A DISCOURSE Concerning the Object of Religious Worship OR A SCRIPTURE PROOF OF THE UNLAWFULNESS of giving any Religious Worship to any other Being Besides the One Supreme God PART I. LONDON Printed for Abel Swalle at the Vnicorn at the West-end of St. Pauls Church-yard MDCLXXXV A DISCOURSE Concerning the Object of Religious Worship The INTRODVCTION OF all the Disputes between us and the Church of Rome there is none of greater concernment than that about the Object of Religious Worship We affirm as the Scripture has taught us that we must worship the Lord our God and serve him only the Church of Rome teaches that there is a degree of Religious Worship which we may give to some excellent Creatures to Angels and Saints and Images and the Host and to the Reliques of Saints and Martyrs If they are in the right we may be thought very rude and uncivil at least in denying to pay that Worship which is due to such excellent Creatures and very injurious to our selves in it by losing the benefit of their Prayers and Patronage If we be in the right the Church of Rome is guilty of giving that worship to Creatures which is due to God alone which is acknowledged on all hands to be the greatest of sins and therefore this is a dispute which can never be compremised though we were never so desirous of an union and reconciliation with the Church of Rome for the Incommunicable glory of God and the salvation of our Souls are too dear things to be given away in complement to any Church And should it appear in the next world for I believe it will never appear to be so in this that we were mistaken that we were over-nice and curious in refusing to worship Saints and Angels yet ours is a much more innocent and pardonable mistake than that which the Church of Rome is guilty of if they should prove to be mistaken We are only wanting in some Religious Courtship which we might innocently have given to Saints and Angels but which we were not bound to give as the Church of Rome will not say that we are by any express Divine Law and therefore it is no sin against God not to do it and when this neglect is not owing to any designed contempt and dis-regard of those excellent Spirits but to a great reverence for God and jealousie for his incommunicable glory if it were a fault we need not doubt but that God would pardon it and that all good spirits who have such a profound veneration for God will easily excuse the neglect of some Ceremonies to themselves upon so great a reason But if the Church of Rome be mistaken and gives that worship to Creatures which is due only to the Supreme God they have nothing to pretend in excuse of it neither any positive Law of God which expresly forbids all Creature-worship as I doubt not to prove to the satisfaction of all impartial Readers nor the principles of Natural Reason which whatever Apologies it may make for the worship of Saints and Angels can never prove the necessity of it and it highly concerns the Church of Rome and all of her Communion to consider whether if their distinctions and little appearances of reason cannot justifie their worship of Creatures they will be able to excuse them from the guilt of so great a sin But not to insist on these things now I shall divide this discourse into three parts 1. I shall prove from the plain evidence of Scripture That God alone is to be worshipped 2. I shall examine what that worship is which is proper and peculiar to the Supreme God 3. I shall consider those distinctions whereby the Church of Rome justifies her worship of Saints and Angels and Images c. SECTION I. That GOD alone must be Worshipped TO make good the first point that we must worship no other Being but only God I shall principally confine my self to Scripture evidence which is the most certain authority to determine this matter For though I confess it seems to me a self evident and fundamental principle in natural Religion that we must worship none but that Supreme Being who made and who governs the world yet I find men reason very differently about these matters The Heathen Philosophers who generally acknowledged one Supreme and Soveraign Deity did not think it incongruous nor any affront or diminution to the Supreme God to ascribe an inferiour kind of Divinity nor to pay an inferiour degree of Religious Worship to those excellent Spirits which are so much above us and have so great a share in the government of this lower world no more than it is an affront to a Soveraign Monarch to honour and reverence his great Ministers of State or peculiar Favourites And the Church of Rome as she has corrupted Christianity with the Worship of Angels and Saints departed so she defends her self with the same Arguments and Reasons which were long since alleadged by Celsus and Porphyrie and other Heathen Philosophers in defence of their Pagan Idolatry And it must be confest that these Arguments are very popular and have something so agreeable in them to the natural notions of Civil Honour and respect which admits of great variety of degrees that I do not wonder that such vast numbers of men both wise and unwise have been imposed on by them For there is certainly a proportionable reverence and respect due even to created excellencies and every degree of power challenges and commands a just regard and we are bound to be very thankful not only to God who is the first cause and the supreme giver of all good things but to our immediate Benefactors also And therefore if there be a sort of middle Beings as the Heathens believed and as the Church of Rome asserts between us and the Supreme God who take particular care of us and either by their power and interest in the government of the world or by their Intercessions with the Supreme God can and do bestow a great many Blessings on us it seems as natural and necessary to fear and reverence to honour and worship them and to give them thanks for their care and patronage of us as it is to court a powerful Favourite who by his interest and authority can obtain any request we make to our Prince and the first seems to be no greater injury to God than the second is to a Prince Thus St. Paul observes that there is a shew of humility in worshipping Angels that men dare not immediately approach so glorious a Majesty as God is but make their addresses by those excellent spirits which attend the Throne of God and are the Ministers of his Providence But then every one who believes that there is one Supreme God who made all other Beings though never so perfect and excellent must acknowledge that as there is nothing common to God and Creatures so there must be a peculiar Worship due to God
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
other gods before me and therefore it must signifie Supreme Soveraign worship for no other degree of worship makes a God Did the Heathens then worship no inferior gods did those who worship ped so many several Gods look upon them all as supreme and absolute or were they so senseless as to give supreme and soveraign worship to inferior Deities or does not this Law forbid the worship of those Gods whom the Heathens worshipped as inferior Daemons but onely the worship of those Gods whom they accounted supreme and soveraign If this Law forbids the worship of all Heathen Gods and it is certain that they worshipped a great many Gods whom they did not account supreme then there can be no place for this distinction here for such an inferiour worship as makes an inferiour God is as well forbid as Supreme and Soveraign worship The Law says Thou shalt have none other Gods before me or besides me which as I observed before does not exclude the worship of the Supreme God but forbids the worship of any other Being together with him The meaning is not Thou shalt not renounce my worship for the worship of any other Gods but thou shalt worship me and no other God besides me now I would onely ask this question Whether a Jew who worshipped the God of Israel who declared himself to be the Supreme God could give Supreme worship to any other God This is contrary to the sense of all mankind to worship him as supreme whom they do not believe to be supreme And therefore when God forbad them to joyn the worship of any other Gods with the worship of himself he must forbid all kinds and degrees of worship even the most inferiour worship which the Heathens paid to their inferiour Deities If you say that God did indeed forbid all kinds and degrees of worship to be paid to the Heathen Gods which were impure and wicked Spirits but still it is lawful to pay an inferiour worship to Saints and Angels who are the friends of God I answer the law makes no distinction between the worship of good and bad Spirits and therefore as far as this Law is concerned we must either deny this inferiour worship to all or grant it to all If this Law does not forbid giving inferiour degrees of worship to other Beings then it does not forbid the inferiour worship of Heathen Gods that may be faulty upon other accounts but is no breach of this Law and then the Heathens were not guilty of Idolatry in worshipping their inferiour Daemons with an inferiour worship If this Law does forbid even this inferiour degree of worship then it forbids the worship of good Spirits too though with an inferiour worship which transforms true Saints and Angels into false and fictitious Deities But I have another argument to prove that this Law can have no respect to the different degrees of worship The Roman Doctors themselves grant that the difference between supreme and subordinate or inferiour worship does not consist in the outward Act that all or most of the external Acts of worship may belong to both kinds they except indeed Sacrifice but contrary to the sense of all men for the Heathens offered Sacrifice to their inferiour Deities as well as to the supreme and there is no imaginable reason to be assigned why Sacrifice as well as Prayer may not be an act of inferiour as well as of supreme worship The difference then between supreme and inferiour worship is onely in the intention and devotion of the worshippers and no man can by the external act know whether this be supreme or inferiour worship Now from hence I thus argue if the worship forbidden by this Law be such as can be known by the external act then this Law can have no regard to the degrees of worship for the degrees of worship are not in the external acts but in the mind of the worshipper which cannot be known by external acts Now that the Law did forbid the external acts of worship without any regard to the intention of the worshipper appears in this that this Idolatrous worship was to be punished with death and therefore it must be such external Idolatry as falls under the cognizance of humane Judicatures Had there been any regard to the degrees of worship no man could have been convicted of Idolatry by the external act and could not have been liable to punishment unless he had confessed his intention of giving supreme worship to a false God and so this Law of putting such Idolaters to death had signified nothing because it had been impossible for them to convict any man of Idolatry but by his own confession but when the external act which is visible to all men is sufficient to convict any man of Idolatry it is next to a demonstration that the Law had no respect to the degrees but to the acts of worship And that our Saviour in that Law thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve had no regard to the different degrees of worship I have already proved at large for allowing that distinction he had not given a good answer to the Devils temptation Thus as for their distinction between absolute and relative worship that though we must not worship any Creature the most excellent Saints and Angels for themselves yet we may worship them upon account of that relation they have to God that is we may worship them for Gods sake though not for their own I find no intimation of any such distinction in the Law We are there commanded to have no other Gods to worship God and him onely which excludes Saints and Angels from being the object of our worship as well as Devils 2. But possibly it may be said that though the Law takes no notice of such distinctions yet the Scripture in the explication of this Law may make allowances for it Now in answer to this I onely desire to know where the Scripture has made any such distinction between worshipping good and evil Spirits the enemies and Rivals or the Friends of God between supreme and subordinate absolute or relative worship I can find no such distinctions in Scripture I have a material reason to believe no such can be found viz. because there was no occasion for them The Scripture no-where allows us to give any kind of worship to any Creature and therefore there was no need to distinguish between the kinds and degrees of worship The most material thing that can be said in this cause is this that when the Scripture mentions this Law of worshipping One God it opposes it to the worship of the false Gods of the Heathens from whence some may conclude that God forbade the worship only of these false Gods But we must consider that the Law is conceived in such general terms as to exclude the worship of all Beings besides the Supreme God but it could not be thought that God should
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
more that Christ and his Apostles have made no alteration in the object of worship appears from hence that de facto there is no such Law in the Gospel for the worship of any other Being besides the One Supreme God There is a great deal against it as I have already shewn but if there had been nothing against it it had been argument enough against any such alteration that there is no express positive Law for it The force of which argument does not consist meerly in the silence of the Gospel that there is nothing said for it which the most Learned Advocates of the Church of Rome readily grant and give their reasons such as they are why this was not done why we are not directed to pray to Saints and Angels and Images c. but the argument lies in this that there can be no alteration made in the object of worship without an express Law and therefore there is no alteration made because there is no such Law in the Gospel The Jews were expresly commanded to worship no other Being but the Lord Jehovah as I have already proved which Law appropriates all the acts of Religious Worship to one God and therefore all those who were under the obligation of this Law as to be sure all natural Jews were could not without the guilt of Idolatry give any Religious Worship to any other Being till this Law were expresly repealed and express leave given to worship some other Divine Beings besides the Supreme God so that at least our Saviour himself while he was on Earth and subject to the Law and his Apostles and all believing Jews were obliged by this Law to worship none but God unless we can shew where Christ by his Legislative Authority or his Apostles by Commission from him have expresly repealed this Law nay indeed unless we can shew that Christ himself repealed this Law and taught the worship of Saints and Angels the Apostles themselves could have no authority to do it for their Commission was onely to teach what Christ had commanded them which though it does not extend to matters of order and discipline and the external circumstances of worship yet it does to all the essentials of Faith and Worship and I think the right object of Worship is the most essential thing in Religious Worship From hence it appears that at least all the Jewish Christians in the Apostles days and all succeeding Ages to this day cannot Worship Saints and Angels without Idolatry because the Law which was given to them and never yet repealed commands them to worship none but God and if Gentile Converts were received into the Jewish Christian Church and Christ has but one Church of Jews and Gentiles they must also be obliged by all those Laws which were then and are still obligatory to all believing Jews and therefore Gentile as well as Jewish Christians are still bound to worship none but God Now I think I need not prove that an express Law can be repealed onely by an express Law That Law which commands us to worship God and him onely must continue in full force till God do as expresly declare that he allows us to pay some degree of Religious Worship to other Beings besides himself When a Law-giver has declared his will and pleasure by a Law it is not fit that Subjects should be allowed to guess at his mind and dispute away an express Law by some surmizes and consequences how probable soever they may appear for at this rate a Law signifies nothing if we may guess at the will of our Law-giver without and against an express Law And yet none of the Advocates of the Church of Rome though they are not usually guilty of too much modesty ever had the confidence to pretend an express Law for the worship of Saints and Angels and Images c. and though they sometimes alledge Scripture to prove this by yet they do not pretend that they are direct proofs but onely attempt to prove some other Doctrines from Scripture from which they think they may prove by some probable consequences that which the Scripture no-where plainly teaches nay the contrary to which is expresly taught in Scripture And if this may be allow'd I know no Law of God so plain and express but a witty man may find ways to escape the obligation of it This is a consideration of great moment and therefore I shall discourse more particularly of it The Law of Moses expresly commands us to worship God and him onely Our Saviour Christ owns and confirms the authority of this Law in the Gospel the Church of Rome notwithstanding this Law gives Religious Worship to Creatures the question then is how she avoids the force of this Law since it is no where expresly repealed and she does not pretend that it is Now the Patrons of Creature-worship think to justifie themselves from the breach of this Law these three ways 1. By consequences drawn as they pretend from other Scripture-Doctrines 2. By distinctions And 3. By authority Let us then examine whether all this have any force against an express Law which was never expresly repepealed 1. By consequences drawn as they pretend from other Scripture-Doctrines and I shall discourse this with a particular reference to the Invocation of Saints For when they would prove the lawfulness of praying to Saints they alledge no direct proof of this from Scripture But because they must make a shew of saying something from Scripture when they are to deal with such Hereticks as will be satisfied with no less authority they endeavour to prove something else from Scripture from whence they think by an easie consequence they can prove the lawfulness of praying to Saints Thus they very easily prove that we may and ought to pray for one another and to desire each others prayers while we are on Earth and from hence they presently conclude that we may as lawfully pray to Saints in Heaven to pray for us as beg and desire their prayers while they are on Earth And to confirm this they endeavour to prove that some extraordinary Saints whose merits are very great do directly ascend up into Heaven into the immediate presence of God and a participation of his Glory and hence they conclude that they have authority and power to help us and to intercede for us and that they are so far advanced above us in this mortal state that they deserve some kind of Religious Honour and Worship from us as being Dii per participationem Gods by participation that is by partaking in the Divine Nature and Glory by their advancement to Heaven And if after all this they can prove that the Saints in Heaven do pray and intercede for us on Earth they think the demonstration is complete and perfect that therefore It is good and profitable as the Council of Trent words it humbly to invoke the Saints after the manner of Supplicants and to fly to their
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