adoration, is most true, most pious, and very consonant to the decrees of faith." This he saith' is the doctrine not only of Thomas, and of all his disciples, but also of all the old schoolmen almost. And particularly he quoteth for it, Cajetan, Capreolus, Paludanus, Ferrariensis, Antoninus, Soto, Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Bonaventura, Richardus de Mediavilla, Dionysius Carthusianus, Major, Marsilius, Thomas Waldensis, Turrecremata, Angestus, Clichtoveus, Turrian and Vasquez. In a word, "It is the constant judgment of divines," saith Azorius the Jesuit, "that the image is to be honoured and worshipped with the same honour and worship, wherewith that is worshipped whereof it is an image."

Against this use, or rather horrible abuse of images, to what purpose should we heap up any testimonies of holy Scripture, if the words of the second commandment, uttered by God's own mouth with thundering and lightning upon Mount Sinai, may not be heard?" Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them." Which thunderclap from heaven the guides of the Romish Church discerning to threaten sore that fearful idolatry which daily they commit, thought fit in wisdom, first to conceal the knowledge of this from the people, by excluding those words out of the decalogue that went abroad for common use, under pretence, forsooth, of including it in the first commandment; and then afterwards to put this conceit into men's heads, that this first commandment was so far from condemning the veneration of images, that it commanded the same, and condemned the contrary neglect thereof. And therefore Laurence Vaux in his catechism, upon this question: "Who breaketh the first commandment of God by

P Pet. de Caprer. in 3. part. Thom. quæst. 25. art. 8. disp. 3. num. 30.

9 Constans est theologorum sententia; imaginem eodem honore et cultu honorari et coli, quo colitur id cujus est imago. Jo. Azor. institut. moral. tom. 1. lib. 9. cap. 6.

unreverence of God?" frameth this answer :

They' that do not give due reverence to God and his saints, or to their relics and IMAGES;" and Jacobus de Graffiis in his explication of the same commandment, specifieth the due reverence here required, more particularly, namely, “that we should reverence every image with the same worship that we do him whose image it is; that is to say, that we impart Latria (or divine worship) to the image of God, or of Christ, or to the sign of the cross also, inasmuch as it bringeth the passion of our Lord unto our mind: and that we use the adoration of Hyperdulia at the image of the holy Virgin, but of Dulia at the images of other saints." And can there be found, think you, among men a more desperate impudency than this? that not only the practice of this wretched idolatry should be maintained against the express commandment of Almighty God; but also that he himself should be made the author and commander of it, even in that very place where he doth severely forbid it, and "reveal his wrath from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, which withhold the truth in unrighteousness." The miserable shifts and silly evasions, whereby they labour to obscure the light of this truth, have been detected by others to the full, and touched also in some part by myself in another" place, where I have shewed out of Deuteronomy, chap. 4, ver. 15, 16. and Romans, chap. 1. ver. 23. that the adoring of the very true God himself in or by an image, cometh within the compass of that idolatry which the word of God condemneth. And to this truth do the fathers of the ancient church give plentiful testimony, in what great

r Vaux catechism. chap. 3.

Ut unamquamque imaginem eodem cultu, quo ille, cujus imago est, veneremur, id est, ut imagini Dei, vel Christi, vel etiam crucis signo, prout Dominicam passionem ad mentem revocat, latriam impartiamur: ad sacræ virginis imaginem hyperduliæ, aliorum vero sanctorum duliæ adoratione adoremus. Jacob. de Graffiis, decision. aure. casuum conscient. part. 1. lib. 2. cap. 2. sect. penult.

Rom. chap. 1. ver. 18.

u Serm. at Westminst. before the house of Commons. Op. tom. 2. pag. 443, 444.

account soever our challenger would have us think that the use of images was with them.

Indeed in so great account was the use of images among them, that in the ancientest and best times, Christians would by no means permit them to be brought into their churches; nay, some of them would not so much as admit the art itself of making them; so jealous were they of the danger, and careful for the prevention of the deceit, whereby the simple might any way be drawn on to the adoring of them: "We are plainly forbidden,” saith Clement Alexandrinus, "to exercise that deceitful art. For the prophet saith, Thou shalt not make the likeness of any thing, either in the heaven or in the earth beneath. Moses commandeth men, to make no image, that should represent God by art. For in truth an image is a dead matter, formed by the hand of an artificer. But we have no sensible image made of any sensible matter, but such an image as is to be conceived with the understanding." So his scholar Origen, writing against Celsus the philosopher: "Who having his right wits," saith he, "will not laugh at him, who after such great philosophical discourses of God or Gods, doth look on images, and either presenteth his prayer to them, or by the sight thereof offereth it to him who is conceived thereby, unto whom he imagineth that he ought to ascend from that which is seen, and is but a sign and symbol of him?" And whereas Celsus had brought in that speech of Heraclitus: “Theya

* Καὶ γὰρ δὲ καὶ ἀπηγόρευται ἡμῖν ἀναφανδόν, ἀπατηλὸν ὁρίζεσθαι τέχνην. Οὐ γὰρ ποιήσεις, φησὶν ὁ προφήτης, παντὸς ὁμοίωμα, ὅσα ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, καὶ ὅσα ἐν τῇ γῇ κάτω. Clem. Αlex. Protr. ad Gentes. op. pag. 54. * Οὐδεμίαν εἰκόνα ὁ Μωϋσης παραγγέλλει ποιεῖσθαι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, ἀντίτεχνον τῷ θεῷ. Id. Pædagog. lib. 3. cap. 2. op. pag. 258.

γ ̓́Εστι γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς τὸ ἄγαλμα, ὕλη νεκρὰ τεχνίτου χειρὶ μεμορφω μένη· ἡμῖν δὲ, οὐχ ὕλης αἰσθητῆς αἰσθητόν, νοητὸν δὲ τὸ ἄγαλμα. Id. in Protreptic. op. pag. 45.

· Τὶς γὰρ νοῦν ἔχων οὐ καταγελάσεται τοῦ μετὰ τοὺς τηλικούτους καὶ τοσούτους ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ περὶ θεοῦ ἤ θεῶν λόγους, ἐνορῶντος τοῖς ἀγάλμασι· καὶ ἤτοι αὐτοῖς ἀναπέμποντος τὴν εὐχὴν, ἢ διὰ τῆς τούτων ὄψεως, ἐφ ̓ ὃν φαντάζεται δεῖν ἀναβαίνειν ἀπὸ τοῦ βλεπομένου καὶ συμβόλου ὄντος, ἀναPÉρOVTÓC TE Ènì ròv vooúμɛvov; Origen. cont. Cels. lib. 7. op. tom. 1. pag. 726. 3 Καὶ τοῖς ἀγάλμασι τουτέοισιν εὔχονται, ὁκοῖον εἴ τις τοῖς δόμοισι

pray unto these images, as if a man should enter into conference with his house:" and demanded, "Whether any man unless he were a very child, did think these things to be Gods, and not monuments and images of the Gods?" Origen replieth, that "It is not a thing possible that one should know God, and pray to images:" and that Christians" did not esteem these to be divine images, who used not to describe any figure of God who was invisible and without all bodily shape, nore could endure to worship God with any such kind of service as this was." In like manner, when the Gentiles demanded of the ancient Christians, "Why they had no known images?" Minutius Felix returneth them for answer again: "Whats image shall I make to God, when man himself, if thou rightly judge, is God's image?" These "holy images" saith Lactantius, "which vain men serve, want all sense, because they are earth. Now who is there that understandeth not, that it is unfit for an upright creature to be bowed down, that he may worship the earth? which for

XεoxηVEVOLTO. Heraclit. Ephes. Orig. contr. Cels. lib. 7. op. tom. 1. pag. 738. et apud Clem. Alexand. in Protreptic. ad Gent. op. pag. 44. ubi statim subjungitur : ἡ γὰρ οὐχὶ τερατώδεις οἱ λίθους προστρεπόμενοι; Αn non enim sunt prodigiosi qui lapides adorant?

• Τὶς γὰρ καὶ ἄλλος, εἰμὴ πάντῃ νήπιος, ταῦτα ἡγεῖται θεοὺς ; ἀλλὰ Oεav ȧvalýμara, caì áɣáλpara. Cels. apud Origen. lib. 7. op. tom. 1. pag. 738. · Οὐ μὲν δυνατόν ἐστι καὶ γιγνώσκειν τὸν θεὸν, καὶ τοῖς ἀγάλμασιν Extola. Origen. ib. pag. 740.

4 ̓Αλλ' οὐδὲ θείας εἰκόνος (lege εἰκόνας: ut in verbis Celsi, pag. 738.) υπολαμβάνομεν εἶναι τὰ ἀγάλματα, ἅτε μορφὴν ἀοράτου (θεοῦ) καὶ ἀσωμάτου μὴ διαγράφοντα θεοῦ. Id. ib. pag. 741.

• Χριστιανοὶ καὶ Ἰουδαῖοι οὐκ ἄνεχονται τῆς τοιαύτης ὑπολαμβανομévηs eis tò belov Oɛpan tiag hoc est (ut ex verbis subsequentib. intelligitur) διὰ τὸ ἐκκλίνειν καὶ κατασπᾶν καὶ κατάγειν τὴν περὶ τὸ θεῖον θρησκείαν ἐπὶ τῆν τοιαύτην ὕλην οὑτωσὶ ἐσχηματισμένην, οὐκ ἀνέχονται βωμῶν καὶ άyaλμárov. Id. ibid. pag. 739.

f Cur nullas aras habent, templa nulla, nulla nota simulacra ? Minut. Felix in Octavio.

* Quod enim simulacrum De o fingam; cum si recte existimes, sit Dei homo ipse simulacrum ? Ibid.

h Ipsæ imagines sacræ, quibus inanissimi homines serviunt, omni sensu carent, quia terra sunt. Quis autem non intelligat, nefas esse rectum animal curvari, ut adoret terram? quæ idcirco pedibus nostris subjecta est, ut calcanda nobis, non adoranda sit. Lactant. divin. institut. lib. 2. cap. 17.

this cause is put under our feet, that it may be trodden upon, not worshipped by us. Wherefore there is no doubt, that there is no religion, wheresoever there is an image. For seeing religion consisteth of divine things, and nothing divine is to be found but in heavenly things; images therefore are void of religion; because nothing that is heavenly can be in that thing, which is made of earth."

When Adrian the emperor had commanded that temples should be made in all cities without images, it was presently conceived, that he did prepare those temples for Christ as Ælius Lampridius noteth in the life of Alexander Severus. Which is an evident argument, that it was not the use of Christians in those days to have any images in their churches. And for keeping of pictures out of the church, the canon of the Eliberine or Illiberitane council, held in Spain about the time of Constantine the Great, is most plain: "It' is our mind, that pictures ought not to be in the Church, lest that which is worshipped or adored, should be painted on walls." Which hath so troubled the minds of our latter Romanists, that Melchior Canus sticketh not to charge the council "notm only with imprudency, but also with impiety," for making such a law as this. "The" Gentiles," saith St. Ambrose,

i Quare non est dubium, quin religio nulla sit, ubicunque simulacrum est. Nam si religio ex divinis rebus est; divini autem nihil est nisi in cœlestibus rebus carent ergo religione simulacra, quia nihil potest esse cœleste in ea re, quæ fit ex terra. Lactant. divin. institut. lib. 2. cap. 18.

k Alexander imp. Christo templum facere voluit, eumque inter Deos recipere. Quod et Adrianus cogitasse fertur, qui templa in omnibus civitatibus sine simulacris jusserat fieri; quæ hodie idcirco quia non habent numina, dicuntur Adriani: quæ ille ad hoc parasse dicebatur; sed prohibitus est ab iis qui consulentes sacra, repererant omnes Christianos futuros si id optato evenisset, et templa reliqua deserenda. Lamprid. in Alexandro.

1 Placuit, picturas in ecclesia esse non debere; ne quod colitur aut adoratur, in parietibus depingatur. Concil. Eliber. cap. 36.

m Illa (lex) non imprudenter modo, verum etiam impie, a concilio Elibertino lata est de tollendis imaginibus. Canus, loc. theologic. lib. 5. cap. 4. conclus. 4. " Gentiles lignum adorant, quia Dei imaginem putant: sed invisibilis Dei imago non in eo est quod videtur, sed in eo utique quod non videtur. Ambros. in Psal. 118. Octonar. 10.