were not able to bear; but that we are called to by Christ is so simple, so easy, and so plain, that well may we say his commandments are not grievous, 1 John v. 3.

Having given this hint of the design and characters of the Christian religion, I hold it not necessary to dwell on a further deduction of those generals into more particular branches, nor to make this scheme of religion good by any longer proof, the position I have laid down being so obvious to the reason of every considering person; wherefore I go on to examine if there be any such system of doctrines or opinions among pretenders to Christianity, which tends to the overthrowing and enervating of this whole design, and whose characters are directly opposite to these I have mentioned; and the less avowed and the more disguised that society be, as it is more likely to prevail, since error and vice are not so formidable in their own colours as when veiled with the pretences of truth and virtue; so it will better agree with that great character the prophecies give of this defection, that it was a mystery, and had mystery on its forehead, Rev. xvii. 15.

And here remains the sad part of my discourse; for what lover of mankind can with pleasure either satisfy his own reason, or convince the judgment of others, in a matter the issue whereof is to prove so great a part of the Christian societies to be antichristian and adulterate? And certainly, if my love to truth, and the honour of my Redeemer and his gospel, and by consequence a zeal for souls, did not engage me to this search, I could easily quit the task, and choose more easy and pleasant subjects for the exercise of my thoughts; but the wisdom of God having declared it a part of wisdom to observe the characters of the Antichristian Beast, I therefore, though not without pain, engage in the survey of it.

And first, in the entry it will be a bad omen, of no good to be expected from any society that shall study to keep her members in ignorance, and to bar them the study of the holy scriptures, which being the revelation of the whole counsel of God, and written by plain and simple men, and at first directed to the use of the rude illiterate vulgar, for teaching them the mysteries of godliness and the path of life, it is a shrewd indication, that if any studied to hide this light under a candlestick, and to keep it in an unknown tongue, or forbid the

body of Christians the use of it, (though its native tendency be to enlighten the understanding and to inflame the will, it being given out by God for that end,) that those must be conscious to themselves of great deformity to that rule, and apprehend that if it were more known their doctrine would be less believed, especially since the hardest part of the scriptures are the writings of the Old Testament: and yet these were communicated to all of that dispensation, who were commanded by Christ to search them, and who did educate their children in them, continuing that holy care to a high degree even to this day. Now, except it be said that it is fitter all be kept under darkness in the new dispensation than it was in the old, no account can be given for the zeal is used in any church to keep their children in such ignorance; and yet this is a part of the distinguishing characters of the new dispensation from the old, that light hath appeared in it. Now all may know how guilty those of Rome are in this; what pains are taken to detract from the authority of the scriptures; how they quarrel, sometimes its darkness, sometimes its ambiguousness, sometimes the genuineness of its originals, and always complain of its being too much perused, and therefore let as little of it be put in vulgar tongues as can be; read it publicly in an unknown tongue, and permit no private person the use of it without allowance from his confessor: of which though in some places the reformation hath made them more liberal, yet where there is no hazard of that, they betray their aversion for the scriptures too palpably in all their writings and dis

- courses.

But now to pursue my design more closely, I must call to mind the first branch of the Christian religion, which teacheth how God is to be worshipped in a pure and spiritual way; and see how far this is contradicted. And here I must consider the idolatry of the Gentiles, which was of two kinds: the one was, when the true God was worshipped in a false manner; the other was, when Divine adoration was offered to those who were no gods. Of the first I shall reckon two kinds: the first was, when an image or figure was erected for representing the Deity to the senses, and adoration offered to God through it; in which case, though perhaps the herd did formally worship the image, yet their philosophers declared they

meant these only for exciting the senses and imagination, and not for being worshipped; much less that the Deity should be conceived like unto them, as we find both in Celsus, Julian, and Maximus Tyrius. Now this form of adoration is contrary both to the Divine essence and command; for God must. either be conceived like such an image, or not. If like to it, then a great indignity is done to the Divine nature, greater than if a toad or a worm were set out as the image of a king, to have civil reverence paid to it; since he is of his own essence incomprehensible and invisible, and so hath no shape or figure. In a word, it abases our thoughts of God, when we figure him to ourselves. But if we conceive God not like such an image, then why is it used, except to be a snare to the vulgar, who will be ready to think God like unto it? and certain it is, that whatever the more refined or abstracted wits may conceive of these images, yet the vulgar offer up their adorations directly to them, and conceive God to be like unto them.

This worship is also contrary to the Divine precept, who made it one of the Ten Commandments which himself delivered to his people, Exod. xx. 4, that no graven image nor likeness should be made to be worshipped. And the reason given shews the law was perpetual, for God is ever jealous of the glory due to him. Now what kindness those of Rome have to this command may be guessed by their striking it out of their Catechisms, as if it were only an appendix of the first: but if we read the whole Old Testament, it will furnish us with large discoveries of God's displeasure at this kind of worship, to which the Jews were so inclinable; but God would not give his praise to graven images, Isa. xlii. 8. Now here it is to be remembered, that the Jewish dispensation was low and carnal when compared to that to which we are called: if then this worship was not allowed of to them, it is much less to be allowed of among Christians.

Another part of the false worship of the heathens was, that they believed the Deity and Divine power was, by mystical and magical ways, affixed to some bodies, as the sun or stars are; or to some temples, and to some Ancilia and Palladia, which they believed came down from heaven, Acts xix. 35, to which they held God to be present and adherent, and therefore worshipped them. And of kin to this was the Israelites their wor

shipping the calf in the wilderness, Exod. xxxii; for it is clear they looked on it as their God, who had brought them out of Egypt, therefore could not possibly be adoring the Egyptian god that was an ox, but the feast that was to Jehovah; and the Psalm cvi. verse 20, that says, they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox, do shew that they worshipped the true God, though in a false manner. Neither is it to be imagined that Aaron the prophet and saint of the Lord, though very guilty in this matter, could for all that be so criminal as to make a false God: but the most satisfying account of his fault is, that when he saw God in the mount, Exod. xxiv. 10, God appeared in that figure that was afterwards in the most holy place, which was to be framed after the pattern seen in the mount. And if so, then God appeared between the cherubims: now the figure of a cherub was the same with that of a calf in its hinder parts, Ezek. i. 7. And if we compare verse 10 of that chapter with Ezek. x. 14, what in the first place is called the face of an ox, is in the second called the face of a cherub, which tells us clearly what was the figure of the cherub. And therefore Aaron seeing the people desired a sensible symbol of God's presence among them, he made choice of that he had seen in the mount about the Divine glory; and yet all that did not excuse his fault in the sight of God.

In like manner, after the tabernacle and temple were set up, wherein were the cherubims, when Jeroboam revolted, he set up calves, 1 Kings xii. 28, 29, as is probable upon the same account, but no doubt continued in all points the worship of the true God, as it was at Jerusalem, as might be proved from many particulars; but the sin wherewith he made Israel to sin was the worshipping of the true God by a false symbol. The like account is to be given of the idolatry of Gideon's ephod, Judges viii. 27, and of the worshipping the brasen serpent, 2 Kings xviii. 4, where certainly the true God was adored, and yet the people went a whoring from him in that worship.

And here the title of whoredom, given to idolatry so often in the Old Testament, is to be considered; the importance whereof is, that God by covenanting with his people is married to them, to be their God; and the conjugal duty they owe him is adoration : when therefore other creatures have

any share of that bestowed on them, spiritual whoredom is committed.

Now how sad the application of this to the Christian church must be, all may judge, who know how great a part of Christendom worship God by images, and how the adored and incomprehensible Trinity is painted as an old man with a child in his arms, and a dove over the child's head; though no man hath seen the Father at any time, John vi. 46. And the Son, as God, can no more be represented by an image than the Father; and the Holy Ghost, though once appearing in the symbolical representation of a dove, cannot, without idolatry, be represented and worshipped under that figure. Neither can any apology be offered for this, which could not, with the same reason, have cleared both Jews and Gentiles of idolatry. And whatever more abstracted minds may think of these images, yet none that considers the simplicity of the vulgar, the frailty of man, and his inclination to apprehend all things as sensible, can doubt but that the rabble do really conceive of God as like these figures, and do plainly worship them. It is further to be considered, that though the Son of God was man, yet as man he is not to be worshipped; and therefore the setting out of figures and statues for his human nature, (which by the way are no real adumbrations, but only the fancies of painters,) and worshipping these as the images of the Son of God, is no less idolatry than to worship the Father as an old man.

And further, the worship of the mass is idolatry as evidently as any piece of Gentilism ever was: for if it be certain that Christ is not in the hostie, which shall be afterwards made out, then to adore him as there, must be idolatrous. Neither will it serve for excuse to say that Christ is truly worshipped as present; and if he be not there, it is only a mistake about the presence, but no idolatry can be committed, the worship being offered to a proper object, who is God. But if this apology free them of idolatry, it will also clear those heathens who worshipped some statues or creatures in which they conceived God was present; so that they might have pleaded it was the great and true God they adored, believing him there present, as their fathers had formerly believed. But he were very gentle to idolaters who upon such a plea would clear them of that crime. What then is to be said of that church that holds