Judges vii. 27. And of the worshipping the brazen 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 upon 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 host, 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 it the greatest piece of her religion to adore the bread with the same devotion they would pay to Christ were he visibly present; who call the bread God, carry it about in processions, and worship it with all the solemnity imaginable. And finally, the worship they give the cross is likewise an adoring of God under a symbol and representation. And thus we have seen the parallel of Rome-heathen and Rome-Christian runs but too just.

But the next kind of the heathens' idolatry, was their worshipping of others beside God, whom they held of two ranks. Some that were so pure, that they never dwelt in bodies. Others they judged to be the souls of deceased men, after their death acknowledged and honoured with divine honour. And this kind of idolatry was first begun at Babylon, where Ninus made the statue of his father Belus be set up, and worshipped it. And from him all these lesser gods were called Belim or Baalim. Now concerning these, the heathens believed that they were certain intermedial powers that went betwixt God and men, by whom all good things were conveyed to mortals, by whom also our services were offered to the gods. Thus the nations had "gods many, and lords many," 1 Cor. viii. 5. And these lesser deities, or dæmons, they adored, by erecting statues to them about their burial places, where they built temples for them and worshipped them. And from this hint of Babylon's being the mother of this kind of idolatry, we may guess why the apostasy of that city which, in St. John's days, "did reign over the kingdoms of the earth," Rev. xvii. 18, is shadowed forth under the name of Babylon; to hold out that the corruption it was to fall into, was to be of a kind with that begun in Babylon; and the character of a whore doth likewise agree well with this.

Now if we compare with this the worship of angels and saints in the Roman Church, we shall find the parity just and exact. For after the conversion of the Roman empire, it is not to be denied, but that in order to the gaining of the heathen world to a compliance with Christianity, the Christians did, as near as was possible, accommodate themselves to the heathenish customs. And, therefore, instead of their gods, they set up

the demon and Baal-worship to the Apostles and other saints and martyrs, which Theodoret doth most ingenuously acknowledge to have been set in the stead of their gods. They became afterwards so exact in the parallel, that as the heathens had of these lesser gods for every nation, so there was a saint appointed for every nation: St. Andrew for Scotland, St. George for England, St. Patrick for Ireland, and many more for other nations. And as every house among the heathens had their household god, so every person was taught to have a tutelar saint and angel. And as among the heathen there were gods for all trades, for all sicknesses, and for every virtue; so in antichristianism there were saints for every disease, for every profession, and for all the graces. And as the heathens built temples for them, so did also Babylonish Rome. And here an odd remark is in my way of this conformity, that the Pantheon at Rome dedicated, in Augustus's time, to Cybele the mother of the gods, and to all the gods, was afterwards consecrated to the Virgin and all the saints. And as the heathens offered prayers, made vows, observed days, brought presents, used processions in honour to these lesser gods, and worshipped their statues and images; so all this by degrees crept into RomeChristian, as might be branched out in more particulars than the nature of so short a discourse will allow of. It is true, the worship of images came not in before the eighth century; but after that time it engaged all that received it into a high degree of madness for advancing that heathenish piece of worship. And shall I here tell what is known to all who have seen the forms of that Church? How you shall find their churches all over-dressed up with images and statues, gorgeously apparelled and well adorned; where the poor vulgar are lying prostrate before them, saying their devotions, and perhaps washing the feet of their shrines with their tears, and with great affection kissing the hem of their garments. And if, through the tricks of the priest, the image seem to nod or smile on them (which is not unfrequent) with what joy do they go away, as if some angel had saluted them from heaven. And here it were too long to reckon up the abominations of this saint-worship which are offered to the Virgin, with the blasphemous titles given her, and prayers made to her; "as if she were more merciful and gentle to sinners than her blessed Son. What shall I tell of the whole Psalms turned to her?" The words of Goddess and Lady being put in the place of God and Lord. And that from the eleventh century, in which the form of the num

bering their prayers by beads was begun, ten go to the Virgin for one to God. How many more worship her than do her Son? How many more churches are built to her than to her Son? And how many pilgrimages are made to her shrines and relics? And thus I think little doubting will remain, that the worship of the Baalim begun at Babylon, is now set up in the Christian Rome.

Now how contrary this is to the divine nature, common reason may suggest; as also to the exaltation of the person of Christ, Isa. xlii. 8. "God is a jealous God, and will not give his glory to another." We have but "one Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Cor. viii. 6, who by his most precious blood shed for us, purchased the honour of being mediator betwixt God and man. And, therefore, Christians ought only to make mention of his name. Beside, the great evil of idolatry is, that it debases the soul of the profane worshipper, "for like them are all they that trust in them," Psal. cxv. 8. It leads away the mind from that inward, free, and spiritual converse and fellowship with God, to which the Gospel invites us, and carries it out into an external, sensible, and dead religion. It stifles the power of true piety, making it die out in formal and stupifying superstition. And the plagues which heaven pours out on those ungodly worshippers are heavy and great. A black roll of them is in the end of the first chapter to the Romans, which were the consectaries on their not glorifying of God as God, which is branched out into the two kinds I have discoursed of. first is, ver. 23, "They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man," &c. the second is, ver. 25, "Who worshipped and served the creature more than (or besides) the Creator." And it would raise horror in sober minds, to tell how much the sin of the flesh, particularly the sin of Sodom, which is first reckoned in that dismal catalogue, abounds with these of this spiritual Babylon.

The

And

And will the poor distinctions of Dulia and Latria save them from this guilt? Alas! these are parts of the mystery by which they would veil their abominations; but their nakedness is not hid with this thin veil. For we see how simply all religious worship offered to creatures displeased God. Neither did the prophets tell the Israelites, that a kind of worship called Dulia, or service, might be payed to creatures: but the Latria, or adoration, was only proper to God! indeed they dreamed not of this subtilty. "And when St. John offered to fall down before the angel he warns him not to do it, as being not only

his fellow-creature, but his fellow-servant," Rev. xix. 10, by which all that prostration for worship is declared unlawful. And what can be called adoration, if to offer prayers, to make vows, to sing hymns, to observe days, and to build churches, be not such? These nice distinctions which the schoolmen have devised, will serve in no stead in the great day, when God's jealousy shall burn like fire against all that have dis honoured him by this profane worshipping of creatures.

it is certain, that however some speculative people may have distinct notions of these kinds of worship, yet the vulgar, in their practice, make no difference at all, but place all their trust in them, fly to them in their troubles as to their refuge and stronghold; whereby that faith and confidence, which is only due to God and his Son, is abated, so much of it being bestowed on creatures. And what a baseness of mind doth it discover for men to whom God hath revealed so much of the riches of his grace, and hath allowed constant and free access to his throne, with the largest encouragements and assurances of being heard and accepted by him; and who hath given mankind a mediator, who in the likeness of our flesh did express the greatest and freest love imaginable, dying for us, and being now our advocate and intercessor with his Father; that instead of conversing immediately with God and Christ in the exercises of devotion, we should betake ourselves to a dead and lifeless invocating of those, of whose hearing us we can have no assurance, and in which there can be no comfort nor true joy found.

So much of the object of worship. The manner of it is next to be considered. We observed before, that God called us in the Gospel to a lively and spiritual worship; and this was first in opposition to the sorceries of the Gentile worship, and next to the heavy yoke of the Jewish bondage. How much of sorcery and enchantments was used in heathenism, every one that gives account of their forms do mention; but indeed all they used was nothing, if compared with the enchantments of the Roman Church; and, first of all, can any thing look liker a charm than the worshipping God in an unknown tongue? in which the worshipper is capable of no converse with God by these parts of worship, which he doth not understand. Next, the muttering so large portions of the worship, chiefly in the office of the mass, what doth it look like but the mumbling of a charm? But shall I here tell of "the charming of water, of salt, of wax-candles, for driving away of devils ?" Shall I next tell of the christening of bells, the hallowing of oil, the touch