we haue neither Temples nor Aulters for what Image shall I make of God If thou hast thy right sences thou shalt finde that man is the true Image of God And a little after he saith But the God whom we worship we neither shewe nor see If the auncient Christians had beene like vnto the Romish Christians of this age the Gentiles could not haue obiected that they had neither Aultars nor Images for in truth they haue more Aulters and Images then the Gentiles had Neither should they haue obiected vnto the Christiās that they concealed what they worshipped for the Romains shew in the eleuation of the Host the God which they worship cause the people to worship it the which they not onely shewe in Temples but also in the streetes and in generall processions and other solemnities they shew forth what they worship against the vse of the first Christians Tertulian in his booke of Idolatrie confutes with many reasons the making of all sortes of Images to roote out all matter of Idolatrie and after he had cited the second commaundement whereby it is defended to make the likenesse of anie thing that is in heauen or earth hee saith It is forbidden throughout all the worlde for the seruants of God to vse such making of Images seeing that Enoch had foretoulde that the Diuell or the Angels of darkenesse should turne all the Elements into Idolatrie and all that is conteyned in Heauen and Earth that all these things might bee consecrated for God against God himselfe And so mans errour doth worshippe all things except the Creator of all things Their Images were Idols and the consecration of Images is Idolatrie And whatsoeuer Idolatrie commits must necessarily be attributed to the maker of the Idol That which Origen speaketh vpon the Epistle to the Romaines is to be considered to make Christians wholy to reiect Idolatrie For after that he hath refuted the Errours of the Gentiles in that they might know God by the visible Ellementes yet they had fallen to the worshippe of the visible Images of Creatures concluding thus To the ende that in fewe wordes wee may speake the truth wee houlde it an abhominable impietie to worshippe any thing except the Father Sonne and holy Ghost And a little after hee saith They wrong themselues that serue Images and worshippe the Creature leauing the Creator But we Christians which worship and adore the Father Sonne and holy Ghost onely and no other Creature as we doe not erre in the diuine worshippe so doe wee not offend in our actions and conuersation It is most certaine that the Host offred vp in the Romaine Lyturgie is not consubstantiall with the Father Son holy Ghost much lesse vnited in consubstantialitie with the Trinitie as it is well noted in the sermon de Caena Domini inserted among the workes of Cyprian who liued in the third age where it is saide That the diuine essence is infused in the visible Sacrament after an vnspeakable manner that there might bee more deuotion and reuerence giuen to the Sacraments and a more holy accesse to the truth of him of whose bodie they bee Sacraments and to the participating of the spirite not to the consubstantialitie of Christ but to this brotherly and indiuisible vnitie for the Sonne onely is consubstantiall with the Father the substance of the Trinitie may not bee deuided our coniunction and that of Christ doth not confounde the persons nor vnite the substances but doth onely consociate the affections and binde the willes If in the person of Iesus Christ consisting of three natures in one person worshiped with one onely worshippe the deuine nature had beene onely infused in the humanitie of Iesus Christ after his birth as Nestorius did teach and not vnited personally in the virgins wombe Cyrillus and the other Orthodoxes did rightly mainetaine agaynst him that to worshippe one Christ carrying God in him had beene an Antropolatrie or Pagan Idolatrie With greater reason the infusion of the Diuinitie in the Sacrament and in the elements of Breade and Wine cannot attribute vnto it the dignity to bee worshipped as God himselfe for as that text doth teach vs this infusion which is made in the sacrament is not consubstantiall with the deity of the Sonne of God the which is onely consubstantiall with the father and the holy spirite for that it dooth affect a most straight and mutuall coniunction betwixt God and vs. Saint Iohn in his seuenteenth Chapter speaketh of this coniunction and vnion where our Sauiour prayes to his father for all those that shall beleeue in him That all may be one as thou O father art in me and I in thee that they may be one in vs. If this vnion should make that sacrament of the Lords supper to be worshipped then those which are vnited in Christ and by him in God the father should worship one another for our Sauiour saith in the sixt of Saint Iohn Hee that eates my flesh and drinks my bloud remaines in me I in him That we might know saith Cypriā that our abiding in him is a true eating and the drinking an incorporation with a duty of obedience ioyning of willes and vnitie of affections The eating therefore is a certaine greedinesse in vs and a desire to remaine for euer in Christ We learne by these authorities that euen as Christs abyding in vs by our eating of the sacrament makes vs not capable of worship for that by this coniunction wee are not personally vnited with the deity of Iesus Christ In like sort the infusion of the deuine essence in the sacramentes whereof Saint Cyprian speakes makes not the sacrament to be worshipped if it were so the said adoration were in idolatrye like that of Nestorius who worshipped man carrying God in him as is said before We may therfore say with good reason against those that worship the creatures and the images of Iesus Christ his sepulcher and the wood of the crosse that which Origen speaketh against the Gentiles of his time God is the vertue which gouernes all things and the diuinitye which filleth all things making themselues thereby inexcusable that whereas God hath giuen them the grace to know him yet haue they not honoured him as they ought neither haue they giuen him due thankes but haue sought in the vanity of their owne imaginations the images of God As those of the Romish Church doe in the Masse for in their hoast they make figures and images They haue lost in themselues the Image of God they which vanted to haue the spirite of wisedome are fallen into the obscure darkenesse of ignorance For what is there more abhominable thē to turne the glory of God to the corporall and corruptible image of mans nature the which is done at this present throughout all the Romish Church as it is saide So as they haue conuerted God the Creatour of all things into a corporall and corruptible forme whome they thought to worship vnder those visible
him to persist in the seruice of god not to deuide his worship but to cleaue onely vnto God Thou shalt not saith he haue any other Gods but me The which doth teach vs that those of the Romish corruptiō haue brought in strange Gods for that they haue deuided the adoration and veneration betwixt God and his creatures making three degrees The first they call Latria which they attribute to God and to the Host in the Masse equally The second Hyperdeulia which they yeelde to the blessed virgin And the third Dulia attributed to their other Saints and to their images and reliques abusing with too grosse an ignorance the signification of these Greeke wordes for Deulia signifies a greater seruice then Latria And we learne that in this place Theodoret calles the seruice and adoration of God by the name of Deulia and so doe Athanasius and Chrisostome And Saint Augustine who hath brought in this distinction attributes both vnto God onely In his 84. Question vpon Exod. Iustin Martir who liued vnder Antonius Pius in the second age of this period of Christianity shewes plainely that the Christians did not alow of the worship of any thing inferiour to the Deity and saieth that Iesus Christ had so taught them for speaking to the Emperour in his Apologie for the Christians of his time hee writes thus That God onely is to be worshipped for so Christ doth teach the greatest commandement is thou shalt worshippe the Lorde thy God and him onely shalt thou honour with all thy heart and all thy strength the Lorde God which hath created thee And a little after he saith we worship God onely in other things we willingly serue you for that we do acknowledge you for Kings and Princes of men and we pray vnto God that he will giue you wisedome equall to your royall power So as the Christians in matters of religion did not yeeld any worship to things created neither did they deuide the worship betwixt God his creatures as the Romish Church doth Many Christians of the same time were so exact obseruers of the onely worshippe of God as they would not reuerence the Roman Emperors as the souldiers did in ciuil causes for Theophilus to Apostolicus the sixt Bishop of Antioche who liued in the yeare of our Lord 173. when as Lucius was King of great Brittaine saith I shall honor the Emperour more in praying for him then in worshipping him for it is not lawfull to worship any but God onely The Christians of these three first ages had no Alters no Images nor any materiall crosses of golde siluer wood or stone for Clemens Alexandrinus who was neere the Apostles time saith Wee Christians are expreslye forbidden to vse any arte of deceite for so hee calleth painting and making of Images Thou shalt not saith the Prophet Moses make the likenesse of any thing that is in heauen aboue or on the earth beneath And the same author Strom. Lib. 5. Pythagoras saith he forbids the wearing of rings nor to ingraue in them the images and figures of Gods as Moses had long before forbidden and that we must not make any Image be it grauen molten counterfeite or painted that wee should not bee carryed away with sensible things but should passe vnto those thinges which are comprehended by vnderstanding And soone after he saith To honour the essence by the knowledge of a materiall thing is to contemne it The Doctrine of the Romish Church dooth heerein directly oppugne the Doctrine of Christian antiquitye making a new God of the host of the new Masse giuing it the name of God worshipping it as God and yet their doctors confesse that it is made and created by the wordes of consecration It is therefore euident that they haue brought into the Church a God created which is not contayned in the definition of God before mentioned by Saint Athanasius for the hoast of the Masse is not euerye where which is the property of God onelye neither dooth it containe all things vnder his power but contrarywise the Counsell of Trent saith in expresse wordes that Iesus Christ God and man is contained vnder the visible signes of Breade of Wine which is quite contrarye to the diuine nature which contaynes all things in it and is not contained in anye thing The God therefore of the Romish Masse is a God created which hath a beginning and ending and is contained in the visible forme of Breade and Wine and containes not in it all things created so as the worshippers of this God of the Masse doe worshippe a newe and strange God contrarye to the first commaundement If the Arrians as Theodoret saith haue broken this first commaundement for that they taught that Iesus Christ according to his deity was a creature and yet he was God with greater reason the Romaines transgresse the same commaundement confessing that the pretended deitie of the hoast of the Masse is a deitie purchased by the consecration and not by the eternall deity without beginning and without ending And the same Theodoret writing against the Greekes in the foresaide passage teacheth vs that by the commaundement which saith Thou shalt haue no other Gods but mee that Moses forbiddes to make anye deuision of the deuine worshippe but to giue all to God onelye The Romaines who haue made three degrees of worshipping cannot denie but they haue broken this first commaundement and brought in a multitude of Gods making as manye Gods as they saye Masses So as their pluralitie of Gods becomes infinite and surpasseth the multitude of the Paynims Gods Minutius Foelix Tertulian Origen and Arnobius vvho liued in the third age of this first Periode of Christianisme testifie that the Gentiles accused the Christians for that they had neither Temples Altars Images nor visible or Materiall Sacrifices and that they did hide from sight that which they did worshippe Cecilius a Pagan Oratour disputing against Octauius a Christian as Minutius doth reporte obiected to the Christians Why haue they no Alters no Temples no knowne Images They did blazon our Christians in the vvorshiping of the Crosse vvhich they sayd they deserued taking the Crosse for a punishment To whom Octauius aunsweres for the Christians We neither worshippe nor desire Crosses but you who haue consecrated Gods of Wood worshiping Crosses of Wood as peeces of your Gods Whereby it appeares that the auncient Christians in the purenesse of Christian religion did neither worship crosses of Gold Siluer Stone or Wood as these doe of the Romish religion How should they I pray you worshippe them seing they had them not which is more would not haue them But the Church of Rome doth quite contrarie running after Gods of Gold and Siluer made as the Psalme◠saieth by mans hand In regarde of that which the Gentiles did obiect vnto the Christians that they did hide and not shew forth what they did worship Octauius aunsweres for the Christians Doe you thinke that we doe hide what we do worship although
who knewe the spirite of man commonly inclined to Idolatrie would not leaue his representation in the figure of a man to take from him all subiect of Idolatrie but hee chose rather to institute the Simboles in the Elements of bread and wine wherewith his humaine nature was nourished as ours is now the which is nourished dayly when there is no reason to worship them seeing we doe eate them as Theodoret saith yet the spirit of darkenes hauing in the olde time induced men to eate the beasts and then to worshippe their Images hath since found meanes to pull from the Church the firme breade in the Communion bringing in a kinde of wafer which cannot properly bee called breade beeing so thinne on the which are printed the Images of Iesus Christ the which they haue since worshiped whereas it was instituted onely to be eaten in remembrance that Iesus Christ had a humane bodie nourished like vnto ours to continue betwixt him and vs the communication of this incarnation by the Elements wherewith we are all nourished This onely adoration of one God hauing continued the sixe first ages after our Sauiour Gregorie the first Bishoppe of Rome brought in the inuocation of deade men in the beginning of the seauenth age with many other superstitions yet did he neuer teach that we must worshippe the Images of Iesus Christ as Christ himselfe as Thomas Aquinas and other Romish Doctors do teach vs neither did he teach that we should worshippe the consecrated Host as God but contrariwise writing to Serenus Bishoppe of Marseilles he commandes him in expresse wordes that he restraine the people from the worship of Images and that the people should prostrate themselues with all humilitie in the worship of the onely Almightie and holy Trinitie So as the Romish doctrine of the last ages is directly contrarie to that of the first six ages after our Sauiour And yet this Pope commaunded them to hold Images in their Churches yet not to worshippe them but to serue as a commemoration vnto the people of the Histories of the Bible onely but to what end serued this It was as much as if they should forbid one to be drunke who is naturally inclined thereunto yet command him to lodge in a Tauerne and to consort himselfe with drunkards or like to him that should coÌ„maund a young man in the heate of his youth giuen to licentiousnesse to abstaine from it and yet to lodge in a brothell house Mans nature is as much or more inclined to Idolatrie then to drunkennesse or luxurie therefore the deuine prouidence knowing this imperfection in man would take from him all subiect of Idolatrie Theodoret Serm. 7 de cur Grec affect saith That the wicked spirit to deceiue ignorant men inuented the Arte of painting gâ—â—uing and other workemen to forge Images and pictures to serue for matter of Idolatrie and that they haue not onely filled the Temple with Images but also the market places streetes and publique places yea euen rich mens houses the which we see practised at this day in the Temples markets streets and houses of our aduersaries Arnobius in the sixt booke against the Gentiles saith that they tooke the same pretext for the vse of Images in their Churches To serue the ignorant and vnruly people whom they made to worship them giuing them venerable formes to the end saith he they should beleeue there were some vertue in their brightnesse which did not onely dazle their eyes but stroke a terrour in their harts by the brightnesse of their resplendent light Wee are to obserue the speciall grace which God continuing his worke hath shewed to the Ilands of great Britaine in the beginning of this seauenth age for Gregorie the first hauing sent Augustine the young into the same Iland to plant many superstitions with the inuocation of Saints neither he nor his doctrine were receiued but the miserie was that soone after the death of Gregorie the worshipping of Images did so encrease as it was the cause of many troubles betwixt the West and the East as we shall shew hereafter In the seauenth eight and ninth ages making the third Period of Christianisme the Hebrewe Greeke Latine tongues were almost rooted out in the Westerne parts of Europe through the inundation of Barbarians which did teare in peeces the Romain Empire with the true diuinity wherby we obserue that euen as the true religion began with the said Empire and so encreased euen so the Empire decaying the sinceritie of Christian religion was almost abolished and declined so by their deuisions in the West that Sathan working the mistery of iniquitie in the harts of the Easterne Bishoppes made them to haue no respect to the purity of antiquity bringing in a new worship of the Creatures of the Crosse and of the Images of Iesus Christ the Apostles and Martires an Idolatrie meerely Pagan We reade in the actes of the second Councell of Nice printed both in Greeke Latine in Paris that the said Councell did decree that we must esteeme the image of Iesus Christ as Iesus Christ himselfe that as the person of Iesus Christ is distinguished from that of the father in hipostasis and vnited in substance euen so his image should differ from him in substance and be vnited in person the which is an intollerable blasphemy and as great as the heresies of Arrius and Nestorius for that were to make a God of a materiall thing or made by hand and to worshippe it as God as the Gentiles did worshippe the workemanshippe of man At that same time God raised vp in the Iland of great Brittaine that venerable Beda who taught the Hebrew Caldee Greeke and Latine tongues Diuinity and Philosophy out of whose Schoole came Iohannes Scotus and Alcuinus who planted learning and the sciences in the Citty of Paris was afterwards spread oueral Europe This Iohannes Scotus was Schoolemaister to the Emperor Charlemagne who withstood the idolatry of the Eastern Churches causing the second counsell of Nice to be declared hereticall and abusiue by that of Francfort as we reade in Ado viennensis The same Emperor became so learned as he writ a booke against the Pagan worship of images the which is found among the learned Out of the same schoole came one after another Rhabanus Maurus a Scotishman as many writers doe testifie Claudius Taurinensis Bertram a priest with other lights of the Church in the third period of Christianity which are the seauenth eight and ninth ages which haue fought against idolatry and the grosse errors of the sacrament as wee shall hereafter shew The fourth period of Christianisme which containes the tenth eleauenth and twelfe ages was so destitute of men adorned with true piety learning as the seedes of the Idolatry of former ages came to the accomplishment of the abhomination of dissolution at which time Berengarius Archdeacon of Anger 's with his disciples and Peter de Valdo with the
read that he did consecrate his Empire to Saint Andrew or Saint George as some of your predecessors in the time of Error and blindenesse But did dedicate his house and familie to one King that is God onely God was his onely patron who recompensed him with all good things and made him Lord and Conquerour ouer all other Princes He commaunded all his armie to call vppon one God as the giuer of victories he appointed that in their praiers they should lift vp their handes to heauen and the eyes of their vnderstanding to the most high king of Heauen Hee also taught them the forme of praying to God as followeth Wee confesse thee to be the onely God wee acknowledge thee to be the onely King wee call vppon thee to aide vs they did not inuoke the virgin Marie by thee wee obtayne victorie ouer our enemies wee giue thee thankes for the benefites wee receiue in this present life hoping for future things by thy meanes wee crye vnto thee with all humilitie that it would please thee to make our Emperour Constantine victorious and preserue his Godly Children in long life and happie health They did not call vpon the Angelles Michael and Gabriel to giue them victory Hereby we see that it is a false and slaundrous thing which the aduersaries of the trueth impute to your Maiesty to haue left the auncient profession of your predecessors and to haue planted a new religion begunne by Martin Luther Iohn Caluin and other most learned men whom God hath stirred vp in our age to abolish the false Romish worshippe as hath beene sufficiently prooued to your Maiesty in the discources of the first periode of the first three hundred yeeres And to shew that the onelye worshippe of the Creatour without mingling the adoration of the Creatures continued vnto this second periode of three hundred yeares in your Iland I will content my selfe with the saying of Sedulius Scotus Hibernensis who lyued in the fift age in these wordes which hee hath drawne out of Origen which I haue before cited It is a sinne of impietye to worshippe anye other but the Father Sonne and holye Ghost Whereunto Saint Augustine speakes very fitly saying Know that the Christians whereof there is a Church in your Towne Worshippe not anye dead thing neyther anye thing that hath beene made by God but God onelye is worshipped who hath made and created all things Our aduersaries dare not affirme that the hoast in the Masse is one of the three parsons of the Trinity as we haue saide which were a greater heresie then that of Arrius who sayde that the Sonne of God was a Creature hauing a beginning beeing not the Sonne of God from all eternitye All their Doctors teach that it is made and created by the pronountiation of the wordes of Iesus Christ taking his beginning by the consecration whereby we inferre that they are worshippers of visible formes and therfore Idolaters in worshipping it seeing it is no eternall creature nor consubstantiall with God the Father For Athanasius Theodoret Cyrillus and all the ancient Fathers booth Greeke and Latine of the second periode of three hundred yeares of Christianity teach that if the Sonne of God had beene created or had had any beginning that he had not beene worshipped for that the Creature dooth not worshippe the Creature God onely is to be worshipped if the Sonne had beene a creature he had not beene worshipped God forbidde we should worshippe the Creature this madnesse fittes best with the Pagans and Arrians And in another place hee saithe that the Christians worshippe not the body of Iesus Christ deuided from the deity Neither when wee worshippe the worde saith hee doe we seperate the worde from the flesh but knowing that the worde hath beene made flesh acknowledge that which is in the flesh to bee God And a little after speaking of the Leaper he saith Hee worshipped the Lord in his body and did acknowledge him for God And the same Athanasius teacheth vs that the bodye of our Lorde is not consubstantiall with the Father and therefore not to bee worshipped alone with greater reason the hoast which cannot bee saide consubstantiall with the Father is not to bee worshipped For if the deitye of Iesus Christ had not beene consubstantiall with the Father and without beginning as the Father is it had not beene lawfull to worshippe him And this SIRE hath beene represented vnto you in the first periode the which I repeate heere to shew the continuance of the worship of one onely God It is therefore manyfest that the Christians of this second periode ending in the sixe hundred yeare of Christianity did beleeue that it was a Pagan Idolatry to worshippe any Creature which had a beginning restraining all adoration but to the Trinitye alone worshipping nothing vnderneath it the which is comprehended by Gregorys Nazianzene in few words where he saith that we must worshippe nothing aboue or beneath the Trinity For saith hee it is impossible to worshippe any thing aboue God and to worshippe anye thing vnderneath God is meere impietye Let vs adde heere unto what Theodoret saith who liued in the fift age touching the adoration of the Sacrament of the Lordes supper for that the Romains corrupting his writings attribute vnto him the worship of the Simbols of the body bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ which he neuer dreampt of for besides that which wee haue before alledged that hee condemned the Arrians for that they worshipped the deity which they say de was created Hee saith in the fifty fiue question vppon Genesis that God did allowe to eate the flesh of beastes to restraine the people from worshipping of them foreseeing that men should fall into that blindenesse and superstition as they should worshippe beastes as wee reade of the worshippe of the Golden Calfe like vnto the Egyptians where Theodoret concludes that it is a meere madnesse to worshippe that which wee eate So as according vnto Theodoret the priests should bee madde to worshippe that which they eate Athanasius against the Arrians teacheth that the deity is not to be eaten and yet the Romaines maintaine that their hoast is God himselfe and they sinne that they eate that which is present in the hoast which in effect is to make the deity edible Our Sauiour before he left this world would leaue vnto all men that should beleeue in him a perpetual comemoration of his true incarnation and passion to the end this memoriall should bee as it were a Simbole of the presence of his humaine nature hereon earth He might as well after the manner of the Greekes and Romaines haue left his portraite liuely drawne to serue for a representation and commemoration vnto such as should beleeue in him yea they should make infinite numbers of pictures like vnto the starres of heauen to be in all assemblies of Christians and to shewe that he had put on a bodie like vnto those pictures but he