Neal - Houston-Packer Collection BX9333 .N4 1754

€hap. V.; 'lbe HIS T 0 RY of the PuRITANS~ 135 that any complaint was made to me of any abufe of it. As to Mr. K. C~arles r. She1jield's cafe one of the witneifes fays, it was the 'picture of an old ~ man with a budO'et by his fide pLllling out Adam and Eve, 'tis not there- lb. p. 434• fore certain that it was the image of God the father; but if it was, yet Mr. Sherjield ought not to have defaced it but by command of autbo· rity, though it had been an idol of Jupiter; the orders of the vefl:ry which Mr. Sher:field pleads being nothing at all without the bilhop of the diocefe. The ltatute of Ed~vardVI. has nothing to do wirh images in glafs- windows, the words of the fiatute are, any images qfjlone, timber, a!abajler, or eartb, graven, carved or painted, taken out qf any church, &c. }hall be dejlroyed. So here is not a word of glafs windows nor images in them. The managers for the commons replied, that it was notoriouQy falfe, M._ reply _to that the primitive chrifiians approved of images, for "+tijlin Martyr, Cle- antzq. of·z• . . Jj magu zn mens Alexandrtnus, lrena:us, and all the ancient fathers agree that they churchn. had none in their churches. LaClantius fays, there can be no religion in Prynne, p. a place where any image is. . Epiphanius rent in pieces an image painted 463, 464. on cloth :~ which he found in a church, out of holy indignation. All the ancient councils are againfi images in churches; and many godly emperors cafi them out, after they began to be in ufe in later times, as our own homilies expref.,ly declare, peril of idolatry, part II. p. 38. As for 'Tertullian, all that can be proved from him is, that thofe heretics againtl: whom he writ had fuch · a chalice, not that the orthodox chrifiians al.:. ]owed of it. Calvin only fays, that he is not [o fuperfiitious as to think it altogether unlawful to make images of men or beafis for a civil ufe; becaufe painting is the gift of God. But he affirms in the very next fec"- tion, that there were no images in churches for five hundred years after · Chrif'r; and fays exprefsly that they were not in ufe till the chrifiian re.- ligion was corrupted and depraved. He then adds, that he accounts it unlawful and wicked to paint the image of God, becaufe he has forbid it. But the homilies are fo exprefs that they wonder the archbiihop can men- Peril of idol, tion them without blufl1ing; as well as his not knowing that the paintings P· 41, 42> were according to the mafs-book, when his own mafs-book is marked in 43, thofe places with his own hand. The images in thofe windows were broken and demoliilied at the reformation, by virtue of our tl:atutes homilies and injuncrions, and remained as monuments of our indignation a:.. gainfl: romijh idolatry, till the archbiiliop repaired them. The managers obferved further, that the archbilhop had confeifed the particulars of this part of their charge, and had only excufed himfelf as to the univerfity of Oxford, though they conceive it impoffible he could be ignorant of thofe innovations, being chancellor and vifitor, and having entertained the king queen and elector Palatine there, for feveral days. As for Mr. Sher-

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