father to kill his sonne Exod. 11.2 and he willeth the Hebrues to take with thē the goods of the Egyptians which thinges if men should doe or commaund they could not cleare themselues of a great offence committed against God The Lorde hath deliuered a law to men and to himselfe hath hee giuen no lawe for seeing that hee is the Authour of the lawe hee may thereof except what he lyst Wherefore it is to be graunted that hee hath done nothing without consideration and infinite iudgement I woulde gladly bee briefe therefore I refer you to the chapters which speake against Images Reade Exod. 20.4 Leui. 9.4 Num. 33.52 Deut. 4.15 Psal 115.4 Psal 135. Esa 40.18 Ierem. 10.5 Ezech. 6.6 Heb. 2.18 Wis 13.10 Baruc. 6. Act. 17.42 Rom. 14.3 1. Cor. 5.11 1. Cor. 6.6 Gal. 5.19 Iohn 4.5 21. You see my brethren in howe many places the scripture doeth forbid vs to haue images yet you will haue them though God say nay if your holy father the Pope doth allow them Let vs see now what the auncient Doctors and graue fathers haue sayd by your images Tertul. in lib. de Idololatria Tertulliā in his booke of Idolatrie sayeth God hath forbidden an image as well to bee made as to be worshipped As far as making goeth before worshipping so farre is it before that the thing be not made that may not be worshipped Some man will saye I make it but I worship it not as though hee durst not worshippe it for any other cause but onely for that same cause for which he ought not to make it I meane both wayes procure Gods displeasure Nay rather thou worshippest the image thou giuest the cause to other to worshippe it Some one or other that maintaine idolatrie wil say And why then did Moses make the image of the brasen Serpent in the wildernesse Num. 21.8 The olde idolaters founde out and vsed the same aboue fourteene hundreth yeres agoe One the same God hath by his generall Lawe both forbidden any image to be made and also by his extraordinarie speciall commandement he hath bidden an image of the serpent to be made If thou be obedient to the same God thou hast his Lawe Make thou no image but if thou haue a regard to the image of the Serpent that was made afterwarde by Moses then doe thou as Moses did Make not any image against the law vnlesse God commaunde thee as hee did Moses Origen libr. 7. contra Celsum Origen sayth We make no image of God as knowing him to be inuisible wtout bodie Againe he sayeth Ibid. lib. 4. contra Celsum The minde of the Lawe was this that they shoulde in all thinges so behaue themselues as the trueth required and that they shoulde beside the trueth counterfeite nothing representing the shape of a man or woman Cyprian in lib. de Idolorum vanitate Cyprian sayth Images were first drawen thereby to keepe the countenance of the dead in remembrance vpon occasion whereof thinges grewe at length vnto holinesse that at the first were taken onely for solace Againe Ibid. tract 1. in Demetrian what doest thou bowe thy captiue bodie before foolish images earthly counterfaites God hath made thee vpright and whereas all the beasts of the earth are depressed in shape bending downe to the groundward thou hast a loftie state towardes heauen and to God thy countenance is erected Then looke vp thither thither cast vp thine eies seeke God aboue that thou maist want hell belowe lift vp thy doubtfull heart to hygh and heauenly thinges What doest thou throwe thy selfe with the deuill whome thou seruest into the pit of death Clement sayth Clement to Iames the supposed brother of our Lord. The deuill by the mouth of other is wōt to bring forth such words We to the worship of the inuisible God worship the visible images And this is most certeinly false For if you will truely worship Gods Image you should by being beneficial vnto man worship the true image of God in him What honour of God is this to runne about the counterfeites of timber and of stone and to worship the shapes that are without soule despise man in whom is the true shape of God Arnobius in his eight bookes against the Gētiles We neither worship nor wish for crosses you that consecrate wodden gods peraduenture worship your wodden crosses as partes of your gods If you had not this image should Christ be ignorant that he were serued of you Will you thinke that there is no honor done him Then doeth he receyue your seruings and worshippines by certaine traynes by other put in trust before he to whome the worship is due haue any feeling of the matter you doe your sacrifice vnto the image and send him but the scrappes from another mans boorde And what can be deuised more iniurious slaunderous vncourteous then to acknowledge one God and make thy sute to any other thing to hope for helpe of God and powre out thy prayers to a senselesse image Is not this as the Prouerbe sayth to haue a quarrell to Alfonsus fight with Ferdinando and where thou seekest for aduise of men to aske the sentence first of porkelings and of asses Is not this an errour Is it not properly a madnes in trembling wise to make thy humble sute to a thing that thou madest thy self And whereas thou doest knowe and art assured that it is thine owne workemanship the fruites of thine owne fingers to fall groueling vpon thy face before it Very children knowe that your images haue eyes and see not mouthes and speake not Wherefore then doeth the holy Ghost so often teach vs and admonish vs the same thing in the Scriptures as if we knewe it not For that the very shape and proportion of a man set aloft after it once beginneth to bee adored and honoured of the multitude it breedeth in euery man that most vile affection of error that although he find there no naturall mouing or token of life yet he thinketh some god or godly thing is within it and so being deceyued partly by the forme that he seeth and partly by the waye of authoritie and credite of the authors makers of it whome they take to be wise and partly also by the example and deuotion of the people whome they see obedient to the same he thinketh that the image being so like a liuing bodie cā not be without some liuing thing vnderneath it Lact. sayeth in plaine wordes Non est dubium quin religio nulla sit vbicunque simulachrū est Out of all doubt there is no religion wheresoeuer there is an Image S. Aug. speaking of the image of God the Father sayeth thus Tale simulachrum Deo fingere nefarium est To deuise such an Image of God it is abominable Theodorus the Bishop of Ancyra saith Sanctorum imagines species ex materialibus coloribus formari minimè decorū putamus manifestum
enim est quod vana sit huiusmodi cogitatio diabolicae deceptionis inuentum We thinke it not conuenient to paynt the images of saintes with materiall or earthly colours for it is euident that it is a vayne imagination the procurement of the deceytfulnes of the deuil To like purpose writeth Epiphanius Estote memores dilecti filii nec in ecclesias imagines inferatis neque in Sanctorū coemiteriis eas statuatis sed perpetuò circumferte Deum in cordibus vestris Quin etiam neque in domo communi tolerentur Non enim fas est Christianum per oculos suspensum teneri sed per occupationem mentis My deare childrē be ye mindful that you bring no images into the churches that you erect vp none at the burials of the Saints but euermore cary God in your heartes nay suffer no images to be Marke wel no not in your priuate houses For it is not lawfull to leade a Christian man by his eyes but rather by the studie or exercise of his minde For this cause Epiphanius sayth The superstition of images is vnfit for the church of Christ It is a worlde to see how welfauouredly and howe towardly touching religiō these men agree with the fathers of whom they vse to vaunt They bee your owne good and yet you see how they speake against your images If time should permit I were able to recite many such places out of the fathers in confutation of your worshipping such vaine images You doe not onely allowe images to be had in churches but also you cause them to be deuoutly and reuerently honoured and that with the same honour that is due to God himselfe One of the Bishops of the council of Nice sayth Venerandas imagines recipio adoro id perpetuò docebo I receiue and worship the reuerēt images this wil I teach Another saith Sacras imagines perfectè adoro Qui verò secus confitētur eos anathematizo I do perfectly adore the holy images and I accurse all them that hold the contrary Another saith Non sunt duae adorationes sed vna ipsius imaginis primi exemplaris cuius est imago There be not two kynds of adoration but one which is as well due to the image as to the paterne of the image Saint Augustine sayth Sic omninò errare meruerunt August de consensu Euangel lib. 2. cap. 20. qui Christum Apostolos eius non in sanctis codicibus sed in pictis parietibus quaesierunt nec mirum si a pingentibus fingentes decepti sunt So were they worthy to bee deceiued that sought Christ and his Apostles not in the bookes of holy Scripture but in paynted walles Neither may one maruaile if the feyners by Paynters were deceiued In Epist Ioan Episcop Hier. The old father Epiphanius sayth It is a horrible wickednes and a sinne not to be suffered for any man to set vp any picture in the church of the christians yea though it were the picture of Christ himselfe yet you store all your Temples and eche corner of them with paynted and carued images as though without them religion were nothing worth Thus good brethrē you see both scriptures fathers against you Forsake then your worshipping of images Nowe will I speake a litle after what maner they worship images at Rome I haue seene and so haue you that on euery altar in Rome there are set vp either Idols or images In S. Peters church they haue the image of S. Peter in brasse holding out his finger to blesse them as they passe by before the which image the people fall downe and make their prayers vnto it kisse his foote and touch it with their Beades I would aske you once again why they paynt God the Father and God the holy Ghost Euen because lay men when they see God to haue a body shoulde thinke God the father God the holy Ghost to be men as we be Their priests in Italie for the most parte are altogether vnlearned I demanded of some of these Italian priestes in the Italian tongue whether God the father and God the holy Ghost had bodies They answered Yea. Wel then seeing their priests are ignorant in these thinges you may perswade your selues that the simple countreymen are likewise ignorant Father Pais reader of scholasticall diuinitie at Rome in the Romane colledge beeing demanded of Doctor Allen whether it was as lawfull to worship the thing that represented as well as the thing that was represented by the Image This graue learned Father answered it was lawfull to worship the tymber whereof the Image was made If this be not idolatrie that a mā should worship that thing which is more fit for the fire or for some other purpose then to be worshipped thē there is no idolatrie worthy to be named at al. Thus much briefly touching images God giue you a heart to conceiue the trueth You worship the pillar vpon the which the cock crew whē Peter denyed his master Christe Why do you thus What doe you make the cocke a saint The Romanes haue made them a cratch or manger representing the oxe the asse also the byrth of Christ to the which workmanshippe of man they fal down and worship Can you shewe me a reason why you shoulde kneele before these stones or why you shoulde kisse them and touch them with your beades What haue you canonized the oxe and the asse Saints doe you saye in your Letanies Sancte bos Sancte Asine orate pro nobis Saint oxe and Saint Asse pray for vs Why do ye worship the thirty pence which Iudas tooke to betray his master Christ What doe you count the thirty pence holy Reliques for that Iudas had them or for that they came from the chief priests What do you make Iudas the traytour a Saint or the chiefe priests of the Scribes and Pharises holy mē The reliques of Saints are worshipped as bones c. they fall downe likewise on their knees before them they crye vnto them they touch the boxe with their beades they see not the bones being wrapped in silke and put in a boxe or in the altar in boards or in Christal The beades touch not the bones but the outward boxe The priest may beguyle the people putting in the boxe the bones of a dead horse or the head of a foxe in stead of the Saints bones for the people seeth not what is in the boxe or wrapped in silkes Why doe the poore men for their asses bring offrings to stations as candels torches and such like And why do the poore Romanes bring their asses to Churches cause the priestes to say a fewe prayers ouer them and sprinkle holy water vpō thē Belike they thinke to get a roome or place in heauen for them s to ryde vpon Asses in heauen or else to get indulgences of the Pope for their asses In deede they are as the Prophet Dauid sayth sicut
member of his church and stedfast in the faith of Iesus Christ euen vnto the end of my life So much for Antiquitie Multitude succession of persons or place miracles and reuelations God of his mercy graunt you my brethren true repentance Nowe good Christian audience and welbeloued brethren I will speake a worde or two touching the images which Papistes allow and haue in their churches The scriptures in sundry places plainely forbid any image to bee made The Lorde warned the people of Israel Deut. 4.15 that they should remēber that they sawe no image in the day that the Lord spake vnto them in Horeb out of the mids of the fire Isa 40.18 And in Isaiah Cui assimilabitis Deum aut qua similitudine illum exprimetis To whome then wil you liken God or what similitude will you sette vp vnto him And againe the Lorde confirmeth the same Isa 44.9 to the 19. saying Quis audebit effingere Deum aut fusile aut sculptile facile quod nihil prodest Who hath made a god or molten an image that is profitable for nothing Beholde all they that are of the fellowship thereof shal be confounded for the workmen themselues are men let them all be gathered together and stande vp yet they shal feare and be confounded together I can not a litle maruayle that among you my brethren I meane the Papistes that Dominicke Asotus writing vpon the Epistle to the Romanes the first chapter Rom. 2.21 durst so boldly affirme that in the same commādement of God the Christiās were not forbidden to make images representing the fourme of man for sayde hee the lawe there onely maketh mention of birdes of fourefooted beastes of creeping wormes whereas in very deede they are strayghtly charged not to make the images of male or female Moreouer it is expressed in the Psalme Psal 115.4 5 6 c. Os habent non loquuntur pedes habent non ambulant aures habēt non audiunt nares non odorantur They haue a mouth and speake not they haue feete and walke not they haue eares and heare not they haue noses and smell not The Carpenter is blamed in Isaiah Isaiah 44.13 14. which of one part of the hewen tree maketh an image of the other parte he maketh fire and vpon the same he baketh bread he carueth and laboureth much that he may expresse the similitude of a man By all these places it doeth manifestly appeare that the images of men are vtterly forbidden which are instituted to a religious end And yet you though you knowe that all maner worshipping of images is forbidden by expresse testimonies of the holy scripture must haue them forsooth as you say for bookes vnto such as can not reade What thinke you in making the image of God the father and God the holy Ghost You knowe God is a Spirite Iohn 4.24 whereof it followeth that you can not expresse his forme with lineaments with paintings and colours It is writtē Iohn 1.18 1. Tim. 2.16 1. Ioh. 4.12 that no mā hath euer seene God Why then if he can not be seene or if he possesse inaccessible light howe can he be pictured or howe should a picture make him to bee seene Moreouer God is vnmeasurable and infinite but the thinges which are paynted grauen or molten are measurable finite Likewise Images are made of men that the absent after a maner may be thought present but God is euery where neyther is he absent from any thing It is written in the Psalme Psal 139.7 8 9. Si ascendero in coelum tu illic es Therefore it behooueth vs not to make God present with images seeing he is alwaies present to al men The image should with apt similitude expresse that which is to be represented Howe doeth the image of God the father rightly truly represent him whereas he hath no beginning The images are made by man and haue a beginning Who can set forth the quantitie of God and his wonderfull woorkes howe he is neuer idle but euermore doing that which tendeth to the saluation of man Contrariwise images sleepe and doe nothing at all Moreouer God is altogether wisedome and knowledge whereas your images feele nothing and vnderstande as much Saint Paul sayeth Actes 17.29 that we must not thinke the Godhead to be like golde or siluer or stone grauen by arte God that made the worlde and all thinges therein Actes 7.48 seeyng that he is Lorde of heauen and earth dwelleth not in temples made with handes neither is worshipped with mens hands as though he needed any thing seeing he giueth to all life and breath and all things Fortunate doe I thinke those stones to be whereof images are made and put vpon your popish altars because they are had in such reuerence and honor amongst you whereas other stones not vnlike vnto thē lye in the streetes are troden with feete and spet vpon Papistes obiection You obiect vnto vs the authoritie of the Scriptures and say It is lawfull to paint God in the forme of man which you seeke to proue by the vii of Daniel Dan. 7.13 22. I behelde sayeth the Prophet till the thrones were set vpon and the ancient of dayes did sitte whose garment was white as snowe and the heares of his head like the pure wooll his throne was like the fiery flame and his wheeles as burning fyre In Ezechiel speaking of God Ezech. 1.5 is expressed the figure of man Isaiah sayeth Esay 6.1 that he sawe God sitting vpon a Throne Moses also with the Seniours sawe God when hee sate in his Throne or tribunal seate Exod. 33.20 23. And in the mount he sawe God in the forme of man departing Seeing these things nowe vttered were seene of the Prophets why then is it vnlawfull for vs to paint God with colours and karuing I answere thus vnto your obiection The diuersitie of bodily members which is ascribed vnto God in the holy Bible hath shewed in a mysterie that the Diuine nature should take vpō it the humane nature and likewise it signified mystically that God should take vpon him fleshe and become man Yea to let this answere goe I say it was the goodnesse of God wherewith he so applyed himself vnto our infirmity that whereas we could not vnderstand his nature GOD appeared so in the sight of man as though hee had bene man himselfe By his eyes hee described prouidence by his armes strength by his handes workemanshippe by his nostrelles wrath and many things of like sorte And whereas you say that it is lawfull for vs for the expressing of God to vse the like lineaments colours and caruings it followeth not To GOD there is no lawe giuen which hee ought to obserue neyther are all thinges lawfull to men which he iustly and rightly hath done Exod. 7.5 God reuengeth him on his enemies Gen. 22.2 10 hee giueth commaundement to the