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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56393	Reasons for abrogating the test imposed upon all members of Parliament, anno 1678, Octob. 30 in these words, I A.B. do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, profess, testifie, and declare, that I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, at, or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever, and that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous : first written for the author's own satisfaction, and now published for the benefit of all others whom it may concern.	Parker, Samuel, 1640-1688.	1688 (1688)	Wing P467; ESTC R5001	62,716	138

to their Duty to himself among these the chiefest are Circumcision and the Sabbath which he instituted as it were the two Sacraments of the Jewish Religion or the Worship of the Creator of Heaven and Earth to distinguish them from their Neighbour Nations who Worship only his Creatures With Circumcision God sign'd his Covenant with Abraham which was the first Revelation of himself against Idolatry and the Foundation of the whole Mosaick Law which was seal'd to by this sacred Rite of Circumcision so that without it they were esteemed no better than Idolaters and an uncircumcised Man signifies no less than an Heathen This Reason is expresly given by God himself at the first Institution of it in his Covenant with Abraham I will establish my Covenant between thee and me and thy Seed after thee in their Generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God unto Thee and to thy seed after thee This is my Covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee every Male Child among you shall be Circumcised And you shall circumcise the Flesh of your Fore-skin and it shall be a Token of the Covenant betwixt you and me and therefore the uncircumcised shall be cut off from his People as having broken my Covenant i.e. renounced the true Religion which is as Grotius observes not reasonably to be understood of Infants but of Men grown to Years of Understanding whose Parents had neglected that Office in their Infancy and therefore if they did not supply that Defect when they came to Age it was looked upon as renouncing the Worship of the true God of which this was the first Sacrament or Ceremony of Admission into the Jewish Church which alone profess'd it and that is the Reason of St. Paul's Assertion Every Man that is circumcised is a Debtor to do the whole Law i.e. he that willingly and knowingly undergoes this initiating Ceremony by Vertue of that he obliges himself to the Observation of the whole Mosaick Law and all things commanded in it And for this Reason no Proselyte was admitted to the Paschal Festival the most sacred Solemnity of the Jewish Religion without Circumcision When a stranger shall sojourn with thee and will keep the Passover to the Lord let all his Males be circumcised and then let him come near and keep it and he shall be as one that is born in the Land for no uncircumcised Person shall eat thereof This seems to be the meaning of that Passage Ioshua 5. 9. when God commanded Ioshua to circumcise all the People that were born in the Wilderness and that indeed is all then living for those that came out of Egypt were dead and when Ioshua had done it God tells him This day have I rolled away the Reproach of Egypt from off you the Reproach of Egypt was their Idolatry which they had now renounced by the Sacrament of Circumcision And accordingly in the Persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes to abolish the Jewish Religion and establish Idolatry the Jews are commanded to leave their Children uncircumcis'd and the Apostates endeavoured to blot out the Marks of their Circumcisioni and certain Women that had taken care to circumcise their Children were put to Death and the Infants hanged about their Necks That was the distinctive Mark through all Ages between a Worshiper of the true God and an Idolater So that it was the same thing not to be circumcised and to apostatise to Idolatry The second and indeed the greatest Bar of all against Idolatry was the Institution of the Sabbath in memory of Gods Creation of the whole visible World and for that reason this Doctrine of the Sabbath was reputed as fundamental an Article in the Jewish Church as the Doctrine of the Cross in the Christian because all other Articles of their Religion depended upon the belief of their God's Creation of the World. And therefore when God had given Moses a compleat Body of Laws for his own Worship he ratifies and as it were comprises them all in a vehement and reiterated pressing that one Law of the Sabbath Exod. 31. v. 12. to the end of the Chapter And after the Children of Israel had committed Idolatry in worshiping the Golden Calf for which God had for some time cast them off he is at last prevailed upon by Moses to renew his Covenant with them upon a new Contract First That they worship none of the Gods of the Heathen Nations nor ever use any of their Rites and Ceremonies And then that they be more careful to observe the Passover and the Sabbath Exod. 34. 12. And the Observation of the Sabbath is again enforced in the very beginning of the next Chapter as the Bond and Epitome of the whole Law And Moses gathered all the Congregation of the Children of Israel together and said unto them these are the words which the Lord hath commanded that ye should do them Six days shall work be done but on the Seventh day there shall be to you a Holy day a Sabbath of rest to the Lord whosoever doth work therein shall be put to death As if the Sabbath alone were the whole Law according to that Saying of the Talmud Whosoever denies the Sabbath denies the whole Law. Because that 's an Acknowledgment of the Creator of the World as the Author of the Mosaick Law. And for that reason the Almighty upon all occasions styles himself in Scripture Creator of Heaven and Earth which we improperly enough translate Possessor of Heaven and Earth and indeed the History of the Creation it self and the whole Pentateuch seem to have been written on purpose to prevent Idolatry or the Worship of Created Beings and therefore Moses doth not set down the Creation of the Universe in gross but of every part by it self particularly of the Sun Moon and Stars And that is in it self a sufficient Security against giving them that were meer Creatures the Worship that is only due to the Creator And this seems to be the reason of the particular form of words in the Fourth Commandment Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy for in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh day As if he had said be sure that you be particularly mindful of this Commandment of the Sabbath above all others for it is a Day dedicated to the Eternal Memory of the Creation and therefore enjoyn'd to be observ'd every Seventh Day that it may continually bring to mind that great work and never suffer it to decay out of thy Memory And from hence it is that the Precepts of not worshiping Idols and observing the Sabbath are so frequently coupled together in the Scriptures as if they were inseparable Exod. 23. 12 13. Six days thou shalt do thy work and on the seventh day thou shalt rest and make no mention of the Names of other Gods neither let them be heard out of thy mouth Levit. 19. 34. Ye shall keep my

Sabbaths I am Iehovah your God turn ye not unto Idols nor make to your selves molten Gods I am the Lord your God. Levit. 26. 1 2. Ye shall make ye no Idols ye shall keep my Sabbaths Ezek. 20. 18 20. Walk ye not in the statutes of your Fathers nor defile your selves with your Idols and hollow my Sabbaths that are for a sign between you and me that you may know that I am Iehovah your God for their hearts went after their Idols so v. 24. they polluted my Sabbaths And as these Commands are so frequently joyned together so is the violation of them as if they could not be parted Ezek. 20. 16. They polluted my Sabbaths and their eyes were after their Fathers Idols And King Ahaz when he set up Idolatry he in Contempt turn'd the Covert for the Sabbath out of the House of the Lord. 1 Mac. 1. 44. And many of the People consented to the command of the King and sacrificed to Idols and prophaned the Sabbath So necessary was it for the observation of the Sabbath and the Worship of the true God to run the same Fate or stand and fall together because the Sabbath was instituted in memory of the Creation of the World by the true God and therefore the belief and observation of it was an open Defyance to all Idolatry as the Psalmist joyns them together All the Gods of the Heathens are Idols But the Lord made the Heavens And this is the distinctive Character that God hath given between himself the only true God and the Heathen Idols or Vanities The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth shall perish from the Earth and from under the Heavens The Lord hath made the Earth by his Power he hath framed the Universe by his Wisdom and hath stretched out the Heavens by his Discretion Now the Observation of the Sabbath as instituted in honour of the invisible Creator of the visible or material World being the fundamental Article of Faith in the Jewish Church in opposition to Idolatry or giving the Worship of the supreme Deity to created Beings it is for that reason more frequently recited than any other Law and its Breach as severely punished as Idolatry it self the recital of this Command is almost half of the Law and the Prophets and the violation of it certain Death as a Crime of the same Nature with Idolatry it self So evident is it through the whole Series of sacred History that the Sabbath was instituted in opposition to Idolatry and that the Idolatry it was opposed to was the Worship of created Beings as the supreme uncreated Deity To conclude this Argument tho I designed to confine my self to the Testimony of Holy Scripture that is the only competent Witness in the case yet I find such a pregnant Passage cited out of St. Cyril of Alexandria to the same purpose with the Premises from his own Observation of the Train of Scripture History that it were great pity to rob the Reader of so fair an Authority After the Israelites says he left their own Country to sojourn in Egypt in process of time they lost all memory of their Ancestors and descent from the Line of Abraham so that their antient Customs being worn out by degrees and the Religion of their Forefathers disus'd they were at length debauched by conversation with the Egyptians to Idolatry and gave the worship of the supreme God to the Sun and under him to the Heavens Earth Moon Stars And therefore when God delivered them out of their Egyptian Bondage to bring them to the promised Land he peremptorily commands them to discard all their Egyptian Errors but because there was need of an evident sign by which they should as it were be forced to confess that Heaven was made by his Almighty Power and that the Sun Moon and Stars and all other Beings were the works of his hands he commands the Festival of the Sabbath as a Memorial and Imitation of himself and his work and therefore they that devote themselves to rest as their Creator rested by that acknowledge that all other things were the product of his Power and that is the natural design of the Sabbath Rest to affect them with a sense of the supreme Deity or Creator of all things In the second place a very great and considerable part of the Mosaick Law was enacted purely in opposition to the Old Heathen Rites and Customs Here I omit the Idolatry of the Zabii so much of late insisted upon by learned Men because I find no antient Footsteps of any such People in the World. The Mahometan Arabic Writers are the first that make any mention of them and their Divinity as the Arabians describe it is a meer Fanatick Rhapsody of Chaldaism or Astrologick Idolatry Iudaism or the History of the Patriarchs turned into Fables Gnosticism or the Worship of Demons and Angels Pythagorism or turning all things into Allegories and therefore must be of a much younger Date than Christianity The first time we read of them is in the Alchoran and Mahomet gives them that name of Zabii because they lay Eastward from Arabia for so the Word signifies Easterlings Or more probably from a Fanatick Imitation of the Old Testament that frequently and commonly styles the Heathen Idolaters by the Title of the men of the East i.e. the Chaldeans who were situated Eastward of Iudea After him we have no account of any such Nation as the Zabii till about Eight Hundred Years since For the Prophet and his barbarous Followers as they conquered destroyed all Monuments of Learning till being setled in Peace and Empire as is the manner of all Barbarians they betook themselves to the humour of Learning and translated Books out of other Languages not only Greek and Latin but of their Neighbour Nations into their own Tongue This is the most antient Account after all the noise that has been made of their extreme Antiquity that we have of any Zabian Writers so that setting that Modern Nation aside the Mosaick Rites were instituted in opposition to the more antient Idolatry of their Neighbour Nations particularly the Egyptians and the Canaanites of whom there was most danger by reason of their late conversation with the one and their new conversation with the other And therefore against these God arms them with a special Caution After the doings of the Land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt shall ye not do and after the doings of the Land of Canaan whether I bring you shall ye not do neither shall ye walk in their Ordinances This contrariety of the Jews to the Laws and Customs of all other Nations is made use of by Haman to King Ahasuerus to procure their Destruction Esther 3. 8. And Haman said unto King Ahasuerus there is a certain People scattered abroad and dispersed among the People in all the Provinces of thy Kingdom and their Laws are divers from all People neither keep they the Kings Laws

designed against themselves But the highest Declaration of the French Protestants is that sent by their Embassadors to the German Divines assembled at Wormes Anno 1557. in which Business Beza was chief Manager We confess say they that in the Supper of our Lord not only all the Benefits of Christ but the very Substance of the Son of Man the very real Flesh the very Blood that he shed for us not only to be signified or Symbolically Typically or Figuratively to be proposed as the Memorial of a thing absent but to be truly represented exhibited and offered to be received the Symbols by no means to be thought naked being annexed which because of the Promise and Engagement of God always have the thing it self truly and certainly conjoin'd whether given to the Good or to the Bad. But these Civilities and Condescentions were made in their low Ebbs of Fortune For whenever they could flatter themselves with any Advantage of Interest no Accommodations would serve their Turn Thus at the famous Conference at Poissy before Charles the Ninth Anno 1561 where they supposed themselves warm and powerful enough by the Favour of the Queen-Mother who supported them for her own Ends of State and some great Ministers of State who by the way soon after proved Rebels I mean Coligny and his Faction Beza who was the chief Manager in behalf of the Protestants runs high in his Demands As to the Eucharist says he the Body of Christ is as far distant from it as the highest Heaven from the Earth For our selves and the Sacraments are upon the Earth but Christ's Flesh is in Heaven so glorified that it hath not lost the Nature but the Infirmity of a Body So that we are Partakers of his Body and Blood only after a spiritual way or by Faith. This Boldness highly offended the Queen and therefore he afterwards endeavoured to excuse himself by Palliations and softning Expressions but after all to avoid farther Equivocation he is hardly pressed to it by the Cardinal of Lorrain whether they would stand to the Confession of Ausburg Beza demurs and consults Calvin Calvin defies it and commands him to protest against it Upon which Occasion Osiander a plain Protestant in his History makes this Remark upon the Calvinian Honesty Heretofore says he when Peace was granted to the Protestants in Germany the Calvinists put in their Claim to their Share in it because they own'd the Ausburg Confession and it was subscrib'd by Calvin himself notwithstanding that at the same time they held contradictory Opinions But in the Conference at Poissy when they presumed that they had Strength and Force enough to defend their own Doctrines they openly rejected the Ausburg Confession when it was offered them by the Cardinal of Lorrain to subscribe as the only Article of Pacification And yet after this when they had not obtained their Ends they again in affront to their own Consciences cry up the Ausburg Confession as their only Standard of Faith not that they approved it but under that false Guise to impose Calvinism upon the plain meaning Lutherans So far the Historian though the matter of Fact is its own best Proof This is the short Account of this Controversie in all foreign Churches All Parties of Christendom agree in the Substance of the Doctrine even the Calvinists themselves who tho they sometimes attempted to deny it had not Confidence enought to be steady to their own Opinion but were often forced to submit it to the consent of Christendom From all these Premises it is evident that no one thing in the World is more unfit to be set up for a Test than Transubstantiation seeing all Parties agree in the thing tho not in the Word and yet tho they do they again disagree in numberless Speculations about it and when they have done all Parties unanimously agree that the Modus is a thing utterly unknown and incomprehensible So that take it one way i. e. as to the thing it self or the real Presence the Test is a Defiance to all Christendom take it the other way as to the Modus it is nothing at all but only imposing an unintelligible Thing upon the Wisdom and Honour of a Nation under the severest Penalties As for the Church of England she agrees with the Tradition of the Catholick Church both Roman and Reformed in asserting the Certainty of the real Presence and the Vncertainty of the Manner of it tho the true account of it hath been miserably perplexed and disturbed by the oblique Practices of the Sacramentarians The first Account we have of it is in our celebrated Church-Historian out of Dr. Stillingfleet's famous invisible Manuscript whereby as he had before made Archibishop Cranmer a meer Erastian as to Discipline so now here he makes him a meer Sacramentarian as to Doctrine A Committee of selected Bishops and Divines being appointed in the First Year of King Edward for examining and reforming the Offices of the Church The First because most material Point was the Eucharist concerning which all things were put into certain Quaeries to which every Commissioner gave in his Answer in Writing And to the Question concerning the Eucharist What is the Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ in the Mass Cranmer's Answer is The Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ in the Mass is not so called because Christ indeed is there Offered and Sacrificed by the Priest and the People for that was done but once by himself upon the Cross but it so call'd because it is a Memory and Representation of that very true Sacrifice and Immolation which before was made upon the Cross. This is pure Zuinglianism and in Opposition to it it is asserted by Six Bishops in a Body I think it is the Presentation of the very Body and Blood of Christ being really present in the Sacrament which Presentation the Priest makes at the Mass in the name of the Church unto God the Father and in Memory of Christ's Passion and Death upon the Cross with Thanksgiving therefore and devout Prayer that all Christian People and namely they who spiritually join with the Priest in the said Oblation and of whom he makes special Remembrance may attain the Benefit of the said Passion And to these agree the several Answers of Carlisle and Coventry and Litchfield by which as the Historian well observes the Reader will perceive how generally the Bishops were addicted to the old Superstition and how few did agree in all things with Cranmer Now this Old Superstition that he finds in this passage is nothing but the true Old Protestant Doctrine of the real Presence in opposition to meer Figure and Representation which is all that is here asserted by the Bishops But this is the bold practice of this bold Writer to make Cranmer the Standard of the Reformation and this unknown Manuscript the Standard of Cranmer's Opinions and these two grand Forgeries concerning no Church Government and the meer Commemorative Presence in the Eucharist are the

enough in the Cause by making a Noise upon these Two loud Engines they could at pleasure drown the Dispute Now ever since this Alteration of the State of the War between the Two Churches we hear little or nothing at all of the real Presence in the Cause but it is become as great a Stranger to the i.e. their Church of England as Transubstantiation it self but the whole matter is resolved into a meer Sacramental Figure and Representation and a Participation only of the Benefits of the Body and Blood of Christ by Faith. I know not any one Writer of that Party of Men that hath ever own'd any higher Mystery but on the contrary they state all the Disputes about the Eucharist upon Sacramentarian Principles and with them to assert the true reality of the Presence of our Saviour's Body and Blood in the Sacrament as naturally resolves it self into Transubstantiation as that does into Idolatry And the main Argument insisted upon by them is the natural Impossibility of the thing it self to the Divine Omnipotence which beside the prophane Boldness of prescribing Measures to God's Attributes in a Mystery that they do not comprehend 't is as appears by the Premises a Defiance to the Practice of all Churches who have ever acknowledged an incomprehensible Mystery not subject to the Examination of Humane Reason but to be imbraced purely upon the Authority of a Divine Revelation And therefore that ought to be the only matter of Dispute For if it be a Divine Revelation as all Christendom hath hitherto believed that determines the Case without any further Enquiry and if any Man will not be satisfied with that Authority he makes very Bold with his Maker And Men of those Principles would no doubt make admirable Work with the Definitions of Articles of Faith by the Four first general Councils But to let their new way of Arguing pass it is these Men that first set up Sacramentarian Principles in this Church and then blew them into the Parliament House raising there every Session continual Tumults about Religion and it is to their Caballing with the Members that we owe these new and unpresidented TESTS Perhaps to have their own Decrees and Writings established by Law and imposed upon the whole Nation as Gospel In short if they own a real Presence we see from the Premises how little the Controversie is between that and Transubstantiation as it is truly and ingeniously understood by all reformed Churches If they do not they disown the Doctrine both of the Church of England and the Church Catholick and then if they own only a figurative Presence and it is plain they own no other they stand condemned of Heresie by almost all Churches in the Christian World and if this be the thing intended to be set up as it certainly is by the Authors and Contrivers of it by renouncing Transubstantiation then the Result and Bottom of the Law is under this Pretence to bring a new Heresy by Law into the Church of England And yet upon this Foot I find the Controversie stands at this present Day between the Bishop of Rome or the Bishop of Condom on one part and little Iulian in the Back-shop with his Dragoons on the other part The Bishop establishes the Real Presence in Opposition to the Figurative His Answerer turns the whole Mystery into meer Type and Figure by seting up a figurative Interpretation of the Words of Institution and yet confesses it at the same time to be somewhat more than a Figure To this it is reply'd I would gladly know what that is which is not the thing it self but yet is more than a meer Figure of it To this it is answered That the Presence is Spiritual but yet Real but how a Corporeal Substance should have a real Spiritual Presence is a thing that requires more Philosophy to clear it up than Transubstantiation or in the Words of the Author himself We suppose it to be a plain Contradiction that Body should have any Existence but what alone is proper to a Body that is Corporeal This is their last Resolution of this Controversie that a true real Presence is a Contradiction and so I think is a real spiritual Presence of a bodily Substance This Scent the whole Chace follows and unanimously agree in this Cry That there is no Presence but either meerly Figurative and that shuts out all Reality and is universally condemned by all the Reformation or meerly Spiritual i.e. the present Effects and Benefits of the absent Body and Blood of Christ which hath been all along equally cashiered by all other Reformed Churches as the other grand Scandal of Zuinglianism Thus the London Answerer to the Oxford Discourses There can be no real Presence but either Figuratively in the Elements or Spiritually in the Souls of those who worthily receive them So Dr. St. All which the Doctrine of our Church implies by this Phrase is only a real Presence of Christ's invisible Power and Grace so in and with the Elements as by the faithful receiving of them to convey real and spiritual Effects to the Souls of Men. The Oxford Answerer to the Oxford Discourses allows no other real Presence but the virtual Presence that is the meer Effect So the popular Author of the Discourse against Transubstantiation makes no Medium between the meer figurative Presence and Transubstantiation so that all other Presence that is not meerly Figurative comes under the Notion of Transubstantiation Now the gentlest Character he is pleased to give of this Monsieur is this That the Business of Transubstantiation is not a Controversie of Scripture against Scripture or of Reason against Reason but of downright Impudence against the plain meaning of the Scripture and all the Sence and Reason of all Mankind But besides the intolerable Rudeness of the Charge against all the Learned Men of the Church of Rome as the worst of Sots and Ideots if there be no middle real Presence between Transubstantiation and the Figure he hath cast all the Protestant Churches into the same Condemnation of Sots and Fools But howsoever rash and preposterous it may be for Presons that believe the real Presence to abjure the Word Transubstantiation ye to determine any part of Divine Worship in the Christian Church to be in its own Nature Idolatry is inhumane and barbarous IDOLATRY is a Stabbing and Cut-throat Word its least Punishment is the greatest that can be both Death and Damnation and good Reason too when the Crime is no less than renouncing the true God that made Heaven and Earth Thus Exod. 22. 20. He that sacrificeth unto any God save unto the Lord or Iehovah only he shall be utterly destroyed Deut. 13. 6. If thy Brother the Son of thy Mother or thy Son or thy Daughter or the Wife of thy Bosom or thy Friend which is as thine own Soul entice thee secretly saying Let us go and serve other Gods which thou hast not known thou nor thy Fathers namely

the Father of Abraham and the Father of Nachor and they serv'd strange Gods. But when Abraham came into Canaan I find no Records that the Customs of his Country had pass'd the River but on the contrary evident Instances of their Knowledge of the true God as Creator of Heaven and Earth What can be more plain than the Story of Melchisedeck Priest of the most High God a Term appropriate in Scripture to the Supreme Deity in his blessing Abraham Blessed be Abraham of the most High God Creator of Heaven and Earth And when God consumed Sodom and Gomorrah with Fire from Heaven Idolatry is no where reckoned among the Causes and Provocations of that severe and unusual Judgment and had it been one of their crying Sins it would have been the loudest and so never have been omitted by the Sacred Historian And when Isaac was forced by Famine into the Country of the Philistines Abimelech their King entred into a Solemn and Religious Covenant with him of mutual Defence and Offence upon this Inducement that he was the Blessed of the Lord or the peculiar Favourite of Iehovah so that as long as himself and Isaac were of a side the Supreme Gods immediate mediate Providence would be engaged in his Protection The first plain Intimation we find of it in Palestine is in the History of Iacob after his Conversation with the Shechemites where upon his departure from that City by God's especial Command he builds an Altar at Bethel to God and commands his Family to put away their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Strange Gods. And from this time we read of nothing of this Nature till the Deliverance of the Children of Israel out of Egypt after they had been deteined there Four Hundred and Thirty Years according to the Hebrew or Two Hundred and Fifteen according to the Seventy the greatest part of which time was spent in Slavery and Bondage But at and after their Deliverance we hear of nothing else but Cautions against Idolatry or Worship of Strange Gods as if in that long Tract of Time and Misery they had lost the Tradition of the God of their Ancestors and by long conversation with the Egyptians had taken up their Masters Religion together with their Burdens and it was scarce possible to be otherwise for men in their poor condition after so long a Tract of Time than to take up the Religion in publick Practice Long custom and conversation naturally inures Men to the Manners of the Country but Slavery breaks Men to them And what could be expected from miserable People who spent all their days in carrying of Clay gathering Straw making Bricks and all Offices of Servility than that they should serve their Masters Gods as well as their Masters themselves And that this was their case is evident from the whole Series of the Story The first Discovery that the Almighty made of himself was to Moses in the Burning Bush where he tells us I am the God of thy Fathers the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob But this seems to be a New Language to Moses For he replys When I come unto the Children of Israel and shall say unto them the God of your Fathers hath sent me unto you and they shall say to me what is his Name or what God is he what shall I say unto them To this he is commanded to answer I am that I am hath sent you that is the only self existent Being that is the only Supreme Deity and God of your Fathers And for the truth and demonstration of this he refers both him and them to the following Miracles And when Moses was discouraged by the complaints of the People because of their severe Usage the Almighty gives him encouragement upon this powerful Motive I am Jehovah or I am the Lord who will deliver you with a strong Hand or stretched out Arm i.e. I am that Omnipotent self-existent Being and that shall be the proof of it the great Miracles that I will work for your Delivery And at the time of their Deliveranee he immediately institutes the Passover not only as a Memorial of the Thing but as I shall prove afterwards the strongest Bar against Idolatry But as soon as they sat down at the Foot of Mount Sinah which was their first place of Rest God's first Care was to make further provision against Idolatry where after a fearful and glorious Representation of his Presence he gives the Ten Commandments whereof the Four First are directly levell'd against Idolatry First He enjoyns the worship of Himself who by his Almighty Power had delivered them from their Egyptian Bondage In the next place He forbids them the Worship of all Idols i. e. as himself describes them The likeness or similitude of any thing that is in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath or in the Water under the Earth A plain and indeed logical Definition this that Idolatry is giving the Worship of the Supreme God to any created corporeal or visible Deity or any thing that can be represented by an Image which nothing but coporeal Beings can and to suppose such a Being the Supreme Deity is the only true and proper Idolatry And tho there may seem to be two sorts of it First either to Worship a material and created Being as the Supreme Deity Or Secondly to ascribe any corporeal Form or Shape to the Divine Nature yet in the Result both are but one for to ascribe unto the Supreme God any corporeal Form is the same thing as to Worship a created Being for so is every corporeal Substance This is I say the true and only Notion of Idolatry And all the Strange Gods mentioned in the Scripture are only some most glorious Pieces of the visible Creation as I shall prove at large from undeniable Testimonies And for this reason it was that the very Angels by whom this Affair was immediately transacted never made any appearance in any visible Shape but only in a Cloud or in a Glory to prevent the very Peril of Idolatry and therefore Moses in his dying and farewel Speech reminds them over and over that at Horeb they heard the Voice of God but saw no Similitude with this Application to them lest you corrupt your selves i. e. by believing that there can be any Similitude of the Supreme Godhead And as this is the literal and plain Sense of the two first Commandments so it seems to be the only Design of the Third and Fourth For the English of the Third if it were rightly translated runs thus Thou shalt not give the Name of the Lord thy God to a Vanity or Idol and so the Septuagint render it For the Word Vanity and Idol are Synonomous in Scripture because an Idol is a vain and empty Thing that represents nothing for when it is set up as the Symbol and Image of a Deity that is no Deity it is the Image of nothing as St. Paul

defines it So that it is not the meer Image it self that is the Idol but the Image as representing a false God tho it be only a Symbol and not a Picture of him as most of the Heathen Images were of the Sun as the Calf and the Ram. These are the Vanities or Representations of False Gods in Use at that time among the Neighbour Nations that seem to be here properly interdicted in this Commandment As for the Fourth Commandment it is the very Sacrament of the Worship of the true God the Creator of Heaven and Earth in opposition to Idolatry or the Worship of his Creatures and therefore is prescribed as it were as the Holy Day of the Creation continually to mind the Iews that the God that they Worship was the God that made the World and all the Gods that their Neighbours worshiped particularly the Sun Moon and Stars his Creatures This then being set up as the great Festival of the Creator of Heaven and Earth from hence it was that the Precept of not Worshiping of Idols and Keeping the Sabbath are so frequently coupled together in Scripture and that the Breach of the Sabbath is punished in the same manner as Idolatry it self But I shall treat of this more largely when I come to a Review At present I have only given a narrow Prospect of the whole matter but upon a full and open View of the Mosaick History it will appear in full and undeniable Evidence by these Two Considerations First If we consider the great Propensity of the Israelites to renounce the Worship of the One True Invisible God and to return to their accustomed Worship of Idol Gods. Secondly If we consider that these Gods were nothing else but the Heavenly Bodies and that the Sun was worshiped as the Supreme Deity As to the first their continual Revolts and Rebellions against that Almighty God of whose Power they had had so much Experience could proceed from nothing less than the most inveterate and invincible Prejudices Their whole History from their first Deliverance to their last Captivity is nothing but a perpetual Series of Disloyalty against the God of Israel to play the Harlot as the Scripture expresses it or commit Fornication with the Idols of the Gentiles Psal. 78. We have an acurate Epitome of this whole History the Miracles that God wrought for them in Egypt in the Wilderness in the Land of Canaan notwithstanding all which as they made continual Attempts of Rebellion so they at last sunk into an universal Apostacy v. 58. Provoking him to Anger with their High Places and moving him to Iealousie with their Graven Images so that at length he gave them up into the Hands of their Enemies And first the Ten Tribes were lead away Captive and not long after the Tribe of Iudah as it immediately follows in the same Psalm God was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel so that he forsook the Tabernacle of Shiloh the Tent which he placed among Men and delivered his Strength into Captivity and his Glory that was the Symbol of his Divine Presence into the Enemies hand But to Trace a few Particulars The first Opportunity they could gain in the Wilderness after the miraculous Deliverance out of Egypt by the Absence of Moses they set up and worshiped the Golden Calf a Form of Worship they were accustomed to in Egypt what this Idol was is variously disputed by Learned Men some will have it to have been made in Imitation of the Cherubin when as yet God had made no Description of them Others and almost all the learn'd will have it to have been the Idol of Apis or Serapis or Osyris whom the Egyptians worshiped by that Symbol and that it was the same Idol is certain but I take it to be much more antient for as yet we find not any Footsteps of Divine Worship given to Men and Women That Folly is of a much younger Date and seems to have been brought in purely by the Grecian Vanity to derive the Originals of all Nations from Themselves and to People Heaven with their own Country-men Thus they tell us that this Apis was King of the Argives natural Son to King Iupiter by Niobe who marrying Isis left his Kingdom and went into Egypt who teaching the Barbarous People Civility and the Art of dressing Vines and Agriculture He was by common consent chosen their King and after he had Reign'd with extraordinary Wisdom and Mercy to the great Improvement of the Nation when he dyed they deify'd him and worshiped him under the Image of a Calf or Ox all which is pure Grecian Fable For Egypt had been a famous Nation many Hundred Ages before any of the Grecian Deities were born It was a flourishing Kingdom in the days of Abraham I am sure they knew how to dress their Vines and plow their Fields before there was any such Nation as Greece or any of its Cantons known by any Records There was no News of them till the Trojan War and that is the thing objected by all Writers to the Greeks both before and since Christianity that their remotest Antiquity is meer Novelty in comparison of the Egyptians and is confest by their own best and most antient Writers at least in these Antient Times there were no Men nor Women Deities Gods or Goddesses But when the Greeks had stollen their Religion from the Eastern Nations in requital they furnished them with Gods of their own and clapt the Heads of one of their own Country-men upon every antient Idol thereby gaining Reputation of Antiquity both to their Nation and Religion as if they had been as antient as the Egyptian and Oriental Idolatry Thus they fasten this old Idol of the Golden Calf upon King Apis whereas if there ever were any such Man for the Greeks have neither Faith nor Knowledge enough to be believ'd one Word in any matter of Antiquity either of their own or other Nations he was born many Ages after this Idol had been Famous in the World And in that unknown Interval of which there are no Historical Records and therefore the whole Story of him as well as of all the other Grecian Gods is nothing but Fable And much more probable it is that the Greeks were so far from bringing a God Apis into Egypt that they carried the very word thence Apis being the Hebrew and Egyptian Word to signifie a Calf or a Bullock and so it is rendred by the Septuagint Ieremiah 46. 15. in the Prophetick Burthen against Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why did your Apis fly or that your beloved Calf desert you because the Lord did drive him Tho we render it in the English Translation Why are thy valiant Men swept away So that the Calf can be nothing else than an Old Egyptian Idol or Symbol of some Deity that they had been accustomed to Worship And therefore thinking themselves betray'd or deserted by Moses after Forty Days Absence as for this

upon because of that great preheminence that they hold above all other Orders of Creatures A Man for Understanding an Eagle for Swiftness a Lyon and a Bull for Strength But what ever they were they were sacred Images set up by God himself in the place of his own Worship and he was so far from forbidding the use of Images in it that he would not be worshiped without them This is the true Account of Idolatry as it is stated in the Scripture from the grand Design of the Mosaick Law to restore the Worship of the true invisible God the Creator of Heaven and Earth in opposition to the Idols or created Deities of the Heathen World and by all wise Arts and Methods to keep them loyal to himself And this gives us the true Rationale of the Mosaick Law in which every particular Rite had some regard to Idolatry So that the Breach of any one ceremonial Law was a degree of it and to boil a Kid in its Mothers Milk was Idolatry as well as to offer Sacrifice to the Sun because the Heathens used that form of Ceremony in the Worship of that God. God did not think it sufficient for their security to forbid them the Worship of this false God but every minute Circumstance that belonged to it lest by degrees they might be reconciled to it And therefore God calls himself upon all occasions a jealous God and oftentimes a jealous Husband to let them know that they must not only avoid Idolatry it self but all the least appearances and suspicions of it by Heathen Compliances Now if we compare this antient Idolatry of the Jews with that of late charged by some men upon all Christians of the Roman Communion I know not which will appear greatest the Malice or the Folly of the Charge It consists of these three Heads I. The Worship of Images II. Adoration of the Host. III. Invocation of Saints All which are represented to the People as Crimes of the same Nature with the old Egyptian Idolatry But as to the first the Use of Images in the Worship of God I cannot but admire at the Confidence of these Men to make so bold a Charge against them in general when the Images of the Cherubim were commanded by God himself They were the most solemn and sacred part of the Jewish Religion and therefore tho Images so far from Idolatry that God made them the Seat of his Presence and from between them delivered his Oracles so that something more is required to make Idolatry than the use of Images This Instance is so plain and obvious to every Reader there being nothing more remarkable in all the old Testament than the Honour done to the Cherubim that 't is a much greater Wonder to me that those Men who advance the Objection of Idolatry so groundlesly can so slightly rid themselves of so pregnant a Proof against it It is objected I remember by a learned Adversary to the great Founder of this and all other Anticatholique and Antichristian and uncharitable Principles among us but he turns it off so carelesly as if it were not worth his Notice First That they only directed their Worship towards the Images Yea they did so as the Symbols of God's Presence and that is to Worship God by Images or to give the same Signs of Reverence to his Representations as to Himself And therefore when David exhorts the People to give Honour to the Ark he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bow down to or worship his Footstool for It or He is holy And if so much outward Worship may be given to Images as Symbols of the Divine presence it is enough to justifie it But however the thing stands the case of all Images is the same and a Roman Catholique may make the same Plea for his Church as this Author does for the Jews and if he accept it in one Case he cannot refuse it in another or if he does he will give but little proof of his Integrity At least God was not so nice and metaphysical in enacting his Laws by distinguishing between bowing to and towards or if these Gentlemen say he was they must shew us where But what Authority do these Men assume to themselves when by the precarious use of these two little Particles they think to make the same Act the Whitest and the Blackest thing in the World towards an Image 't is innocent to it Idolatry But let them take which they please for they are their own Carvers in all their own Controversies If it be no Idolatry to Worship towards an Image after all their Frights they fairly give up the Cause to the Church of Rome that requires no more But the second Reply is much more curious and metaphysical That the Cherubims were not seen by the People and adored but once a year by the High Priest Here then we distinguish between the Idolatry of the Sight and the Mind an Image seen is Idolatry but if covered 't is none So that to adore the Host exposed is Idolatry but in a Pix 't is none What Rubbish is here to stuff out so weighty an Argument But if they did not see their Images in the Ark they knew them to be there and of what Form they were being described to them by God himself in their Law. Upon these Terms it seems a Blind Man can never be an Idolater and if all the Romanists would shut their Eyes at convenient Times they would quit themselves of this black Accusation But the High Priest used this Solemnity only once a year If it were Idolatry it was as unlawful once a year as if done every day and if lawfully done but once a year it was no Idolatry It s being seldom or frequent makes no difference it is either always Idolatry or it is never so And yet these little Pretences are the last Result of this great Argument and when we have loaded the greatest part of Christendom with the foulest Crime in the World we think to make good the Accusation by such shameless Shifts and Pretences as these for in these Trifles the Dispute as to the Cherubim Images ended and yet the Clamour of Idolatry is kept up as high as ever to this very day But what Images do the Roman Catholiques worship Do they worship any Image or Symbols of False Gods as the Supreuse Deities If they do not then they are innocent of the worst part of Idolatry Or do they attempt to make a Similitude of the true God or uncreated Divine Nature That is the other part of Idolatry and the Scripture knows no more therefore however superstitious they may be in their use of Images yet they cannot be guilty of Idolatry but upon one of these two Accounts which no Man was ever yet so hardy as to charge upon that Church Till therefore it be proved that they worship Images of false Gods as the Supreme Deities or that they worship the true God by Corporeal