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 1. Of the Charge which is drawn up against them.

BY Roman-Catholicks, I mean those who pretending to own the Doctrine of the Universal Church, and to submit to the Discipline of it, as it is derived from the supposed Fountain and Head of it, the Bishop of Rome, do confess the Faith of the Council of Trent.

These also are guilty of worshipping Idols, if the multitude of Accusers createth guilt; to omit as yet the Arguments which move so many to that accusati∣on. Mr. Thorndike supposeth them accused, when he affirmeth a 1.1,

That they who separate from them as Idolaters, are thereby Schismaticks before God.

As also when he saith b 1.2,

They who charge the Pa∣pists to be Idolaters,—let them not lead the peo∣ple by the Nose, to believe that they can prove their Supposition when they cannot.

Accused then they are; and their Accusers are nei∣ther few, nor of inconsiderable quality. I mean not here the Mahometans and Jews so much as the Christi∣ans, who are of this judgment. The Mahometans are the professed enemies of visible Idols; and in some places where they have unhappily succeeded in their Invasions of Christendom, they have been as fierce

and zealous Iconoclasts a 1.3 as any to whom that name has been given. And of such zeal the Jews would give external signs, if they had equal power. Of both the learned Grotius saith b 1.4, That they are much diver∣ted from Christianity by the Images which they see cast in the way before them.

The Christians of the Greek Church use painted Ta∣bles. But many of them [if many there be of the same faith with their late Patriarch of Alexandria, S. Cyril] do think of the Images of Roman-Catholicks, as of so many Idols. That Patriarch being askt what the Greci∣ans thought of Images, returned this Answer, not as his private opinion, but as the Faith of the Oriental Church c 1.5, the members of which he personateth in that Confession.

We do not reprobate d 1.6 the noble Art of Painting. So far are we from that [extreme] that we allow to such as please, the Pictures of Jesus and his Saints. But for the adoration and worship of them, we detest it, as contrary to the Scripture, and lest, instead of God, we should ignorantly worship Colour, Artifice, Creatures.

He indeed useth the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which I rend'red Adoration; but he joineth it with the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which I translate Worship; and which St. Paul useth in setting forth the Idolatrous adoration of Angels by the Gnosticks e 1.7. And it is certain by his scope, that he meaneth the Worship of Rome Modern; and he elsewhere f 1.8, calleth it superstitious and that which smelleth rank of Idolatry.

Touching those Christians who are known by the Title of the Reformed, they judg it one great part of their Reformation, that they have purged their Chur∣ches of Romish Idols.

The Confession of Helvetia g 1.9 rejecteth as Idola∣trous, not only the Idols of the Heathens, but the

Images also of those who have taken upon them the Christian name.

The general Confession of Scotland a 1.10, to which the Royal Family, and many others of condition, sub∣scribed, calleth Transubstantiation a blasphemous opi∣nion; meaning thereby that blasphemy, which saith, a Creature is God, and supposing that the Object, under the shews of bread, is bread, though set apart to a Re∣ligious use.

The Confession called the Consent of Poland b 1.11, having declamed against many of the Usages of Rome, and imputed much of the Turks success in Christendom to Gods displeasure at them; proceedeth to an

Ad∣dress to Christ, by a Prayer, in which he is beseeeh∣ed to blot out Idols, Errors, and Abominations.

The Confession of Strasburg c 1.12 rejecteth that Wor∣ship of Images which is practised in the Roman Church, as contrary to the Scripture, and to the sense of the ancient Church; citing to this purpose the Epistle of Epiphanius, and its Translation by St. Hierom, as also the Authorities of Lactantius and Athanasius.

The Augustan Confession d 1.13 condemneth the Invo∣cation of Saints as a custom which transferreth to men the honour which is due to God only; and which as∣cribeth Omnipotence to the dead, by attributing to them the knowledg of the Heart.

The Confession of Saxony e 1.14 saith, of the Invoca∣tion of Saints, both that it leadeth from God, and that it ascribeth Omnipotence to the Creature. And it set∣eth, upon the Worship both of Saints and Images, the reproachful brand of an Heathenish corruption.

The Confession of Wirtemburgh f 1.15, though being mindful of the difficulties of its own absurd Consub∣stantiation, it condemneth not the Worship of Christ under the shews of Bread in the Church of Rome as

an Idolatrous practice; though it granteth that it is possible with God to change the Elements into the Bo∣dy and Blood of Christ; yet it doth not express such favour towards their Worship of Saints. It condem∣neth the Invocation of them according to the Roman Litanies, as a practice which ascribeth to them such ubiquity and such knowledg of the Heart as belongeth to God only.

The Confession of Bohemia a 1.16 allowing some pub∣lick Festivals in memory of the Virgin and other Saints, does yet suppose that Worship of them which is used in the Church of Rome to be an honour and a∣doration due to God.

The Confession of Basil b 1.17 speaking of such pre∣cepts and permissions under the Papacy as it esteemeth unlawful; doth number the Invocation of Saints, and Veneration of Images amongst those things which by virtue of the second Commandment are prohibited by God.

In the French Synods of the Reformed, there is fre∣quent mention of Romish Idolatry c 1.18.

For the Church of England, she designed in her Arti∣cles briefness, and avoidance of disputes; and having professed the Faith of one God, and one Lord Jesus Christ, she doth not insist particularly on the Invoca∣tion of Saints, or the Worship of Images. Yet in her twenty-second Article concerning Purgatory, she saith of that and of the Romish Doctrine, touching Pardons, Worship and Adoration, as well of Images as of Re∣licks, and also of Invocation of Saints,

That it is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.

Now what can we judg of that Wor∣ship which hath for its object something else besides God, and is contrary to the Scripture? We cannot

but think it not a mere impertinence, but a wicked act; an act which by contradicting his Authority, di∣minisheth his honour: and being an act of Worship, nothing less than one degree of Idolatry. Again, in its twenty-eighth Article it teacheth concerning the con∣secrated Elements,

That they were not by Christs in∣stitution or ordinance, reserved, carried about, lift∣ed up and worshipped.

By which words it noteth the Adoration of the Host in the Church of Rome, not as an innocent circumstance added by the discretion of that Church, but as an unlawful worship; though it doth not expresly brand it with the name of Ido∣latry.

In the Rubrick after the Communion, the Adorati∣on of the consecrated Elements is upon this reason for∣bidden,

Because the Sacramental Bread and Wine re∣main still in their very natural substances.

And it is there added,

That they so remaining, the Adoration of them would be Idolatry to be abhorred by all faithful Christians.

This Rubrick doth in effect charge the Church of Rome with gross Idolatry; for it supposeth the Object which they materially worship, to be in its natural sub∣stance still a creature, and a creature disjoined from Personal union with Christ, and not (according to the words of their St. Thomas a 1.19 inserted into their Mis∣sal) a Deity latent under the accidents of Bread and Wine. And it concludeth that the worship of such a substance is such Idolatry as Christian Religion ab∣horreth.

It doth not indeed affirm in terms, that the worship of such a substance by a Romanist who verily thinks it to be not bread, but a Divine body, is Idolatry; but it saith that, whence such a conclusion may be inferred. It saith that the bread is still bread in its substance, and

if it be really such whilst it is worshipped, the mistake of the worshipper cannot alter the nature of the thing, though according to the degrees of unavoidableness in the causes of his ignorance, it may extenuate the crime. Upon supposition that still 'tis very bread in its sub∣stance, Costerus, and it may be Bellarmine himself, would have condemned the Latria of it as the Idolatrous worship of a Creature, even in Paul the simple, of whom stories say that he was extreamly devout; but withal, that he knew not which were first, the Apo∣stles or the Prophets. And here it ought to be well no∣ted, that there is a wide distance betwixt this say∣ing, That Idolatry is a damnable sin; and this assertion, That Idolatry in any degree of it, and in a person un∣der any kind of circumstances, actually damneth.

I would here also commend it to the observation of the Reader, that the Church of England speaketh this of the worship of the corporal substance of the Ele∣ments present in the Eucharist after consecration; and not of the real and essential presence of Christ. And for this reason it left out the terms of Real and Essen∣tial, used in the Book of King Edward the sixth a 1.20, as subject to misconstruction. Real it is, if it be pre∣sent in its real effects, and they are the essence of it so far as a Communicant doth receive it: for he recei∣veth it not so much in the nature of a thing, as in the nature of a priviledg b 1.21. But I comprehend not the whole of this Mystery; and therefore I leave it to the explication of others who have better skill in untying of knots.

In the Commination used by the Church of England, 'till God be pleased to restore the Discipline of Pe∣nance, a curse is denounced against all those who make any carved or molten Image to worship it. And it is the curse which is in the first place denounced on

Ash-Wednesday. It is true that it is taken out of the Book of Deuteronomy a 1.22, and it is the sense of a verse in that Book used at large in the former Common-Prayer-Book, in these words, Cursed is the man that maketh any carved or molten Image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman: and putteth it in a secret place, [to worship it.] That is, though it be done without scandal to men, and in such private manner as to avoid the punishment which the Law inflicteth on known and publick offenders. But the Church of England repeating this Law in its Com∣mination, doth thereby own it to be still of validity, and to oblige Christian men.

The Homilies which are an Appendage to our Church, do expresly arraign the Roman-Catholicks as Idolaters in the learned Discourses of the peril of Idolatry.

Also English Princes and Bishops have declared them∣selves to be of the same perswasion.

King Edward the sixth in his Injunctions b 1.23, reckon∣eth Pictures and Paintings in the Churches of England [as adorned by the Romanists] amongst the Monuments of Idolatry. Of the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth this is the Thirty-fifth c 1.24,

That no persons keep in their houses any abused Images, Tables, Pictures, Pain∣tings, or other Monuments of feigned Miracles, Pil∣grimages, Idolatry and Superstition.

Of the Articles of Inquiry in the first year of her Reign d 1.25, this is one, and pertinent to our present Discourse.

Whether you know any that keep in their Houses any unde∣faced Images, Tables, Pictures, Paintings, or other Monuments of feigned and false Miracles, Pilgrimages, Idolatry and Superstition, and do adore them; espe∣cially such as have been set up in Churches, Chappels, and Oratories.

This likewise is one of the Articles of Visitation set forth by Cranmer Arch-bishop of Canterbury, in the se∣cond year of Edward the sixth:

Whether Parsons, &c. have not removed and taken away and utterly extincted and destroyed in their Churches, Chappels, and Houses, all Images, all Shrines,—Pictures, Pain∣tings, and all other Monuments of—Idolatry and Superstition—.

Bishop Jewel's opinion is so well known, that his words may be spared: And that Confession of Faith which he penned, and which maketh a part of his A∣pology for the Church of England [and in which he calleth a 1.26 the Invocation of Saints in the Church of Rome, a practice vile, and plainly Heathenish] is put in∣to the collection of the Confessions of the Reformed, under the Title of the English Confession b 1.27. But the Churches Confession it cannot be called with respect to her Authority, which did not frame it; whatsoever it be in its substance, and in its conformity to her Articles.

For others of the Church of England, a very Lear∣ned person, the Hannibal and Terrour of Modern Rome c 1.28 hath named enough. T. G. hath indeed ex∣cepted against many of the Jury: but whether he hath not illegally challenged so many of them, remaineth a Question; or rather it is with the Judicious out of dispute.

The sentences of private men spoken on this occasi∣on, both here and beyond the Seas, either broadly d 1.29, or indirectly, are scarce to be numbered. Amongst them beyond the Seas I will name only Danaeus and Hottinger.

Daneus in his Appendix to the Catalogue of Here∣sies written by St. Austin, recounteth the Hereticks who had offended, as he thought, in particular man∣ner

against the several precepts of the Decalogue. And under the second Commandment he placeth the Simo∣nians, the Armenians, the Papists, and some others, as notorious violaters of it. Hottinger a 1.30 distributeth the false worship of the Papists into six kinds of Ido∣latry, under the Greek names of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Bread∣worship; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Marian-worship, to wit, that of the Blessed Virgin; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Saint-worship; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Angel-worship; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Re∣lick-worship; and lastly, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or the worship of Images.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Mr. Thorn∣dike in just Weights and Measures, c. 1. p. 6, 7.
• b 1.2

  Ch, 2. p. 11.
• a 1.3

  Leonclav. Pandect. Hist. Turc. p. 139.
• b 1.4

  Grotius i•…•… Annot. ad Co•…•…∣sult. Cassand. p. 314.—Et Jud•…•…i ac Ma∣bumetistae ea∣rum [h. e. Ima∣ginum] aspect•…•… multum aver∣tantur à Chri∣stianism•…•….
• c 1.5

  See the Pre∣face of St. Cyril to his Conf. ap. Hotting. p. 399. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c.
• d 1.6

  S. Cyr. in. Res•…•…∣ad Interrog. 4. p. 531.
• e 1.7

  Col. 2. 18. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• f 1.8

  Ap. Hotting. p. 550.
• g 1.9

  Conf. Helv. in Corp. Confess. c. 4. p. 5.—Rejicimus ita∣que non modo Gentium Idola, sed & Christi∣anorum simula∣chra.
• a 1.10

  Scot. Consaff. ap. Synt. Conf. p. 126, 127.
• b 1.11

  Polon. Conf. p. 169, 168.
• c 1.12

  Consessio Ar∣gentin. [id est Civ. 4. Imper. Arg. Conf•…•…. Mem. Lindav.] c. 22. p. 196, 197.
• d 1.13

  Confess. Aug. c. 21. p. 22. Hic mos glori∣am soli Deo de∣bitam transfert ad homines, &c.
• e 1.14

  Conf. Saxon. p. 87, 88. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 hanc corrupte. •…•…am athnicam, &c.
• f 1.15

  Conf. Wirt. de Euchar. p. 115. de Invoc. Sanct. p. 121, 122.
• a 1.16

  Conf. Bohem. Art. 17. de cul∣tu Sanct. p. 201.—Insuper docent honorem & cultum De•…•… debitum, non esse ad Sanctos, nec eorum Ima∣gines transfe∣rendum, &c.
• b 1.17

  Conf. Bas. Art. 11. de il∣licitis permiss. Papanis, atque in specie de cul∣tu Rel. Sanct. &c. p. 18, 19
• c 1.18

  See Synode de Lion. A. 1563. de Rochel. A. 1571. de Ger∣geau. A. 1601. in the Book of J. d Huisseau. called la Dis∣cipt. des Eg•…•…i∣ses Refformees de France. c. 12. p. 308, 309.
• a 1.19

  Missal. Rom. in Orat. post Missam. Ador•…•… 〈◊〉〈◊〉 devotè la∣tens Deit as! Quae sub his Fi∣guris verè lati∣tas.
• a 1.20

  See L'estran∣ges Alliance of Div. Offices, p. 207, 208. c. 7.—Not—that any ado∣ration is done to the Bread and Wine there bodily received, or unto any real or essential presence there being of Christs natu∣ral flesh and blood. 2. Book of E. 6.
• b 1.21

  Juellus in Apol. Eccl. Ang. Sect. 14. p. 50, 51—Chri∣stum enim asse∣rimus verè se praesentem exhi∣bere in Sacra∣mentis suis: in Baptismo, ut eum Induamus: in caenâ, ut eum fide & spiritu comedamus, & de ejus cruce ac sanguine ha∣beamus vita•…•… aeternam.
• a 1.22

  Deut. 27. 15.
• b 1.23

  Ed. 6. Injunct. A. 1547. ap. D. Epise. Nor∣dov. Ed. 1. p 9.
• c 1.24

  Q. Eliz. In∣junct. A. 1559. p. 73.
• d 1.25

  Art. of In∣quiry, p. 238.
• a 1.26

  Corp. Confess. 1. part. p. 95. and Jewel's Apol. Eccl. Anglic. Sect. 18. p. 56. Turpe autem & planè aethnicum est quod in istorum Ecclefiis vide∣mus, &c.
• b 1.27

  Confessio An∣glica ap. Synt. Conf. p. 89, &c.
• c 1.28

  Dr. Stilling∣fleet in Pref. to his Disc conc. the Idol. pract. in the Church of Rome.
• d 1.29

  Auth. Quere∣moniae Europae p. 230. Roma Babel quondam, sed nunc es fa∣cta Bethaven, &c.
• a 1.30

  Hottinger. in Dissert. 1. de Necess. Reform. p 39.