CHAPTER XXI.
Images — Doctrine of the council of Trent — Of the second Nicene — The argu- ments for the adoration of images — Doctrine of the ancient church — Of the chief doctrine of the Roman church — Practice of the whole — Vain founda- tions of the pretences for image-worship examined and disproved.
Your next procedure is to your discourse of figures or images, and my animadversions upon it. And here you say, " you will
THE WOIISHIP OF IMAGES. 427
come up close unto me ; " — you mean, in replying unto what I deli- vered about it. But, sir, I thought this had been contrary to your design; you professed, at the beginning of your epistle, that it was so, and have made good use of that declaration of yourself by avoid- ing every thing in my discourse that you found yourself pressed with, and too difficult a task for you to deal withal. Why do you now begin to forget yourself, and to cast off the pretence you have hitherto shadowed yourself under, and excused yourself by, from tergiversa- tion ? Surely you think you are upon this head able to say some- what to the purpose, which you despaired of doing upon others of as great importance ; and therefore now you may argue and dispute, which before the design of your " Fiat'' would not permit you to do. As far as I can observe, you speak nothing at any time but what you think is at present for your turn; but whether it have any consist- ency with that which elsewhere you have delivered, you make it not much your concernment to inquire. But we shall quickly see whe- ther you had any just ground of encouragement to harness yourself, and to come up, as you speak, " close to me" in this business or no. It may be, before the close of our discoiu'se, you will begin to think it had been as well for you to have persisted in your former avoid- ance, as to make this profession of a close dispute. And, whatever you pretend to the contrary, really you have done so. You hide the opi- nion and practice of your church about the worship of images, which you seem to be ashamed of, instead of defending them ; and except against some passages in my " Animadversions," instead of answering the whole, which you seem to pretend unto. I shall, therefore, de- clare what is the true judgment of your church in this matter, and then vindicate the passages of my discourse which you take notice of in your exceptions ; and under both heads declare the abomination of your faith and practice in your doctrine about images and worship of them.
The doctrine of your church in this matter I .suppose we may be acquainted with from the determinations of your councils, the expli- cation of your most famous doctors, the practice of your people, and the distinctions used by you to quit yourselves from idolatry in your doctrine and practice. And you will thereby learn, or may, at least, to what purpose it is for you to seek to palliate and hide the de- formity of that which your mother and her wise men have made naked to all the world.
Your council of Trent is veiy wary in this matter, as it was in most of its other affairs; and, indeed, seeing it was resolved not to give place to the truth, it became it so to be, that it might keep any footing in the minds of men, and not tumble headlong into contempt and reproach. Many difficulties it had to wrestle withal. It saw the
428 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVEESIONS ON FIAT LUX.
practice of their church, which was not totally to be deserted, lest the great mystery of its infallibility should be impaired, and its nakedness laid open; the general complaint, on the other side, of learned and sober men, that, under a pretence of image-worship, as horrible idolatry was brought into the church of God as ever was practised amongst the heathen, did not a little perplex it. It had also the various and contradictory opinions of the great doctors of your church and masters of your faith about the kind of worship which is due to images; all which had great followers ready to dispute endlessly in the maintenance of their several conceits. Amidst these rocks and oppositions, the fathers found no way to sail safely, but by the help of general and ambiguous words, — a course which, in the like difficulties, had frequently before stood them in good stead : where- fore they so expressed themselves, that no party at variance among them might think their opinions condemned, that the general practice of their church might be countenanced, and yet no particular asserted that was most obnoxious to the exceptions of the Lutherans. Thus, then, they sj)eak: " Imagines porro Christi, Deiparse Virginis et aliorum sanctorum in templis prsesertim habendas et retinendas; eisque debitum honorem et venerationem impertiendam, non quod credatur,-^ — quoniam honos qui eis exhibetur refertur ad prototypa, quse illge representant ; " with much more to that purpose. And we may observe, that the decree speaks only of the images of Christ, the blessed Virgin, and other saints, not expressly mentioning the images of God the Father, of the Trinity, and of the Holy Ghost, nor of angels, which they knew to be made, and to be had in vene- ration in their church. Nor do they anywhere reject the use, making, or worshipping of them; yea, in their following words they do plainly allow of the figuring of the Deity. " Quod," say they, " si aliquando historias et narrationes sacrse Scripturse, quum id indoctse plebi expediet, exprimi et figurari contigerit, doceatur populus, non propterea divinitatem figurari quasi corporeis oculis conspici, vel co- loribus aut figuris exjDrimi possit." The words are, as most of the rest in this particular, as ambiguous as the oracles of Delphi. This cannot be denied to be in them, however, — 1. " That the unlearned people are to be taught that the Deity is not painted or figured, as though it could be seen or expressed by colours, but for some other end," as it seems for their instruction: which, indeed, is honest and fair dealing; for they plainly tell them that by their pictures they teach them lies, the language of the picture being that God may be