Having said what I think is abundantly sufficient to clear the Church's Practice in her use and veneration of Images from so heavy an imputation as indeed if the Adversaries interest would permit them to aggravate it so far doth utterly un-un-church it and make it a Synagogue of Satan and parallel to the Heathen Religions Now I desire those Protestants who charge the Church herewith to reflect what an heavy guilt it leaves upon themselves if such Accusation should be false and without cause and what consequences pernicious to themselves it draws along with it For 1. if it be a great fault to charge unjustly any private person with so hainous a crime as Idolatry what is it to charge the whole Catholick Church East and West with the Practice thereof now for above a thousand years and this notwithstanding our Lord 's precious Blood shed for this his Church and all his Providence over it now when all Power in heaven and earth is committed to him and notwithstanding his express Promise of protecting it for ever against the gates of hell What is it thus to call their innocent Mother a Whore for committing such spiritual Fornication and their supreme Spiritual Father Anti-Christ 2. And next What consequences doth it draw after it most mischievous to their Salvation Since after they have once fixed such an Apostacy upon their supreme Spiritual Governors and Guides and after they have thus cryed Corban they conceive themselves freed and absolved from any further Obedience they owe them And by withdrawing Obedience abandon themselves to all those errors and disorders from which this supreme Church-authority would have restrained them Nay some are so frighted herewith as they know not how to stay longer under any Church-authority at all but run away also from those Ecclesiastical Governors who have discovered this Idolatry and Anti-Christ to them and from that Church-discipline also and those Ceremonies which these judge still fit to retain as thinking they discern in all these some lineaments and resemblances of him And so by God's just judgment what aspersions these inferior Guides have laid upon the Supreme these other their Subjects have returned on them And several sober Protestants of late See Dr. Hammond who seem to have better weighed these things in labouring against these Puritan Sects to free their own Church-Government from such an imputation have also enlarged themselves so far as to release the Roman from it and have joined themselves with the Catholick Writers to remove Anti-Christ and his Seat and Kingdom quite out of the verge of Christianity § 62 Meanwhile of those Protestants who have supposed the Roman Church Anti-christian and its Head the Anti-christ and its Religion Idolatry these later more zealous Sects seem to act much more sincerely and consequentially than the other more moderate party For such Idolatry and Anti-christ once clearly discovered God forbid good Christians should so far either admit of his Laws or comply with his religious Ceremonies or maintain Communion with his Members or derive their Authority from him as the Prelatical Protestancy doth with and from the Church of Rome Would any of them correspond so far with Mahomet's Religion whom yet they account not bad enough to inherit the title of Anti-christ or charge of Idolatry as they do with the Pope's Let them then either remit such Accusation or prosecute more severely and more speedily fly from such a guilt We can never run far enough from this Grand Enemy of our Lord. For as the Apostle 2. Cor. 6.14 ' What fellowship or communion hath light with darkness what concord Christ with Belial what commerce Jerusalem with Babylon Let therefore those Zelots who are so forward to heap such an extremity of Impiety on the whole Church of God for so many Centuries before Luther or also on the whole present Church besides Luther's Followers consider well that necessary consequence thereof which some others of their own side to deter them from such a charge have observed For ' If as Mr. Thorndike Epilog 3. l. p. 357. these Practices which the Church of Rome allows and which we have handled here were necessarily Idolatries then were the Church of Rome necessarily no Church I add nor any other for many Ages before Luther or the present besides Luther for in these Practices all else agree ' The being of the Church and of Christianity presupposing the worship of one true God exclusive to any thing else And elsewhere Just Weights 2. c. p. 11. ' They that own the Church of Rome for a true Church and if it be not where was the Catholick Church before Luther must contradict themselves if they maintain such a supposition as that the Pope is Anti-christ or the Papists Idolaters Their charge is too high to be possibly true and to render her not innocent and free from their complaints they must necessarily make her less wicked Again the same Author Ibid. c. 19. p. 128. ' He that sees saith he the whole Church for the East as well as West practice these by them stiled Idolatries on the one side and only Calvin and his Followers on the other hath he not cause to fear that they who make them Idolaters without cause will themselves appear Schismaticks in the sight of God for it And therefore much more modestly he saith Epilog 3. l. p. 364. That the honor of Images which the Church's Decree maintaineth is no Idolatry And Ibid. p. 416. That the Idolatries which he grants to be possible tho not necessary indeed to be found in it are by the ignorance and carnal affections of particulars not by commands of the Church or the Laws of it And of the great danger of censuring such general Practices of the Church thus Bishop Forbes speaking of one of the supposed Idolatries Invocation of Saints De Invoc Sanct. 3. c. p. 322. Totius Ecclesiae universalem consensum spernere aut damnare res longe periculosissima est And much more in abuses only of some that which he saith is true p. 326. Non continuo propter periculum abusus aut etiam abusum quem reipsa cernimus legitimus rei usus cum scandalo totius Ecclesiae tollendus aut damnandus est § 63 Surely as the Devil gained heretofore infinite of Souls in the Old World by the Practice of Idolatry so in the New after the World's being more enlightened by the coming of our Lord and after his old gross Arts grown into general contempt and disgrace he changeth his Colours and plays another game and makes no small Harvest of Souls by driving and frighting them out of the Catholick Church and Faith and former Obedience to legal Church-Authority under the pretence now of flying from Idolatry And again So great an Envy he hath to the Honor he sees given in the Church to the sacred Humanity of our Lord in the Holy Mysteries and to his Martyrs and Saints and all that which any way appertains to them that he
there much more reasonable for me to worship God by prostrating my self to the Sun or any of the heavenly Bodies nay to an Ant or a Fly than to a wooden Table or to a Stone-building or to the leaves of a Book or a few letters put together in a word or to two sticks across or to a silver Chalice or to a wooden Chair For in the other I see great evidences of the power and wisdom and goodness of God which may suggest venerable apprehensions of God to my mind whereas these can have nothing worthy admiration unless it be the skill of the Artificer And I cannot for my heart understand why I may not as well nay better burn Incense and say my Prayers to the Sun having an intention only to honor the true God by it as to do both those burn Frankincense and say my Prayers in a Church or before the Altars or a Cross I say here before because as Protestants going into a Church or before an Altar to pray yet do not pray to the Church or Altar so neither do Catholicks to an Image And as Protestants do not burn Frankincense in a Church that the Church or Altar may scent it so neither Catholicks that the Image I am sure the Sun hath far more advantages than any artificial Table or a curious Structure can have the beauty and influence of it may enflame and warm ones devotion much more If the danger be that I am more like to take the Sun for God than a Church a Table or a Book on that account that which deserves most honour should have least given it and that which deserves least should have most Then After his own reasoning ended Thus he may set the Heathen himself upon the Protestant as he there doth upon the Catholick ' I saith the Heathen proceeding only upon such principles as these that there is one supreme infinite Being who makes use of some more illustrous Beings of the world to communicate benefits to the rest on which account I think my self bound to testify the honor I owe to the supreme Deity by paying my due respects and honor also in subordination to him to those subservient and ministerial instruments of his am not afraid of what any Prelatist in the world can say for my confutation Nay I am tempted to laugh at their folly and despise their weakness who plead for the Worship of God in or before a dull and rude heap of stones or frame of wood and condemn me for honouring God in the Sun the most noble part of the Creation If they tell me that the supreme God must have a Worship proper to himself Yes I answer them in their own terms I by no means question it and that is it which is called by them and the Fathers See St. Austine De Civ Dei l. 10. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is reserved to the supreme Deity all that I give to the Sun is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which deserves an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of its eminent usefulness But here the personated Heathen mistakes a litle for as the veneration of holy things is not by Protestants so neither that of Images by Catholicks called any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 see before § 49. much less do Catholicks do the same things to an Image which they do to God himself as this Author tels his Reader a litle after ' If they say I make the Sun God by giving it religious worship no more than they do Temples and Altars for the Catholick's Veneration given to Images is held no more religious in any sense than that of Protestants to Churches Altars the Holy Name of JESUS c words and things relating to Religion not Civil commerce ' If they urge that God hath forbidden worshiping the Host of Heaven and so the Sun Yes that is giving the Worship of the supreme God to them but not a subordinate relative inferior worship which was all I intend and I hope they are not so ignorant of the nature of humane actions as not to know that they go whither they are tended and my intent was only to honor the true God by it It would be too tedious to prosecute the rest of his Discourse justifying the worship of the Sun rather than of any other sacred things against the Protestants as much as of it rather than of Images against Catholicks And the same joint defence against such Heathen may serve for them both That such relative reverence or veneration is not performed to those things more that are in their essence more noble than others for what comparison herein between the Sun and a Church Nor yet to all things that have any relation to him whom we principally and soveraignly honor for so have all God's Creatures whatever but to those only that have a nearer and more immediate relation to him either by consecration to his service as Churches Altars c. or also a representation of his Person as the Images of our Lord or some other way In the reverent treatment of which things tho these uncapable of any sense thereof yet in the sight of them who behold it we devoutly express our honour and homage to the person to whom they belong And what things it is meet should receive such a respect we must prudently leave to the judgment and arbitration of the Church and our Spiritual Superiors § 53 9. These things concerning the lawfulness of such an inferior Veneration as is given by Catholicks to Images being cleared whether the present practice herein be also ancient and the use of later ages precisely the same as the first we need not be solicitous 1. For first that which is lawful in any times to be practiced may also lawfully at any time begin to be so Nor is it necessary that what is done now be also the practice of Antiquity but sufficient if nothing in Antiquity can be shewed repugnant to it Again It is not necessary that there be any express Command or Precept in Scripture either for the veneration use or making of Images But it is sufficient if there be any example in the New or Old Testament that it is in neither of them disallowed enough if an example there be of something equal and parallel to it the veneration of some other sacred things or enough for the lawfulness of such practice if no prohibition found thereof in the sacred Writ as I hope for two of these the making and use of Images or Pictures Protestants will accord The honor and worship of our Lord and his Saints all will allow a duty what ways or modes also of honouring them more immediate and direct or also more remote and relative are lawful or also expedient and when it belongs to the Church to determine and to prescribe to us and we are obliged to acquiesce in her judgment and submit to her Injunctions Lastly It will not follow from the non-practice of any
the Bishop not to restrain the word always to the Supreme or Divine Worship And then Adorare being taken sometimes for venerari as it runs adoravi filios Heth so it may also adorate Scabellum Templum without an Ad and he may safely say if Templa veneramur so Templa adoramus both signifying the same inferior worship or honor But however Veneration of Temples and other holy things and if I mistake him not of the Cherubims Bishop Andrews allows Thus he also elsewhere Serm. on Phil. 2.10 p. 478. of the Reverence due to the Holy Name of JESUS ' He is exalted saith he to whose Person knees do bow but to whose Name only much more And His Name he left behind to us that we may shew by our reverence and respect to it how much we esteem him how true the Psalm shall be Holy and reverend is his Name Look to the Text then and let no man perswade you but that God requireth a reverent carriage even of the Body it self And namely this service of the Knee And that to his Son's Name Do it to the sense have mind on him that is named there is the relative honor of it and do his Name the honor and spare not The same he saith there also of the Holy Mysteries in the Eucharist ' There are saith he wondring at it that forbear to do it at his Name Nay at the Holy Mysteries themselves Where his Name is I am sure and more than his Name even the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ Thus He. Again Bishop White against Fisher p. 224. saith ' Religious Adoration may be founded on some certain kinds of Union 1. Personal 2 Substantial or 3 lastly Causal relative or accidental to wit when by divine ordination things created are made instruments messengers signs or receptacles of divine grace as the holy Sacraments and the Word and Gospel and the Ministers of the Church c. Christ himself is present assistant and operative in and by these instruments and hath commanded reverence to be used towards them accounting the love faith and honor which are yielded to his created Word to be love faith and honor to himself And before p. 219. Upon the relative union also between the King and his Image shewed by F. Fisher out of St. Athanasius Contra Arrianos Serm. 4. Upon which that Father there concludes Qui igitur adorat imaginem in illa adorat ipsum Regem quia cum ipsa imago nihil aliud sit quam Regis forma ac species the Bishop grants ' That the Images of Kings sometimes saith he not always in civil use and custome not in Religion may be taken and reverenced for the principal I suppose then in civil use and custome not in religious so may our Lord's Image too sometimes And then why not at any time either his or the King's De Sanctorum Reliquiis Imaginibus c. saith Spalatensis Ostensio Errorum Suarez cap. 2. cultum in his distinguo ac Venerationem Humanum neque Rex neque Orthodoxi negabunt religiosum vero divinum omnino negandum esse affirmo And afterward distinguishing Excellentiam qua a Deo fuerunt supernaturaliter exaltati solam civilem excellentiam in ipsis he saith Honore eodem humano utramque excellentiam divinam humanam in homine prosequimur Religioso autem hoc est divino honore solum Deum prosequendum esse arbitramur and as well might he if he pleased have distinguished a Religious honor into Humanus Divinus Bishop Mountague in his Appeal to Caesar chap. 21. saith ' That no Religious Honor or Worship is to be given to Images but yet That all Reverence simply cannot be abstracted from them ' And can a man saith he there have the true Representation of his Prince Patrons c. without awe respect regard love reverence moved by aspect and wrought in him I profess my imperfection or what they will call it it is so with me And quotes this out of Junius in his Animadversions upon Bellarmin De Imaginibus Hoc nemo nostrum dicit non esse colendas Imagines nec ullo modo Suo modo coli probamus velut Imagines at non religioso cultu qui aut superstitiosus est aut impius Nec cum aliorum scandalo sive cultus separatus sive conjunctus cum eorum cultu intelligatur quorum sunt Imagines Bishop White also of Images themselves speaks thus in the beginning of his Discousse p. 208. ' The Advocate of Imagery Fisher should first of all have declared what he understands by Worship of Images whether Veneration only largely taken or Adoration properly so called Veneration may signify external regard and reverence of Pictures such as is given to Churches and sacred Vessels and to ornaments of sacred Places and according to this notion many have approved or tolerated Worship of Images which deny Adoration And amongst the many here he means not only Papists but Protestants For there he quotes also this place of Junius for it and before him cites the Council of Nice that we may see both agree Some cult honor reverence we see then here allowed as to other holy things so to Images As for our stiling it a religious Cult we cannot hinder but that Protestants may take the word of which see enough before § 16 c. as that Catholicks dare not apply it so to any thing save to God Of the Equivocation that is in this and many other words not easily to be avoided Mr. Thorndike saith well Epilog 3. l. 30. c. p. 353. where speaking of the term of Religious as applied to the honor of Saints he saith ' Whether this Honor be Religious or Civil nothing but equivocation of words makes disputable And That all is to be imputed to nothing but want of proper terms for that Honor which Religion enjoines in respect of God and that relation which God hath setled between the Church Militant and Triumphant being reasonably called Religious And being neither civil nor humane honor but such as a Creature is capable of for Religion's sake and that relation which Religion setleth Thus He. But that then when otherwise agreed we may not fall out about words tho this honor is given to the Image not of a Statesman but of an Holy Person and to other things because they are sacred and belonging to Religion yet rather than the propriety of two words shall separate us let them so as allowing it freely stile and call it if they please a civil Veneration of the Name of JESUS and of the Eucharistical Mysteries of the Images of our Lord and his Mother of the Apostles Martyrs and other Saints For indeed we are all spiritual Fellow-citizens Phil. 3.20 and our Religion a celestial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Common-wealth and our Lord the Head of it Heb. 12.22 23. Again thus Mr. Thorndike Just Weight c. 19. p. 128. according to his free language in free
times ' The Furniture and Utensils of the Church were honoured in the spotless times of the Church as consecrated to God's service tho the honor of them being uncapable of honor for themselves was manifestly and without any scruple the honor of God But Images so long as they were used to no further intent than the ornament of Churches the remembrance of holy Histories and the raising of Devotion thereby as at the first they were used by the Church and so are still came in the number I add and so ought to receive the honor of things consecrated to God's Service Lastly thus Daille Traicte des Images c. 7. in his Answer to St. Gregory's forementioned Expression ea qua dignum est veneratione seems to allow some Veneration to such things so it be not cult ou service religieuse 'A certain degree of respect and honor saith he is due to all the Instruments of Religion as to the persons and things of the Church to the Priests to the Chalices to the sacred Bibles which every one calls venerable yet none deferrs to them the religious service which those of the Roman Communion now adays render to Images See also Ibid. p. 340. 376. And Apol. des Eglis Reform c. 10. One of his Answers to the Text Adorate Scabellum Psal 98. is ' That this Adoration of the Ark was an inferior species of honor to the Adoration of Latria which is due to none but God Thus He. This inferior reverence then due to holy things let him allow to the Images of our Lord and his Saints and for any further latria or religious service he shall be dispensed with And here I may conclude with what a modern Controvertist Spencer Scripture mistaken p. 128. writ not long since in debating the sence of the Second Commandment ' That what Worship soever a well-minded Protestant should judge may be given to the Holy Name of JESUS when he sees it either printed in a Book or engraven in a Stone without all Superstition or Idolatry or breach of the Second Commandment I add or what the Jews might give to the Ark let him give the same to any Image of our Saviour and in the same manner or at least judge that the like may lawfully be given to it and no more in this point will be required of him to be esteemed conformable to the Doctrine and Practice of the Roman Church To the Testimonies of Protestants confessing a certain Reverence and Honor due to Holy things might be added the Testimonies of the Fathers and constant Practice of the Church in all former times and the several commands and examples thereof occurring in the Scripture Ye shall reverence my Sanctuary Lev. 19.30 and 26.2 And Adorate Scabellum pedum ejus and that quia sanctum est since both in the Hebrew are of the same Gender Sanctum or Sanctus may relate either to Scabellum or Dominus and the place where it was was called Sanctum Sanctorum Such things I say I might collect if I thought this were a thing that would be much questioned save by some late profane Sects that cry down also all Things and Persons sacred the Clergy and Churches § 49 7. Next If it be more particularly enquired what this Veneration or Honor is that is communicable or pretended to belong as to other holy things so to holy Images for so I call those representing Holy Persons Such Honors for the external signs thereof have used to be in ancient times and still are in the Roman as also Oriental Churches uncovering the head bowing kissing embracing lights perfumes c. As we see also men place in their Closet kiss or embrace the Picture or Effigies of a person whom they dearly love without any fear of either Idololatria or Idolodulia in such a Practice Again For the internal intention joined with such outward gestures this also non ullus cultus eorum qui tribuuntur naturae intelligenti as Bellarmin observes or any such submission of mind as he that honors it acknowledges himself inferior to it which Vasquez therefore taking internal Adoration in so strict sense justly rejects as unapplicable to any Image or inanimate thing in what consideration soever but an inward esteem and value of them for some particular relation they have to some other object more excellent than our selves as also an intention by the outward gestures we use to shew not to the Image to which we perform them but to any persons capable of understanding our action the Prototype or others the esteem we have of any thing so nearly belonging to such a person F. Suarez thus expresses it In 3. Thom. Disp 54. § 5. Est Existimatio quaedam Imaginis ut est similitudo ad personam sacram or ut est quaedam res habens relationem ad tale exemplar Propter quam honor illi exhibetur non ea intentione ut Ipsa illum percipiat such cult belongs only to things intelligent sed solum ut convenienti reverenti modo tractetur juxta existimationem quae de illa haberi debet atque adeo ut haec ipsa existimatio ipsism actionibus significetur ostendatur Significatio autem haec sicut non fit propter Imaginem quae adoratur ita neque fit ad ipsam id est ut ipsa percipiat animum intentionem adorantis sed hoc modo ordinatur significatio ad eum propter quem fit adoratio vel certe etiam ad alios qui adorationem vident whereby such person would testify to them his honor of the Prototype Unde per tale officium adorationis homo non ita se submittit Imagini ut profiteatur se inferiorem illa which may remove Vasquez's scruple sed solum profitetur Imaginem pertinere seu esse aliquid ejus qui superior excellentior est In which worship of the Image virtualiter exhibetur rei intellectuali debitus cultus quamvis in expressa formali intentione hoc non habeatur Thus Suarez De Mysterio Incarnat Disp 36. § 3. n. 39. And Lugo thus Animus exercendi exterius circa Imaginem dando ei superiorem locum honorifice eam tractando c. propter excellentiam Exemplaris quam repraesentat eas actiones submissionis externae praestat quas exercere solemus circa excellentiores dominos sed non quod volumus significare quod interius existimemus Imaginem esse nobis superiorem vel dominum quia totus hic honor debetur Exemplari etiam in sua Imagine This I have exhibited at length out of these two judicious Schoolmen to avoid many cavils about the mode of this inferior worship and observance that is given to and terminated in Images as also in other sacred things § 50 8. Yet 8ly Catholicks contend That it doth not hence become necessary that this Existimation or external reverent Tractation of inanimate things performed to them in consideration of some other sacred or honourable person they appertain to should therefore