Com.2. Againfi Images. Cha .2, 199 or fee. This was the Difeafe ofSaint Thomas, that would not believe, except 9i he might feel Chrifts wounds,and fee him himfelf; and ofMary Magdalen and ,Jar. John ao,sçë tha about their dead Brother, both told Chrift. Lord if thou had'ft been here, my Bro- t rz' . ther had not dyed, and not theirs alone, but ofall the Apoflles, they were defirous 3 z, that Chrift might ftay , and be with them always, toered an earthly Kingdom , infomuch that hewas fain to tell them, that if he went not away, the Comforter ibT would not come unto them. And filch a thing there is in Religion. Wojer had been in the Mount but three days, and the Ifraelites cry out to Aaron, fac uobis Deos vifibiler, makeus Gods which (hall Exed,3 z.r: go before us. Upon which place , Laaantius faith, verenturne mattfrreligio, hil habeant quad adorent, they were afraid , there could be no Religion at all, un- lefs they might fee what to worfhip. This was the conceit of Rabfbalteb, touch. 1.a. Is0,4: ing Hezebiah, and the People of yudah, that they had no God at all, becaufe He- Errorir. zekiah had taken away his High-places, and Altars, and there was no God toEfa,36'j. be feen. 2. As the great fin againft the firft Commandment, was to fet that up forGod , which was no God : therein was their excefs. So in the fecond Commandment they would not keep a mean : but though they could never have Monitors and means fufBcient , to ftir them up to Gods worfhip , whereas God bath allowed,, and or- dained thefe four. r. Verbum fcriptum, The Scriptures, or written Word. a. Verbum predicatum, That Word preached. 3. Verbum vif :bile, The vifible Word. The Sacromenrs. q.. Verbsr librimagni Creaturarum, The Word of the great Bookofthe Creatures; Pfal. r',q; 0'which the Pfalmift, their found is gone out into all Lands, and their words into the ends of the World. And though their be canari monitores, loud andThrill Remembrancers : yet all thefe could not content them , but they would have Images, falling into this error, that there could be no nimium in Religione& cubs divino, no fuperfluity in Religion, and the worihip of God, and confequently, no fuperftition : afcribing thehonour due to God unto the Creatures, and (as the Apoftle (peaks) changing the gloryof the un- Itom,r,ii,' corruptible God, into an Imago, made like to corruptable Man, and to Birds, and to four-footed Beafts, and creeping things. Andthis is very certain, that if there had been loch force and vertue in Images , to move Men to the duty of Gods wor(hip, God who had fuch care of his People would never have protefted againft them and prohibited them, nay it it had been afpecial injury, they being fo good Teachers and Moniters. The Writer of the Book of Wifdom , fetteth down the reafonsof the growth of , Q , Idolatry, before the coming of Chrift , one of them was vulaern a defire and.' love of fenfe : infomuch, as there was nothing excellent to fee to, but it was cor- rupted. Rabbi Solomon (upon that place ofGenefir) where mention is made ofLas. bans. 7eraphim faith, that they fignified nothing (as the Syriack tranflationofit is ) but a Mathematical Initrument. So the Symbola ofthe n- gyprians, were nothing but Emblems,and Hieroglyphicks for diftinilion of the feveral Provinces there, and to Thew the natures of them, as /fir a Clod of Grafs, or Turf, to (hew that that part ofthe Country was fertil, and fit was a for feeding; and Anubis a Dog was fet up in another Province, to lignifie that it woody like. Images pandM numesoffamousdeadMen, astheSatuededicaetoBsandRino and this, becaufe they were toomuch addicted to their fenfes : andpartly to pleafe their Princes, and to keep their remembrance as of Beimfor his vertue ofMinos for his juftice : and to this obfervance they were afterward neceffarily enforced,by edifts of Princes. And thus much fortheir original before Chrift. Now lince the time ofChrift they begin todiffer, anda fpecial thing in the cony troverfie, wherewith they think to lath us, is this, Thew us (fay they) when Images came up firft , that we may know their original , and when there was anyedift a- eainft them. There's nothing more eafie, than to (hew their original;for.Ireneirs ( who livednot long after the Apoftles times in the fecond Century) maketh mention of the herifie of
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