or painted cloaths nor graven nor carved nor painted things as they are such or as they are things absolute but as they have relation to the things of heaven and the mysteries of our faith and stir up in their minds pious thoughts And this is sufficient to shew unto any indifferent Reader how free Roman Catholiques are from committing either idolatry or any superstition in the honor and worship which they give unto sacred artificiall pictures signs and images and how their adversaries do calumniate them herein unjustly not only to the breach of the peace concord and charity which should be amongst the natives of this Island of Great Britain but also to the great hinderance of the elevation of mens minds to heavenly things and pious thoughts for the which God forgive them CHAP. XVI By the second Commandement God commanded all men to honor and worship his Name which is but a sacred signe picture or image of himself with a relative religious worship thereby to beget pious thoughts of him in our souls AS I have said heretofore no Artificer Carver Printer or Writer can make an essence substance or person or creature because these things are reserved to God the Author and Creator of all things but all that these men can do is to produce an accidentall form figure sign picture or image and all letters words characters hierogliphicks Tabernacles Altars c. as they are such are but artificiall signes pictures and images of the things which they represent made by artificers yet God not onely commanded that a relative religious respect and honor and reverence should be used towards the Tabernacle and propitiatory of the people of Israel as is often specified in the Scriptures but also so straitly bound all men to give a relative religious honor and worship unto his name as that he made it the second Commandement of the first Table saying Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain for our Lord will not hold him guiltlesse that taketh his name in vain Exod 20. and our Saviour taught us to pray unto God saying hallowed be thy name which name is but an artificiall thing sometimes pronounced sometimes painted written or ingraven other sometimes expressed in pictures and images as witnesseth Pierius in the thirteenth chapter of his seventeenth book and fifth of his thirty third book of the sacred Egyptian letters where he affirmeth that for these graven printed or written letters or word God which we use they had the picture or image of an eye as a God seeing all things according to the words of S. Paul saying There is no creature invisible in his sight Heb. 4.3 or a God father of lights as the Scriptures call him James 1.17 other sometimes they expresse this word God or the name of God by the picture of a Crocodile or of a Stork which have no tongues as of a thing unspeakable whereby it appeareth that men were alwayes bound to honor and worship sacred signes pictures and images with some kind of religious worship to the ingrafting in their hearts pious thoughts seeing that the Commandements of God bind all men in all ages and times as our Adversaries do confesse and we cannot give a relative religious honor unto any sacred thing as it is such but it will put in our minds pious thoughts According to this second Commandement the children of Israel had this name of God Iehova which was esteemed most proper unto him in such honor and reverence as for the respect they bore unto it the common people abstained from pronouncing it and the Priests forbore to speak it unlesse it were in their sacrifices and solemn blessings of the people or in entering into the holy of holies as witnesseth Philo in his book of the life of Moyses and when in reading the Scriptures this name occurred in place thereof they pronounced another as Adonai or Elohim in such sort as that â—â—t onely the seventy Interpreters who translated the Old Testament into Greek and our old translation in Latin and Origen in his Tetrâ—plis or Hexaplis but also our Saviour and the Apostles as often as the word Jehova doth occur they put in place thereof Adonai And not only the name of God was worshipped by the people of Israel with a relative religious honor and worship but also the plate wherein the name of God was ingraven and hung in the miter of the High Priest before his forehead as witnesseth the Scriptures saying They made also the plate of sacred veneration of most pure gold and they wrote in it with the work of a Lapadario or Ieweller the holy of our Lord or the holy name of our Lord and they tyed it to the Miter with a lace of Hiacinth as our Lord had commanded Moyses Exod. 39.29 whereupon Iosephus in the eighth chapter of his eleventh book of Antiquities relateth that Alexander the Great seeing Iaddus the High Priest bearing this venerable plate on his forehead with great reverence went unto him and adored the name of God written in the plate Moreover an oath being an act of Religion to bind all men to use a relative religious worship towards his name which is but a sign character or Hierogliphick commanded them that when just occasion was offered of swearing that they should swear by his name saying By my name thou shalt swear Exod. 6.13 Again He that sweareth in the earth shall swear by God Isay 65.16 and divers Nations as the Egyptians and Chinois using pictures and images in place of words they must of necessity according to this command use a relative religious honor and worship to pictures and images neither may our Adversaries say that this reverence and honor to the name of God is only civill seeing that all Divines grant an oath to be an act of Religion and that the Commandements are religious things whereby it is manifest that by the second Commandement we are bound to use a relative religious honor and worship to some kind of signs pictures and images as unto those which represent unto us the living God and that this relative religious worship to these sacred signs do nourish in us pious thoughts otherwise God would not have commanded it CHAP. XVII The third Commandement commandeth all men to honor and reverence the Sabbath day which is but a sacred sign THe third Commandement saith Remember that thou sanctifie the Sabbath day or as Protestants translate Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy Exod. 20.3 Again observe the day of the Sabbath to sanctifie it or as Protestants translate keep the Sabbath to sanctifie it Dout. 5.12 now that dayes are but signes and not God or Gods the same Scriptures do witnesse saying Let lights be made in the firmament of heaven to divide the day and night and let them be for signes and seasons and daies and years Gen. 1.14 to manifest unto us that daies and years and so likewise the Sabbath or Sunday is but an
our Lord will not make so slight accompt of the Scriptures as to read them only transitorily but he will meditate upon them which is performed alwayes with great humility and submission of mind whereupon S. Hilary upon this text saith The meditation of the law is not onely in the words of the reader but in the religion of works In the New Tâ—stament our Saviour saith Give not that which is holy to dogs neither cast ye you pearles before swine least they trample them under their feet and turn again and tear you in pieces Mat. 7.6 Pearls saith S. Hierome upon this text and the 13. of Matthew are the Gospel and the Law and the Prophets the dogs saith he are those who after they have received the faith returne to the vomit of their former sins and swine those who have not yet believed the Gospell but stick fast in the mine of infidelity and vices to demonstrate unto us that our Lord would not have heretiques vitious men or infidells to read the Scriptures whereof in the 13. of S. Matthew he yeeldeth a reason because they do not esteem them above the things of this world and therefore if such men read the Scriptures in lieu of reaping benefit by them they corrupt them and become as our Saviour there saith persecuters of the church which we find true by experience in this age Again our Saviour saith to the Jewes Search the Scriptures Joh. 5.39 with that honor care and affection that they ought to be searched into for as S. Chrysostome in his Sermon of Abraham well observeth he saith Search the Scriptures do not corrupt them search them not onely by reading them but carefully inquiring after the sense God gave indeed the sacred letters or characters but he laid not open their contemplations or mysteries but reserved them to their senses that so he might maintain equity or justice and behold thy care or industry Thus S. Chrysostome to shew unto us that he who shall read the sacred letters or characters of the Bible without a relative religious worship unto the text for the divine things they represent and follow the sense which God gave unto the text will reap no thing but error and heresie for our Saviour commanding a diligent search to be made into the Scriptures forbideth us to corrupt them and willeth us that we should not omit any means of finding out the sense or height of their contemplation which amongst other things is an inward and outward relative religious worship to the sacred text signes pictures or images of the Bible as did the Jewes in the old Law lest for want thereof we corrupt the text by false senses or interpretations Our Saviour out of a desire that all men might be saved and to fulfill what was necessary on his behalf commanded the Apostles saying Going into the whole world preach the Gospell to all creatures And they going forth preached every where Mar. 16.20 Yet our Saviour himself in Matth. 13. saith that of four sorts of hearers of the Gospel three hear to their greater damnation The first are only hearers who are like men who dwell by the high-way and look aftere very thing that passeth and entertain all kind of thoughts friendships and affairs like an Inne which is open to good and bad known and unknown friends and strangers of whom S. James speaketh saying If a man be a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like unto a man beholding the feature of his face in a glasse who considered himself and went his way and presently forgetteth what a manner of man he was James 1.24 The second hear and with joy receive the Word but are temporall and have no root and so for a time they believe and in time of tâ—mptation they revolt because they did not esteem of the Gospel above all earthly things as did the Prophet David saying The law of thy mouth is good to me above thousands of gold and silver Psal 118.71 and therfore for temporall plâ—asures or commodities easily forsook it The third hear the Word and the care of the world and the deceiptfulnesse of riches and concupiscences about other things entring in choak the word and it is made fruitlesse For as S Paul saith They who will be made rich fall into temptations and the snare of the Dâ—vill and into many unprofitable and hurtfull desires which drown men in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6.9 The fourth are they who with with a good and very good heart hearing the word of God do reteine it and yeeld fruit in patience Thus our Saviour to demonstrate unto us that there is required on our parts an esteem of the Word of God above all earthly things that we may adhere and cleave unto the sense given unto it by God and it to us and fill our hearts with pious thoughts otherwise the reading or hearing of it or picking of our faith out of it will but increase our damnation Honor is due unto vertue as affirmeth Aristotle chap. 5. of his book of Ethicks and also the Scriptures 1 Tim. 5.17 And the Scriptures are the vertue of God Rom. 1.16 1 Cor. 1.18 wherefore as to God is due an absolute religious worship so to the Scriptures which are his Word signes figures and images is due a relative religious worship because it is his Word whereupon S. Paul describing the manner how the Christians in the Primitive church received the word of the Gospell saith We also give thanks to God continually because that when you had received of us the word of the hearing of God you received it not as the word of men but as it is indeed the word of God 1 Thes 2.12 and there also shewing the effect which the Word of God worketh in men when together with the sense it is received and imbraced after this relative religious manner presently addeth their constant suffering for the Gospell as received into a good and very good heart which yeeldeth fruit in patience In regard of this visible and invisible relative religious worship and honor which is due unto the sacred Word of God when Bishops make Deacons and give them authority to read the Gospell they receive the holy books kneeling as is set down in the Pontificall And antiently when the Gospell was read in the church all men who were present laid down their weapons stood barehead even the Christian Kings and Emperors and the Bishops Priests and Deacons who celebrated the diviâ—e Service and handled the book of the Goâ—pell in honor thâ—reof often kissed the sacred book with a holy kisse as witnessâ—th the antient Roman order publâ—shed in the 8. Tome Bibliothâ—cae Patrum which relâ—tive religâ—ous honor is so due unto the sacred Scriptures as that Justinus Martyr who livâ—d with the Apostles cholars in his Oration to the Gentiles commendeth Prolomaeus King of Egypt for using it saith after that the seventy Interpreters had translated the Old Testament into Greek Pâ—olomâ—
us sent them home with rich gifts and as it was befitting kissed the books and consecrated to God put them in his Library Moreover in honor of the Gospell when it was read in the church candles were lighted not to drive away darknesse for the Sun then many times shined bright but to shew signes of joy and to expresse under the type of a temporall light that light which is spoken of in the Scriptures saying He was the true light as witnesseth S. Isidorus in the 12. ch of his 7. boâ—k of Etimologies and S. Hierome in his book against Vigilantius aâ—d to distinguish the honor which they gave unto the holy Bible from other books they made a sacred place in the church only to keep it in as witnesseth S. Paulinus in his 12. Epistle to Severus So the relative religious respect which the Primitive Fathers bare unto the sacred books and their divine Christian Catholique senses delivered unto them by doctrinall succession from the Apostles brought forth in them an abundance of pious thoughts and healthfull meditations of the unity of the Christian Catholike faith constancy in one and the same Religion sincerity in all their actions and charity towards God and man seeing the relative religious honor and respect which they bare both to the sacred materiall letter and divine sense imposed upon them an obligation rather to die a thousand deaths then to suffer any alteration or change in one jot of the materiall text or title of the divine sense On the contrary our adversaries by denying all kind of visible religious respect honor or worship to the sacred Word of God have made those books which they now call the Bible as they use them the most wretched miserable visible creatures that are upon the earth the Panders of all heresies schismes and blasphemies and the protector and defender of all rebellions wickedness and sin as we find by too lamentable experience whereby appeareth the necessity of this visible and invisible relative religious worship and honor unto the sacred Word of God by all Christian men to nourish in their hearts pious thoughts of the things contained therein and to possesse them with a firm and constant resolution to adhere unto that materiall text and divine sense which were delivered unto the faithfull in the beginning to persevere in the same untill the end of the world according to the words of S. John saying That which you have heard from the beginning let it abide in you if that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning you also shall abide in the Son and in the Father 1 Joh. 2.24 CHAP. XXVIII Answer to Objâ—ctions OBject Some Roman Catholikes pray to pictures and adore them as God Answ I do not think that any of our Adversaries ever heard any Roman Catholique to say Picture pray for me or have mercy upon me or to call a picture a God or to say that there were more Gods then one if he should hear any to say so or know of any who should believe that any picture or image were a God this man or woman could not be a Roman Catholique but an heretique or Pagan idolater seeing that the â—atholique Roman Church teacheth all her followers in the three Creeds and in her Catechismes to believe uâ—der penalty of damnation that there is but one God Ob. They pray before pictures and kneele before images Ans So our adversaries pray before their Bibles and kneel before their books yet I do not think that they believe their Bible or other prayer-Prayer-books to be Gods Ob. They say that their pictures are holy call the cross holy cross Ans So do our adversaries call their Communion the holy Communion and their Bible the holy Bible and the Scriptures the sacred Word of God for the same reason that they call the Bible holy and the Scriptures sacred for the same reason Roman Catholiques call the picture of our Saviour and his Saints holy that is because they represent unto us holy things as well as words as I have said heretofore antiently in Egypt and at this day in China that which we in Europe expresse by letters and characters they exprâ—sse by pictures and images so that the Christians of these countryes must either have no Bible or a Bible of pictures and images and if our adversaries will allow them to have an holy Bible and sacred Scriptures then they must also allow of holy pictures and sacred images distinct from prophane Ob. Images and idols are all one Ans How absurd this is appeareth by the Scriptures which say Christ is the image of the invisible God Col. 15. God created man to his own image to the image of God he created him Gen. 1.17 Adam lived 130. years and begat to his own image and likenesse Gen. 5.3 man is the image and glory of God 1 Cor. 11.7 And if images and idols be all one then the Christians in Egypt and China when they put forth Bibles set forth idols and when they respect or reverence their Bibles or sacred Scriptures they worship idols which how absurd it is I leave to the piety of the Reader Again many idols are no images as trees mountains the Sun Moon and Stars unto which the Heathen offered Sacrifice as unto their gods whereby they made them idols which yet were no images Moreover images and idols differ in this First that idols as they are idols had no truth at all in nature but were feigned things all our sacred images have some estentiall truth extant either in heaven or earth which they represent Secondly all idols are without truth concerning faith and religion all our images contain such a truth as belongeth to Christian faith or religion Thirdly Sacrifice was offered to idols but we never offer sacrifice to any image or picture Fourthly idols as they are idols were either images of wicked men or creatures not worthy of honor ours of our Saviour and his Saints who are worthy of worship and honor whereby it appeareth that sacred images and idols are not all one Ob. Roman Catholiques adore kneel before and worship their images as the heathen did their idols Ans The heathen at least for the most part adored kneeled and worshipped the materiall carved piece of wood or ingraven stone or molten image or painted cloth as a God as witnesse the Scriptures saying make us gods that may go before us Exod. 32.1 Againe he cut down Cedars c. and kindled them and baked bread but of the rest he wrought a god and adored Isa 44.15 Againe Balthasar the King made a great feast to his Nobles c. and they praised their gods of gold and of silver of brasse of iron and of wood and of stone Daniel 5.4 whereupon God himselfe said to the Israelites that when they should fall into idolatry you shall serve gods that were framed with mens hands wood stone that see not Deut. 4.18 But as I have said heretofore no
part forcibly perswade us to think good or evill as it representeth If thou wilt Christian Reader have pious thoughts thou must alwayes or for the most part have before thine eyes and senses pious objects such as are the presence of God under some borrowed forme the passion of our Lord things of heaven and the mysteries of our holy faith which because they are all either invisible or absent or both it is requisite as long as thou art in this vale of tears whereas the Apostle saith we see by a glasse in a dark sort to have of the aforesaid things sacred artificiall pictures signes and images or borrowed formes which may represent unto thy senses these holy things as a Nurse to feed thy soul with pious thoughts Neither is it sufficient to the maintenance of pious thoughts only to have sacred artificiall pictures signes and images before you to behold but also it is necessary that you beare a relative religious honor and respect towards them for this doth not only prepare and open wide your heart to receive the said Species into your understanding and to love and understand the sacred things which they do represent but also doth imprint a perseverance of pious thoughts in your heart for every one easily imbraceth and entertaineth that which he honoreth and esteemeth as we see by daily experience for if a thing be never so good yet if you doe not esteem it to you it is not good but hurtfull who contemne a sacred thing For this cause S. John Baptist honored and worshipped the latchet of our Saviours shoes with a relative religious worship which ended in our Saviour saying whose latchet of his shoe I am not worthy to unloose John 1.1.2.7 And he who so much honored the latchet of his shoe as that he thought himself not worthy to touch it in respect of the supereminent honor which belonged to our Saviour imagine if you can the innumerable pious thoughts of God and of the mysteries of our faith which were in his soul seeing that God exalteth the humble whereupon S. Augustine upon this text saith He humbled himself very much in that he thought himself not worthy to do this certainly saith S. Augustine he was full of the Holy Ghost what a consequence is this S. John said I am not worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoe and thereupon S. Augustine inferreth that he was full of the Holy Ghost because that relative religious honor which he gave unto the latchet of our Lords shoe for our Saviours sake opened wide his lâ—â— art to receive into it all kind of pious thoughts or any impression of our Saviour or of the Holy Ghost who dwelleth with a contrite and humble spirit Isay 57.15 From hence also it is that the faithfull in the Primitive Church so much honored with a relative religious honor the shadow of S. Peter and the handkerchiefs of S. Paul as that they did bring forth the sick into the streets and laid them in beds and couches that when Peter came his shadow at the least might overshadow them Act. 5.15 and brought from S. Pauls body napkins or handkerchiefs unto the sick Act. 19.11 that by any thing which had relation unto these holy servants of God they might at least beget in the sick pious thoughts and sometimes also health of body or cure of their diseases From hence also it is that the faithfull at all times have not onely had respect and reverence to the memory of the Martyrs the locall places of Churches Chappell 's and Altars and to the holy name of God and Iesus Christ our Lord but also unto the sacred text of the Scriptures pious books and service of the Church which are but holy signes notes pictures similitudes and objects to our senses which may Furnish our soules with pious thoughts as S. Augustine after his conversion in the sixth chapter of his nineth book of Confessions affirmeth they did in him with great consolation saying By the notes of the Church so sweetly sung the words did flâ—w into my ears and the truth which was contained therein distilled mâ—lting into my heart and the affection of piery even boyled in my breast my tears ran trickling down my cheeks and it was well with me Thus S. Augustine to demonstrate unto us that as obsceane and filthy objects and the names and notes of prophane loves and vitious things respected beget in our hearts impious and wicked thoughts so pious objects and sacred pictures when they are respected for the holy things which they represent do presently furnish our minds with pious thoughts as I shall further shew in the ensuing Chapters CHAP. VIII The necessity of sacred artificiall Pictures Signes and Images to the nourishing of pious thoughts and what we call sacred Pictures and Signes THe thoughts for the most part following the senses as I have shewed in the precedent chapter to have pious and golden thoughts it is not only necessary to avoid vaine and idle species and formes but also to have often or for the most part before our eyes sacred artificiall pictures signes and images thereby to imprint in our hearts sacred and pious thoughts but we call these sacred artificiall pictures signes and images which represent unto us holy and divine and invisible things or the mysteries of our faith c. and as they do represent them unto us and imprint in our hearts the knowledge of the aforesaid divine things or mysteries and beget in our minds pious thoughts these we call sacred not for the matter they are made of but for the sacred things they do or may represent and as they do represent them unto us this we understand by sacred artificiall pictures signes and images and nothing els Now how necessary these things are to the begetting in us pious thoughts appeareth first by what I have said in the former chapters for if we can learn nothing or understand or think of any thing but either by it selfe or els by some resemblance picture or signe it must passe by the senses and all the things of heaven and mysteries of our faith c. are invisible and insensible to the senses unlesse we use sacred artificiall pictures signes and images we can never come to know any thing of the heaven of glory or of the mysteries of our faith c. as further appeareth by the Heathen and Pagan people who for want of the use of these things and of a Preacher to preach or teach them these things by audible sacred artificiall signes or visible sacred artificiall pictures signes and images remain untill this day in their infidelity or Paganism And we also who at this day and in â—ormer timâ—s are Catholique Christianâ— have lâ—arned our Christiâ—â—â—â—y by those sacred artificiall signs pictures and images neither otherwise could we ever have knowne it as witnesseth S. Paul saying how shall they hear without a Preacher Rom. 10.14 If Preachers had not come and taught all the
Christian Catholique Nations that are the things of heaven and mysteries of their faith by audible artificiall sacred signes or visible sacred signes pictures and images they should never have learned them or have come to know them for as S. Paul in the aforesaid chapter saith faith is by hearing and hearing is by the word of God and words are but signes of things as witnesseth Aristotle in the first chapter of his first book of Perihermanias and Pierius in his book of the sacred Egyptian letters throughout neither as I have proved in the precedent chapters do the things themselves enter into the mind by the senses but their signes pictures formes or images whereby it appeareth that the necessity of using sacred artificiall signes pictures and images is such as that without them we cannot learn divine things or the mysteries of our faith Now seeing that the mind as Cicero in his first book of Offices affirmeth is never quiet but is always thinking or doing as we may find by our dreams and discourses upon things in our memory and phantasies when we are even asleep and no divine thing can naturally enter into our hearts and minds to be thought upon or agitated or discoursed of which passeth not by some form picture signe or image through the senses it necessarily followeth that if we will have pious thoughts we must propose to the senses sacred artificiall pictures signes formes or shapes that they may represent unto the heart and mind sacred things as matter of pious thoughts from whence it is that Catholâ—que Christians in the Primitive Church and at all times used sacred artificiall pictures signs and images as of the Nativity Preaching working of Miracles Passion of our Lord upon his Ascension into heaven his glory there and of his coming again at the day of Judgement and also sacred signs pictures or images of all the things contained in both Testaments as the pictures signs and images of Angels and Saints and of all vertues c. the rebv to furnish the mind by these objects of the senses with pious thoughts For as Abbot Moâ—ses a vertuous and learned old Eâ—mite who retyred himself into the desarts of Egypt for the salvation of his soule in the eighteenth chapter of the first book of Casians Collations saith The exercises of our soules may very fitly be compared unto a Water-mill which is so continu â—lly turned about with the violence of a stream running forth amain through certain holes that it can never cease from grinding yet it is the Millâ—rs or Masters power whether it shall grind Wheat or Barley or if he will cast into it to grind oâ— work upon Oats for that certainly will be broken in pieces and grinded which the Master or Miller will cast into it In like manner the mind saith he turned about by the incursions of this present life and by the torrents of temptations which rush in upon us cannot be free from the heat of thoughts whereof which to admit or to repulse every one ought to learne by his diligence and pains for if we continually apply our minds unto the meditation of the holy Scriptures raise up our memory to the memory of spirituall things elevate our desires to the desire of perfection and to the hope of the happinesse to come it must needs be that the thoughts which arise in our minds shall be spirituall the mind being brought to stay her self upon those things which she hath meditated but if overcome by sloth and negligence we spend our time in vices and idle talk or els busie our selves with the superfluous cares of the world then our hearts will be filled with hurtfull thoughts like a kâ—nd of a cockle sprung from thence for as our Saviour said where the treasure of our works or intentions is there also our heart must necessarily be fixed Thus Abbot Moyses a holy Hermit who lived about twelve hundred yeares past in the desarts of Sciti in Egypt as affirmeth Ruffinus in the eighth chapter of his eleventh book of histories where their letters were all visible pictures signs and images as witnesseth Pierius in his book of the sacred Egyptian letters And the like comparison of the operation of our soules in matter of thoughts hath S. Anselme sometime Archbishop of Canter bury in the forty one chapter of his book of Similitudes and others to demonstrate unto us the necessity of often hearing with respect and reverence sacred sounds which are but signes of holy things and of often seeing beholding and looking upon sacred artificiall pictures signes and images which represent unto us divine things or the mysteries of our faith c. with a relative religious worship that by hearing or beholding them after that manner the divine things or mysteries of our faith may easily passe and enter into our minds and fill our hearts with pious thoughts as I shall yet further shew in the ensuing chapters CHAP. IX What we mean by a relative Religious Worship and of the distinction of honor and worship AS our Opposers would not understand what we mean by sacred pictures figures and images no more will they understand what we intend by a Relative Religious Worship unlesse we explicate it unto them wherefore here it is necessary to repeat what I have said in the first and second chapters of our book of the honor and prayer to Saints where I have shewed that as there are in generall two Kingdomes upon earch th' one temporall th' other spirituall so also in generall and for as much as will serve for our purpose there are two kinds of honors and worships the one civill belonging to the temporall Kingdome the other religious belonging to the spirituall Kingdome and both these kinds of honors and worships have divers degrees divisions or distributions according to the divers and different dignities in the said Kingdomes and yet keep one or the same name of honor or worship with little variety in words more then the termes of religious civill or superstitious As for example all the honor and worship which is in the temporall Kingdome as it is temporall and not Christan whether it be exhibited to God or Gods or Kings or his Officers or other of his Subjects is but civill or superstitious though it be divided into divers acts operations and degrees for these who have no true Religion as Turks Jews and Infidells can have no true religious worship amongst them therefore all the honor and worship which can or may be amongst them is but civill or superstitious according to the humane vertues dignities or superstition which is used amongst them though it be divided into divers degrees and that civill or superstitious worship whith they bestow upon God or Gods or their Kings may not be given to every temporall man or Officer amongst them but an inferiour according to the civill or superstitious dignity or office or esteem of every one or the relation any thing amongst them hath to a
visit Orphans and Widows in their tribulations and to keep himself unspotted from the world where likewise he supposeth that Religion and religious worship may be exercised in visiting Widows and Orphans and the acts of vertue Aristotle in the third chapter of his book of Politiques taught by the light of reason saith Honor is justly given when it is destributed according to dignity And S. Paul saith Render to all men their due Rom. 13.7 And some men are religious as witnesseth the Scriptures saying All religious blesse ye our Lord Dan. 3.90 Again There were at Hierusalem Jewes religious men of all Nations Act. 2.5 Again Cornelius the Centurion is called Religious Act. 10.2 and you cannot give honor according to the dignity of one who is religious or render unto him his due unlesse you give him some kind of religious honor or worship all other being inferiour unto his dignity whereby it appeareth that some kind of religious worship may be given unto creatures Civill honor worship and adoration may be given unto prophane men as witnesseth the fact of Jacob who seeing Esau coming towards him going forward he adored prostrate to the ground seven times Gen. 33 3. yet Esau was a prophane person as witnesseth S. Paul Heb. 12.16 The Roman souldiers of all Nations as well faithfull as Infidells adored the Imperiall Ensign called Labarum as witnesseth Zozomenus in the fourth chapter of his first book of histories and all people and Nations who are not exceeding barbarous have worshipped and honored the Chair of Estate Scepter Crown and the very name of their Kings and Emperors when it hath been pronounced in publike Edicts whereby it appeareth that a worship more then civill is due unto the friends of God and sacred things dedicated to his honor and service otherwise you put no difference betweene sacred things and prophane which God condemneth saying Her Priests have contemned my law and have polluted my Sanctuaries between a holy thing and a prophane they have put no difference Ezech. 22.26 whereupon our Saviour when he had made as it were a whip of little cords he cast them who sold oxen and sheep and doves and bankers out of the Temple Joh. 2.13 And S. Paul reprehended divers Christians for eating in the Church saying Have you not houses to eat and drink in or contemn you the Church of God 1 Cor. 11.22 The Officers of Christ in his Church are his Legats according to the words of S. Paul saying We are Legats for Christ 2 Cor. 5.20 and Legats by relation do participate in some part of the honor and worship which is due unto their Lords and Masters wherefore seeing that to God is due an absolute religious worship to the Officers of Gods Church or his Legats must be due an inward and outward relative religious worship whereupon S. Paul saith The fathers of our flesh we had for instructors and we did reverence them not with civill honor only but with some kind of religious as instructors of Religion Heb. 12.9 Our Saviour saith of his followers You are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world Ioh. 15.19 Again of the world they are not as I also am not of the world Ioh. 17.17 and therefore there did belong unto them an honour and worship not worldly which is religious Father and Son are relatives and the Son by all right though in an inferiour degree is partaker of his Fathers honor and worship our Adversaries confesse that religious honor belongeth unto God and the Scriptures confesse that pious and devout Christians are the adoptive sons of God saying We are the sons of God and if sons heires also heirs truly of God and coheirs of Christ Rom. 8.17 whereby it may justly be doubted that those who deny an inward and outward relative religious worship unto the Saints and eminent servants of God have neither part nor portion in the inheritance of Christ The things which are dedicated to the service of God are called sacred by God himselfe Exod. 31.10 therefore there is due unto them an inward and outward sacred relative worship which is the relative religious worship we speak of whereupon all the Lexicons and Dictionaries not onely of Romane Catholiques but also of our adversaries themselves as of Thomas Thomasius do interpret this word Religio a true worship of God or holy things and all Nations cannot be deceived Moreover our Adversaries cannot deny but that there are religious things or things which belong unto Religion as the Scriptures Preaching Teaching Prayer the Sacraments unto which if our Adversaries will grant no kind of religious worship they destroy all Religion and prove themselves to be prophane as Esau Heb. 12.16 Religion and holinesse do not really differ as S. Thomas 2.2 ae quaest 81. Art 8. proveth therefore neither can their operations or effects really differ but holinesse is exercised about creatures as witnesseth the Scripture saying follow peace with all men and holinesse Heb 12.14 Againe holinesse becometh thy house O Lord Psal 92.5 not an absolute holinesse for so God only is holy but a relative as conducting us by meanes unto God who is only holy of himselfe so likewise the chiefest part of the Tabernacle was called The Sanctuary of Sanctuaries and Holy of Holies Exod. 26. God also commanded Moyses to make holy vestments for Aaron and his sons wherein they might minister unto him or serve him Exod. 28. But to serve God belongeth to Religion therefore these were religious vestments and had both an inward and outward relative religious reverence and respect born unto them seeing that none might wear them but Aaron and his sons and then only when they attended unto the service of God The like we may say of all the things which belonged unto the Temple and vessells of the Altar of holy ground holy Mountain holy Scriptures c. which are holy by a holinesse that referreth us to God and also religious and to be reverenced with a relative religious worship for the same cause holy and religious being really both one And to conclude at all times and in all ages the faithful honored and worshipped sacred things whether they were immediately or mediately dedicated to the service of God which are inward and outward relative religious worship as I shall further shew in the ensuing Chapters CHAP. XI Almighty God never prohibited either the making of sacred Pictures Signes and Images nor yet their relative religious Worship ALmighty God commanded us that we should not make vain and idle graven things that might divert us from him for our owne pleasures or for our selves without any respect unto him saying Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven thing Exod. 20.4 but it is never read in the Scriptures that he prohibited either the making or worshipping of sacred pictures signes or images with a relative religious worship when they are made to his honor and glory and not our own only or to our selves
perdition which also in another place he confirmeth saying The word of the crosse to them indeed that perish is foolishnesse but to them that are saved that is to us it is the power of God 1 Cor. 1.18 Likewise at the later day when Almighty God shall send his Angells to destroy the earth and Sea to make a distinction betweene the servants of God and the followers of Antichrist he will give them a command that all the Elect shall be marked with the sign of the Crosse that thereby they may be knowne from the Rebrobate as witnesseth S. John saying I saw an Angell ascending from the rising of the Sun having the sign of the living God and he cryed with a loud voice to the four Angells to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea saying hurt not the earth or the sea nor the trees untill we sign the servants of our God in their foreheads Thus S. John Rev. 7.2 whereupon Andreas Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia an antient learned Author in his Commentaries upon the Revelations saith upon this text This place as is before said doth belong unto the time of Antichrist when the signe of the quickning crosse vivificae crucis shall distinguish the faithfull from the infidells who shall without any feare and without any shame carry the Crosse of Christ before the face of the impious Antichrist to blot out the memory of the sacred crosse and to hinder men from signing themselves with it and from using any reverence or respect unto it shall cause all his followers to have his name or the character of his name imprinted in their right hand or in their forehead that if they would signe themselves with the sacred signe of the crosse in testimony that they believe the blessed Trinity and march under the protection of Christ crucified they cannot as witnesseth S. John saying Antichrist shall make all little and great and rich and poor and freemen and bondmen to have a character in their right hand or in their foreheads and that no man may buy or sell but he that hath the character or name of the beast or number of his name Rev. 13.16 And this Antichrist shall do as witnesseth S. Hypolitus a Martyr who suffered death for the profession of the Catholique faith about fourteen hundred yeares past least that any man with his right hand should make the sign of the Crosse in his forehead The like hath S. Ephrem who florished not long after him in his Tract of Antichrist saying Antichrist will imprint his character in the right hand and forehead of all his followers that it may not be possible for any with his right hand to sign himself with the sign of Christ our Saviour or by any means to imprint the terrible and holy name of God in his forehead or the glorious and fearfull Crosse of our Saviour for that wretch will know very well that by impression of the Crosse of our Lord all his power is made void And therfore he will have his character imprinted in the right hand of men because we with our right hands do sign the rest of the members of our bodies with the signe of the Crosse Thus S. Ephrem Moreover our Saviour will have the signe of the crosse as it representeth him crucified to be had in such honor and reverence amongst the sons of men that when he shall come to judge quick and the dead it shall appeare before him in the ayre as his standard as himself witnesseth saying Immediately after the tribulation of these dayes of Antichrist the Sun shall be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light Stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be moved and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven Mat. 24.36 Whereupon S. Methodius in his Oration of the consummation of the world saith The sign of the Cross exceeding in brightness glory the shining of the Sun shall be seen from the East unto the West to tell the appearing coming of the Judge In like manner S Chrysostome upon this text saith Then shall appeare the signe of the Son of Man that is to say the Crosse it self for the Crosse shall be seen more bright then the Sun for the Sun shall be darkened and the Crosse shall appear which cannot be saith he but the Cross with his brightnesse must obscure the beams of the Sun And then asking the question why or for what cause shall the sacred Crosse appear so glorious answereth That it may abundantly confound the impudency of the Jewes Thus S. Chrysostome who never could imagine that there would arise men who should call themselves Christians and yet abuse contemne and beat down the Crosse of Christ Whither will these men run at the terrible day of judgment who now not only shun and avoid by all means the Cross of Christ but also call the reverend relative religious respect thereof idolatry In like manner S. Ephrem in his Sermon of these things which are to be revealed after the appearing of the Crosse at the coming of our Lord saith The signe of the Son of Man shall appear in heaven with a multitude of Angells lightening the whole earth above the brightnesse of the Sun even from one end of the world unto the other foretelling the coming of our Lord. And with these further do agree Theophylact and Euthemius upon this text saying Then the crosse shall appeare shining more bright then the Sun Again the Crosse shall then be far more glorious then the Sun which when the impious who in this life have had aversion from the sacred crosse shall see then as our Saviour there saith shall they weep and bewaile their follies when it is too late Agreeable unto this which hath been said the holy Church in the office of the crosse doth say This sign of the crosse shall be in heaven when our Lord shall come to judgement and the Sibils in the end of their sixth book do sing O lignum foelix in quo Deus ipse pependit Nec te terra capit sed coeli tecta videbis Cum renovata Dei facies ignita micabit O happy Tree upon whose armes did'st spread Our God himself did hang alive and dead Earth cannot hold thee but a glorious sign Thou shalt appear in heav'n when Gods divine Immortal face shall bright in judgement shine According to the words of our Lord of the day of judgement Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the earth bewail And after the Standard of the crosse as it followeth in the text they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and Majesty Mat. 24. which joy being propounded unto him before his passion as S. Paul saith he sustained the crosse Heb. 12.2 CHAP. XXIII That the faithful in the Primitive Church used an inward and outward relative religious
worship towards the sacred sign of the Crosse ALmighty God having bestowed that honor and dignity upon the crosse as not only to be a sacred sign of the passion of his onely Son for our redemption but also to be a badge of a Christian and his standard when he shall come with his Army of Angells and Saints to judgement as I have proved in the precedent chapter The antient Fathers of the Primitive Church and all the faithfull ever bare an inward and outward relative religious respect honor and worship to that sacred sign image or picture not as it is a stock or stone or painted cloth or carved or painted thing but as it representeth the person of our Lord his sacred passion or mysteries of our faith unto our memories as words do things For S. Dionisius Areopagita who was converted to the faith by S Paul Acts 17. in the second § of his second chapter of his book of Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy relateth unto us that amongst the religious rites and holy mysteries of Baptism the sacred sign of the crosse was so much honored that it was often used even sometimes thrice together and in the fifth chapter of the said book and second § speaking of the administration of orders or consecration of Clergy men he saith The Bishop who consecrateth them doth imprint upon every one of those whom he consecrateth the sign of the crosse S. Ignatius the Martyr a man who lived for a long time with the Apostles speaking of the honor and dignity of the sacred crosse of Christ in his Epistle to the Philleppenses saith the Prince of this world or divell doth rejoyce when any one shall deny the crosse for he very well knoweth that the confession of the crosse is his destruction for that it is a trophe or triumphal Ark against his power which as soon as he shall see he abhors and hearing of it is affrighted S. Martiale who is supposed by some to have lived in the Apostles times in the eighth chapter of his Epistle to those of Burdeaux in France giveth them this counsell saying Remember the cross of our Lord upon which you believe the true God and Son of God suffered keep it in your mind speak often of it and have it in the sign for the crosse of our Lord is your invincible armor against Satan a helmet defending your head a breastplate protecting your breast a shield driving back again the darts of the malignant enemies a sword which by no means will suffer the iniquity or treachery of the perverse powers to come neer unto you by this only signe the heavenly victory is given unto us and by the cross the baptism of God is sanctified S. Hippolitus the Martyr who lived neer the Apostles times in his tract of the consummation of the world saith that in the time of Antichrist many believing in him shall receive the character of that impure fellow and enemy of God in place of the quickning crosse of our Saviour Tertullian who florished in the year 200. speaking of the relative religious honour and reverence which the Christians of his time used towards the sacred signe of the crosse in the third chapter of his Corona Militis saith At every pace or moving at our coming into the house at our going out in putting on our apparell and shoes when we wash our hands when we take meat when we light candles when we go to bed when we sit down and in every thing which we do we tear our foreheads with the sign of the crosse but if you expect a text out of Scripture for these and other such like observances thou shalt find none tradition will be pretended to be the defender custome the confirmer and faith the observer Again in the 22. chapter of his third book against Marcion he saith The Crosse is the Greek letter Tau or our Latin letter T. the forme of the crosse which as it was foretold should be imprinted in our foreheads in the true Catholique Hierusalem Thus Tertullian where he alludeth to the Prophecy of Ezechiel when God said to one cloathed in linnen garments Passe through the middest of the City in the middest of Hierusalem and sign Thau upon the forehead of the men that mourn and lament upon all the abhominations that are done in the middest thereof and to them who had weapons of destruction in their hands he said in my hearing Passe through the City following him and strike let not your eye spare neither have ye mercy the old the young man and the Virgin the little one and the women kill to utter destruction but upon every one upon whom you shall see Than kill not and begin ye at my Sanctuary Thus Ezechiel in the nineth chapter of his Prophecies of the signing those whom God would spare and shew mercy upon with the letter Thau which is the last of the Hebrew letters and according to the old Hebrew characters beareth the forme and similitude of the crosse to shew unto us that the signing our selves with the sign of the crosse and the bearing a relative religious worship unto it for the mysteries of the passion of our Lord which it putteth into our minds is a great signe of election to eternal salvation and the hatred or aversion which many Sectaries of this age beare against the sign of the crosse which is used in blessing is an index of their reprobation according to the words of the Prophet saying He loved cursing and it shall come to him and he would not blessing and it shall be far from him Psal 108.18 even so far as that for all eternity he shall never have nor yet hear of any Origen lived early in the Church who also speaking upon this text of Ezechiel in his eighth Homily upon divers places of the Gospell saith He who doth not feare the golden Capitoll doth feare the crosse In Ezechiel when the Angell slew all these unto whom he was sent beginning his slaughter from the holy place they onely are preserved whom he had signed with the letter Thau that is to say with the image of the crosse let us therefore rejoyce brethren and let us lift up our holy hands to heaven in likenesse of the crosse seeing that the divels are oppressed when they find us so armed whereupon in his sixth Homily upon Exodus he saith What doe the divells feare what will make them tremble without doubt the crosse of Christ by which they are led captives in triumph by which they are spoiled of their principalities and power feare therefore and trembling will fall upon them when they shall see the sign of the cross faithfully imprinted upon us S. Cyprian florished about the year 240. and he also in his Epistle to Demetrianus speaking of this aforesaid Prophecy of Ezechiel saith God doth shew in another place that those only can escape who are born againe and have beene signed with the signe of the crosse when sending his Angells to consumed the
the Greek church who in his fifty fifth Homily upon S. Matthew saith All things which help to our salvation are perfected by the Crosse for when we are regenerated the Crosse of our Lord is present when we are nourished with the most sacred meat when we take orders every where and alwayes that sign of victory is at hand Thus S. Chrysostome for the Greek church And for the Latin S. Augustine in his one hundred eighteenth Tract upon S. Iohn saith Unless the signe of the cross be applied as well to the forehead of the believers or to the water wherewith they are regenerate or to the oyl wherewith they are annoynted none of these are rightly administred Thus these two Doctors of the honor reverence respect which both the Greek and Latin Fathers of the Primitive church bare unto the sacred signe of the cross And if any one desire yet further proofe either for the frequent use of the sign of the cross or the relative religious worship which was bestowed upon it or the many miracles performed by it refer him to the nineth article of the second book of the first Tome of Coccius to Grotserus de Cruce and to the sixteenth chapter of the second book of the Progeny of Catholiques and Protestants It being all one to speak by known signes or by words and when the faithfull doe make the signe of the cross their known intent is to profess that they believe in the B. Trinity and desire to march under the standard of Christ crucified as is set down in our Catechisms And when they do worship or reverence the cross they do it not as I have said heretofore as it is a carved stock or stone or a graven thing or a painted cloth but as it putteth us in mind of the mysteries of our Redemption and the passion of our Lord for the remission of our sins and imprinteth in our hearts piety which as S. Paul saith is profitable to all things having the promise of the life that now is and of that to come 1 Tim. 4.8 CHAP. XXIV The Crosse adored with an inward and outward relative religious worship in the Primitive Church THough all exteriour visible honor and glory is due unto God according to S. Paul saying To the King of the worlds immortall invisible only God honor and glory 1. Tim. 1.17 yet all exteriour visible honor is not due unto God alike but some is so immediately due unto him and given unto him that it may not be given unto any other of which kind are visible sacrifices oaths and vowes Other is immediately due unto him by means of his eminent creatures as adoration by bowing or bending to the ground kneeling lifting up the hands to men in dignity c. For Abraham who is called the father of the faithfull Rom. 4. adored the children of Heath Gen. 23.7 Iacob who is called the elect of God Psal 104.6 when he did see his brother Esau coming towards him Going forward he adored prostrate to the ground seven times Gen. 33.3 It being told Moses that Iethro his father in law did approach going forth he met him adored and kissed him Exod. 11.7 And it hath alwayes been the custome of Christian children to ask their parents blessing kneeling with their hands elevated on high and closed together and also of inferiour servants after the same manner to ask their Masters forgiveness of their offences Jacob also adored the top of Josephs rod Heb. 11.11 The Scriptures also call the Tabernacle the house of God Exod. 34.26 And the Propitiatory his seat who sitteth upon the Cherubins upon it 2. Kings or Samuel 6.2 and the Ark the foot stool of the seat of our God Chronicles 1.28 and 2. and commanded it to be adored saying Adore his foot stoole because he is holy Psal 99.5 And even from the beginning of Christianity and from the first propagation of the Gospel the Christian souldiers both Greeks and Latines of all Nations adored the Imperial Standard of the Romans which was called Labarum as witnesseth Zozomenns in the 4. cha of his 1. book of histories S. Gregory Nazianzen in his 1. Oration against Julian the Apostata about the middest where he relateth at large that it being the custome of the Roman souldiers to adore the picture or image of the Emperour Julian the Apostata by deceipt and guilt to win them to adore the divell intermixt his image with the picture of divells whereby first it is manifest that exteriour visible adoration and prostration is not so immediately due unto God as that it may not be given unto any creature seeing that the faithfull both in the Old and New Law adored creatures and that sometime by the Commandement of God Secondly that the cross not as it is a carved piece of wood or an ingraven stock or stone or painted cloth or a cross in generall but as it representeth unto us the mysteries of our Redemption the seat or Altar whereupon our Saviour suffered for our sins or the Standard of Christ Jesus and of all faithfull Christians may be adored seeing that in this sense it is not inferiour either to Josephs Scepter or rod or to the Ark of the children of Israel or unto the image or picture of the Roman Emperors in their standards or to the standards themselves whereupon it came to passe that even in the most florishing time of the church and as soone as the church had peace and was freed from the persecution of the Heathen the cross as it representeth unto us Christ crucified and the mysteries of our salvation c. was publikely and openly adored by all Christian Nations as witnesseth Zozonienus in the place before cited where he relateth at large how Constantine the Great placed it in the Imperiall Standard to this intent and purpose that it might be adored of his souldiers consisting of all Nations adding in the same chapter saying It is also reported that the souldier who on a certaine time bare this Ensigne with the cross in it being amazed with a suddain assault of the euemies delivered the standard to another and withdrew himself out of the battell where being out of the danger of any dart of a suddain fell down deadly wounded and he who had taken of him the divine Ensign of the Cross remained free from any hurt â—hough many darts were cast at him Moreover it is said that never any â—uldier whose office it was to bear this sign either suffered any great calamity in the wars or was wounded or taken prisoner which truly is very credible Thus Zozomenus to shew unto us that the sacred cross representing unto us the sufferings of our Lord as soon as the church had peace and persecution ceased was after thâ— manner abovesaid publikely and openly adored by the faithfull Christians of all Nations In further witnesse hereof S. Cyril Archbishop of Alexandria anâ— President in the Generall Counceâ—â— of Ephesus holden in the year 431
sacred passion and of our redemption upon the cross CHAP. XXV Of four sacred images which were made of Christ our Lord whilest he lived upon earth and of the relative religious honor done unto them to the inriching of their minds with pious thoughts EVsebius in the 14. chapter of his 7. book of histories and after him Casiadorus Nicephorus and other historiographers relate that the woman which our Saviour cured of an issue of bloud by the touch of the hem of his garment as is set downe in the 9. of S. Matthew in gratitude thereof in the City of Peneada where she was borne erected two cast images or statues of brasse the one of her self kneeling and holding up of her hands as is used in prayer the other of our Saviour standing right over against it with his garment to his ancles and his hand stretched out toward the woman at the foot whereof even upon the thing it stood upon grew a strange kind of herb which when it ascended to that height as to touch the hem of his garment had vertue to cure all kind of diseases which Statua Eusebius going to the said City of Penedda saith that he see with his eys Zozomenus in the 20. chapter of his 5. book continuing the same history saith that Julian the Apostata being certified that in Caesarea Philippi for so now Peneada was called was the famous image or statua of Christ which the woman who was cured of an issue of bloud had set up sent to have it cast down and his owne to be set up in the place which being done saith Zozomen a violent fire descended from heaven struck his statua above the brest and so cast the head together with the neck against the earth that it stuck fast in the ground with the face downward and even untill this day it remaineth black as burned with lightning At which time also the Pagâ—ns or heathen people so dragged the statua of Christ up and down with such sury as that they broke it into pieces but the Christians afterward gathering together the broken pieces placed them in the church where they are stil preserved Thus these antient Authors to shew unto us that the Primitive Christians honored worshipped with a relative religious worship the image statua's of Christ not for the matter or metal they were made of but for the pious thoughts they represented unto their memories as Roman Catholiques do at this day and that those who do deface sacred images beat down as Julian the Apostata and the Pagans are enemies of pious thoughts and Christianity Evagrius Scholasticus who florished about the yeare 596. in the 26. chapter of his fourth book of histories writeth that in the City Edessa neer unto the river of Euphrates where sometime Abgarus reigned as King there was a picture of our Saviour kept which he himself had sent unto the said King and the City being so straitly besieged by Costroes King of Persia that they were almost in dispair his works of great heaps of wood and tymber approaching so neer their walls that they could not defend them and they had made mines of fire underneath which could not burne for want of ayr not knowing how further to defend themselves saith Evagrius They brought forth the most holy image divinely made and not by the hands of men but by God Christ which he had sent to Abgarus when he desired to see him and put it into the mine which they had made sprinkling it with water whereof they had put a good quantity both into the fire and wood which was in their mine and so aid coming by divine power to their faith doing this that which before they could not perform was now easily done for presently a flame took hold of the wood which was below and burnt it into coals and after ascended to that which was above And when the besieged see the smoak to begin to break out above to blind the eys of their enemies they take little tankers and fill them with sulfur tow and such like as are apt to burn and make a smoke and and cast them upon the top of their enemies works which by the force of their throwing kindled and of themselves cast out smoke whereby they so obscured the smoke which came out of their mine that all those who were ignorant of the fact imagined that the smoke which they see came from the tankers and not from any other place but three daies after flames of fire were seen to break out of the earth and then the Persians who fought upon thesr bulwarks perceiving their danger Costroes striving against the divine vertue and power turneth the conduct of water which ran in the outside of the City upon the fire thinking thereby to extinguish it but the fire receiving the water as if it had been oyle or brimstone or some such other thing which easily taketh fire burnt the more untill it had destroyed all the works of the enemy and brought them to ashes whereupon Costroes failing of his hope returned home with shame Thus Evagrius of the picture which our Saviour had sent to King Abgarus Mention is also made of this image which our Saviour made by his divine power without workmanship of hands and sent to Abgarus by Procopius a Scholar of S. Augustines in his 2. book De bello Persico and by the seventh Generall Councell in the 5. Act where Leo a Lecturer of the Cathedrall church of Constantinople saith I your unworthy servant when J went into Syria with the Kings Commissioners passed to Edessa and there see the holy image not made with hands honored and also adored by the faithfull Of this image likewise make mention Adrian the first in the 18. chapter of his book to Charles the Great S. Damascenus in the 17. chapter of his 4. book Orthodoxa fidei and in his Oration de Imaginibus and Constantius Porphyrogenitus in his Oration made before the Emperors the Clergy and the people which is set down in Metaphrases upon the 16. of August Moreover this image was of such fame and respect that it was translated from Edessa unto Constantinople as witnesse Zonoras in Romana Lecapeno Nicephorus Callistus in the 7. chapter of his 2. book and S. Thomas upon the third of the sentences dist 9. q. 1. Art 2. Marianus Scotus in his Chronicle at the yeare 39. and others relate that our Saviour going to his passion a woman called Veronica gave him a handkerchiefe to wipe the sweat which run down his face and he returned it unto her again with his image upon it which image was in the time of Tyberius conveighed by the Christians to Rome where even untill this day it hath been preserved and reverenced with a relative religious worship of all pious Christians and is commonly set forth to be seen in S. Peters church upon Maunday Thursday Moreover Athanasius in his book of the suffering of the image of our Lord printed
after in the middest of his Army was slain from heaven as affirmeth S. Gregory Nazianzen in his second Oration against him and Z zâ—menus in the 2. chapter of his 6. book of histories After Iulian the Apostata followed Xenaia a servant by condition and an Eutichian Heretike by profession a man who w s never baptized yet feigned himself a Christian Clergy-man and by the Eutychian Heretikes was made also a Bishop this man saith Nicephorus in in the 27. chapter of his 16. book of Histories was the f rst who in these times belched out this opinion that the images of Christ and of those who pleased h m were not to be worshipped and so to the Eutychian heresie added the contempt of sacred Images and died excommunicated by the Councell of Calcedon After him followed the Mahometans and Turks who do so abhor the Crosse as with the Sectaries of this age they call the Christians Idolaters for adoring it as witnesseth Cedrenus upon Heraclius neither do they permit unto those of their Sect the use of Images as appeareth by the 15. and 16. chapters of their Alcoran which Turks being enemies of Christ and Christian Religion are without all hope of salvation And this is sufficient to shew unto thee deare Reader the antient enemies of the Crosse and sacred images and the miseries they fell into In thee it lieth to be a follower of the Catholike Roman Church and to honor reverence and respect sacred images with a relation unto the things they represent thereby to nourish in thee good thoughts or with the Devill Jewes Turks Infidells and Heretikes to condemne them and fill thy heart and mind with filthy shapes vicious thoughts and ugly representations As for the more modern haters of the Crosse and sacred images and their evill ends or miseries which befell them If out of curiosity thou desire to see them I refer thee to the 12. chapter of Bellarmines book of the images of Saints and to the 9. Article of the 2. book of Coccius and to the 10. Article of his 5. book in his first Tome where they are set down at large CHAP. XXVII The visible and invisible relative religious worship which the faithfull in the Primitive Church used towards the sacred pictures signes and images of the written Word of God and thereby learned the true sense and indued their soules with wholesome meditations and pious thoughts IF thou wouldest dear Reader examine the cause from whence it proceedeth that divers in this age do so much apply their minds to the reading of the Bible that they have it almost continually in their hands or lying by them and are so earnest upon it as that many of them think they must have a text out of the Scriptures for whatsoever they doe or els they sin as witnesseth Mr. Sanderson a Protestant Minister in the sixth and eighth § of his second Sermon preached at Grantham in the year 1634. and yet for the most part reap no other benefit out of it but errors heresies and blasphemies against God thou shalt find the originall cause thereof to be First a pride of mind and a contempt or scorn to bestow any relative worship respect or honor upon the materiall character or books or letters sent from God himselfe unto his faithfull followers or chridren penned by the Holy Ghost as S. Peter affirmeth 2 Pet. 1.21 but handle look upon them and use them after the same manner and with the same respect they do the books or letters of sensuall carnall men and sometimes also to shew their contempt or little esteeme change the materiall word of God as though that should be the sacred word what they would and not what God had ordained And secondly a want of an invisible relative religious worshâ—p respect and honor unto the divine and supernaturall sense which God hath given unto his sacred word whereupon they also easily change the sense into their own or other prophane whereby they turn faith into infidelity truth into error and the things revealed by God himself into blasphemy and please themselves in it Whereas holy and sacred things are not to be handlâ—d or treated upon but holily with a relative religious worship respect and esteem for the sacred things which they do represent and as they do represent them the text of the Scriptures is not only called the holy or sacred Scriptures Rom. 1.2.2 Tim. 3.15 but also our faith is called our most holy faith Jude ver 20. those must needs fall into great errors heresies and blasphemies who read speak of or handle them without a relative religious honor and respect unto them for God disperseth the proud in the conceit of their hearts Luk. 1.51 Again To whom shall I have respect saith God but to him that trembleth at my words Isa 66.2 as at the words of his Creator S. Paul calleth the Gospell of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ The Gospell of the glory of the blessed God 1 Tim. 1.11 wherefore those who give no more religious worship and honor unto it then they give unto other books but rudely read interpret and handle them as they do prophane Authors must of necessity abound with errors heresies and blasphemies according to the words of our Lord saying Whosoever shall glorifie me I will glorifie him and they that contemn me shall be base 1 Kings or Samuel 2.29 as of no Religion established by the Son of God or Scriptures seeing that Religion even by the consent of our adversaries is described to be a due worship of God and holy things and fall into the error of those wicked Priests of whom God complained saying Between a holy thing and a prophane they have put no difference Ezek. 22.26 Whereupon the faithfull servants of God to profess a Religion and to nourish in their hearts and soules the pious thoughts and piety comprehended in the Bible alwayes honored and respected the sacred text or Bible with relative religious worship both for his sake that writ it and for the divine things it represented unto their memories in such sort as in the Old Law the faithfull Jewes kept it in the Tabernacle and adored it with the Tabernacle never touched it without first washing their hands kissed it as often as they either opened or shut it would not sit upon that seat upon which it lay and if by accident it fell to the earth they fasted for their negligence one whole day as affirmeth Cornâ—lius à Lapide in his preface to the phrases of the holy Scriptures The reason why they did so was for that wisdome will not enter into a malitious soule nor dwell in a body subject to sin Wisd 1.4 whereupon the Prophet prayeth saying establish thy word in thy servant in thy fear Psal 118.38 Again blessed is the man whose will is in the way of our Lord in his law he will meditate day and night Psal 1.1 where the Prophet affirmeth that those who walk in the way of