Imprimatur G. Iane R. P. D. Henr. Episc. Lond. Ã sac domesticis June 3. 1676. A DEFENCE OF THE DISCOURSE Concerning the IDOLATRY Practised in the CHURCH OF ROME In ANSWER to a BOOK Entituled Catholicks no Idolaters By ED. STILLINGFLEET D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty The two First Parts London Printed by Robert White for Henry Mortlock at the Sign of the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-yard and at the White-Hart in Westminster-Hall 1676. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER in GOD HENRY Lord Bishop of LONDON One of the Lords of His Majesties Most Honourable Privy Council My Lord I Have heard that in some famous Prophetick Pictures pretending to represent the Fate of England the chief thing observable in several of them was a Mole a creature blind and busie smooth and deceitful continually working under Ground but now and then to be discerned by the disturbance it makes in the Surface of the earth which is so natural a description of a restless party among us that we need no Iudge of Controversies to interpret the meaning of it Our Forefathers had sufficient Testimony of their working under Ground but in our Age they act more visibly and with that indefatigable industry that they threaten without great care to prevent them the undermining of our Church and the Ruine of our established Religion Which since they cannot hope so easily to compass alone they endeavour to draw in to their Assistance all such discontented parties who are so weak if any can be so to be prevailed on to be instruments to serve them in pulling down a Church which can never fall but they must be stifled in its Ruins One would think it were hardly possible for any to run into a snare which lies so open to their view or to flatter themselves with the vain hopes of escaping better than the Church they design to destroy But such is the admirable Wisdom of Divine Providence to order things so above all humane Discretion that when the Sins of a Nation have provoked God to forsake it he suffers those to concurr in the most pernicious Counsels for enslaving Conscience who pretend to the greatest zeal for the Liberty of it So that our Church of England in its present condition seems to stand as the Church of Corinth did of old between two unquiet and boisterous Seas and there are some very busie in cutting through the Isthmus between them to let in both at once upon it supposing that no strength will be able to withstand the force of so terrible an inundation It is a consideration that might dishearten those who are engaged in the Defence of our Religion against the common Adversaries to see that they promise themselves as much from the folly of some of their most seeming Enemies as from the interest and Power of their Friends thus like S. Paul in Macedonia we are troubled on every side without are fightings and within are fears If men did but once understand the things which belong to our Peace we might yet hope to weather out the storms that threaten us and to live as the Church hath frequently done in a tossing condition with waves beating on every side But if through Weakness or Wilfulness those things should be hid from our eyes the prospect of our future condition is much more dreadful and amazing than the present can be If it were reasonable to hope that all men would lay aside prejudice and passion and have greater regard to the Common Good than to the interests of their several parties they could not but see where our main strength lies by what our enemies are most concerned to destroy And that no men of common understanding would make use of disunited Parties to destroy one Great Body unless they were sure to master them when they had done with them And therefore the best way for their own security were to unite themselves with the Church of England That were a Blessing too great for such a People to expect whose sins have made our Breaches so wide that we have too great reason to fear the common enemy may enter through them if there be not some way found out to repair those Breaches and to build up the places which are broken down For my own part I cannot see how those who could have joyned in Communion with the Christian Church in the time of Theodosius the Great can justly refuse to do it in ours For that is the Age of the Church which our Church of England since the Reformation comes the nearest to Idolatry being then suppressed by the Imperial Edicts the Churches settled by Law under the Government of Bishops Publick Liturgies appointed Antiquity Reverenced Schism discountenanced Learning encouraged and some few Ceremonies used but without any of those corrupt mixtures which afterwards prevailed in the Roman Church And whatever men of ill minds may suggest to the disparagement of those times it is really an Honour to our Church to suffer together with that Age when the Christian Church began to be firmly settled by the Countenance of the Civil Power and did enjoy its Primitive Purity without the Poverty and Hardships it endured before And the Bishops of that time were men of that exemplary Piety of those great Abilities of that excellent Conduct and Magnanimity as set them above the contempt or reproach of any but Infidels and Apostates For then lived the Gregories the Basils the Chrysostoms in the Eastern Church the Ambroses and Augustins in the Western and they who can suspect these to have been Enemies to the Power of Godliness did never understand what it meant It were no doubt the most desirable thing in our State and Condition to see the Piety the Zeal the Courage the Wisdom of those holy Bishops revived among us in such an Age which needs the conjunction of all these together For such is the insolency and number of the open contemners of our Church and Religion such is the activity of those who oppose it and the subtilty of those who undermine it as requires all the Devotion and Abilities of those great Persons to defend it And I hope that Divine Spirit which inflamed and acted them hath not forsaken that Sacred Order among us but that it will daily raise up more who shall be able to convince Dissenters that there may be true and hearty zeal for Religion among our Prelates and those of the Church of Rome that Good Works are most agreeable to the Principles of the Reformation Nay even in this Age as bad as it is there may be as great Instances produced of real Charity and of Works of Publick and pious uses as when men thought to get Souls out of Purgatory or themselves into Heaven by what they did And if it were possible exactly to compare all Acts of this nature which have been done ever since the Reformation with what there was done of the same kind for a much longer time immediately before
meet with either ancient or modern when I had done this I compared those observations I had made with the Sense of the Scriptures and of the Fathers of the several Ages of the Christian Church who had managed the Charge of Idolatry against Heathens or Hereticks From hence I framed the First Part of the following Book wherein I have not only examined and confuted T. G.'s false notion of it but endeavoured to settle the True one in its place Which being dispatched and the main principles of his whole Book thereby weakned and overthrown I betook my self to the particular Defence of the Charge of Idolatry practised in the Roman Church in the Worship of Images and I apprehended nothing of greater consequence in this Debate than to give a true Account of the state of the Controversie between us which T. G endeavoured with all his art to blind and confound After which I have given a distinct Answer to every thing material or plausible in that part of his Book Which swelling this Discourse beyond my expectation I must respite the other part to a farther opportunity which I may the better do because the Remainder of T. G's Book hath already received a sufficient Answer from a learned and worthy Person THE CONTENTS PART I. A General Discourse concerning the Nature of Idolatry CHAP. I. T. G's notion of Idolatry examined and confuted page 1 CHAP. II. Of the Nature of Divine Worship p. 184 PART II. Being a particular Defence of the Charge of Idolatry against the Church of Rome in the Worship of Images CHAP. I. The State of the Controversie about the Worship of Images between Christians and Heathens p. 349 CHAP. II. The State of the Controversie about Images in the Christian Church p. 487 CHAP. III. Of the Sense of the second Commandment p. 670 CHAP. IV. An Answer to T. G 's charge of Contradictions Paradoxes Reproach of the second Council of Nice School disputes and to his parallel Instances p. 784 PART I. A General Discourse concerning the Nature of Idolatry CHAP. I. T. G's notion of Idolatry examined and confuted TO make good the Charge of Idolatry against the Roman Church which is my present business there are two things necessary to be done 1. To lay down the right notion of Idolatry 2. To examine what T. G. and others have said to justifie themselves from the particulars of this Charge I begin with the consideration of the Nature of Idolatry not only because my Adversary calls me to it in these words Here the Ax is laid to the root and if ever the Dr. will speak home to the purpose it must be upon this point He must speak to the Nature of the thing c. But because the weight of the whole matter in debate depends upon it and whosoever reads through T. G 's answer to me will find the only strength of it to lie in a very different notion of Idolatry which he sets up which if it prove true the main of my charge must fall to the ground although however by his way of writing he can hardly answer the character I had given him either of a Learned or ingenuous Adversary The notion of Idolatry which T. G. lays down may be gathered from these assertions of his That God being the only supreme and superexcellent Being above all and over all to him therefore Sovereign honour is only to be given and to none beside him That as no command of God can make that to be not Idolatry which is so in the nature of the thing so no prohibition if there were any could make that to be Idolatry which hath not in it the true and real nature of Idolatry That the worship of Images forbidden in the Commandment is the worshipping Images instead of God and the reason of the Law was to keep the people in their duty of giving Sovereign worship to God alone by restraining them from Idolatry That this Law was made particularly to forbid Sovereign worship to be given as he saith it was at that time given by the Heathen to graven Images i. e. representations of imaginary Beings or to any similitude i. e. the likeness of any thing which although it had a real being yet was not God That the Image-worship condemned by S. Paul was the worshipping Images for Gods or as the Images of false Gods That evil Spirits or false Gods did reside in their Images by Magical incantation That the supreme God of the Heathens was not the true God but a Devil and that the Poets who call him the Father of Gods and men were those whom Horace confesseth that they took the priviledge to dare to feign and say thing From these assertions it is no hard matter to form T. G 's notion of Idolatry viz. That it is The giving the Soveraign worship of God to a creature and among the Heathens to the Devil And now who dares charge the Church of Rome with Idolatry I do not wonder that he calls this so foul so extravagant so unjust a charge and parallels me with no meaner a person than Iulian the Apostate saying That surely a more injurious Calumny scarce ever dropt from the pen of the greatest enemy of Christianity except that of Julian the Apostate But I am so used to their hard words that I can easily pass them over and immediately apply my self to the debate of these things which will tend very much to the clearing the true notion of Idolatry 1. Whether Idolatry be not consistent with the acknowledgement of one Supreme Being 2. Wherein the Nature of that Divine Worship lies which being given to a Creature makes it Idolatry For if those who acknowledge one Supreme Being the Creator and Governour of the world were notwithstanding this guilty of Idolatry and that Idolatry be as T. G. confesseth the giving the worship due to God to a creature then if we can prove that the Church of Rome doth give any part of that worship which is due to God to any thing besides him we may still justly charge them with Idolatry although they believe one Supreme God and reserve some worship which he calls Sovereign to him 1. Whether Idolatry be not consistent with the acknowledgement of one Supreme Being Creator and Governour of the world Whom I suppose T. G. will not deny to be the true God It is agreed by him that the whole Heathen world was guilty of Idolatry without excepting the more intelligent and wiser persons among them therefore our only business as to them is to enquire whether they did acknowledge this Supreme Being and it is without dispute that all Christians do acknowledge the True God if I can then prove that such have notwithstanding been charged with Idolatry by those whose judgement T. G. dares not refuse I hope these two things being made out will be sufficient to prove that those may be guilty of Idolatry
worship the same Gods with them nor offer up libations and the smoak of sacrifices to dead men Nor crown and worship Images that they agreed with Menander who said we ought not to worship the work of mens hands not because Devils dwelt in them but because men were the makers of them And he wondered they could call them Gods which they knew to be without soul and dead and to have no likeness to God it was not then upon the account of their being animated by evil Spirits that the Christians rejected this worship for then these reasons would not have held All the resemblance they had was to those evil Spirits that had appeared among men for that was Iustins opinion of the beginning of Idolatry that God had committed the Government of all things under the heavens to particular Angels but these Angels prevaricating by the love of Women did upon them beget Daemons that these Daemons were the great corrupters of mankind and partly by frightful apparitions and by instructing men in Idolatrous rites did by degrees draw men to give them divine worship the people not imagining them to be evil Spirits and so were called by such names as they liked best themselves as Neptune Pluto c. But the true God had no certain name given to him for saith he Father and God and Creator and Lord and Master are not names but titles arising from his works and good deeds and God is not a name but a notion engrafted in humane nature of an unexpressible Being But that God alone is to be worshipped appears by this which is the great command given to Christians Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve with all thy heart and with all thy strength even the Lord God that made thee Where we see the force of the argument used by Iustin in behalf of the Christians lay in Gods peremptory prohibition of giving divine worship to any thing but himself and that founded upon Gods right of dominion over us by vertue of creation In his Book of the Divine Monarchy he shews that although the Heathens did make great use of the Poets to justifie their Polytheism yet they did give clear testimony of one Supreme Deity who was the Maker and Governour of all things for which end he produces the sayings of Aeschylus Sophocles Orpheus Pythagoras Philemon Menander and Euripides all very considerable to this purpose In his works there is extant the resolution of several Questions by a Greek Philosopher and the Christians reply in which nothing can be more evident than that it was agreed on both sides that there was one Supreme God infinitely good powerful and wise Nay the Greek Philosopher looks upon the ignorance of God as a thing impossible because all men naturally agree in the knowledge of God But there are plain evidences in that Book that it is of later date than Iustins time therefore instead of insisting any more on that I shall give a farther proof that in his time it could be no part of the dispute between the Christians and Heathens whether there were one Supreme God that ought to be worshipped by men and that shall be from that very Emperour to whom Eusebius saith Iustin Martyr did make his second Apology viz. M. Aurelius Antoninus It is particularly observed of him by the Roman Historians that he had a great zeal for preserving the Old Roman Religion and Iul. Capitolinus saith that he was so skilful in all the practices of it that he needed not as it was common for one to prompt him because he could say the prayers by heart and he was so confident of the protection of the Gods that he bids Faustina not punish those who had conspired against him for the Gods would defend him his zeal being pleasing to them and therefore Baronius doth not wonder that Iustin and other Christians suffered Martyrdom under him But in the Books which are left of his writing we may easily discover that he firmly believed an eternal Wisdom and Providence which managed the World and that the Gods whose veneration he commends were looked on by him as the subservient Ministers of the Divine Wisdom Reverence the Gods saith he but withal he saith honour that which is most excellent in the world that which disposeth and Governs all which sometimes he calls the all-commanding reason sometimes the Mind and Soul of the World which he expresly saith is but one And in one place he saith that there is but one World and one God and one substance and one Law and one common reason of intelligent beings and one Truth But the great objection against such Testimonies of Antoninus and others lies in this that these only shew the particular opinions of some few men of Philosophical minds but they do not reach to the publick and established Religion among them which seemed to make no difference between the Supreme God and other Deities from whence it follows that they did not give to him any such worship a◠belonged to him Which being the most considerable objection against the design of this present discourse I shall here endeavour to remove it before I produce any farther testimonies of the Fathers For which we must consider wherei◠the Romans did suppose the solemn and outward acts of their Religion to consist viz. in the worship appropriated 〈◊〉 their Temples or in occasional prayers and vows or in some parts of divination whereby they supposed God did make known his mind to them If I can therefore prove that the Romans did in an extraordinary manner make use of all these acts of Religious worship to the Supreme God it will then necessarily follow that the controversie between the Fathers and them about Idolatry could not be about the worship of one Supreme God but about giving Religious worship to any else besides him The Worship performed in their Temples was the most solemn and frequent among them in so much that Tully saith therein the people of Rome exceeded all Nations in the world but the most solemn part of that Worship was that which was performed in the Capitol at Rome and in the Temple of Iupiter Latialis in Alba and both these I shall prove were dedicated to the Supreme God The first Capitol was built at Rome by Numa Pompilius and called by Varro the old Capitol which stood at a good distance from the place where the foundations of the great Temple were laid by Tarquinius Priscus the one being about the Cirque of Flora the other upon the Tarpeian Mountain There is so little left of the memory of the former that for the design of it we are to judge by the general intention of Numa as to the worship of the Deity of which Plutarch gives this account That he forbad the Romans making any Image of God either like to men or beast because the First Being is
to their Gods but they have Temples for Heaven and Earth in Nankin and Pekim in which the King himself offers the sacrifice and in the Cities they have Temples for Tutelar Spirits to which the Mandarins do sacrifice as to the Spirits of the Rivers Mountains and four parts of the World c. and there are Temples to the honour of great Benefactors to the publick and therein are placed their Images Trigautius saith that he finds in their ancient Books that the Chineses did of old time worship one Supreme God whom they called King of Heaven or by another name Heaven and Earth and besides him they worshipped Tutelar Spirits to the same purpose with Semedo and the same he saith continues still in the learned Sect among them whose first Author was their famous Confutius to him they have a Temple erected in every City with his Image or his name in golden letters whither all the Magistrates every new or full Moon do resort to give honour to Confutius with bowings and Wax-candles and incense the same they do on his birth-day and other set times there to express their gratitude for the mighty advantages they have had by his Doctrine but they make no prayers to him and neither seek nor hope for any thing from him They have likewise Temples to Tutelar Spirits for every City and Tribunal where they make oblations and burn perfumes acknowledging these to have power to reward and punish Bartoli saith it is not out of any contempt of Religion but out of reverence to the Deity because of the excellency of his Majesty that they suffer none but the King to offer Sacrifice to him and accordingly the larger Power the Tutelar Spirits are supposed to have the greater Magistrates are to attend their service and the lesser those of Cities and Mountains and Rivers But that which is more material to our present business is to consider the Resolution of a case of Conscience not long since given at Rome by the Congregation of Cardinals de propagandâ fide after advising with and the full consent of the Pope obtained 12 Sept. 1645. Which resolution and decree was Printed in the Press of the Congregation the same year with the Popes Decree annexed to it and his peremptory command for the observation of it by all Missionaries and that Copy of the Resolution I have seen was attested by a publick Notary to agree with the Original Decree which case will help us very much to the right understanding the Notion of Idolatry according to the sense of the Church of Rome The case was this The Missionaries of the Society of Iesuits having had a plentiful harvest in China and many of the Great men embracing the Christian Religion by their means the Missionaries of other Orders especially the Franciscans had a great curiosity to understand the arts which the Iesuits used in prevailing with so many Great persons to become Christians and upon full enquiry they found they gave them great liberty as to the five Precepts of the Church as they call them viz. hearing Mass annual Confession receiving the Sacrament at Easter Fasting at the solemn times and Tenths and First-fruits besides they did forbear their Ceremonies of baptism their oyl and spittle in the ears and salt in the mouth when they baptized Women and giving extreme Unction to them because the jealousie of their Husbands would not permit them to use them but that which is most to our purpose is the liberty they gave the Mandarins in two things 1. To go to the Temple of the Tutelar Spirit in every City as they are bound by vertue of their office to do twice a month or else they forfeit their places and there to prostrate themselves before the Idol with all the external acts of adoration that others used and swearing before it when they enter into their office so they did secretly convey a Crucifix among the flowers that lay upon the altar or hold it cunningly in their hands and direct all their adorations to the Crucifix by the inward intention of their minds 2. To go to the Temple of Keum-Fucu or Confucius twice a year and to perform all the solemnities there that the rest did and the same as to the Temples of their Ancestors which are erected to their honour according to the precepts of Confucius because the Chineses declared that they intended only to give the same reverence to the memory of their Ancestors which they would do to themselves if they were still living and what they offer to them is nothing but what they would give them if they were alive without any intention to beg any thing from them when they know them to be dead and the same allowance they gave as to the Images of their Ancestors about which many Ceremonies were used by them The Missionaries of S. Francis order being well informed of the Truth of these things from the Philippines they send a Memorial to the King of Spain concerning them who by his Ambassador represents it to the Pope whereupon the Congregation of Cardinals was called and after great deliberation and advising with the Pope about it they made their Decree wherein they by several resolutions declare it unlawful upon any of those pretences to use acts in themselves unlawful and superstitious although directed by their intention to the worship of the true God And lest any should imagine it was only matter of scandal which they stood upon as T. G. doth about worshipping towards the Sun they make use of several expressions on purpose to exclude this for so they resolve the seventh Quere nullatenus licere it is by no means lawful and the eighth nullo praetextu under no pretence whatsoever and to the ninth expresly that it could not be salved propter absentiam gentilium if there were no gentiles present from this Resolution we may observe several things to our purpose That Idolatry is consistent with the belief of the Supreme God and reserving soveraign worship as due only to him For the Congregation calls the Image of the Tutelar Spirit an Idol and consequently the act of adoration must be Idolatry yet it is very clear that the Chineses especially the Christians did never intend to give to the Tutelar Spirit the honour proper to the Supreme Deity And Bartoli hath at large proved that the Chineses did of old acknowledge the true God and his Providence over the World and that their Princes do worship the same God still to whom they offer Sacrifice and they call him by two names Scianti which signifies supreme Monarch and Tienciù Lord of Heaven and as he tells us they put an apparent difference between Tienciù and Tienscin i. e. between God and Angels and say that the power of forgiving sins belongs only to God and not to them that upon a debate among the Missionaries about the use of these words for the true God and some scruples raised from some
expresly to the contrary Had it not become him either to have answered these Testimonies or not to have asserted that which these Testimonies most fully and clearly denied But he is content to take them upon my word I thank him for his kindness in it But doth he take them as true or false If as true then the Heathens did not worship their Images as Gods which he yet saith they did if he took them as false when I quoted them as true the kindness was very extraordinary and ought to be acknowledged If he had produced the Testimonies of Bellarmin Vasquez Suarez Valentia and others to shew that the Papists do not take their Images for Gods and I should say I took the Testimonies upon his word and yet asserted the direct contrary to them without so much as the least answering to what they said would not any indifferent Reader account me either impudent or ridiculous Yet this is exactly the case of T. G. for he saith several times in this Chapter that the Heathens did worship their Images as Gods whereas those Testimonies say as plainly as words can express it that they did not and yet these Testimonies he takes upon my word i. e. in common construction he believes them to be true and yet the matter contained in them to be false which is an admirable piece of T. G.'s art and ingenuity But to add yet more to his kindness at the same time he takes these Testimonies on my word he will let the Reader see what credit he is to give to my citing of Authors But why then will he take any upon my word if I have so little credit with him Herein he shews himself either very weak if he will take my word when he thinks I deserve no credit or very malicious if he knows I deserve credit and yet goes about to blast it as much as in him lyes But wherein is it I have exposed my reputation so much in the two Testimonies he hath fastned his Talons upon The first is that of Arnobius wherein I say the Heathens deny that they ever thought their Images to be Gods or to have any Divinity in them but what only comes from their consecration to such an Use. That which he charges me with is that by cogging in the word Divinity in the singular number I would represent it to the Reader as though the wiser Heathens intended to worship the true Divinity by those Images whereas all that they say in Arnobius is that they did not look on their Images as Gods per se of themselves but they worshipped the Gods which by dedication were made to dwell in them i.e. saith he by Magical Incantation by which the Souls of Wicked men were evocated and as it were tied to dwell in those Images as S. Austin relateth l. 8. de Civ Dei c. 23. 26. Hereupon he charges me very severely with soul dealing in putting Divinity in the singular number when the Infernal Spirits were meant by it as if they intended to worship the true God by these Images when they declared they worshipped false Gods by them A very heavy charge to which I shall give a distinct answer 1. To that of translating Divinity in the singular number T. G. may if he please take it upon my word or if not let him search the place once more that I translated these very words of Arnobius Nihil Numinis in esse simulachris that the Images have no Divinity in them and if these words be not in that very place and but two lines before those quoted by him Erras laberis c. I will venture my credit in citing Authors upon T. G.'s ingenuity but if they be there as most certainly they are what doth such a man deserve for so notorious fair dealing 2. My design was not to represent by this means that the Heathens only intended to worship the true God by Images but that the worship of Images was unlawful although men did not take the Images themselves for Gods so I said in the very beginning of those quotations that I would prove that the Heathens did look on their Images as Symbols or representations of that Being to which they gave divine worship Do I say of the True God Are not the words so general on purpose to imply that whatever Being they worshipped they looked on the Images as symbols or representations of it And after to prevent all such cavils I purposely added I do not ask whether they were mistaken as to the objects of their worship But what can a man do to prevent the cavils of a disingenuous Sophister 3. As to what he saith that what they plead in Arnobius is only that their Images were not Gods per se of themselves but by virtue of the Spirits dwelling in them I answer that T. G. charges the Heathen Idolaters with worshipping the Images themselves and saith that I deal very disingenuously in affirming that the Wiser Heathens did not worship the Images themselves Now what could be more pertinent to my purpose than to produce those very words of Arnobius You erre and are mistaken O T. G. in what you affirm for we do not think the matter of Brass Silver and Gold to be Gods or adorable Deities per se of themselves Whereby we see T. G's own words as he renders them out of Arnobius do sufficiently vindicate me and contradict him He saith they did worship the Images themselves and they say they did not What doth he mean else when he saith in other places that the Heathens worshipped their Images as Gods what is this but to take the Images themselves for Gods For he never once supposes it unlawful to worship Images on the account of a Divine Spirit being present in the Images supposing that spirit of it self to deserve adoration as suppose upon consecration of an Image of the B. Virgin she should manifest her self in and by that Image in speaking or moving or working miracles doth T. G. think it the more unlawful to worship such an Image no certainly but that men ought to shew more devotion towards it Therefore T. G. could not condemn the Heathens for the worshipping the Images supposing good Spirits did dwell in them Setting aside then the dispute about the nature of the Spirits all that he could imagine the Fathers had to condemn in those that worshipped Images was that they worshipped the Images themselves for Gods which the Heathens in Arnobius deny and which was the thing I produced that Testimony to prove Bellarmin whom my Adversary follows saith that the Heathens did take the Images themselves for Gods for which he gives some very substantial Reasons 1. Because their Priests told them so 2. Because almost all the world believed it This one would think were enough to justifie the belief of it having the Authority of their Teachers and Consent of Nations for it 3. The motion speech and oracles
Stoicks forbear adultery and so may the Epicureans but the former do it because it is a thing repugnant to Nature and civil Society the latter because allowing themselves this single pleasure may debar them of many more so saith he in this matter those barbarous Nations forbear Images on other accounts than Iews and Christians do who dare not make use of this way of worshipping God Observe that he doth not say this of the way of worshipping false Gods or Images for Gods but of worshippin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Deity And he gives three principal reasons wherein they differed from those Nations 1. Because this way of worship did disparage the Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 again by drawing it down to matter so fashioned 2. Because the evil spirits were apt to harbour in those Images and to take pleasure in the sacrifices there offered which reason as far as it respects the blood of Sacrifices doth relate to the Heathen Images standing over the Altars at which the Sacrifices were offered But then Celsus might say what is all this to the purpose my question is why you have no Images in your own way of worship therefore he adds his third reason which made it utterly unlawful for Christians as well as Iews to worship them which is the Law of God mentioned before now I say if Origen answered pertinently he must give this as the Reason why Christians used no Images in their own way of worship and consequently was so far from thinking the worship of Images indifferent that he thought Christians ought rather to suffer Martyrdom than to worship them But to put this beyond possibility of contradiction Origen mentions a saying of Heraclitus objected by Celsus that it is a foolish thing to pray to Images unless a man know the Gods and Heroes worshipped by them which saying Celsus approves and saith the Christians were Fools because they utterly contemned Images in totum the Latin interpreter renders it To which Origen thus answers we acknowledge that God may be known and his only Son and those whom he hath honoured with the Title of Gods who partake of his Divinity and are different from the Heathen Deities which the Scripture calls Devils i.e. causally if not essentially as Cajetan distinguisheth but saith he it is impossible for him that knows God to worship Images Mark that he doth not say it is impossible for him that knows the Idols of the Heathens to worship them or the evil spirits that lurk in their Images but for him that knows the true God and his Son Christ Iesus and the holy Angels to do it Is it possible after this to believe that Origen supposed the worship of Images to be indifferent in it self and that God and Christ and Angels might be lawfully worshipped by them Was all this only periculum offensionis jealousie of offence before the Heathen Idolatry was rooted out Which supposition makes the primitive Christians in plain terms jugglers and impostors to pretend that to be utterly unlawful even for themselves to do and to mean no more by it but this yes it is unlawful to do it while there is any danger of Heathenism but when once that is overthrown then we may worship Images as well as the best of them For my part I believe the primitive Christians to have been men of so much honesty and integrity that they would never have talked at this rate against the worship of Images as not only Origen but the rest of them the best and wisest among them did as I have shewed in the foregoing Chapter if they had this secret reserve in their minds that when Heathenism was sunk past recovery then they might do the same things which they utterly condemned now Which would be just like some that we have heard of who while there was any likelyhood of the Royal Authority of this Nation recovering itself then they cry'd out upon Kingly Government as illegal Tyrannical and Antichristian but when the King was murdered and the power came into their own hands then it was lawful for the Saints to exercise that power which was not fit to be enjoyed by the Wicked of the World So these men make the most excellent Christians to be like a pack of Hypocrites The Heathens every where asked them as may be seen in Lactantius Arnobius Minucius and others as well as Origen what is the matter with you Christians that you have no Images in your Churches what if you dare not joyn with us in our worship why do not you make use of them in your own Is it only humour singularity and affectation of Novelty in You If it be you shew what manner of men you are No truly say they gravely and seriously we do it not because we dare not do it for we are afraid of displeasing and dishonouring God by it and we will on that account rather choose to dye than do it Upon such an answer the Heathens might think them honest and simple men that did not know what to do with their lives who were so willing to part with them on such easie terms But if they had heard the bottom of all this was only a cunning and sly trick to undermine Paganism and that they meant no such thing as though it were unlawful in it self but only unlawful till they had gotten the better of them what would they have thought of such men no otherwise than that they were a company of base Hypocrites that pretended one thing and meant another and that the Wicked of the World might not worship Images but the Saints might when they had the Power in their hands although before they declaimed against it as the most vile mean and unworthy way of worship that ever came into the heads of men that there could be no Religion where it obtained that it was worse than the worship of Beasts that it was more reasonable to worship the artificers themselves than the Images made by them that rats and mice had less folly than mankind for they had no fears of what men fell down before with trembling and great shews of devotion These and many such things as these the Fathers speak freely openly frequently on all occasions in all places against the worship of Images and after all this was no more meant by it but only this Thou O Heathen must not worship Images but I may And why not as well might the Heathen reply Thou must not commit adultery but I may Does the nature of the commands you boast so much of alter with mens persons Is that indeed lawful for you that is not for us Where doth the Law of Moses say Thou shalt not worship the Images that we worship but thou maist worship the Images that Christians worship And if the Law makes no difference either leave off your foolish babbling against our Images or condemn your own For to our understanding yours are as much against the Law as ours are