It is as absurde which is brought, to proue that the Papistes which worship God falsly, doe not faulte so haynously as the Israelites did, whiche worshipped the Idols. As who should say, the Iewes, or any other the grossest Idolaters that euer were, did(a) 1.1 euer take those thinges which they worshipped, serpents, oxen, fyre, water. &c. to be God, or knew not the Images, before whiche they fe〈1 line〉〈1 line〉 downe, were wood or stone, siluer and golde.(b) 1.2 And who knoweth not, that they thought that they worshipped by them and in them, the God which made heauen and earthe. The Iewes when they molted a golden Calfe, and fell downe before it, dyd(c) 1.3 neuer thinke that to* 1.4 be God, but sayde that they woulde keepe holydaye to the(d) 1.5 Lorde Iehouah. wherein I will put you ouer to the learned trearises of the godly new writers, whiche doe resute this distinction beeing brought of the Papistes, as a shifte to proue that the Idolatrie whiche is forbidden in the olde Testament, toucheth not them, because they worship God by these thinges, and the Ido∣latrous Iewes and Infidels, worshipped nothing else, nor looked at nothing else, than the bare things before whiche they fell downe. Whiche selfe same distinctiou you bring to proue, that Pa∣pistrie is not so detestable, as the Idolatrie of the Iewes. It may be, that certayne of the Gentiles worshipped by their Images(e) 1.6 Iupiter & Iuno. &c. But you can not shew, that the Israelites euer worshipped any other god, than the true God, so that their faulte was onely, in that they worshipped him otherwise, than he had appoynted. And the Gentils that worshipped many gods, worshipped one as the head and chiefe, and the rest as small companions, and as they termed them, minorum gentium deos, as the Papistes doe God as the chiefe, and the Sainctes as other pettie Gods.
And heere all men may see, what a good proctor you be for the Papistes, both in lessening their faultes, and abating their punishments, and yet will not I say, that you are conspired with them, or haue receyued your fee of them. But if you can shewe where, or in what one poynt, those that you charge with confederacie, haue layde so soft pillowes vnder their heades as these are: they re∣fuse not to be called confederate, and conspired with the Papistes.
The distinction betwixte the worshipping of the false gods wholly, and the wor∣shipping of the true God falsly and superstitiously, is not yet by you proued to haue any absurditie in it. But it is great boldnesse for you to affirme, that the Gentiles and the moste grosse Idolaters neuer tooke those whiche they dyd worship for Gods, but that in them, and by them they thought they worshipped the God that made heauen and earthe. For what pro∣phane Philosopher, what drunken Poet, what boy in the Grammer schole knoweth* 1.7 not the contrarie? Was Iupiter, Apollo, Uenus, Diana. &c. Gods or Goddesses that created heauen and earth? or thought to haue made heauen and earth? and yet these and suche like they were, whome the Gentiles did worship euen in their Images. Nay they tooke the very Images themselues sometimes to be their Gods. Dothe not the 115. Psal. Esay. 44. Iere. 10. Baruch. 6. the storie of Bell and the Dragon, and the Scripture in sundrie places else, manyfestly declare it? And did not the Iewes often∣times sinne in this poynt as grossely as the Gentiles did? Looke Iudge. 2. verse. 10. 11. 12. &c. 1. Reg. 18. wherin it is playne, that the Iewes were as grosse in taking those thinges to be Gods in déede, as were the Gentiles. And surely I thinke the places in the Scripture before alleaged, so manifest for the proofe héereof, that no man rea∣ding the same, can any thing doubt of this matter.