Seven godly and learned sermons preachedSeuen godly and learned sermons preached

And this hath been even from the beginning. The Babylonians worshipped Bell their God,¹ which was but a block: they worshipped also a Dragon, which they called their living God, and this did they in good sooth. The Jews made a golden Calf, and fell down before the same, and worshipped it,² and said, Isti sunt Dij tui, These are thy Gods, O Israel, these are ⟨image 43⟩they that brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and delivered thee. We read also that they worshipped a Brazen Serpent,³ and burnt Incense and sacrifice unto it. And as they had these vain Idols for their Gods: so likewise had they a number of Superstitious ceremonies of their own devising, which here were too long to be spoken of. And all this did they of blindness, thinking they had done well, meaning nothing but good therein. But afterwards when it pleased God to show them their own blindness, to show them their folly, to show them the wickedness they walked in: then were they ashamed of their doings, then (I say) they were ashamed confounded. And therefore said Jeremiah the prophet, Verè patres nostri coluerunt mendatia, truly our forefathers followed after lies. The Gentiles, when they perceived that the Sun & Moon their chief Gods, were indeed no gods, & able to do them no pleasure, then they were ashamed. When the people of Babylon saw & understood their own folly in worshipping their God Bell & their Dragon, & that ⟨image 44⟩they were not such, as they took them to be, then were they ashamed. And so in like, when the Jews saw before their eyes their golden Calf molten, and their brazen Serpent broken & ground into powder, then were they ashamed, then were they sorry and ashamed of their former doings. Thus saith the Prophet Isaiah, or rather God by the mouth of his Prophet, Why offer ye so many sacrifices unto me? offer me no moe oblations. ⁴I abhor your incense, I may not away with your new moons and Sabbaths. I am troubled with them, I am weary of them, Quis ista requirit? Who looketh for these things, who commandeth you so to do? Isaiah in another place also;