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And this point is further strengthened by the seconde commandement, which forbiddeth not only to worship, but euen to make an Image, or any similitude whatsoever, to wit ad cultū, or for religious vse, as according to the scripture the best interpreters, partly against Images in Churches, partly on the words of the precept do most naturally expoūd
it. For surely if Idolatry it selfe, as a most execrable thing, be forbidden, then all occasions & meanes leading thervnto are likewise prohibited, & what stronger provocation to that spiritual whoredome, thē erecting Images, in the place of Gods worship? Plus enim, vt rectè Augustinus in Psalm. 113. valent simulacra ad curuandam infeliccm animam, quòd os habent, nares habent, manus habent, pedes ha∣bent, quàm ad corrigendam quòd non loquentur, nō vi∣debunt, non audient, non odorabunt, non tractabunt, nō ambulabunt.
And therefore without doubt, the meaning of the com∣mandement is, to binde the Church from all such snares & allurements to sin. And therfore doth Augustine in quaest. super Leu. q. 68. wel conclude from this cōmandement, that such making of an Idoll, can never be iust or lawfull.
Now if no similitude at all be tollerable in Gods service, then much lesse any that hath beene, and is worshipped Ido∣latrouslie.
Tertullian against the Gnosticks, accompted them Ido∣laters not only which worshipped, but those also vvhich made and retained Images (nempe ad cultum, or for holie vse) and in his booke, de Idololatria, hee vehemently repro∣veth the very makers of Images, though they did not them∣selues worship thē, which sheweth in what execration the Primitiue Churche held any religious vse of an Idoll.
The like we may finde in Epiphanius, ad Johannem E∣piscopum Hierosol. where he reporteth, that finding an I∣mage of Christ or some Saint hanging at a Church dore, he rent it in peeces, avouching, that to hange a picture in the Church of Christ, was contra autoritatem scripturarum, contra religionem Christianam, contrary to the authority of the scriptures, and the Christian Religion.
Frō hence I conclude, that if the godly fathers were so vehemēt against the erecting of the Images of Christ, & of Saints, euen at that time, before any worship was giuen vnto them: Much more would they withstand it now after men haue made Idolls of them. And if they would not suffer an Idoll, so much, as in the place of Gods worship: would they endure themselues to vse such an Idoll as the Crosse in the seruice and sacramentes of God? Their zeale against that spirituall fornication, would neuer permitt them so highly to honor such an execrable thing: neither was their zeale herein without ground of knowledge, for the spirit of God in Psal. 115.8. speaking of Idolls, They (saith he) that make them, are like vnto them, and so are all they that trust in them. VVhere a plaine difference is made betwene makers, and worshippers of Idolls, and both condemned as Cursed transgressors of the Law. Shall any then make the Idoll of the Crosse, & that Religionis causa, and yet be innocent?
Questionlesse by Dauids example, we must make no mē∣tion, that is, keep no honorable memory of an Idoll, & ther∣fore without doubt, not giue it so much honor as to vse it, or the memoriall therof in the house of God, & in his holy worship: but as Isai: saith, we must pollute the reliques, & the very couering and ornament of the Idoll, and cast thē away as a menstruous cloth, & say vnto it. get thee hence.
The Treatiser confirmes his explanation of the sen∣tence of St. Iohn by the second Commandement, & by the testimonies of S. Augustine, Tertulliā, & Epiphanius thervnto applied. Wherin giuing way to his allegatiōs, because they are only against Jdolatry, and making of Jmages to worship them, J only marke his scapes, and
overreachings, wherof the first is in these words Ad cul∣tum, or for Religious vse: where J note, that how soeuer in words, he would faine make Cultus, and religious vse differēt things, that so he might seeme to follow his pro∣posed diuision, de cultu et vsu, yet in his proofes he makes them both one; A manifest argument, that in all this discourse he neuer commeth nere our vse, of the Crosse in Baptisme, which is so farre from Cultus, and religious vse, (as he vnderstands it) that we neither worship it, nor suppose any religon to be in it, as J said even now.
A second scape of his, is in this conditionall Collecti∣on, vpon the second Commandement, and testiōnies of St. Augustine, If no similitude at all, be tolerable in Gods seruice, then much lesse any, that hath bin, and is worship∣ed Idolatrously. For wheras the second Commandement, & all his proofes there vpon, run mainly against Cultus, or religious vse, (which to him are both one) he cānot thēce cōclude, that therfore the vse of some similitudes, in a religious action, without any worship ascribed vnto them, or opinion of religion reposed in them, is not tol∣lerable. For by this generall restraint, beyond the nature of his proofes, he may as well exclude the vse of Sacra∣mēts out of Gods seruice, which certainly are some kind of similitudes, of those things which they doe represent: according to that of St. Augustine, Si sacramēta quan∣dam similitudinem earū rerum, quarum sunt sacramen∣ta non haberent, omnino sacramenta non essent. Againe his illation and inference vpon this supposition, is like∣wise false: for though that were true: yet some thing, that hath bin heretofore Idolatrously worshiped, may lawfully be tollerated now; and some thing that even now is Ido∣latrously
worshiped, (which yet is not granted of the signe of the Crosse in Baptisme, as shall hereafter ap∣peare) may be lawfully tollerated in some other, that are free from all conceite of Jdolatrie, as formerly hath bin declared.
Thirdly, hee over-reacheth in his collection vpon the words of Tertullian and Epiphanius, where hee asketh, woulde they endure themselues to vse such an Jdoll as the Crosse, in the service and sacraments of God? We answer, they would, such an Jdoll, as our Crosse is: And we are per∣swaded that both they, & St. Augustine too, would like it wel enough. When they shoulde perceiue, that with∣out opinion of superstition, or efficacie ascribed vnto it, it were reclaimed to the very same symbolicall or ceremoni∣all vse, it had in their times, howsoever in the times be∣tweene them and vs, it hath bin abused by some to Jdola∣trie. Epiphanius misliketh it not in his time, as may ap∣peare in that narration he maketh of Josephus. Tertulliā, we are sure, would indure it wel enough, who so often & willingly mentioneth it and in all his writings commen∣deth the vse of it, Ad omnem progressum at{que} promotum, ad omnem aditum & exitum, ad vestitum & calceatum, ad la∣vacra, ad men sas, ad lumina, ad cubicula, ad sedilia, quae∣cun{que} nos cōversatio exercet, frontem crucis signaculo ter∣minas. Insomuch that T. C. pronounceth (full rashly & without al cause) that the Lorde left a marke of his curse vpon it, for comming out of the forge of mans braine, & being so much abused. And for St. Augustines opinion I refer you to his hundred eighty & one sermon, de tem∣pore, or if that please you not, to his sermon de verbis do∣mini, where hee saith. Quod ipse honoraturus erat fideles suos in fine huius saculi, prius honoravit crucē in hoc sae∣culo,
&c. Quod cū magna Insultatione persecutores Judaei Domino procurarunt, cum magna fiducia seruieius, etiam & reges in fronte nunc portant. And yet notwithstan∣ding al this, we are as well, and better perswaded of their vehemency against erecting of images, and of their zeale against spirituall fornication, then the Treatiser is, & can more easily be induced to beleeue, that their zeale here∣in was not without knowledge, then these men can so slenderly acquaint themselues with their knowledge, or zeale: and as in this: so in all other pointes, never cite a∣ny testimonie out of them sincerely, and according to their meaning.
Fourthly▪ the Treatiser much overlasheth, where hee marshals vs among the worshipers of Idols, Concluding that streine of his with this forcible 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, shal any then make an Idoll of the Crosse? and that Religionis causâ, and yet be innocēt? True it is. The prophet Dauid saith. They that make them are like vnto them, &c. but what? is his meaning that they are like vnto them for simply making them? J trust no: for then how wil you iustifie your for∣mer words? that an Image may be made and reteined for Ciuil respects, we make no question: His meaning is thē, They that make them to worship them, and to put their trust in them, as all Idolatrous makers doe, are like vnto them, we make the Crosse indeed, but neither to wor∣ship it nor to put our trust in it: And therfore J hope are no more to be Condemned as cursed Transgressors of the Law, then you are when you write the letters of T. C. name, which you cannot do but you must needs make a Crosse. And J think verily, that you put more religion in this T. then our Church doth in the signe of the Crosse. As for your Crābe of Religionis causâ, it is answered be∣fore,
and is an odious imputation, by you fastened on our Church, without all colour of truth.
Isa. 50.22.
Aug. ep. 23. ad Bonifacium.
Epiph. lib. to. 2. contra haeres. Ebionis.
Tertull. de coron ••il. cap. 3.
T.C. lib. 1.
Aug serm. 181. de temp.
Aug ser. de ver∣bis domini.
Wisd. 13.17.