z Command. vpon the C ommandements. 25 But wherealas haue they their warrant that God will bee thus worshipped of them, andthat whatfoeuer they doo in outward (hew to the image , bee will repute it and take it as 2 'one in heart to himfelfe ? What wee haue to fay againfithis vaine deuife of theirs, I pray you mark. Firft thevane Gentiles had the felfe fame excufe and fhjfc for their idolatrie , and yet was their doing wicked. e/frnobno faieth of them , 'Non adorabant flatuas gudd putadät,as,aurum,argentum tut fìmilesflatttarttm m.:ter:as, Deos Lib. 6. c.fe , fed qubd per ea dq tnntîbtles honorertur : that is They wor/hipped imaQes,rot forthát they thought,braffo,Qofde, filuer, or fuch thtnges to be God, but becaufe by thofe things the in- xif ble gods were warfhip ped. Secondly,if wee look to the fcripture,we reade a complaint in the booke of/edges, Ind ,y, I I ` for that the people left the God ofl frae l and ferued Baa/im,and what I pray you was that ? Did they think that image to be God ? No faieth the Prophet Ofee , They haue called mee Baa/im, meaning God, that is , they thought that worfhip which they did Ofee, 2.16, to Baalim,was done to G O D vnder the image,and by the image, and yet faieth the word,Theydidere llinferuingBaaltm, What can be plainer a gainft this idle excufe, if you will looke and marke the places well? Againe in the 17. of ludgu we reade of Micah his idols in the forme of men, as Come thinke, becaufe Chrift appeared diuerfe Iud,i7 times like a man. And what , did he thinke thofe his idols to be God , or worfhip them as Gods ? no, hisownewordesteftific the contrarie ,forhe faith , Now/ha//the Gen Lorde blefe me, when I haue a Leuitc to my Priefl: hee Both not fay,Now (hallmy Tera- Dui 7 phim Hello me but now (hail the Lordebleffe me , dillinguishingbetwixt God and his images.So that Micah did not thinke his idols to be God, and fo certainelie did not worfhip them as God , but in them rather and by them thought he ferued God who accepted that tohimfelfe, that was done to the image which reprefented him, yet did he wickedly and finned like an idolater in fo dooing. Howe then fhoulde this popifh excuic be good of wor(hipingGOD in the image ? I would to GOD with modeflic and Chriflian chaftitie men and women woulde thinke of this reafon drawne by a godly man d pari, ofthe like. Would the husband bee content with his wife , or the wife with the husband, if that duetie which is due of them one toward the other, fhould be performed of eyther of them to a ftranger with this excufe that the Papifts make? No we knowe we could not beare it, neither would we with anv fuch anfwere bee contented. And whyfhould our heartei be fo hard, and ouriudgc meets fo bewitched , that wee fhould not thinke the Lorde loueth his Church , and eu ery true member of it, afwell as any man his wife, or any wife her husband, and is as jealous of that fpirituall ductie, that is due to him, as men are of the other ? The one is aótuall fornication , the other is fpirituall, fo learned euen in wifedome of GOD to beate into vs that hee can as ill abide the one , as wee the other : and yet wee will not fee, nor concciue. Againe, ihall wee thinke that the lfraeates were fo grolle , as to thinke the golden Calfc to bee a verse God., when as they knowe it molten and made ofthe earfngs that they plucked off ? Truelie it is impoffible, For they kiftwe that it had a beginning, and a God there was who had done great things for them ere that day, whofe beginning they knew not : How then ? Why, out ofqueflion they did imagin, that the worfhip whichthey did to that idyll was done to God in the idoll. And yetwhether God was pleafed with that excufe or no,iudge we all, Let it fall then turn in the feare ofGod, what mans beade inuenteth againtï the Lord and his owne dutie,and at the laft let vs fee it to bee avaine mock, tothinke wee can worfhip God in an image,and by it, or vnder it. Another (hift they haue for defence of images in the Church, but it is as ill as the former. They are ( fay they) lay mens bookes,and Rand in very good (teede, to put vs in minde of God. It is verle well.And is euerie kinde ofBooke then good and to bee allowed of? Or is euerie manner omremembrance by and by commendabie?lf not, then fhould they not only fay they are laye mens Bookes,but proue that they are good bookes alto indeede tothatend , ( for otherwife many bookes may afwell hurt as profit the viers ofthcm as I faide. But this they doe not, neither indeede can D they
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