man to worship, but that they should worship God himself before them; as before the cherubims over the ark, and the brazen serpent. For we read not that the priest or any other did worship the cherubims; but contrarily we read (2 Kings xviii. 4) that Hezekiah brake in pieces the brazen serpent which Moses had set up, because the people burnt incense to it. Besides, those examples are not put for our imitation, that we also should set up images, under pretence of worshipping God before them; because the words of the second commandment, "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image," &c., distinguish between the images that God commanded to be set up, and those which we set up to ourselves. And therefore from the cherubims or brazen serpent, to the images of man's devising; and from the worship commanded by God, to the will-worship of men, the argument is not good. This also is to be considered, that as Hezekiah brake in pieces the brazen serpent, because the Jews did worship it, to the end they should do so no more; so also Christian sovereigns ought to break down the images which their subjects have been accustomed to worship, that there be no more occasion of such idolatry. For at this day, the ignorant people, where images are worshipped, do really believe there is a divine power in the images; and are told by their pastors that some of them have spoken; and have bled; and that miracles have been done by them; which they apprehend as done by the saint, which they think either is the image itself, or in it. The Israelites, when they worshipped the calf, did think they worshipped the God that brought them out of Egypt; and yet it was idolatry, because they thought the calf either was that God, or had him in his belly. And though some man may think it impossible for people to be so stupid as to think the image to be God, or a saint; or to worship it in that notion; yet it is manifest in Scripture to the contrary; where when the golden calf was made, the people said (Exod. xxxii. 4), "These are thy gods, O Israel;" and where the images of Laban (Gen. xxxi. 30) are called his gods. And we see daily by experience in all sorts of people, that such men as study nothing but their food and ease, are content to believe any absurdity, rather than to trouble themselves to examine it; holding their faith as it were by entail unalienable, except by an express and new law.

But they infer from some other places, that it is lawful to paint angels, and also God himself: as from God's walking in the garden; from Jacob's seeing God at the top of the ladder; and from other visions, and dreams. But visions and dreams, whether natural or supernatural, are but phantasms: and he that painteth an image of any of them, maketh not an image of God, but of his own phantasm, which is making of an idol. I say not, that to draw a picture after a fancy is a sin; but when it is drawn, to hold it for a representation of God, is against the second commandment; and can be of no use but to worship. And the same may be said of the images of angels, and of men dead; unless as monuments of friends, or of men worthy remembrance. For such use of an image is not worship of the image; but a civil honouring of the person, not that is, but that was. But when it is done to the image which we make of a saint, for no other reason but that we think he heareth our prayers, and is pleased with the honour we do him, when dead, and without sense, we attribute to him more than human power; and therefore it is idolatry.

Seeing therefore there is no authority, neither in the law of Moses nor in the Gospel, for the religious worship of images, or other representations of God, which men set up to themselves; or for the worship of the image of any creature in heaven or earth, or under the earth: and whereas Christian kings, who are living representants of God, are not to be worshipped by their subjects, by any act that signifieth a greater esteem of his power than the nature of mortal man is capable of; it cannot be imagined that the

religious worship now in use was brought into the Church by misunderstanding of the Scripture. It resteth therefore, that it was left in it, by not destroying the images themselves, in the conversion of the Gentiles that worshipped them.

The cause whereof, was the immoderate esteem and prices set upon the workmanship of them, which made the owners, though converted from worshipping them as they had done religiously for demons, to retain them still in their houses, upon pretence of doing it in the honour of Christ, of the Virgin Mary, and of the apostles, and other the pastors of the primitive Church; as being easy, by giving them new names, to make that an image of the Virgin Mary, and of her Son our Saviour, which before perhaps was called the image of Venus and Cupid; and so of a Jupiter to make a Barnabas, and of Mercury a Paul, and the like. And as worldly ambition creeping by degrees into the pastors, drew them to an endeavour of pleasing the newmade Christians; and also to a liking of this kind of honour, which they also might hope for after their decease, as well as those that had already gained it so the worshipping of the images of Christ and His apostles grew more and more idolatrous; save that somewhat after the time of Constantine, divers emperors and bishops, and general councils, observed and opposed the unlawfulness thereof; but too late or too weakly.

The canonizing of saints is another relic of Gentilism: it is neither a misunderstanding of Scripture, nor a new invention of the Roman Church, but a custom as ancient as the commonwealth of Rome itself. The first that ever was canonized at Rome was Romulus, and that upon the narration of Julius Proculus, that swore before the senate he spake with him after his death, and was assured by him he dwelt in heaven, and was there called Quirinus, and would be propitious to the state of their new city and thereupon the senate gave public testimony" of his sanctity. Julius Cæsar, and other emperors after him, had the like "testimony;" that is, were canonized for saints; for by such testimony is "canonization" now defined; and is the same with the άroléwois of the heathen.

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It is also from the Roman heathen that the Popes have received the name and power of Pontifex Maximus. This was the name of him that in the ancient commonwealth of Rome had the supreme authority under the senate and people, of regulating all ceremonies and doctrines concerning their religion; and when Augustus Cæsar changed the state into a monarchy, he took to himself no more but this office, that of tribune of the people, that is to say, the supreme power both in state and religion; and the succeeding emperors enjoyed the same. But when the emperor Constantine lived, who was the first that professed and authorized Christian religion, it was consonant to his profession, to cause religion to be regulated, under his authority, by the Bishop of Rome; though it do not appear they had so soon the name of Pontifex ; but rather, that the succeeding bishops took it of themselves, to countenance the power they exercised over the bishops of the Roman provinces. For it is not any privilege of St. Peter, but the privilege of the city of Rome, which the emperors were always willing to uphold, that gave them such authority over other bishops; as may be evidently seen by that, that the Bishop of Constantinople, when the emperor made that city the seat of the empire, pretended to be equal to the Bishop of Rome; though at last, not without contention, the Pope carried it, and became the Pontifex Maximus; but in right only of the emperor; and not without the bounds of the empire; nor anywhere, after the emperor had lost his power in Rome; though it were the Pope himself that took his power from him. From whence we may by the way observe, that there is no place for the superiority of the Pope over other bishops, except in the territories whereof he is himself the civil sovereign, and where the

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emperor having sovereign power civil, hath expressly chosen the Pope for the chief pastor under himself, of his Christian subjects.

The carrying about of images in "procession," is another relic of the religion of the Greeks and Romans. For they also carried their idols from place to place, in a kind of chariot, which was peculiarly dedicated to that use, which the Latins called thensa, and vehiculum Deorum; and the image was placed in a frame or shrine, which they called ferculum: and that which they called pompa, is the same that now is named "procession." According whereunto, amongst the divine honours which were given to Julius Cæsar by the senate, this was one, that in the pomp, or procession, at the Circæan games, he should have thensam et ferculum, a sacred chariot and a shrine; which was as much as to be carried up and down as a god: just as at this day the Popes are carried by Switzers under a canopy.

To these processions also belonged the bearing of burning torches and candles, before the images of the gods, both amongst the Greeks and Romans. For afterwards the emperors of Rome received the same honour; as we read of Caligula, that at his reception to the empire, he was carried from Misenum to Rome, in the midst of a throng of people, the ways beset with altars, and beasts for sacrifice, and burning "torches:" and of Caracalla, that was received into Alexandria with incense, and with casting of flowers, and dadoûxíais, that is, with torches; for dadoûxo were they that amongst the Greeks carried torches lighted in the processions of their gods. And in process of time, the devout but ignorant people did many times honour their bishops with the light pomp of wax candles, and the images of our Saviour and the saints, constantly, in the church itself. And thus came in the use of wax candles; and was also established by some of the ancient councils.

The heathens had also their aqua lustralis, that is to say, "holy water." The Church of Rome imitates them also in their "holy days."

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They had their bacchanalia; and we have our wakes," answering to them; they their saturnalia, and we our "carnivals," and Shrove Tuesday's liberty of servants: they their procession of Priapus; we our fetching in, erection, and dancing about May-poles; and dancing is one kind of worship: they had their procession called Ambarvalia; and we our procession about the fields in the Rogation Week. Nor do I think that these are all the ceremonies that have been left in the Church, from the first conversion of the Gentiles; but they are all that I can for the present call to mind; and if a man would well observe that which is delivered in the histories, concerning the religious rites of the Greeks and Romans, I doubt not but he might find many more of these old empty bottles of Gentilism, which the doctors of the Roman Church, either by negligence or ambition, have filled up again with the new wine of Christianity, that will not fail in time to break them.

CHAPTER XLVI.

Of Darkness from Vain Philosophy and Fabulous Traditions.

By "Philosophy" is understood "the knowledge acquired by reasoning, from the manner of the generation of anything, to the properties: or from the properties, to some possible way of generation of the same; to the end to be able to produce, as far as matter and human force permit, such effects as human life requireth." So the geometrician, from the construction of figures, findeth out many properties thereof; and from the properties, new

ways of their construction, by reasoning; to the end to be able to measure land and water; and for infinite other uses. So the astronomer, from the rising, setting, and moving of the sun and stars, in divers parts of the heavens, findeth out the causes of day and night, and of the different seasons of the year; whereby he keepeth an account of time; and the like of other sciences.

By which definition it is evident that we are not to account as any part thereof that original knowledge called experience, in which consisteth prudence; because it is not attained by reasoning, but found as well in brute beasts as in man; and is but a memory of successions of events in times past, wherein the omission of every little circumstance altering the effect, frustrateth the expectation of the most prudent: whereas nothing is produced by reasoning aright, but general, eternal, and immutable truth.

Nor are we therefore to give that name to any false conclusions: for he that reasoneth aright in words he understandeth, can never conclude an

error:

Nor to that which any man knows by supernatural revelation; because it is not acquired by reasoning:

Nor that which is gotten by reasoning from the authority of books; because it is not by reasoning from the cause to the effect, nor from the effect to the cause; and is not knowledge but faith.

The faculty of reasoning being consequent to the use of speech, it was not possible but that there should have been some general truths found out by reasoning, as ancient almost as language itself. The savages of America are not without some good moral sentences; also they have a little arithmetic, to add, and divide in numbers not too great: but they are not, therefore, philosophers. For as there were plants of corn and wine in small quantity dispersed in the fields and woods, before men knew their virtue, or made use of them for their nourishment, or planted them apart in fields and vineyards; in which time they fed on acorns and drank water; so also there have been divers true, general, and profitable speculations from the beginning; as being the natural plants of human reason. But they were at first but few in number; men lived upon gross experience, there was no method; that is to say, no sowing, nor planting of knowledge by itself, apart from the weeds, and common plants of error and conjecture. And the cause of it being the want of leisure from procuring the necessities of life, and defending themselves against their neighbours, it was impossible, till the erecting of great commonwealths, it should be otherwise. "Leisure" is the mother of "philosophy," and "Commonwealth" the mother of "peace" and "leisure." Where first were great and flourishing cities, there was first the study of "philosophy." The Gymnosophists of India, the Magi of Persia, and the Priests of Chaldea and Egypt, are counted the most ancient philosophers; and those countries were the most ancient of kingdoms. "" Philosophy" was not risen to the Grecians, and other people of the west, whose " commonwealths," no greater perhaps than Lucca or Geneva, had never "peace," but when their fears of one another were equal; nor the "leisure' to observe anything but one another. At length, when war had united many of these Grecian lesser cities into fewer and greater, then began "seven men," of several parts of Greece, to get the reputation of being "wise; some of them for "moral and "politic" sentences, and others for the learning of the Chaldeans and Egyptians, which was astronomy " and "geometry." But we hear not yet of any "schools" of "philosophy."

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After the Athenians, by the overthrow of the Persian armies, had gotten the dominion of the sea; and thereby of all the islands and maritime cities of the Archipelago, as well of Asia as Europe; and were grown wealthy;

they that had no employment, neither at home nor abroad, had little else to employ themselves in, but either (as St. Luke says, Acts xvii. 21)“ in telling and hearing news," or in discoursing of " philosophy" publicly to the youth of the city. Every master took some place for that purpose. Plato, in certain public walks called Academia, from one Academus: Aristotle in the walk of the temple of Pan, called Lyceum: others in the Stoa, or covered walk, wherein the merchants' goods were brought to land: others in other places; where they spent the time of their leisure in teaching cr in disputing of their opinions: and some in any place where they could get the youth of the city together to hear them talk. And this was it which Carneades also did at Rome, when he was ambassador: which caused Cato to advise the senate to dispatch him quickly, for fear of corrupting the manners of the young men, that delighted to hear him speak, as they thought, fine things.

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From this it was that the place where any of them taught and disputed was called schola, which in their tongue signifieth "leisure; and their disputations, diatribe, that is to say, passing of the time. Also the philosophers themselves had the name of their sects, some of them from these their schools: for they that followed Plato's doctrine were called Academics; the followers of Aristotle Peripatetics, from the walk he taught in; and those that Zeno taught Stoics, from the Stoa; as if we should denominate men from Moorfields, from Paul's Church, and from the Exchange, because they meet there often to prate and loiter.

Nevertheless, men were so much taken with this custom that in time it spread itself over all Europe and the best part of Africa; so as there were schools publicly erected and maintained, for lectures and disputations, almost in every commonwealth.

There were also schools, anciently, both before and after the time of our Saviour, amongst the Jews; but they were schools of their law. For though they were called "synagogues," that is to say, congregations of the people; yet, inasmuch as the law was every Sabbath-day read, expounded, and disputed in them, they differed not in nature, but in name only, from public schools; and were not only in Jerusalem, but in every city of the Gentiles where the Jews inhabited. There was such a school at Damascus, whereinto Paul entered to persecute. There were others at Antioch, Iconium, and Thessalonica, whereinto he entered to dispute: and such was the synagogue of the Libertines, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, Cilicians, and those of Asia; that is to say, the school of Libertines, and of Jews that were strangers in Jerusalem; and of this school they were that disputed (Acts vi. 9) with St. Stephen.

But what has been the utility of those schools? What science is there at this day acquired by their reading and disputings? That we have of geometry, which is the mother of all natural science, we are not indebted for it to the schools. Plato, that was the best philosopher of the Greeks, forbad entrance into his school to all that were not already in some measure geometricians. There were many that studied that science to the great advantage of mankind: but there is no mention of their schools; nor was there any sect of geometricians; nor did they then pass under the name of philosophers. The natural philosophy of those schools was rather a dream than science, and set forth in senseless and insignificant language; which cannot be avoided by those that will teach philosophy without having first attained great knowledge in geometry. For Nature worketh by motion; the ways and degrees whereof cannot be known, without the knowledge of the proportions and properties of lines and figures. Their moral philosophy is but a description of their own passions. For the rule of manners, without civil government, is the law of Nature; and in it the law civil, that deter