Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	doctrine_n	worship_n	3,910	5	7.2192	4	false

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

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

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

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

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

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

and therefore it is not for the King's Interest to suffer them If it please the King let it be written that they may be destroyed This is perpetually objected by Manetho the Egyptian Priest against the Jews that they aimed at nothing so much in the Rites of their Religion as to affront and reflect Defiance upon the Egyptian Devotion And so Tacitus his account of them is this Moses ut sibi in posterum Iudaeorum gentem firmaret novos ritus contrariosque caeteris mortalibus indidit Prophana illis omnia quae apud nos sacra rursum concessa apud illos quae nobis incesta Moses that he might the better confirm the Iewish Nation to himself instituted new Rites contrary to the customs of the rest of Mankind what is most sacred with us is most prophane with them and what with us is esteemed most abominable is allowed to them as lawful and innocent This is the certain ground of that known universal contempt and hatred of all other Nations against the Jews And so that Passage in Ieremiah cap. 12. ver 9. is applyed by Grotius to the Jews Mine Heritage is unto me as a speckled Bird the Birds round about her are against her Mine Inheritance is become like a strange Bird and is pursued by all the Birds of the Field As when a Bird of a strange Colour happens to consort with other Birds it is natural for them all to set upon it and this was the case of the Jews in reference to all their Neighbour Nations It were an endless work to recite all the Rites peculiar to the Jews and instituted in contradiction to the Customs of their Neighbours when it is the only reason that runs through almost all their Law even to the boiling of a Kid or Lamb in its Dams Milk to the sowing of divers Seeds together plowing with an Ox and an Ass wearing Linsey Woolsey c. And therefore I shall only instance in two remarkable particulars The Institution of the Passover And the Law against Sacrificing in High Places both which are enjoyn'd as most effectual Remedies against Idolatry The Passover was the first Law instituted by God at or upon their Deliverance out of Egypt In the Tenth day of this Month they shall take to them every Man a Lamb a Male of the first Year according to the House of their Fathers In the Observation of this great Solemnity as it is there prescribed every the most minute Circumstance is an express defiance to the Egyptian Follies First the Paschal Lamb must be a Male a year old that is a young Ram and that was the greatest Affront that could be put upon the Egyptians that held a Ram not only in religious esteem but the most Sacred of all their Holy Animals in more antient times as the Symbol of the Sun entring the Sign Aries and beginning the New Year And afterwards of Iupiter Ammon whom the Greeks planted upon the Stock of the Old Egyptian Idol of the Sun. Now upon the account of the Sacredness of these Animals they never offered any of their Species in Sacrifice And hence when Pharoah bid Moses go Sacrifice to the Lord in the Land of Egypt Moses answers that they dare not Because it would be an Abomination to the Egyptians so that they would stone them that is it would be a Prophaneness and open Affront to the Religion of the Egyptians if they should offer in Sacrifice according to the custom of their Fore-fathers those very Animals that the Egyptians had consecrated to the Honour of their Gods. And for the same reason they are commanded to Sacrifice the Passover with a young Bullock as well as a young Ram out of the Flock or out of the Herd as the Scripture expresses it And when King Iosiah kept after a long intermission a most solemn Passover besides Lambs and Kids he gave to the People 3000 Bullocks Now next to a Ram the Bullock was the most Sacred of all the Holy Animals and therefore made the second Sign in the Zodiack And therefore when the Greeks or later Egyptians gave the first Symbol to Iupiter Ammon their Supreme God they gave the second to Osyris by them commonly called Apis not understanding that that word only signifyed the Image not the Deity so that here Tacitus his Malice is not much in the wrong Caeso Ariete velut in contumeliam Ammonis Bos quoque immolatur quem Egyptii Apim vocant They sacrifice a Ram in Affront to Ammon and a Bullock in Affront to Osyris Beside it must be a Male not a Female because the Egyptians and Heathens who indeed generally followed the Egyptian Customs especially the Greeks used only Females in their Sacrifices But the most observable circumstance in this whole Solemnity is the time of its Celebration the Lamb was to be solemnly set apart for the Sacrifice on the Tenth Day of the Month till the Fourteenth because on the Tenth Day on which the Sun entred the Sign Aries began the great Festival of Aries or the New Year so that beginning the Jewish Passover at the same time it was a manifest Triumph over the Egyptian Deity by cutting the Throat of the poor Beast with as much Solemnity as the Egyptians at that very time worship'd it And for the same reason a Cow that was sacred to Isis or rather to some more antient Deity I suppose the Moon was commanded to be driven out of the Camp and burnt as an unclean Beast and so because the Egyptians addressed their Worship to a Goat as the Symbol of some Deity probably the Sun in that Sign God commanded the Jews to make use chiefly of Goats in their Expiatory Sacrifices and particularly the Scape Goat laden with all the Sins and all the Curses of the People and hence the Israelites were strictly forbidden to Sacrifice to Goats which we translate Devils And they shall no more offer Sacrifice to Devils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Goats after whom they have gone a whoring This shall be a Statute for ever unto them throughout their Generations But to return to the Paschal Ram all the circumstances of the Institution carry a remarkable significancy in them Thus when they are commanded to besmear the Side-posts and upper Door-posts or Lintal of every House What could have been a more publick Contempt of the Egyptian Religion when by it they declared that the Almighty Power that had prov'd it self by so many Miracles and Judgments especially this Last in the Death of the First-born commanded to put all manner of contempt upon those Creatures that were consecrated to the Worship of their Gods and to leave those Bloody Posts to the Egyptians as Monuments of their baffled Deities And tho I have no Reverence to the Authority of the Jewish Rabbies in the account of antient times being not only very trifling but very modern Writers yet there is cited an excellent Passage out of R. Abraham Seba that

I cannot omit to recite not for its Authors sake but it s own The Egyptians began the computation of their Months from the time that the Sun entred Aries and this whole Month was celebrated with extraordinary Festival Solemnity and was more sacred than all the Months of the year beside God therefore designing to set his People at as great a distance as could be from the Customs of the Heathens commanded them to begin the year not from the Full Moon as the Egyptians did but from the first day of the Month and whereas the Egyptians spared their Cattle and durst not so much as eat Rams Flesh therefore they are commanded to kill roast and eat it so that whereas they offer Incense to it and perform their Solemn Devotions before it these are commanded in contempt to sprinkle the Blood of this most Holy Animal upon the very Threshold of their Houses So far the Doctor So again they are commanded not to eat the Paschal Ram raw in opposition to the Customs of the antient and barbarous Heathen Nations who eat all their Sacrifices raw especially at their signing of Covenants and Treaties of Peace and that is the original Reason of the Command to abstain from Blood. Then it is to be eaten in one House not to be eaten abroad in solemn Pomp and Procession as the Heathen Priests did their raw Sacrifices Nor a Bone of it to be broken because the Heathen Priests in their pretended holy Rage were wont to tear their Sacrifices in pieces with their Teeth The Head with the Legs and Purtenance to be eaten because the Heathens only eat the Viscera or Inwards nothing of it to remain till the morning lest it should be abus'd to superstitious uses as the Heathens did the Relicks of their Sacrifices who sold them to the People as a Charm against Diseases and ill Luck All which circumstances are most particularly remarkable in the Bacchanalia or great Festival of Bacchus that the Greeks stole out of Egypt as well as all their other Superstitions as the most learned of them confess And concerning the Bacchanalia in particular Herodotus tells us by whom they were first brought out of Egypt into Greece viz. the famous Physitian Melampus Lastly the Passover was not to be sodden in Water becaue the Egyptians and Syrians always boil their Sacrifices especially to Horus or the Sun and for that reason it is that this little circumstance is so often urged and so strictly observ'd And this is particularly objected by Manetho the Egyptian against the Jews that they were not content only to destroy their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Consecrated Animals but consumed them by Fire as it were burning their Gods in Effigie These are the great Reasons why the Divine Law-giver laid so much stress upon this Solemnity and all the circumstances belonging to it when it was the grand Diagnostick or distinguishing Character between the Worshipers of the true God and of created Deities And therefore upon all Apostasies of the People from their Religion it was the Custom of their pious Princes to recall them by reviewing and renewing the Laws of the Paschal Festival So Iosiah when he set himself to abolish all Relicks of Idolatry and establish the Worship of the true God for ever He commanded all the People saying Keep the Passover unto the Lord your God as it is written in the Book of the Covenant Surely there was not holden such a Passover from the days of the Iudges that Iudged Israel nor of the Kings of Iudea That was an undenyable Proof of their complete Reformation The second Law enjoyn'd in opposition to Egyptian Idolatry is that against sacrificing upon High Places which were Egyptian Altars built in the form of High Towers that they might make nearer approaches to the Sun in their Devotions And therefore God on the contrary commands the Israelites to sacrifice to himself upon a low Altar of Earth Exod. 20. 24 26. without steps or stairs which Laws were given either with or immediately after the Ten Commandments as it seems of equal weight with them So that to offer Sacrifices upon High Places is always represented in Scripture as a very high Act of Idolatry and to destroy the High Places in Scripture as an eminent Act of Reformation which must be understood of Towers not of Mountains that are not so easily demolished So Levit. 26. 30. I will destroy your High Places and cut down your Images or Chamanim and cast your Carcases upon the Carcases of your Idols and my Soul shall abhor you So Numbers 22. 41. Balack took Balaam and brought him up into the High Places or Pillars as the Septuagint always render it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Baal that thence he might see the utmost part of the People So Numb 33. 52. Ye shall drive out all the Inhabitants of the Land before you destroy all their Pictures and Molten Images and pluck down all their High Places In the Historical and Prophetick Writings Idolatry is almost every where exprest by Sacrificing or Worshiping in High Places The Idol Priests are styled Priests of the High Places This says Herodotus was the received Custom of the antient Nations and of this Nature were the Egyptian Pyramids and that which is still standing is built in the form of an Altar i.e. a four square Plane ten Cubits broad on every side not as it is vulgarly suppos'd a Point or Spire to which the Priest advanced by 250 Ascents which Herodotus that viewed them above 2000 years ago says were so many lesser Altars But that the Pyramids were supposed in the more polite Times to have been antient Altars is evident from that known Verse of Luca● Votaque Pyramidum celsas solvuntur ad Aras. There are Monuments of this antient Custom still remaining in the West Indies Gage in his Survey describes such a Tower in the middle of the great Temple at Mexico of an 180 Ascents where their Priests offered all their Sacrifices In short the People of Israel were so fond of these High Altars that some Princes who would have demolisht them as pieces of Idolatry were forced to persist for fear of popular Tumults and Seditions So Asa in his Reformation when he burnt their Idols could not remove their High Places So Iehoash could do every thing but remove the High Places So Amaziah was forced to leave them behind him so his Son Azariah and when they were demolished by Hezekiah and some of the more pious Princes they were ever first restored at the Peoples return to Idolatry And agreeable to what is here represented is the Reason annexed to the Divine Law lest ye discover your nakedness which words tho they may be literally taken yet according to the Language of Scripture in this matter they have a much higher meaning i.e. lest you commit Idolatry or Adultery with other Gods and expose your shame and nakedness by playing the Harlot upon your

High Places These two things Idolatry and Adultery being so frequently joyned together in Scripture as the same Crime Thus far to mention no more it pleased God to provide against Idolatry by enacting special Laws in direct Opposition to the Heathen Rites When God had casher'd the more rank and notorious Acts of Heathen Worship he retained some of their more innocent Rites especially those that were derived from the antient Patriarchs before the later Corruptions were crept in lest if God had given a Law altogether new and abolished all their Old Customs People that are always fond of the Usages of their Fore-fathers should rather have revolted to the Heathen Idolatry than submit themselves to such a new and uncouth Religion and therefore out of condescention to their rudeness and weakness God permitted them to retain several of their former Rites and Ceremonies in his new Worship that by that Indulgence he might win them more easily to embrace his new Institution And this seems to be the Grammatical Sense of St. Paul's Expression That God suffered their Manners in the Wilderness Forty Years where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffered is taken from the Use or Language of Mothers or Nurses that are forced to humour and comply with the little Follies of their Children by any way to please them In allusion to this word God was pleased to express his Treatment of the Children of Israel who knowing the weakness of their rude and childish Understandings permitted and indulged them to enjoy not a few of their former Conceits together with his own Divine Law. And so Moses lets them know in his Farewel Speech That the Lord had all along born with them as a Father doth with his Child And so Grotius paraphrases that passage of St. Paul When we were Children we were in Bondage under the Elements of the World i. e. says he we were under subjection to those Rites and Usages that were common to us with the rest of the World as Temples Altars Sacrifices New Moons to which he might have added Oblations of First Fruits Purifications Festival Solemnities Tabernacles Dedication of Tenths the Ark the Cherubim or Teraphim for they are promiscuously used in Scripture and are of very antient use These and the like old Customs were enjoyned the People of Israel lest for want of them they should relapse to Idolatry And because these Customs were common to the Jews with the rest of the World therefore they are call'd the Elements of the World and weak and beggarly Elements and carnal Ordinances that were impos'd and born with till the time of Reformation in the Apostolical Writings when they would beat down the value of the Mosaick Law. But to omit the rest I shall only insist upon the Cherubim that God commanded to be placed over the Ark and all Divine Worship to be directed towards them And thou shalt make two Cherubims of Gold of beaten work shalt thou make them in the two ends of the Mercy seat c. That they were Statues or Images is out of doubt by their Description but of what particular Form is matter of Controversie among learned Men tho what ever they were I am not concerned it is enough that they were Images used in the Worship of God and then the use of Images is not in it self Idolatry That the Word originally and properly signifies an Ox is evident from Ezekiel who uses the Words promiscuously Chap. 1. 10. As for the likeness of their Faces They four had the Face of a Man and the face of a Lyon on the Right side and they four had the face of an Ox on the left side they four also had the face of an Eagle but Chap. 10. 14. the same things are thus described And every one had four faces the first Face was the face of a Cherub the second the face of a Man the third of a Lyon and the fourth of an Eagle And as an Ox or a Cherub was used by the Antients as a Symbol of Strength or Power so thence came they to signifie the thing it self so God tells the King of Tyre that he was his anointed Cherub i. e. that he had made him great and powerful Hence whenever God in Scripture is said to sit upon or dwell between the Cherubims it is when his Power particularly is represented Thus when the Israelites were defeated by the Philistins they agree at a Council of War to send for the Ark of God to save them out of the hands of their Enemies So the People sent to Shiloh that they might bring from thence the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of Hosts who dwelleth between the Cherubims So King Hezekiah in his Distress calling upon the Divine Protection and Deliverance from his Enemy And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said O Lord God of Israel that dwellest between the Cherubims thou alone art God of all the Kingdoms of the Earth So Psal. 99. 1. The Lord reigneth let the People tremble he sitteth between the Cherubims let the Earth be moved And for this reason were these sacred Images placed over the Ark as the Symbols or Hieroglyphicks to represent the Presence of the Divine Majesty so that as the Ark is styled God's Footstool the Cherubims are called his Throne And so when the Ark and Cherubims were brought into the Temple this Anthem was sung Lift up your Heads O ye Gates and be ye lifted up ye everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in Who is this King of Glory the Lord of Hosts the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in Battle In short these Images were the most sacred things in all the Jewish Religion what they were I will not determine some will have them to have been Statues of Beautiful Youths as they are now vulgarly represented Others the Statue of a young Bullock from the synonymous signification of the Words But the most learned conclude them as they suppose with good Authority from the Scriptures not to have been any one certain Form but mixt of several Forms in which that of a Bullock had the biggest share but compounded of these four shapes a Man's Face an Eagles Wings a Lyons Back an Oxes or Bullocks Thighs and Feet As they are described in the fore cited Chapters of Ezekiel 1. 10. And to this no doubt St. Iohn alludes in his Vision of the Four Beasts Rev. 4. 6 7. Round about the Throne were four Beasts and the first Beast was like a Lyon and the second like a Calf and the third had a face as a Man and the fourth was like a flying Eagle And they rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come In Allusion 't is no doubt to the representation of the immediate Divine Presence in the Ark by the Cherubims that were made up of these four Beasts that were probably pitcht