A Just Defense of Hearing the Sermons, Chapter 7 · Section 1
Sect. 1. All Idolatry is, by exhibiting Divine Worship to a Creature.
THose that are guilty of Idolatry, Saints may not have communion with (much less own them as their Teachers) but ought to separate from them: But, the present Ministers of England are Idolaters: Therefore. The major (or first Proposition) will not be deined, because bottom'd upon express commands from Christ, 1 Cor. 5.11. and 10.14. 2 Cor. 6.14.18. Before we descend to the confirmation of the minor (or second Proposition) we shall crave leave to premise; That Idolatry may be considered under a threefold notion.
1st. Most gross and absurd Idolatry, when the creature is worshipped terminatively; this few are guilty of: the Israelites of old worshipped not the Calf terminatively, but God in it, therefore they are said to proclaim a feast to Jehovah, Exod. 32.5. Rab. M. Maimonides de Idolat. 8.2, 3, &c. observes, That never any Idolater was so silly, as to think, that an Idol of wood, stone or mettal, was a God that made the Heaven and Earth, but through them all Idolaters intend to worship God.
2ly. Somewhat more refined Idolatry, (viz. in respect of what we but now instanc'd in) when we offer up any worship or homage, proper and due to God only, before any creature, as the medium or representative of God: Such was the Idolatry of Israel in the Golden Calf, Brazen Serpent, &c. Of this are the Synagogue of Rome, amongst all the combinations of men in the world, most eminently guilty. To this Head may be added,
1. The ascription of Godhead to any creature, as to Herod, Acts 12.22.
2. The ascription of the properties of the Godhead to any creature.
3. The worshipping of God in any other way than what he hath prescribed: which all that write upon the second Commandment say, is the Idolatry therein forbidden.
4. The oblation of worship or service to God, that hath been offered up to Idols, for which there is no prescription in the Scripture.
3ly. Most refined Idolatry, when the heart goes forth in desires after any thing beyond what is limited by the Lord, or trusts and relyes on any creature on this side God. In the first sense, there are (as was said) few or no Idolaters in the world: The Papists come as near thereunto as any, praying to the Cross, the Virgin Mary, Saints, Angels, &c. expresly affirming, that the Virgin Mary may be worshipped with that worsh…p, which they call Cultus Latriae, which yet they say is due only to God. In the last sense, there are none, but at one time or other may be said to be Idolaters▪ the hearts of the best men … too often going forth too farr in desires after, and secret dependence upon▪ things beneath the Lord: which yet they are watching and warring against, waiting and longing for the day, in which they shall be c…mpleatly swallowed up in the will of God. Tis in respect of the s…cond particular before instanc'd in, that we assert the present Ministers of England to be Idolaters: To the proof whereof we now add…ess ourselves.
Answ. The Conclusion is not the same with that which at first Ch. 1. was undertaken to be defended, That it is not lawful for the Saints to hear the present Ministers of England; nor doth it necessarily follow, that if we may not have communion with persons, nor own them as our teachers, but separate from them, That we may not hear them preach the Gospel. An excommunicate person I am not to have communion with, nor to own the Teachers of forreign Churches as suppose the Lutheran, as my teachers▪ yea I may be bound to separate from such, as suppose a Popish Priest, as Jansenist, preaching the doctrine of original sin, of efficacious grace▪ or the Gospel concerning redemption by the blood of Christ; whom yet I may lawfully hear handling those truths according to the received doctrine of St. Augustin.
Nor is the ma…or true, if the Idolatry be in that way which he here calls Idolatry, the worshipping of God in any other way than what he hath prescribed, nor if the Idolatry be secret and not open, nor though it be open, if by infirmity he fall into it and repents; or be not censured as such; or teacheth nor such Idolatry; nor requires any communion with him in his Idolatry. Nor do the Texts prove his ma…or: 1 Cor. 5 11. forbids no o…her communion than eating, and that eating which might be with Idolaters of this w…ld, v. 10 and therefore not eating the Lords Supper: Nor doth it any mo…e forbid eating with a B…other called an …, than with a Brother called a fornicatour, or covetous, …, or an extortioner, and therefore, if this Text prove a necessity of separation from such in holy exercises as Prayer, or the Lords Supper, it forbids doing these things with a covetous person, or railer; and then a Christian Brother must have cognizance of such sins, and be a Judge of every one he communicates with, which were absurd: and therefore it can be meant of no other than arbitrary familiar converse, as in eating, where I am at liberty to eat, or not to eat; and of private judgement of discretion, which each one is to exercise in the choice of his company: But nothing to the owning of a Teacher, or shunning to hear him. For here the person is considered only as a Brother, not a Teacher in Office. 1 Cor. 10 14. is less to the purpose, for it requires only to flee from Idolatry, not from Teachers that are any way Idolatrous, so as not to hear them. 2 Cor. 6.14, 15, 16, 17, 18. requires, not to be yoaked with Infidels, not to have part with them, not to agree with Idols, to come out from among Infidels, to be separate, not to touch the unclean thing, that is the Idol; which may be done, and yet a person some way guilty of Idolatry may be heard, yea owned as our Teacher, and we may have some communion with him in holy things, as in Prayer, and the Lords Supper, and praising God, which are not Idolatrous.
That which is premised by this Author before his confirmation of the minor, requires some Animadversions upon it. The definition of Idolatry, which hitherto hath been received by all Protestants that I know of, is,Ainsworth of the Church of Rome against Johnson, p▪ 145. Every abuse doth not make a thing an Idol; but, when the honour due to God alone, is given to a creature, then it is made an Idol. that which Dr. John Rainold hath delivered in his 2d. Book de Idololatria Ecclesiae Romanae. c. 1. that it is the exhibiting of Divine Worship to a Creature, and hath proved it from Rom. 1.25. where foreign, whether it be read instead of the Creatour, as explained by the Authors of the writing of the Constitutions of Clemens by foreign, as it is cited by Grotius in his Annot. or Praeterito Creatore, the Creatour being forsaken or neglected, as Beza after Hilarius, or besides the Creatour, as foreign, besides that which is laid, 1 Cor. 3 11. or as the Vulgar, Potius quam Creatori, rather than to the Creatour, or as ours, more than the Creatour, shews, that there is a worship and service proper to the Creatour, and herein was the Idolatry of the Gentiles, and all other, that they worshipped and served the creature, with that which was due only to the Creatour. And therefore I conceive it, not to be Idolatry, where Divine Worship is not exhibited to a creature, that is, directed to some person or thing, substance or accident, real or imagined, which is not the Creatour of all things▪ It is true, that Heathen-Idolaters did many of them make the Creatour of all, the utmost bound or terminus of their Image-worship, as the Apostle saith, Acts 17.23. that the Athenians did ignorantly worship the unknown God, and yet were Idolaters, because their worship was first of the Image as the next terminus or object to which it was exhibited. And the same is true of the Israelites worshipping of the calf, though they worshipped God in it, Exod. 32.5. because, though they did not worship the Calf terminatively, that is, so as to intend to direct their worship to it as the utmost bound of it, or last, or chief object: yet it was the molten Image which they worshipped, Psal. 106.19. Exod. 32.8. It is indeed most gross and absurd Idolatry, when the creature is worshipped terminatively, and therefore the worship of Baal is accounted worse than the worship of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, 1 Kings 16.31. because it was terminated lastly to the Sun, or to the Devil, who was worshipped by Molech, to whom they sacrificed their Sons and Daughters, Psal. 106.37, 38. And this Idolatry was the Idolatry of the Canaanites, and a great part of the world, and of the Jewes at last, as St. Stephen chargeth them with, Acts 7.41, 42, 43. Nor do I think it true, which this Author here, and p. 63. saith, that there are few or none that worship the creature Terminative, sith not only of old the host of Heaven was worshipped by most of the Idolaters,Vide Gatak. Annot. in Antonin. l. 12. sect. 28. foreign. as may be gathered out of the Scriptures, and is largely demonstrated by M… Selden in his Syntagma de Diis Syris; but also at this day the Devil himself is worshipped in the East- and West-Indies, in some Northern Countries, and Southern, if the relation of Travellers, Historians, and Chorographers be true. It is granted, that it is somewhat more refined Idolatry, when we offer up any worship or homage, proper and due to God only, before any creature, as the medium or representative of God. For then the worship is directed to it, as Gods Deputy, to receive it for him, and so the immediate or next terminus or object is the creature, though it be intended further to or for God, as the last or utmost term, bound or object, to which it is exhibited. But unless it be exhibited to the creature, it is not Idolatry, though it be done before the creature, as [before] notes only the presence of it with the worshipper, whether seen or unseen, minded or not minded, and not any respect to it in the act of worshipping. Worshipping at the Temple▪ before the Ark or Altar, was no Idolatry, it was a duty required, Psal 99.5. Worship at his footstool, meaning the Sanctuary and Ark there, saith Mr. Ainsworth in his Annot. Not, as the Vulgar reads it, and the Papists would have it, Worship his footstool; no nor if the Lord be worshipped before a creature, as the Objectum à quo, as the matter or thing which is the occasion, motive or reason; of worshipping the Lord at that time, is it therefore Idolatry, though the worship be not instituted in respect of the time. We read, 2 Chron. 7.3 And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the House (the Temple,) they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped and praised the Lord: yet was no Idolatry therein; nor in that which Manoah and his Wife did, Judg. 12.20. or the people, 1 Kings 18.39. 2 Chron. 20.18. Exod. 4.31. and 12.27: Whence I inferr, that, though there be divers sorts of Idolatry, yet in every of them there is Divine Worship; and that, as Tertullian in his Book of Idolatry, c. 15. speaks of the three Children refusing to worship the golden Image of Nebuchadnezzar, Probantes Idololatriam esse quicquid ultra humani honoris modum ad instar Divinae sublimitatis ext…llitur, then it is Idolatry, when any thing that is not God, is extolled beyond the measure of humane honour, to the likeness of Divine sublimity, whether it be terminatively, or as a representative. Concerning which I acknowledge, that the Papists are deeply guilty in praying to the Cross, the Virgin Mary ▪ Saints, Angels, &c. in which they give them, and their Breaden-God, Images, and Reliques, that which the Scripture counts Latriam, or the Service which is to be given to God only, as to the Image of Christ, (Aqu. sum. parte 3. qu. 25 art. 3.) …aith, is to be adored with the adoration of Latria: yea Bellarmine l. 2. de Imagin. Sanctorum, c. 21. holds, that the Images of Christ, and the Saints, are to have veneration, not only by accident or improperly, but also by themselves and properly, so as that themselves terminate the veneration, and not only as they supply the place of the Samplar. And this veneration is expressed in the Trent Council, Sess. 25. to be, the kissing of them, uncovering the head, and falling down before them, which are the same which were done to the Image of Baal, 1 Kings 19.18. and counted Idolatrous, being given to an Image. And so are the services done to the Virgin Mary, though I think the Papists do not affirm expresly, as this Author saith of them, That the Virgin Mary may be worshipped with that worship which they call Cultus Latriae, which yet they say is due only to God; for they in words deny they give her Latriam, and call her Worship Hyperduliam. Nor do I conceive the worshipping of God in any other way than what he hath prescribed, is the Idolatry forbidden in the second Commandment; or that all who write upon the second Commandment say so, or that the oblation of worship or service to God, that hath been offered up to Idols, for which there is no prescription in the Scripture, is Idolatry, though perhaps it may be superstitious, and Will-worship; Between which, if a distinction be not made, the Pharisees that worshipped God by washing their hands after the tradition of the Elders, will be sound Idolaters, of which Christ doth not accuse them, Matth. 15.9. And therefore, if in respect of this, it is, that the Ministers be asserted Idolaters, his proof will come short: but let us view it Thus he writes,