\st. To make a true image of God is im- possible. God is a spiritual essence, John iv. 24. ; and, being a Spirit, he is invisible, Deut. iv. 15., " Ye saw no similitude in the day that the Lord spake unto you in Iloreb out of the midst of the fire." How can any paint the Deity ? Can they make an imago of that which tliey never saw ? Qiiod invisi- hile est, pigni non potest, A.aib. " Ye saw no similitude " It is impossible to make a
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picture of the soul, or to paint the an- gels, because they are of a spiritual na- ture; much less then can we paint God by an image, who is an infinite, uncreated Spirit.
2d. To worship God by an image, is both absurd and unlawful.
1. It is absurd and irrational ; for, 1. The workman is better than the work, Heb. iii. 3., " He who hath buikled the house hath more honour than the house." If the workman be better than the work, and none bow to the workman, how absurd then is it to bow to the work of his hands ? 2. Is it not an absurd thing to bow down to the king's picture, when the king him- self is present ? more so to bow down to an image of God, when God himself is every where present.
2. It is unlawful to worship God by an image ; for, 1. It is against the homily of the church ; it runs thus ; " The images of God, our Saviour, the Virgin Mary, are of all others the most dangerous; therefore the greatest care ought to be had that they stand not in temples and churches." So that image-worship is contrary to our own homilies, and doth affront the authority of the church of England. 2. Image-worship is expressly against the letter of scripture. Lev. xxvi. 1., " Ye shall make no gi'aven image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone, to bow down to it," Deut. xvi. 22., *' Neither shalt thou set thee up any image which the Lord thy God hateth." Ps. xcvii. 7., " Confounded be all they that serve graven images." Do we think to please God, by doing that which is contra- ry to his mind, and that which he hath ex- pressly forbidden? — 3. Image-worship is against the practice of the saints of old. Josiah, that renowned king, destroyed the groves and images, 2 Kings xxiii. 24. Constantine abrogated the images set up in temples; the Christians destroyed images at Basil, Zurich, Bohemia ; when the Ro- man emperors would have thrust images upon them, they chose rather to die than deflower their virgin-profession by idola- try; they refused to admit any painter or carver into their society, because they would not have any carved statue or image of God ; when Serapliiou bowed to an idol,
the Christians excommunicated him, and delivered him up to Satan.
Use \st. It reproves and condemns the church of Rome, who from the Alpha of their religion to the Omega, are wholly i- dolatrous. They make images of God the Father, — painting him in their church win- dows as an old man, — and an image of Christ on the crucifix; and, because it is against the letter of this commandment, therefore they sacrilegiously blot out the second commandment out of their catechi- ses, dividing the tenth commandment into two ; now this image- worship must needs be very impious and blasphemous, because it is a giving that religious worship to the creature, which is only due to God. It is vain for papists to say, they give God the worship of the heart, and the image only the worship of the body ; for the worship of the body is due to God, as well as tlie worship of the heart ; and to give an out- ward veneration to an image, is to give that adoration to a creature, which only be- longs to God, Isa. xlii. 8., " My glory will I not give to another."
Ob J. 1. The papists say, they do not wor- ship the image, but only make use of it as a medium, to worship God by it. Ne imagine quidem Christi in quantum est lignum sculp- tum, ultra debetur reverentia, Aquinas.
Ans. 1. Where hath God bidden them worship him by an effigy or image ? Isa. i. 12., " Who hath required this at your hands?" The papists cannot say so much as the devil, Scriptum est, — ' It is written.'
A. 2. The heathens may bring the same argument for their gross idolatry, as the papists do for their image-worship. Who of the heathens were so simple, as to think gold or silver, or the figure of an ox or el- cj)hant, were God ? They were only em- blems and hieroglyphics to represent him ; they did worship the invisible God, by such visible things. To worship God by an image, God takes a.s done to the image itself.
Obj. 2. But, say the papists, images are laymen's books, and theij are gooa to put tis in mind of God. One of the popish councils affirmed, that we might learn more by an im- age, than by long study of the scriptures.
Am. Hab. ii. 18., " What profiteth the
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