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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

Moses the Man that brought us up out of the Land of Egypt we wot not what is become of him they force Aaron to restore to them the Symbols of their Old Gods to go before them instead of this new God that now seem'd to have deserted them and to those they ascribe their Deliverance out of Egypt and this is the first chearful Act of Devotion that they seem to have perform'd since their Deliverance For as for all their Worship of the True God especially at the Delivery of the Law it seems to be forc'd and uneasie to which they were rather over-aw'd by dreadful Appearances than inclin'd by their own Choice And the Solemn Sacrifice that was made immediately after was the Act of Moses rather than the People who rather seem'd Spectators than Actors and therefore as soon as they thought themselves quit of him which was immediately after they set up their Idol and were transported in their Devotions towards it to a Degree of madness They rose up early in the Morning and offered Burnt-Offerings and brought Peace-Offerings and the People sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play This Solemnity had been endear'd to them by Custom and Education and there could be no other ground of their great Joy than that they were restored to the Exercise of their former Religion and the Worship of their Old Gods of which the Calf was one of the most eminent Symbols so that when they say that was the God that deliver'd them out of Egypt their meaning is the God of which That was the Symbol or Representation according to the Language of those Times and indeed of the whole Old Testament to give the Name of the Deity to the Idol Now at that time we find no other mention of any other Deities than the Sun and Heavenly Bodies so that this Calf could be the Symbol of no other Gods than the Sun and therefore was ever reckoned among their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their holy Animals as the Egyptian Priest and Antiquary Manetho informs us of which Aries and Taurus were the chiefest and both of them consecrated in honour of the Sun being the two first Signs in the Heavens but the Festival of Aries was the most Solemn when the Sun entring into that Sign began the Joyful New Year In Opposition to which the Israelites were commanded to cut the Throat of the Paschal Ram upon that very Day with all the Ceremonies of Contempt as shall appear more afterward This invincible Obstinacy in their Old Religion notwithstanding the mighty Works God had wrought for their Deliverance is severely upbraided to them long after by God himself to his Prophet Amos Have ye offered unto me Sacrifices and Offerings in the Wilderness Forty Years O House of Israel But ye have born the Tabernacle of your Moloch and the Star of your God Remphan and their Images which ye made to your selves This is a plain Description of their great averseness to the Worship of the True God in the Wilderness when God declares that in reality they never Worshiped him at all but stuck close to their old God Moloch which is but a Synonymous Word for the God Baal i. e. the Sun and therefore they are promiscuously us'd in Scripture to express one and the same Deity Thus Ieremy 19. 5. They have built the High Places of Baal to burn their Sons in the Fire for Burnt Offerings unto Baal But Chapter the 32. v. 35. the same Crime is thus express They built the High Places of Baal to cause their Sons and Daughters to pass through the Fire unto Moloch by which it is undeniably evident that they were but Synonymous Terms for one and the same God and indeed they are Words of the same Signification denoting Supreme or Kingly Power and so were appropriated by them to the Sun as Sovereign Lord of the Universe This strange Inclination of the Israelites to Idolatry or the Worship of Baal and Moloch is so vehemently upbraided to them in the Scripture as shews it to have been inveterate and impetuous beyond Example So God himself upbraids it to them that when he did such mighty things for them in their Deliverance from Egypt and only required them to renounce the Idols of Egypt Yet they rebelled against me and would not hearken to me They cast not away the Abomination of their Eyes nor the Idols of Egypt And when Ioshua had setled them in the Holy Land he forewarns them to serve the True God sincerely and to put away the Gods which their Fathers served on the other side the Flood and in Egypt By which it appears they had not yet parted with their Old Gods but the next Generation made a total Revolt and the Children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim and they forsook the Lord God of their Fathers which brought them out of the Land of Egypt and followed other Gods of the Gods of the People that are round about them and bowed themselves unto them and provoked the Lord to Anger and they forsook the Lord and serv'd Baal and Ashteroth This whole Book is nothing else but a Narrative of their Sin by Idolatry their Punishment by Captivity their Repentance by imploring of the Mercy of the God of Israel till at last after so many Relapses they are thus answered by God in their Addresses and Supplications unto him And the Children of Israel cryed unto the Lord saying We have sinned against thee both because we have forsaken our God and also served Baalim And the Lord said unto the Children of Israel did not I deliver you from the Egyptians from the Ammorites from the Children of Ammon from the Philistins Also the Zidonians and the Amalekites and Maonites did oppress you and you cry'd to me and I delivered you out of their hand yet you have forsaken me and served other Gods wherefore I will deliver you no more go and cry unto the Gods that ye have chosen let them deliver you in the time of your Tribulations But upon their Reformation they are delivered and as soon relapse of which a Train of Instances are to be seen in that Book Here it may be observ'd all along that the Scripture Notion of Idolatry is renouncing and forsaking the True God to Worship other Gods or Baalim that is Idols of the Sun whom they commonly call'd the King of Heaven And so they sin on till God suffered his own Ark the Symbol of his own Presence to be carried into Captivity They apply themselves to Samuel to intercede for them Samuel returns them the old Answer that God himself had often made If ye return unto the Lord with all your Hearts then put away the strange Gods and Ashteroth from among you and prepare your Hearts unto the Lord and serve him only and he will deliver you out of the Hands of the Philistins Then the Children of

two grand singularities of his History and the main things that gave it popular Vogue and Reputation with his Party and were these two blind Stories and the Reasons depending upon them retrench'd it would be like the shaving of Samson's Hair and destroy all the strength peculiar to the History The Design was apparently laid before the Work was undertaken that industriously warps all things into Irenical and Erastian Principles and the vain Man seems to have been flattered by his Patrons into all that Pains to give Reputation to their Errors And here lay the Fondness for the Stillingsteetian Manuscript that it so frankly and openly asserted Erastian and Sacramentarian Principles as the Bottom of the Reformation But if such an unprov'd and unwarrantable piece of Paper without any certain Conveyance or Tradition without any Notice of so publick a Transaction in any contemporary Writer without any other Evidence of its being genuine than that it was put providentially into the Hands of Dr. St. when he wrote his Irenicum must be set up for undoubted Record against all the Records of the Churches our great Historian would be well advis'd to employ his Pains in writing Lampoons upon the present Princes of Christendom especially his own which he delights in most because it is the worst thing that himself can do than collecting the Records of former times For the First will require Time and Postage to pursue his Malice but the Second is easily trac'd in the Chimney Corner And therefore I would desire these Gentlemen either to give a better Account of the Descent and Genealogy of the Paper than that it came to Dr. St. by Miracle or else to give it less Authority But to proceed a new Office for the Communion-Service was drawn up in the same Year by the Bishops in compiling of which Cranmer had the chief hand and by his great Power over-ruled the rest at Pleasure in this Service he retains the old Form of Words used in the ancient Missals when there was no Zuinglianism or Doctrine of figurative Presence in the Christian World and the real Presence was universally believed as appears by the very Words of Distribution The Body of our Lord Iesus Christ which was given for thée preserve thy Body and Soul unto everlasting Life And the Blood of our Lord Iesus Christ which was shed for thée c. This was the Form prescribed in the First Liturgy of Edward the 6th and agreeable to this are the King 's own Injunctions published at the same time where the Eucharist is call'd the Communion of the very Body and Blood of Christ by which Form of Words they then expressed the real Presence as oppos'd to Zuinglianism This Liturgy being thus established and withal abetted by Act of Parliament for some time kept up its Authority in the Church against all Opposition though it was soon encountred with Enemies enough both at Home and abroad out of the Calvinian Quarters At the end of the Year ensuing Peter Martyr a rank Sacramentarian came over and after much Conversation with Cranmer he was plac'd Regius Professor in Oxford where he soon raised Tumults about the Zuinglian and Sacramentarian Doctrines But Bucer that prudent and moderate Reformer came not till some time after though invited at the same time And so either came too late or departed too soon for as he came over in Iune so he dy'd in Ianuary so that tho he were a great Assertor of the real Presence as our Church-Historian himself often observes he had not a Season to sow his Doctrine and Martyr reigning alone and being a furious Bigott in his Principles it is no wonder if Zuinglianism spread with so much Authority But the most fatal Blow to the Reformation of the Church of England was given by Calvin's Correspondence with the Protector and afterwards with Dudley taking upon him to censure expunge reform impose at his own Pleasure the Malignity of whose Influence first discovered it self in the Ceremonial War against a Cap and a Tippet but soon wrought into the Vitals of the Reformation especially as to the Liturgy and the Eucharist both which must be removed to give way to the Zuinglian Errors This Alteration was made in the 5th Year of the Kings Reign tho precisely when and by what Persons is utterly unknown only it is remark'd by our Church-Historian to have followed immediately after the Consecration of Hooper When as he observes the Bishops being generally addicted to the Purity of Religion spent most of this Year in preparing Articles which should contain the Doctrine of the Church of England Among which the 29th condemns the real Presence as the new Liturgy to which they are annexed had before almost run it up to the Charge of Idolatry For they were not content to abolish the old Missal Form of Distribution The Body of our Lord Iesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy Body and Soul unto everlasting Life Take and eat this c. But instead of it appoint this Zuinglian Form Take and eat this without any mention of the Body and Blood of Christ in remembrance that Christ died for thée c. Neither were these Innovators whoever they were satisfied with the Alteration of the old Form but add a fierce Declaration to bar the Doctrine of Real and Essential Presence Whereas it is ordered in this Office of the Administration of the Lord's Supper that the Communicants should receive the same Kneeling which order is well meant for a signification of our humble and grateful acknowledgment of the benefits of Christ therein given to all worthy Receivers and for avoiding such Prophanation and Disorder in the Holy Communion as might otherwise ensue Yet least the same Kneeling should by any Persons either out of Ignorance and Infirmity or out of Malice and Obstinacy be misconstrued and deprav'd it is here declared that no Adoration is intended or ought to be done unto any real or essential Presence of Christ's natural Flesh and Blood for the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very natural Substances and therefore may not be ador'd for that were Idolatry to be abhorr'd by all faithful Christians and the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven and not here It being against the Truth of Christ's natural Body to be at one time in more places than one And whereas a body of Articles was composed at the same time it is declared in the 29th Article That since the very being of humane Nature doth require That the Body of one and the same Man cannot be at one and the same time in many places but of necessity must be in some certain and determinate place therefore the Body of Christ cannot be present in many different places at the same time And since as the Holy Scriptures testifie Christ hath been taken up into Heaven and there is to abide till the end of the World it becomes not any of the Faithful to

the Egyptians Assyrians and Chaldeans And that is my Second Head of Discourse that the Gods that they worshiped at that time were nothing but the Heavenly Bodies or the Sun as the Supreme Deity This is evident enough from what hath already been discoursed Idolatry in general being every where described in Scripture by the Worship of the Host of Heaven or Heavenly Bodies Thus Deut. 4. 19. Lest thou lift up thine Eyes to Heaven and when thou seest the Sun and the Moon and the Stars even all the Host of Heaven shouldst be driven tempted to worship them which the Lord thy God created for the use and benefit of all Nations under the whole Heaven So Chap. 17. v. 2 3. If there be found any among you that have wrought Wickedness in the sight of the Lord your God in transgressing his Covenant and hath gone and served other Gods and worshiped them either the Sun or Moon or any of the Host of Heaven ye shall stone him to Death 2 King. 17. 16. They left all the Commandments of the Lord their God and made them Molten Images two Calves and made a Grove and worshiped all the Host of Heaven and served Baal So Manasseh erected Altars to Ball and worshiped the Host of Heaven chap. 21. 3. So Iosiah when he destroyed Idolatry brought out the Vessels of the Host of Heaven And the Jews when after their return from Captivity they would enter their solemn Protestation against Idolatry they do it in this form Thou even Thou art Lord alone thou hast made Heaven the Heaven of Heavens with all their Host c. Nehemiah 9. 6. So Jeremiah 19. 13. Ierusalem and Iudah shall be destroyed because they have burned Incense unto all the Host of Heaven and have poured out Drink Offerings unto other Gods. So Zephaniah 1. 5. God threatens to destroy the Worshipers of Baal and of the Host of Heaven And lastly St. Stephen in his last Speech upbraiding the Jews with their Idolatry says that God gave them up to Worship the Host of Heaven So evident is the Practical Notion of Idolatry through the whole Series of Scripture that it was the worshiping the Heavenly Bodies as the supreme Deities or as Iob emphatically expresses it Chap. 31. ver 26. If I beheld the Sun when it shin'd or the Moon walking in brightness and my Heart hath been secretly enticed or my Mouth hath kissed my Hand this also were an Iniquity to be punished by the Iudge for I should have denyed the most High God. What can be more plain than this Definition of Idolatry that it is the Worship of the Sun and Moon because it would have excluded the Worship due only to the most High God And the very Word that we commonly translate Images in general signifies properly Images of the Sun. Thus Leviticus 26. 30. God threatens them I will destroy your Images as we translate it but in the Hebrew your Chamanim i.e. Images of the Sun. So the second of Chronicles chap. 34. v. 7. And so it is set sometimes in the Margent even in the English Translation or Sun Images as Isaiah 17. 8. Ezek. 6. 4. And so all learned Men of all Nations all Religions ever understood the old Notion of Idolatry till this last Age when Folly and Passion cast it at any thing that peevish Men were angry with So Rabbi Maimon the most learned and judicious of the Jewish Doctors discourses at large that the antient Idolatry was nothing but the Religion of the Eastern Nations who acnowledge no other Deities but the Stars among whom the Sun was supreme in Opposition to which false Principle he says God enacted the Law of Moses This was the sense of all the other old Heathen Nations as may be seen at large in Eusebius's Collections of their several Opinions in his First and Third Book of the Preparation of the Gospel where he proves that the antient Heathens worshiped only the Stars without any Notion of Heroes and Demons The same is attested by all the Historians by Diodorus Siculus of the Egyptians by Herodotus of the Persians and Chaldeans by Strabo and Iustin of the Arabians by Caesar of the Germans so Macrobius in his first Book Saturnal proves it of all the antient Idolaters that it was the Worship of the Sun as the supreme Deity So in the antient Hymn to Iupiter ascribed to Orpheus it is the Sun only that is all along adored In short so all learned Men interpret all the several Idols that we read of in the Holy Scriptures particularly those two learned Protestants Mr. Selden in his learned Book De Diis Syris and Gerard Vossius de Idololatria proves all the Idols mentioned in Scripture to have been only so many several Appellations of the Sun whom the antient Idolaters believ'd to have been the supreme God and Creator of the World as Baal Baal Peor Bel Moloch Dagon Baalzebub Mythras c. In a Word the whole Nation of the Critiques that agree in nothing else are unanimous here tho indeed the thing is so evident in all the Accounts Histories and Descriptions of the Antient Idolatry that it is to me the greatest astonishment in the World that Men should apply it to any other purpose I know there was another sort of Idolatry introduced afterward the Worship of Men and Women but I find no such Practice in the Scriptures but take it to have been much more modern and a meer Invention of the vain and lying Greeks but whensoever it came in it was grafted upon the old Stock of giving the Worship of the supreme God not only to created but to mortal Beings Here it were easie to wander into a large Field of Mythologick Mystery but besides that I take all Mythology to be much more Fable than the literal Fable it self I have resolved to confine my self to the Information of the Holy Scriptures from whence as we have the most infallible Testimony that can be had so in this case we can have no other all other Writings whatsoever being by some Thousands of Years too modern to give any Account from their own Knowledge of those Antient Times And for a more acurate account of this I shall refer the Reader to that admirable Book of Dr. Spencers concerning the Jewish Laws and the Reasons of them in which he proves every Minute Circumstance of the ritual and ceremonial Law to have been enacted only for the prevention of Idolatry or Sun-Worship There any Gentleman that delights in antient Learning may have his glut of Pleasure and Satisfaction for beside the great Compass and Variety of polite Literature he hath brought Wit Sense Reason and Ingenuity into the Synagogue I will only exemplifie the thing in some few Particulars The first is the Institution of some Rites peculiar to God's own Worship both as a Bar to preserve them from any other Worship in which those Rites were not us'd and as an Obligation to bind them the faster

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

Israel put away Baal and Ashteroth and served the Lord only And Samuel at the resigning of his Government upon the Election of Saul upbraids them with their continual Ingratitude against the Lord their God from their first Deliverance out of Egypt to that very Day in for saking the Lord to serve Baalim So plain is the practical Notion of Idolatry through the whole Sacred History Under the pious Reigns of David and Solomon the Sin of Idolatry was competently well retrench'd till the Dotage of Solomon when his Wives and Concubines turn'd away his Heart after other Gods So that Solomon went after Ashteroth the Goddess of the Zidonians and after Milcom the Abomination of the Ammonites But the great Revolt was made by Ieroboam upon the Division of the Kingdom tho rather upon a Political than Religious Account Ieroboam said in his Heart now shall the Kingdom return to the House of David if this People go up to do Sacrifice in the House of the Lord at Ierusalem whereupon he makes two Calves of Gold and said to the People It is too much for you to go up to Ierusalem behold thy Gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt It was only an Artifice to oblige the People to himself by restoring to them their old Egyptian Idolatry Some will have these Calves to have been set up in Imitation of Solomon 's Cherubin but this is fully confuted by the learned Visorius If Ieroboam saith he by his Calves design'd to imitate the establish'd Religion of his Country I pray you when he took these counterfeit Cherubs why not also the Ark the Propitiatory the Seat of God where the Divine Majesty appear'd most conspicuously in giving of Oracles the Tabernacle and the Temple Why if they were made only in imitation of the Cherubs why did he not call them by their own Name by which they were known to the People when that would have been a more easie way to deceive them Why did he not take the Priests of the Family of Aaron why did he banish them out of his Kingdom why did not the People comply for three whole Years if it had been an Imitation of their Old Religion under David and Solomon Why if they were nothing but Cherubins are they so often in Scripture styled other Gods Why should he Sacrifice to them when in the Law of Moses no Sacrifices were offered to the Cherubim So that it is plain that these Calves were set up by him as Idols or Symbols of a new or separate Religion from the Tribe of Iudah and tho he took up the old Egyptian Idol for his Foundation yet he seem'd to have erected a Motley Religion upon it like that of the Samaritans of old partly to invite the People of all Nations into his Kingdom where every Man worshiped his own God and partly by diversity of Religion more effectually to divide his own Kingdom from that of the Line of Solomon Tho not long after Rehoboam and the Tribe of Iudah revolt from the Worship of the true God as the Scripture aggravates it above all that their Fathers had done And from this time Idolatry or the Worship of Baal was the prevailing Religion in both Kingdoms tho sometimes check'd by the Piety of reforming Princes But it spread so fast that Elijah thought himself left alone tho for his comfort God informed him that he had the small remainder of 7000 in Israel all the Knees which have not bowed unto Baal But the Infection soon became universal and tho God Almighty sent his Prophets from time to time to reclaim them yet all in vain they still continued to worship the Host of Heaven and serve Baal till finding them irreclaimable he first delivered the Ten Tribes into the hands of Shalmaneser King of Assyria where they continue in Captivity to this Day and are a lost Nation But the Piety of Hezekiah at that time for a while repriev'd the Tribe of Iudah But his Son Manasseh built up again the High Places which Hezekiah his Father had destroyed and he rear'd up Altars for Baal and worshiped all the Host of Heaven and served them Upon this God by his Prophets denounces their Destruction Because saith he they have ever done that which was evil in my sight and have provoked me to Anger since the Day their Fathers came forth out of Egypt unto this Day or because they have forsaken me and burnt Incense unto other Gods that they might provoke me to Anger with all the work of their Hands therefore my wrath shall be kindled against them and shall not be quenched But the Execution of the Sentence is suspended during the pious Reign of his Son Iosiah but as soon as he is gathered to his Fathers Ierusalem and the Temple are destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and King Zedekiah with all his People are carried Captive into Babylon This is a compendious History of the old Jewish Idolatry and I think a sufficient Proof both of their strange Inclination to it to the highest degree of Madness and wherein it plainly consisted their forsaking the true invisible God to worship created Deities than which nothing is more evident through the whole Series of Scripture To this Evidence I might add a more ample Proof out of the Writings of the Prophets that are almost wholly imployed upon this Subject But I must not be too tedious and therefore I shall only observe that they generally express the greatness of this Folly under the Figure of ungovernable Lust. Thus Ezekiel the 23d God describes it to the Prophet under this Scheme Son of man there were two Women the Daughters of one Mother and they committed Whoredoms in Egypt they committed Whoredoms in their Youth there were their Breasts pressed and there they bruised the Teats of their Virginity and the Names of them were Ahola the Elder and Aholibah her Sister and they were mine and they bare Sons and Daughters Samaria is Ahola and Jerusalem Aholibah and Ahola played the Harlot when she was mine and she doted or run mad for her Lovers the Assyrians her Neighbours with all their Idols she defiled her self neither left she her Whoredoms brought from Egypt for in her Youth 't is in the Hebrew before she was ripe of Age they lay with her and they bruis'd the Breasts of her Virginity and poured their Whoredom upon her wherefore I have delivered her into the Hand of her Lovers into the Hand of the Assyrians upon whom she doted and after whom she ran mad The same is repeated of her Sister Aholibah who for her incorrigible Adulteries is delivered into the hands of the Babylonians nothing can be expressed with greater vehemence than this that is compared to the utmost lewdness of Female Lust and nothing more evident than that this Lewdness consisted in deserting the true invisible God to worship the false Deities of their Neighbours particularly the Gods of