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
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
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
Heaven and Earth his coelestial mind being united to a body of gross flesh and blood his understanding receiveth instruction through the gates of the outward senses and is in especial manner assisted by Phantasms which Light pictureth in the Brain This frame of man rendreth him covetous in his speculations of the help of some external and visible Object And amongst the numerous progeny of mankind there are very few heads metaphysical enough for that Proverb of the Arabians Shut up the five Windows that the House may be fill'd with Light It is the same thing to the vulgar not to appear and not to be and they would therefore have a visible Deity and one who might in a more bodily manner be present with them For this Reason when Osiris was worshipped throughout Egypt and his living Image was visible only in the superior part of it the Metropolis of Memphis the Priests took occasion to set on foot a Schism and those of Heliopolis would also have a sacred Bull that their Deity might be as visible and present to them as to the other Egyptians This Reason the Brachman gave to Monsieur Bernier for the erection of the Statues of Brahma and of other Deiitas or Deities To wit That something might be before the eyes of the worshipper for the fixing of his mind Of the like temper were the Heathens spoken of by Lactantius in his second Book of the Origine of Error They were jealous lest all their Religion should be a vain beating of the Air if they saw nothing present which they might adore This Affection then for Sense this wisdom of the Flesh is a general Cause of the Worship of material Idols But they being of divers kinds have accordingly divers more special Causes Such who worshipped Universal Nature or the Systeme of the material World perceived first that there was excellency in the several parts of it and then to make up the grandeur and perfection of the Idea they joyned them alltogether into one Divine Being Thus probably did Idolaters But Atheists also serv'd themselves on this Pretence as they do at this day seldome receding from any profitable Art Such a one of old was Pliny who maketh God and Nature the same And such a one in these times is the bold Author of Tractatus Theologico-politicus who defineth God the infinite power of matter Those who worshipped Nature in the parts of it were such as Pliny observeth who laboured under a weakness and narrowness of imagination It was his opinion That frail and wearied mortality mindful of its own infirm condition distributed Nature into its several parts that every one might worship that portion of it which was useful to him Usefulness indeed was a common motive And Cicero affirmeth in his first Book of the Nature of the Gods That the Egyptians consecrated no Beast from whence they did not derive some profit And in his second Book of the same Argument he citeth it as the saying of Perseus the Scholar of Zeno That they were held to be Gods from whom great advantage accrued to mans life Neither is there any name so commonly given amongst all Nations to Divine Power as that which signifieth the Goodness of it Such is the ancient Kod of the Germans in the Vocabulary of Goldastus and their more modern Gott or God which we have borrowed from them But Usefulness though it was a very common motive yet it was not the only one which inclined the World to Idolatry For that which ravished with its Beauty as the Rainbow worshipped saith Josephus Acosta by the Peruvians though not by those of Egypt who dwelt under a serene Heaven That which affrighted with its malignant Power as the Thunder worshipped saith the same Acosta by the Yncas of Peru and by the ancient Germans also who as Grotius noteth called their God of Heaven by the name of Thorn which signifieth him that Thundereth That which astonish'd with its greatness as the mighty swellings of the Earth in high Mountains worshipped here by the ancient Britains That I say which was beautiful hurtful or Majestick became a Deity as well as that which profited with its use Now all these powers being united in the Sun whose beauty is glorious whose heat scorcheth and refresheth and is the cause of barrenness in some places and in others of fruitfulness whose motion is admirable whose Globe of Light appeareth highly exalted That of all other parts of the visible World hath been the celebrated Idol For other parts of insensible nature lesser virtues were discerned in them But their motion and the cause of it being either not known or not consider'd the Gentiles esteemed of them as such Subjects in which a coelestial vigor resided Ignorance of nature was in them the Mother of Idolatry as ignorance in Art was the cause of that admiration amongst the Caribbians which ascribed the effect of Fire-locks to a Demon. On the same account Garlick and Onions obtain'd the reputation of Deities in Egypt Of such St. Chrysostom somewhere taketh notice and of the Apology which they made saying That God was in the Onion though the Onion was not God By this Onion they meant not the common and very delicious one among them which they were not forbidden to violate but did daily eat it but a certain Scilla which poysoned Mice and had a strange fiery virtue in it and was called the Eye of Typhon And I suppose it to be of the same kind with that of which the juice was used in the Lustration of Menippus in Lucian when he was initiated into the mysteries of Zoroaster It decreased saith saith Kircher in the increase of the Moon and increased in the decrease of it for the truth of which let it rest upon the Relato Concerning Beasts Birds Fishes and Insects they in like manner were ador'd for their beauty their beneficial hurtful or astonishing properties They were sometimes worshipped for these and other such reasons in the whole species of them For so Diana being turn'd as they feigned into a Merula a Mearl or Black-bird the whole kind of them was made sacred in the quality of her living Statues Sometimes some one sort of them was worshipped by reason of a particular effect of theirs esteemed of with high veneration by the World So the Mice Sminthoi were deified which eat in sunder the Cables of the Enemies of Troas Likewise such living creatures were worshipped as Beings which contained in them the Souls of some departed Hero's Friends and Benefactors or which were themselves portions of the Soul of the World Beasts at this day are upon both these accounts idoliz'd by the Pendets of Indostan And after this manner it is that they explain the several appearances of their Deity of which the first they say was in the nature of a Lion the second of a Swine a strange Cabbala and such as the Jews
and Causes of Idolatry being considered I intend in the next place to inquire into the time of its Birth so far as the silence or uncertainty of Tradition will permit It is one of the Aphorisms of Philo the Elder if he were the Author of the Book of Wisdom that Idols were not from the beginning And it is a question among the Learned whether Idolatry was any of those pollutions which defiled the old World and brought the deluge upon it It doth not appear that it was extant before the flood and many believe it to be no older than Cham. Tertullian it is true was of opinion that Idolatry began in the days of Seth and that Enoch restored true Religion and is for that Reason said in Scripture to have walked with God He hath given us his opinion but he hath concealed the grounds of it And I can think of nothing so likely to move him to this belief as the reverence he had for the fictitious Prophesie of Henoch which he often citeth and in which are contained severe Comminations both against the makers and worshippers of Idols S. Cyril of Alexandria is much of another mind affirming in his first Book against Julian the Apostate That all men from Adam to the days of Noah worshipped that God who by nature was one And he strengtheneth his opinion with this Reason Because no man is by Moses accused as a worshipper of other gods and impure Demons If that false Religion had then set foot in the World it would scarce have escaped that Divine Historian but he would in likelihood both have mention'd it plainly and severely reproved it For this is no sin of a mean stature It is in the judgment of Tertullian the principal crime of mankind the chief guilt of the world the total cause of Gods judgment or displeasure He meaneth that it is a kind of Mother-sin containing in it all other evils on which the Judg of the World passeth sentence of condemnation Lactantius goeth higher still in his censure of it giving to it the name of an inexpiable wickedness And S. Gregory Nazianzen sheweth what apprehension he had of the greatness of this guilt when he calleth it The last and first of evils So monstrous a sin if it had been in those early times committed it would a man would think have been as soon reflected on by Moses as the violence or injustice which then filled the earth or the unclean mixtures of the sons of God with the daughters of men That is as I guess in the same sense in which the tall Trees of Lebanon are called the Cedars of God the unbridled appetites of the High and Potent who made their Power subservient to their lust In the infancy of the World there were many Causes which might prevent the sin of Idolatry By the fresh date of it from the Creation in which God almost beyond miracle it self discovered his Almighty Being and Oneness by the appearance of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Son of God to Adam and others of which appearance largely afterwards by the long-lives of Adam and Seth and the rest of the Holy Line who could often inculcate to their families what themselves were so abundantly assured of and possibly also by the conviction of him who was the head of the degenerate Line unrighteous Cain himself who having seen God in his Shechinah could not propagate either direct Atheism or Idolatry though he was the Father of evil manners By these and perhaps by other Causes to us unknown it might come to pass that the worship of Idols was either not in being or at least not in frequent exercise in those first Generations We know nothing of those times but by the Pen of Moses and a doubtful word of his hath inclin'd some to refer the Origine of Idolatry to the days of Enos In his time saith Moses men began to Profane as some would render his Text instead of translating it as our Church doth to call upon the Name of the Lord. It is true that the Hebrew word Hochal doth sometimes signifie Prophaned But there is no Reason which may enforce such an exposition of it in this place the Name of God having been formerly profaned and with great irreverence abused in the irreligious Families of Cain and Lamech Neither is the termination of our worship on the creature instead of the Sovereign God the only prophanation of his Holy Name A rude Tongue and an immoral Life commit that offence and not only an Idolatrous mind or body Such profaneness the Arabian Metaphrast imputeth to that time whilst he thus turneth the Hebrew of Moses Then began men to recede from their obedience to God But to me the Chaldee Interpreter seemeth to come nigher to the scope of the Words the sense of which he expresseth in this manner In those days men began to make supplications in the name of the Lord. That is the numbers of Families increasing in the days of Enos they appointed more publick places for Gods service in which at set-times they might together and in a more solemn Congregation worship their great Creator I must confess that this exposition doth much disagree with the mind of Maimonides For he doth not only refer the beginning of Idolatry to the times of Enos but he accuseth Enos himself of that gross and stupid wickedness For thus he begins that short Book which he hath written on that Subject In the days of Enos men erred very greatly and the minds of the wise-men of that age were overborn with stupidness Even Enos himself was one of them who thus erred Now this was their error the worship of the Stars A very rash and rude reflexion upon so holy a Patriarch and relishing of Rabbinical dotage For certainly divers of those Writers if any others have had a flaw in their Imaginations though Maimonides amongst them all may be allowed the largest intervals of sobriety From Cham therefore rather than from Enos the Learned derive the beginning of Idolatry though I know not whether under him it may not be dated a little too soon The heart of Cham being before the flood deeply depraved it was rather hardened by the escape than warned by the mighty danger of that general Deluge Insomuch that it was just with God to give him up to the further seducement of his sensuality and to the visible power of the old Serpent who may seem to have been for a time chained down by the Curse in Paradise but was now as I conjecture let loose again for the punishment of those whom Gods severe and miraculous discipline did not cleanse of their folly He therefore is esteemed the Father of Idolatry that Monster in Religion which in his corrupt Loyn was by degrees multiplied into innumerable heads But S. Cyril of Alexandria in two places beginneth Idolatry at the confusion of Languages and with Belus rather than
There Euphantus as may be probably imagined found Baal or some such word in the original Egyptian and gave us instead of it the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such honour of the Sun we find on the Antient Egyptian Obelisk interpreted by Hermapion and restored to its antient beauty by Sixtus Quintus On it the Sun is set forth as God as the Sovereign disposer of the World which it seems he committed to the Government of King Ramestes Others there were who mistook for the one supreme God the Soul of the World and it may be thought the Sun the Head in that great animated Body or the place of that Souls principal residence On this fashion Osiris in Macrobius describeth his Godhead The Heavenly world is my head my belly the Sea my feet the Earth In Heaven are my Ears and for my all-seeing Eye it is the glorious Lamp of the Sun Pornutus likewise reciting the Dogmata of the Heathen Theology discourseth to this effect As we men are governed by a Soul so the world hath its Soul also by which it is kept in frame And this soul of the World is called Jupiter Aristotle himself doth somewhere stile God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mighty Animal So apt are the highest Aspirers in Philosophy to fall sometimes into wild and desperate errors Amongst the Romans who excelled Varro in knowledg And yet S. Austin saith of him that he believed no higher God than the Soul of the World but that by disgusting Images as debasers of Religion he approached nigh to the true God Others both in Egypt and Persia worshipped for the true God a part only of his Idea whilst they removed from it the justice and mercy of sending preventing or taking away any temporal evils in which they thought the supreme Deity not concerned whilst they believed certain Demons to be the chastizers of those who had not purged themselves sufficiently from matter PART 3. How far the Gentiles owned one true God BUT it is not fair to fight always on the blind-side of Nature I come therefore in the next place to acknowledg that some Gentiles used a Diviner Reason than others and owned one supreme God the King of the World and a Being distinct from the Sun or the Universe or the Soul of it This appeareth from the Confession of many Christians and from the words of the Gentiles themselves First Divers of the Fathers though they shew the generality of their gods to have been but creatures yet they confess they had amongst them some apprehension of one supreme eternal Deity S. Chrysostom in a second Discourse in his sixth Tome concerning the Trinity doth charge upon the Arians and Macedonians the crime of renewing Gentilism whilst they professed one great God and another Deity which was less and created For it is Gentilism said that Father which teacheth men to worship a creature and to set up one Great or greatest God and others of inferiour order In this Discourse St. Chrysostom acknowledgeth that the Gentiles adored the one Sovereign God for him the Arians believed in and were in that point good Theists though no Orthodox Christians notwithstanding he accuseth them of Subordinate Polytheism S. Cyril of Alexandria speaks the same thing and in more plain and direct words It is manifest said he that they who Phylosophized after the Greecian manner believed and professed one God the builder of all things and by nature superiour to all other Deities And to come to the second way of proof above mentioned S. Cyril is very copious in the authorities which he produceth out of the Heathen Writers in order to the strengthening of his Assertion that they believed in one infinite God He introduceth Orpheus speaking as Divinely as David himself God is one he is of himself of him are all things born and he ruleth over them all He again after he had cited many Philosophers bringeth in the Poet Sophocles as one that professed the true God and the words which he there calleth to mind are worth the Transcribing Of a truth There is one God who made the Heavens and the spatious Earth and the goodly swelling of the Sea and the force of the Wind. But many of us mortals erring in our hearts have erected Images of gods made of Wood or Stone or Gold or Ivory as supports of our grief And to these we have offered sacrifices and vain Panegyricks conceiting in that manner that we exercised Piety He forbeareth not after this to cite Orpheus again and the Verses have their weight and contain this sense in them I adjure thee O Heaven Thou wise work of the great God! I adjure thee thou voice of the Father which he first uttered when he founded the whole World by his Counsels The Father calls to mind likewise many sayings of Porphyry and of the Author falsly called Trismegist But they were too well acquainted with Christianity to have Authority in this Argument of the one God of the Gentiles Such a Gentile one who dreamt not of any Gospel was Anaxagoras who as Plutarch testifies did set a pure and sincere mind over all things instead of fate and fortune In Laertius we may hear him speaking in his own words and they admit of this interpretation All things were together or in a Chaos Then came the Mind and disposed them into order But on this declaration of Anaxagoras I will not depend because his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mind might be such as the Platonick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Soul of the World I like better the words of Architas the Pythagorean who speaks of God in the singular and says he is supreme and governs the World But nothing is more close to the purpose than that which hath so often been said by Plato It is his opinion recited in Timaeus Locrus That God is the Principal Author and Parent of all things And this he adds after an enumeration of the several Beings of which the Universe consisteth He affirmeth in his Politicus “ That God made the great Animal of the World and that he directeth all the motions of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that there are not two Gods governing the World with differing Counsels In his Sophista he determineth that God was the maker of things which were not that is as such before he framed them In his Timaeus he calleth God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Maker and Father of every being Adding that it is difficult to find out this Father of the Universe and that when he is found out it is not fit to declare him to the vulgar He was it seems a Jehovah not ordinarily to be named They who have read his works with care know what distinction he maketh betwixt God and the gods And how he extolleth the Divine goodness and maketh it the very Essence of the supreme God It is indeed to be
Temples Altars Priests or Prayers though by such worship he Idolized the Heavens the Earth and Man Let this then from the Premises be the conclusion of the present Chapter that the Gods of the Heathen are Idols and Vanities and unworthy the submission of any reasonable creature CHAP. VI. Concerning the Idolatry of the Jews and particularly of their worshipping the Golden Calf Also of the Egyptian Symbol of Apis as at that time not extant And of the probable Reasons which set up Moses as the Original Apis. PART 1. Of the Provisions made by God against Idolatry among the Jews THE Israelites by their Constitution were of all Nations a people the most averse to Idolatry Their first Commandment prescribeth the Worship of one God Their second forbiddeth external religious honour to graven Images which by the exhibition of that honour whatsoever they were before become very Idols Wherefore St. Cyprian thus renders the sense of the Command Thou shalt not make to thy self an Idol And the contention about the Translation of Pesel by Graven thing Idol or Image is with respect to the design of Moses an unnecessary Grammar-War This second Command against the Worship of Images the Jews have esteemed the great Command of all Their very Moneys have had on the Obvers the name of Moses inscribed and on the Revers that second precept or prohibition Their third Command Thou shalt not take or bear in thy mouth the name of Jehovah thy God in vain may seem also to discountenance Idols and to forbid all Oaths of promise made by them in the name of God by which they often called their false Deities It may seem to forbid not so directly the breach of Neder a Vow to the Lord as Schefugnah according to the distinction of the Jews a Vow by the Lord or by his Name when that Name was used in signifying some Idol I say it may seem so to do for that it does so I rather guess than affirm In this conjecture I am helped by Tertullian That Father discoursing concerning the unlawfulness of naming the Gods of the Gentile-world maketh use of this distinction he teacheth that the bare naming of them is lawful because it is necessary in Discourse but he condemneth the naming of them in such manner as if they were really Gods After this distinction he pursueth the Argument in this manner The Law saith You shall make no mention of the names of other gods neither shall they be heard out of your mouths This it commanded that we should not call them gods For it saith in the first part or Table of it Thou shalt not take up the Name of the Lord thy God in vain that is in an Idol He therefore fell into Idolatry who hononred an Idol with the name of God But if they must be called gods I should add something by which it may appear that I do not own them to be Gods For the Scripture it self calls them gods but then it addeth by way of discrimination their gods or the gods of the Nations In such manner David called them gods when he said the gods of the Nations were Devils It is a customary wickedness to say Mehercule And it proceeds from the ignorance of some who know not that they swear by Hercules Now what is swearing by those whom in Baptism you have forsworn or renounced but a corrupting of the Faith with Idolatry For who does not honour those he swears by To this purpose are those words in Hosea Though thou Israel play the Harlot yet let not Judah offend and come not ye unto Gilgal neither go ye up to Beth-aven or Bethel now become a house of iniquity vanity or Idolatry nor swear the Lord liveth That is seeing they worship the Golden Calves which are really Idols though they give to them the name of Jehovah as setting them up for his Symbol yet use not you that word there or the form of their oath by Jehovah for thereby you will take up the name of God and the name by which he is most eminently distinguished in vain or in an Idol Idols are Elilim or vanities they are very lyes at once to use the terms the Prophet gives them and to allude to the Syriack Version of the third Command Thou shalt not take up the name of the Lord thy God with a lye He therefore who sweareth by them without distinction calling them gods or giving them any names which signifie Divine Power He that sweareth or voweth by Coelum or Coelus that is the Heavens by Pluto or the Earth such a one does not only dishonour the name of the true God but he doth also by interpretation forswear himself for he sweareth by an Idol lie or vanity vowing by its help to perform his Oath which therefore he cannot by that means perform because he trusteth to an helpless thing though by his trust he honoureth it as a Divine Power Further one great end of the fourth Command was the prevention of Idolatry The seventh day was observed as a Memorial of that one God the Creator of the World and the God of Israel and they who kept it holy kept it holy to Jehovah and made profession hereby that they were not Gentiles who worshipped many Gods but the seed of Abraham who served but one the God of that Patriarch and of Isaac and Jacob. This saith Mr. Mede was the end of the Sabbath that thereby as by a Symbolum or sign that people might testifie and profess what God they worshipped He ought it may be to have spoken this with limitation and called it a great end and that it was such is evident from the Text of Moses than whom no man better understood the Levitical Oeconomy To him God spake saying Speak thou also to the children of Israel saying Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that ye may know that I am the Lord who doth sanctifie you or set you apart as my Worshippers distinct from those who worship Idols Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their Generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth and on the seventh day he rested or ceased and was refreshed or was pleased with that exceeding good and beautiful frame of things which his Wisdom Goodness and Power had made A like end there was of the Levitical Sacrifices God needed them not the Sacrifice of a pure and humble mind was more agreeable to him who is an Intellectual Spirit But the Israelites doted on such a gross manner of expressing their devotion And seeing they must needs offer Sacrifice it pleased God to give them a Law which might at once indulge them in their inclination and restrain them from sacrificing unto
Idols whilft it appropriated that service to God alone and denied it to Angels and Men. To this purpose St. Cyril discourseth and this is the sense of the words of that Father God had no thirst which was to be quenched with blood He required not of himself so gross and material a worship but one more spiritual perfected by universal virtue He required a life honesty and integrity and such as shone honourably with good works a right contemplation of the Deity and a true and blameless knowledg and practice of that which is really good But because the feeble and earthly minds of the Israelites could not without difficulty be brought off from the worship and ungodly manners and detestable superstition of the Egyptians therefore God by the Pedagogy of the Mosaic Law gave them a spiritual command against many Gods and yet permitted them after the ancient manner of the worship to which they had been accustomed to offer Eucharistical and Expiatory Oblations duly and wisely appointed and as types and shadows of good things to come For the beginnings of Sciences are imperfect and by the gradual additions of little and little they arrive at their compleat stature Touching the whole Law of Moses as Mosaical Maimonides saith of it That the principal design and intention of it was the removal of Idols PART 2. Of the Idolatry of the Jews IT appeareth then that God gave the Jews sufficient antidotes against Idolatry and it is as manifest that their folly rendred them very often ineffectual They by their ritual inclination by cohabitation by commerce by apish affectation of foreign modes learned the Egyptian Assyrian and Babylonian Idolatries Some of this leaven brake out in the Wilderness There they began to lean towards the worship of false gods by adoring the true one as shall be shewed in the unmeet Symbol of the Golden Calf Hence God in his just Judgment gave some of them up to the direct worship of false gods besides the true one though not wholly without him They worshipped Moloch as some think by the Tabernacle which the Priests took up and Remphan by a Star and the Host of Heaven Amongst that Host of orderly Lights some have placed the Prototype of Apis and supposed him to be the Sun But it seemeth absurd to say that God permitted the people of the Jews to fall into the worship of the Sun afterwards because they had worshipped him already At the entrance of the People into Canaan that Generation who had seen the hand of God so remarkably upon their disobedient and Idolatrous Forefathers and who by his Miraculous power and mercy were possessed of part of the good Land did in pious manner adhere to him And when Joshuah under whose wise and successful conduct they had been brought over Jordan advised them at his death to renounce the Idols of their Fathers and of the Amorites they with pious earnestness cried out God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other Gods And they ratified this holy resolution of theirs by a solemn Covenant betwixt them and Joshuah Joshuah being dead and that pious Generation being gathered to their Fathers There arose another Generation after them who knew not or owned not the Lord but served Baal and Ashtaroth This Idolatrous disposition continued in the people under their Judges insomuch that in the time of Eli e the Palladium of Israel the Ark of the Covenant was permitted to fall into the hands of the Philistins They were a very terrible enemy to the Israelites for many years and in order to the removal of their yoke and to the regaining the favour of God Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel saying If you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistins Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim The Idols of the Sun and Ashtaroth in the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Idols in the Groves of Astarte or the Earth and served the Lord only Such Piety of Samuel their Judg and of David their King and of Solomon also in the former part of his Reign together with Gods Presence in that Magnificent Temple built by him did much promote the true Religion and stop the growth of Idolatrous worship But at length Solomon himself gave them an unhappy Example of it in his own person being seduced to Idols by the charms and softnesses of his many Heathen Women So fatal an evil is Lust to the best Understandings which whensoever it posfesseth them it perfectly besotteth and reigneth over them with uncontrouled power This Impiety was manifest in Solomon about the thirtieth year of his Reign as Chronologers commonly account But the more secret beginning of his defection is by Josephus and other Jews dated from the Images of Oxen made at his command as supporters of the Brazen Sea It is the common opinion of the Arabians and particularly of Abulfarajus that Solomon died in his Sin without Repentance Of that God is judg It is more certain that before he died he persisted in it notwithstanding a repeated appearance of Gods Shechinah and that God was highly displeased with him and threatned to rend the Kingdom from him after his death Of that Rent the Instrument was Jeroboam by whose means one Kingdom became divided into two rather Factions than Kingdoms those of Judah and Israel In the latter Jeroboam set up two Golden Calves which the people worshipped at Dan and Bethel he being jealous that if they sacrificed at Jerusalem they would return to their Allegiance due to the King of Judah For this and other sins God suffered the Ten Tribes to be for ever led captive Judah also polluted it self with Idolatry It began under Rehoboam after his three good years of Government and came to its height under Athaliah Ahaz and Manasseh and at length Judah likewise was carried into Captivity After her return from Captivity under the favour of Cyrus many of the Jews were more faithful to the true God being sensible that for their serving of Idols he had cast them out of his most safe Protection and the Statue of Moses on an Ass found by Antiochus in the Holiest is one of the Tales of Diodorus Yet after this great deliverance divers of them relapsed through that persecution against them and that toleration of all Gentilism in Judea of which Antiochus Epiphanes was the Author He set up the abomination of Desolation the Idol of Jupiter Olympius on the Altar of God and Idol apt to move the pious Jews to forsake the City and to leave it desolate Many of the Israelites either through fear or vain inclination consented to his Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the
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
and Earth though principally over the latter of them In Egypt he was received with great devotion as if he had been a kind of husband to their Isis when she signified the Earth and a god proper for their Nilus and their fertile soil To this invention they soon added and sometimes they confounded him with their Apis and Osiris and sometimes they honoured him as the Sun or Nature or the Soul of the World In the Temple of Alexandria his mighty Image reached one side of it with its right hand and the other with its left and it was made of all woods and metals and by an artificial window as has been said already it admitted the Sun-beams In some of its Statues he represented Jupiter in the Head Neptune in the Belly as also Pluto and other Stygian Deities in the Ears Mercury and Apollo in the Eyes Thus it fared with this Idol which when Superstition had dressed it was the least part of its former self There is something in the name AEsculapius which soundeth like Apis and on him some have fixed He indeed is of sufficient Antiquity if he be what a learned man thinks him King Tosorthrus the successor of Menis But I meet with no reason offered for the proof of these matters The sound of the name in Latine and Greek I allow not as a reason the ancient Egyptian name was neither AEsculapius nor which is further removed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these being apparently of other Countrys Add to this that the Greeks in the Stromata of Clemens oppose Apis to AEsculapius and make the first the Inventor the second the Improver of Physick Somewhat like to this is said by St. Cyril who following the chase of Pagan Mythologers doth make Apis the Inventor of Physick and the Teacher of it to AEsculapius who thenceforth it seems left Egypt and travelled the World for the gaining of Riches by this useful Art which in after-times was said Proverbially to give them And to this Tale belongs another of Serapis and AEsculapius as both meant by Pluto who is conversant amongst Metals Stones Roots Plants Subterraneous Treasure and whatsoever conduceth to the health and life of man You see towards what Nation and what times this AEsculapius Apis or Serapis inclines and that Moses never knew him There is still as little certainty in their opinion who confound the Egyptian Apis with Apis the Argive the Son of Phoroneus which Apis Gerard Vossius supposeth to be that Jupiter who was incestuously familiar with Niobe Of the number of them who make the Egyptian Apis the same with the Argive Hecataeus is one And he being himself an Argive is tempted to a vain Fable in honour of his Country Arnobius out of mistake rather than pride confoundeth Times and Persons whilst he saith of Apis that he was born in Peloponnesus and called in Egypt Serapis They had spoken righter who called Serapis the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Coffin or Grave of Apis if they had meant this of Pluto as the God of the Earth who as 't were swallowed up the Worship of Apis in his own at Alexandria Herodotus himself though he never nameth the name of Serapis it being not then invented is yet in a great error when he maketh Epaphus and Apis to be the same For Epaphus Great Grandfather to Cadmus was as AElian noteth some Ages after him But we owe it to the Pride of Grece that her Accounts are so antedated and corrupted Little truth in the present Argument may we expect from Aristippus a Grecian Mythologer in his Arcadian story or from Aristeas the Argive Of them the first maketh Apis the Son of Phoroneus the Founder of Memphis the other affirmeth him to be that very Serapis whom the Egyptians worshipped In the mean time Pausanias blotteth the very name of Apis out of the line of the Argives and AEschylus will not allow him the place of a King Apollodorus who owneth him in that quality is so far from transporting him into Egypt and honouring of him as the builder of Memphis a City built by Menis whose memory it retains in the very name of it that he finds both his Cradle and Grave in his Fathers Country His Father left him too deeply engaged in a quarrel with Telxion and the Telchines to become a Conquerour in Egypt and it was by their Stratagems that he died so immaturely and without issue in Apia or Peloponnesus But if it were granted that the Argive were also the Egyptian Apis I see not the advantage which it could give to them who make his Symbol the Pattern of the Golden Calf For both Asricanus and Tatianus prove it of Moses that he was equal with Inachus whom Phoroneus the Father of Apis is said to succeed The truth is we are here fallen amongst dark and uncertain times and can scarce tread with assurance in any path of Grecian story till we are come to the times of Theseus And so much Plutarch with singular honesty and truth hath openly acknowledged For Inachus himself some think him a Fiction some a Man others a River and amongst these latter is Pausanias The Original Apis adored in Egypt was no doubt a man but who he was it is hard to discover so great is the perplexity which the blending as it were of his Worship with that of Serapis after the Macedonian Conquest has occasioned in this Argument Bacchus AEsculapius and Serapis each of them in Coins Marbles and Books have the form sometimes of a bearded or aged man and sometimes of a child And this variety of form teacheth us that there was a more ancient and more modern Bacchus AEsculapius Apis or Serapis though under other names For the Grecian Serapis whatsoever his Age was in Grece his Worship was esteemed modern in Egypt The Egyptians saith Horus meaning all the people of that Nation received not either Saturn or Serapis into their Temples till after the death of Alexander the Great In his time they were admitted in his City of Alexandria of which Pausanias saith that it was famous for the Temple of Serapis but could not with colour of reason pretend to the Antiquity of that in Memphis Of the Naucratitae in Egypt Celsus himself confesseth that it was not long since they received the Deity of Serapis Tacitus gives intimation of the union as it were of Apis and Serapis into one Idol where he speaketh of a Temple built in Rhacotis the place it may be taking its name from the Shrine to the modern Serapis in the very place where one had been anciently consecrated to Serapis and Isis. That is as he ought to have written it of Apis or Osiris together with Isis. After the death of Alexander the Ptolomies advancing the Power of Grece the Superstitions of Serapis were not confined to Alexandria but were imposed on all Egypt In this
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
be called an unwarranted impertinent idle labour It is as Saint Paul speaketh an intruding into the things which we have not seen And certainly when we pray not only to those that do not hear us but to such as have no existence but in fiction it is emphatical impertinence What else are the seven sleepers considered as such And yet in the institutions of a spiritual life published with Elogy by Sfondratus afterwards a Pope by the name of Gregory the fourteenth and composed by a nameless Virgin those seven are selected together with a few othere as Saints to be venerated with especial devotion What else are S. Sulpitius and S. Severus considered as distinct persons and yet in an ancient and fair Romish Manual I find this to be part of a Litany Holy Sulpitius pray for me Holy Severus pray for me Also Holy Faith pray for me Holy Hope pray for me Holy Charity pray for me The learned Bishop Montague doth call the Romish Invocation of Saints a Point of Foolery It being he saith at least uncertain whether they are and in what manner they can be acquainted with our wants seeing their condition is not to attend us and they are removed far above our reach and call He entertained the like opinion of praying to such Angels as are not Guardians But of them that are such he supposeth them to be ever in procinctu nigh at hand to men and in attendance on them all their days Hence he seeth no impiety in this Address Sancte Angele custos ora pro me Holy Guardian-Angel pray for me He had put the matter more out of doubt if he had supposed the Angel appearing and certainly known to be an holy spirit of that quality But for the Invocation of other Angels he thinketh it as foolish and ridiculous as his praying to a friend at Constantinople to help him whilst he himself is at London Others have gone further in their censure and they have called the Invocation of Saints more than an impertinent that is a sinful though not an Idolatrous practice And indeed so plain a misuse of a mans reason cannot but be offensive to the Creator who gave it not to man that he should trifle with it But this is not their manner of arguing They tell us such Invocation is not of Faith and that whatsoever is not of faith is sin But what Art of thinking teacheth them to draw consequences on this fashion Whatsoever is done by man against the present perswasion of his Conscience which admits it with great reluctancy as irreligious is in him sinful Therefore the Invocation of Saints or Angels by Papists who desire them to pray for them when they do not hear though they in their Conscience believe they do is a wicked practice because it ariseth not from faith or perswasion Had they said every thing in such weak and unconcluding Logick they had wounded their own cause more than that of their Adversaries If now there were nothing in this Romish Invocation besides their desire of Angels and Saints to pray for them to God Almighty I should forbear to call it Idolatry and give it the softer names of misperswasion impertinence irrational or fruitless beating the air For they amongst them who are the more prudent suppose the Saints to hear them by other means than by Divine Omnipresence and infiniteness of Understanding and they call upon them for such an Office as a good man on earth would do for them much more a Saint or Angel in Heaven For what Christian will deny the Petition of his Neighbour when he desireth him only to pray to God for him unless perhaps he neglecteth Prayer himself and appeareth to have sinned a sin unto death of which they are scarce guilty who beg the Prayers of others such piety being seldom discerned either in presumptuous Christians or in Apostates But in the Romish Invocation there is much more than a praying to Saints and Angels to pray for us It is not indeed intentionally the worship of any of them under the notion of a supreme God how high a note soever doth sound in their Forms for that their own Church renounceth as Idolatry And the Church-men teach the people That it is lawful to worship Angels and Saints with Dulia or inferior honour proportioned to their Excellency but not as God or with Gods honour They give not to them Gods incommunicable honour if they understand the Rule of their Faith but to me they seem to give them honour beyond the proportion of their Excellency even that which God hath to himself reserved This is plain by the natural construction of their Forms which they have not otherwise interpreted but confirmed this meaning of them by their Doctrines and by their daily practice This is that which I here mean and think I shall evince That though they make not any Saint or Angel the supreme Governour of the World yet they constitute the Spirits of either kind Deputies or Lieutenants under God and suppose him not only as occasion serveth to use their Ministry but to make them Guardians Patrons and Patronesses and to allow them for such upon the choice of Worshippers on Earth They instruct the people in their Manuals not only how to address themselves to their Guardian-Angels but also to chuse and worship their Guardian Saints They teach them c in their daily Exercises to remember such Saints that for every office of life they may take to them particular Assistants that so they may pray with this Saint and sleep with that That one Saint may be present at their Canonical Hours when they read that another may be by when they hear a sacred Lecture when they work when they dine when they sup They teach them to select one or more out of the number of the Saints as their Patron to love them to imitate them through their hands to offer daily all their works to God to commend themselves to their protection morning and evening and at other times especially in difficulties and tentations to use them as witnesses and directors of their Actions They give to this Spirit this precinct and that to another They give to some Authority over this disease to others over that They substitute some over one part of nature and others over another part of it though I think they do not quite tye them from intermedling in one anothers Diocesses or Precincts And St. Paul the Patron of Mariners may be called upon in a Fever and St. Luke the Patron of Physicians may have his aid implored in a Tempest This is an opinion maintained by them without imputation of Heresie This they conceive to be consistent with the Worship of one supreme God to this they conform their daily practice This Lieutenancy of Saints if they do not really hold their Church is a very Roma Subterranea and there is nothing of its meaning to be discerned above
her as Queen of Heaven the Author of the Monument of Galeacius Caracciolus dedicateth it in the quality of a Marble-Chappel in thankful acknowledgment of the many favours she conferred on that Marquis and of the many evils from which she secured him At Rome in the Church Mariae S. Angeli the Inscription seemeth to install the Virgin into that Presidency over it which before was held by some god of the Gentiles A like change is insinuated in the Inscription found in the AEdes Martis turned into the Temple of St. Martina Now what seemeth all this but refined Heathenism When men trust in St. Hubert as the Patron of Hunters do not they the like to those who trusted in Diana the Goddess of that Game and the Patroness of Forests upon which account she was of old the celebrated Deity of this Island which then was a kind of continued Wood When they apply themselves in a strom to the Virgin Mary do not they the like to those who in perils by water called on Venus When they put confidence in St. Margaret or the Virgin Mary as the Patronesses of Women in Travail and Children in Infancy do they not follow their pattern who relied on Diana Statina or Cunina in such cases When they pay their Vows to the Virgin for the safety of their Children do they not like Bassa or Sulpitia in the Inscriptions of Gruter who paid theirs in the same case to Lucina or Juno and to Castor and Pollux And is there so vast a difference betwixt the devotion of a Heathen Conquerour who offened his Sword to Mars and of Henry of Valois who obtaining a great Victory over the Rebels in Flanders consecrated to the Virgin the Horse on which he charged and the Arms with which he so successfully fought On both sides here is confidence in a Coelestial creature as a substitute of the supreme God and thanks most solemnly paid to it Only for the Objects the one sort of them is Christian the other Pagan but both kinds were reputed Divine and worthy by their Adorers both were judged Coelestial Magistrates and Senators as the Saints are called by Horstius and the Catechism of Trent And by the Intercession of such Senators is often meant in the Church of Rome their prevalence with God in executing the office of their Patronage Hence they sometimes pray to God That the glorious Intercession of the ever-blessed and glorious Virgin Mary may protect them and bring them to life everlasting The particular Instances of the Romish Patrons and Patronesses are too many to be here Historically spoken of I find enough of them together in the learned Homily against the peril of Idolatry and with them I will at present content my self What I pray you saith that Homily be such Saints with us to whom we attribute the defence of certain Countries spoiling God of his due honour herein but Dii Tutelares of the Gentile Idolaters such as were Belus to the Babylonians and Asfyrians Osiris and Isis to the Egyptians Vulcan to the Lemnians and to such other What be such Saints to whom the safe-guard of such Cities are appointed but Dii Praesides with the Gentiles Idolaters such as were at Delphos Apollo at Athens Minerva at Carthage Juno at Rome Quirinus c. What be such Saints to whom contrary to the use of the Primitive Church Temples and Churches be builded and Altars erected but Dii Patroni of the Gentiles Idolaters such as were in the Capitol Jupiter in Paphus-Temple Venus in Ephesus-Temple Diana and such like When you hear of our Lady of Walsingham our Lady of Ipswich our Lady of Wilsdon and such other what is it but an imitation of the Gentiles Idolaters Diana Agrotera Diana Coriphea Diana Ephesia c. Venus Cypria Venus Paphia Venus Gnidia Terentius Varro sheweth that there were three hundred Jupiters in his time There were no fewer Veneres and Dianae We had no fewer Christophers Ladies and Mary Magdalens and other Saints They have not only spoiled the true Living God of his due Honour in Temples Cities Countries and Lands by such devices and inventions as the Gentiles Idolaters have done before them but the Sea and Waters have as well especial Saints with them as they have had gods with the Gentiles Neptune Triton Nereus Castor and Pollux Venus and such other in whose places be come St. Christopher Clement and divers others and specially our Lady to whom Shipmen sing Ave Maris stella Neither hath the fire scaped the Idolatrous Inventions for instead of Vulcan and Vesta the Gentiles gods of the Fire our men have placed St. Agatha and make Letters on her day for to quench fire with Every Artificer and Profession hath his special Saint as a peculiar God As for example Schollars have St. Nicholas and St. Gregory Painters St. Luke neither lack Soldiers their Mars nor Lovers their Venus amongst Christians All Diseases have their special Saints as gods the curers of them The Pox St. Roche the Falling-evil St. Cornelis the Toothach St. Appolin c. Neither do beasts and cattel lack their gods with us for St. Loy is the Horseleach St. Anthony the Swineherd c. Where is Gods Providence and due Honour in the mean season Who saith The Heavens be mine and the Earth is mine the whole World and all that in it is I do give victory and I put to flight Of me be all counsels and help c. Except I keep the city in vain doth he watch that keepeth it Thou Lord shalt save both men and beasts But we have left him neither Heaven nor Earth nor Water nor Country nor City Peace nor War to rule and governn either men nor beasts nor their diseases to cure We join to him another helper as if he were a Noun Adjective using these sayings Such as learn God and S. Nicholas be my speed Such as neese God help and S. John To the Harse God and S. Loy save thee The Papists have read such Discourses as these and they endeavour to abate the force of them by the following evasion The reasonableness of making addresses to one particular Saint rather than another in some particular occasions will appear from the consideration upon which it is usually done And that is not a division of Offices among the Saints every one of whom may equally intercede without entrenching upon the propriety of another and their intercession may be implored by us in all kinds of necessities whatsoever But it is grounded upon a reflexion which the Suppliant makes either upon some signal Grace which shined in that Saint above others as Patience Humility Chastity c. for which reason the Church saith of every one of them Non est inventus similis Illi there was no other found like to him or upon the particular manner of his suffering Martyrdom or some particular Miracle or such like
Virgin asserted and also a proof of the Imposture of such Appearances from the Story it self which representeth not a blessed Saint ascribing all Glory to the great God but a vain perfon delighted with the unjust flatteries of her self This then is the way in which I conceive the Church of Rome giveth away a degree of the Honour of God the Father to wit by her disposal of the Government of the World though in subordination to his Supremacy unto Angels and Saints without any sufficient declaration from him that he hath been willing so to prefer them and by her worshipping of them in that quality which her own imagination hath enstated them in I am next to consider how the Church of Rome doth by such estimation and worship entrench on the Divine Honour with respect to Christ as Mediator God hath not owned any Substitute besides his Son who hath all power given to him being as God-man most capable of it And though the Church of Rome doth acknowledg Christ to be the Author of Salvation and the Supreme Patron and Mediator yet still it doth entrench upon his Honour in its worship of Saints three several ways First More particularly in that Worship which is given to the Virgin In the second place More generally in the worship given to so many Saints and Angels Thirdly In the frequency of the worship given both to the Virgin and to the other Heavenly spirits First The Honour of Christ is particularly abated in the customary worship of the blessed Virgin Abated I say not quite removed For the Prayers to her are still per Dominum through Christ her Son though it seemeth sometimes to be intimated as in the Monstra Te esse Matrem Shew thy Mother-hood in the Hymn Ave Maris stella that she can command his Answers And when God is invoked by her Merits her Merits are supposed to be derived from his But an abatement there is of Christs Honour by that supereminent Advancement which is given to her by the practice of that Church without any declaration contrary to it For that Church doth set her as Solomon did his Mother in the Throne with himself though on that hand which signifies that he is still the Supreme Now it is manifest that Honour is diminished both where it is equally shared and where a second keepeth not distance but doth obtain a point next to the first For from degrees of Power and Distance arise degrees of Honour and a Prince that sitteth alone in the Chair of State is thereby in possession of higher Honour than he who hath a Second sitting next him though on the less honourable hand And accordingly it was esteemed a defect in Policy both through the occasion given by it of being supplanted and through the diminution it made of Supreme Honour of which each degree is a degree of Power when any Princes in the Roman Empire such as AElius Adrianus and Antoninus the Philosopher admitted Seconds to sit with them in the Throne of Government though themselves reserved still the first Place and remained as it were the Heads of the Empire Now it is the practice of the Church of Rome to celebrate the Virgin as a kind of Co-Ruler with her Son to salute her as we heard but now from the Office of her Seven Allegresses as a Queen on the right hand of Christ in his Throne The Scripture hath in it this Prophecy of the Messiah There shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jess and a branch or flower shall grow or rise out of his roots Hierom Xaverius hath wrested this place even from the sense of the Vulgar Translation and he thus readeth it in his Persic Gofpel A true branch shall rise out of the root of Jesse and out of that branch a flower shall be born Misapplying the first to the Virgin and the second to Christ whilst both are spoken of him To this misinterpretation he might be led by the Hymn in the Breviary which saluteth her by the Title of the Holy Root And it is evident by the Psalter of Bonaventure which is known to turn Lord into Lady throughout the Psalms not omitting to Travest that place of The Lord said unto my Lord into Our Lady said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand and by Salazar who in his Commentary on the Proverbs interpreteth Wisdom of the Virgin that the Marians would scrue up the sense of the Old Testament into the assertion of a kind of coequality of the Virgin with Christ. Hence Baronius himself calleth her the Ark in one place and in another the Tabernacle The things relating to Christ under the New Testament are equally perverted by this inordinate devotion to that Virgin who cannot give those a welcome reception who with such affront to her Son make their Court to her As the Scripture mentioneth the Nativity of Christ celebrated by a Quire of Angels so doth the Roman Church observe the Nativity of the Virgin from a story of melody heard from Heaven by a devout man in a Desart on her birth-day Hierom Xaverius hath set down this Story for Gospel among the Indians and Innocent the fourth upon that report caus'd the dav to be Sacred As Christs triumphant Ascension is spoken of in the Scripture and observed in our Church so in the Legends of Rome there is frequent mention of her Assumption and it is in that Church celebrated with pomp Before that Office she is pictur'd in the Missal lately Printed at Paris ascending with a glory about her head in equal shew of triumph with Christ. As Christ is said in the Te Deum to have opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers so is the Virgin called by them the Gate and the Hall-gate of Heaven As he is called Gods beloved Son so is she called Gods beloved Daughter As Christ is said to be exalted above all things in Heaven and Earth so is the Virgin called the Queen of Heaven and sometimes the Queen of the Heavens in reference to the Angels and sometimes the Queen of Heaven and Earth Nay the Jesuit Rapine hath enstated her in that Empire without any mention of the King her Son as above her As Christ is acknowledged by Christians to be the Head of the Church and the only Mediator and Advocate so the Virgin is stil'd in the Synod of Mexico the Universal Patroness and Advocatress As the day has been divided into several portions in which devout people have prayed to God and Christ so seven Canonical Hours have been appointed for the worship of the Virgin As God and Christ have the Sunday sacred to them so in the Roman Church the Virgin hath Saturday On that day therefore saith Augustine Wichmans more Requests of miserable mortals are sealed by her the Chancelaress of the greatest King in the Court of Heaven than on all the
the bread of common Tables and not the natural body of Christ Also before the Administration of it which is done in a form of Prayer which requireth our Reverence the people are generally on their knees in devotion to God If any begin then to kneel their kneeling is by the Church declared to be at the Sacrament not to the Elements of it as they of Rome do towards which she alloweth not so much as a Prosopopeia in her Prayers and which are neither the Statues nor the Pictures of Christs Person though they be apt memorials of his Passion and are more safely received in their ordinary form than with such Figures as the Roman Church impresseth upon them of which great variety is to be seen in the Electa of Novarinus Further The Church of England to avoid all pretence of cavil and exception hath besides her Article against the Corporal Presence given to the world an express declaration of her design in the injunction of Kneeling She declareth that this is done in reverence and humility to Christ and not to the shews or substance of the Elements or to the natural body of Christ under the shews of Bread They who are acquainted with the writings of Monsieur Daille have no more reason to think him a Romanist than they have to take Bellarmine for a zealot amongst the Reformed Now this is the acknowledgment of that grave and learned person in his Apology for the Reformed Churches Whilst the Church of England declareth as it doth against the adoration of the external Elements their kneeling at the Communion cannot be taken for the worshipping of the Bread nor be thought any thing else but the worship of Christ himself reigning in the Heavens In this external Adoration of Christ the Church of England followeth the ancient Church which though it often adored by bowing and not kneeling yet sometimes it used that gesture and was never wanting in some sign of Reverence Such Adoration is mentioned by St. Chrysostom and particularly the gesture of kneeling or prostration in some places though Monsieur Larrogne hath not pleased when he had just occasion so to do to take notice of it That eminent Father in his third Homily on the Epistle to the Ephesians thus upbraideth the irreverent and indevout Communicant The Royal Table is prepared the King himself is present and standest thou gaping about Thy Garments are unclean and art not thou at all concerned at it But they are pure that is the Royal Table and the King of that Marriage-Feast wherefore fall down and communicate For the third Ceremony the bowing at the name of Jesus it is also enjoined not as duty in its nature necessary to salvation but as a decent sign of our inward esteem of that inestimable benefit which that name brings to our mind Of that just esteem and not meerly of the outward Ceremony I hope that zealous Gentleman spake who is reported to have wished that every knee might rot which would not bow at the Name of Jesus By bowing at this Name we advance not the Son above the Father but adore the whole Trinity whilst by the cue or sign of this name we are reminded of the greatest mercy that ever God vouchsafed the Name of Jesus displaying the wisdom and mercy of God beyond those of El Jah Adonai or Jehovah And for us to bow when-ever we hear that Name solemnly pronounced is no more to commit Idolatry than is our crying out at the reading of the Gospels Glory be to thee O Lord or O the depth of the riches of Gods mercy in Christ. For these words and that gesture are but external signs of the same inward acknowledgment and adoration And they who think we worship the very name when we bow at it are as grosly mistaken as the ignorant people in Athenaeus for some there mentioned when they heard others cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God save you or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God grant you life at the sneezing of any conceited that they adored either the very sternutation or the brain of man which then discharged it self of the fumes which oppressed it The Church of England doth not enjoin men to bow to the Name of Jesus as to an Object but only at it as at a signal by which they are admonished of the time of paying Reverence to God Neither is there any such form used in our Church as in the Church of Rome which to the Priests travelling into England prescribeth this out of the Missal of Sarum O God who hast made the most glorious name of our Lord Jesus Christ thy only begotten Son amiable to the faithful with the highest affection of suavity and terrible and dreadful to evil spirits mercifully grant that all they who devoutly worship this name on earth may perceive in this present life the sweetness of holy consolation and obtain in the life to come the joy of exultation and endless Jubilee by the same Lord. It is my opinion that the Judicious of that Church mean by that Name our Saviour himself as Redeemer of the World but the Church expresseth it self in such manner that to the people the Name of Jesus soundeth like some distinct adorable object For it speaketh of worshipping that Name it hath the Mass of the Name of Jesus the Litany of the Name of Jesus and such-like Forms which are apt to entangle common Hearers St. Ludgard would have such honour done not only to Christs Name but to that of the Virgin and he adviseth that when these words in the Tc Deum are repeated When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man thou didst not abhor the Virgins womb that then we bow down to the very ground And it is said d of St. Gerard Bishop of Canadium that is of Chonad in Hungary that by his zeal for the honour of the holy Virgin he brought it at length so to pass in that Country that when they heard the Name of our Lady pronounced they straightway fell on their knees and bowed their heads towards the earth And indeed nothing stoopeth lower than Superstition But in the Church of England the bowing is neither that of Superstition nor Idolatry but of Religious Reverence at the hint of a word which setteth forth to us all the dimensions or rather the infinity of the Divine Wisdom and Love Lee not then the ignorance or malice of men who make Court to nothing but their own Diana accuse that excellent Church of Idolatry which hath so carefully purged her self of Idols though not of all manner of Rites That had been to have swept away the convenient Ornaments of Gods house together with the durt of it the name which the Jews give to an Idol Of some in England who have rent themselves from the safe Communion of that Church there may be juster reason for such complaint What can judicious men think of the true
too that God walked in Paradise Hear the answer I make to this Objection God indeed and the Father of all things is neither shut up in a place nor found in it For no place is there in which God can in such manner dwell In the mean time his Word by which he made all things being the Power and Wisdom of the Father himself personating the Father who is Lord of all came into Paradise in his Person and spake unto Adam who in the Scripture is said to have heard the voice of God Now Gods voice what is it else but the very Logos or Word of God which is likewise his Son After Adam was driven out of Paradise the Logos appointed a kind of Shechinah in the appearance of Angels to guard the way of the Tree of Life These I conceive were a Cherub and a Saraph and that the latter an Angel in the opinion of Maimonides himself was meant by the flaming-sword turning every way the versatile tayl of a Saraph or flame-like winged Serpent not being unaptly so called And this conceit when I come to explain my self about Urim and the brazen Serpent will seem less extravagant than now it may do in this naked Proposal And yet as 't is thus proposed 't is not so idle as that of Pseudo Anselm who will have this guard to be a Wall of Fire incompassing Paradise In process of time when Cain and Abel offered to God their Eucharistical Sacrifices the Son of God again appeared as Gods Shechinah and testified it may be his gracious acceptance of the Sacrifice of Abel by some ray of flame streaming from that glorious visible Presence and re-acting to it whilst he shewed himself not pleased with the offering of Cain by forbearing as I conjecture to shine on his sheaves or to cause them to ascend so much as in smoke towards Heaven And with this conjecture agreeth the Translarion of Theodotion in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Lord had respect to the oblations of Abel and set them on fire That seemeth to be the most ancient way of answering by Fire some obscure characters of which we may discern in that lamp of fire which passed betwixt the pieces of Abrahams Sacrifice And much plainer footsteps of it are to be seen in the contest of Elijah with the Prophets of Baal whom that true Prophet of the God of Israel vanquished by that sign triumphing also thereby over that false Deity which they so vainly and with Battologie invoked I doubt not but God vouchsafed to men many other appearances of his glorious Shechinah besides those granted to Adam and Abel before he expressed his high resentment of the immorality of the world in the Flood of Noah But we have no large Registers of the Transactions of those times PART 4. Of the Shechinah of God from Noah to Moses THis eminent declaration of God as a God of judgment by sending such a deluge not having its due effect on Cham God with great justice withdrew as I conceive this glorious Shechinah from him and his Line which continued his wickedness as well as his name From them he withdrew it especially though to the rest it appeareth not to have been a common favour Cham and his race being thus left to the vanity of their own brutish minds that race in the first place worshipped the Sun as the Tabernacle of the Deity that being the object which next to Gods Shechinah did paint in the brain an Image of the most venerable luster and perhaps likest to that glorious flame of Gods Shechinah which had formerly appeared for so glorious was that Planet in the eyes of the very Manichees in after-times that they esteemed it the seat of Christ after his Ascension and Installment in Heaven I have guessed already that this kind of Idolatry was exercised and with design promoted at the building of the Tower of Babel Now towards the prevention of that impious design the Shechinah of God appeared on the place For so Novatianus argueth from those words in the Eleventh of Genesis Let us go down It could not said he be God the Father for his Essence is not circumscribed nor yet an Angel for it is said in Deuteronomy That the most high divided the Nations It was therefore he that came down of whom St. Paul saith He who descended is he who ascended above all Heavens So that the Arabick Version the Angels came down must be interpreted of that part of the Shechinah which is made up by their attendance on the Son of God Whilst God was thus angry with the race of Cham it pleased him to vouchsafe though not in the quality of a daily favour the appearance of his Shechinah to that separate or holy seed from whence his Son not yet incarnate was to take the substance of his flesh A great Instance of it we have in the appearance which he vouchsafed to Abraham who often saw the Shechinah of God and in that manner communed with him so great was the ignorance of the Jews and causless their malice when they raged against the Son of God because he professed himself to have existed before that ancient Patriarch Such fall under the heavy sentence of the Council called at Sirmium a City of the lower Pannonia where the Eastern Bishops concluded on a Creed against Photinus who Haeretically maintained That Christ appeared not before he was born of the Virgin Of that Creed this is one of the Decretory clauses Whosoever saith that the unbegotten Father only was seen to Abraham and not the Son let him be accursed The second Chapter of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius is wholly spent in the proof of the Pre-existence of Christ. And in that place as also in his Book of Evangelical Demonstration he insisteth amongst many other Examples on that of Abraham to whom Almighty God did once by his Son shew himself a while in the common similitude of a man at the Oak of Mamre the Shechinah in its especial luster being for a short season intercepted That Place from this occasion was for many ages esteemed sacred so high a respect there is in man for the visible presence of a Divine Power But such things being apt to degenerate into abuse the same place by degrees became sacred in the sense of the Heathens that is polluted with many idolatrous superstitions At length the Piety of Constantine the Great did there erect a Church for the worship of Christ who had appeared in that place in a like form they say to that which he afterwards assumed with personal union Another appearance was vouchsaf'd to Abraham when the Judgment of Fire was imminent over Sodom Moses witnesseth That he who revealed this overthrow to the Patriarch was truly God whilst he introduceth Abraham using towards him the Divine style of the Judg of all the earth and that this Lord and Judg was
First it containeth not in it Infinite Wisdom but standeth in need of a Pattern to work by an external Exemplar for Psyche is represented as an under-Artist not having the Idea or Model in its own mind but following one exhibited by his superior Master He made the world saith Timaeus after the eternal form Secondly It containeth not in it Omnipotence For though it framed the world very excellently yet it is said to have been in part resisted by the stubbornness of Hyle and not to have done all it desired but all it could Plato saith in his Timaeus that God or Psyche designed all things to be good and nothing to be evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as far as nature would suffer him and again as far as it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a possible thing It seems the matter was not such pliable wax as would receive the impression in such manner as Psyche would have been pleased with To this effect there is a remarkable place in Hierocles who thus repeateth the opinion of certain followers of Plato who question'd both the Infinite Wisdom and Power of Psyche They think not that there is In the Demiourgus sufficient power whereby through its own wisdom by which it maketh things out of eternal matter for so I construe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not with the Translator Qua ab omni eternitate Res efficit which contradicteth the scope of the place the world may perfectly be ordered but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the mutual aid of unbegotten Hyle and by using extrinsick nature exhibited before it it may accomplish its work It is true the common Copy Reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which surprizeth me Grotius translateth it generatae materiae ministerio But it is directly contrary to the tenor of the Platonists there cited and to the following Discourse which is such that Hierocles believ'd they held matter to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ungenerated not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being before time which they say began with the sensible world but likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being without all Cause in which sense the T' Agathon only is to be called unbegotten By this it should seem that the Demiourgus is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the servant of matter as the Egyptians in Herodotus do stile him And this Plutarch also teacheth saying The essence of Matter out of which this World was made was not generated but laid always as far as it could before the Workman to be disposed and ordered by him according to his Exemplar or likeness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as possible might be A. This puts me in mind of what you affirmed before that Matter was by Plato made to be eternal So did Theodoret before you as well as Plutarch But is this manifest from Plato himself B. It is Insomuch that by some Platonists Hyle is called the Sister of Psyche Plato in Timaeus of the Soul of the World does expressly call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eternal and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unbegotten And again he saith in the same Page that before the Heaven was made by which in that place he means this World there existed in the Logos or Intellectual World Idea and matter to which he adds also in that Discourse the Demiourgus A. What then is the meaning of the making of the World and the novity of its essence so often mentioned in the School of Plato B. There is meant by it not any Temporal Creation of the very substance of Matter but the production of this form out of formless Hyle which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or shapelesness God saith Plato meaning Psyche made this World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all the Praeexistent Matter He made it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the things not seen out of simple Matter void of Phaenomena but not say they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of very nothing Matter therefore the most simple Hyle is with them eternal and makes up a fourth thing in the first Quaternio of the Pythagorick Tetractys the three first being T' Agathon or Aitia Nous or Logos Psyche or Demiourgus A. I had thought with some in Drusius on the name Jehovah that the Tetractys was the Tetragrammaton that secret and mysterious name of God most high which Pythagoras revealed to the Gentiles B. By no means Had it been in his time so superstitiously reverenced and a name above all other names a Jew would never have cast such a Pearl before a Gentile and especially before such a one a kind of Magical Gentile whom he had in abhorrence as much as a swine This name was no mystery among the Greeks as is evident from the mention of Jerombalus or Jerombaal a Priest of the God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Sanchuniathon of Jaho in St. Hierom and the Sibylline Oracles of Jaoth or Jaoh in Irenaeus of the Hebrew-God called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Gnosticks in a Manuscript of Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Clemens Alexandrinus of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Principle of the first Gnostick Heaven in Epiphanius the God of Moses in Diodorus Siculus the God Bacchus in the Oracle of Apollo Clarius and lastly as was said of the Samaritan God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Theodoret And certainly the Jews before the Captivity knew well enough how to pronounce this name nor doth it appear in all the Bible that they feared to reveal it A. What meaneth that place in Exod. 6. 3. But by my name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was I not known unto them B. It meaneth that Goâ—… having actually given defence and plenty to Abraham Isaac and Jacob was already known to them by the names of El Almighty and Schadai Alsufficient But that having not fulfilled to them his Promise of giving to them or their seed the Land of Canaan was not yet known to them by his name Jehovah or Jahveh which comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hajah which signifies to Be and Exist and imports a God constant to his word and the same to day yesterday and for ever A. If the Tetractys of Pythagoras be not the Tetragrammaton of Moses what other thing is it B. I can judg it no other thing than that which Plutarch thought it The Pythagorean World This World as the same Plutarch observeth consisteth of a double Quaternary The Quaternary of the Intellectual World is T' Agathon Nous Psyche Hyle The Quaternary of the sensible World which is most properly the Pythagorean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Fire Air Water and Earth The four Elements called by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Roots or Principles of all mixed Bodies in these ancient Greek
Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Jupiter the Fire Juno the Air Pluto the Earth and Nestis or the womb the Water are the four Roots of all Things The like we find in the Form of the Pythagorick Oath in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A. This to me is a Pythagorick Riddle How do you expound it B. I construe the Dystich thus No or yea By Him from whom we learned the Tetractys for they swore by their Master a fountain containing in it the Roots or Elements of everflowing Matter For so I interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as some of eternal Matter of which the Elements are not the Roots and which is not here spoken of but of the second Matter which perpetually changeth its shapes the first being neither this or that but ingenerable and incorruptible Hyle Now if I am mistaken in this notion of the Tetractys I err with company For Hierocles in a place little observed does seem to say the same thing The Tetrad said he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the framer of all things and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cause or the T' Agathon frequently so called by the modern Platonists and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Idea or Intellectual World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The cause of the Heavenly that is of the ethereal first Matter and of that which is sensible A. This Interpretation of the Tetractys seems not wide of the scope of Pythagoras and Plato But for the Triad methinks you are more severe than you need to be in explaining or to express your humour more properly in exposing of it There must surely be somewhat more Divine in that Notion than you allow seeing it hath spread it self very widely among the Gentiles and thereby seems the dictate of that reason which is common to them all B. You argue upon an usual mistake Many such Doctrines are spread very far but often they come from one only root and that is not true reason but the authority of some one fam'd Master in Learning The Bellweather goes first and a numerous flock follow him upon no other motive often-times but because they see him go before them Orpheus is followed by Pythagoras and he by Plato and thousands of others in successive Ages A. There is no effect without its cause What I pray you did move Orpheus or Pythagoras or Plato or him whoever he was that was the Beginner to take up at first this Doctrine of the Triad B. The other extream opinion of those Philosophers who were meer Atomists A. How could that be they were the followers of Moschus or Mochus that is Moses whom Orpheus and Pythagoras and Plato rather follow than contradict B. That Moschus was Moses Mr. Selden Arcerius in his Notes on Jamblicus and divers others seem to believe for no other reason that I know of than because the names are a little like one another But Mochus or Moschus was plainly a Phaenician of later times and one who opened a School at Sidon He is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Laertius and Suidas Laertius maketh him a Phaenician and one of those Barbarians as he calls them from whom Philosophy had its birth e're it was propagated in Greece And he numbers him with Zamolxis the Thracian Atlas the Libyan and Vulcan the Egyptian But it is not of any moment here to inquire any further about him I know not whether he were such an Atomist as I am here speaking of to wit a perfect Materialist denying the Existence and the very notion of Incorporeal substance In opposition to such the Pneumatists framed the Platonick Triad after this manner The Swmatists or Materialists supposed nothing to be in the world but Body and all body to exist eternally of it self in its essence though not in its modes without all cause The Pneumatists opposed this Dogma by asserting one supreme Incorporeal substance the Aitia or cause of all Beings besides its own the T' Agathon or fountain-good whence all Essence flowed The Materialists supposed that this visible World was the only World and that all Ideas and all pretences of Incorporeal Beings were but so many impressions of motion on the brain This Dogma the Pneumatists opposed by asserting separate Ideas and an Intellectual World a Nous or Logos The Materialists supposed the frame of the visible World to have been made at adventure and by a fortuitous concourse of Atoms The Pneumatists opposed this Dogma by affirming two things First that there was not only Matter and Motion but a Demiourgus an Incorporeal workman governing the disorderly motion of the Chaos and disposing of the rude Materials in it into a Regular System Secondly That this Artificer did not work at adventure but accorrding to an excellent Exemplar laid before him A. I perceive you still so explain this Triad that you will not allow Plato to Christianize Nay I find elsewhere that you do not think him so much as to Mosaize which is very hard measure and such as others have not meted to him B. I do not say that he did not Mosaize but that to me it was not manifest that he did A. When he saith in his Timaeus That the Father having made the World was exceedingly transported at the work of his hands doth he not borrow from Moses who said That God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good B. It is not manifest that he did It is natural for any man to say after the description of an excellent and an agreeable performance that the Artist was pleased with what he had done Further it is here to be observed that Plato in that place speaketh not as Moses of God the supreme self-originated Father but of the third Principle or Demiourgus whom he stileth emphatically the Father and Genitor of the visible World For to the T' Agathon Plato ascribes not such Fatherhood and Generation but says of all things flowing from him that they were unbegotten that is not formed as he says this World was out of praeexistent Matter by Psyche A. Though the Demiourgus of Plato may not be the Mosaic maker of the World yet he may seem at least to be the Spirit of God which as Moses teacheth moved upon the face of the waters For Plato maketh his Third principle to agitate the Chaos B. Neither is that evident for the Text may be interpreted of a Wind of God that is according to the Jewish Idiom of a mighty wind so moving The Winds of God saith the Arabick Version blew upon the face of the waters A. Though you evade this yet I hope you will grant something in favour of Orpheus Pythagoras and Plato You will grant sure that they received the Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul from the Cabala of Moyses and were thereby great Benefactors to the Gentile-world