versal Mediator, and the Supreme and Soveraign Lord of the World; that all Mankind should make their Addreffes and Applications to him, and offer up their Prayers only in his Name; that in him they fhould find acceptance, and in no other name. Which was the most effectual way to put an end to the Worship of all inferiour Deities, and Creature-Patrons and Advocates; for when we are affured, that no other Being can Mediate for us with effect and power, but only Christ, it is natural to Worship no other Mediator but him, who being the eternal Son of God, may be worshipped without danger of Idolatry. Thus St. Paul tells us, That tho' the Heathen world had Gods many and Lords 1 Cor. 8. many, yet to us there is but one God the Father, and one Lord Jefus Christ: One Supreme and Soveraign Deity, and one Mediator between God and men.

5, 6.

Now this being fo apparently one end of Chrift's coming into the World to Suppress the Idolatry of Creature-Worship, and to confine all Religious worship to one Supreme Being, in oppofition to the many Gods of the Heathens, and to teach us to make our Applications to this one God by one Mediator, in oppofition to the worship of inferiour Deities; can any man imagine, that the worship of Saints and Angels, and the Virgin Mary, can be any part of the Chriftian Religion? For how dear foever they are to God, they are but his Creatures, and if Soveraign Princes will not receive their greatest Favourites into their Throne, much lefs will God.

If God under the Gospel difpenfation has taken care to prevent the Worship of inferiour Beings, by appointing his own Son to be our only Mediator and Advocate, can we imagine, that he ever intended we should offer up our Prayers to other Mediators? If he had liked the Mediation of Creatures, would he have given his own Son to be our Priest and our Mediator? Whatever fair pretences may be made for this, it apparently contradicts the Gofpel-difpenfation; for if we must own but one God, he alone must be worshipped; if we have but one Mediator, we must offer up our Prayers only in his Name and Interceffion. The Religious Worship of Creatures is idolatry, and if God intended to

root

root Idolatry out of the World, by the Gospel of Chrift, he could never intend to set up the Worship of Saints, and the Virgin Mary, which tho' it have not all the aggravations of Pagan Idolatry, yet is Creature-worship.

4

the Dif

try.

Thus we know, how fond the Heathens were of material Images and Pictures, to reprefent their Gods as vifibly present with them; and to receive Religious Worfhip in their ftead: not that they did believe their Gods to be Corporeal, or that their Corporeal Images were proper Likeneffes of their Gods, in which a late Author places the whole of Idolatry, which I confefs was agreeable enough to his defign, to find out fuch a Notion of Idolatry, as it may be no Perfons in the World were ever guilty of, and then he might excufe, whom he pleafed from Idolatry: But the Heathens were not fuch great Sots, as this account makes them, as the Learned Founder of all Anti-Catholick, and Anti-Dr. Stillin. christian Principles (as this Author is pleased to ftile a very great Defence of man, whose Name will be Venerable to future Ages) has abun courfe dantly proved. But they wanted fome material Reprefentati- concerning Idola ons of their Gods, in which they might as it were fee them prefent, and offer up their Petitions to them, and court them with fome vifible and fenfible Honours. Now to cure this Idolatry, tho' God would not allow any Images or Pictures for Worship, yet by the Law of Mofes he appoints them to build an House or Temple for himself, where he would dwell among them, and place the Symbols of his Prefence; there was the Mercy-feat, and the Cherubims covering the Mercy-feat,and there God promifed Moses to meet with him, and to commune with him from between the two Cherubims, which are upon the ark of the teftimony. Now 22. this was a Symbolical Reprefentation of God's Throne in Hea ven, where he is furrounded with Angels, as we know, the Holy of Holies itself was a Figure of Heaven; and therefore the Jews, when they were abfent from the Temple,. prayed towards it, and in the Temple (as is thought) towards the Mercy-feat, as the place of God's peculiar Refidence; as now when we pray, we lift up our eyes and hands to Heaven, where God dwells: So that under the Law God had a peculiar place for Worship, and peculi

་

25 Exod.

ar Symbols of his Prefence, but no Images to represent his Perfon, or to be the Objects of Worship: I know fome Roman Do&tors would fain prove the Cherubims to have been the Objects of Worship, and which is more wonderful, a late Bishop of the Church of England has taken fome pains to prove the fame, and Beafons for thereby to juftifie the Worship of Images in the Church of Rome; abrogating and before I proceed, I fhall briefly Examine what he has said in the Teft, p. this Caufe.

One would a little wonder, who reads the Second Commandment, which fo feverely forbids the Worship of Images, that God himself fhould fet up Images in his own Temple as the Objects of Worship; and a modeft man would have been a little cautious, how he had imputed fuch a thing to God, which is so direct a contradiction to his own Laws. That the Cherubims were Statues or Images, whatever their particular Form was, I agree with our Author, and that is the only thing I agree with him in : For,

1. That they were Sacred Images fet up by God himself, in the Ibid.p.127, place of his own Worship, I deny. For the Holy of Holies, where the Ark was placed, and the Mercy-feat over the Ark, and the Cherubims at the two ends fpreading their Wings, and covering the Mercy feat, was not the place of Worship, but the place of God's Prefence. The place of Worship is the place wherein men worship God; now it is fufficiently known, that none of the Jews were permitted to go into the Holy of Holies, nor fo much as to look into it, and therefore it could not be the place of their Worship: the Holy of Holies was the Figure of Heaven, and therefore could be no more the place of Worship to the Jews, than Heaven now is to us, while we dwell on Earth. The High Priest indeed entered into the Holy of Holies once a year, with the Blood of the Sacrifice, which was a Type of Chrift's entring into Heaven with his own Blood, and yet the Priest went thither not to. Worship, but to make an Atonement; which I take to be two very different things; however if you will call this Worship, it has no relation to any Worship on Earth, but to what is done by Christ in Heaven, of whom the High Prieft was a Type. And

9 Heb. II,

this,

this, I think, is a demonstration, that the placing of Cherubims to cover the Mercy-feat in the Holy of Holies, does not prove the lawful ufe of Images in Temples or Churches, or in the Worship of God on Earth; if it proves any thing, it must prove the Worship of God by Images in Heaven, of which the Holy of Hclies was a Figure; and if any man can be fo foolish as to imagine that, let them make what they please of it, so they do but excufe us from worshipping God by Images on Earth.

2. That these Cherubims were the most folemn and facred part of the Jewish Religion; that nothing is more remarkable in all the old Teftament, than the honour done to the Cherubims, that an outward worship was given to thefe Images, as Symbols of the Divine presence, that the High Priest adored thefe Cherubims once a year, as this Author afferts, I utterly deny; and he has not given us one word to prove it.

For the Cherubims were fo far from being the most folemn and facred part of the Jewish Religion, that they were no part at all of it, if by Religion he means Worship; for there was no regard at all had to the Cherubims in the Jewish Worship; and it is fo far from being remarkable in the Old Teftament, that there is not the least footítep or intimation of any honour at all done to the Cherubims: There is nothing in Scripture concerning them, but the command to make them, and place them at the two ends of the Mercy-Seat; and that God is faid to dwell between the Cherubims, and to give forth his Oracles and Refponses from that place: but I defire to learn, where the Jews are commanded to direct their Worship to or towards the Cherubims? where the High Prieft is commanded to adore the Cherubims once a year? or what Proteftant grants he did fo, as this Author infinuates?

He supposes the Cherubims to have been the Symbols of Gods prefence, and his representations, and that the Jews directed their P. 130. worship to them as fuch, and that is to worship God by Images,or to give the fame Signs of Reverence to his Representations, as to himJelf: but how does it appear, that the Cherubims were the Symbols of Gods prefence? God indeed is faid to fit between the Cherubims, and he promised Mofes to commune with him from

between the Cherubims, but the Cherubims were no Symbols of Gods prefence, much less a representation of him: ifany thing was the Symbolical prefence of God, it was the Mercy Seat, which was a kind of Figurative Throne, or Chair of State; but the Cherubims were only Symbolical reprefentations of those Angels, who attend and encompass Gods Throne in Heaven, and were no more reprefentations of God,or Symbols of his prefence, then fome great Minifters of State are of the King; as this Author himfelf acknowledges, when he makes the four beasts in the Page 127. Revelations (Rev. 4. 6,7.) which flood round about the Throne, to be an allufion to the reprefentation of the immediate Divine Prefence in the Ark by the Cherubims; if he had said to the Cherubims covering the Mercy Seat, which was his Figurative Throne, and where he was invifibly prefent, without any vifible Figures or Symbols of his prefence, he had faid right: for the Cherubims which covered the Mercy Seat, were no more Symbols of Gods Prefence, than the four Beasts, which stood before the Throne, are the prefence of God; or then fome great Courtiers or Minifters of State, who attend the King,are the prefence of the King; They attend the King, where ever he is, and fo may be fome fign of his prefence, but are not a fymbolical prefence, as a Chair of State is. But it feems our Author imagined,that the Cherubims were fuch Symbols of Gods prefence, and fuch representations of him, as Images were of the Pagan Gods, and therefore might be worshipped with the fame figns of reverence,as God himself was ; according to Thomas Aquinas's Rule, that the Image muft be worshipped with the fame Worfhip, which is due to the Proto-type, or that Being whofe Image it is, which is fuch old Popery, as Monfieur De Meaux, and the Reprefenter cry fhame of; well, But how does he prove, that any Worfhip was directed to these Cherubims? I can find no proof he offers for it, but David's Exbortation (as he calls it) to the People, to honour the Ark (he Page 130. fhould have faid worship) overs, bow down to, or worship his Footstool, for it, or be, is holy. Now fuppofe this did relate to the Ark, What is that to the Cherubims? When but four Pages before, he tells us, that the Ark is called God's Footstool, and the

Che