XXII.

ping either the Ark, or the Cherubim. It is true, there is ART. a place in the Psalms that seems to favour this; as it is rendered by the Vulgar, worship his footstool, for it is holy; but Psalm xcix. both the Hebrew and the Septuagint have it, as it is in our 8, 9. translation, worship at his footstool, for he is holy; and all the Greek Fathers cite these words so. Many of the Latin Fathers do also cite them according to the Greek; and the last words of the Psalm, in which the same words are repeated, make the sense of it evident for there it is thus varied, Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at his holy hill, for the Lord our God is holy. These words coming so soon after the former, are a paraphrase to them, and determine their sense. No doubt the High-Priest worshipped God, who dwelt between the Cherubims, in that cloud of glory in which he shewed himself visibly present in his temple; but there is no sort of reason to think, that in so majestic a presence, adoration could be offered to any thing else; or that after the High-Priest had adored the divine essence so manifested, he would have fallen to worship the Ark and the Cherubims. This agrees ill with the figure that is so much used in this matter of a king and his chair of state; for in the presence of the king, all respects terminate in his person, whatsoever may be done in his absence.

And thus, this being not so much as a precedent, much less an argument, for the use of images; and there being nothing else brought from Scripture, that with any sort of wresting can be urged for it, and the sense and practice of the whole Church being so express against it, the progress of it having been so long and so much disputed, the tendency of it to superstition and abuse being by their own confession so visible; the scandal that it gives to Jews and Mahometans being so apparent, and it carrying in its outward appearances such a conformity (to say at present no more) to Heathenish Idolatry, we think we have all possible advantages in this argument. We adhere to that purity of worship which is in both Testaments so much insisted on; we avoid all scandal, and make no approaches to heathenism, and follow the pattern set us by the primitive Church. And as our simplicity of worship needs not be defended, since it proves itself; so no proofs are brought for the other side, but only a pretended usefulness in outward figures, to raise the mind by the senses to just apprehensions of spiritual objects; which, allowing it true, will only conclude for the historical use of images, but not for the directing our worship towards them. But the effect is quite contrary to the pretence; for, instead of rais

ART. ing the mind by the senses, the mind is rather sunk by them into gross ideas.

XXII.

The bias of human nature lies to sense, and to form gross imaginations of incorporeal objects; and therefore, instead of gratifying these, we ought to wean our minds from them, and to raise them above them all we can. Even men of speculation and abstraction feel nature in this grows too hard for them; but the vulgar is apt to fall so headlong into these conceits, that it looks like the laying of snares for them, to furnish them with such methods and helps for their having gross thoughts of spiritual objects. The fondness that the people have for images, their readiness to believe the most incredible stories concerning them, the expense they are at to enrich and adorn them, their prostrations before them, their confidence in them, their humble and tender embracing and kissing of them, their pompous and heathenish processions to do them honour, the fraternities erected for particular images, not to mention the more universal and established practices of directing their prayers to them, of setting lights before them, and of incensing them; these, I say, are things too well known, to such as have seen the way of that religion, that they should need to be much enlarged on; and yet they are not only allowed of, but encouraged. Those among them who have too much good sense that they should sink into those foolish apprehensions themselves, yet must not only bear with them, but often comply with them to avoid the giving of scandal, as they call it; not considering the much greater scandal that they give, when they encourage others by their practice to go on in these follies. The enlarging into all the corruptions occasioned by this way of worship would carry me far; but it seems not necessary, the thing is so plain in it

self.

The next head in this Article is a full instance of it, which is, the Worship of Relics. It is no wonder that great care was taken in the beginnings of Christianity, to shew all possible respect and tenderness even to the bodies of the martyrs. There is something of this planted so deep in human nature, that though the philosophy of it cannot be so well made out, yet it seems to be somewhat more than an universal custom; humanity is of its side, and is apt to carry men to the profusions of pomp and cost: all religions do agree in this, so that we need not wonder if Christians, in the first fervour of their religion, believing the resurrection so firmly as they did, and having a high sense of the honour done to Christ and his

1 4. c. 15.

nach. c. 28.

religion by the sufferings of the martyrs; if, I say, they ART. studied to gather their bones and ashes together, and bury XXII. them decently. They thought it a sign of their being join-Ep. Ecc. ed with them in one body, to hold their assemblies at the Smirn. places where they were buried: this might be also consi- apud Euseb. dered as a motive to encourage others to follow the example Jul. Ap. that they had given them, even to martyrdom: and there- Cyril. lib. fore all the marks of honour were put even upon their bo- vi. lib. 10. Ennap. in dies that could be thought on, except worship. After the vita dess. ages of persecution were over, a fondness of having and keeping their relics began to spread itself in many places. Monks fed that humour by carrying them about. We find in St. Aug. de Austin's works, that superstition was making a great pro- opere mo gress in Afric upon these heads, of which he complains quently. Vigilantius had done it to more purpose in Spain; and did not only complain of the excesses, but of the thing in itself. St. Jerome fell unmercifully upon him for it, and Hieron. sets a high value upon relics, yet he does not speak one adv. Vigi word of worshipping them; he denies and disclaims it, and lant. to. 2. seems only to allow of a great fondness for them; and, with most of that age, he was very apt to believe, that miracles were oft wrought by them. When superstition is once suffered to mix with religion, it will be still gaining ground, and it admits of no bounds: so this matter went on, and new legends were invented; but when the controversy of image-worship began, it followed that as an accessary. The enshrining of relics occasioned the most excellent sort of images; and they were thought the best preservatives possible both for soul and body; no presents grew to be more valued than relics; and it was an easy thing for the Popes to furnish the world plentifully that way, but chiefly since the discovery of the catacombs, which has furnished them with stores not to be exhausted. The Council of Trent did in this, as in the point of images; it appointed relics to be venerated, but did not determine the degree; so it left the world in possession of a most excessive dotage upon them. They are used every where by them as sacred charms, kissed and worshipped, they are served with lights. and incense.

19.

In opposition to all this, we think, that all decent honours are indeed due to the bodies of the Saints, which were once the temples of the Holy Ghost: but since it is said, 1 Cor. vi. that God took that care of the body of Moses, so as to bury it in such a manner that no man knew of his sepul- xxxiv. 6. chre, there seems to have been in this a peculiar caution guarding against that superstition, which the Jews might

Deut.

ART. very probably have fallen into with relation to his body. XXII. And this seems so clear an indication of the will of God in

2 Kings xviii. 4.

2 Kings xiii. 21.

this matter, that we reckon we are very safe when we do no further honour to the body of a Saint, than to bury it. And though that Saint had been ever so eminent, not only for his holiness, but even for miracles wrought by him, by his shadow, or even by looking upon him; yet the history of the Brazen Serpent shews us, that a fondness even on the instruments, that God made use of to work miracles by, degenerates easily to the superstition of burning incense to them; but when that appears, it is to be checked, even by breaking that which was so abused. Hezekiah is commended for breaking in pieces that noble remain of Moses's time till then preserved; neither its antiquity, nor the signal miracles once wrought by it, could balance the ill use that was then made of it: that good king broke it, for which he might have had a worse name than an Iconoclast, if he had lived in some ages. It is true, miracles were of old wrought by Aaron's rod, by Elisha's bones after his death, and the one was preserved, but not worshipped; nor was there any superstition that followed on the other. Not a word of this fondness appears in the beginnings of Christianity; though it had been an easy thing at that time to have furnished the world with pieces of our Saviour's garments, hair, or nails; and great store might have been had of the Virgin's and the Apostles' relics: St. Stephen's and St. James's bones might have been then parcelled about: and if that spirit had then reigned in the Church, which has been in the Roman Church now above a thousand years, we should have heard of the relics that were sent about from Jerusalem to all the Churches. But when such things might have been had in great abundance, and have been known not to be counterfeits, we hear not a word of them. If a fondness for relics had been in the Church upon Christ's ascension, what care would have been taken to have made great collections of them!

Then we see no other care about the body of St. Stephen but to bury it; and not long after that time upon St. Polycarp's martyrdom, when the Jews, who had set on the prosecution against him, suggested, that, if the Christians could gain his body, they would perhaps forsake Christ and worship him; they rejected the accusation. with horror; for in the epistle which the Church of Smyrna writ upon his martyrdom, after they mention this insinuation, they have those remarkable words, which belong both to this head, and to that which follows it of

ART.

XXII.

Ep. Euseb. iv. c. 15.

the invocation and worship of Saints. These men know not that we can neither forsake Christ, who suffered for the salvation of all that are saved, the innocent for the guilty, nor worship any other; Him truly being the Son of God wel. adore: but the martyrs, and disciples, and followers of the Lord, we justly love, for that extraordinary good mind, which they have expressed toward their King and Muster, of whose happiness God grant that we may partake, and that we may learn by their examples. The Jews had so persuaded the Gentiles of Smyrna of this matter, that they burnt St. Polycarp's body; but the Christians gathered up his bones with much respect, so that it appeared how they honoured them, though they could not worship them; and they buried them in a convenient place, which they intended to make the place where they should hold, by the blessing of God, the yearly commemoration of that birth-day of his martyrdom, with much joy and gladness, both to honour the memory of those who had overcome in that glorious engagement, and to instruct and confirm all others by their example. This is one of the most valuable pieces of true and genuine. antiquity; and it shews us very fully the sense of that age both concerning the relics, and the worship of the Saints. In the following ages, we find no characters of any other regard to the bones or bodies of the Saints, but that they buried them very decently, and did annually commemorate their death, calling it their Birth-day. And it may incline men strongly to suspect the many miracles that were published in the fourth century, as wrought at the tombs, or memories of the martyrs, or by their relics, that we hear of none of those in the former three centuries; for it seems there was more occasion for them during the persecution, than after it was over; it being much. more necessary then to furnish Christians with so strong a motive as this must have been, to resist even to blood, when God was pleased to glorify himself so signally in his Saints. This, I say, forces us to fear, that credulity and imagination, or somewhat worse than both these, might have had a large share in those extraordinary things that are related to us by great men in the fourth century. He must have a great disposition to believe wonderful things, that can digest the extraordinary relations that are Basil. in 40 Martyr. in even in St. Basil, St. Ambrose, and St. Austin; and most Hom. 26,in signally in St. Jerome: for instance, that after one had Mamar. stolen Hilarion's body out of Cyprus, and brought it to Paul. in vita Palestine, upon which Constantia, that went constantly to Aug. de his tomb, was ready to have broke her heart; God took Civit. Dei, such pity on her, that as the true body wrought great lib. xxii.

Ambros.

c. 8.