THE WORSHIP OF IMAGES. 433
Avliich the Tridentine decree approves of, and sends us to learn of tlie second synod of Nice. And this they express, in most places, in those very terms that were used by the Pagans in the worship of their idols ; making, indeed, no distinction, but that whereas the Pagans wor- shipped the images of Jupiter and Minerva, and the like, they in the like manner worshipped the images of Christ and his apostles. And therefore in the Indies, the Catholic Spaniards took away the zemes, or images of their idols, that the poor natives had before, and gave them the images of Christ and his mother in their stead.
This being the doctrine of the council, it may not be amiss to consider a little how they proved and confirmed it. Two things they principally insisted on: — 1. Testimonies of Scripture; 2. Miracles. Some sayings also they produced out of some ancient writers of the church, but all of them either perverted or forged. The Scriptures they insisted on were all of them gathered together in the epistle of Pope Hadrian, which was solemnly assented unto by the whole council. And they were these: — "God made man of the dust of the earth, after his own image," Gen. i. " Abel, by his own choice, offered a sacrifice unto God of the firstlings of his flock," Gen. iv. " Adam, of his own mind, called all the beasts of the field by their proper names," Gen. ii. " JSIoah, of his own accord, built an altar unto the Lord," Gen. viii. " Abraham, of his own free will, erected an altar to the glory of God," Gen. xii. " Jacob, having seen in his sleef) the angels of God ascending and descending by the ladder, set iqo the stone on Avhich his head lay for a pillar," Gen. xxviii. ; and again, " He worshipped on the top of his staff," Gen. xlvii. 31. " Moses made the brazen serpent and the cherubims." Isaiah saith, " In those days there shall be an altar unto the Lord, and it shall be for a sign and a testimony," chap. xix. David the psalmist says, " Con- fession and beauty are before him ;" and again, " Lord, I have loved the beauty of thine house;" and again, " Thy face. Lord, will I seek," Ps. xxvi.; and again, " The rich among the people shall bow themselves before thy face," Ps. xliv. ; and again, " The light of thy countenance is signed or lifted up upon us," Ps. iv.'' " Si hoc non sit testimoniorum satis, ego nescio quid sit satis." He must be very re- fractor}^, and deserve a world of anathematisms, that is not convinced by all these testimonies that images ought to be worshipped. But, "Quod non dant proceres, dabit histrio;" — "If the Scripture will not do it, miracles shall." Of these we have an endless number heaped up by the good fathers, to prove their doctrine and justify their practice. The worst is, that Tharasius almost spoils the market, by acknowledging that the images in their days would work none of the miracles they talked of, so that they had them all upon hear-say. 1 These numerals are accordiug to the Douay version — Ed
VOL. XIY. 28
434* A VINDICATION OF THE ANiMADVEESIOlSrS ON FIAT LUX.
Act. 4, 'AXXa, saitll lie, ft-'/jTic i'l'xri rlvog sviXiv a'l crap ^/i/v s/xci/sj ou ^aufMarovpyouffi' vpog ov ccroKpivov/j^sda, on •x.a&ug 6 a'roero'kog i'lprixiv, on ra grifLuoi, roTg a.'xlcroig oh roTg vterivovGi' — " But if any should say, ' Why do our images work no miracles?' to them we answer, ' Be- cause," as the apostle saith, ' signs are for unhelievers, not for tlie'in that believe.'" And yet the misadventure of it is, that the most of the miracles which they report and build their faith upon were wrought as by, so amongst, their chiefest believers. And what were the miracles themselves they boasted of? Such a heap of trash, such a fardel of lies, as the like were scarce ever heaped together, unless it were in the golden legend. Hadrian insists on the leprosy and cure of Constantino, — as loud a lie as any in the Talmud or Alkoran. Theodoras of Myra tells us of a deacon that " dreamed he saw one in his sleep whom he took to be St Nicholas," act. 4. Another tells us a tale of one that " struck a nail in the forehead of an image, and was troubled with a pain in his head until it was pulled out." An- other dreamed " that the blessed Virgin brought Cosma and Damiana to him, and commanded them to cure him of his distemper." One man's daughter, another's wife, is helped by those images. And they all consent in the story of the image of Christ, made without hands or human help, by God alone (GsoTSD^g), that he sent to Abgarus, king of the Edessenes, — as bellowing a lie as any in the herd. So true was it, that the council of Frankfort affirmed of this idolatrous conventicle, that they endeavoured to confirm their superstition by feigned wonders and old wives' tales.
1. Sir, this is the doctrine, this the confirmation of it, which we are directed unto and enjoined to embrace by your Tridentine de- cree. This is that, yea, and more also, as you will hear by-and-by, that you are bound to maintain and make good, if you intend to say any thing to the purpose about figures or images ; for you must not think, by your sleight flourishes, to blind the eyes of men in these days, as you have done formerly. Own your own doctrine and prac- tice, or renounce it. This tergiversation is shameful. And you will yet find yourself farther pressed with the doctrine of chiefest pillars of your church, and the public practice of it ; for though this super- stitious conventicle at Nice departed from the faith of the ancient church, and was quickly reproved and convinced of folly by persons of more learning, sobriety, and modesty than themselves, in the very age wherein they lived, yet it rose not up unto the half of the abo- minations in the filth and guilt whereof your church hath since rolled itself And yet, because I presume you are well pleased with these Nicenians, who gave so great a lift to the setting up of your idols, I shall give you a brief account, both what was the judgment and practice of them that went before them in this matter, as also of some that followed after them, with joint consent detesting your folly