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
at his feet as before a God This Jesus was the Ark of the new Covenant and of the Testimony of God the witness of God faithful and true as he is stiled in the Revelation of Saint John Jesus was in effect the whole house of Gods especial presence the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the name which Philo gives the Tabernacle or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or it may be if it were rightly printed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus calleth the Zodiack or the Sun moving in it the portable the walking Temple who like the rolling Sun which dispenseth his influence far and near went about doing good having no resting-place for his Head till he was fixed on Mount Sion above This is the Ark of God exalted first on the Cross and then to Heaven Whence God commandeth his blessing sending him by his Spirit and Gospel to bless and to turn all of us from our iniquity This Ark is the true Mercy-seat the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Propitiatory as he is called in the Epistle to the Romans and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. John calleth him that is the Propitiation for our sins St. Hierom Commenting on those words in the Version of Ezekiel in the 43d Chapter and 14th verse from the lesser settle to the greater settle and observing them to be rendred on this wise by the Seventy Interpreters From the lesser to the greater Propitiatory He applys the lesser Propitiatory to Christ in the form of a servant and the greater to Christ glorified in the Heavens Here is then both the Aaron and Aharon the true Ark and Priest of the most high God This Ark or rather this entire Temple of God like the Tabernacle in Shiloh seemed for a time forsaken possessed by the great Philistin for what is stronger than death and laid in the dust but God raised it up after three days in greater glory and so as that it is never to fall again This Ark was after a few days taken up into the true Sanctuary of God where it remaineth till the restitution of all things and whither our eyes and hearts are to direct themselves in all Religious worship From that Sanctuary he appear'd in a glorious light to his first Martyr St. Steven when well awake and whilst he directed his countenance towards Heaven whither his spirit was ready to take its way He being full of the Holy Ghost or divine energy looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God Thence also he appeared to Saul in a light so vehement that for a time it took away the use of his eyes Thence he sent the Holy Ghost at Pentecost become now as it were the Substitute and Shechinah of the Glorified Jesus This hovered as a glorious flame over the heads of the Apostles declaring them thereby the Representatives of Christ on earth Under this notion Christ is worshipped by true and intelligent Christians This was the meaning of the Fathers in the Council of Constantinople who denounced Anathema against those who professed not that Christ ascended was Intellectual flesh neither properly flesh nor yet Incorporeal but visible to them who have pierc'd him without grossness of flesh They believ'd it a great point of Christianity that Jesus God-man sate in the Heavens in illustrious visible glory And this St. John saw in a Vision in which the Logos the God Omnipotent the King of Kings and Lord of Lords or Lamb God-man appeared on his Throne Crowned and with eyes like flames of fire To this effect is a saying of Eusebius cited by Bishop Andrews on the second Command I suppose he meaneth Eusebius Dorylaeus for he referreth to the second Ephesine Synod though I have not met with it in the Acts of that Council Eusebius it seems telleth Constantia That she must not any longer desire an Image of Christ as he is infirm man For now said he his Glory is much greater than it appeared on the Mount which if his Apostles were then dazled with how can it now be expressed This visible Glory of Christ the Ancients supposed situate in the Eastern part of the Heavens and it occasion'd as I think their directing of their worship towards the East The Gentiles who worshipped the Sun differed much from this external direction of their Faces For they respected especially the East-point by reason of the Sun-rising thence And often at other parts of the day they altered their posture They sometimes vall'd themselves saith Plutarch and turned themselves about with respect to the Heavenly motions And Trismegistus in Asclepio relates that it was a custom of some of the Gentile-Devotionists at mid-day to look towards the South and at Sun-set to look towards the West It was at the rising of the Sun when Lucian was turned towards it by Mithrobarzanes the Chaldaean Priest who mumbled his Prayers in a low and indistinct tone at the rising of that false God They respected not always the Eastern Angle though they had especial regard to it when the Sun appeared in it They respected also the South and West-points in their worship Hence Harpocrates a child represented amongst them the Sun in its rising Orus a young man the Sun in its Meridian Osiris an old man the Sun-setting This was also the way of the Manichees who supposed the Sun to be the Tabernacle of Christ. Of them St. Austin saith that their Prayers rolled about with the Sun But the Ancients thought the Shechinah of Christ more fixed and therefore did not in such manner alter their Quarter And that Quarter they esteemed proper to the Shechinah having read of the Messiah in the Old Testament under the name of the East and following the Translation of the Seventy which thus readeth Psalm 68. 33. Sing unto God who ascendeth above the Heaven of Heavens on the East They also esteemed Jerusalem the middle of the Earth and the parts which lay Easterly from thence they called the East and amongst them Eden about Mesopotamia And they had a Tradition that Christ was Crucified with his face towards the West but that he ascended with his face towards the East and went up to a place in the Heavenly Paradise standing as it were over that of the Earthly But whatsoever men may conceive of the space possessed by Christs meer body they ought not to think of his Shechinah as of a confined light in some one Quarter of the Heavens but as a glorious luster filling all Heavens and shining towards this Earth as a Circumference of Glory on a single point They ought to lose their imaginations in an Abyss of Light One saith and not amiss upon this subject That as Earth heightned unto a flame changeth not its place only but form and figure so the person of our Saviour was raised to a greatness a
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
by the instance of the Brazen Serpent set up by one of Gods Vicegerents and upon its abuse destroyed by another and by that of the Cup of Joseph This Cup by which he Divined was probably an instrument used in some Sacrifice some drink-offering and in the use of which God vouchsafed him a Spirit of Prophesie with relation to the affairs of Egypt Now if the Egyptians afterward made use of this Cup or any other in form of it without any precept or promise from God Almighty and trusted in it as in the cause of Divination they then were Idolaters in this last kind of that impiety And this one would think was the Egyptian practice who readeth Lucian in his Book of Sacrifices and observeth him there deriding the Egyptians because they made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a drinking Pot a God And such a Cup may that be thought which is described in the hand of Isis in her Mystical Table rather than a Measure as Pignorius contendeth as likewise that mentioned by Arnobius in the right hand of Bacchus who often makes a Figure in the forementioned Table But this as it referreth to Joseph is but conjecture scarce so much as opinion I therefore dismiss it Yet I must not dismiss the Argument it self till I have further distinguished both concerning the Objects or Idols of that Honour which is given from God and the ways by which it is translated from the proper to the false Deity These Idols are either Personal Internal or External Objects By Personal Objects I mean the Idolaters themselves who become their own Statues and worship their very selves by the estimation they have of their Persons as Christs or of their Souls as real portions of the Essence of God the fancy of some followers of Plotinus of old who said Their Souls at death returned to the seminal Reason and of some Quakers at this time who say as Edward Burroughs the morning before he departed this Life That his Soul and Spirit was centred in its own being with God Internal Objects are the false Idea's which are set up in the fancy instead of God and his Divine perfections For he who fancieth God under the Idea of Indefinite Amplitude or Extension of matter or of Light or Flame or under the notion of an irresistible Tyrant and applies himself to him as such without the use of any visible external Statue or Picture is as certainly an Idolater as he who worshippeth a Graven Image for he giveth Divine Honour to an Idea which is not Divine Only here the Scene being internal in the Fancy the scandal of the sin is thereby abated External Objects are such which have a subsistence distinct from the Phantasms which are by motion impressed on the Brain And the Catalogue of these is a kind of Inventory of nature I will here give only a summary account of them for the particulars are endless Idolaters have worshipped Universal Nature the Soul of the World Angels the Souls of men departed either by themselves or in union with some Star or other Body They have likewise worshipped the Heavens and in them both particular Luminaries and Constellations the Atmosphere and in it the Meteors and Fowls of the Air the Earth and in it Man together with the accidents of which he is the subject such as Fortitude and Justice Peace and War And further on earth they have deified Beasts Birds Insects Plants Groves Hills artificial and artless Pillars and Statues Pictures and Hieroglyphics mean as that of the Scaribee it self resembling the Sun so many ways as Porphyrie fancieth together with divers fossils and terrestrial Fire They have furthermore adored the Water particularly that fruitful one of the Nile and in it the Fishes and Serpents and Insects as likewise the creatures which are doubtful Inhabitants of either Element such as the Crocodile in Egypt Kircher hath found the Temples of many of these Idols even in that polite Nation of China For he hath a Scheme containing the Temple of the Queen of Heaven the Temple of Heaven the Altar of Heaven the Temple of Demons and Spirits the Temple of the Planet Mars the Altar of the God of Rain the Altar of the King of Birds the Altar of the Earth the Temple of the President of Woods the Temple of Mountains and Rivers the Temple of the Spirit of Medicine the Temple of Gratitude and of Peace the Temple of the President of Mice and of the Dragon of the Sea Menander from Epicharmus summeth up the Idols of the World under these fewer heads of the Wind the Water the Sun the Earth the Fire But he is therefore deficient in his computation neither was it his purpose to make it accurate Thus the Image of God who made all things has as in a broken mirror been beheld without due attention in the several parts of the frame of the World and by the foolish Idolater distinctly adored And this adoration being used towards external Objects and not confined to mans secret thoughts hath with the more success and scandalous dishonour to God been propagated in the World And this remindeth me of the distinction which I designed also to make betwixt the ways by which Gods Honour is derived on creatures For it is either done by the inward estimation of the mind directing its intention in an Act or course of internal Worship or by the external signs of Religious Reverence It is done by both these together or by either of them apart There is no publick worship without manifest signs of it the heart in it self not being discern'd by mans eye but discovering it self by external tokens The Ifraelites saith St. Cyril worshipped the Calf and they did it by crying out these are thy gods f In them the mind and the outward signs of it went together But others by the meer outward shews of Adoration how unconcern'd soever they may have kept their minds have committed Idolatry Such as the Thurificati in the Primitive Church who believing the Gospel offered Incense before an Heathen Idol that being made a sign of their departure from Christianity and their approbation of Gentilism They thereby did an act of open dishonour to the true God and they used external means apt to incline others either to worship Idols instead of Him or to confirm them if they were already Idolaters in their detestable profaneness Such Idolaters it may be were some Englishmen who went to Sea with Mr. Davis in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth in order to the discovery of a North-West passage to Cataia China and East-India On the 29th of July in the year 1585 they discovered Land in 64 degrees and 15 minutes of Latitude bearing North-East from them They found this Land an heap of Islands on one of which they went on shoar There some few of the Natives made towards them and amongst that little herd of barbarous people one pointed first upwards wirh his
themselves will disown Touching Artificial things and lifeless Statues the more Jgnorant sort worshipped them for their surprizing form and costly matter Such the Bramins in India moved to the worship of the great Idol Resora fixed nigh Jagrenate which is one of the mouths of Ganges For they fram'd him very curiously and set him forth very richly giving him two Diamonds for his Eyes and hanging another about his Neck And of these the least weighed about Fourty Carats Others not so very ignorant as to think with the former that the Deity was Gold or precious Stones venerated their Images as the places of residence of Divine Powers or perhaps as their Bodies or Closets their Temples being their Houses or common dwelling-places These were sacred to their Gods not as shelters of their Statues from Sun Wind or Rain as the Heathens in Arnobius cunningly apologize but as instruments whereby they might have their Gods with them behold them before their Eyes speak immediately to them and with them as present persons mingle as it were their Religious Colloquies Many Figures Statues and Images were made at first for very differing ends They were made as Memorials of a departed Child or Friend or Hero As Remembrancers of a living Friend or Governour remaining at a distance from us on earth as Monuments of some great Accidents in the World and preservers of the memory of things to late posterity the use they say of the Pillars of Seth. Likewise they were made as Mathematical Instruments as also as Hieroglyphicks and mystical Emblems such as a Dog the emblem of Sagacity and an Egg the Hieroglyphick of the material World The vanity of man the Imposture of the Heathen Priests the artifice and splendour of the Statues themselves effects apt to stir up admiration which followed their setting up or their remove or their worship though arising from other undiscerned Causes together with a multitude of feigned stories concerning their original or their discovery These things inclin'd the World to an opinion that they were receptacles of Divinity Each Temple of the Heathen was like that mentioned by Lucian in his Second Book of true Histories a Temple of Imposture And many Images were but the Instruments of Juglers Some of them were feigned to sweat and move as those in the great Temple of Syria mention'd by the Author of the Syrian Goddess Some were made very beautifully and some in such horrid shapes that they almost affright us in their Pictures Such are those Pictures which Lorenzo Pignoria has added to the Book of Cartari concerning the Images of the ancient Gods Some were in such manner contriv'd that they seem'd to hold immediate commerce with Heaven Thus in the Image of Serapis at Alexandria a little Window was so framed by Art that the Sun shone on the eyes lips and mouth of it and that the people believed it to be kissed by that Deity Some have been feigned to drop down from the Heavens as those of Troy and Ephesus Some to have been transported from place to place in the Air as the forementioned Image of Serapis said to be translated in a moment from Pontus to Alexandria And some by direction of Spirits to have been digged out of the earth or to have been miraculously pulled out of the Sea as the Golden Tripos of Apollo And pity it is that such Arts should be used by them who profess the Christian Religion which needeth no pious frauds for the support of it but is best propagated as it was from the beginning by plain and sincere dealing But some Roman-Catholicks have too frequently imitated the Sophistry of the Heathens and particularly in promoting the dangerous worship of our Lady at Loreto and Guadalupa It seems that her Image lay concealed in this latter place for the space of more than 600 years till it was by miracle as they say after this manner discovered An Heardsman seeking his strayed Cow found her at last but to appearance dead He went about therefore to take off her Skin but whilst he was attempting of it the Beast to his great astonishment did miraculously revive Then also did the Holy Virgin appear to him in glorious splendor and bid him not fear And she further gave him order to call the Ecclesiasticks of the City and in her name to promise them that if they digged in that place they should find her Image The poor man fearing they would not believe his report she promised to enable him with this sign to wit That he finding his Child dead at home should be able by his word to raise it to life again before them This being done the Image is sought and found for they that hide have ill memories if they can't find again and it is plac'd in a magnificent Temple and it becomes famous for working Miracles true as that of its own discovery By such Arts as these the people being induced to think that Images were the dwelling-places of Divine Powers it was difficult for them that had blind zeal thenceforth to suspend their Religious veneration The like means inclin'd them to worship Beasts or Birds as shrines and living Statues of some Deity Thus the Egyptians made the figure of the Bird Ibis the emblem of their Delta which it seems by its open Bill it represented though my fancy conceiveth not how it could represent the Basis of it and therefore under the favour of Schualenberg it fixeth rather on the Passus Ibidis or Trigon it made at every step To this they added That a certain Medicine of extraordinary virtue was found out by those Birds that a Feather of them stupified the Crocodile that they were hatch'd out of the Egg of a Basilisk that they defended Egypt from the flying Serpents of Arabia And this was enough with that Idolatrous Nation to turn the bodies of those Birds and the very figures of them likewise into Receptacles and Treasuries of Celestial virtue and to give Religious honour to them Concerning men on earth the pride and pomp of the great and the low and slavish dispositions of the mean begat sometimes the flattery sometimes the worship of them as Gods in humane shape This Honour was arrogated by Nebuchadnezzar who erected a mighty Colossus of Gold to no other Deity than himself requiring sacrifice and Religious adoration to be offered to it which when Sidrac Misach and Abednego refused to do he expostulated with them after the manner of an eminent Deity saying What God is there potent enough to deliver you out of my hands Of this blasphemous arrogance there were many instances in succeeding Ages and that of Alexander cannot escape the common Reader and he may find too many others in the Book of Political Idolatry written by the Learned Filesacus This kind of Idolatry flatterers helped forward and promoted as much as in them laid even amongst Christian Princes They fram'd for them the heavenly stile
of their Divinity and their Divine Precept words said to be used by Theodosius and Valentinian themselves Pacatus Drepanius in his Panegyric to Theodosius the Great describes the Emperour as one from whom Navigators expect a calm Sea Travellers a safe return and Soldiers Victory And of Constantine the Son of Constantius the uncertain Author of his Panegyrick affirmeth in deep Complement That his Beauty was great as his Divinity was certain But much of this flattery is so gross that it can scarce be swallowed by the common people who in private smile at their own publick fawnings For Spirits of all kinds men have seen some Apparitions and heard of more They have also had notions in the brain representing to them Images as spectres in the Air They have rightly judged the Soul so Divine in its operations as to superexist They have seen many external effects and could not guess at the Cause or ascribe it with such probability to Nature as to some higher invisible Power They have seen appearances in the Heavens and the very appearances have form'd in their fancy the counterfeit Idea of a Spirit For so the Heathen of the Eastern India believed the shadow of the Moon on the Eclipsed Sun to be a black Demon contending with it Men thus believing partly from good and partly from fanciful Reasons the existence of Demons and Ghosts and apprehending them truly as more spiritual active and superiour Beings it is not to be admired that their weakness ador'd them as dispensers of good and evil here below Touching Souls departed in particular Gratitude deified some but Admiration put more names into the Calendar The people were transported by their power and splendor on Earth and they thought their Puissance would increase in higher Regions Souls appeared otherwise to their mind than Bodies do to the eye to which they seem the lesser the higher they ascend And to this end the Devil was wont to represent Ghosts unto the eye or fancy of the Gentiles in vast proportions Such mighty figures Jamblichus where he writeth of the Egyptian mysteries ascribeth to Principalities and Archangels So that Solomon might aptly call the state of the dead the Congregation of Rephaim or Gyants Towards the advancement of the Souls of Heroes in the opinions of the Idolizers of them much was contributed by strange appearances real or invented at the time of their death So the Soul of Paul the Hermite was the more divinely esteemed of because S. Anthony as they tell us saw it flying to Heaven So Julius Caesar became one of the Roman gods whilst a Comet shining for Seven days together was judg'd to be his Soul receiv'd into Glory And this conceit they further inculcated by adding a Star to the top of his Statue Such Canonization of Heroes hath likewise been promoted by strange effects done or counterfeited at their Sepulchres and sometimes by their obscure manner of going out of the World which the people esteem'd an heavenly translation Empedocles hoping this way to arrive at Divine honour threw himself secretly into the flames of AEtna but his two Pattens which that Gulf of Fire cast up discovered his vain and miserable end Concerning the Soul of the World men seeing in all parts of the Creation motion and virtue judged erroneously of the greater World as they did truly of the lesser world of Man and made one Soul to be the Sovereign principle which actuated every part of it And some of the Stoicks esteem'd this Soul as a Form informing the Universe But the Platonists judged it rather a Form assistant imagining it unsutable to its Deity to be mixed with or vitally united to the grossest subcelestial matter and to have perception of all the motions of it This conceit is driven very far by the Indian Cabalists or Pendets Creation say those Doctors is nothing else but an extraction and an extension which God maketh of his own substance of those webs he draws from his own bowels as destruction is nothing else but a reprisal or taking back again of this Divine substance and these Divine webs into himself so that the last day of the World which they call Maperle or Pralea when they believe that all shall be destroyed shall be nothing else but such a general Reprisal This conceit in the superstitious maketh all things in nature adorable as parts of God And in the Atheistical it deifieth nothing at all for at the bottom of this imagination they think they see not God but Nature With them Coelum is the material Heaven Juno is the upper Air Neptune is the natural cause of water in the Caverns of the Earth Pluto is the thick Air next to this Globe and Rhea is the natural cause of showers Towards all the Idolatries already mention'd much was contributed by the figurative expressions of Orators especially by their Apostrophe's in the Encomiums of departed Hero's as also by the elegant fictions of Poets whose invention hath been justly reputed one of the great store-houses of Idols And for the Idolatry of Qualities I know not whence to fetch it so readily as by going thither For though the first ground of it was the consideration of many of these Qualities in their eminent degree as means by which the Pagan Heroes were Deified yet Poetry helped on that cause by shaping these Qualities into personal Powers negotiating as it were betwixt Heaven and Earth and conveighing them as the Angels did the Soul of Lazarus into a more heavenly habitation Poets design to move to surprize to make deep impression on the People They cannot do this so readily by proposing abstracted Truths to the mind as by cloathing them in such Metaphors and Pictures as may affect the brain Hence it is that they have used such a variety of fictions in which they have cloathed every thing they say with the appearances of a Person Peace and War Fame and Justice have such personal shape and action given to them as is necessary for the making a greater impression upon the Hearers For to give an ordinary instance in this matter it doth not so much affect us when a man says barely that a Kingdom shall want supplies of Bread as when he describes famine riding towards us pale and meager upon a Sceleton of Man or Beast attended with thousands of such ghastly objects from whence the uncloathed bones stare upon us and tell us that we after the dreadful extremities of hunger and thirst enforcing us to prey upon Toads and Serpents upon our Relations and our very selves shall become lean languishing dying as they By this transitory view of the Causes and Occasions of Idolatry so full of folly error and mistake it manifestly appeareth upon what weak and clay-like feet the Idols stand which the world hath worship'd with so vigorous a Devotion CHAP. IV. Of the Time in which the Vanity of Man introduced Idolatry into the World THe Nature
form and a prayer of which the following words are a part Shew me that which is hidden in thy bosom Oh thou who art indu'd with majesty and honour I see nothing of moment to be further said by me in this Argument and therefore I here conclude it And happy were it for the world if the superstition of Mahomet might have as speedy an end The like may be said of that kind of Idolatry which hath infected many who profess the true or Christian Religion And that false worship is my next Subject CHAP. VIII Of the Idolatry with which some are charged who profess and â—…all themselves Christians And first of the Idolatry of the Gnosticks and Manichees PART 1. Of the Idolatry of the Gnosticks WHen Christ was incarnate he soon weakned the visible Empire of the Devil removing his Idols and putting his Oracles to silence One of his great designs in coming in the flesh was to perswade the World to leave Idols and the Atheism of many gods as Maximus speaketh He manifested the one true God in Trinity declaring that there were three in Heaven and that they Three were One. He revealed much of the nature of the Daemons which had been worshipped in the World and decried them as wicked and malicious spirits God in him gave to the World the greatest help against the worship of Daemons and Idols as shall afterwards be shewed at large if God permit His Apostles and followers spake and wrote with zeal against Idols and God be thanked not without admirable success Amongst them was St. John the Beloved Disciple And he having shewn the Son in one of his Epistles to be the true Image of the Father and very God of very God does thence proceed to exclude all other Symbols in this dehortation Little children keep your selves from Idols And with that as with advice of moment and fit to be reserved for a word to take leave with he closeth his Epistle Idols also were with zeal declaimed against after him by divers Christians of whom some were converted Jews who had lived under an express Law against Images and others were converted Gentiles who bent themselves quite another way from their former Rites And these expressed their detestation of Idols in such severe manner that they looked upon Statuaries and Painters as men of unlawful Callings Others there were Christians by profession who though they worshipped not unless by fear or stealth as Epiphanius noteth the same Statues and Deities with the Gentiles yet did they set up afresh an Idolatrous worship which was in truth but disguised Heathenism Such were the Scholars of Simon Magus Menander Saturninus Basilides Carpocrates or according to Epiphanius Carpocras Valentinus Cerdon Marcion Secundus Ptolomaeus Marcus Colorbasus Heracleon Lucian Apelles and very many others who from their arrogant boasting of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sublime and extraordinary sort of knowledg obtained the name of Gnosticks These I will consider as worshippers firft of Daemons and secondly of Images The worship of Daemons they learned from the Cabala of Thales Pythagoras and Plato It was the Dogma of Menander and after him of Saturninus that this outward World was made by Angels that is that it was framed and composed by those Encosmical gods formerly mentioned and spoken of by Sallust the Platonist Alcinous a Disciple of the same School in his Introduction to the Philosophy of Plato professeth the same Doctrines He teacheth it as a Dogma of his Master That God did not properly make but rather adorn and excite the Soul of the World awakening it as it were out of its profound inactivity that thenceforth as an awakened man who stretcheth out his arms it extended it self far and near and joined and conserved the whole of Nature And to this eternal Soul of the World a principle which in some sort comprehended in it the inferior Angels the Gnosticks perhaps alluded in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fulness of the Godhead to which St. Paul opposeth the true principle by which God made all things his eternal co-essential Son Beyond the Daemons Alcinous doth not extend the care of God but setteth them as his Sons over other things And he ascribeth the formation of Animals and even of man himself to Junior Daemons Basilides was an Alexandrian where the Pythagorean Cabala had gotten deep footing and it appeareth by the Errors of Origen that the very preaching of St. Mark had not worn out the prints of it Some of them are easily discerned in the writings of that Father and especially in his Book which hath the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basilides enjoin'd silence to them to whom his Mysteries were revealed both in imitation of the silence in the School of Pythagoras and as a means to avoid the trouble which might arise by the more open publication of them Carpocrates and Valentinus both of them were professed Pythagorean Platonists Valentinus placeth his Bythus or Profundity and Siges or Silence as the first conjugation of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Fullness And by this he might mean the Soul of the World awakened out of that deep inactivity which just now we heard of in the Jargon of Alcinous Marcion expresly maintained the two Principles of Pythagoras and he taught that they were distinct and without beginning and infinite These Hereticks worshipped a Deity under the mystical name of Abraxas or Abrasax according to the inscription on some Basilidian Gems This name some think they took up with respect to the imposition of that of Abraham By it they understood a supreme Power and seven subordinate Angels the Presidents of the seven Heavens together with their three hundred and sixtyfive Virtues answering to the number of the days of the year and by Basilides in Epiphanius set over so many members of the body of man By the name as one word they understood their one Deity and under it the Eighth Sphere which the Platonists called the highest Power by which all things were circumscribed By the seven Letters of that one word they understood the seven Angels and under them the seven Orbs. And therefore Gassendus if the Printer hath not injured him committeth a mistake in writing it ABRSAX as sometimes he doth He spoileth their Mystery by the diminution of one Letter Such injury the Engravers have done them in their Gems unless they designed by false Letters to render them still more mysterious By the Numeral Powers of their seven Letters in Greek they amounting to the sum of 365 days they understood the abovesaid Virtues Members and Days of the Year St. Austin in his Catalogue of Heresies seems in this matter to commit a mistake for he representeth Basilides as one that held 365 Heavens and affirmed them to be the makers of this World Whereas Basilides and Saturninus ascribed such power to the several Virtues of the seven Angels St.
For Images they venerate for so the Council of Trent loves to speak rather than to say adore or worship with the second Synod of Nice those of Christ the true God and of such as they esteem real Saints in Heaven and not the Statues of the Sun or of Universal Nature or of the Soul of the World or intentionally those of Devils or damned spirits In the Worship of Angels Saints Images they forbear Sacrifice as proper to God Whereas the Heathen did not appropriate it to Him for some of them offer'd only their Minds to the Supreme Deity and their Beasts to inferior gods And the greater number offer'd Victims and their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Prayers used in sacrificing both to God and Daemons Yet it must be confessed that thus far the Church of Rome hath gone towards Sacrifice to Saints It hath appointed Masses which it esteemeth proper Sacrifices or Offerings of the Body of Christ to the Father in honour of her Saints Insomuch that such Masses bear the names of their Hero's and nothing is said more commonly than the Mass of St. Anthony the Mass of this or the other Saint But in this case the Council of Trent hath given caution and would not have it believ'd that the Sacrifice is offered to the Saint but to God only Now that which I have hitherto shewed is the fair side of the Church of Rome in reference to the Idolatry with which she is charged Neither hath my Pen dawbed in the representation it hath done her but justice But there is besides this already exposed to view a cloudy side of that Church which calleth her self the Pillar of Christian Truth This that we may the better discern let us first view it in the Council of Trent or in any later Popish Synods and then in its own subsequent Acts and see how far first in the point of Invocation of Saints and next of Images it doth directly or by plain consequence and not meerly by accidental abuse usurp any honour which belongeth to God PART 3. Of the Idolatry charged on the Papists in their Worship of Saints FIrst touching the Invocation of Saints the Council of Trent determineth that the spirits of holy men reigning with Christ are to be venerated and invoked And that they offer Prayers to God for us Also that it is good and lawful to pray to them and to flie to their Prayers their help and aid through Christ the only Saviour and Redeemer of men In pursuance of this Decree the Church of Rome hath continued her practice of worshipping Saints according to certain Forms of words prescribed in such Books as her Breviary and Missal which the Popes by virtue of another Decree of the same Council have revised and for common use established Now the forms and signs of Worship used in that Church are of such a nature that they seem at first view at least to give to the Saints if not that honour which is incommunicable yet that which God though he might have given it hath reserved to himself It may suffice to illustrate this matter if I select some Forms used in the Officium Parvum of the holy Virgin which maketh a part of the Romish Breviary set out in pursuance of the Decree of Trent by Pius the fifth In that Office the Virgin is worshipped in these Forms Establish us in peace Unloose the bonds of the guilty Bring forth light to the blind Drive away our evils Make us absolved of our faults meek and chaste Vouchsafe us a spotless life Thou art most worthy of all praise Let all who commemorate thee have experience of thy assistance Vouchsafe that I may praise thee O Sacred Virgin give me power against thy Enemies Let the Virgin Mary bless us and our pious off-spring Mary Mother of Grace Mother of Mercy do thou defend us from the Enemy and receive us at the hour of death We also find in that little Office this Exhortation ascribed to Bernard Let us embrace my Brethren the footsteps of Mary and let us cast our selves at her blessed feet with most devout supplication Let us hold her and not let her go till she bless us for she is able These Forms are agreeable to many others in the former part of the Roman Breviary out of which I will transcribe only the following Suffrages Holy Mary succour the miserable help the weak-hearted refresh the weeping pray for the people mediate for the Clergy intercede for devout women Let all who celebrate thy Commemoration feel Thy Aid Hail O Queen Thou Mother of mercy life sweetness and our Hope we salute thee To thee we the banished children of Eve do make our supplication To thee we sigh mourning and weeping in this valley of tears Go to therefore our Advocatress turn towards us those thy merciful eyes and shew us after this our banishment Jesus the blessed fruit of thy womb O mild O pious O sweet Virgin Mary Many of these Suffrages taken in their plain and common meaning do manifestly intrench upon the Prerogative of God And of this kind also are those Romish Prayers which are mentioned by Mr. Thorndike in the last part of his Epilogue in which he treateth of the Laws of the Church The third sort said he of the Prayers of Romanists unto Saints is when they desire immediately of them the same blessings spiritual and temporal which all Christians desire of God There is as he proceeds a Psalter to be seen with the name of God or rather Lord changed every-where into the name of Virgin There is a Book of Devotion in French with this Title Moyen de bien Servir prier adorer la Vierge Marie The way well to serve pray to and adore the blessed Virgin The Prayers of this third sort taking them at the foot of the Letter and valuing the intent of those that use them by nothing but the words of them are meer Idolatries As desiring of the creature that which God only gives which is the worship of the creature for the Creator God blessed for evermore And were we bound to make the Acts of them that teach these Prayers the Acts of the Church because it tolerates them and maintains them in it instead of casting them out it would be hard to free that Church from Idolatry which whoso admitteth can by no means grant it to be a Church The Letter then of Romish Forms being very scandalous those who justifie the use of them must shew some other words wherein the Romish Church hath so explained her self to the World that men may plainly know she never intended them in their common and native acception but in a sense agreeable to the tenure of Scripture and of such a sense Mr. Thorndike in the place before cited hath judged them capable If such an Interpretation be by her promulgated to the World the force of
ground This opinion and practice had been the more tolerable if they had restrained it unto Angels of whose presence knowledg ministration the Scripture hath spoken but they extend it to Saints and for the holy Virgin their devotion is greater towards her than towards the highest Angel she being called the Queen of those Heavenly Powers The Authoress of the Spiritual Institutions prays not only to the Angels to the Angel-Guardian of her Person and to the Angel-Guardian of her Religion that is of her Order but likewise to St. Bernardine St. Placidus and other Saints as to her selected Patrons And Horstius a man of rank devotion towards Spirits and often to be remembred by me treateth first of the Worship of Saints and of them as Patrons and then of the Worship of Angels and Angel-Guardians Concerning Angels he sheweth that holy men such as he so esteemeth did both pray to their Guardian-spirit and to such Angels as were Presidents of Kingdoms Provinces Cities Towns with solioitous zeal and he nameth St. Xavier St. Aloysius and St. Francis and calleth to mind the singular devotion of the last towards St. Michael the Archangel Then for the Saints he celebrates them as such Who being formerly servants and stewards are now set over all the Goods of their Lord in the land of the living He saith that it belongeth to their praise and glory that their Aid be invoked and that they protect us in necessity And he teacheth his Reader thus to worship the Virgin Holy Mary Mother of God and Virgin I though unworthy to serve thee yet trusting in the clemency of thy Motherly heart chuse thee this day before my Guardian-Angel and the whole Court of Heaven for my Mother and peculiar Lady Patroness and Advocatrix And I firmly resolve henceforth to serve thee and thy Son with fidelity and perpetually to adhere to you I beseech thee by that love by which thy Son when he was giving up the Ghost upon the Cross commended himself to his Father and thee to his true Disciple and him again to thee to take me into thy care and protection and be thou with me in all the straits and dangers of my whole life but especially help me in the hour of my death Amen I have said that it is more tolerable to pray thus to Angels than it is to Saints but I can find little ground in Reason or Scripture thus to worship the Angels themselves Reason teacheth that God who made the World is the Governour of it The Scripture teacheth that there are distinct Orders of Angels but it disalloweth of such Lieutenancy under God as men have ascribed to them It mentioneth Thrones and Powers and Dominions and Principalities yet rather in allusion to the Gnosticks as was above conjectured than by way of assertion of such Orders Those Hereticks Irenaeus provoketh to tell what is the nature of Invisible Beings what is the number and order of Angels what are the Mysteries of Thrones and the diversities of Dominions Principalities Powers Virtues and he assureth us they were at a loss So ignorant was the Christian World in his time of the Nine Orders of the feigned Dionysius the Areopagite That there are distinct Orders of Spirits that there are Angels and Archangels I firmly believe But it does not thence follow that the Government of the World is shared amongst them though they have a Ministerial part in the affairs of it Archangels seem no other than the seven Spirits typified by the seven Lamps in the Temple Their Office was as elect and eminent Spirits to minister before the Throne of God and on solemn occasions to be sent in Embassie to the World Such a one was Gabriel who stood in the Presence of God and was sent to the Blessed Virgin Nothing of this inferreth their distinct Provinces committed to them but it sheweth only the dignity of their station and their occasional Ministry Neither doth it follow from the seven Angels mentioned as Presidents of the seven Churches of Asia that they as some have taught were under the Charge and Patronage of seven Spirits For St. John is required to write to these Angels and to reprove their faults as the abatement of Love in the Angel of Ephesus and his Church And he makes distinct mention of the seven Spirits and the seven Stars which latter he had shewed to be the Angels of those Churches and who were therefore no other than the Bishops of them called by a name which is given the High Priest in the Prophet Malachy and by the Jews in Diodorus Christian Religion owneth but one proper Substitute under God one Paraclete or Patron for so that title signifies one proper Mediator the glorified Jesus the Spirits under him are but Angels or Messengers though sent abroad on different Embassies Wherefore I know not how to approve of the expression of a late very grave and learned Author who speaketh of the Invisible Regiment of the World by the subordinate Government of good and evil Angels It is true that the good are a Community and so in some sort are the bad but their divers Orders concern their own society most and they are not to be construed as the Orders and Powers in the frame of Gods Government of the whole World It is also to be confessed that Elisha's servant to reflect a little on his instance saw fiery Chariots and Horsmen in the Mount and that this was a representation of Gods Angels in the scene of a Camp But no other Argument ought to be fetched thence besides that which concludeth that there is a greater power in God and his Coelestial Ministers than in the Armies of the World He that will torture this Vision and make it confess commission-Officers amongst them ought also to make them ride on Horses and Chariots For evil Angels their dominion is oftner mentioned than that of the good But certainly though they are called in Scripture Principalities and Powers no man that carefully attendeth to his words will call them also subordinate Governours of the World For they are professed Rebels against God who doth not own or treat them as his subjects but he being provoked by the perverseness of wicked men permitteth those rebellious Daemons to exercise great power amongst the children of disobedience who are in indirect Covenant with them It is worse still to say that God ruleth the World by Saints than to affirm so much of him in reference to his holy Angels yet this the Romanists openly maintain and some also who have not only disputed but even raved against the Church of Rome For so it is said by Thomas Goodwin in his Sermon of the fifth Monarchy That the Saints on earth have by their Prayers an influence in the managing the affairs of the World and into the accomplishment of all the great things that Christ doth for his Church That
that we betake our selves by humble supplication to that Temple of God which is always open the very Mother of God giving thanks to God by her and paying our vows for the victory we have obtained over the waves that opposed us And as Mariners are wont to offer their Oar so let us offer to her our Pen that it may obtain that rich benediction from her by which after the manner of the rod of Aaron which devoured the rods of the Magicians it may resist all the endeavours of gain-sayers and like to that flourish whilst the other rods brought by rebellious Controvertists wither away Lastly That like that in the Tabernacle of the Covenant it may be perpetually preserved in the Church as a witness of the truth of God These very ample blessings bestowed on the Rod we ask of thee O Virgin coming to thee with great affiance for thou performing these things crownest no other than thine own gifts The seventh Tome endeth on this fashion Go to now let us give thanks to God as we are wont for the finishing of this seventh Tome of Annals and let us offer the work in like manner to Mary the Mother of God that by whose help it was begun and perfected by the merits of the same it may be rendred spotless worthy the Divine aspect it being justly refusable in respect of the imperfection of the Author that offers it Having said this and added a complaint of his troubles and interruptions in the writing of this Volume which he calleth his Benoni he thus proceeds One thing more only I have to ask that seeing these very unquiet sad lamentable fearful and dangerous things have happened to me O Mother of God not without your Providence you your self would daily bring help to me journeying in a slippery path exposed to great danger and every moment in hazard of losing eternal salvation and give protection to an unsetled man In the Conclusion of the Eighth Tome he giveth thanks to some Martyrs together with the Virgin offering to them all his Tomes in gratitude and which was much more his very self Of the ninth he saith That he brought it to an end by the favour of God and the aid of the Virgin who helped him by her Prayers In the end of the Tenth he prayeth to God for eternal happiness by the Intervention of the Mother of God with the Father for him further beseeching him that she which always helped him in his work might be the Conciliatrix of eternal reward in the glory of the blessed In the end of the Eleventh Tome he acknowledgeth that the entireness of his net after his having cast it so often that the continuance of his strength fresh and green in his old age that all this was from the grace of Abisag their Shunamite cherishing his aged bones to wit the most holy and pure Virgin favouring the work begun and taking care of and happily promoting all his affairs Last of all he endeth in a like note but a little lower and sweeter than that with which he begun and continued his Perorations for he concludeth his whole work of Twelve Tomes with an humble supplication to the “ Blessed Virgin and therein he beseecheth That by her means he might be made worthy to obtain that benediction from the Father of Lights by which he might be partaker of an eternal inheritance through the Grace and Mercy of Jesus Christ. The whole of this which I have cited and cited at such length by reason of that credit which this Author hath obtained under the Papacy the whole I say of it both beginning middle and end representeth the Virgin as a Patroness and as one who had prevailed with God to commit to her care Baronius and his Labours as her especial Province He owneth God and Christ as the Fountains of Grace but he supposeth her the Conduit conveying them to himself On her he trusteth to her he offereth solemn and repeated thanks And though he often mentioneth her Prayers for him yet it appeareth by the tenor of his other expressions and of the common Roman Doctrine that he meaneth not barely them but the Guardianship which by them she had from the beginning obtained of God in behalf of the Annalist If then according to his own belief he was divinely assisted in this great work these Twelve Labours of the Roman Hercules which others considering the partiality of the Author believe to have been undergone more by the aids of the Court of Rome than those of Heaven if I say he was assisted from above which is his own persuasion and God who is wont to dictate to Christians rather by his Spirit than by his Angels much less by his Saints did give him immediately the understanding memory strength and other abilities by which he wrote has he not then sacrilegiously kept back a very great part of that Honour which was wholly due to God and ought to have been devoted to Him and then paid it in wrongful and idolatrous manner unto the blessed Virgin Now what think you was the occasion of this excess of Marian-zeal Why the Mother of Caesar Baronius as they tell us * going when big of him to the Temple of the Virgin felt the Babe like a second John the Baptist leap in her womb As soon as he was born she offer'd him to the Patronage of the same Blessed Virgin When he was two years old and afflicted with a very dangerous Disease she pray'd to her three days and then received him restor'd from the very article of death together with a voice saying to her Be of good comfort your son shall not dye Baronius mindful of this benefit always honour'd the Virgin with singular observance and he marked his Books his Tables his Images every thing with a device which signifies Caesar servus Mariae And at his death which it seems was on Saturday our Ladys weekly day he expressed much devotion towards her and in his last agony kiss'd her Image with the greatest piety of mind The Devotion of Lipsius is so like to that of the Cardinal Baronius that I may not improperly here subjoin it In the first chapter of his Virgo Hallensis he calleth Blessed Mary the tutelar goddess of Halla that is of Halle in Heinalt seated on the Seine and he professeth that from his youth he had devoted himself to her Worship and chosen her as his Patroness and Guide in all the dangers and molestations of his whole life In his second chapter he maketh to his Patroness this supplication Grant to me O my Goddess whom I contemplate as present in my mind That what I have piously design'd I may happily accomplish In his sixth chapter he mentions a miraculous victory obtain'd by that City over her enemies who had with powerful arms entred into her And this deliverance he supposeth to be wrought by the Patronage of the Virgin who
the notion of pious frauds A Priest skilled as much in Physick as Divinity knows the sick Romanist to whom he is Confessor to need a vomit He exhorteth him to invoke the holy Virgin he biddeth him view well her Image which he hath put into an Antimonial cup he adviseth him to drink of that liquor into which her Image and her blessing hath infused virtue and to repeat his devotions to the Virgin his Patroness The sick ignorant man obeys believes him dischargeth his stomack and is presently eased He crys out a Miracle a Miracle he is constant to his Aves all his days There are some who know this to be an History though I have told it in the form of a supposition Seventhly Many Wonders and Apparitions are the delusions of the Devil and dangerous snares in which he entangleth the commonalty of that Church By this means he often reconciles himself to their favour and they take him in this disguise for a real Angel of Light What other construction can a wise man make of the story in Mathew Paris concerning the Specter said to appear to the Earl of Cornwall The same hour saith the Reporter that William Rufus fell by the hand of Sir Walter Tyrrell the Earl of Cornwall being alone in the Forrest met with a great hairy black Goat carrying the King black and naked and wounded through the midst of his breast He adjuring the Goat by the holy Trinity to tell what this meant the Goat made him this reply I carry to his doom your King or rather your Tyrant William Rufus For I am an evil spirit and an avenger of that malice of his with which he raged against the Church of Christ and I procured his murther They who believe these Legends and take such Apparitions as measures of their Faith will think the Devil good-natur'd towards Christianity and an executor of vengeance on the enemies of it though in truth he himself is its greatest and most inveterate foe and wounds it deepest when he strikes at it in the disguise of a friend The stories concerning the appearance of the Virgin to her Clients are very numerous and of them too many represent her in unbecoming postures And such appearâ—…nces should rather move the dread and abhorrence than encourage the Invocation of the Romanists being either the Images of an unclean brain or the Specters of impure Devils Lastly Let not the Papists prove their worship of Saints as the Heathen did their worship of Daemons And here I end my Discourse concerning the Worship of Saints in the Roman Church as Patrons and Patronesses as Presidents and Lieutenants in the Government of the World with the sense of the judicious and moderate Archbishop of Spalato This in my judgment is the great objection against the Invocation of Angels the Holy Virgin or other Saints whose souls are with God in Heaven that it is in the nighest degree of peril to become Religious Worship for it is out of doubt that the ruder people do religiously invoke the Saints and that many are internally more affected with religious passion towards the Virgin or some Saint than towards Christ himself For they invoke not a Saint as one that prayeth for them but as the principal Helper Neither say they Pray for me but help me Come to my Aid Save me Nor do they express it in words or understand it in their minds that these things be done for them by the Saints praying for them but that the Saints themselves do immediately perform these things And in invocating of them many wholly devote themselves all their soul and and spirit to the Virgin Mary and the Saints and subject themselves wholly to them in Spirituals which is a kind of formed Idolatry Now though by this Discourse I may have given offence unto the Marians or rather said that which will be made an offence by their misconstruction I am not jealous that I have at all offended those blessed spirits if they have knowledg of that which I write For they are not covetous of undue honour but cast those Crowns with high indignation under their feet which are set on their heads to the dishonour of God by the Idolatrous flatteries of foolish men CHAP. XI Of the Idolatry Charged on the Papists in their Worship of Images And first of the Worship of an Image of God IT still remaineth that I speak of the Worship of Images in the Roman Church and of that degree of Idolatry with which it seemeth to be stained And for Images I will briefly consider those of the Trinity of God of Christ of the Saints and under that of Christs the statue of the Cross. For the Image of the Trinity we must not charge either the making or the worshipping of it upon the very constitution of the Church of Rome though men of that Communion have often done both and the Missals Breviaries and Manuals Printed with license in these times abound with such Pictures Formerly that Church was very severe against such practices And Pope John the 22d arraigned certain people in Bohemia and Austria who had painted God the Father as an old man and the Son as a young man and the Holy Ghost as a Dove as violaters of Religion And he pronounced them Anthropomorphites and condemned some of them to the Fire It seems the modern Popes are not so strict neither did the late Printers of the Missal at Paris or of the Manual of Horstius at Colen dread their Fire they having adorned the Copies of those Books with such dangerous Sculptures And it should seem by what Mr. Baxter hath said That some among our selves have had a zeal for such Pictures for he tells of a Tumult raised where he had dwelt upon a false rumour that the Church-wardens were about to obey the Parliaments Order in taking down the Images of the Trinity about the Church But most probable it is that the zeal of the multitude was ready to defend such Images or paintings in windows rather as the ornaments of the place in general than distinctly as Pictures of the mysterious Trin-unity Concerning the Image of God I find not now as in former times in the publick Books of the Church of Rome any forms of Benediction by which it should be consecrated though there be forms enough of the consecration of Crosses and of the Images of Christ and his Saints Neither doth the Council of Trent ordain either the making or the veneration of the Image of God though it supposeth that it is sometimes painted in sacred story for the use of their people For it giveth order that the people be instructed so far as not to take such a Picture for Divinity figured Nay the Catechism by Decree of that Council speaketh thus in the explication of their first Commandment Moses when he would turn the people from Idolatry said to them You saw no similitude on the day in which the Lord
Throne of his most eminent Glory He cannot behold that now unless in such a glymps as St. Stephen enjoy'd which he shall see after the Resurrection when the vail of this gross body shall be removed for to the meek in heart it is promised that they shall see God To them shall be revealed that secret of faces which the Jews so often speak of and adjourn to the future life But for the substance of the Godhead it is for ever invisible the infinity of it which Tertullian seemeth to call the fulness of the Deity and denieth to have been seen by Moses can no more be taken in by mans eye than a whole circle of the Universe can be taken in at the same moment by the glass of a Telescope And for the Essence of it it seems indiseernible even to the very Angels For although Angels be spirits yet they possessing a space are of a far differing nature from the divine substance which filleth and pierceth all things The Ranters indeed professed to see in this life the very Essence of God but the true God was not every thing which they dream'd of Now man in this earthly state receiving knowledg chiefly from the senses he is exceeding covetous of sensible helps in his research after the most abstracted notions which inclination being vehement in the vulgar who are generally of very gross apprehension they pursue not the object of their minds be it the most Divine and Spiritual God himself with pure and unmixed reason but they at best blend it with some bodily phantasm and often dwell wholly upon such an Image and the external object of it insomuch that their imagination worshippeth that which should be entertained only as the help and instrument of their mind So that although the natural desire of a visible object be not the necessary cause yet it is the occasional root of all that proper Idolatry or Image-worship which divided it self into more kinds than there are Nations in the world PART 2. Of the Cure of Idolatry by the Shechinah of God GOD knowing well the frame and infirmity of man though himself did not erect it so as now it stands with much decay and many breaches was pleased to condescend to the weak condition of his nature and to vouchsafe him a kind of visible presence lest in the entire absence of it his fancy should have bow'd him down even to such creatures to which man himself being compared is a kind of subcaelestial Deity It pleased then the wise and merciful God to shew to the very eyes of man though not his spiritual and immense substance or any statue or picture of it properly so called yet his Shechinah or visible glory the symbol of his especial Presence This divine appearance I suppose to have been generally exhibited in a mighty lustre of flame or light set off with thick and as I may call them solemn Clouds Nothing is in nature so pure and pleasant and venerable as light especially in some reflexions or refractions of it which are highly agreeable to the temper of the brain By light God discovereth his other works and by it he hath pleased to shadow out himself and both secular and sacred Writers have thence taken plenty of metaphors dipping as it were their pens in light when they write of him who made Heaven and Earth “ Jamblichus in his book of the “ Egyptian Mysteries setteth out by light the Power the Simplicity the Penetration the Ubiquity of God R. Abin Levita supposeth it to be the garment of God it having been said by David that he cloatheth himself with it Maimonides supposeth the matter of the Heavens to have a risen from the extension of this vestment of Divine Light Eugubinus supposeth the Divine Light to be the Empyrean Heaven or habitation of God And this he thinketh to be the true Olympus of the Poets so called quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it shineth throughout with admirable glory S. Basil calleth the Light of God not sensible but intelligible and conceiteth that after that first uncreated the Angels are a second and created light Such sayings though they have in them a mixture of extravagance yet in the main they teach the same with the Scripture that God is light or that there is nothing in the Creation so fit an Emblem of him and so fit to be used in his appearance to the world Thus therefore is the Shechinah of God described in the Prophecy of Habakkuk God came from Teman and the holy One from Mount Paran Selah His glory covered the Heavens and the Earth was full of his praise And his brightness was as the light he had horns or beams coming or streaming out of his hand or side Whether the Shechinah of God ever appeared out of a vision in light organiz'd in mans shape I am not certain though such a Representation be apt to excite the veneration of mankind For even when Herod spake from his Throne of Majesty and the light was with singular advantage reflected from his Robe of silver the amused people were the more readily induced to celebrate him as a God on Earth But of the figure of the Shechinah I profess my self uncertain and often ruminate upon the Chaldee Oracle which adviseth us when we see the most holy Fire shining without a form or determinate shape then to hear the voice of it that is to esteem it then the true Oracle of God and not the imposture of a Daemon And such a fire Psellus the Scholiast on this Oracle affirmeth to have been seen by many men And I might shew somewhat like it in the Instances of Abraham and Moses But there has been seen a false Fire also and the Massalians whom Epiphanius calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bending down their head to their navel professed they saw a divine fire and received the ardor of a divine spirit being either deluded by the Devil or deceived into this conceit by some odd fantasms which arose from the nerves extended in an uncommon posture Now for the Shechinah or visible glory of God in this world for whether it appeared to any as in the other till the day-break of the Gospel will bear a dispute it was in all likelihood effected not by the Father whom no man hath seen but by the second Person in the Trinity the King and Light of the World who was afterwards Incarnate Both the Orthodox and the Haeretical have maintained the visibility of the Son and the invisibility of the Father though upon different reasons This did Origen this did the Arians Thus Bisterfeldius in that very Treatise in which he defendeth against Crellius the natural Divinity of the Son of God doth maintain that the Father is invisible to the very Angels and that Christ even in the Ages long before the Gospel was the visible Image of the Father Now the reason why true Catholicks affirm the Father to
was invok'd And he accordingly taketh notice of the Praises of Heart and Voice which every preserved Citizen did offer to that Goddess In his eleventh chapter he telleth how a man possessed with the Devil was by this Tutelar Deity as he there calls her delivered from so wicked and dangerous an Inhabitant And after having told his story he falleth to his Prayers in this manner O powerful O merciful Goddess defend us also from this subtil Serpent And thou who didst once bruise his head in thy Conception assist us so effectually that his tail may neither scourge us nor throw us on the ground Then after having ended his Legend consisting of divers Miracles wrought at her shrine he falls again to his Prayers in his thirty-sixth or last Chapter and this is the form of his Address O Goddess thou art the Queen of Heaven of the Sea of the Earth above whom there is nothing but God Thou Moon next to him the Sun whom I implore and invocate Protect and take care of us both in publick and private Thou hast seen us these forty years tossed in a publick storm O Mary calm this tumultuous Sea He concludeth with a Poetical Consecration of a silver-Pen to her who had as he believ'd been the author and finisher of his studies Now then such kind of Worshippers do in part revive one degree of the Idolatry of the Gentiles who divided Places Persons Things Actions subject to the Supreme God amongst Sempiternal or Canoniz'd Spirits The chief Architect of the Egyptian Pharos put upon his Workmanship this Inscription Sostratus of Gnidos the Son of Dexiphanes to the Gods Protectors for the safeguard of Sailers What now is the difference betwixt this Inscription and one made by a Papist in honour of S. Nicholas upon the little Church nigh the Wurbel in the Danube None sure unless it be this that the first is in veneration of a Christian Saint the other of good Genii For we are told by those whose credit is as unquestionable as their Learning and who have been upon the place that the Church is dedicated to S. Nicholas That he is the supposed Patron of that dangerous Whirlpool in that River that he is believ'd to take peculiar care of such as pass that way and that a little Boat comes to you as soon as you are out of danger and receives what acknowledgment you please or what perhaps you may have promised to give when you were in some fear It may be God alone calmeth those waves at least without a Saint and S. Nicholas receiveth much of the acknowledgment the whole possibly from the common men of the Vessel whom danger teacheth to pray whilst superstitious ignorance misleadeth them from praying aright Martinus de Roa though a learned Jesuit and a Spaniard does openly declare the nature of this Romish practice he does not seek to give a false colour to it but he shews it as a Practice which plainly agreeâ—…th with the worship of the Gentiles He speaketh out saying that it is a Rite amongst them to call upon the tutelar Deity of the Nation as upon St. James in Spain at the beginning of their Battels And this custom he parrallels with that of the Macedonians in Justin who in their battels called sometimes upon Alexander and sometimes upon Philip as upon Gods invoking their aid for the success of their Armes And then he subjoyneth the practice of the Germans who as Tacitus reporteth joyned not in fight with their enemies 'till they had solemnly prayed to Hercules This kind of worship the Pope continueth to encourage by setting up new Saints as Tutelar Spirits in his Canonizations of them Thus for inscance sake Pope Clement the Tenth confirmed the decree of Pope Clement the ninth in which St. Rosa is created Patroness of the City Lima the chief Town and the Archiepiscopal seat in Peru and principal Protectress of the same Kingdom of Peru and of all the Provinces and Kingdoms of the Terra firma of all the Peruvian America and of the Philippine Islands And this it seems was done to this end that an addition might be made to the veneration of that Saint and that through her intercession the People of those parts might the more strongly hope for Patronage or Protection So S. Thomas de Villanova is canonized by Alexander the seventh who whilst he registreth him in the Calendar of his gods useth this Exhortation Wherefore let us go with boldness to the throne of the Divine mercy praying with heart and voice that S. Thomas may preside over Christian people by his Merit and Example that he may assist them with his Prayers and Patronage and that in the time of wrath he may become their Reconciliation Such Deities the Papacy setteth up and nothing is more common than for the people of that Church to fall down and worship them in that quality Neither can Travellers shun such Statues and Inscriptions as give them advertisement of this worship of Tutelar Saints Such an Inscription is that at Brussels betwixt the Quire and the Sacristy of the Cathedral The Monument is dedicated by Maximilian Duke of Bavaria and Archbishop and Elector of Colen to the immaculate Virgin and to S. Lambert as to the Tutelar Deities of that Church and Countrey S. Michael also is the special Protector of that City and upon the top of its Townhouse stands his Statue in brass Who can go into Lentini and not have notice of the three French Brethren and Martyrs Alsio Philadelfo and Cirino venerated there as its Patrons and Guardians Who travelleth to Utopolis or S. Veit and seeth not the four Chappels on the four Hills of S. Veit S. Ulrick S. Laurence S. Helena or heareth not of St. Veit or St. Faith as of one that cureth the Dancing-sickness known by the name of Chorea sancti viti Who entreth Paris and heareth not St. Geneviefve celebrated as the Protectress of it And is not she called the Guardian of France and the North-star of her Imperial City Who understandeth the ancient estate of England and is ignorant of the Veneration which it hath had for its presumed Patron St. George So great it was that when certain Holy-days were abrogated in the Reign of Henry the Eighth the Feast of St. George was excepted as well as those of the Apostles and our Lady Who crosseth the Ocean and visiteth the Mexican America and observeth not that St. Joseph is made the Patron of new Spain The Synod of Mexico confirmed at Rome hath declared him to be such and given particular order for the celebration of his Holy-day I am not able to recount to how many places persons and things the Protection of the holy Virgin is said to extend The fancy of the eloquent Jesuit Rapine hath made her to preside over Clouds and Tempests over Tillage and Pasturage over Flocks and Herds To
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