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
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your Soul Ye shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his Commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve him and cleave unto him And that Prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death c. in which Law there are some things very material to be observed in this present dispute 1. When they are forbidden to hearken to any Prophet who seduces them to the worship of any other Gods this must be extended to all those instances of Idolatrous worship which are forbid by the Law of Moses whatever is opposed to the worship of one Supreme and Soveraign Being the Lord Jehovah And therefore whether these Prophets seduced them from the worship of the Lord Jehovah to the worship of other Gods or perswaded them to worship other Gods besides the Lord Jehovah whether they were any of those Gods which were at that time worshipt by other Nations or any other Gods whom the ignorance and superstition of the people should create in after ages whether good or bad Spirits the case is the same whoever perswaded them to worship any other Being with or besides the Supreme God was to be rejected by them for this is the sense of the Mosaical Laws concerning the worship of one Supreme God as I have already proved and the serving other Gods in this place is opposed to the worship of one God and therefore must include whatever according to the Law of Moses is contrary to the worship of one Supreme Being 2. This Law makes the worship of one God eternal and unchangeable There is no way of altering any Divine Laws but by a new revelation of Gods will and there is no way to give Authority to such a revelation but by Miracles or Prophesie but in this case Miracles and Prophesie it self can give no authority because God himself has expresly forbid us to hearken to any Prophet whatever signs or wonders are wrought by him who teacheth the worship of any other Being besides the one Supreme God So that the Law of Moses having expresly forbid the worship of any other Being besides God and as expresly forbid us to hearken to any Prophet though a worker of Miracles who teaches any other worship it is impossible that this Law should ever be altered because we are before-hand warned by God himself not to give credit to any Prophet whatever he be or whatever he do who attempts any alteration of it And therefore had Christ or his Apostles taught the worship of Saints and Angels it had been a just reason for the unbelief of the Jews notwithstanding all the Miracles that were wrought by them and it is well the Jews never had any just occasion to make this objection against our Saviour for if they had I know not how it would have been answered I say a just occasion for the Jews did urge this very Law against him before Pilate We have a Law and by our Law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God In which they refer to that discourse of our Saviour 10. John 29 30. where he affirms that God is his Father and plainly tells them I and my Father are one for which saying they attempt to stone him for Blasphemy and that being a man he made himself a God v. 33. But though he did indeed as the Jews rightly inferred make himself a God by this saying yet he did not preach any new God to them but affirmed himself to be one with his Father that same Supreme God the Lord Jehovah whom they were commanded to worship by their Law he made no alteration in the object of their worship but only did more clearly and distinctly reveal the Father to them as manifesting himself in and by his only begotten Son And therefore he did not offend against this Law by seducing them to the worship of any other Gods besides the Lord Jehovah which if he had done their accusation had been just and all the Miracles which he did could not have secured him from the guilt and punishment of an Impostor Which shews us what force there is in that Argument which the Church of Rome urges from those Miracles which have been wrought at the Tombs of Martyrs to prove the Religious invocation of them if such Miracles were ever wrought it was in testimony to the truth of Christianity for which they suffered not to betray men to a superstitious and idolatrous worship of them ten thousand Miracles should never convince me of the lawfulness of praying to Saints departed while I have such a plain and express Law against believing all Miracles upon any such account Nor can it reasonably be said that this Law was given only to the Jews and therefore obliges none but them for we must remember that Christ was originally sent to the Jews to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and therefore by this Law he was bound not to teach the worship of any other Beings under the penalty of death and they were bound not to own and receive him if he did and therefore it was impossible for the true Messias to introduce the worship of any Being besides the one Supreme God and if Christ could not teach any such Doctrine I know not how the worship of Saints and Angels should ever come to be a Doctrine of Christianity For what Christ himself cannot do none of his Followers may who had no other Commission but to teach those things which they had learnt from him and he could not give commission to preach such Doctrines as he himself had no authority to preach So that though this Law was not originally given to the Gentiles but only to the Jews yet it equally obliges the Christian Church whether Jews or Gentiles because Christ himself who was the Author of our Religion was obliged by it The worship of one Supreme God and of none else is as fundamental to Christianity as it is to Judaism for Christianity is now or ought to be the Religion of the Jews as well as Gentiles and yet the Jews are expresly forbid by this Law ever to own any Religion which allows the worship of any Being besides God and therefore the worship of one God and none else must be fundamental in Christianity if the people of the Jews are or ever were bound to embrace the Faith of Christ. SECT IV. 2. ANd therefore I observe in the next place that Christ and his Apostles have made no alteration at all in the object of our worship Christ urges that Old Testament Law in answer to the Devils Temptation It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Which it seems is as standing a Law after the appearance of Christ as it was before He gives no other direction to his Disciples but to pray to their Heavenly Father and in that form of prayer which he
for Idolatry consists in giving Religious Worship to such Beings as we ought not to worship and by the Law of Moses they were to worship none but God and therefore the worship of any other Being was Idolatry But if the object of our worship be enlarged and the Gospel has made it lawful to worship Saints and Angels then we must seek out some other notion of Idolatry that it consists in worshipping wicked Spirits or in giving Supreme and Soveraign worship to inferiour Deities which the Church of Rome thinks impossible in the nature of the thing for any man to do who knows them to be inferiour Spirits But if Idolatry be the same under the New Testament that it was under the Old the object of our worship must be the same too and we have reason to believe that it is the same when we are commanded to keep our selves from Idols and to flie from Idolatry but are no where in the New Testament expresly told what this Idolatry is which supposes that we must learn what it is from some antecedent Laws and there were no such Laws in being but the Laws of Moses The only thing that can be said in this case is that the Apostle refers them not to any written Law but to the natural notions of Idolatry but with what reason this is said will soon appear if we consider to whom the Apostle writes and they were both Jewish and Heathen Converts As for the Heathens they had corrupted all their natural notions of Idolatry and had no sense at all of this sin till they were converted to Christianity and therefore they were not likely to understand the true notion of Idolatry without being taught it and it is not probable the Apostles would leave them to guess what Idolatry is As for the Jews God would not from the beginning trust to their natural notions but gave them express Laws about Idolatry which though they are the same Laws which natural reason dictates to us as most agreeable to the nature and worship of God yet since the experience of the world which was over-run by Idolatrous worship did sufficiently prove that all men do not use their reason aright in these matters God would not trust to the use of their reason in the weighty concernments of his own worship and glory but gives them an express positive Law about it and Christ and his Apostles having done nothing to repeal this Law they leave them under the authority of it and when they warn them against Idols and Idolatry without giving them any new Laws about it must in all reason be presumed to refer them to those Laws which they already had SECT V. 4. AS a farther proof of this I observe that Christ and his Apostles did not abrogate but only complete and perfect the Mosaical Laws Our Saviour with great zeal and earnestness disowns any such intention or design Think not that I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fill it up by fulfilling the types and prophesies of it by exchanging a ceremonial for a real righteousness or by perfecting its moral precepts with new instances and degrees of vertue And therefore he adds For verily I say unto you Till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled And St. Paul who was lookt on by the believing Jews as a great enemy to the Law of Moses does renounce all such pretences Do we then make void the Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Indeed had Christ or his Apostles attempted to have given any new Laws contrary to the Laws of Moses it had justified the Jews in their unbelief for God by his Prophet Isaiah had given them this express rule to examine all new Doctrines by To the law and the testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them and that Christ himself is not excepted from this rule appears in this that this is joyned with the prophesie of the Messias both before and after as you may see in 8 Isai. 13 14. and 9 Chap. 6 7. and therefore Christ and his Apostles always make their appeals to the writings of the Old Testament and St. Paul in all his disputes with the Jews urges them with no other authority but the Scriptures and thô the Miracles which were wrought by the Apostles did move the Jews to hearken to them and greatly dispose them to believe their Doctrine yet it was the authority of the Scriptures whereon their Faith was founded As St. Peter tells those to whom he wrote that though they preacht nothing to them concerning the coming of Christ but what they were eye-witnesses of and though God had given testimony to him by a voice from Heaven which they heard when they were with him in the holy Mount yet he adds We have also a more sure word of prophesie whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as to a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts That is the Scriptures of the Old Testament and therefore the Jews of Berea are greatly commended for their diligence in searching the Scriptures and examining St. Pauls Doctrine by them and this is assigned as the reason why many of them believed To apply this then to our present purpose I observe 1. That if Christ did not make any new Laws in contradiction to the Law of Moses then he could make no alteration in the object of Religious Worship He could not introduce the worship of Saints and Angels without contradicting that Law which commands us to worship no other Being but the one Supreme God For the worship of Saints and Angels together with the Supreme God is a direct contradiction to that Law which commands us to worship God alone though we should suppose that in the nature of the thing the worship of Saints and Angels were consistent with the worship of the Supreme God yet it is not consistent with that Law which commands us to worship none but God So that let this be a natural or positive Law or whatever men please to call it it is a very plain and express Law and Christ never did contradict any express Law of God It is true that Typical and Ceremonial Worship which God commanded the Jews to observe is now out of date under the Gospel and does no longer oblige Christians but the reason of that is because it has received its accomplishment and perfection in Christ. Christ has perfected the Jewish Sacrifices and put an end to them by offering a more perfect and meritorious sacrifice even the sacrifice of himself The Circumcision Washings Purifications of the Law are perfected by the Laws of internal purity The external Ceremonies of the Law cease but they
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
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
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
gave them he teaches them to address their prayer neither to Saints nor Angels but to God onely Our Father which art in heaven When St. Paul charges the Heathens with Idolatry he does it upon this account that they joyned the worship of Creatures with the worship of the Supreme God Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned Where the Apostle acknowledges that they did know God that they did own that Supreme and Soveraign Being who made the world and does suppose that they did worship him also For he does not charge them with renouncing the worship of that God who made the world but that they did not glorifie him as God which only taxes the manner of their worship And wherein that was faulty he declares in the following verses As that they made mean and vile representations of him that they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four footed beasts and creeping things And thus changed the truth of God into a lie But this was not the only fault but they also gave his incommunicable worship to Creatures and worshipped and served the Creature more than the Creator who is blessed for ever Amen Which words do plainly suppose that they did worship the Creator of all things but besides the Creator for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie they worshipped the Creature also which proves that the worship of the Supreme God will not excuse those from Idolatry who worship any thing else besides him For the opposition lies between the Creator and the Creature be it a good or a bad Creature it matters not as to Religious Worship which must be given to neither Or if we render the words as our Translators do more than the Creator for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used comparatively yet so it supposes that they did worship the Creator and when they are said to worship the Creature more that cannot signifie a higher degree of worship but more frequent addresses and thus the Church of Rome worships the Virgin Mary more than the Creator for they say ten prayers if they be prayers to the Virgin Mary for one to God ten Ave Maries for one Pater noster The same Apostle determines this matter in as plain words as can be For though there be that are called Gods whether in Heaven or in Earth as there be Gods many and Lords many but to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him Where in opposition to the Pagan Idolatry who worshipt a great many Gods not as Supreme Independent Deities for they acknowledged but one Supreme God who made all the other Gods but either as sharers in the Government of the World or Mediators and Intercessors for them with the Supreme God the Apostle plainly asserts That to us Christians there is but one God the Maker of all Things and one Lord Jesus Christ our great Mediator and Advocate with God the Father that is that we must worship none else And that none of the distinctions which are used by the Church of Rome to justifie that Worship which they pay to Saints and Angels can have any place here is evident from this consideration For either these distinctions were known or they were not known when the Apostle wrote this and in both cases his silence is an argument against them If they were known he rejects them and determines against them for he affirms absolutely without the salvo of any distinctions that we have but one God and one Mediator that is that we must worship no more If they were not known as it is likely they were not because the Apostle takes no notice of them it is a plain argument that these distinctions are of no use unless they will say that St. Paul who was guided by an Infallible Spirit was ignorant of some very useful and material notions about the object of Worship If the Apostle did not know these distinctions it is evident they are of a late date and therefore can have no authority against an Apostolical determination If he did not know them he could have no regard to them and therefore made no allowance for such exceptions Nay the same Apostle does not only give us such general rules as necessarily exclude the worship of Saints and Angels but does expresly condemn it and warns the Christians against it He foretels of the Apostasie of the latter days wherein some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and the doctrine of Devils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The doctrine of Daemons the doctrine of worshipping Daemons or some new inferiour Deity Saints or Angels or whatever they are as Mediators and Intercessors between God and men This is the true notion of the doctrine of Daemons amongst the Heathens and the Apostle tells us the time shall come when some Christians for it is evident he speaks here of the Apostasie of Christians shall fall into the same Idolatry which is an exact prophecy of what we now see done in the Church of Rome who have the same notion of their Saints and Angels and pay the same worship to them which the Heathens formerly did to their Daemons or inferiour Gods 3. And as a further confirmation of this I observe that the Gospel of our Saviour forbids Idolatry without giving us any new notion of Idolatry and therefore it has made no alteration at all in this Doctrine of the worship of one God which Moses so expresly commanded the Jews to observe For the Gospel was preacht to the Jews as well as to the Gentiles nay the Jews had the first and most undoubted right to it as being the posterity of Abraham to whom the promise of the Messias was made and therefore as the Law was at first given them by Moses so it did still oblige them in all such cases wherein the Gospel did not in express terms make a change and alteration of the Law and therefore since there was no such alteration made and yet the Law against Idolatry renewed and confirmed by the authority of the Gospel what could the Jews understand else by Idolatry but what was accounted Idolatry by the Law of Moses that is the worship of any other Being besides the Supreme God the Lord Jehovah And since it is evident that there are not two Gospels one for the Jews and another for the Gentiles all Christians whether Jews or Gentiles must be under the obligation of the same Law to worship only one God The notion of Idolatry must alter as the object of Religious Worship does If we must worship one God and none besides him then it is Idolatry to worship any other Being but the Supreme God
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