paid whether properly or improperly, univocally or equivocally, for themselves or for something else, whether analogically or simply, whether absolutely or by reduction. And it is remarkable what Bellarmine answers to the question, With what kind of worship images may be adored? He answers with this proposition; "The worship which by itself and properly is due to images, is a certain imperfect wor ship, which analogically and reductively pertains to a kind of that worship, which is due to the exemplar:" and a little after, "To the images a certain inferior worship is due, and that not all one, but various according to the variety of images." To the images of saints is due "dulia secundum quid;" which if you do not understand, Bellarmine in the next words explains most clearly; 'dulia secundum quid,' is, as a man may say, 'reductive and analogical.' But after all this we may be mistaken, and we cannot tell whom to follow nor what to do in the case. Thomas and his scholars warrant you to give the same worship to God's image as to God: and this is the easiest way indeed to be understood, and indeed may quickly be understood, to be direct idolatry. Bellarmine and others tell you, Stay, not so altogether; but there is a way to agree with St. Thomas, that it shall be the same worship, and not the same worship; for it is the same by reduction, that is, it is of the same kind, and therefore divine, but it is imperfectly divine ;-as if there could be degrees in divine worship; that is, as if any worship could be divine, and yet not the greatest. But if this seems difficult, Bellarmine illustrates it by similitudes: "This worship of images is the same with the worship of the example, viz. of God, or of Christ, as it happens; just as a painted man is the same with a living man, and a painted horse with a living horse, for a painted man and a painted horse differ specifically; as the true man and the true horse do; and yet the painted man is no man, and the painted horse is no horse." The effect of which discourse is this, that the worship of images, is but the image of worship; hypocrisy and dissimulation all the way; nothing real, but imaginative and fantastical; and indeed though this gives but a very ill account of the agreement of Bellarmine, with their saints, Thomas and Bonaventure, yet it is the best way to avoid idolatry, • Lib. 2. de Imagin. S. S. cap. 25. because they give no real worship to images: but then on the other side, how do they mock God and Christ, by offering to them that which is nothing; by pretending to honour them by honouring their images; when the honour they do give to images, is itself but imaginary, and no more of reality in it, than there is of human nature in the picture of a man! However, if you will not commit downright idolatry, as some of their saints teach you, then you must be careful to observe these plain distinctions, and first be sure to remember that when you worship an image, you do it not materially but formally; not as it is of such a substance, but as it is a sign; next take care that you observe what sort of image it is, and then proportion your right kind to it, that you do not give 'latria' to that where 'hyperdulia' is only due; and be careful that if dulia' only be due, that your worship be not 'hyperdulical.' In the next place consider that the worship to your image is intransitive but in few cases, and according but to a few doctors; and therefore when you have got all these cases together, be sure that in all other cases it be transitive. But then when the worship is passed on to the exemplar, you must consider, that if it be of the same kind with that which is due to the example, yet it must be an imperfect piece of worship, though the kind be perfect; and that it is but analogical, and it is reductive, and it is not absolute, not simple, not by itself; not by an act to the image distinct from that which is to the example, but one and the same individual act, with one intention, as to the supreme kind, though with some little variety, if the kinds be differing. Now by these easy, ready, clear, and necessary distinctions, and rules, and cases, the people being fully and perfectly instructed, there is no possibility that the worship of images should be against the second commandment, because the commandment does not forbid any worship that is transitive, reduct, accidental, consequential, analogical, and hyperdulical, and this is all that the church of Rome does, by her wisest doctors, teach now-a-days. But now after all this, the easiest way of all certainly is to worship no images, and no manner of way, and trouble the people's heads with no distinction; for by these no man can ever be at peace, or understand the commandment, which without these laborious devices (by which they confess the guilt of the commandment, does lie a little too heavy upon them) would most easily by every man and every woman be plainly and properly understood. And therefore I know not whether there be more impiety, or more fearful caution, in the church of Rome in being so curious, that the second commandment be not exposed to the eyes and ears of the people; leaving it out of their manuals, breviaries, and catechisms, as if when they teach the people to serve God, they had a mind they should not be tempted to keep all the commandments. And when at any time they do set it down, they only say thus, "Non facies tibi idolum," which is a word not used in the second commandment at all; and if the word which is there used be sometimes translated 'idolum,' yet it means no more than 'similitude;' or if the words be of distinct signification, yet because both are expressly forbidden in that commandment, it is very ill to represent the commandment so, as if it were observed according to the intention of that word, yet the commandment might be broken, by the not observing it according to the intention of the other word, which they conceal. But of this more by and by. 7. I consider that there is very great scandal and offence given to enemies and strangers to Christianity; the very Turks and Jews, with whom the worship of images is of very ill report, and that upon, at least, the most probable grounds in the world. Now the Apostle having commanded all Christians to pursue those things which are of good report, and to walk circumspectly and charitably towards them that are without, and that we "give no offence neither to the Jew nor to the gentile:" now if we consider, that if the Christian church were wholly without images, there would nothing perish to the faith or to the charity of the church, or to any grace which is in order to heaven; and that the spiritual state of the Christian church may as well want such babyceremonies as the synagogue did; and yet on the other side, that the Jews and Turks are the more, much more, estranged from the religion of Christ Jesus, by the image-worship? done by his pretended servants; the consequent will be, that to retain the worship of images is both against the faith and the charity of Christians, and puts limits, and retrenches the borders of the Christian pale. P 1 Cor. viii. 13. 8. It is also very scandalous to Christians, that is, it makes many, and endangers more, to fall into the direct sin of idolatry. Polydore Virgil' observes out of St. Jerome, that "almost all the holy fathers damned the worship of images, for this very reason, for fear of idolatry ;" and Cassander says, that all the ancients did abhor all adoration of images; and he cites Origen' as an instance great enough to verify the whole affirmative: "Nos vero ideo non honoramus simulacra, quia quantum possumus cavemus, ne quo modo incidamus in eam credulitatem, ut his tribuamus divinitatis aliquid."-This authority E. W. (p. 55) is not ashamed to bring in behalf of himself in this question, saying, that "Origen hath nothing against the use of images, and declares our Christian doctrine thus ;" then he recites the words above quoted; than which, Origen could not speak plainer against the practice of the Roman church; and E. W. might as well have disputed for the Manichees with this argument: "The Scripture doth not say that God made the world, it only declares the Christian doctrine thus, In the beginning God made heaven and earth," &c. But this gentleman thinks any thing will pass for argument amongst his own people. And of this danger St. Austin' gives a rational account; "No man doubts but idols want all sense: but when they are placed in their seats, in an honourable sublimity, that they may be attended by them that pray and offer sacrifice, by the very likeness of living members and senses, although they be senseless and without life, they af De Invent. Rerum lib. 6. c. 13. Eo insaniæ de ventum est, ut hæc pietatis pars parum differat ab impietate. Sunt enim benè multi rudiores stupidioresque, qui saxeas vel ligneas, seu in parietibus pictas imagines colant, non ut figuras, sed perindè ac si ipsæ sensum aliquem habeant, et eis magis fidant quam Christo: Polyd. Virg. lib. 6. c. 13. de Invent. Rerum.--Lilius Giraldus in Syntag. de Diis Gentium loquens de excessu Romanæ ecclesiæ in negotio imaginum, præfatur, Satius esse ea Harpocrati et Angeronæ consignare. Illud certè non prætermittam, nos dico Christianos, ut aliquando Romanos fuisse sine imaginibus in primitivâ, quæ vocatur, ecclesia. Erasmus in catechesi ait, usque ad ætatem Hieronymi erant probatæ religionis viri, qui in templis nullam ferebant imaginem, nec pictam, nec sculptam, nec lextam, ac ne Christi quidem.—Et ibid. Ut imagines sint in templis nulla præcepit vel humana constitutio; et ut facilius est, ita tutius quoque omnes imagines è templis submovere. Videatur etiam Cassandri consultatio, sub hoc titulo et Masius in Josuah, cap. 8. Sic autem queritur Ludovicus Vives Comment. in lib. 8. c. ult. de Civil. Dei. Divos divasque non alitèr venerantur, quàm Deum ipsum. Non video in multis quid discrimen sit inter eorum opinionem de sanctis, et id quod Gentiles putabant de Diis suis.-Didorus Siculus dixit de Mose, imaginem statuit nullam, ideo quod non crederet Deum homini similem esse: et Dion. lib. 36. Nullam effigiem in Hierosolymis habuere, quod Deum crederent ut ineffabilem, ita inaspicuum ἀειδή. Consul. de Imagin. ex Origene contr. Celsum, lib. 7. versus finem. fect weak minds, that they seem to live and feel, especially when the veneration of a multitude is added to it, by which so great a worship is bestowed upon them." Here is the danger, and how much is contributed to it in the church of Rome, by clothing their images in rich apparel, and by pretending to make them nod their head, to twinkle the eyes, and even to speak, the world is too much satisfied. Some such things as these, and the superstitious talkings and actings of their priests, made great impressions upon my neighbours in Ireland; and they had such a deep and religious veneration for the image of our lady of Kilbrony, that a worthy gentleman, who is now with God, and knew the deep superstition of the poor Irish, did not distrain upon his tenants for his rents, but carried away the image of the female saint of Kilbrony; and instantly the priest took care that the tenants should redeem the lady, by a punctual and speedy paying of their rents; for they thought themselves unblessed as long as the image was away; and therefore they speedily fetched away their ark from the house of Obed-Edom, and were afraid that their saint could not help them, when her image was away. Now if St. Paul would have Christians to abstain from "meats sacrificed to idols," to avoid the giving offence to weak brethren, much more ought the church to avoid tempting all the weak people of her communion to idolatry, by countenancing, and justifying, and imposing, such acts, which all their heads can never learn to distinguish from idolatry. I end this with a memorial out of the councils of Sens and Mentz, who command "moneri populum, ne imagines adorent:" "The preachers were commanded to admonish the people, that they should not adore images." And for the novelty of the practice here in the British churches, it is evident in ecclesiastical story, that it was introduced by a synod of London, about the year 714, under Bonifacius the legate, and Bertualdus, archbishop of Dover; and that without disputation or inquiry into the lawfulness or unlawfulness of it, but wholly upon the account of a vision pretended to be seen by Egwin bishop of Worcester; the Virgin Mary appearing to him, and commanding that her image ↑ C. 14. c. 41. apud Bellarmin. lib. 2. de Imag. S. S. c. 22. sect. Secunda propositio. |