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A33124
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An account of Dr. Still.'s late book against the Church of Rome together with a short postil upon his text.
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J. V. C. (John Vincent Canes), d. 1672.
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1672
(1672)
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Wing C426; ESTC R18260
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35,205
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79
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tables in his hand But it may be Law makers do exemp themselves at least some Protestants may interpret as they seem to do that Moses forbad to make the figure of Jesus Christ but not his own No man in England scruples to have any of these eikons no not the Doctor himself notwithstanding this law of Moses so expresly contrary to them all no man doubts to set any painter or graver on work And yet must still this law be cast in the teeth of Catholicks as transgressors of it For Gods sake why is St. Mary Magdalen in her penitential weeds upon her knees with beads in her hand and eyes all blubbered and swoln with tears more against the law of Moses than one of our delicate Paragons of beauty in her shining dress lips of coral and sparkling eyes O but Catholicks worship them Sir this word in the sence and meaning of protestants is as great a falshood as was ever uttered by man For Catholicks neither have nor can have any other relative esteem of any picture than what they have to the penitential works they represent or to the worth and piety of the persons And an absolute esteem of the picture this is measured out only by the Materials and artifice of the painter according to which one picture shall be worth five hundred pounds and another representing the same thing not worth five shillings And can we believe that our protestant young Gentlemen have no veneration at all to our beauties set thus in their Majesty nor no kind of affections rising in their hearts towards them Yea ten to one more of ill affections and god wot greater then any good ones we can have to our crucified Jeâ—us in our way of piety And the difference indeed is only this that our reverence and affection is towards holy persons and unto an imitation of their piety hope patience constancy and charity Their 's to a concupiscence of flesh and eyes This and nothing but this if truth may be spoken makes them so wrathful and furious against our Catholick pictures Satan hates Jesus Christ and therefore inflames them to tear down his memories and representations but he loves pride of life and those portractures must stand that advance this He is pleased with that which feeds concupiscence of eyes and concupiscence of flesh brings him in the disciples which Jesus Christ loses Moses did forbid Jews who were travelling with him towards Palestine an idolatrous Nation to make to themselves that is to say on their own heads without warrant of the Synagogue or in imitation of the pagan rites any of the idolatrous images there and elsewhere to be met withal or any similitude at all least seduced thereby they leave their own God and religion to cleave unto false gods and idolatry This law of Moses and purpose of the law is so clear that he must be obstinately blind who sees it not And what does this concern our holy Catholick figures of St. Paul for example or Christ crucified more than Protestant figures of young Lords and fine Ladies save that the one moves us to the love of mortification prayer patience chastity the other allures us from it the one confirms Religion the other weakens it Besides our holy pictures are allowed by the Church the others forbidden And this indeed is the onely aim of Moses when he forbids the people to make to themselves any graven images whatsoever to themselves that is on their own fancies and upon their own authority For such onely were unlawful and not those they were commanded by just authority and allowed to make See saith God by Moses I have called and named Besaleel and I have filled hâ—m with the spirit of wisdom and understanding and all knowledge of all manner of workmanship to devise cunning works to work in gold and silver and brass and in cutting of stones and in graving of wood to work all manner of workmanship And I have appointed Aholiab with him and in the hearts of all the wise I have put wisdom that they make all that I have commanded And by virtue whereof the said men and others after them wove and graved pomgranets and lilies and placed Cherubs upon the Propitiatory between which graven Cherubims God himself gave out his Oracles to Moses as he did also heal the people by the figure of a Serpent which Moses commanded to be set up So that here is a vast difference betwixt figures graven and set up by authority and those which people make to themselves The one is commanded the other forbidden Aarons Calf of gold destroyed the people but Moses his Serpent of brass healed them These things are not now said afresh They have been told to Ministers over and again but they are never the better for it Indeed they love not to hear of it because it spoils their sport I add yet withal over and above what is yet said that neither that law of Moses nor any of his Ten Commandments nor any other of his precepts either ceremonial judicial or moral does any way oblige Christians at all as it comes from Moses who is not our Law-maker or master but ruler and leader of the Jews Nor do we Christians believe that theft adultery homicide or blasphemy is a sin because Moses forbad it but because we have receiv'd from Jesus our own Legislator who justified Moses law and ratified it in all the said particulars that so it is And it is here to be observed that one of the most solemn laws contained in those two tables that I mean which ordains the seventh day to be kept holy day unto which Moses adjoyns an irrefragable and unchangeable reason namely because God rested that day when he made this visible world beginning his work saith Moses on the sunday wherein he created light and the friday following finishing the whole even this law of his most solemn and importunely urged by Moses is annulled and abrogated amongst all Christians even from the beginning of Christianity for want of ratification of it from our Lord and Master Jesus who is our Law-maker and Prince And the same thing do I say of this his present law about figures images and representations of things by sculpture or pencil which was only of temporal concernment to the then present Jews against the danger of idols which then filled the earth and as meer a ceremonial law as the other and equally concerning a ceremony of worship If our own Prelates whom Christ our Lord instituted to oversee his flock should for reasons best known to themselves take from us those little small helps we have by the images of some of our Ancestors Martyrs Apostles Virgins Confessors then would we be without them and yet not think our selves to lose one jot of our Religion for that But we will not forfeit them for any law made by Moses except it be established and ratified by our own law-maker or his Prelates watching over us under our Lord
in them and if they be worshiped as Gods it is Idolatry or else there is no such thing as idolatry upon earth Aaron saith he made the golden calf not to reduce the people unto heathen idolatry but for an embleme of the good Angel who was to go before them Here is another excuse of Aaron his small fault which drove Moses his brother and Prince into a great a passion of wrath as perhaps he ever felt even so prevalent a grief and anger that it dashed in pieces the very rables of the Law he had in his hands though he was by the testimony of holy writ the mildest of men and all this it seems for an embleme And why that embâ—em since they had such an emblem before in the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night which was a more significant emblem of the angel who went before them then any calf of gold could be The holy Prophets testâ—fie of those people and Aaron that in Moses absence this figure was melted and founded by them to be set up in place of the God who had hitherto conducted them wâ—th Moses now as they thought vanished out of Egypt into Arabia and to lead them on the rest of their way as their supream conduct after the manner of Egyptian Deities They made a caâ—f in Horeb and adored the figure they changed their glory into the likeness of a Calf eating nay and forgot their God Psal 125. Now if they forgat their own God and slighted him and cast him from them and changed his glory into a calf and worshiped the very figure then must that sculptil or statue be now accepted for their God The like testimony gives St. Sephen Act. 7. They made saith he a calf in those dayes and offered sacrifice unto the Idol and made themselves merry in the works of their own hands What can this import but that they had now altered their religion renounced their former God and made to themselves a new one after the manner of Egypt It is pitty Mr. Stillingfleet had not been with Aaron his confidence would have pleaded for him a little more handsomly then he did for himself But the excuse perhaps being hypocritical and false would have more offended Moses then his former fault Aaron knew well enough what he had done And although he somewhat minced his fault yet would he not tell a lye I cast a little mettal into the fire saith he to Moses and there came out this calf The Doctor adds two pretty reasons why neither he nor the people could ever think of declining then to any heathen idolatry First because they had no pretence of doing so As though the very absence of Moses whom they had long expected and now thought lost were not pretence enough unto some leading men in the Camp to raise a sedition and thereby force Aaron to make them such idols as they were acquainted with in Egypt It is well enough known that by the contagion of those leading men the Camp was ever and anon in such like tumult and ready disposition to apostacy His second reason is because no intimation is made that they sell into heathen idolatry What intimation is given thereof by the Prophet and St. Stephen he takes it seems for no intimation at all When they fell saith he into heathen idolatry mention is made of their Gods as Baal Peor Moloch Remphan but here Aaron is said to make a feast to the Lord As though there were not Egyptian idols as well as Syrian and Osiris and Isis as well as Moloch and Remphan And a feast made in honour of this their new God and religion might well be said a feast to the Lord. It was a policy in Aaron thus to speak that the common people might not suddainly discern the alteration And we may easily believe that the leading men who brought him by perswasion and force unto this apostacy suggested the said stratagem first to get the people more universally on their side without commotion and then to put something into their mouths for to say to Moses if he should chance to come upon them suddainly and take them beyond expectation in the fact For that it was a meer pretence of policy is evident by this that they gave to Moses no such account of any feast made unto their antient true God and secondly because their principal Leaders had no purpose to make any for they had now forgot and put away their own true God and cast him out of their mind as holy text speaks obliti sunt Dei sui The Calves set up by Jeroboam in Dan and Bethel were only to keep the people from going up to Jerusalem and not to bring them to any idolatry of the heathens Here is another excuse for Jeroboam and his peccadillo Who would not take Mr. Stillingfleet to be a very charitable man who can cover such a multitude of sins and yet is it all no other but a secret prodigious malice against Catholicks who must bear the more and hear the worse for it Jeroboam saith he did not alter the divine worship or give any occasion of idolatry No no. He only kept the people saith he from going up to Jerusalem whither they used once a year to resort And this could be no such great matter since they had the same service the same sacrifice and adoration at home But why then is Jeroboam charged with idolatry in holy Scripture as one that had done evil above all that went before him and made hâ—m other gods and molten images to provoke God to anger and to cast his own God behind his back 1 Reg. 14 O ho thence we conclude saith our Doctor that an image set up for gods honour is idolatry as it is amongst papists And is not this a pretty nimble leiger demaine of a slight man First who taught him that Papists set up images for Gods honour I have learned amongst them that they are set up for our incouragement and imitation and for an honourable memory of their holy Martyrs and Apostles But what hoâ—our can one of those images be to God none at all I think except indirectly because God is the blessed author of all good whence the said Apostles Martyrs received their strength and grace Secondly where does this confident man find that Jeroboam set up his images for Gods honour Even no where at all His own boldness is so strong in him that he sayes what he lists without any ground or occasion at all any where either among sacred writers or prophane Thirdly whence doth he gaâ—her his negative word that Jeroboam acted none of the heathen idolatry nor brought the people to it Even from his own confident brain whence he has the other expresly contrary to the testimony of holy writ which speaks as it were passionatly and very emphatically of his notorious idolatry wherein he did evil above all that were before him wherein he made him other gods and molten