XIII. it for the honour of the Christian religion, that so it should CHAP. be practised and done. Whether for the best then, or not, this is not the place. But I yield them not, therefore, to be idolaters; that took it not up till the fear of idolatry was vanished, as they thought. fession of pists from ters, how ever their idolatrous materially.] § 7. In fine, it is not possible to commit idolatry to that, [The prowhich a man takes not for God. He must think it So, before the Church he can honour it for such. Honour is the esteem of the mind. saves pa The figures of it are according to it. It is therefore necessary, being idolathat there should be πоλv¤eťa, an opinion that there are more gods than one, before there can be idolatry'. And therefore prayers are one reason is plain, why the worship they give to the saints, to their relics, and to their images, cannot be idolatry;-because it is not the worship of God, but of His creatures. For it is a frivolous thing to object, that they make them gods by giving them omniscience"; supposing, that they hear all the prayers that can be made to them. They are not such fools as to think, that they hear of themselves; but by God, revealing them. Neither are they infinite in number or matter; but such as the creature may know, continuing finite. It is more to the purpose, that it may truly be said, that they ask of the saints, and chiefly of the blessed Virgin, those things which God only can give. For, taking their prayers in the strict sense of the words, they are idolaters. And this they get by their zeal against the heretics; which carries them to be idolaters, if they be not excused by contradicting themselves. But when there is an evasion-that they pray to the saints to give those blessings, which they would have them procure of God by their prayers";-the profession of the Church, making them creatures, obliges to take them in that sense, which though unproper it may endure. How well they do in allowing such scandalous forms and encouraging them, is another case. and so communicates that right to them See Epilogue, Bk. III. Of the See ibid. § 22, 29, 30, 34. СНАР. [St. Paul's of dæmons" ed of the CHAPTER XIV. [OF MEDIATION AND INTERCESSION OF SAINTS.] THE like is to be said of the terms of mediators and in "doctrine tercessors; which they allow them, being the prerogative of not intend our Lorde: especially remembering, that the heathen and their worship of philosophers allowed the like to the most part of their gods, to saints.] mediate between the Highest and mankind. Hereupon men of good learning have been persuaded, that St. Paul prophesied of these abuses, as "doctrines of dæmons," [1] Tim. iv. 1; that is, concerning middle gods, mediating between God and man, such as the Gentiles took their "dæmons" to be. But it is to be observed, that the Gentiles' religion taught them not the difference between good and bad spirits, and so the word Saíuwv passed with them in a good sense; but not so with Jews and Christians: nor can be so taken in St. Paul, calling "Sidaokaliai daiμóvov," not doctrines concerning "dæmons," but "doctrines introduced by devils;" as it appears, that the heresies then on foot condemned marriage and forbade meats, as not coming from God'. ters in wor Christians who believe the catholic [Gentiles § 2. As for the Gentiles and their divines the philosophers, were idola- is it any marvel they should contradict themselves, knowing shipping God and not glorifying Him for God; as St. Paul says, Rom. devils: i. 21? It becomes them to honour devils for gods, who can never be cleared of familiarity with devils. Besides, knowing one true God, but serving all their country served, they were faith, can- nevertheless idolaters. But Christians, professing one God not be so.] for the ground of their faith, and praying to saints to mediate and intercede for them with Him, cannot be taken to mean more than their profession will allow, which may stand within the finite nature of creatures. For though the mediation and intercession of our Lord Christ be grounded upon His Godhead, yet mediation and intercession in general are terms common to the creature. And indeed we cannot speak of God but in such terms. Honour, worship, service, glory, all are common to God and to the creature; and must be dis See Epilogue, Bk. III. Of the Scil. Mede. So Epilogue, Bk. II. -More follows Mede: and so have e See Epilogue, ibid., note k. XIV. tinguished by making that infinite which we would make CHAP. proper to God. Christianity makes the mediation and intercession of Christ to be such. They, that make the intercession and mediation of saints and angels to be grounded upon that of Christ, and to consist in praying for us, cannot be idolaters but by renouncing themselves. CHAPTER XV. [OF IDOLATRY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT; AND THE MEANING OF try of Ir is but a slight objection that opposes all this. When [The idolaAaron had made the calf, the people said, "These are thy Aaron;] gods, O Israel, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt;" and, "To-morrow is a feast unto the Lord," naming the "incommunicable name" of God, Ex. xxxii. 4, 5: therefore idolatry is the worship of the true God by a sign or image. But consider the beginning of the chapter. When they saw [Exod. xxxii. 1.] that Moses stayed in the mount, they assembled, and said to Aaron, "Make us gods to go before us, for this Moses, that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him;" we have no more access to Moses his God, and therefore make us other gods: of whom they say, "These are the gods," and not He that Moses tells us; and therefore give him the name of the true God. We know a "mixed multitude came up with them out of Egypt" ([Ex.] xii. 38); who set them on murmuring another time, Num. xi. 4. We know it is the likeness of an Egyptian god which they made. And so St. Hierome and other of the fathers take ith. Who can doubt, but that thus they came to fall away to their gods? § 2. Especially, seeing Jeroboam make his calves, and say, [of Jero"Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land boam ;] of Egypt" ([1] Kings xii. 28); as who should say, those, and not He that is worshipped at Jerusalem. For we know what [1 Kings relation he had to Egypt. We see Sheshak, the king of Egypt, 2; &c.] overrun the country a little after. And if this Sheshak prove [1 Kings 8 See Epilogue, Bk. III. Of the Laws of the Ch., c. xxvi. § 8, sq. h S. Hieron., in Osee Proph. c. v.; Op. tom. iii. p. 1263. So also Philo Judæus (De Mose, lib. iii. Op. tom. ii. p. 159), the Jerusalem Targum, Lactantius, and of moderns, Kircher, Bo xi. 40, xii. xiv. 25, 26; chart, Grotius (ad Matt. v. 45), quoted 2 Chron. by Spencer, De Legg. Hebr., lib. i. c. i. xii. 2-9.] sect. 1. vol. i. p. 21: and Visorius in answer to Moncæius (see Epilogue as in last note, § 11, note t). More of course agrees with Moncaius. XV. CHAP. Sesostris, as Sir J. Marsham in his Egyptian Chronologyi (which we hope will shortly be public) contends; there will be so much reason, why he should set up the gods of Egypt, as will not reasonably be refused. [of Micah.] ["to as an idol, by worshipping Him with false gods: as Alexlex § 3. The same is to be said of Micah and his mother, and her money consecrated to "the Lord," and the graven image and molten image made of it, and the blessing that he expected thereupon "from the Lord;" Jud. xvii. 1, 2, 13. High places were allowed at this time, because the ark was not fixed. The danger is evident, of forsaking God for strange gods, when every man did what he would for His service. He that forsook the Lord was a strange man, if he had not the heart to call the god he chose by the name of the God of their fathers. For the Book of Wisdom tells us, xiv. 21, that the Gentiles "gave the incommunicable name of God” to beasts and to birds. § 4. And, therefore, I do no more marvel at the respect which the kings of the ten tribes shewed the true God and His prophets; nor doubt any more whether they and Micah were For it is no more than downright idolaters, as once I did. Alexander Severus did, when he kept the image of Christ "in larario:" or than Adrian did, when he built temples for the ander Se- Christians without images; meaning, as his epistle to Serviathe Philis- nus' intimateth, to comprehend and reconcile Gentiles, Jews, tines, did.] and Christians, in the worship of one God. But he under verus, and [2 Kings xiii. 6.] stood not, that he, who worships a false god with the true, makes the true an idol. And therefore neither Jews nor Christians can be reconciled to Gentiles. In the meantime, when "Jehoahaz besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened unto him," 2 Kings xiii. 4; it is no more than Alexander Severus did, when he worshipped our Lord Christ and Abraham, as he did Orpheus and other Gentile gods: that is, he worshipped the true God as an idol. For it followeth, "They departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat." And he, that worships an idol and the true God both, makes an idol of the true God. So "the Philistines were afraid at the coming of the ark into the camp of the Israelites; for they said, God is XV. come into the camp; and they said, . . . Woe unto us; who CHA P. shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods? these are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness; be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not slaves to the Hebrews, as they have been to you:" [1] Sam. iv. 7-9. But would any Philistine, that had believed the God of Israel to be the only true God, present in their camp, have had courage to defeat Him by the help of Dagon his image? No, though He did vengeance upon the gods of the Egyptians when time was, yet they found no reason why Dagon should not have his turn now. They found no reason, because they thought no better of Him than of Dagon and of the Egyptian gods. So, had they worshipped both, with the same worship they had worshipped both. and second § 5. As for the meaning of the second commandment, it [What will be clear, if we translate the word DD, edwλov, as the forbidden idolatry is most ancient Greek translation hath donem. For that word, by the first though it signify indifferently in the sense of the Gentiles any commandments.] image, yet with Jews and Christians it never signified but the image of an imaginary godhead. And therefore, when it further forbids the images of fowls, fishes, and beasts, it regards the Egyptians, which had then taken such creatures for their gods. Neither is the making of images generally any otherwise forbidden by this second commandment than as they are idols. If it be further forbidden by the synagogue or by the Church, to keep men further from idolatry; as before the prevailing of Christianity there might be cause to do it it was not the transgressing of that prohibition, that could bind over to idolatry. And this is manifest by the opinion of all those fathers that reckon but three precepts in the first table". For it is manifest, that they reckon the first two for one, because they think it is nothing but idolatry, that is prohibited by both. And because it is manifest, that those fathers, who do never charge these with any mistake for so thinking, do not differ with them in the nature of m See Just Weights and Measures, c. xxiii. § 4; and Epilogue, Bk. III. Of the Laws of the Ch., c. xxvi. § 46; c. xxxi. § 36. The LXX. render the word by eldwλov, Exod. xx. 4, Deut. v. 8. See Jer. Taylor, Duct. Dubit., Bk. ii. c. ii. rule 6, § 30; Works, vol. ix. pp. 439, 440. See S. Clem. Alex., S. Athanasius, |