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 ...

CHAP. II. Of the Notion of Idolatry. (Book 2)

IDolatry is either Metaphorical or Proper. By Me∣taphorical Idolatry, I mean that inordinate love of Riches, Honours, and bodily Pleasures, whereby the passions and appetites of men are made superior to the Will of God: Man, by so doing, making as it were a God of himself and his sensual temper. The Cove∣tous man worshippeth Mammon; he valueth his Gold, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in the language of Philo a 1.1, as a Divine Image: As if the Image of God were cast, in eminent manner, in that thick Clay spoken of by the Prophet, with which the Issachars of the world do lade themselves. Such Idolatrous estimation of Money, gave to a Mine in Friebert, which contained in it exceeding rich Ore, that high and mighty name of Himmelfurst, or the Prince of Heaven. The Ambi∣tious man, rather than he will want high place, or popular fame, he will in unjust Wars, and unreasona∣ble Duels, offer himself a sacrifice to Honour; an Idol on whose Altars more blood hath been profusely shed, than on those of Moloch or Bellona. To the Glutton, (as Tertullian in his Book of Fasting saith of him, after his sharp manner,)

His Belly is his God, his Paunch is his Altar, his Cook is his Priest, his Saw∣ces are his Graces, and his Belching is Prophesie.

The unchast man owns nothing so Divine as his Harlot, and borroweth the phrases of his Courtship, from the Goddesses and the Shrines, the Temples and the Al∣tars, of the Theologers of the Gentiles, that is, their Poets. Now this excessive value of the things of the

World, is a very high and impious presumption: But because it setteth not up Mammon or the Appetite, as a god, or an object of Religious worship; therefore I call it Metaphorical, and not Proper Idolatry; in which latter subject only, I am at present engag'd.

This kind of Idolatry which I call Proper, is by many supposed a matter of nice and difficult specula∣tion. They think the notion of it too abstruse for common heads; yea, too hard for some Scholastick ones, which are not very accurate in dividing a Cum∣min-seed. And yet the Holy Writers do every-where reprove the people for this sin, supposing its nature to be commonly understood: and sure it is no other than that which is briefly describ'd by St. Cyprian and Hilary.

Then (saith St. Cyprian) is Idolatry com∣mitted, when the Divine Honour is given to ano∣ther. So Hilary the Roman Deacon (sometimes mi∣staken for St. Ambrose,) doth, in this, place the na∣ture of Idolatry, That it usurpeth the Honour of God, and challengeth it in right of the creature.

Not unlike to these descriptions is that which we find in the Book of the Reformation b 1.2 of Ecclesiasti∣cal Laws, begun by Henry the Eighth.

Idolatry (saith that Book) is a Worship, in which not the Creator, but the creature, or some figment of man is adored.

To this worship of the Creature, the Scripture doth frequently give the name of unclean∣ness. This it hath done, partly in compliance with the Jewish Idiom, which calleth any thing that is de∣testable, dirty or unclean; the persons of that people being desecrated by corporal pollutions. It hath also done it, by reason of those very unchast Actions and Rites, by which many of the Idols of the Gentiles were served; though in the worship of some few, and particularly in that of Vesta, the great observance was

Chastity. But the Scripture hath, especially, given to Idolatry that name of uncleanness, because it was an alienation of the hearts and bodies of the Jews from the God of Israel, who had, as it were, chosen that Church as his Spouse on Earth. For the like Rea∣son Witchcraft is a sort of Idolatry, because it break∣eth Covenant with God, and entreth into solemn league and compact with Daemons.

Now if this common notion seemeth, too briefly, or too generally propounded, I am ready to make a particular enlargement of it in the following definition.

Idolatry is a sin, which by inward reverence or out∣ward signs, giveth to some other object, in an act or habit of Religious Homage or Worship, that Ho∣nour which is either essential to God; or being com∣municable, yet appertaining to God only till he hath declared his actual communication of it, is ei∣ther not at all communicated, or not in that extent or continuance of vertue, which seemeth thereby to be attributed to it.

This definition containeth in it three branches, which are also three degrees of Ido∣latry.

First, The Idolater giveth away, sometimes, the es∣sential and incommunicable Honour of God. This he doth two ways; first, when he dethroneth God in his imagination, and setteth up some other object in his place. Thus the Babylonians offended, whil'st they a∣dored the primitive Baal, the Sun, as the best and greatest Deity, not only in their World or Empire, but likewise throughout the Sphere of all things. He doth it, Secondly, when admitting of God, he addeth another principle equal to him; for he that divideth the Empire of God, diminisheth his Honour: He makes him cease to be God, that is, to be One and Supreme. This presumption Pliny, a 1.3 chargeth,

in effect, on Democritus, giving to his two Principles, the names of Poena and Praemium, Punishment and Reward; or (as I think) more properly, Avenger and Rewarder. The like fault is found in the Persi∣an Theology, which constituteth (as they say) two Principles; the one the fountain of Good, under the name of Oromasdes; the other the source of Evil, un∣der the name of Arimanius: Although it may appear from Theodorus, in his Book a 1.4 of the Persian Ma∣gick, that both (according to Zarasdas or Zoroaster) were the off-spring of Zaruam, who was own'd as the Prince of all things, and the Father of Hormisda and Satanas, and called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Fortune. Such Idola∣try is likewise charged on the Americans of Mexico, who are reported (b) to have had Two thousand gods, and amongst them two principal ones, Tezcatlipuca the * 1.5 god of providence, and Vitzilopuchtli the god of the wars. It may be that there was a Deity own'd by them superiour to both these: For what else was intended by that great and superiour Image plac'd on the top of the Chappel of Idols c 1.6 in the City of Mexico? It was either the Statue of the Supreme God, or of the supreme Demon of their Precinct. And why should it not be thought that Mexico own'd one God as well as Peru, in which the Soveraign Principle (as Acosta instructeth us) was called Pachacamac and Vira∣cocha, inferiour to whom they esteemed the Sun and Thunder, their two Principles, (as I guess) of Good and Evil.

In the next place, the Idolater giveth to some other object, that Honour which might have been communi∣cated by Gods Authority, but hath been entirely re∣served by his Wisdom, whilest no actual communica∣tion of it hath been any way declared. This impiety of his is likewise of two kinds. For he giveth the

Honour which God hath wholly reserved, to some o∣ther object, either with respect to some inherent Pow∣er with which he supposeth it to be indu'd by God; or with regard to some external Relation which he supposeth to be owned by him. In the first kind the barbarous Goths offended, whilst they worshipped Nocca a 1.7 [a kind of Neptune amongst them] as one to whom a superiour Power had committed the government of their Seas and Rivers; whil'st that Idol possibly, had not so much virtue communicated to him, as might still one puff of Wind, or crush a Bub∣ble. In the second kind, they would have transgres∣sed, who in the Temple of Dagon should have done Religious, though relative and inferiour, reverence to his shapeless Trunk, or even to his Statue in the perfection of its beauty; God having never own'd it as his Image, or the Image of any Deity, or Angel, substituted by him.

Lastly, The Idolater giveth Honour to an Object which God owneth and replenisheth sometimes with virtue, in the quality of the Fountain of that Virtue; whilst God hath not indued it with that constant Pow∣er in it self, but used it as the instrument of his Works. The Power which healeth Diseases not cu∣rable by Physick, doth not so essentially belong to the Prerogative of God, that he cannot communicate it perpetually to Angel or Man, and invest him in it, without diminution of his own Omnipotence. For it implyeth not a contradiction, for a creature to be able to alter the whole Texture of so little a frame as mans body: Neither is it impossible for man to be, by God, indued with a knowledg, which in a certain precinct, may, by signs in nature, to men unknown, and past their finding out, foretel several accidents which God determineth not to over-rule; such as

Plagues, or healthful Seasons; Famine or Plenty: For this knowledg, though it is not mans natural Ta∣lent, is not Omniscience. Yet whil'st this is done by Gods immediate Power, and man is but instrumental in it, he becomes an Idolater, who owneth and thanketh man as the efficient cause. And he is guilty two ways: Either whilst he owneth the Instrument as the effici∣ent Cause, during the time that God maketh use of it, or after God hath ceased to work by it. In the first kind, the Impotent people, who were healed at the Pool of Bethesda, had offended, if they had given thanks to the Angel as to the principal Physician. And against this kind of Idolatry St. Peter gave cau∣tion, when seeing the multitude transported with ad∣miration at the recovery of the Cripple, a 1.8 He thus bespake them, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look you so earnestly on us, as though by our own power, or holiness, we had made this man to walk? The offence of the second kind is much great∣er than this first, because it doth not only give to Gods Instrument the honour due to the Divine Efficient Cause; but it also giveth Divine honour to that, which is not now so much as the Instrument by which God worketh. And this becomes a very Idol indeed, a vanity or lie, or nothing at all of that which it is esteemed to be. The Magical Rod in the Temple of Isis, in imitation of that of Moses, was but an Idol, if it was an Instrument of any wonders; for it was not the Rod of God, but of a Demon. This matter may also be illustrated, both 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, a 1.9 and observeth him there deriding the Egyptians, because they made, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, 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 Pig∣norius contendeth; as likewise that mentioned by Ar∣nobius b 1.10 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 distin∣guished 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 Ex∣ternal Objects. By Personal Objects, I mean the Ido∣laters 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 Bur∣roughs c 1.11 the morning before he departed this Life,

That his Soul and Spirit was centred in its own be∣ing with God.

Internal Objects are the false Idea's which are set up in the fancy, instead of God and his Divine perfe∣ctions. 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 irresisti∣ble Tyrant; and applies himself to him as such, with∣out 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 there∣by abated.

External Objects, are such which have a subsistence distinct from the Phantasms which are by motion im∣pressed 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 end∣less. Idolaters have worshipped Universal Nature, the Soul of the World, Angels, the Souls of men de∣parted; 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 Pil∣lars and Statues, Pictures and Hieroglyphics [mean as that of the Scaribee a 1.12 it self, resembling the Sun so many ways, as Porphyrie fancieth] together with divers fossils and terrestrial Fire. They have further∣more 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 a 1.13 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 Presi∣dent of Woods, the Temple of Mountains and Ri∣vers, 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 b 1.14 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 computa∣tion; 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, be∣twixt the ways by which Gods Honour is derived on creatures. For it is either done by the inward estima∣tion 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 to∣gether, 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 Ifrae∣lites (saith St. Cyril) worshipped the Calf; and they did it, by crying out these are thy gods (f).

* 1.15. 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 belie∣ving 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, Chi∣na, and East-India. On the 29th of July, in the year 1585, b 1.16 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 hand to the Sun, and then smote his breast with very vehement force. The English aptly inter∣preting this sign as an acknowledgment of the Deity of the Sun, and an Oath by that Idol, of fidelity and peace, used the same sign themselves; gaining there∣by Friendship and Traffick with a few Salvage People, at the expence of the most valuable thing, the Ho∣nour of God.

Of this external Honour, he is jealous, and he re∣served

it to himself, amongst the Jews whom he had espoused, by express command, saying, Lo tischtacha∣veh, Thou shalt not, before an Image or Idol, put thy Body into such a figure, as is a sign of worship. In the same sence ought to be interpreted the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, of the Seventy [Thou shalt not bow down;] the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, not denoting there, a meer act of the mind, but of the body, either by bowing of its whole frame, or its head, or knee, or (which the notation of the word particularly importeth) by the kissing of the hand, a 1.17 a common ceremony among the Gentile Idolaters; and ancient as the times of Job b 1.18 Three ways of exhibiting such external reverence are suggested by the Psalmist c 1.19, where he calls upon the people, to worship with prostration, to bow, to kneel before God their Creator. For the sake of ex∣ternal worship, solemn Days and publick Assemblies have in great part been appointed: By it, our Light (which retained in the heart only, is as a Lamp burn∣ing in a Sepulchre,) doth so conspicuously shine before men, that it induceth them to an happy consent in glorifying God with us. By it, is maintain'd the visi∣ble Society of Gods Church, whose outward commu∣nion is preserved by the external signs of words, ge∣stures and actions, relating to the Christian Religion, and making up the profession of it. This Communi∣on he, in effect, renounceth, who pretending to the heart of a Christian, hath the tongue of a Blasphemer, or the gesture of an Idolater: who, whatsoever secret thoughts he entertaineth concerning God, saith open∣ly of him, that he is not Supreme: or, what inward hatred soever he conceiveth against Idols, sitteth in their Temples, and eateth of their Sacrifice.

Exter∣nal Ceremonies (as is said d 1.20 by the Fathers of the Synod of Rhemes) are therefore appointed,

that by them a declaration may be made of our affection towards God.

And common Reason teach∣eth, that by giving away the outward signs of wor∣ship, we are prodigal of the internal Honour of God, which cannot be preserved or advanced amongst Socie∣ties of men, meerly by a secret and invisible Inten∣tion.

Hitherto I have pursued the notion of Idolatry in a positive way, according to the proper nature of Wor∣ship, in which the Act passeth towards the Object. But it may not be amiss to take a little notice of a kind of negative impiety, which precedeth this positive false-worship; and to which, some it may be would give the name of negative Idolatry. I mean by this, that denial of any thing in the Idea of God which is proper to it, succeeded by a Worship of Him according to that maimed and unagreeable Idea. For the Idea of God being so intire that, by any diminu∣tion, it becometh the Idea of something else; he that first removes part of the Idea, and then adores the re∣mainder; adores, as God, that which is not like him. He, for instance sake, who denies the constancy of Gods knowledg of human affairs, yet worships him at certain times, in which he owneth him to have that knowledg (after the manner of those foolish Gentiles who worshipped the Sun by day, and revelled by night when they thought he saw not;) such a one, by breaking of such a necessary part of Gods Idea, as renders it not his Image, and yet adoring it as such, first makes an Idol, and then doth it homage. So the god of the Muggletonians rob'd of his Spirituality, im∣mensity, subsistences; what is he but their Idol?

The Premisses being considered, it will thence follow That in giving the Honour of God, supreme or subor∣dinate, to any other thing, be it internal Idea, or person∣al

Principle, or outward Object, with respect to any supposed, inherent, Divine Power, original or deri∣ved, or to any external Relation, by internal wor∣ship, and by the external signs of it, or by either of them, consisteth the Notion of Idolatry; the thing designed in this Chapter.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Philo Jud. de Monarch. l. 1. p. 813.
• b 1.2

  Reform. Leg. Eccles. Tit. de Idol. c. 2. p. 32.
• a 1.3

  Plin. nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 7. p. 3.
• a 1.4

  Theodor. Mops∣uest. Epist. apud Photium in Bi∣blioth. Cod. 81. p. 199.
• * 1.5

  c Gages New Survey of the West-Indies. c. 12. p. 116, 117.
• c 1.6

  Gage ibid. p. 117.
• a 1.7

  Ol. worm. monum. Danic. l. 1. c. 4.
• a 1.8

  Acts 3. 12.
• a 1.9

  Or rather in his Jupiter Tra∣gaedus. p. 700. for I find no∣thing like it in his Book de Sacr. though Pignorius, in Exp. Mens. Isi∣ac. p. 31. has thence cited it.
• b 1.10

  Arnob. l. 6. p. 209.—In Li∣beri dextrâ pen∣dens potorius Cantharus.
• c 1.11

  See. F. H. Te∣stimony.
• a 1.12

  Porphyr. d•…•… Abstin. l. 4. p. 155, 156.
• a 1.13

  Kircher. in Oedip. AEg. Synt. 5. c. 3. P. 401.
• b 1.14

  Epicharm. ap. Stobe•…•…min serm. 89. p. 503.—〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 1.15

  a St. Cyril. A∣lex. cont. Ju∣lian. l. 9. P. 308.
• b 1.16

  Hakluits Na∣vigations. P. 778.
• a 1.17

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Eustath. ad 5 Odyss.
• b 1.18

  Job 31. 26, 27.
• c 1.19

  Psal. 95. 6.—Prosternamur, Incurvemus nos, genuflectamus. See Petr. Pi∣cherell. de Ima∣gin. P. 225, 226, 227, &c.
• d 1.20

  Concil. Rhem. inter Conc. Max. P. 73. Externae Ceremoniae sunt institutae ad de∣clarandam su∣am in Deum affectionem.