differently for one thing alway. They be words of divers tongues and founds, but one in fenfe and fignification in the Scriptures. The one is taken of the Greek word Ewan, an idol, and the other of the Latin word Imago, an image, and fo both ufed as English terms in the tranflating of Scriptures indifferently, according as the Septuaginta have in their tranflation in Greek Elèwha, and St. Jerome in his tranflation of the fame places in Latin hath Simulachra, in English, images. And in the New Tefta1 John v. ment, that which St. John calleth Elbow, St. Jerome likewife tranflateth Simulachrum, as in all other like places of Scripture ufually he doth fo tranflate. And Tertullian, a molt ancient doctor, and well learned in both the tongues, Greek and Latin, interpreting this place of Lib. de co- St. John, Beware of idols, that is to fay, faith Tertullian, rona mili- of the images themfelves: the Latin words, which he tis. ufeth, be Effigies and Imago, that is to fay, an image. And therefore it fkilleth not, whether in this procefs we ufe the one term or the other, or both together, feeing they both (though not in common Englith fpeech, yet in Scripture) fignify one thing. And though fome, to blind men's eyes, have heretofore craftily gone about to make them to be taken for words of divers fignifications in matters of religion, and have therefore ufually named the likeness or fimilitude of a thing fet up amongst the heathen in their temples, or other places, to be worthipped, an idol. But the like fimilitude with us, fet up in the church, the place of worshipping, they call an image, as though thefe two words (idol and image) in Scripture, did differ in property and fenfe, which (as is aforefaid) differ only in found and language, and in meaning be indeed all one, efpecially in the Scriptures and matters of religion. And our images alfo have been, and be, and, if they be publicly fuffered in churches and temples, ever will be alfo worthipped, and fo idolatry committed to them, as in the laft part of this Homily fhall at large be declared and proved. Wherefore our images in temples and churches be indeed none other but idols, as unto the which idolatry hath been, is, and ever will be committed. And first of all, the Scriptures of the Old Testament, condemning and abhorring as well all idolatry or worfhipping of images, as alfo the very idols or images themfelves, efpecially in temples, are fo many and plentiful, that it were almoft an infinite work, and to be contained in no fmall volume, to record all the places concerning the the fame. For when God had chofen to himself a peculiar and fpecial people from amongst all other nations that knew not God, but worshipped idols and falfe gods, he gave unto them certain ordinances and laws to be kept and obferved of his faid people. But concerning none other matter did he give either more, or more earnest and exprefs laws to his faid people, than thofe that concerned the true worshipping of him, and the avoiding and fleeing of idols, and images, and idolatry: for that both the faid idolatry is moft repugnant to the right worfhipping of him and his true glory, above all other vices, and that he knew the pronenefs and inclination of man's corrupt kind and nature to that most odious and abominable vice. Of the which ordinances and laws, fo given. by the Lord to his people concerning this matter, I will rehearse and allege fome that be moft fpecial for this purpose, that you by them may judge of the reft. In the fourth chapter of the Book named Deuterono- Deut. iv. my, is a notable place, and most worthy with all diligence Numb. to be marked, which beginneth thus: And now, Ifrael, xxii. bear the commandments and judgments which I teach thee, faith the Lord, that thou doing them mayeft live, and enter and poffefs the land which the Lord God of your fathers will give you. Ye shall put nothing to the word which I fpeak to you, neither hall ye take any thing from it. Keep ye the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you. And by and by after he repeateth the fame fentence three or four times, before he come to the matter that he would fpecially warn them of, as it were for a preface, to make them to take the better heed unto it. Take heed to thyfelf, faith he, and to thy foul, with all carefulness, left thou forgetteft the things which thine eyes have feen, and that they go not out of thine heart all the days of thy life; thou shalt teach them to thy children and nephews, or pofterity. And fhortly after, The Lord spake unto you out of the middle of fire; ye beard the voice or found of his werds, but you did fee no form or shape at all. And by and by followeth, Take heed therefore diligently unto your fouls: you faw no manner of image in the day, in the which the Lord jpake unto you in Horeb, out of the midst of the fire, left peradventure you, being deceived, fhould make to your felves any graven image, or likeness of man or woman, or the likeness of any beast which is upon the earth, or of the birds that fly under heaven, or of any creeping thing that is moved on the earth, or of the fishes that do continue in the waters : left peradventure thou, lifting up thine eyes to heaven, do fee the fun and the moon, and the ftars of heaven, and fo thou, being deceived by error, fhouldeft honour and worship them, which the Lord thy God bath created to ferve all nations that be under beaven. And again, Beware that thou forget not the covenant of the Lord thy God, which he made with thee, and fo make to thyself any carved image, of them which the Lord bath forbidden to be made: for the Lord thy God is a confuming fire, and a jealous God. If you have children and nephews, and do tarry in the land, and, being deceived, do make to yourfelves any fimilitude, doing evil before the Lord your God, and provoke bim to anger; I do this day call upon heaven and earth to witness, that ye fhall quickly perifb out of the land which you shall poffefs; you shall not devell in it any long time; but the Lord will destroy you, and will featter you amongst all nations; and ye shall remain but a very few amongst the nations, whither the Lord will lead you away; and then fhall you jerve gods which are made with man's bands, of wood and flone, which fee not, and bear not, neither eat nor fmell, and fo forth. This is a notable chapter, and treateth almoft altogether of this matter. But because it is too long to write out the whole, I have noted you certain principal points out of it. First, how earnestly and oft he calleth upon them to mark and to take heed, and that upon the peril of their fouls, to the charge which he giveth them. Then how he forbiddeth, by a folemn and long rehearsal of all things in heaven, in earth, and in the water, any image or likeness of any thing at all to be made. Thirdly, what penalty and horrible deftruction he folemnly, with invocation of heaven and earth for record, denounceth and threateneth to them, their children and pofterity, if they, contrary to this commandment, do make or worship any images or fimilitude, which he fo ftrictly hath forbidden. And when they, this notwithstanding, partly by inclination of man's corrupt nature, moft prone to idolatry, and partly occafioned by the Gentiles and heathen people dwelling about them, who were idolaters, did fall to the making and worshipping of images; God, according to his word, brought upon them all thofe plagues which he threatened them with, as appeareth in the Books of the Kings and the Chronicles, in fundry places at large. And agreeable hereunto are many other notable places in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy xxvii. Curfed be be that maketh a carved image, or a caft or molten image, which is abomination before the Lord, the work of the artificer's band, and fetteth it up in a fecret corner; and all the people shall fay, Amen. Read Read the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of the Book of Wisdom concerning idols or images, how they be made, fet up, called upon, and offered unto, and how he praifeth the tree whereof the gibbet is made, as happy in comparifon to the tree that an image or idol is made of, even by thefe very words; Happy is the tree wherethrough righteoufnefs cometh (meaning the gibbet); but curfed is the idol that is made with hands, yea, both it, and he that made it, and fo forth. And by and by he fheweth, how that the things which were the good creatures of God before, (as trees or ftones) when they be once altered and fashioned into images to be worshipped, become abomination, a temptation unto the fouls of men, and a fnare for the feet of the unwife. And why? The feeking out of images is the beginning of whoredom, faith he; and the bringing up of them is the deftruction of life for they were not from the beginning, neither fhall they continue for ever. The wealthy idleness of men hath found them out upon earth, therefore fhall they come fhortly to an end: and fo forth to the end of the chapter, containing thefe points; how idols or images were first invented and offered unto, how by an ungracious cuftom they were established, how tyrants compel men to worship them, how the ignorant and the common people are deceived by the cunning of the workman, and the beauty of the image, to do honour unto it, and fo to err from the knowledge of God, and of other great and many mifchiefs that come by images. And for a conclufion he faith, that the honouring of abominable images is the caufe, the beginning, and end of all evil, and that the worshippers of them be either mad or most wicked. See and view the whole chapter with diligence, for it is worthy to be well confidered, efpecially that is written of the deceiving of the fimple and unwife common people by idols and images, and repeated twice or thrice, left it should be forgotten. And in the chapter following be thefe words: The painting of the picture wild. xv. and carved image with divers colours enticeth the ignorant, fo that he honoureth and loveth the picture of a dead image that hath no foul. Neverthelefs, they that love fuch evil things, they that truft in them, they that make them, they that favour them, and they that honour them, are all worthy of death, and fo forth. In the Book of Pfalms, the Prophet curfeth the imagehonourers in divers places. Confounded be all they that Pfal. cxv. L 2 worship Pfal.cxxxv. worship carved images, and that delight or glory in them. Like be they unto the images that make them, and all they that put their trust in them. Ifa. xlii. Ifa. xl. And in the Prophet Ifaiah, faith the Lord: Even I am the Lord, and this is my name, and my glory will I give to none other, neither my honour to graven images. And by and by; Let them be confounded with fhame that trust in idols or images, or Jay to them, You are our Gods. And in the fortieth chapter, after he hath fet forth the incomprehenfible Majefty of God, he afketh, To whom then will ye make God like? Or what fimilitude will ye fet up unto bim? Shall the carver make him a carved image? And ball the gold/mith cover him with gold, and caft him into a form of filver plates? And for the poor man, fhall the imagemaker frame an image of timber, that be may bar fomewhat to fet up aljo? And after this he crieth out, O wretches, beard ye never of this? Hath it not been preached unto you fince the beginning, and fo forth, how by the creation of the world, and the greatness of the work, they might underfland the Majesty of God, the Creator and Maker of all, to be greater than that it should be exprelled, or fet forth in any image or bodily fimilitude? And befides this preaching, even in the law of God, written with his own finger, (as Exod. xx. the Scripture fpeaketh) and that in the firft table, and the beginning thereof, is this doctrine aforefaid against images, not briefly touched, but at large fet forth and preached, and that with denunciation of deftruction to the contemners and breakers of this law, and their pofterity after them. And, left it fhould not yet be marked, or not remembered, the fame is written and reported not in one, but in fundry places of the word of God, that, by oft hearing and reading of it, we might once learn and remember it, as you alfo hear daily read in the church, Exod. xx. God fpake these words, and faid, I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt bave none other Gods but me. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, nor in the earth beneath, nor in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, and vifit the fin of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and fhew mercy unto thousands in them that love me, and keep my Commandments. All this notwithstanding, neither could the notableness of the place, being the very beginning of the very loving Lord's law, make us to mark it, nor the Lev. xxvi. |