Of idolatry a discourse, in which is endeavoured a declaration of, its distinction from superstition, its notion, cause, commencement, and progress, its practice charged on Gentiles, Jews, Mahometans, Gnosticks, Manichees Arians, Socinians, Romanists : as also, of the means which God hath vouchsafed towards the cure of it by the Shechinah of His Son / by Tho. Tenison ...

PART 8. Of their Idolatry in worshipping the Images of Demons.

THirdly, The Gentiles were Idolaters in worship∣ping the Statues or Images of Demons or He∣roe's, either as those Powers were reputed the Depu∣ties of God; or as they were really evil spirits. The Religious Honour given to the Prototype was Idola∣trous, and therefore the Honour done to the Image respecting the Prototype, was such also. So he that bows towards the Chair of an Usurper, does give a∣way the honour of the true Soveraign; because the external sign of his submission is ultimately referred to the Usurper himself.

The Honour which the Gentiles did to their Sta∣tues, redounded generally to their Demons; for their Theology did not set up such Images (whatsoever vul∣gar fancy or practice did) as final objects of worship, or Gods in themselves. It set them up as places of Di∣vine Residence, wherein the Genii were thought to dwell, or to afford their especial presence in Ora∣cles, and other Supernatural aids; as the true God was said to dwell amidst the Cherubims. The Egypti∣ans (as Ruffinus a 1.1 storieth) entertained this supersti∣tious perswasion, amongst a multitude of others, That if any man had laid violent hands on the Statue of Serapis, the Heavens and the Earth would have been mixed together in a new Chaos. Olympius the Sophist b 1.2 exhorteth the Gentiles still to adhere to the Reli∣gion of their Gods, notwithstanding the Christians defaced their Statues. And he gave them this as the reason of his counsel, Because (said he) though the Images be corruptible things, yet in them did dwell c 1.3 Virtues [or Demons] which from the ruins of

their Statues, took their flight to Heaven. This Opi∣nion Arnobius a 1.4 and Lactantius b 1.5 acknowledg to have been common among the Gentiles: and we may still read it in the writings of the wiser (shall I say, or the subtler and less excusable) sort of them. Of that number were Celsus and Julian. Celsus demandeth c 1.6, Whether any man, besides a sottish Ideot who has not a grain of salt in his mind, can believe Stone, Wood, Brass, or Gold, formed by an Artificer, to be a God, and not rather a Statue sacred to the Gods? The Ex∣cuse of Julian is not unlike to that of Celsus.

We worship Images (said that d 1.7 Apostate Emperour), not that we think them to be very Gods themselves, but that by them [as Symbols] we may worship the Gods.

This Petavius the Jesuit in his Note on the Margent, calleth a frigid Evasion. I grant it is so; but is not the like Apology used in justification of Image∣worship, by that Society of which Petavius was a a Brother? So goes the world, even the Learned world: the same reason is by factious Partiality called a piller in one mans Cause, and a straw in anothers.

But let us return to our Argument from this short digression. In pursuit of it, it ought to be taken no∣tice of, that the Writers of the Old Testament seem to speak very differently from Celsus and Julian, in this matter of the Worship of Images and Statues. They seem to upbraid the Gentiles as the Worshippers of the very Statues themselves, without further reference un∣to God or Demons. There stood in Zion, then a Fort of the Jebusites, certain brazen Images, as Talismanical Protectors of it e 1.8; in them the people trusted, be∣lieving that David f 1.9 could not take that Fort till he had removed those divine Guards. With these Da∣vid reproached the people, calling them the Blind and the Lame, which his soul abhorred; that is, such

Idols as had eyes and saw not; feet, and walked not. Other Prophets argue with Idolaters from their own experience; and appeal to them, whether their Idols could hear, or see, or help them? and whether they were not the works of mens hands which they ado∣red a 1.10? They mock them as such who prayed for a prosperous Journey, to an Idol that could not move; and who worshipped one part of a dead Tree, which by the other part of it, served for fuel; for fuel, not for their Altars but for the ordinary fires of their Kit∣chin. They do not deride them as vain men who trust∣ed in a creature which had no power or virtue in it but what it derived from God, as a late French Au∣thor seems to suggest b 1.11; but as such who depended on an Idol; on a thing which neither in it self, nor from any foreign cause, supreme or subordinate, con∣tained or dispensed the virtue they ascribed to it. One would be apt to conclude from such scoffs of the Pro∣phets, that the Gentiles made their very Images their ultimate Gods.

They did so by interpretation, but not by direct in∣tention of mind, unless they were the very scum of the scum of the world. Those who had any measure of understanding discoursed after the manner of Clinia in Plato's Eleventh Book of Laws c 1.12.

Of the Gods (said Clinia) some are seen; to others, which we see not, we erect Images and Statues. And though these Statues be in themselves without life; yet we esteem them animated Deities, and believe whilst we worship them, that they are very favourable to us.

The barbarous Americans made the same distinction with the Philosophical Clinia. They were upbraided by Frier Gage d 1.13 for worshipping an Idol of black wood which they had placed in a Cave of the Earth. But instead of putting them to silence, he received this

answer from them. They told him that themselves be∣lieved the Image to be but wood of it self; but that they knew also by their own ears, that it had spoken to them: they thence concluded that a God was in it, and that on such a miraculous voice, they rightly foun∣ded their devotion. This excuse then was common, but so was not such extraordinary operation as the Ameri∣cans spake of. If it had been vulgarly notorious among the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians, the Prophets would scarce have appealed to them, whilst they dis∣coursed of the nullity and vanity of their Images; for then the people might have refuted their Argument by professing their experience of signs and wonders. But nothing was done Supernaturally by many of their Statues. Their Priests and Statesmen deluded them fre∣quently with their Tales and Arts; and they sacrificed many of the Provisions for their BELS, to their own stomack. Haly speaketh a 1.14 of Images in Egypt known to himself, which could move very strangely, as did the Dove of Archytas. Ruffinus mentioneth an Iron-Image of Serapis at Alexandria; and Pliny one of the same metal in the Temple of Arsinoe, sustained by Magnets b 1.15; to the intent that the people might be∣hold them with admiration, as supported in the air by nothing but Miracles. Dionysius Halicarnassensis c 1.16 tell∣eth of the Mother of Marcius Coriolanus, and of other Women sent in Embassy to him by the Senate, when he had made defect to the Volsci; that prevailing with him to restrain his Forces, the Senate out of the pub∣lick Treasury built to Fortune a Temple and an Image, and the Women erected a second Image at their pri∣vate charge. Of this second Image he reporteth out of the Pontifical Records (Registers of their own cheats under better names and colours); that it spake Latine in the audience of many. What it spake was it seems

to this sense, O ye Matrons! ye, by the Holy Law of the Commonwealth, have made this dedication of me.

Where there was not this deeper art, much was contributed towards the delusion of the people, by the solemn worship, the costly and pompous dress, the stately Processions, the secret Repositories of the Idols of the Heathen. Distance procured reverence, and the splendor of Gold (of which some consisted, and the gilding by which others a 1.17 were made very glorious) created amusement b 1.18 in the eyes and fancies of the Vulgar, who have scarce reason enough to correct their senses. The Statuaries were not masters of much true Art: we see little of proportion in their Images, or of Ordonance in their Tables. That of Isis shews an ill hand, and a worse judgment. But of such Art as might amuse and astonish, either with pleasant or frightful magnificence, there was enough among the rudest Gentiles. In Goa the Heathens of East-India c 1.19 built a Temple of black stone, and shaped their Pa∣gods, or Idols, in figures of horror. In Pegu d 1.20 they abounded with Idols of pure gold, whose Crowns were enriched with valuable Jewels. One of these was of a prodigious heighth, and they called him Apalita, and supposed him to be a Guide to Pilgrims. They had also a statue of silver in the proportion of a Giant; and he was such a Patron among them as Mars was a∣mong the Greeks and Romans. Peter Della Valle e 1.21 speaks of an Image in Ahineli in the same India, called Virena. It stood (as he describes it) at the upper-end of a Temple upon a Tribunal, in a dark and solemn place. It had many Candles set before it in the time of its worship. They carried it sometimes in Procession, under a rich Canopy, with noises of Musick, with Perfumes, and lighted Tapers. There were other infe∣rior Idols serving as his Attendants. And they had Dia∣dems

like to those of the Images of Saints at Rome, or like to the Regno or Pontifical Crown of the Pope. He said it, who was both a Roman, and a Roman Catho∣lick. And his description of Virena puts me in mind of that of the Virgin of Halla made by Lipsius a 1.22: It stands aloft, it is lighted with Tapers, it is of silver; the Image of Christ and of the Twelve Apostles are nigh it; an Angel stands on either side, a silver Lamp hangs by. This pomp amuseth; it is well if it hath not a more Idolatrous effect. The forecited Della Valle de∣scribes a Carr in Ikkeri b 1.23, in which the Idols were carried in pompous Procession; the Carr was excee∣ding high, and so very great that scarce any but one of the widest Streets of Rome would (he saith) have been capable of receiving it, and giving it passage. Arnobius observeth concerning the Gentiles c 1.24, That they designed to create Fear by the manner in which they framed the Statues of the Gods. Hence (as he no∣teth) Sythes and Clubs, and Thunder-bolts were ap∣pendages to their Idols. I will end these Instances with a Discourse of St. Austin's in his fourth Epistle.

For Idols, who is there that doubts whether they be void of all perception? But when they are by an honourable sublimeness, placed on their Thrones, and observed by them who pray and offer Sacrifice; those Idols by the likeness of animated members, and of organs of sense (though indeed there be no life in them) do so affect the minds of vveak people, that they appear to them to live and to breathe: They do so especially through the veneration of the multitude, vvhilst so pompous and so divine a wor∣ship is bestovved on them.

There being then in most of such Idols, no divine virtue, but an artificial form and motion; they vvho worshipped them, whatsoever they intended to wor∣ship

in them, were truly said to worship them them∣selves. This I may illustrate by the confession of Ar∣nobius who was once himself a Pagan Infidel a 1.25.

I worshipped (said he), Oh my blindness! such Gods as came out of the Smith's Furnace, and such as were fashioned by the Hammer and Anvil. I worshipped the bones of Elephants:

[for they, as Peireskius b 1.26 noteth, were honoured by mistake, for those of Gi∣ants.]

I adored a smooth stone, and a Wooden sta∣tue. I flattered the Image, as if there were a Deity present there: I spake to it, I asked benefits of it, though it perceived nothing.

The Prophets therefore used an Argument most ac∣commodable to the Gentiles, and tending the most ready way to their conviction. For if they vvould not have been most sottishly credulous c 1.27, if they would not have permitted their fancies to have imposed upon their understandings; if they would but have exami∣ned matters of fact with any degree of diligence and impartiality, the generality of them might have known concerning their Images, that they had usually no more of Inspiration or Divinity in them, than the stones of their streets, or the posts of their doors d 1.28. The Fathers in their Disputations with the Heathens, do frequently use this Argument against their Images, and deride them for worshipping things which can neither help men nor themselves e 1.29. And thence by the way, I take leave to observe that if they believ'd the Bread to be Christs real natural body, they argued with Inconsistence. For then it would have been an obvious retort, that the object which they themselves worshipped in the Sacrament could not deliver it self from a contemptible Mouse.

From the importance of this Discourse, some an∣swer may be returned to an Argument used by the

Learned Mr. Thorndike a 1.30, who supposed Idolatry to consist in Polytheism. He would prove the Calf or Idol of Samaria to have been the ultimate object of them who adored it; because in Amos b 1.31 it is objected to them, That the Workman made it, and therefore it was not God. Here the Prophet only useth an Argument which appealeth to their own reason, and which they might have used themselves, but did not. Judg among your selves (said he in effect) whether this Statue thus framed can be a God, what divine power soever you think to reside in it; yet you do by interpretation, make it your God, because you worship that which is before you, and there is nothing but the Image it self; nothing in it, no virtue issuing from it. Wherefore, notwithstanding your imagination, which your com∣mon reason might correct, the thing it self is your Deity or your Idol. And the Prophet does not only ar∣gue against an Idol as against a thing made with hands, but also as a Statue which contained in it no more of Coelestial influence than a common Image. For he fore∣telleth in the sixth verse, that it was to be broken; and in the fifth, seventh, and eighth verses, he obser∣veth, that it could not save them from Captivity, but on the other hand, exposed them to it.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Ruffin. Eccles. Hist. l. 2. c. 23.
• b 1.2

  Olymp. Soph. ap. Soz. Hist. Eccles. l. 7. c. 15. p. 724. Ed. •…•…ales.
• c 1.3

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c.
• a 1.4

  Arnob. adv. Gent. l. 6. p. 203, &c.
• b 1.5

  Lact. l. 2. de Orig. Err. Sect. 2. p. 141, 142, 143, 144, 145.
• c 1.6

  Cels. ap. Orig. l. 7. p. 373. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉;
• d 1.7

  Julian. in Fragm. inter Op. p. 537. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• e 1.8

  See Mr. Greg. Notes on the place.
• f 1.9

  2 Sam. 5. 6, 7, 8.
• a 1.10

  Isa. 41. 7, 21, 22, 23, 24, 29. & 44. 9, to 20. & 45. 20. & 46. 6, 7. Hab. 2. 18, 19, 20. Zach. 10. 1, 2.
• b 1.11

  De la Recher∣che de la verite. Tom. 2. liv. 6. c. 8. p. 327, 328.
• c 1.12

  Plato de Le∣gibus, l. 11. p. 930, 931.
• d 1.13

  Gage in Sur∣vey of west-Ind. c. 20. p. 391, to p. 398.
• a 1.14

  Apud Reichel∣tum de Amule∣tis. p. 36.
• b 1.15

  See Pincieri AEnigm. l. 1. AEnig. 7. p. 17, 18.
• c 1.16

  Dion. Hali∣carn. Rom. Ant. l. 8. sect. 10. p. 784, 785.
• a 1.17

  Tertull. de Idol. p. 89. Soccus & Baxa deaurantur, &c. See Isai. 40. 19.
• b 1.18

  Porphyr. de Stat. Brachman. ap. Bardes. Syr. p. 283. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c.
• c 1.19

  Vincent le Blanc in his Travels, p. 50.
• d 1.20

  Le Blanc, p. 125.
• e 1.21

  Della Valle in his Travels, p. 114, 115.
• a 1.22

  Lips. Oper. Tom. 3. pag. 1250, 1251. Ed. Vesal. 1675.
• b 1.23

  P. D. Valle, p. 129.
• c 1.24

  Arnob. contr. Gent. l. 6. p. 209.
• a 1.25

  Arnob. l. 1. p. 22, 23.
• b 1.26

  Gass. in vitâ Peiresk. l. 2. p. 90. l. 4. p. 151, 152.
• c 1.27

  See Isa. 46. 8. Remember this [viz. v. 7. that Idols can't move, or an∣swer,] and shew your selves men, Isa. 44. 19. There is no un∣derstanding to say, I have burnt part of it in the fire.
• d 1.28

  See Isa. 46. 1, 2.
• e 1.29

  Arnob. l. 1. p. 22, 23. Bene∣ficia poscebam nihil sentiente de Trunco. L. 6. p. 200. Amen∣tia Deum crede∣re, quem tute ip∣se formaris? supplicare tre∣mebundum fa∣bricatae abs te rei? p. 202. Non videtis' sub istorum simula∣chrorum cavis—mures—babitare?—in ore—ab Araneis ordiri retia?
• a 1.30

  Mr. Thorn∣dike's Epilogue, part 3. p. 298.
• b 1.31

  Amos 8. 6.