mutari vetat religio,' were scarce understood by their priests themselves, but their religion forbad to change them. Thus anciently did the Osseni,-heretics, of whom Epiphanius tells, and the Heracleonitæ, of whom St. Austin gives account; they taught to pray with obscure words: and some others, in Clemens Alexandrinus, supposed, that words spoken in a barbarous or unknown tongue, duvaτwrégas, ' are more powerful.' The Jews also, in their synagogues at this day, read Hebrew, which the people but rarely understand; and the Turks, in their mosques, read Arabick, of which the people know nothing. But Christians never did so, till they of Rome resolved to refuse to do benefit to the souls of the people in this instance, or to bring them from intolerable ignorance. SECTION VIII. THE church of Rome hath, to very bad purposes, introduced and imposed upon Christendom the worship and veneration of images, kissing them, pulling off their hats, kneeling, falling down and praying before them, which they call Giving them due honour and veneration.' What external honour and veneration that is, which they call due,' is expressed by the instances now reckoned, which the council of Trent, in their decree, enumerate and establish. What 'the inward honour and worship' is, which they intend to them, is intimated in the same decree. By the images they worship Christ and his saints; and, therefore, by these images, they pass that honour to Christ and his saints which is their due; that is, as their doctors explain it, 'latria,' or 'Divine worship' to God and Christ; ' hyperdulia,' or 'more than service,' to the blessed Virgin Mary; and service,' or 'doulia,' to other canonized persons. So that upon the whole, the case is this: Whatever worship they give to God, and Christ, and his saints, they give it first to the image, and from the image they pass it unto Christ and Christ's servants. And, therefore, we need not to inquire what actions they * Quintil. lib. i. 6. 41. Verb. Osseni. c. 6. ad Quod vult Deum. suppose to be fit or due. For whatsoever is due to God, to Christ, or his saints, that worship they give to their respective images; all the same in external semblance and ministry: as appears in all their great churches, and public actions, and processions, and temples, and festivals, and endowments, and censings, and pilgrimages, and prayers, and vows made to them. Now, besides that these things are so like idolatry, that they can no way be reasonably excused (of which we shall, in the next chapter, give some account); besides that they are too like the religion of the heathens, and so plainly and frequently forbidden in the Old Testament, and are so infinitely unlike the simple and wise, the natural and holy, the pure and the spiritual religion of the Gospel; besides that they are so infinite a scandal to the Jews and Turks, and reproach Christianity itself amongst all strangers that live in their communion, and observe their rites; besides that they cannot pretend to be lawful, but with the laborious artifices of many metaphysical notions and distinctions, which the people who most need them, do least understand; and that, therefore, the people worship them without these distinctions, and directly put confidence in them; and that it is impossible that ignorant persons, who, in all Christian countries, make up the biggest number, should do otherwise, when otherwise they cannot understand it; and besides, that the thing itself, with or without distinctions, is a superstitious and forbidden, an unlawful and unnatural worship of God, who will not be worshipped by an image: we say, that, besides all this, this whole doctrine and practice is an innovation in the Christian church, not practised, not endured in the primitive ages, but expressly condemned by them; and this is our present undertaking to evince. The first notice we find of images brought into Christian religion, was by Simon Magus: indeed that was very ancient, but very heretical and abominable: but that he brought some in to be worshipped, we find in Theodoret and St. Austin. St. Irenæus tells, that the Gnostics or Carpocratians did make images, and said, that the form of Christ, as a Chap. ii. sect. 12. b Hæret. Fabul. lib. i. De Hæres. lib. i. c. 23. Vide etiam Epiphan, tom, ii. lib. i. hæres, 27. et S. August. de Hæres. lib. vi. strom. et in parænetico. he was in the flesh, was made by Pilate; and these images they worshipped, as did the Gentiles: these things they did, but against these things the Christians did zealously and piously declare: "We have no image in the world," said St. Clemens of Alexandria: "It is apparently forbidden to us to exercise that deceitful art: for it is written, Thou shalt not make any similitude of any thing in heaven above," &c. And Origen wrote a just treatise against Celsus, in which he not only affirms, "That Christians did not make or use images in religion, but that they ought not, and were, by God, forbidden to do so.' To the same purpose, also, Lactantius discourses to the emperor, and confutes the pretences and little answers of the heathen in that manner, that he leaves no pretence for Christians, under another cover, to introduce the like abomination. We are not ignorant, that those, who were converted from Gentilism, and those who loved to imitate the customs of the Roman princes and people, did soon introduce the historical use of images, and, according to the manner of the world, did think it honourable to depict or make images of those whom they had in great esteem; and that this being done by an esteem, relying on religion, did, by the weakness of men, and the importunity of the tempter, quickly pass into inconvenience and superstition; yet even in the time of Julian the emperor, St. Cyril denies, that the Christians did give veneration and worship to the image, even of the cross itself, which was one of the earliest temptations; and St. Epiphanius (it is a known story) tells, that when, in the village of Bethel, he saw a cloth picture," as it were, of Christ, or some saint in the church, against the authority of Scripture;" he cut it in pieces, and advised that some poor man should be buried in it; affirming, " that such pictures are against religion, and unworthy of the church of Christ." The epistle was translated into Latin by St. Jerome; by which we may guess at his opinion in the question. The council of Eliberis is very ancient, and of great fame; in which it is expressly forbidden, that what is worshipped should be depicted on the walls; and that, there d Cont. Cels. lib. vii. et viii. e Epist. ad Joh. Hieros. Can. 36. Placuit picturas in ecclesia esse uon debere, nc, quod colitur' aut adoratur, in parietibus depingatur. fore, pictures ought not to be in churches. St. Austin, complaining that he knew of many in the church, who were worshippers of pictures, calls them' superstitious;' and adds, that the church condemns such customs, and strives to correct them;' and St. Gregory, writing to Serenus, bishop of Massilia, says, 'he would not have had him to break the pictures and images, which were there set for an historical use; but commends him for prohibiting any one to worship them, and enjoins him still to forbid it.' But superstition, by degrees, creeping in, the worship of images was decreed in the seventh synod, or the second Nicene. But the decrees of this synod being, by pope Adrian, sent to Charles the Great, he convocated a synod of German and French bishops, at Frankfort, who discussed the acts passed at Nice, and condemned them: and the acts of this synod, although they were diligently suppressed by the pope's arts, yet Eginardus, Hincmarus, Aventinus, Blondus, Adon, Aymonius, and Regino, famous historians, tell us, that the bishops of Frankfort condemned the synod of Nice, and commanded it should not be called a 'general council;' and published a book under the name of the emperor, confuting that unchristian assembly; and not long since, this book, and the acts of Frankfort, were published by bishop Tillius; by which, not only the infinite fraud of the Roman doctors is discovered, but the worship of images is declared against and condemned. A while after this, Ludovicus, the son of Charlemagne, sent Claudius, a famous preacher, to Taurinum in Italy, where he preached against the worshipping of images, and wrote an excellent book to that purpose. Against this book, Jonas, bishop of Orleans, after the death of Ludovicus and Claudius, did write: in which he yet durst not assert the worship of them, but confuted it out of Origen, whose words he thus cites: " Images are neither to be esteemed by inward affection, nor worshipped with outward show:" and out of Lactantius these: "Nothing is to be worshipped, that is seen with mortal eyes; let us adore, let us worship nothing, but the name alone of our only Parent, who is to be De Morib. Eccles. lib. i. c. 34. Idem de Fide et Symbolo. c. 7. et contr. Adimant. c. 13. A. D. 764. sought for in the regions above, not here below :" and to the same purpose, he also alleges excellent words out of Fulgentius and St. Jerome; and though he would have images retained, and, therefore, was angry at Claudius, who caused them to be taken down, yet he himself expressly affirms, that they ought not to be worshipped; and withal adds, that though they kept the images in their churches for history and ornament, yet that, in France, the worshipping of them was had in great detestation. And though it is not to be denied, but that, in the sequel of Jonas's book, he does something prevaricate in this question; yet it is evident, that, in France, this doctrine was not accounted catholic for almost nine hundred years after Christ; and in Germany, it was condemned for almost one thousand two hundred years, as we find in Nicetas. We are not unskilled in the devices of the Roman writers, and with how much artifice they would excuse this whole matter, and palliate the crime imputed to them, and elude the Scriptures expressly condemning this superstition: but we know also, that the arts of sophistry are not the ways of salvation. And, therefore, we exhort our people to follow the plain words of Scripture, and the express law of God in the second commandment; and add also the exhortation of St. John," Little children, keep yourselves from idols." To conclude; it is impossible but that it must be confessed, that the worship of images was a thing unknown to the primitive church; in the purest times of which, they would not allow the making of them; as, amongst divers others, appears in the writings of Clemens Alexandrinus', Tertullian, and Origen". SECTION IX. As an appendage to this, we greatly reprove the custom of the church of Rome, in picturing God the Father, and the most holy and undivided Trinity: which, besides that it 1 Lib. ii. in Vita Isaaci Angeli, A. D. 1160. Lib. ii. e. 22. advers. Marcion. et de Idololatr. c. 3. k 1 John, v. 21. |