in the Flesh All the Declarations of Divine Perfections that ever were vouchsaf'd to the World come infinitely short of these gracious discoveries in the Gospel Besides the manner whereby the Jews Worship'd God tho he in that Infant state of the Church for wise reasons was pleas'd to institute it yet was it too gross and carnal and not enough suted to his spiritual nature it consisted in gay Shows and pompous Solemnities in the Circumcision of the Flesh Smoke of Sacrifices Steams of Incense Purgations from ceremonial Uncleanness Distinctions of Days and Habits and Meats things that had no Intrinsick Goodness or worth to commend them They had indeed a spiritual signification but the veil of Ceremonies was so thick and their Affections so carnal that very few div'd into their Typical meaning but Christianity teaches a Worship more admirably adapted to the Nature of God and reason of man The law came by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1. 17. Grace in opposition to the legal severities and Truth in opposition to their Types and Shadows God is a spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and truth Joh. 4. 24. not with carnal Ceremonies but spiritual Affections not with typical Shadows but true and sincere Devotions The Rites of this Religion are but few in number and therefore far less painful and laborious Eucharistical and Commemorative of what is past and therefore more apt for the instilling Piety than those typical Ordinances whose signification was more dark and obscure In this sense 't is acknowledg'd the Apostles did disturb the World 2. The Apostles taught the only satisfying method of mans Reconciliation with his Maker This was a thing that very much puzled the considering part of mankind and their Opinions were very different concerning it the light of Nature taught them that they were Gods subjects and that an entire subjection to him was their Duty they knew that Sin was an affront to his Majesty and injury to all his Attributes and the stings of Conscience forcd thom to confess that they â—liad been very foulty in their Obedience and incur'd the just Displeasure of Heaven and yet by Gods forbearance they discern'd his readiness to be reconcil'd His continuing forfeited Benefits discoveu'd that he was not willing to punish them according to their Demerits But how this Clemency and Mildness could be consistent with his Holiness this very much perplex'd them How he could preserve the rights of his Justice and yet give such large Demonstrations of his Goodness this they could not apprehend Some therefore fashion'd a God altogether like themselves and made the Poetick Fables the Rule of their Faith the Tales of the Rapes Adulteries and secret amours of their reputed Deities confirm'd them in their Sins and thought that to Sacrifice their Lives to Bacchus or dye the Martyrs of Venus would be anv least no way displeasing to Heaven Others conceiv'd that God took no notice of smaller faults and was not much incens'd at any crimes that brought no notable detriment to the Common-wealth Others invented numerous expiatory Sacrifices and multipli'd superstitious Inventions hoping by these little things to appease the anger of God For tho perhaps the way of Sacrificing was instituted by God and convey'd throughout the World by Tradition from Noah yet they unreasonably rested in the Sacrifice it self never imagin'd it meerly typical but vainly presum'd the Blood of Lambs would wash away their crimes tho they were utterly destitute of their Innocence In cases of extream distress and to secure them from publick threatned Judgments they presented their Gods with humane burnt Offerings as if one Sin might be expiated by another of a deeper dye but some were dissatisfi'd with this method also and agreed that the Supreme God delights rather in the Oblations of a pure mind than in costly Incense or burnt Offerings Others therefore especially the proud Philosophers were so little sensible of their Obligation to God that they thought their good works would recompence for the sins they committed and their shadows of virtue overballance their offences Others had some apprehensions of the necessity of a Mediator and therefore to Angels and Deifi'd men who had been publick Benefactors to their Country while they liv'd they address'd themselves and brib'd them with Divine honours to intercede with God on their behalf This was a Doctrine generally entertain'd at Athens in the Apostles time In this Chapter we find that when Saint Paul preach'd Jesus and the Resurrection they say he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange Gods or Demons this was the title they gave to their Mediators These several methods were contriv'd by the Heathens to reconcile God to man but still they were very fluctuating and dubious in their Opinions and their guilty fears made them tremble lest after all their thoughtful pains they should have mistaken the right method and God should be still unreconcil'd The Jews indeed had many Sacrifices that were Originally design'd to typifie and prefigure the Death of our Lord Redeemer and the high Priests entring into the Holy of Holies once a year represented his Intercession but these shadows were so obscure and their eyes so dim that very few understood their spiritual signification They generally look'd for a glorious Messiah that should Translate the Empire from Rome to Jerusalem tread upon the Necks of their Enemies and reign over the whole Earth with an outward magnificence greater than that of Solomon The Disciples themselves laboured under the same mistake and never dream'd of the necessity of such an Ignominious Death as our Saviour suffer'd Hence when he was telling them what Sufferings he must undergo St. Peter How of thoughtfulness Page 64. very gravely rebukes him saying Master favour thy self this shall not be unto thee it was not meerly his concern for his Master but what would become of his own designs and hopes that drew forth those Expressions Christ had promis'd him the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven which he knowing to be the insignia of great Authority in Princes Courts interpreted it of some secular Greatness in the Kingdom of the Messiah And this made him so solicitous when our Lord spake of Suffering and Death and for this reason our Saviour calls him Satan the name of the Usurping God of this World who had yet too much Power over him Matth. 16. 22 23. So also Zebedees Children desired one to sit at his right hand and the other at his left as Persons next in Dignity to him in that earthly Kingdom they expected and when his Death came they then began to despair saying we hop'd that this had been he which should have redeemed Israel Lu. 24. 21. Thus we see the Disciples themselves little expecting this way of Redemption reveald in the Gospel The ' Jews indeed especially the Pharisees had generally very high thoughts of their own worth and external Priviledges as being Abrahams Seed and Gods peculiar inheritance
lest ye corrupt your selves and worship Graven Images If the Heathen Idolatry were only forbidden of what inconsequent arguing would Moses here be guilty Take heed lest ye worship the Images of false gods for ye never saw any Representation of the true God But if all Worship of Images be here forbidden then the Argument is very pertinent and forcible Take heed how ye Worship God in any outward Representation for if such a thing were pleasing to him he would not have left it to your choice to do it in what form you pleas'd but would have appear'd in such a likeness as best pleas'd himself Besides the golden Calf which the Israelites worshipp'd as a resemblance of God was a breach of this Commandment and is called an Idol Acts 7. 41. For that the Israelites did make this as a resemblance of the true God is Exodus 32. clear from the Story Aaron says these be thy Gods O Israel that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt and Proclaims a Feast to Jehovah for either we must suppose the Israelites to be so stupidly sottish as to suppose this Calf to be really that God that brought them out of Egypt before it was made or if we cannot find in our hearts to believe them so absurd we must believe they fell back to the Egyptian Idolatry or worshipt the true God under this representation That it was not a resemblance of the Egyptian Gods is evident from hence that he is call'd Jehovah and is represented as the God that brought them out of Egypt for could they once imagine that the Egyptian Gods had destroy'd their own most zealous worshippers and wrought such wonders for them who abhor'd their worship and would give them no adoration is it not much more rational to suppose that the Israelites expected some symbol of the Divine Presence going before them as they might expound that promise Exod. 23. 20. And Moses being See more of this in Stillingsleets Defence of the Idolatry of R. C. Page 747 absent for 40 Days they doubting whether ever they should see him more devise with themselves what token to have of Gods presence with them and the most part being sway'd by their Education in Egypt where they worship'd their chief god Osyris in the form of a Bull compel Aaron to make a Golden Calf And if this be in them accounted Idolatry must not the same title be given to our Romish worshippers of Graven Images Of the same sin was Micah guilty in Judg. 17. who to ease himself of the trouble of travelling so often to Sbiloh to worship there made a molten and graven image as a representation of the Lord Jehovah builds a Chappel in his house and hires a Levite to be his Priest and in this rejoyces exceedingly now know I says he that the Lord will do me good seeing I have a Levite to my Priest Judg. 17. 13. Of the same nature was that great sin of Jeroboam for which he is branded with so black a Character in Scripture he made two Calves in Dan and Bethel as a representation of God 'T is plain he design'd not to draw the Israelites from the Worshipping God but from going up to Jerusalem to Worship lest their converse with the Two Loyal Tribes should revive their principles of Loyalty also and reduce them to their subjection to their Lawful Sovereign and therefore his successors were look'd upon as worshippers of Jehovah Thus Jehu was zealous for the Lord 2 King 10. 16. Jehovah though he departed not from this sin of Jerobcam Thus it appears how plainly God hath forbidden all worship of him by images And that this Law was not only positive and temporary but unalterâ—bly obliging all men appears from the reason of the Law The unsuitableness of an image to the Divine Nature Isa 40. 18 25. The Prophet rhere after a stately and majestick description of the Divine Greatness concludes with this inference To whom then will ye liken God Or what likeness will ye compare unto him As if he should say Seeing God is so immensly Glorious a being your own reasons may convince you of the folly of making any representations of him John 4. 24. God is a Spirit and will be worship'd in spirit and truth That is as some interpret the words not in the Image of a Dove as the Samaritans Worship'd him on Mount Gerizim nor with the Typical Sliadows of the Jewish Law St. Paul when arguing with the Athenians bends his discourse against their Worshipping the Sovereign God in the likeness of silyer or gold or stone Acts 17. 29. and in Rom. 1. 23 He disputes against the wiser Philosophers and accuses them that when they knew God to be an Immensly Glorious being they fashion'd him like a man and Worship'd him by Images and the accusation will equally concern our present Romish pretenders to Wisdom The same apologies the wise men of Athens and Rome made to excuse their Heathenish Idolatry are adapted by the Popish Schools to justify their worshipping Images Plutarch and Celsus and Julian and Maximus Tyrius and many others tell us they look'd upon Images only as helps to remembrance and means of exciting their devotions nay the worshippers of the Sun and Moon and Stars might better apologize for themselves For these natural Images are great Monuments of the Divine Wisdom and Power and Goodness but the present artificial ones express only the Gravers skill and imperfect cunning Nay further the very same pleas might be us'd by the Priests of Egypt to justify their most ridiculous follies Leeks and Onions may as well draw forth my penitential tears deified Apes and Monkeys may as well be the objects of my adoration as the Monstrous Pictures of the Trinity in their Temples But how contradictory soever this practise be to Scripture Images may well agree to that Church which retains little more than the faine image and shadow of a Religion 2. Their Adoration of Saints and Angels and giving them the same Worship the Heathens gave to their Daemons or inferior Deities By Daemons the Heathens understood an inferior sort of deified powers as middle Beings between the Sovereign God and mortal men and because they thought the higher God too pure and sublime to meddle with Earthly affairs they placed these as Mediators to prefent the prayers of Men to God and convey the benefits of God to Men thus Plato and Hesiod and others that describe them To this opinion the Apostle seems to allude in 1 Cor. 8. 5. 6. As there be Gods many and Lords many yet to us there is but one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ i. e. Tho the Heathens Worship'd many Supreme See this confirm'd in Mede's Apostacy of the later times Gods and inferior powers as Presidents and Mediators in Earthly things yet we Christians acknowledg but one sovereign Deity and one Mediator who presents our Prayers to the Father and brings us back the rewards
Man And is the scene so much chang'd that now it is become the black mark of a damnable Heretick The Prophets permitted the People to judg by the Scriptures which were true and which were counterfeit messengers from Heaven crying out to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word 't is because there is no Isa 8. 20. light in them And must we acknowledg these men for the Pillars of Truth and the Lights of the World without being allow'd the same liberty When our Saviour was ask'd by that young man what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life Our Lord answers him what saith the Law How Readest thou And shall ignorance be now accounted the surest Road to Heaven Search the Scripture was his precept but is the prohibition of the Romish Church Timothy and the Bereans were indeed commended by St. Luke and St. Paul as noble persons for their diligence in the Scriptures But if they had liv'd in the days of our Modern Saints this would have been thought a crime deserving the lash of the inquisition An Anathema would have been their spiritual reward and fire and faggot their civil recompence Certainly such a practice as this had need be back'd with good Apologies or else they will never be able to justify so great an abuse of the Lord Jesus But how weak are their pleas and how insignificant the excuses they make Is it because the People may wrest the Scripture to their perdition that they are forbidden their use Alas because some may abuse it must all therefore be depriv'd of it because some may make Scripture the support of their errors must it not therefore be the foundation of truth Because some dogs have trampled on the Bread of Life Must the Children therefore be withheld from their Spiritual Food Because Hereticks have taken too large draughts of the new Wine of the Gospel must all therefore be denied to tast of it Because some know not the worth of these Pearls must those therefore who know how to value them be hinder'd from their possession By the same reason the Scriptures should not be permitted in the Learned Languages for Learned Men have been generally the first broachers of Heresy and are most capable of perverting the Holy Writings Is it because Scripture is so obscure that if the common people did injoy it they could not understand it 'T is acknowledged there are mysteries in our Religion and God hath for wise ends left some things more dark and obscure to awaken our industry abate our Pride and show the most Learned his ignorance and infancy in knowledg and create in us all earnest longings after that Happy state where all the Riddles shall be unfolded and the mysteries clearly reveal'd But there is so much perspicuously laid down as is necessary to Salvation and every man that Reads it and sincerely endeavours to understand it shall with the help of Divine Grace arrive at so much Knowledg as if improv'd into practice will bring him to Heaven The great end why the Scripture was written was that we might have a constant Monitor of our duty and guide 2 Tim. 3. 16. to happiness now if the Scripture were so obscure that it answer'd not this end this would reflect upon the Divine Wisdom as if he had chosen an insufficient means and were defeated in his methods and expectations And it would equally reflect upon his goodness as if he envied his creatures happiness if after our sincere and humble endeavours we could not understand the things that are necessary to our Salvation The essentials are clearly reveal'd tho there be some obscure passages yet the Divine Goodness hath left them not that we should be debar'd from Reading but to prevent our loathing and contempt and the darkest phrases are incomparably more intelligible than the cloudy obscurities of their admired Authors The pious nonsence of Mother Juliana and the sanctifi'd gibberish of their mystical Divines are infinitely less perspicuous than the Prophecies of Daniel or mysteries of the Revelations And yet those which reflect on Christianity as if it consisted only in Enthusiastick heats and raprures are allow'd while the Scripture which gives so lovely a description of the Christian Religion must be shut up from the sight of the multitude But whatever slender pretences may be us'd to delude perverse Hereticks we have good ground to think that the true cause of this Restraint is the same which our Saviour mentions Joh. 3. 19. They love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil Should the Scriptures be read by all their Proselytes would be few and their Altars would no longer smoke the Grandeur of the Church must be abated the infallible Chair would totter and Rome would be no longér the Mistress of the Earth 2. Their pretence of Infallibility and the Scriptures dependance on the Authority of their Church This is another Invasion on Christs Prophetical Office For if Infallibility be lodg'd in either Pope or Council for they are not agreed where it is plac'd then tho Christ hath never so clearly explain'd his mind they may make what Expositions of his words they please and obtrude them on our belief Their great Champion Bellarmine asserts That if the infallible Head should condemn Vertue for Vice and commend Vice as Vertue we are bound to believe Vice as morally good and Virtue evil but if this be Gospel our great Master hath deceiv'd us and we have been led by our Saviour into an Error Then if that impure Cardinal that writ a Book in praise of the scarlet Sin of Sodom had been exalted to the Papal-chair and from thence proclaim'd that unnatural Vice to be morally good we should have been bound to believe it And tho some pretend that such a Supposition is not to be made because the Spirit of truth will guide the unerring Head into all truth yet sad experience hath taught us that the broadest Impieties have been canonized and miscal'd Virtue and Justice at Rome Besides what possible reason is there they should be secur'd from Error more than from Sin How can it be imagin'd that that Holy Spirit which is griev'd with impurity and will not dwell in the Habitations of uncleanness did infallibly assist those Monsters for Villany which are acknowledg'd by Baronius and Platina to have worn the Triple Crown in the ninth and tenth Centuries Surely if such a gift as this was ever given to the Guides of the Church How obscure soever the Scripture be in other things it will be highly necessary it should plainly lay down this important Doctrine But alas How impertinent are the Proofs they bring They are either such as will equally prove the Civil Magistrates and Judges in Westminster-Hall infallible Such is that Deut. 17. 10 11 12. Where Judges are appointed to decide matters of Difference between man and man to whose Decisions the People are bound to agree that their