship of any other Being besides himself is a very strong presumption that the worship of Saints and Angels whatever fine excuses and Apologies may be made for it yet at least is not a more perfect state of Religion than to worship God alone For though God may not always think fit to command the highest degrees of perfection yet there never can be any reason to forbid it But let us now consider the nature and reason of the thing whether it be a more perfect state of Religion to worship God alone or to worship Saints and Angels c. together with the Supreme God Now the perfection of any acts of Religion must either respect God or our selves that they signifie some greater perfections in God or more perfect attainments in us and a nearer union and conjunction with the Deity Let us then briefly examine the worship of Saints and Angels both with respect to God and our selves and see whether we can discover any greater perfection in this way of worship than in the worship of the Supreme Being alone without any Rival or partner in worship and if it appears that it is neither for the glory of God nor for the happiness and perfection of those who worship we may certainly conclude that our Saviour has made no alteration in the object of our worship for he made no alteration for the worse but for the better he fulfils and perfects Laws which I suppose does not signifie making them less perfect than they were before SECT VI. 1. THen let us consider whether the worship of Saints and Angels be more for the glory of God than to pay all Religious Worship to God alone Now if Religious Worship be for the glory of God then all Religious Worship is more for Gods glory than a part of it unless men will venture to say that a part is as great as the whole And yet whoever worships Saints and Angels though he be neve so devout a worshipper of God also yet he gives part of Religious Worship to Creatures and therefore God cannot have the whole unless they can divide their worship between God and Creatures and yet give the whole to God If it be objected that those who worship Saints and Angels do not give that worship to them which is peculiar and appropriate to the Supreme God and therefore they reserve that worship which is due to God wholly to himself though they pay an inferiour degree of Religious Worship to Saints and Angels I answer what that worship is which is peculiar to the Supreme God I shall consider more hereafter but for the present supposing that they give only an inferiour degree of worship to Creatures is this Religious Worship or is it not if it be is a degree of Worship a part of Worship if it be then God has not the whole and therefore is not so much honoured as if he had the whole as to shew this in a plain instance Those who pray to Saints and Angels though they do not pray to them as to the Supreme God but as to Mediators and Intercessors for them with the Supreme God yet they place an inferiour degree of hope and trust and affiance in them or else it is non-sence to pray to them at all so that though God may be the Supreme Object of their relyance and hope yet he is not the only Object he has part and the greatest part but not the whole for they divide their hope and trust between God and Creatures and if it be a greater glory to God to trust wholly in him than to trust in him in part then it is a greater glory to God to pray to him only than to pray also to Saints and Angels Nay it is more than probable that those who pray to Saints and Angels as trusting in their merits and intercession for them do not make God but these Saints and Angels to whom they pray the Supreme Object of their hope This it may be will be thought an extravagant charge against men who profess to believe that God is the Supreme Lord of the world and the sole giver of all good things but this is no argument to me but that notwithstanding this belief they may trust more in Saints and Angels than in God and consequently give the Supreme Worship to them For men do not always trust most in those who have the greatest power but in those by whose interest and intercession they hope to obtain their desires of the Soveraign power Thus I am sure it is in the Courts of earthly Princes though men know that the King only has power to grant what they desire yet they place more confidence in a powerful Favorite than in their Prince and when they have obtained their requests pay more solemn acknowledgments to their Patron for let the power be where it will our hope and trust is plac't there where our expectations are And when mens expectations are not from the Prince who has the power but from the Favourite whose interest directs the influences of this power to them which otherwise would never have reacht them such Favourites have more numerous dependants more frequent addresses more formal courtships than the Prince himself And when men model the heavenly Court according to the pattern of earthly Courts and expect the conveyance of the Divine Blessings to them as much from the intercession of Saints and Angels as they do to obtain their desires of their Prince by the mediation of some powerful Favourite no wonder if they love and honour and fear reverence and adore trust and depend on Saints and Angels as much or more than they do on the Supreme God For there is not a more natural notion than to honour those for our Gods from whose hands we receive all good things whether we receive it from their own inherent power or not Deus nobis haec otia fecit Namque erit ille mihi semper Deus illius aram Saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus Men may acknowledge God to be the Supreme Being and ascribe incommunicable perfections to him and yet may pray more frequently more devoutly more ardently with greater trust and affiance to Saints
and Angels than to God as it is apparent many Devotoes of the Virgin Mary do and this is to give Supreme and Soveraign Worship to them without acknowledging them to be Supreme Beings Indeed it is morally impossible but our Religious Worship trust and affiance must be at least equally shared between the Supreme God and our Mediator whatever he be as men do not less trust in the interest of their Patron than in the power of their Prince for it is not meer power but favour which is the immediate object of our trust and therefore God appointed his only begotten Son to be our Mediator as for other great and wise reasons so to prevent Idolatry by giving us a God incarnate who is a proper object of Religious adoration to be our Mediator that seeing men will worship their Mediator they may have a God for their Mediator to worship The sum is this If it be more for the glory of God to have all Religious Worship appropriated to himself than to have only a part of it and it may be the least share and part too then the worship of Saints and Angels cannot be for Gods glory But besides this the worship of Saints and Angels together with God does mightily obscure and lessen the Divine perfections and therefore it cannot be for his glory It represents him indeed like a great Temporal Monarch but it does not represents him like a God That which we ignorantly think a piece of state and greatness in earthly Monarchs to administer the great affairs of their Kingdoms to receive Petitions and Addresses to bestow Favours to administer Justice by other hands to have some great Ministers and Favourites to interpose between them and their Subjects is nothing else but want of power to do otherwise He would be a much greater Prince more beloved and reverenced who could do all this himself but no Prince can be present in all parts of his Kingdom nor know every particular Subject much less their particular cases and conditions deserts and merits and therefore is forc't to divide this care into many hands and in so doing shares his power and honour with his Subjects But whoever imagines any such thing of God denies his omnipresence his omnipotence his omniscience and his particular care and providence over his Creatures God indeed does not always govern the world by an immediate power but makes use both of the Ministry of Angels Men but he governs all things by his immediate direction or at least by his immediate inspection He overlooks every thing himself while all Creatures either obey his commands or submit to his power If this be the true notion of Gods governing the world that he has the concernments of the whole Creation under his eye and keeps the disposal of all things in his own hands so that nothing can be done but either by his order or permission then the most perfect and glorious Angels the greatest Ministers of the Divine Providence can challenge no share in Religious Worship cannot be the objects of our trust or hope because they are only Ministers of the Divine Will can do nothing from themselves as civil Ministers of State and Officers of great trust can in Temporal Kingdoms but are always under the eye and always move at the command of God In such a state of things all the peculiar rights of Soveraign Power and Dominion God reserves wholly to himself as any wife Prince would among which the receiving the Prayers and Petitions of his Creatures is none of the least to hear Prayers is made the peculiar attribute of God in Scripture Thou art a God that hearest prayers therefore unto thee shall all flesh come And reason tells us that it is the most eminent part of Soveraignty and Majesty and the reason why Temporal Princes do not reserve this wholly to themselves is because they cannot do it but God can and he challenges it to himself and will not allow any Creature to do it and there is no temptation to pray to any Creature when we know that they cannot help us that they must receive their orders and commands from God and not act by their own will and inclinations Thus Princes have their Eavourites to whom they express a very partial fondness and respect to whom they will deny nothing that they ask nor hardly shew any grace or favour to their Subjects without them and this forces Subjects to address themselves to their Prince by them but it is a reproach to the Divine Goodness and universal Providence to conceive any such thing of God which yet is the foundation of the worship of Patron Saints and Angels as persons so dear to God that he cannot deny their requests and will not grant our Petitions without them or at least that it is the most certain and effectual way to obtain what we desire to offer up our Prayers and Petitions to God by their hands No doubt but all good men on earth much more Blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven as being more perfect and excellent Creatures are very dear to God but yet God is not fond and partial in his kindness as earthly Princes are but has an equal regard to all his Creatures and delights in doing good to them and needs not to be importuned by any powerful Favourites to hear their cryes and prayers he will as soon attend to the Prayers of an humble penitent sinner as of the most glorious Saint and is more ready to grant than they are to ask A Mediator of Redemption is very consistent with all the perfections of the Divine Nature and does mightily recommend both the goodness and wisdom of God to the world When Manking had transgressed the Laws of their Creation they forfeited their natural right and interest in the care and goodness of their Maker The Divine Justice and the wisdom of God in the government of the world required an atonement and expiation for sin and it was an amazing demonstration of the Divine goodness to sinners that he found one himself that he gave his Son to be a propitiation for our sins When men by sin had forfeited their original innocence and happiness together they could expect nothing from God but by way of Covenant and promise and every Covenant between contending parties must be transacted in the hands of a Medaitor and none so fit to be our Mediator as he who is our ransome too And a Mediator must be invested with power and authority to see the terms of this Covenant performed and this is his Mediatory Intercession He intercedes not meerly as a powerful Favourite but as the Author and Surety of the Covenant not meerly by intreaties and prayers but in vertue of his blood which sealed the Covenant and made atonement and expiation for sin Thus Christ is our Mediator of redemption who hath redeemed us by his blood and we must offer up all our Prayers to God in his name and powerful intercession
forbids it and therefore since God has forbid the worship of any Being but himself and therefore of the most excellent Saints and Angels by an express Law and it no-where appears where or when or in what manner this Law was repealed a hundred such arguments as these cannot prove it lawful to worship Saints and Angels against an express Law not to do it Though we should grant that God if he pleased might allow us to worship Saints and Angels as the Church of Rome does without any deminution of his own Glory which is the most that all their arguments can pretend to prove yet it does not hence follow that we may worship them when God by an express Law has declared that he will not allow it No arguments nor consequences can prove that God allows us to do that which by an express Law he has forbid us to do No reason can prove that to be Gods will which he has publickly declared in his Law to be against his will 4. That no reason or arguments can absolve us from our obedience to an express Law till it be as expresly repealed appears from this that our obligation to obedience does not depend meerly upon the reason of the Law but upon the authority of the Law-giver and therefore though the reason of the Law should cease yet while it is inforced by the same authority it obliges still Thus I am sure it is in humane Laws and it is very fitting it should be so meer reason cannot make a Law for then every thing which is reasonable would be a necessary duty that which is reasonable may be fit matter for a Law but it is the authority of the Law-giver which makes the Law and the same authority which at first made it a Law continues it to be a Law while the authority lasts though the particular reason for which it was enacted into a Law may cease So that though the Church of Rome could prove that there is no reason now against the worship of Saints and Angels that all those reasons for which God forbad the Jews to worship any one but himself were now ceased yet till the Law be repealed too it is utterly unlawful to worship any Being besides the Supreme God and yet this is the most that all their reasonings come to that there is not the same reason for this Law under the State of the Gospel that there was under the Jewish Oeconomy They suppose that God forbad the Jews to worship any one but himself because they were in great danger of falling into Pagan Idolatries and worshipping the Gods of the Aegyptians and other Neighbour-Nations and that this was the case also of the Christian Church at the first planting of the Gospel but now there is no danger of worshipping false Gods we may very securely worship the Friends and Favourites of God They suppose that all the ancient Patriarchs who lived before the Resurrection of Christ were not received into Heaven and therefore not being in a state of Bliss and Glory themselves were not yet capable of Divine Honours could neither know our Prayers nor intercede for us But now at last some eminent Saints and Martyrs ascend directly into Heaven and are the beati advanced to such a state of Happiness and Glory that they are fit objects of Religious Worship and are so powerful in the Court of Heaven that God denies them nothing which they ask and so tender and compassionate to us that they readily undertake our Cause and intercede for us and therefore it is very good and profitable now to invoke their aid and assistance by solemn and devout Prayers Now though the learnedst men among them are put to miserable shifts to prove the least part of all this yet let us for argument-sake suppose all this to be true that things are mightily changed since the making of this Law and that there is not the same reason now to confine all Religious Worship to God alone that there was in the time of Moses what follows from hence that therefore we may now worship Saints and Angels notwithstanding this Law which forbids it by no means unless they can prove that the Law is repealed too as well as the reason ceased Here is the authority of the Law-giver still though we should suppose that we had lost the reason of the Law till the Law is as expresly repealed as it was given it is Gods Will still and that is reason enough to bind the Law upon us though other reasons fail The reason if we speak of such reasons as these which the Church of Rome assigns for it is a different case if we speak of eternal and necessary reason which is nothing else but the eternal immutable nature and will of God which is an eternal Law did not make the Law and the change of the reason cannot repeal it And since we see that God has not repealed this Law we rather ought to conclude that we are mistaken in the reasons for which God made this Law or that there are other reasons which we know not of for which he continues it we may indeed reasonably suppose that God will repeal a Law when the reason for which it was given ceases though earthly Princes may not always do so but still the Law binds till it be repealed and it is more reasonable to conclude that the reason of the Law continues while we see God does not repeal it than first to perswade our selves that the reason of the Law is changed and thence infer the repeal and abrogation of the Law when we see no such thing done 5. That these arguments which the Roman Doctors urge to justifie their worship of Saints and Angels are of no force to repeal that Law which forbids the worship of any other Being besides the Supreme God appears from this that they had no force in them to prevent the making of this Law and therefore much less can they repeal it now it is made The reasons which they use had the same force then which they have now and if notwithstanding all these reasons God thought fit to forbid the worship of all Created Beings it is ridiculous to imagine that these reasons should supersede the obligation of that Law which is made in contradiction to all such reasonings as to shew this brieâ—ly They prove that we may pray to Saints and Angels to pray for us because we may desire good men on earth to pray for us Now suppose we could not assign the difference between praying to Saints in Heaven and desiring the prayers of Saints on earth yet I would desire to know whether good men did not pray for one another and desire each others prayers before and after God gave this Law on Mount Sinai which forbids the Religious worship and invocation of any other Being but himself if good men did in all ages pray for one another and desire one anothers prayers and God allowed and approved
of this then it seems God did not think this a good reason for praying to Saints and Angels in Heaven because good men might beg each others prayers on earth for if he had he would not have made that Law which forbids such a Religious Invocation of any Creature And if notwithstanding this reason which had as much force then as it has now God made and promulged this Law this reason can never repeal it nor dissolve the obligation of it Thus if the Saints Angels being in Heaven be a good reason why they should be worshipped this was as good a reason at the giving of the Law as it is now for thô we should suppose with the Church of Rome that Saints departed were not in Heaven then yet certainly the Angels were and if their being in Heaven made them fit objects of our worship why did God so expresly forbid it and if he forbad it then when there was as much reason to allow the worship of those heavenly Inhabitants as there is now this argument cannot prove but that God forbids it still The same may be said of the Intercession of Saints and Angels The Papists suppose that the Saints and Angels pray and intercede for us in Heaven and obtain for and convey many blessings to us and therefore it is good and profitable to pray to them and to flie to their patronage now though indeed they date the Intercession of Saints as they do their admission into heaven from the Resurrection of our Saviour yet there is as much evidence for the aids and intercessions of Angels before and under the Law as there is now nay I think somewhat more for the government of the world was much more under the administration of Angels in the time of the Law then it is now and yet notwithstanding this God did by an express Law forbid the worship of any Being but himself and therefore of these Angelical powers who are somewhat superiour to Saints in Heaven and if this were no good reason against making this Law it can be no good reason to prove the abrogation of it 2. The next way they take to evade the obligation of this Law of worshipping God only is by distinctions As to name the chief of them They tell us that this Law is only opposed to the worship of false Gods such Gods as the Heathens worshipped not to the worship of Saints and Angels who are the Friends and Favourites of God And then they distinguish about the nature of worship they confess there is a worship which is peculiar to God Supreme and Soveraign worship which is peculiar to the Supreme Being and this for what reason I know not they call Latria but then there is an inferiour degree of worship which they call Dulia which may be given to excellent Creatures to Saints and Angels who reign with Christ in Heaven They farther distinguish between absolute and relative worship Absolute worship is when we worship a Being for its self and thus God onely is to be worshipped but relative worship is when we worship one Being out of respect to another and thus we may worship Saints and Angels upon account of their relation to God Now I shall have occasion to examine these distinctions more particularly hereafter my business at present is to examine how far these distinctions can justifie the worship of Saints and Angels against an express Law which commands us to worship God only And I have three things to say on this argument 1. That the letter of the Law will admit of no such distinctions as these 2. That the Scripture no where allows of any such distinctions And 3. That no distinctions can justifie our acting against the letter of a Law which have not the same authority which the Law has 1. The letter of the Law will admit of no such distinctious as these The Law is Thou shalt have none other Gods before me The explication of this Law is Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God him shalt thou serve and to him shalt thou cleave and swear by his name Or as our Saviour expounds it Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Now these words do plainly exclude the worship of all other Beings besides the Supreme God They exclude indeed the worship of all the Heathen Gods which were at that time worshipped in the world but they are not confined to the worship of the Heathen Gods nor meerly to the worship of those Gods who were at that time worshipt but should any new Gods start up in after Ages whether among Jews or Christians the words extend to all that are and all that ever shall be worshipped Thou shalt have none other Gods before Me Signifies that we must worship no other Being but the Supreme God for to have a God is to give religious worship to some Being as appears from that exposition which both Moses and our Saviour Christ gives of it Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve For it is impossible to have any God besides the Supreme God in any other sense than as we worship some other Being besides the Supreme God with Divine honours and whatever Being we so worship become our God and therefore this Law forbids the worship of any Being which is not God be it Saint or Angel or the Virgin Mary how excellent and perfect Creatures soever they be they are not our God and therefore must not be worshipped If we must worship and serve God onely as our Saviour expresly tells us that we must worship no Creature whatever it be the worship of Saints and Angels is as expresly forbid by this Law as the worship of the Heathen Gods for that Law which commands us to worship God onely excludes the worship of all Creatures whatever they be But may not the meaning of this Law be onely this That we must not give Supreme and Soveraign worship to any other Being but the Supreme God but we may give an inferiour degree of worship to some excellent Spirits who under God have the care of us And is not this plainly signified in the very letter of the Law when it says Thou shalt have none other Gods before me For no other worship makes any Being a God but that which is Supreme and Soveraign peculiar and appropriate to the One Supreme God and therefore not to have any other Being for our God is not to give Supreme and Soveraign worship to it Now what that worship is which is peculiar and appropriate to the Supreme God I shall discourse particularly in the second part our present inquiry is whether this Law makes any such distinction The Laws says Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve Here is no distinction between Supreme and Subordinate worship whatever is an Act of worship must be given to God onely But the Law says Thou shalt have no
which no Creatures can challenge any share in It is no affront to a Prince to pay some inferiour degrees of civil honour and respect to his Ministers and Favourites because as the difference between a Prince and his Subjects is not founded in nature but in civil order so there are different degrees of civil respect proportioned to the different ranks and degrees of men in the Common-wealth There is a degree of preheminency which is sacred and peculiar to the Person of the Prince and no Prince will suffer his greatest Favourite to usurp the Prerogative honours which belong to the Crown but while they are contented with such respects as are due to their rank and station this is no injury to the Prince for all civil honour is not peculiar to the Prince but only a supereminent degree of it and therefore inferiour degrees of honour may be given to other persons But though there are different degrees of civil honour proper to different ranks and degrees of men who all partake in the same nature and are distinguisht only by their different places in the Common-wealth yet in this sense there are no different degrees of Religious Worship All Religious Worship is peculiar to the Divine Nature which is but one and common only to three Divine Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost one God blessed for ever Amen Civil honour and Religious Worship differ in the whole kind and species of actions and have as different objects as God and Creatures and we may as well argue from those different degrees of civil honour among men to prove that there is an inferiour degree of civil honour due to Beasts as that there is an inferiour degree of Religious Worship due to some men For all degrees of Religious Worship are as peculiar and appropriate to God as civil respects are to men and as the highest degree of civil honour is to a Soveraign Prince However should we grant that some excellent Creatures might be capable of some inferiour degrees of Religious Worship yet as the Prince is the fountain of civil honour which no Subject must presume to usurp without a grant from his Prince so no Creature how excellent soever has any natural and inherent right to any degree of Religious Worship and therefore we must not presume to worship any Creature without Gods command nor to pay any other degree of Worship to them but what God has prescribed and instituted and the only way to know this is to examine the Scriptures which is the only external revelation we have of the will of God Let us then inquire what the sense of Scripture is in this controversie and I shall distinctly examine the testimonies both of the Old and New Testament concerning the object of Religious Worship SECT II. The Testimonies of the Mosaical Law considered 1. TO begin with the Old Testament and nothing is more plain in all the Scripture than that the Laws of Moses confine Religious Worship to that one Supreme God the Lord Jehovah who Created the Heavens and the Earth For 1. The Israelites were expresly commanded to Worship the Lord Jehovah and to Worship no other Being as our Saviour himself assures us who I suppose will be allowed for a very good Expositor of the Laws of Moses It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve In the Hebrew Text from whence our Saviour cites this Law it is only said Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him without that addition of him only And yet both the Septuagint and the vulgar Latine read the words as our Saviour doth him only shalt thou serve and the authority of our Saviour is sufficient to justifie this Interpretation and withal gives us a general rule which puts an end to this controversie that as often as we are commanded in Scripture to worship God we are commanded also to worship none besides him For indeed the first Commandment is very express in this matter and all other Laws which concern the object of Worship must in all reason be expounded by that Thou shalt have none other Gods before me The Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides me so does the Chaldee Syriack and Arabick to the same sense And it is universally concluded by all Expositors that I have seen that the true interpretation of this Commandment is that we must Worship no other God but the Lord Jehovah To pay Religious Worship to any Being does in the Scripture notion make that Being our God which is the only reason why they are commanded not to have any other Gods For there is but one true God and therefore in a strict sense they can have no other Gods because there are no other Gods to be had but whatever Beings they worship they make that their God by worshipping it and so the Heathens had a great many Gods but the Jews are commanded to have but one God that is to worship none else besides him In other places God expresly forbids them to worship any strange Gods or the Gods of the people or those Nations that were round about them And least we should suspect that they were forbid to worship the Gods of the people only because those Heathen Idolaters worshipped Devils and wicked Spirits the Prophet Jeremiah gives us a general notion who are to be reputed false Gods and not to be worshipped Thus shall ye say unto them the Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens So that whatever Being is worshipped whether it be a good or a bad Spirit which did not make the Heavens and the Earth is a false God to such Worshippers and I suppose the Church of Rome will not say that Saints or Angels or the Virgin Mary as much as they magnifie her made the Heavens and the Earth And then according to this rule they ought not to be worshipt But to put this past doubt that the true meaning of these Laws is to forbid the worship of any other Being besides the Supreme God I shall observe two or three things in our Saviours answer to the Devils temptation which will give great light and strength to it 1. That our Saviour absolutely rejects the worship of any other Being together with the Supreme God The thing our Saviour condemns is not the renouncing the worship of God for the worship of Creatures for the Devil never tempted him to this but the worship of any other Being besides God though we still continue to worship the Supreme God It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Which is a plain demonstration that men may believe worship the Supreme God and yet be Idolaters if they worship any thing else besides him The Devil did not desire our Saviour to renounce the worship of the Supreme God but was contented that
that God who created the world in six days and rested on the seventh and delivered them from their Aegyptian Bondage and gave them rest in that good Land both which reasons are assigned by Moses and therefore God commands them by the Prophet Ezekiel Hallow my sabbaths and they shall be a sign between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord your God They had but three solemn Festivals every year and they were all in remembrance of the great Works of God and all the Males were to go up to Jerusalem to keep these Feasts and therefore all these were the Feasts of the Lord Jehovah And as they were to pray onely to God so they were onely to swear by his Name which is another part of Religious Worship and therefore to swear by the Lord of Hosts is called the Language of Canaan So that all the parts of the Jewish Worship were appropriated to the Lord Jehovah he was the onely object of their dread and fear and religious Adorations And when we consider that God had chosen them to be a peculiar people to himself that the Land was a Holy Land Gods peculiar Inheritance which he gave by promise to their Fathers and the Temple was his House where he dwelt among them it cannot be expected that any other Gods might be worshipt by such a people in such a Land and in such a house as God had appropriated to himself 3. It is very considerable that we have no approved example under the Law of any worship pay'd to Saints or Angels or any other Being but God alone We have too many sad examples of the Idolatry of the Jews both in worshipping the Molten Calf which Aaron made and Jeroboams Calves and Baalim's and other Heathen gods but had it been allowed by their Law to have pay'd any inferiour degree of Religious Worship to Saints and Angels which is now asserted by the Church of Rome to be a matter of such great benefit and advantage to mankind it is very strange that we should not have one example of it throughout the Scripture nor any authentick Records among the Jewish Writers All the Psalms of David are directed to God alone and yet we cannot think but such a devout man would have bestowed some Hymns upon his Patron and tutelar Saints had he worshipt any such as well as the Papists do now This the Church of Rome sees and acknowledges and thinks she answers too when she gives us the reason why it could not be so under the Law because those Old Testament-Saints were not then admitted into Heaven to the immediate vision and fruition of God Heaven-gates were not opened till the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour and therefore those blessed Spirits were not in a condition to be our Intercessors and Mediators till they were received into Heaven but now Saints and Martyrs ascend directly into Heaven and reign with Christ in Glory and it seems share with him in his peculiar Worship and Glory too Now 1 Whether this be so or not the Scriptures assign no such reason for it and therefore it is likely there might be other reasons and I think I have made it very plain that there was We are not enquiring for what reasons the Jewish Church did not worship Saint and Angels but whether they did worship them or not and it appears that they never did so that we have neither precept nor example for this during all the time of the Jewish Church Which is all we intend to prove by this argument 2. But yet it is evident that this is not a good reason why the Jews did not worship Angels under the Law For certainly Angels were as much in Heaven then as they are now whatever Saints were They are represented in the Old Testament as the constant Attendants and Retinue of God and the great Ministers of his Providence and therefore they were as capable of Divine Worship in the time of the Law as they are now nay I think a little more For the Law it self was given by the Ministry of Angels and their appearances were more frequent and familiar and the world seemed to be more under the Government of Angels then than it is now since Christ is made the Head of the Church and exalted above all principalities and powers And therefore sometimes the Advocates of the Church of Rome make some little offers to prove the worship of Angels in those days to this purpose they alledge that form of Benediction which Jacob used in blessing the Sons of Joseph The Angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the Lads But 1. This is not a direct prayer to the Angel but onely his committing of them to the care and patronage of that Angel with a prayer to God for that purpose And if he by experience had found that God had appointed his Angel to defend and protect him it was but reasonable to pray to God that the same Angel might protect his posterity 2. But yet according to the sense of the Antient Fathers this was no created Angel and Spirit but the Son and Word of God the Angel of the presence who is so often in Scripture stiled Jehovah a name which can belong to no created Spirit And it is no hard matter to make it highly probable that this is that Angel who redeemed Jacob out of all his troubles But it is strange if Angels were worshipt under the Old Testament we should have no clearer and plainer evidence of it than such a single Text which was never expounded either by any Jewish or Christian Writers to this sense till of late days and here the Priests of the Church of Rome are to be put in mind of their Oath to expound Scripture according to the unanimous consent of the Antient Fathers SECT III. The Testimonies of the Gospel considered whether Christ and his Apostles have made any alteration in the object of our Worship LEt us now proceed in the second place to consider the writings of the New Testament and examine what they teach us concerning the object of our Worship And that Christ and his Apostles have made no change in the object of our worship will appear from these considerations 1. That they could not do it Had they ever attempted to set up the worship of any other Beings besides the One Supreme God the Lord Jehovah the Jews were expresly commanded by their Law not to believe them nor hearken to them whatever signs and wonders and miracles they had wrought If there arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a sign or wonder and the sign or wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying let us go after other Gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of the Prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the
are perfected by an Evangelical righteousness But this I say that Christ never repealed any Mosaical Law but by fulfilling and perfecting it He came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil Now methinks I need not prove that the worship of Saints and Angels is not a fulfilling but a destroying that Law which commands us to worship none but God And it is not enough to say that these are positive Laws given to the Jews though that be said without any reason for let them shew me any positive Law relating to the Worship of God which Christ has wholly abrogated without fulfilling it 2. Yet as a farther proof that Christ has made no alteration in the object of our worship that he has not introduced the worship of Saints or Angels or Images into the Christian Church which was so expresly forbid by the Jewish Law I observe that according to our Saviours own rule that he came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil these Laws of worshipping one God and none besides him were not lyable to any change and alteration because there was nothing to be perfected or fulfilled in them He made no change or alteration but by way of perfecting and fulfilling and therefore those Laws which had nothing to be fulfilled must remain as they were without any change To perfect or fulfil a Law must either signifie to accomplish what was prefigured by it and thus Christ fulfilled all the types and prophesies of the Law which related to his Person or his undertaking as the Jewish Priesthood and Sacrifices c. or to prescribe that real righteousness which was signified and represented by the outward ceremony and so Christ fulfilled the Laws of Circumcision Washings Purifications Sabbaths c. by commanding the Circumcision of the heart and the purity of mind and spirit or by supplying what was defective and thus he fulfilled the moral Law by new instances of vertue by requiring something more perfect of us than what the letter of the Mosaical Law enjoyned These are all the ways that I know of and all that we have any instances of in Scripture of fulfilling Laws Now I suppose no man will say that the first Commandment which forbids the worship of any other Gods besides the Lord Jehovah is a Typical Law for pray what is it a Type of nor can any pretend that the first Commandment is a Ceremonial Law for it prescribes no rite of worship at all but only determines the object of worship As for the third way of fulfilling Laws by perfecting them with some new instances and degrees of vertue it can have no place here for this Law is as perfect as it can be For it is a Negative Law Thou shalt have none other God Now that which is forbid without any reserve or limitation is perfectly and absolutely forbid There are no degrees of nothing though there are several degrees of perfection in things which have a being and therefore though there are degrees in affirmative Laws for some Laws may require greater attainments than other and one man may do better than another and yet both do that which is good yet there are no degrees in not doing a thing and no Law can do more than forbid that which the Law-giver will not have done And besides this way of fulfilling Laws does not abrogate any command but adds to it it may restrain those liberties which were formerly indulged but it does not forbid any thing which was formerly our duty to do for when God requires greater degrees of vertue from us he does not forbid the less And therefore in this way Christ might forbid more than was forbid by the Law of Moses but we cannot suppose that he gave liberty to do that which the Law forbids which is not to perfect but to abrogate a Law But to put an end to this dispute if Christ have perfected these Laws by indulging the worship of Saints and Angels under the Gospel which was so expresly forbidden by the Law then it seems the worship of Saints and Angels is a more perfect state of Religion than the worship of the one Supreme God alone If this be true then though the Heathens might mistake in the object of their Worship yet the manner of their worship was more perfect and excellent than what God himself prescribed the Jews For they worshipt a great many inferiour Deities as well as the Supreme God and if this be the most perfect and excellent worship it is wonderful to me that God should forbid it in the worship of himself that he should prescribe a more imperfect worship to his own people than the Heathens paid to their Gods For to say that God forbade the worship of any Being besides himself because this liberty had been abused by the Heathens to Idolatry is no reason at all For though we should suppose that the Heathens worshipt evil spirits for Gods this had been easily prevented had God told them what Saints and Angels they should have made their addresses to and this had been a more likely way to cure them of Idolatry than to have forbad the worship of all inferiour Deities for when they had such numerous Deities of their own to have made their application to they would have been more easily weaned from the Gods of other Countries And we have reason to believe so it would have been had God been pleased with this way of Worship for he would not reject any part of Religious Worship meerly because it had been abused by Idolaters The Heathens sacrificed to Idols and yet he commands the Jews to offer Sacrifices to himself and so no doubt he would have commanded the worship of Saints and Angels had he been as well pleased with this as he was with Sacrifices had it been a more perfect state of Religion than to worship God only and without any Image When God chose the people of Israel and separated them from the rest of the world to his own peculiar worship and service we cannot suppose that he did intend to forbid any acts of worship which were a real honour to the Divine Nature much less to forbid the most excellent and perfect acts of worship for he who is so jealous of his glory will no more part with it himself then he will give it to another and therefore excepting the Typical nature of that dispensation the whole intention of the Mosaical Law was to correct those abuses which the rest of the world was guilty of in their Religious Worship which either respected the object or the acts of worship that they worshipt that for God which was not God or that they thought to honour God by such acts as were so far from being an honour that they were a reproach to the Divine Nature And whatever is forbid in the worship of God unless there be some Mystical and Typical reasons for it must be reduced to one of those causes This account God
at that time immediately apply this Law against the worship of any other Beings but those which were at that time worshipped in the world If God gives a Law which forbids the worship of all Beings besides himself and particularly applies this Law to prohibite the worship of all those Gods which were then worshipped in the world will any one in their wits hence conclude that if the folly and superstition of men should set up a new race and generation of Gods in after ages that the worship of these new Gods is not as well forbidden by this general Law as the worship of those gods which were worshipt at that time when this Law was given if this were true possibly Pagan Rome it self was not guilty of Idolatry for most if not all of their Gods might be of a later date than the giving the Law 3. Now since no such distinctions as these appear in Scripture it is impossible they should justifie the worship of Saints and Angels which is so expresly forbidden by the Law if we will acknowledge them to be distinct Beings from the Supreme God for if they are not the Supreme God we must not worship them for we must worship none but God No distinctions can justifie us in this case but such as God himself makes for otherwise it were easie to distinguish away any Law of God Humane Laws will admit of no distinctions but such as they make themselves for a distinction does either confine and streighten or enlarge the Law and he who has power to distinguish upon a Law has so far power to make it If the Law says that we shall worship no other Being besides God and we have power if we have but wit enough to invent some new distinctions between the worship of good and bad spirits between Supreme and Subordinate absolute and relative worship this makes a new Law of it for it is one thing to say thou shalt worship God only and quite contrary to say thou shalt worship God only and good Spirits God with a Supreme and absolute good Spirits with a subordinate and relative worship This I think is sufficient to shew that we must admit of no distinctions upon a Divine Law but what the Scripture it self owns and therefore since those distinctions with which the Church of Rome justifies her worship of Saints and Angels are no where to be found in Scripture they have no authority against an express Law 3. The next course the Papists take to justifie their Creature-worship in contradiction to that Law which expresly commands us to worship none but God is an appeal to such authorities as they think sufficient to decide this matter Now I shall not say much to this for I believe all Mankind will acknowledge that no Authority less than Divine can repeal a Divine Law and therefore unless God himself or such persons as act by a Divine Authority have repealed this Law no other Authority can do it That Christ and his Apostles have not repealed this Law I have already proved that the whole Church in after Ages had any Authority to repeal this Law I desire them to prove For the authority of the Church as to the essentials of Faith and Worship is not the authority of Law-givers but of Witnesses The Church never pretended in former Ages to make or to repeal any Divine Laws but to declare and testifie what the belief and practice of the Primitive and Apostolick Churches was and it is unreasonable to think that they should have any such Authority for then Christ and his Apostles preached the Gospel to little purpose if it were in the power of the Church to make a new Gospel of it when they pleased But indeed could it appear that the Apostles did teach the Christians of that Age and the Church in those Ages which immediately succeeded the Apostles did practice the worship of Saints and Angels we should have reason to suspect that we and not they are mistaken in the sense of that Law which commands us to worship none but God But then none can be admitted as competent witnesses of this matter but those who did immediately succeed the Apostles or conversed with Apostolical men and Churches And thanks be to God there is no appearance of Creature worship in those Ages we dare appeal to the testimony of Fathers and Councils for above three hundred years and those who come after come a little too late to be witnesses of what was done in the Apostolick Churches especially when all the intermediate Ages knew nothing of it I shall not fill up this discourse with particular Citations which learned men know where to find since the Roman Doctors can find nothing in the Writings of the first Fathers to justifie the worship of Saints and Angels and the Protestant Writers find a great deal in those Ages against it Indeed at the latter end of the fourth Century some of the Fathers used some Rhetorical Apostrophes to the Saints and Martyrs in their Orations which the Church of Rome interprets to be Prayers to them but though other Learned men have vindicated those passages so far as to shew the vast difference between them and solemn and formal Invocations which is not my business at this time yet there are several things very well worth our observation towards the true stating of this matter As 1. That these Fathers came too late to be witnesses of the Apostolical practise which they could know no otherwise than we might know it if there had been any such thing viz. by the testimony and practise of the Church from the Apostles till that time This was no where pretended by them that the Invocation of Saints had been the practise of the Catholick Church in all ages and they could have no proof of this unless they had better Records of former times than we have at this day and such as contradicted all the Records which we now have of the Apostolick and Primitive Churches and I believe few men will be so hardy as to assert this and methinks there should be as few who are so credulous as to believe it and I am sure there is no man living who is able to prove it 2. Nay the particular sayings of these Fathers by which the Romanists prove the Invocation of Saints do not prove that it was the Judgment and practise of the Church of that age They no where say that it was and it does not appear to be so by any other Records Let them shew me any Council before or in those times when these Fathers lived that is in the fourth Century which decreed the worship of Saints and Angels Let them produce any publick offices of Religion in those days which allows this worship and if no such thing appears those men must be very well prepared to believe this who will without any other evidence judge of the practice of the Church only from some extravagant flights of Poets and