Consider 3

Consider. III.

The placing it also at the East end of the Church, is superstitious. This was the custom of those idolaters (Ezekiel 8:16); they worshiped the Sun, with their faces towards the East. And it is a symbolizing also with the Papists. For Hospinian observes, that most Altars at this day among the Papists are placed in prima templorum parte, et versus orientem spectant, in the fore-front of their Churches, and look towards the East, quod etiam ab Ethnicis sumpserunt, which they likewise took from the Heathens. For the Temple of Jerusalem, and its Sanctuary stood otherwise. The Ark and Mercy Seat stood in the Sanctum Sanctorum, at the west end of the Temple, not the East, and the Jewish Synagogues both anciently, and now were built round, or in an oval manner: neither is there any law, or canon of the Church or state of England, for the building of Churches, and Chapels, East, and West, or placing the Chancel, or Quire, at the East end of them.

4. Whereas they call them not only Altars, but high Altars, and raise the ground where they stand, going up by steps to them, this is the old heathenish idolatry of the Gentiles, those idolatrous high places so often condemned in the Scripture, being nothing else but high Altars situated in high places, in detestation whereof the Lord gives express charge to the Jews, not to go up by steps to his Altar (Exodus 20:28), and to destroy and pull down all high places (Numbers 33:52), and in many other Scriptures.

5. Whereas they have Images above, or over their Altars, this also is after the manner of the old heathenish idolaters, for in Josiah's time, we read how they broke down the Altars of Baal, and the Images that were on high above them, or over them (2 Chronicles 34:4). So the Prelates have Crucifixes standing on, or over their Altars, either in arras, glass, or metal, or in some curious Common Prayer Book standing on their Altars, only for a dumb show, adorned with two or three silver Crucifixes, in stead of Bosses on the Cover. And in the Church at Durham, they had a marble Altar set up there by that devout idolater Cousins, with Cherubims, which cost two thousand Pounds, with all the appurtenances thereof, namely, a Cope, with the Trinity, and God the Father, in the figure of an old man, another with a Crucifix, and the Image of Christ, with a red beard, and blue Cap; they lighted two hundred wax Candles about the Altar on Candlemas day, forbade Psalms to be sung before, or after Sermon, but made an Anthem to be sung of the three Kings of Cologne, by the names of Gasper, Balthasar, and Melchior, and they had a consecrated knife only to cut the bread at the Communion. What vile, execrable, hideous idolatry was all this? Was there ever the like known, or heard of, among men professing the name of Christ? But do these men call themselves Protestants? But must we have these things set up again? And such idolaters as these to rule the Church? O Lord, look down from Heaven, and behold from the habitation of your holiness, and of your glory, and rebuke these men! You that have chosen Jerusalem, rebuke them, and raise up some Josiah, that may purge and cleanse the Land from this idolatry, and break down the Altars, with the Images that are on high above them.

6. The bowing down to them is idolatry against the very letter of the Second Commandment, which says, you shall not bow down yourself to them. It is not meant of casual position, as if a man's face, when he kneels down to pray, be accidentally towards an Altar, or towards the East, or the like, but it is meant, of bowing with religious respect to them, you shall not bow down to them, nor serve them: if not to Images, then not to Tables; for there is the same reason of both, why not to the consecrated bread and wine, as well, yes rather, then to the Altar, or Table? And why should the Table be preferred before the Pulpit? The truth is, this Altar worship is such gross idolatry, that as I never knew any but the devoted Sons of Babel who are dead drunk with the wine of the filthiness of spiritual fornications, plead for it, so I doubt not, but God will shortly convince men of it, and rid the Land of it, by astonishing plagues, and judgements, and horrible desolations upon all their pleasant things, if no other means will serve. The glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean, and there shall be but a gleaning left in it, as in the shaking of an Olive Tree, two or three on the top of the uppermost bough, and when it is come to this, at that day a man shall look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the holy one of Israel, and he shall not look to the Altars, the work of his hands; neither, shall he respect that which his fingers have made, either the Groves or the Images (Isaiah 17:4, 5, 6, 7, 8). And there is another text also, that may strike terror into the hearts of these idolaters, if they have any conscience, if they have any sense or feeling left, I mean that threatening, that dreadful and direful imprecation, in Isaiah 2:9: the mean man bows down, and the great man humbles himself, therefore forgive them not. So that this idolatrous bowing, though it be not properly the sin against the Holy Ghost, yet it is such a sin as God seldom pardons, therefore forgive them not.

It is but a desperate shift here to talk of relative or dependent worship, that because the Communion Table has some relation to Christ, therefore we may bow down to it in honor of Christ, for it is not every thing that has some kind of relation to Christ, that is to be worshiped. Do but consider the long tail of this Serpent, the strange and wretched consequences of this objection, for by the same reason we may bow down to an Image, or a Crucifix, to the picture of Christ, as well as to the Altar, and why not to the Pulpit, as well as to either of both? For the word of Christ is preached out of the Pulpit, and why may we not as well adore the cups and vessels which contain the wine? And therefore they are as much related to Christ, if not more then the Table upon which they stand? The Papists grant, we may, and the vessels are consecrated things, with them. Well, but the Sun, Moon, and Stars have some relation to Christ, as being made by Him, and somewhat may be drawn from them by way of resemblance, but may we therefore bow to the East, and worship the Sun, and all the host of Heaven? Yes, say the Papists, with a respective or dependent worship, as they call it, as they are creatures of God. Well, but all inanimate creatures were made by Him, a stone, a stick, or a straw that I see at my feet, they are all creatures of God, and is it lawful then to worship them? Here I cannot but call to mind what I have sometimes read not without admiration, and trembling, in Vasques the Jesuit, a subtle fellow, but yet the Sword was so sharp upon his right eye, that he maintains, that it is lawful to worship the Ass that Christ rode upon, and to kiss the lips of Judas that betrayed him, and that a man may do this with a true devotion to Christ, and that it is lawful to worship all manner of creatures, whether alive, or dead, res omnes inanimatas, modulum straminis, a piece of a straw, no, he goes further, quamvis Daemon delitescat sub crucifixo, though the Devil be in the Crucifix, yet a man may worship it. And thus you see whither this objection will bring you, if you follow it home, even to worship the Devil: men had need take heed of giving way to their own wisdom and carnal reasonings in the matters of God's worship, lest the Sword fall upon their right eye, lest they become vain in their imaginations.