1. All images painted or engraven are not unlawful; for God himself commanded and allowed the use of many in the Old Testament. And Christ reprehendeth not Cæsar's image on his coin.[359]
2. The civil use of images in coins, sign-posts, banners, ornaments of buildings, or of books, or chambers, or gardens, is not unlawful.
3. As the word image is taken in general for signs, there is no question but they are frequently to be used; as all a man's words are the images, that is, the signifiers of his mind; and all a man's writings are the same made visible. It is therefore a blind, confounding error of some now among us (otherwise very sober, good men) who accuse all forms of prayer and of preaching as sinful, because (say they) they are idols, or images of prayer and of preaching; they are neither engraven nor painted images of any creature; but all words are or should be signs of the speaker's mind. And if you will _secundum quid_ call only the inward desires by the name of prayer, then the words are the signs of such prayer. But because prayer in the full sense is desire expressed, therefore the expressions are not the signs of such prayer, but part of the prayer itself, as the body is of the man: nor is a form, that is fore-conceived or premeditated words, (whether in mind or writing,) any more an image of prayer, than extemporate prayer is. All words are signs, but never the more for being premeditated or written. And according to this opinion, all books are sinful images, and all sermon notes, and the printing of the Bible itself, and all pious letters of one friend to another, and all catechisms: strangers will hardly believe, that so monstrous an opinion as this, should in these very instances be maintained, by men otherwise so understanding and truly godly, and every way blameless, as have and do maintain it at this day.
4. The making and using of the image of Christ, as born, living, preaching, walking, dying, (a crucifix,) rising, ascending, is not unlawful in itself, though any of the forementioned accidents may make it so in such cases. As Christ was man like one of us, so he may be pictured as a man.
_Object._ His divine nature and human soul are Christ, and these cannot be pictured; therefore an image of Christ cannot be made.
_Answ._ It is not the name, but the thing which I speak of: choose whether you will call it an image of Christ _secundum corpus_, or an image of Christ's body. You cannot picture the soul of a man, and yet you may draw the picture of a man's body.
5. It is a great part of a believer's work, to have Christ's image very much upon his imagination, and so upon his mind.[360] As if he saw him in the manger, in his temptations, in his preaching, in his praying, watching, fasting, weeping, doing good, as crowned with thorns, as crucified, &c.; that a crucified Saviour being still as it were before our eyes, we may remember the price of our redemption, and the example which we have to imitate; and that we are not to live like a Dives or a Cæsar, but like the servants of a crucified Christ. A crucifix well befitteth the imagination and mind of a believer.
6. It is a great part of true godliness, to see God's image in the glass of the creation; to love and honour his image on his saints, and all the impressions of his power, wisdom, and goodness on all his works; and to love and honour him as appearing in them.[361]
7. It is lawful on just occasion, to make the image of fire or light as signifying the inaccessible light in which God is said to dwell, and the glory in which he will appear to the blessed in heaven.[362] For by many such resemblances the Scripture setteth these forth, in Rev. i. xxi. xxii. &c. And Moses saw God's back parts, viz. a created glory.
8. It is lawful to represent an angel on just occasions, in such a likeness as angels have assumed in apparitions; or as they are described in Ezekiel or elsewhere in Scripture; so be it we take it not for an image of their true spiritual nature, but an improper representation of them, like a metaphor in speech.[363]
9. It is lawful (seasonably and in fit circumstances) to use images, 1. For memory, 2. For clearer apprehension, 3. For more passionate affection, even in religious cases; which is commonly called the historical use of them. For these ends the Geneva Bible, and some other, have the Scripture histories in printed images; to show the papists that it is not all images, or all use of them, that they were against. And so men were wont to picture Dives in his feasting, with Lazarus in rags, over their tables, to mind them of the sinfulness of sensuality. And so the sacred histories are ordinarily painted, as useful ornaments of rooms, which may profit the spectators.
10. Thus it is lawful to honour the memory of learned, great, and virtuous persons, saints and martyrs, by keeping their images; and by the beholding of them to be remembered of our duty, and excited to imitation of them.[364]