Son of God the making of the Universe as they plainly sound and either wanted such confidence as the Socinians or rather such Grammatical subtlety by which they wrested them to a very different sense The places of Scripture which I mean are such as these All things were made by the Word and without him was not any thing made that was made Christ is the Image of the invisible God the first-born of every Creature For in or by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers All things were created by him and for him And he is before all things and by him all things consist These words together with all other places of a like nature the Socinians do industriously and violently draw to a scope at which they were never aimed It is true that the aim of St. Paul in the place now cited has not been so particularly and critically discerned by some of the most Catholick Commentators But in general all of them well understood that these Expressions The Worlds Things visible and invisible all things that were made things in Heaven and things on Earth were such as no Jews or Christians commonly used in speaking of the founding the Christian Church and making the new world of the Gospel And where it is said That every house is built by some man but he that built all things is God there to interpret it after this fashion of Gods revealing the Christian Oeconomy as they may if they please for the same Key may serve for all such places is an absurd Comment which hath no need of confutation But with them who have denied first the Satisfaction of Christ and for the sake of that error his Divinity and then for the sake of that second error his Praeexistence and Creative power The beginning of the Logos is at the beginning of the Gospel and the Creation of all things is the new Creation in Evangelical truth and righteousness how harshly soever these Interpretations sound to the ears of the Judicious Why go they not on and say that God is called the Creator of Israel and therefore may mean the first words of the Book of Genesis of that people and not of the Material World Why do not they Comment in this manner on the words in the Acts God that made the World and all things therein that is the Gospel with all its appurtenancies seeing that he is Lord of Heaven and Earth that is of the new Evangelical Heaven and Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness dwelleth not in Temples made with hands They err who think the Apostle in that place to the Colossians did in Allegorical manner allude to Moses No he plainly opposeth himself to Gnosticism which was then on foot though put afterwards into many new dresses and to the Simonian Scheme of the world more like to that of Pythagoras than that of Moses though Moses has been thought to Platonize as some speak which to me does not so plainly appear from the words he has left us St. Paul calleth Christ the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Image of God and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first-born of every creature not thereby affirming that Christ was not very God but his first creature of a different substance but opposing him to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Images and the Beginning of the Platonick Simonians He therefore seems to me to speak to this effect You boast of I know not what first-borns and Beginnings which created other things Behold here the true First-born and Beginning who indeed made the World Thus Ignatius opposeth to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Gnosticks the Son of God affirming that there was one God of the Old and New Testament and one Mediator betwixt God and Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the creating and governing of all things and those who believe otherwise he in the following Page condemneth as the Disciples of Simon Magus The Thrones Dominions Principalities Powers mentioned in the next Verse are in like manner opposed to the Principles or Angels which those Hereticks fancied to be subordinate Creators and Governours of the visible World Epiphanius in his Twenty-third Heresie of the Saturnilians declareth their odd opinion concerning one Unknown Father and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Virtues Principalities and Powers made by him and of the inferior creatures made by them And in his Twenty-sixth Heresie of the Gnosticks he setteth down the order of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Heavenly Principalities How little now do these names differ from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dominions the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Principalities the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Powers of St. Paul the Apostle And that Apostle doth no more assert in this place the creation of such Orders than he doth the making of the Gnostick AEons in the first Chapter to the Hebrews where he affirmeth of Christ that he made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In such places he said in effect that the Logos was the true Principle which they mistook in their notion and miscalled by other names though they were in a kind of pursuit of him but in the dark and in false ways That it was he that made the World visible and intellectual by what names soever they called it or into what Classes soever they had disposed it and that this was not the effect of any such powers as they dreamed of they having no existence but in the shadows of their own imagination In the following Chapter he opposeth the Principles of Christian Religion to the Elements of their Philosophy And in the next Verse he opposeth to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Simonians the fulness of the Deity which dwelt in Christ. And after that he twice mentioneth his Headship over all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Principalities and Powers And thence he most aptly proceedeth to the condemnation of the worship of Angels For of them the Gnosticks made egregious Idols I am the more confirmed in this Discourse upon St. Paul's words by those of Irenaeus God said he in his refutation of the Gnostick Heresie did make all things both visible and invisible sensible and intelligible not by Angels or other Virtues But by his Word and Spirit This God is neither Beginning nor Virtue nor Fulness That is as I suppose it was read in the Greek Copy which the Learned world much wanteth neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no Gnostick Principle but true and very God Neither am I concerned at the Objection of those who ascribe these Terms to Valentinus for 't is plain he was not the Inventer It appeareth by the studiousness of Socinus in order
to the eluding of the force of such places that he believed an acknowledgment of Christ as Creator was in effect a confession of his Godhead This then being by Arius granted and by Socinus denied that Christ created the Natural World it is that single point in which Arius apart from Socinus is chargeable with Idolatry And certainly he is not accused upon slight and idle suspicion if the charge be drawn up against him either from Scripture or Reason In the Scripture God himself doth prove himself to the World to be the true one God by his making of all things In what other sense will any man whose prejudice does not bend him a contrary way interpret the following places Who hath measured out the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out the Heavens with a span and comprehended the dust of the Earth in a measure and weighed the Mountains in scales and the Hills in a ballance Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord or being his counseller hath taught Him Thus saith the God the Lord he that created the Heavens and stretched them out He that spread forth the Earth and that which cometh out of it He that giveth breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein I am the Lord that is my name and my Glory I will not give to another Thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob and formed thee O Israel Fear not Before me there was no God formed neither shall there be after me The Lord is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King or the King of Eternity Thus shall ye say unto them the Nations The gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens He hath made the Earth by his Power he hath established the World by his Wisdom and hath stretched out the Heavens by his Discretion Thus speaketh the Scripture In the next place let it be considered whether Reason can dissent from it What notion will Reason give us of the true God if it supposeth such wisdom and power in a creature as can make the World For does not Reason thence collect her Idea of God conceiving of him as of the mighty and wise framer of the Universe thus the very Americans themselves I mean the Peruvians did call their supreme God by the name of Pachaia Chacic which signifies as they tell us the Creator of Heaven and Earth In this then Arius is particularly to be condemned in that he supposeth the Creator a Creature and yet professeth to worship him under the notion of the Maker of all things It is true that Arius gave not to Christ the very same honour he did to the Father And his Disciples in their Doxologies were wont in cunning manner to give Glory to the Father by the Son And such a Form Eusebius himself used and we find it at the end of one of his Books against Sabellius Glory be to the one unbegotten God by the one only begotten God the Son of God in one holy Spirit both now and always and through all Ages of Ages Amen Neither do the Arians give any glory to Christ but that which they pretend to think enjoined by God the Father But if Christ had been a Creature the Creator would not by any stamp of his Authority have raised him to the value of a natural God and such a God they honour whatsoever the terms be with which they darken their sense for he is honoured by them as Creator and Governour and dispenser of Grace PART 3. Of the Idolatry of the Socinians THe point in which Socinus offendeth by himself is the Worship he giveth Christ whilst he maketh him but a man and such a man as is but a machine of animated and thinking Matter for though he declineth not the word soul or spirit I cannot find at the bottom of his Hypothesis any distinct substance of a Soul in Christ. If that Principle had been believed by him why doth he suppose the Lord Jesus bereaved of all Perception as long as his Body remained lifeless in the Grave Why do his Followers maintain that the dead do no otherwise live to God than as there is in him a firm purpose of their Resurrection for so the Vindicator of the Confession of the Churches of Poland written by Shlichtingius is pleased to discourse We believe said he not only that the Soul of Christ supervived his Body but also that the Souls of other men do the like But if Cichovius thinketh that the dead do otherwise live to God than as it is always in the hand and power of God to raise them up and restore them to life let him go and confute Christ where he saith I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Now Reason the great Diana of Socinus though he often took a cloud of fancy for his Goddess can't but judg it a disparagement to the Idea of a God to suppose such Divinity as can govern the World and hear and act in all places at once as Christ is by Socinus confessed to do in a portion of living Matter not six-foot square reserved in the Heavens and perceiving by the help of motion on its organs Arius advanced the Idea of Divinity to a much higher and more becoming pitch for he overcome with the plain evidence of Scripture maintained the Praeexistence of the Logos and supposed him to be a distinct substance from Matter And he might consequently affirm with consistence to his Principles that Christ could know without the mere help of motion and be spread in his substance to an amplitude equal with that of the Material World For the Material World is but a Creature one Body of many Creatures and it implieth no contradiction to say of God that he can make one Creature as big as the collection of all the rest But notwithstanding such amplitude there would still be wanting infinite Wisdom For in the Idea of God we have no other notion of it than as of such a Wisdom as sufficeth to frame the World and to govern it after it hath been framed Now this latter Point is that in which both Arius and Socinus are together condemned whilst both worship Christ as one who under God disposeth and governeth all things It is true that he is such but such he had not been if he had not been consubstantial with the Father In that sense he is the Father's Wisdom and whilst Arius and Socinus adore him as Gods Wisdom yet not as God they ascribe to the Creature the Attribute by which the Creator is known For the Scriptures they in opposition to all other gods do as well ascribe the Government as the Creation of the World to that one God of Israel Hear them speaking in this matter with so
Analogy I mean such Objects as bear some Metaphorical proportion to some excellencies of God though they be not the proper Images Statues or Pictures of them Such an Image was that of Jupiters remembred by Vignola in his Discourse of the five Orders in Building He mentioneth there a Capital in which were the Images of four Eagles instead of Stalks and instead of Fruits and Flowers four Jupiters faces with Thunderbolts under them A Representation this may be judged of the power piercing eye quick execution of will in their own Jove in the four Quarters of the World Such an Analogical Image of the true God do some Papists esteem the Statue or Picture of an aged man whose years and experience are apt to signifie the Eternity and Wisdom of God and that of a Dove to signifie his purity and simplicity in a manner suitable to our conception In both these Instances I think they are mistaken Daniel as shall be shewed in the last Chapter did not mean the Godhead or the Father by the Ancient of Days Neither ought his transient Vision which had something humane mixt with it be made a standing-pattern in Religion Such Visions being impressed on the fancy could not be there represented without some earthly Imagery which the enlightned reason of the Prophet could separate from the Diviner part which is the thing principally intended Now to bring the whole scene with its glory and its imperfection before the eyes of the people in Gods standing-worship is to confound in their Imaginations things sacred and secular and to adulterate their Devotion Then for the Image of a Dove the Text in the Gospels proveth no more than that the Spirit imitated the gentle hovering of that Bird And the learned think it did so in the appearance of a bright cloud hovering with gentle motion over the waters and the Person of our Lord baptized in them It is plain by the words of St. Austine that he thought it Idolatrous to contemplate God in our mind according to the extent of those expressions which we use in speaking of him And the like certainly he judged of contemplating God according to Dreams and Visions which are partly humane and partly divine Thus then that great Light of Africa discourseth We believe that Christ sitteth at the right hand of the Father Yet thence are we not to think that the Father is circumscribed with humane form so as to occur to our mind contemplating of him as one that has a right and a left hand or as one sitting with bended knees left we fall into that sacriledg for which the Apostle condemneth those who turned the glory of the Incorruptible God into the similitude of corruptible man Such a Statue is not without impiety erected to God in a Christian Temple much more in the heart where the Temple of God is truly situate if it be purged from earthly concupiscence and error St. Austin then as Spalatensis reflecteth on these words would have advised that the Visions of Daniel and other of that nature produced by Bellarmine should be contemplated with the mind and not be pictured especially in Churches that they should be resolved into their true signification and not impressed upon the brain lest through the Picture of an Old man or Dove the defects of Age wings and bill possess the imagination There is danger in using any Images of Animals as Statues or Pictures of God for they will be made not Images only of Analogy but of representation by the ignorant whilst shape and life are personally set forth But there is not so great danger in the Images of things without life especially if they be flat Pictures not Protuberant Statues nor Pictures which the Artist hath expressed with roundness The worse and the more flat the work is the less danger there is of its abuse Titian hath painted the Virgin and the Child Jesus so very roundly that as Sir Henry Wotton a very good judg both of the pictures and dispositions of men saith of it a man knows not whether to call it a piece of Sculpture of Picture In some kinds of Pictures if there be found analogy and that analogy be discreetly expressed as by the name Jehovah or according to the Jewish modesty Adonai incircled with clouds and rays of glorious Light I know no sin in the making of it or contemplating in it in a Metaphorical way some of the Perfections of the infinite God in such manner expressed A devout man would not put a Paper with such an impression to vile uses He would think it fitter for his Closet than for his Chamber of Grimaces though he would not think it the representation of God or give it Divine honour by inward estimation or outward signs By Images of memory I mean such Objects as contain in them no analogy to the Divine Perfections nor any pretended representation of them but yet are apt to put us in mind of God being erected as Pillars or Monuments in places where he has done some great and excellent work Such was the Pillar of Jacob and in the making of such there is no unlawfulness nor in exhibiting before them such signs of honour as are proper to be shewed before a monument of Divine Wisdom Power or Goodness unless in times and places where other such Statues are erected to false gods and the erection and honour of them is by common construction the mark of their Worshippers Such Images of memory are often exhibited by God himself Such was the pillar of Salt into which the body of Lots Wife was converted a pillar of Remembrance of Gods justice and of admonition to them who look back towards the pollutions which they have escaped Such was the adust earth which Solinus speaks of in those places where the inhabitants of Sodom were destroyed by Sulphureous flames from Heaven though it was no pillar yet was it a monument of Divine power and severity towards their unnatural lusts And he that carves engraves or paints these holy Histories may be an useful Artist By Images of Representation I mean Statues or Pictures made by art with intent to exhibit the likeness of the person The making and worshipping such Images of him God himself condemneth appealing to the world whether there be any thing in nature to which he can be resembled Such a Representation is undue though made according to the best pattern in the visible world and much more if it be made in viler and as the Heathen were wont to do in the Images of Priapus and Attis in immoral figures And the Worshipper who gives to it veneration as to an Image of God does highly dishonour him by changing his essential glory into such similitudes And it is not so ignominious for Caesar to be painted in the similitude of an Ass or of the worst Monster in the Sculptures of Licetus as for God to be represented in the pretended likeness of his Deity by
at his feet as before a God This Jesus was the Ark of the new Covenant and of the Testimony of God the witness of God faithful and true as he is stiled in the Revelation of Saint John Jesus was in effect the whole house of Gods especial presence the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the name which Philo gives the Tabernacle or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or it may be if it were rightly printed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus calleth the Zodiack or the Sun moving in it the portable the walking Temple who like the rolling Sun which dispenseth his influence far and near went about doing good having no resting-place for his Head till he was fixed on Mount Sion above This is the Ark of God exalted first on the Cross and then to Heaven Whence God commandeth his blessing sending him by his Spirit and Gospel to bless and to turn all of us from our iniquity This Ark is the true Mercy-seat the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Propitiatory as he is called in the Epistle to the Romans and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. John calleth him that is the Propitiation for our sins St. Hierom Commenting on those words in the Version of Ezekiel in the 43d Chapter and 14th verse from the lesser settle to the greater settle and observing them to be rendred on this wise by the Seventy Interpreters From the lesser to the greater Propitiatory He applys the lesser Propitiatory to Christ in the form of a servant and the greater to Christ glorified in the Heavens Here is then both the Aaron and Aharon the true Ark and Priest of the most high God This Ark or rather this entire Temple of God like the Tabernacle in Shiloh seemed for a time forsaken possessed by the great Philistin for what is stronger than death and laid in the dust but God raised it up after three days in greater glory and so as that it is never to fall again This Ark was after a few days taken up into the true Sanctuary of God where it remaineth till the restitution of all things and whither our eyes and hearts are to direct themselves in all Religious worship From that Sanctuary he appear'd in a glorious light to his first Martyr St. Steven when well awake and whilst he directed his countenance towards Heaven whither his spirit was ready to take its way He being full of the Holy Ghost or divine energy looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God Thence also he appeared to Saul in a light so vehement that for a time it took away the use of his eyes Thence he sent the Holy Ghost at Pentecost become now as it were the Substitute and Shechinah of the Glorified Jesus This hovered as a glorious flame over the heads of the Apostles declaring them thereby the Representatives of Christ on earth Under this notion Christ is worshipped by true and intelligent Christians This was the meaning of the Fathers in the Council of Constantinople who denounced Anathema against those who professed not that Christ ascended was Intellectual flesh neither properly flesh nor yet Incorporeal but visible to them who have pierc'd him without grossness of flesh They believ'd it a great point of Christianity that Jesus God-man sate in the Heavens in illustrious visible glory And this St. John saw in a Vision in which the Logos the God Omnipotent the King of Kings and Lord of Lords or Lamb God-man appeared on his Throne Crowned and with eyes like flames of fire To this effect is a saying of Eusebius cited by Bishop Andrews on the second Command I suppose he meaneth Eusebius Dorylaeus for he referreth to the second Ephesine Synod though I have not met with it in the Acts of that Council Eusebius it seems telleth Constantia That she must not any longer desire an Image of Christ as he is infirm man For now said he his Glory is much greater than it appeared on the Mount which if his Apostles were then dazled with how can it now be expressed This visible Glory of Christ the Ancients supposed situate in the Eastern part of the Heavens and it occasion'd as I think their directing of their worship towards the East The Gentiles who worshipped the Sun differed much from this external direction of their Faces For they respected especially the East-point by reason of the Sun-rising thence And often at other parts of the day they altered their posture They sometimes vall'd themselves saith Plutarch and turned themselves about with respect to the Heavenly motions And Trismegistus in Asclepio relates that it was a custom of some of the Gentile-Devotionists at mid-day to look towards the South and at Sun-set to look towards the West It was at the rising of the Sun when Lucian was turned towards it by Mithrobarzanes the Chaldaean Priest who mumbled his Prayers in a low and indistinct tone at the rising of that false God They respected not always the Eastern Angle though they had especial regard to it when the Sun appeared in it They respected also the South and West-points in their worship Hence Harpocrates a child represented amongst them the Sun in its rising Orus a young man the Sun in its Meridian Osiris an old man the Sun-setting This was also the way of the Manichees who supposed the Sun to be the Tabernacle of Christ. Of them St. Austin saith that their Prayers rolled about with the Sun But the Ancients thought the Shechinah of Christ more fixed and therefore did not in such manner alter their Quarter And that Quarter they esteemed proper to the Shechinah having read of the Messiah in the Old Testament under the name of the East and following the Translation of the Seventy which thus readeth Psalm 68. 33. Sing unto God who ascendeth above the Heaven of Heavens on the East They also esteemed Jerusalem the middle of the Earth and the parts which lay Easterly from thence they called the East and amongst them Eden about Mesopotamia And they had a Tradition that Christ was Crucified with his face towards the West but that he ascended with his face towards the East and went up to a place in the Heavenly Paradise standing as it were over that of the Earthly But whatsoever men may conceive of the space possessed by Christs meer body they ought not to think of his Shechinah as of a confined light in some one Quarter of the Heavens but as a glorious luster filling all Heavens and shining towards this Earth as a Circumference of Glory on a single point They ought to lose their imaginations in an Abyss of Light One saith and not amiss upon this subject That as Earth heightned unto a flame changeth not its place only but form and figure so the person of our Saviour was raised to a greatness a
Cham esteeming the difference of their Dialects and the distraction of their opinions concerning God to have commenced together For the critical minute it is uncertain yet for the first objects of Idolatry we may assent to him and them he makes to be the Sun and the other heavenly bodies But the Sun in the first place That was the most glorious object which ravished the eye and it shewed it self no-where more gloriously than in the plains of Chaldea In those plains the Tower of Babel was built and as my private imagination leadeth me to think consecrated by the builders to the Sun as to the most probable Cause of drying up mighty Waters This Tower is thought to have beenbuilt inPyramidal form according to theScheme which we have of it in the frontispiece of Verstegan And this form was not improper though much unlike the figure of its Globe because it expressed its fiery nature the fire ascending in a conical shape The Ancients saith Porphyry cited by Eusebius did set forth the nature of Fire by Pyramids and Obelisks and dedicated Statues of divers figures to the Olympick gods as a Cone to the Sun and a Cylinder to the Earth But all will not allow this kind of reasoning to have place here such Philosophical considerations being thought by them matters much later than the times of Babel But for the building of Towers or Pyramids as Altaria or high Altars to the Sun and other heavenly bodies the practice is ancient and very general The Sun was not meerly a god of the Hills yet the Heathen thought it suitable to his advanced station to ascend them and to worship him upon ascents either natural or as was necessary in such flat Countries artificial that they might come as nigh as they could to the Deity they worshipped Accordingly Abenephius the Arabian in Kircher testifieth that the Pyramids of Egypt were called by their Priests the Altars of the Gods and that they wrote on them Theological Mysteries The same Kircher noteth that the Coptites called them the Pillars and Altars of Deities That Bama is said by Vatallus to signifie properly a very high place for sacrifice that such a one is mentioned by Virgil as sacred to Juno And that Lucan speaketh of Pyramids as the Egyptian Priests and Coptites had done The Pyramids of Egypt were raised upon certain square Platforms set one upon the other and gradually lessening until they ended in one least and blunt square of Stone Monsieur Vattier the Arabick Professor of the French King believed those blunt-tops to have been as Pedestals for some Colosses or Obelisks They might be sometimes put to that use though not at first designed for it For Caligula was pleased to set his Head on the shoulders of the Statues of the Grecian gods yet those Statues were not made to serve as such Supporters That Learned Professor might possibly have made a truer conjecture from a short passage in the Arabian Murtadi whose Book he translated For Murtadi speaks of the Maritine Pyramid as of a Temple of the Stars on which were placed the figures of Sun and Moon Such a Tower was that as I suppose which the Tausi of China built of a sudden in the Piazza of Pekin They built it in Pyramidal form with Tables upon Tables till it ended in one supreme Table And on that they prayed for Rain which the Sun the Original Jupiter Pluvins doth as a natural cause both send and remove The Corinthian Tower once belonged to Sol And it is very probable that the Sun was of old worshipped on a very high Mountain in Crete The Hill in the time of Peter Martyr of Angleria was called by the name of the Hill of Jove though the Cretians were then great strangers to their ancient Demonology A late Traveller hath informed us of a Pyramidal Tower in Mexico on the top of which the Heathen Priests worshipped towards the Sun an American Deity I should have thought that he had meant the same with Cortesius and that which he called the Fane of the Idâ—… Horcolivo's But they differ much in their measuâ—… And the ascent of the former is said to be by 114 steps the latter by no less than an Hundred and thirty Among the Apalachites of Florida the Priests of the Sun called by the remarkable name of Jaovas worshipped their Idol on the top of a very high round steep and rocky Hill a full league in its winding Ascent The builders of the Hill or Tower of Babel surely designed that much higher yet so high that it might hide its head in the Clouds and would it may be have put it had it been finished to the like Idolatrous use It is reasonable for me here to expect an objection from the Scripture which seemeth to impute the building of the Tower of Babel to another end Come say the builders in the Eleventh of Genesis let us make us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth To this objection two things may be replied First the end expressed is not exclusive of that which I supposed and it is not a wonder if vain men to encourage one another how many ends soever they had did propound that of their pomp and glory Secondly these builders designed a City and not only a Tower which was but the Appendix to it though such a necessary one as an Altar is to a Temple And their design of getting them a Name might rather refer to the City than distinctly to the Tower They intended to build a place of fixed Residence which might be as it were the Head and Center and Metropolis of all Towns whenever their Families should so encrease as to need further room for habitation They were resolved against the incommodities of a wandring life and they purposed to unite themselves into a more orderly body and to become a Corporation instead of a multitude And this was the way to get them a Name to be the first City of the World and to be owned as the Mother-Place of all Nations But I am not so fond of this private fancy as to contend further about the Legitimacy of it In this I am more assured that the Lights of Heaven which in the clear firmament of those Countries appeared so often and in such lustre whilest the Sun by day shone gloriously and the Moon and Stars shewed beautifully in the night to them who lay either on the ground or on flat Roofs and found no evil influence from them and which obtained afterwards the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their continual motion were the first Idols of the World Amongst these the Sun excelling he was made the principal Idol and was nowhere more in honour than at Babylon Accordingly we read so soon of Bell the Babylonian and Baal the Phenician and Hebrew Name in the Theology of the Gentiles This Idol was originally and
Power after the supreme God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the genuine or only Son of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Intellectual Word And yet he says of the same Power which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eternal and imperceptible Mind that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unbegotten and Parent to it self He likewise calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mind subsisting by it self And St. Cyril who citeth Plato out of Porphyry and is willing to make the Platonick Triad the same in effect with the Christian Trinity confesseth the third Principle which should answer to the Holy Ghost to be no other than the Soul of the World which all Platonists understand to be a distinct substance from the first Cause Nay Porphyry himself in the place which St. Cyril would serve his purpose on calleth Plato's three Principles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not three Hypostases but three Gods Of his other Idea's I have little to say I mean of those properly so called before the formation of the World Parmenides is a Book either so muddy or so profoundly deep that I cannot see to the bottom of it Therein he discourseth of these matters with infinite subtlety or rather perplexity of notion One would imagin a man of his wit not so absurd as to think them eternal Substances and models quite separated from the mind of God but rather divine thoughts concerning the fashion of the World which he decreed to make Yet Ammonius the Scholar of Proclus ascribeth to him that opinion and followeth him in it though herein Aristotle deserted his Master and not without reason And he sure knew his meaning and had a Key to his Mysteries Other Idea's there were which Plato owned and they were such as are more intelligible and more proper for me to speak of in this Argument they being Angels or Daemons The uncertain Greek Author of the Life of Pythagoras joined to that of Porphyry discoursing of the World as consisting of twelve distinct Orbs placeth in the first Sphere God Almighty After Him he rangeth the Inferior Deities which from Plato he calleth Idea's and from Aristotle Intellectual Gods He means the Intelligences of that Philosopher though he made them to be but seven according to the number of the Planets which he set them to move Of Plato Tertullian saith That he held certain invisible incorporeal supermundial divine eternal substances to which he gave the name of Idea's as the causes of visible things For his Archetypal Idea it is manifest to the Reader of his Works and particularly of his Timaeus that he supposed him to be a Being as subsistent by it self as Matter and distinct from the supreme Divinity He speaks of it as a Thing Being or Person not as a meer pattern of Things and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Platform is held by him to be but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Image of his principal Idea The next Power to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God the pure and unmixed Good was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Intellect or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Existence compounded of Intellect and Unity and distinct in substance from the first Cause according to Plato though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the first according to Anaxagoras called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself for this his Dogma whom Plato outshot by one Principle The third Platonick Power was distinct from both the former and it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Soul of the World Nous Psyche Logos and the like Mystical terms were but the names of certain eminent Demons placed by his Fancy at the right hand of God and used in the works of Creation and Providence as Authorative Agents and not as meer Instruments of the first Cause They were therefore set up and reverenced with prejudice to the honour of the true God who is the only Creator and Preserver of all things By Creation the Platonists meant only the disposal of the Chaos into order for their Philosophy supposed Matter to have been as Coeternal with God as Light is coeval with the Sun By Plato God is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Maker and Father of All that is But he means not this of Him as of the immediate Cause but as the Cause of the higher Principles Causes or Powers which with subordination to him produced in order such as are inferior to themselves Sallust the Platonist openly confesseth it and out of him I will transcribe the sense of part of a Chapter concerning the modelling and governing of the visible World by the power of Demons He had in his first Chapter concerning the Gods and the World discoursed about God or the first Cause of all things A while after in his sixth Chapter which according to its Title treateth of the Cosmical and Encosmical or of the Celestial and Worldly Gods he thus pursueth his Divine Subject Of the Gods some are Worldly and others Heavenly I call those Worldly who make the World For the Heavenly some of them make the substances of the gods or Inferior Demons some the Mind some the Souls Wherefore of these there are three Orders and they may easily be found in the discourses which are made of them For the Worldly gods some make the World or visible frame of things some animate it some adjust the parts of it and some govern or preserve it so composed Here then being four things and each of them consisting of first middle and extreme it is necessary that they who dispose them be twelve in number They therefore that make thâ—… World are Jupiter Neptune and Vulcan They who animate it are Juno Ceres Diana They who adjust the parts of it are Apollo Venus and Mercury They who preserve it are Vesta Pallas and Mars These first possessing the World before others That is the Pagan Heroes we may imagin the others in them To wit Bacchus in Jupiter AEsculapius in Apollo the Graces in Venus We may also contemplate their several Spheres The Earth the Orb of Vesta the Water that of Neptune the Air that of Juno the Fire that of Vulcan Plato himself as he is cited by St. Cyril supposeth God to have quitted as it were the care of things on Earth and to have committed it to the Inferior gods for their diversion It is true that in four places Plato asserteth a divine Providence taking care of the things on Earth even of the least things and doing it with ease and being no way prevented by sloth He doth this in his Tenth Book of Laws in his Politicus in his Epinomis and in his Phaedo But where he asserteth this he speaketh it as much of the gods as of God And in his Phaedo after Cebes had affirmed in the singular of God that he consulted better for man than man could for himself and was an excellent
Seventy to his worship and they sacrificed to Idols and profaned the Sabbath But some chose rather to sacrifice their own lives than to offer to Idols The Samaritans of all others were under this Tyrant the most disloyal to God they send Letters of flattery to this impious Monster of which Josephus in the Twelfth Book and seventh Chapter of his Antiquities hath given us a Copy They inscribe them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Antiochus the illustrious God They feign themselves to be the off-spring of the Sidonians and Persians that they may not be taken for Jews whom he hated They consecrate a Temple on Mount Gerazim to the Jupiter of Grece and by such vile arts they insinuate themselves into the favour of Antiochus who commandeth that they be esteemed and used as Grecians And yet a while after under Ptolomaeus Philometor they abhor Idols and contend with the Jews themselves about the sanctity of their Temple which they preferred before that of Jerusalem it self The Jews by this means and by former commerce with Grecians in divers of their Cities and Colonies and particularly in their own Jerusalem which Alexander himself is said to have visited and in Alexandria where the Ptolomies had advanced the Worship of Grece and in which Philo in his time numbered exceeding many Jews became leavened with the Grecian Demonology This Thales learnt in Egypt and he enlarged and propagated it in the Regions of Grece I cannot accuse the Jews of erecting Statues or of offering solemn Prayers or Sacrifices to them Yet all who mark that Translation of the Seventy which is commonly in mens hands may charge at least the Hellenistick Jews with a false and dangerous estimation of Daemons with an estimation of them as Presidents and Tutelar Spirits who under God did govern the World He that runs may read thus much in their Version of the eighth verse of the thirty-second of Deuteronomy When the most High divided the Nations when he separated the sons of Adam he set the bounds of the People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the number not of the Children of Israel as the Hebrew Copy readeth it but according to the number of the Angels of God who they say were seventy and whom they call the Sanedrim above Such Angels many Jews imagined to have their Thrones in several Stars whilst their footstools or inferior places of Government were in several parts of the Earth Hence Aben Ezra saith that it appeared by Experiments he meaneth sure miraculous effects succeeding the worship of Patrons of Places that every Nation and every City hath its particular Planet to which it is subject But he excepteth the people of Israel who being subject only to the Government of God had it seems no Planet for their Superintendent Also with allusion to the Government of the Nations by Angels in Stars and Constellations and not by immediate Providence the Jews in their Liturgy give to God the name of the King of the Kings of Kings that is the King of those Angelical Powers who rule over the Potentates on Earth This belief of the Hellenists containeth in it a twofold error That of the Lieutenancy of Angels and that of the Innocency of those Spirits which Christianity calleth Daemons in the most infamous signification of that name This double error is found in one passage of Josephus who recordeth it as one of the Precepts of Moses of Thales he might have said more truly That one Citizen ought not to blaspheme those Heavenly Powers which other Cities have in esteem as Gods The Jews after the coming of the Messiah had besides the motives of their Religion Political Reasons against Images or Idols For they have been forced by a just vengeance pursuing such bloody murtherers to live dispersedly under both Christian and Mahometan Power And in Dominions of both kinds the Worship of Graven Idols besides that their zeal against them and for their Sabbath was instrumental as the charracter of a Party to keep them still in some sort of body would have much obstructed their Toleration The Mahometans would have been from the other extreme averse to them their Law forbidding all Statues and graven or painted Images In pursuance of this Law their zeal defaced the Grecian and Roman Coins which had upon them the Image of their Emperours It did so formerly but since that time it is so much cool'd that they do not believe the Coin profaned by the Superscription Nay they prefer the Venetian Ducats which have Images upon them before their own Sultanies which have none but are stamped according to the will of their Prophet But so it is often seen that the principle of Avarice becomes much stronger than that of false Religion In the days of Julian the Jews were noted amongst the Gentiles as the Worshippers of one God and whatsoever their opinion was concerning Angels they were not observed for any external worship with which they honoured them That Apostate maketh this difference betwixt the Jews and the Gentiles of his Age that the Gentiles worshipped many Gods or Daemons but the Jews one God only And those unbelievers pretend at this day to the strictest observance of the second Command It may be here taken a little notice of how the Jews have been often accused by the Gentiles and amongst them by Juvenal Petronius and Strabo as Worshippers of the Clouds If this reproach had been cast upon that Religion whilst the Ark remained in the most holy place I should have thought it occasioned by that miraculous Cloud which shadowed the Mercy-seat and towards which the high-Priest did make his obeisance But the scandal cannot be traced so far as my knowledg leads me beyond the days of Augustus Mr. Selden once guessed that this reproach might arise from a mistake of the Idiom of the Jews who called the Majesty of God Heaven This Idiom Christ useth whilst he demandeth concerning the Baptism of John Whether it was of Heaven or of Men of Divine or Humane Authority Afterwards he was induced to think that the Slanderers of the Jews mistook them for the Gnosticks who made so much noise about their Heavens and AEons At last he rejected the accusation with scorn and placed it amongst such groundless and extravagant forgeries as that of their worshipping an Ass with which malicious ignorance had traduced them But it is not my purpose to write an entire History of the Jewish Worship or to tell how often they served one God and how often they worshipped many I will only insist on one Instance That Peccatum Maximum as the Vulgar Latine calls it their greatest sin to wit their Idolatry committed with the Golden Calf It is an instance which themselves take especial notice of thinking that in every Judgment sent to them by God there is as they speak an ounce of that Idol and it is a subject which hath occasioned a Controversie
matter I find a very pertinent place in St. Cyril and I will here insert it In the 124 Olympiad Ptolomeus Philadelphus ruling in Egypt they report of Serapis that he was translated from Sinope to Alexandria that he was the same with Pluto that they built a Shrine to his Image called by the Egyptians in their native tongue Racotis by which word they meant nothing but Pluto and that they erected a Temple nigh to these Monuments But here the Greeks are at odds some thinking him to be Osiris rather than Pluto and others Apis. A mighty feud arising from hence they composed the difference by giving to the Statue the name of Osirapis both parties having a share in the name In process of time Osi was disused in pronunciation and Sarapis became the common name Thus were Egyptian and Grecian matters then confounded as the Roman were afterwards of which we have a fit embleme in those ancient Coins one side of which exhibited the Head of Augustus and M. Agrippa the other a Crocodile It is then no wonder if those who have written in succeeding times have not well distinguished betwixt the Egyptian Apis and the Alexandrian Serapis whilst they found their Rites and Titles so interwoven It is plain from the Epistle of Julian to the Citizens of Alexandria That he mistook both Deities for one For he speaks to the Alexandrians as to men whom he supposed to be originally Grecians And he magnifieth their great God Serapis and ascribeth to him the Gift of his Empire And this I imagin to be the reason why Serapis or Pluto above all the other gods of Grece was set up in Egypt For the Empire of it was the thing principally valued by Alexander and Pluto being the god of this World in their opinion and the deity that extended the Macedonian Power to Egypt did therefore obtain the principal Return of the Gratitude of the Conquerour Pluto I say or Serapis was by Heathen estimation the god of this World not the Prince of all Daemons but the Prince of Terrestrial spirits inhabiting the Earth and the gross Atmosphere that belongs to it He was the Beelzebub the god of durt or earth the ruler of the Terrene Daemons as they called them and of Subcoelestial places They who will not assent to this conjecture may consult Porphyry who maketh Serapis and Pluto the same Deity confineth not his Power to the Earth but extendeth it to the air about it whieh it seems was vehemently beaten by his order for the driving away of Daemons and the introduction of his presence and setteth him over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evil spirits or Daemons who with gross Vehicles were hovering about the Earth PART 6. Of the Egyptian Apis Whether he were Moses WHO the Grecian Apis or Serapis was I will no further inquire But concerning the Apis of Egypt I will for once personate an Adventurer in Philology and see if any new discovery may be made or rather be guessed at For in these Arguments he that looks for Demonstration is in the ready way of having his hopes deluded Men here judg by Verisimilitude and they judg persons in story to be the same by a few likenesses such as those of name and place and they seldom consider the many particulars in which they differ but attend to those few in which they agree He that hath but one mark is sometimes taken for the person by the Philological Huy and Cry And 't is a wonder that some Smatterer or other who has read of the Idol Semis in a Promontory nigh Lapland has not thence found out Sem and his Off-spring in the North. I shall not argue here from the mere likeness of Names for I am about to find out Moses in Apis. The Learned and diligent Gerard Vossius believed Joseph to be Apis and before him Abenezra Joseph said he spake to Pharaoh on this manner Set me over the Treasure of Egypt for I will be a faithful Steward And the King made him keeper of all the Repositories of the Land and Joseph became in some sort a King over all the Country and they called him Apis. I know not whence he had this Tale yet fure I am that it maketh not much for the honour of Joseph's modesty But it is not here my purpose to refute the conceits of other men it will be well if I can any way establish my own and shew with probability that Moses is Apis. We have heard already from Eusebius that Apis miscalled Epaphus was Contemporary with Chencres and that Chencres was the Pharaoh that pursued Moses And we may further observe what is affirmed by Polemo in his first Book of the Grecian Story That in the time of Apis a part of the Egyptian Forces made defection and going forth seated themselves in Palestine called Syria in the Neighbourhood of Arabia Now it may seem probable that Moses was this Apis and not Apis the Son of Phoroneus as Polemo believed if these three things be jointly considered First That Moses was the ancient Egyptian or Arabian Bacchus Secondly That Bacchus was the Egyptian Osiris Thirdly That the ancient Egyptian Bacchus and Osiris was no other than Apis. For the first it may be argued with shew of probability that Moses and Bacchus are the same persons under differing names from the parallel circumstances of their Story I speak still of the first Egyptian Bacchus for concerning the Grecian Dionysius or rather Dionysus it is prov'd by Clemens of Alexandria that he was not put into the Calendar of the gods till six hundred and four years after the times of Moses Now the Parallel betwixt Moses and Bacchus was drawn long ago by our Learned Countryman Mr. Hugh Sanford and after him by Gerard Vossius and after both by the Lord Herbert of Cherbury Orpheus in his Hymn of Bacchus celebrateth the Honour of Mises whom he calleth Dionysius He comes we see within a point as it were of the name of Moses Pausanias mentions an ancient Tradition concerning Bacchus plucked in his Infancy out of the waters So Moses we know escaped miraculously in his Ark of Rushes Bacchus is by the Poets called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of a double Mother As such a one the holy History representeth Moses to whom the second Mother was the daughter of Pharaoh Plutarch reporteth it from the Egyptians that Isis was the Mother of Bacchus or as Lactantius will have it of Osiris Also that Isis being dejected with sorrow and drowned in tears was carried to the Queen by some of her maid-servants and kindly received and made Nurse to her Infant-son whose name was Palestinus And the story of Plutarch in his Isis and Osiris is the History in the Bible concerning Moses and his natural Mother and the daughter of Pharaoh in such little disguise that the dullest eye a man would think might look thorough it Nothing is more
loud and plain a voice that he who is dull of hearing cannot mistake them unless he by obstinacy make himself deafer still and will not distinctly hear them In them we find this Prayer made by the pious King Hezekiah when he was distressed by Sennacherib O Lord of Hosts God of Israel that dwellest between the Cherubims Thou art the God even thou alone of all the Kingdoms of the Earth Thou hast made Heaven and Earth Incline thine ear O Lord and hear open thine eyes O Lord and see and hear all the words of Sennacherib who hath sent to reproach the living God Of a truth Lord the Kings of Assyria have laid wast all the Nations and their Countries and have cast their Gods into the fire for they were no gods but the work of mens hands wood and stone therefore they have destroyed them Now therefore O Lord our God save us from his hand that all the Kingdoms of the Earth may know that thou art the Lord even thou only Other places there are to the same purpose and amongst them these Let them the Nations or Gentiles give glory unto the Lord and declare his praise in the Islands The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man He shall prevail against his enemies I have declared and I have saved and I have shewed when there was no strange god among you therefore ye are my witnesses saith the Lord that I am God Yea before the day I was he I will work and who shall let it Thus saith the Lord the Redeemer I am the Lord your holy one the Creatoâ—… of Israel your King He that raiseth you out of mean estate and ruleth over you Thus saith the Lord who maketh a way in the Sea and a path in the mighty waters Who would not fear thee O King of Nations The stock is a doctrine of vanities but the Lord is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain so the Lord shall make bright clouds and give them showers of rain to every one grass in the field For the Idols have spoken vanity The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole Earth The King of Chaldea shall gather the captivity as the sand and shall scoff at Kings Then shall his mind change and he shall pass over and offend imputing this his power unto his god Art thou not he from everlasting O Lord my God mine Holy One we shall not die O Lord thou hast ordained them the Powers of Chaldea for judgment and O mighty God! Thou hast established them for correction Who hath f directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his counsellor hath taught him with whom took he counsel and who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment Behold the Nations are as a drop of a bucket See here the Spirit of God asserting the Divinity of the one God of Israel against Idols by displaying his Wisdom and Power in the Natural and Political Government of the World But lest the evidence of these places should be weakened by any as Scriptures of the Old Testament relating to times before our Lord was actually made by the Eternal Father the King of the World I will add a few more which may tend to the preventing of such an Evasion Isaiah prophesying of the Baptist and of the blessed times of the Gospel introduceth that voice thus crying out to Jerusalem and Judah Behold your God Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him He shall feed his flock like a shepherd In the same Isaiah for I scarce seek further than that Evangelical Prophet the God of Israel repeateth this profession Before me there was no God framed neither shall there be after me Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts I am the first and I am the last and besides me there is no God And yet of the Logos the Socinians will profess as did Nathaniel Thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel and as doth the Book of the Revelation that he is Alpha and Omega the first and the last The God of Israel had said also in the foregoing Chapter I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour Is there a God besides me yea there is no God I know not any Yet of the Logos Socinians and Arians make confession in the words of St. John saying That he was in the beginning with God the Father The design of all these places ought not in reason to be baffled by saying with confidence these two things First That the Power which Christ had was given him by God and in order to his Glory Secondly That it is not unlawful but our duty to worship a Creature by Gods command though without his permission it be Idolatry If Christ had not been more than a creature God would not have enjoined us so high a Worship of Him neither would it have been consistent with his incommunicable Omnipotence and Wisdom to have given him all power in Heaven and in Earth This as Athanasius speaketh were to turn his Humane Nature into a second Almighty The Logos was so before all Worlds and ceased not to be so by assuming the Humane Nature into Unity of Subsistence To say then that Christ is a Creature yet made such a God who can hear all Prayers supply all wants give all Graces needful to his Body the Church know all the secrets of all Thoughts not directed to him govern and judg with Wisdom all the World and to Worship him under this Divine Notion what is it else than the paying an homage to a presumed Creature which is due only to the one very God for what apprehensions greater than these do we entertain concerning the true God when we call upon him confide in him or revere him He then that meeteth such an Inscription in Racovia as he may find often in Misna in this manner D. O. S. and at length Deo Omnipotenti Sacrum and meant of Christ to whom in the Verses set underneath the application is particularly made How must he expound it He must either interpret it of Christ Transubstantiated as 't were by their fancy into the Father or worshipped like Neptune in the D. M. at Rome in the quality of the true God whilst he is confessed to be but a Creature For they will own but one God in nature and person and yet will give to Christ not acknowledged as a coeternal Subsistence that which belongeth in eminent manner to his Idea His Idea sure it is for that Being appeareth to our mind as the best and greatest which with such mighty Goodness Power and Wisdom governs the insensible sensible rational and Christian World I end this Chapter with the
say their meaning is by a figure only to desire them to procure their requests of God how dare any Christian trust his soul with that Church which teacheth that which must needs be Idolatry in all that understand not that figure They who believe not that these are his words are sure unacquainted with the writings of the Author and the great Integrity of the Reporter It is certain that among our selves in our more ordinary conversation such forms of speech are used towards men which in their extent are applicable to God We say that such Students had their Grace in the Senate-house or that there they have been created Doctors a phrase it seems too crude for the digestion of some nice stomacks When the weak are pursued by a savage Beast or by a man cruel as such a creature they run into the arms of kinder persons and desire them to save them and deliver them And because these Forms are used to men by those who own nothing but what is humane in them and because the matter of their request is apparently such too and in the power of man these equivocal phrases are by general acknowledgment determined to one sense But were civil Forms more liable to mistake a Church sure should exercise a more tender care in those of Religion and chuse such as might be apter to edifie than mislead the meanest in her Communion Now in such Forms of common speech as I have mentioned though there is not any proper worship of men yet there is more desired of them than that they would pray to God for us When Esau beseeched his Father to bless him he did not merely request him to pray for a blessing but to pronounce over him that sentence of Benediction which he as the Father of that Family had commission from God to pronounce with authority and to effect And when an importunate widow does by her repeated crys for vengeance or publick justice for deliverance and safeguard render the very ears of an unjust Judg attentive she intreats more of him than that he would speak for her to the King She supposeth him in commission and indued with power to help her though she knows him in this very point of his assistance to be subordinate to his Prince There is more in the Forms of the Roman Church than the bare indiscretion of them And though the incommunicable honour of God be not by their measure the rule of Faith devolved on the creature for a Papist so interpreting those Forms should by that Church be condemned as an Heretick and a violater of the fundamental Article of one God in Trinity yet still to me it seemeth that the honour which God hath not actually communicated is by them misplaced on Angels at least on Saints I do not in saying this ground my perswasion barely on the common Argument of that Ubiquity which many conclude to be ascribed to Saints and Angels in the Invocation of them The foundation of that Argument is laid on a matter which is disputed For they who contend that the Angels hear or know what is done on Earth do expresly deny Ubiquity to them Though some private Romanists have mentioned appearances of the person of the Virgin in distant places at the same time and others have represented her or some other Saint as dwelling in a particular statue And to such it is proper to put the question of Arnobius Let us suppose said he that there are ten thousand Statues of Vulcan in all the world can that one Deity be in so many thousand habitations at one time But others infer this knowledg in the Saints and Angels partly from the perfection of their spiritual nature by which saith Dr. Holden they know all the natures motions and actions of Corporeal things partly from their personal presence as Guardians of men and as Gods Retinue in Religious Assemblies and partly from the Revelation of God and from what they call the Glass of the Trinity a mirrour of which I profess my self very ignorant and which my curiosity desires not to look into and which the inventers might in reverence have spared rather than to have exposed the essence of God as a substance reflecting all visible Ideas They gather this also in part from the Intelligence given by some Angels unto the rest who are of the same community This they say plausibly concerning Angels for of Saints they have much less ground thus to speak Only this may be allowed them concerning both that being spirits we know not whether such distance as that of this world does hinder communication For if it be not done by motion they may possibly as well understand at the distance of an hundred miles as at that of a furlong This only I observe by the way as an Objection That the Ancients who are said to Platonize held neither Angels nor Souls departed to be uncloathed Spirits but united to Bodies of AEther or AEr Wherefore it seemeth that their knowledg of external material objects must depend on Physical motion which by distance is scattered or diverted from the streightness of its lines and consequently from the exact truth of its intelligence It is most probable that Angels are often absent from grown men especially whilst they remain in ordinary circumstances And the Scripture speaks of the Angels as being on this or the other occasion sent to men and then removed from them This is manifest in the known cases of Abraham Daniel S. Peter S. John and the blessed Virgin her self More probable still it is that the same Angel hath not intelligence not only of all the affairs of the world but of all the prayers that are addressed to him For many such Addresses being very improper and sometimes immoral we must not think that God or other good Angels are concerned in telling him the news of them unless it be in order to punishment And for the Saints whom God hath not that we know of made ministring spirits who are not before the Resurrection and final Judgment in complete glory of whose appearing after death the Scripture hath given us in the Old Testament but one instance and that a very doubtful one it not being certain whether it was the Apparition of Samuel or of the Devil or the Imposture of the Witch of Endor speaking inwardly And in the New but that one as I remember of Moses and Elias when Christ was transfigured It is not so much as by probable arguments yet evinced that they know our particular estate though it is evident that they wish well to the world of mankind and especially to the body of the Christian Church For sure they lose not their affection in Heaven where whilst some other Graces cease Charity is eternal and in perfection Wherefore though the praying to Saints and Angels may not necessarily infer their Ubiquity and for that reason be called Idolatrous yet if they hear us not it may
the probability of this new and odd conceit I offer the following Conclusions which I desire the Reader jointly to consider ere he derides it First The word Saraph it self is used in signifying a fiery flying Serpent This is its signification in the Book of Numbers where it is said That the Lord sent Seraphim or fiery serpents among them And again it is there remembred how God said to Moses Make thee a Saraph and set it upon a Pole To which I add that in the Book of Deuteronomy a Burning Serpent is called Nachash Saraph Secondly There were in Egypt Arabia Lybia and other places flying fiery Serpents The Prophet Isaiah mentioneth such creatures and Kimchi on the place saith they are found in Ethiopia meaning it may be the Arabian Ethiopia They were called Fiery not only because of the heat of their venom causing extraordinary inflammations and thirsts in the body bitten by them but also because they appeared such when they flew in the Air being a kind of animated Meteors Hence Abarbanel saith of such flying Serpents that they were reddish after the colour of brass If that was their natural colour great addition might be made to it by the swift motion of their wings and the vibration of their tayls in the bright Atmo-spheres of Arabia and Egypt Thirdly In the earliest Ages and inhabited Countries of the world the creatures on earth principally reverenc'd were Oxen and Serpents That Oxen were so has been already shew'd as likewise that the Cherubim Appendages to the Sâ—…echinah in the most holy Place had the faces of such Beasts Serpents were lately worship'd in America as appeareth from Acosta and the Discoverers in Hackluit And we read in Mr. Gage of the great Golden Snakes adjoin'd to the Idols Tezcatlipuca and Vitzilopuchtli And of old Serpents were sacred in Egypt Herodotus mentioneth the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sacred Serpents about Thebes which when they were dead were buried by the superstitious in the Temple of Jupiter We see no Table of Isis or Osiris or Bacâ—…hus without a Serpent The sacredness of that Beast is said by Pignorius to have prevail'd among the Arabians Baâ—…ylonians Carthathaginians Baeotians Epirots Sicyonians Epidaurians Romans He might have added the Indians with Maximus Tyrius and with Erasmus Stella the Borussians and Samogetes And the Hereticks call'd Ophitae or Ophiani have not escaped the notice of any who have looked into the History of the Christian Church For the worship both of Serpents and Oxen together it is represented in the Egyptian Hieroglyphick of a winged Ox with humane face vomiting flames having a Globe on its head and under its feet an undulated Serpent Serpents were thus honoured for many reasons Because they could twine themselves into all figures Because there was a mighty Energy in their venom Because of their mighty Bulk by which some of them were able saith Diodorus to conquer Elephants Because saith Vossius they live to great Age are of quick and piercing sight renew their youth by putting off their skin Last of all by reason saith Pignorius that the Heathen were overpowered with the craft malice and pride of the Devil who deluded man in that shape and would as it were redeem the loss he sustained in the curse of that creature by turning it into a venerable Idol Fourthly Serpents thus sacred were not the ultimate objects of worship but the symbols or shrines of some Angels or Daemons Thus the Serpents of Thebes spoken of by Herodotus are said by him to be sacred to Jupiter And the Symbol of Cneph was the Symbol of an Agatho-demon Fifthly There were not only such living Symbols and shrines but also Images made by mens hands Such we see in the Tables of Isis and in the Images of Cartari Such we read of in the Scripture under the name of Teraphim which were much in use in the world a while after the flood In the Ramessean Obelisk a good Daemon is represented by an Asp sitting next Osiris And a Dragon a creature of the Serpent-kind is usually annexed to the statue of AEsculapius Sixthly Such good Angels as made up a part of the Shechinah of the Logos and also ministred in the world seem to have given some occasion to such Symbols and Images by their appearance as in the form of winged Oxen or Cherubim so by their appearance as of the most eminent sort of winged Serpents with beautiful faces it may be of men as had the Harpies though they had the tail of a Serpent or rather of Eagles if they appeared not with Serpentine heads The sacred One in the Sphinx of Kircher had the head of an Hawk or Eagle so had the famous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Egypt as Eusebius relateth from Zoroaster The Egyptians call'd him Cneph the Phenicians a good Daemon Now if the Seraphim had not appeared in some such form it would be very difficult to give any tolerable account of the temptation of Adam and Eve by a Daemon in the shape of a Serpent That Serpent is ridiculously painted in the form of a creeping one before the fall and it is impossible to conceive our first Parents so stupid as to have entered into Dialogue with such a creature without any astonishment But being used to the Shechinah of the Logos and to the appearance of ministring Angels shewing themselves in some such winged form for that they abode not one night in Paradise is by many judicious persons esteemed a groundless fancy it is easie to conceive upon that supposition how they might entertain some familiar discourse with a creature assuming that Image in very splendid and glorious manner The Text assureth us that the form is now changed by Gods curse and sure the change was more considerable than the alteration spoken of by Mr. Mede who thinketh that the Serpent went formerly on the ground though with his head and breast reared up and advanced It seemeth a more probable opinion by far that the change was made from the form of a splendid flying Saraph to that of a mean creeping Serpent not moving aloft in the air but licking the dust And much more probable doubtless it is than that dream which Kircher chargeth on Maimonides as if that Rabbi had affirmed that the Devil deceived Eve in the shape of a Camel But Maimonides saith only from the Rabbies in Medrasch that the Serpent was rode on and was as big as a Camel and that he who rode on him was Samael or Satan Methinks a part of the punishment of Adam and Eve declares the shape of the Serpent or Daemon by whom they were tempted For it is said that God guarded Paradise against them by a Cherub and a Flaming-sword which as hath been noted already was esteemed by the Jews a second Angel and may be aptly imagined a Saraph or flaming-Angel in
Person into the World he said let all the Angels of God worship him And now he hath installed him as God-man and King of the world at his right hand let us and all the world adore him Let them worship him as God-man and neither worship an undue Image on earth as joyned to his person nor yet his heavenly body as apart by it self That as join'd in unity of person and now in glory is our object and a Crucifix ought not to be looked upon in prayer as the present Image of Christ for he is in Heaven glorious and not on the Cross. And though the Revelation of S. John speaks of him as in Garments roll'd in blood it mentions them not as miserable apparel but as the Purple of the King of Kings The Capitular of Charles the Great would have the Picture of Christs Resurrection as frequent as that of his Cross but by both of them we look back and if any be proper in helping us not meerly in our preparation as the Crucifix may be but in our immediate Religious addresses it is surely a picture of him in Glory if that could be well made but neither is this to be worshipped but made only an help to excite our mind nor is the humanity or body of Christ to be adored by it self yet in the manuals of the Roman Church I find addresses to the very body and I fear that upon the Festival of Corpus Christi and in the object under the shews of bread shews united in their act of devotion to Christs body our Lord is divided We have a form of Prayer to his body in the little French Manual called Petite Catechisme and in the Litanies of the Sacrament And the Learned Bishop Usher in his Sermon before the Commons mentions the Epistle Dedicatory of the Book of Sanders concerning the Lords Supper thus superscribed To the body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ under the forms of bread and wine all honour praise and thanks be given for ever A Judicious Christian would rather ascribe all praise and honour to Christ God-man Whole Christ let us supplicate and honour helping our Imagination by his Shechinah in Glory and remembring the words of St. Austin noted as remarkable by Agobardus Arch-Bishop of Lyons a man zealous in his Age against the corruptions of Image-worship and ill requited in his memory by them who as Baluzius noteth esteem him the less Catholick for it In the first Commandment saith S. Austine that is in the whole of that which himself elsewhere in his Questions of the Old and New-Testament divides into first and second each similitude of God is forbidden to be made by men not because God hath no Image but because no Image of his ought to be worshipped but that which is the same with himself nor that for him but with him God assisting us with this Image why should any religious Acts have any lower object total or partial Images set up as any sort of objects of our inward or external devotion are a sort of Anti-Arks And we ought not to touch them not because they are sacred but because they are unhallowed objects And worse still they are rendred too often by impious Art which maketh the lifeless Image as in the Rood of Bockley by help of Wiers and other instruments of Puppetry to bend to frown to roll the eyes to weep to bleed to exhibit signs of favour or displeasure This indeed is not the constitution but 't is the frequent practice of some in that Church and hereby are framed so many snares for the people who turn such Images into Christs Shechinah For if certain Monks who were also shepheards and people of low conception became through their rusticity absurd Anthropomorphites by reading the bare words of Scripture where it saith that God created man in his own Image how much more will mean people have corrupt fancies begotten in them by false Images which their eyes may see and their hands may handle Such will turn a common Chest into an Ark and a wooden Engine into the Divine Shechinah Of the Sindon at Besanson Chiffletius a Papist reporteth That great numbers met twice a year on a Mountain nigh the City to adore that cloth with Christs Image on it Of it he further saith that it always shineth with a Divine presence that is in effect that it is a Shechinah of God and that in great emergencies it is carried in procession like the Ark being yet more holy than that Mosaic Vessel How shall the people not fall into Idolatry when such false Shechinahs or Idols are layd in their way How much more would it tend to edification to direct them to the Image of God who sitteth in Glory at Gods right hand and whom our minds the less behold in our devotions the more our eye is fixed upon an Image of wood or stone In the City or Church of God described in the 21st chapter of S. Johns Revelation There was no Temple no material fixed place of Gods visible Shechinah though there must be Synagogues or Places for publick Assemblies but Christ himself was the Light or Shechinah and therefore to him as to the only true Image of the invisible God it is proper to direct our Cogitations and Prayers And let not any man think that because the Shechinah is in Heaven and not visibly in a Church as the Shechinah was in the Temple of the Jews that therefore Christians have less assistance than Gods ancient People for they have that which is much more excellent The Glory on the Ark was only a mixture of shapeless lights and shadows and in the Temple the people seldom saw it but being assured of it did view it in their imagination And few of them had other apprehensions of it than as of the presence of God the deliverer and Protector of that Commonwealth But Christians a people under a more spiritual dispensation than the Jews though they see not the Shechinah with their eyes on earth yet from the words of Scripture they can excite their minds to behold it even in the Sanctuary of Heaven And they behold it in the figure of God-incarnate an Image not confused but of a distinct person an Image which brings to their mind the greatest and most comfortable mystery of the means of Salvation aptest to encourage our Prayers and to enflame our Zeal and to raise our Admiration Some objects indeed are on earth exposed to the eyes of Christians by the Institution of our Lord the elements of Bread and Wine And the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or place on which they are consecrated is at this day called in the Greek Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Propitiatory or mercy-Seat And a late Author reporteth of the Abassine Priests upon the Authority of Codignus though in Codignus I could never find it That they blessed a certain Shrine or Coffer of the Sacrament
and predisposed it for the reception of the Christian Faith B. That kind of Immortality which they held was not agreeable to Christian Doctrine They asserted indeed the Incorporeal and indissoluble nature of the substance of mans soul but by the Dogma of its Circulation through several Bodies they taught a false and uncomfortable Faith which our Lord never justified He taught not only that the Soul was not a concretion of separable Atoms and that it was a substance not to be killed a substance subsisting after death but that it was if righteous immortal in unchangeable blessedness He did not dishearten the virtuous by saying as did Pythagoras that the Soul after having attained the height of the Heavenly state might come down again from the top of the Circle and be happy and unhappy in eternal Rotations and Vicissitudes For this reason St. Austin in the first Book of his Retractations speaking of the Souls ascent into Heaven thinketh it had been safer to have expressed himself by the word Going than that of Returning lest any should believe he favoured the Platonick notion of its being thrust down from its seat in Heaven A. Of Platonism enough I will trouble you again as I did at the beginning with a few Remarks of another kind and then I will suffer you to be quiet B. Pray let us hear them A. In Chap. 5. pag. 52. you make Pagods to be the Statues whereas they are only the Temples of Idols B. I use not my own words but Vincent le Blanc's and with him many others agree though I do not remember that either in Sir Thomas Roe's Voyage to the East-Indies or in Monsieur Tavernier's Travels Pagod is otherwise used than for a Temple But why may it not signifie both the Statue and the Temple At Rome they do not think it absurd to call the Saint the Church the Image Sancta Maria. A. It may be so I pass to another Note In Chap. 6. pag. 97 98. you expound the second Commandment or prohibition of a Vow forbidden to be made to an Idol or Vanity in the name of El Elohim Jehovah or if you will have it so Jahveh or in any other name of the God of Israel So far the Novelty perhaps is passable But then to obviate an Objection which may be made from our Lords Interpretation Thou shalt not forswear thy self you add this That he who voweth by an Idol seeing he cannot be enabled by it to perform his Vow is therefore in effect forsworn And this looks more like an Evasion than an Answer B. It doth so Nor will I go about either to defend that or the Exposition which occasioned it Thus much only I chuse to subjoin That a Jew or a Christian vowing by an Idol though coloured with some Name of the true God is actually forsworn because he breaketh either the Mosaical or Evangelical Covenant an especial part of which is the renunciation of the worship of all Daemons In speaking to the first Commandment in p. 97. I am guilty of a fault of omission which you take no notice of A. What may that be B. I ought to have observed that the Jews did generally interpret that Prohibition against the worship not so much of any other supreme god as of the middle powers or supposed Mediators betwixt God and Man A. There needs no command against the worship of many supreme gods that being a contradiction to the sense of mankind B. True when you use the words many supremes But the common people think not of the World as one Body necessarily placed under one Governour but they may be brought to think of the Kingdom of Heaven as they do of the kingdoms in this world where there is no Universal Monarch They may think there are several coequal gods in their several Precincts Nay generally the Barbarous in several Countries may be apt to think their Topical god superior to all others The ignorant Frier thought the French King his Master the greatest on earth when he irreverently compared him to God the Father and called our Holy Lord the Dauphine of Heaven And some poor Peasants believe there is scarce one higher on earth than the Lord of the Mannor A. I have met with such in my time But I go on In Chap. 6. p. 122 and in other places you much disparage the Ancient Histories of Greece B. Plato himself speaking of the first Phoroneus Deucalion and others suggesteth that their stories are fabulous And that which he there remembers of the Discourse of the Priests of Sais to Solon about the Antiquities of Egypt and Greece and of Athens as an Egyptian Colony is at first hearing so Idle a Tale that I wonder the Philosopher or any discreet Reader of him hath had any reverence for it A. I confess I have not Give me leave to trouble you with one objection more In Chap. 7. p. 146. You say Two things concerning the Idolatry of the Mahometans which will not pass First You affirm that they pray to Mahomet whereas they are forbidden to do any such thing by their great Article of Faith in one God Secondly You say it is most notorious that they do so whereas some judicious Persons who have lived amongst them and such who are of better credit than the Author you cite do profess they could never observe them doing it B. To your first exception I thus answer Their Article of Faith in one God was not so much designed against the worship of subordinate powers as against the acknowledgment of three coequal Subsistences in the God of the Christians It is one of the Dogmata of the Moslemans saith Gabriel Sionita That God is One and that there is no other equal to Him And this last Clause Mahomet added with direct design against the Christian Trinity And he would not have been so vehement in his charge of Idolatry against the Christians if they had worshipped Christ and the Holy Ghost with subordinate honour and not as very God For your second Exception I must confess that the words most notonious may seem a little too bold they relating to a matter which is under dispute as likewise that on your side there are Authors of better credit then Monsieur de la Guilliotiere whom I have produced I have not much relyed upon his word since I was taught by a person of great integrity that his Book of Athens to his knowledg was wide of the truth But Monsieur de la Guilliotiere is not my only Author I am told by others that the worship of Heroes and trust in their Aids as Patrons under God is to be charged on Mahometans if not on the constitution of Mahomet who taught expresly the Intercession of Saints Busbequius relateth that the Turks believe their Hero Chederle a kind of Mahometan St. George to be propitious in War to all who implore his Aid He further telleth that the