ANSWER.
THis is not the Protestants Obiection, but the Iesuits fiction, We say that Image worship is a stumbling blocke, both to the learned and the simple, for it is in it selfe a super∣stition, [ C] or vndue manner of Worship, neuer approoued or ra∣tified, by any Precept, Promise, or blessing of God, in the Old Testament, or by Christ and his Apostles in the New.
Secondly, The manner of worshipping Images, according to the Popish tenet, is so subtill and intricate, euen to the lear∣ned themselues, that it must of necessitie be difficile for the vn∣learned to conceiue the same, and consequently, not to erre in the performance of it.
Thirdly, When it is performed with greatest intelligence, what fruit and reward can be reaped, other than such as our Sa∣uiour [ D] spake of the Pharisees, saying, In vaine doe you worship me, teaching for Doctrines the Precepts of men.
And although Saint Augustine, Epist. 49. and againe, sup. Psal. 113. speaketh literally of Pagan Images, yet hee decla∣reth in generall, the perill which all Images (being adored) may bring vnto weaker mindes, and condemneth the vse of them, euen when they are not adored for themselues, but made in∣struments to worship God; saying in one place, a 1.1 Thus haue they deserued to erre, which sought Christ in painted Images, and not in [ E] written Bookes.