THE NURSE OF Pious Thoughts:  
Wherein is briefly showed, That the use which Roman Catholics do make of sacred Pictures, Signs and Images, is not Idolatry, or any other misdemeanour, (as some imagine) but the Nurse of Pious Thoughts, and Healthful Meditations.  
Written By F. P. Philopater.  Proverbs 11.16. 
Evil thoughts are abominable to our Lord.  
DOVAY, Printed in the Year 1652.   

To the Right Honourable Lords, worshipful Knights, Esquires, Gentry, and all the freeborn people of England, who desire the redress of notorious scandals, health and all happiness.  
Right Honourable, etc.  
AMongst the many notorious scandals, which (contrary to the Laws of God, just Laws of the Land, solemn oaths and Engagements of this Nation) are committed in these distracted times, there are almost none more common in this Island, than the defacing, disgracing, beating down, and demolishing of sacred pictures, signs, memories, and images of our Saviour, his Saints, worthy men, and all holy things, the Nurses of Pious Thoughts, the remembrances of virtuous actions, and monuments of heroical deeds, without any notice thereof taken by the State, to the unspeakable detriment of the Commonwealth; for if you do not permit visible signs, pictures, images, and remembrances of piety, virtue, and the Obligations which men have unto God, and Christ Jesus his only Son, to be exposed to the senses, the windows of their souls, and yet allow of vain, idle and profane, you shall shut up the door to virtue and gratitude, and let lose the reins to sin and misery, experience telling us, that what the eye seriously and constantly with affection beholdeth, the heart thinketh, and evil thoughts consented unto, corrupt good manners, and corrupt manners have brought forth these present calamities and divisions, which to go about to redress, will be in vain, unless you permit men to enjoy the means: Wherefore not to be wanting in good wishes to my native soil, I have written this book of sacred pictures, signs and images, the Nurses of Pious Thoughts, and out of my affection have dedicated it unto your Honours, unto whom doth belong the correction of these scandals, that protected by your Authority, and backed by your power, the sacred objects of piety, virtue, and godliness, may every where appear obvious unto the eyes, not only to the extirpation of vice, reconciliation of dissensions, rooting out of malice, but also to the planting of a true unity, perfect peace, and a sincere charity in the hearts of all the Inhabitants of this Island, to the great glory of God, and prosperity of our Country, which is all the interest, or desires of profit I seek for by these my labours, more than to be esteemed, as by God's grace I shall ever remain,  
Your Honour's most humble servant in Christ Jesus, F. P. Philopater.   

The Preface to the Reader.  
Dear Reader,  
THe holy Apostle of our Lord, S. Peter, considering the danger, which even the faithful and children of God live in, whilst they remain in this mortal life, through the craft and policy of the enemy of mankind, saith unto them, Brethren be sober and watch, because our adversary the devil, as a roaring Lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour, 1 Pet. 5.8. not with his teeth or jaws, but by a crafty and subtle kind of suggestion of impious thoughts unto the minds of men, by which (consented unto) as the Scriptures affirm, Mat. 15.18. 1 Cor. 6.15. he not only defileth their hearts, expelleth God out of their bodies, and entereth himself to dwell there, Mat. 12.45. but also reigneth and domineereth over them so rigorously, that they must not constantly think but what he will. Mat. 13.19.  
And knowing by the excellency of his wit, and long experience, that if he should suffer sacred pictures, signs, memories and images (the instruments of pious thoughts) every where publicly to stand, and be respected as they ought; there would be no quiet resting, or abode for him in their hearts, without seeking for himself a new lodging in other parts; because there is no agreement between Christ and Belial, therefore so by certain slights and cunning suggestions, stirreth up men of light belief, and unconstant minds, in whose heart, (as our Saviour saith) he liveth, to disgrace and beat them down as idols, after this manner.  
Whereas all words have divers senses, and all things divers formalities, conceptions, and respects, he never permitteth them over whom he hath power, or in whose heart he dwelleth, to take the words of sacred signs, pictures and images in the same sense, formality, conception, or respect, in which they were delivered unto the Church of God, by our Saviour and the Apostles, or in which Roman Catholics take them at this day, that is to say, as relatives, which of themselves are nothing, but a connotation of the things which they represent, the devil maliciously will always have them, in whom he dwelleth, to take them for things absolute, and so deceiveth them, to the banishing of pious thoughts out of their souls.  
As for example, we may consider the things which we commonly call an image, either to be a carved or an engraven stock or stone, or a painted cloth or paper; or else we may consider it, as it is an image of some common thing, or else of some heavenly or divine, or of the mysteries of our faith, without any further reflection upon it; or else we may understand it, not only as it is the image of some heavenly and divine thing, or of the mysteries of our faith, but also as it doth represent unto us the said heavenly and divine things, or the mysteries of our faith, and doth, or may beget in our hearts pious thoughts; as the image or resemblance of Christ upon the cross, as it doth represent his sufferings for us; or his image, as he is in heaven, as it doth represent him unto us in that glory; and so doth or may beget in us pious thoughts of his mercy and suffering for us, or else of the glory of the other life, in which last sense the Church of God, and Roman Catholics always take sacred pictures, signs and images, when they give unto them any religious respect, honour, or reverence.  
And Satan, to deceive those in whom he dwelleth, as in his house and home, to continue his possession, always maliciously and wittingly suggesteth unto them, that the church of God, and Roman Catholics take images in the first or second sense, that is to say, either as they are carved or engraven stocks and stones, of painted , or papers, or an image in common, without any further representation, and then stirreth them up by his suggestions, not only to beat them down as idols, but also to accuse Roman Catholics of idolatry, as though they adored stocks, and stones, or painted papers, or , not only to the extirpation of pious thoughts out of the hearts of men, but also to the great disturbance of the peace and unity which should be amongst Christians, by the alienation of the minds of silly people one from another, who ignorant of this craft of Satan, believe Roman Catholics really to be idolaters, for the respect they bear to sacred images, as they represent unto them pious thoughts, and persecute them severely as idolaters, to the loss of their own souls, by their calumniations and cruelty with out cause.  
Satan well knowing that the soul of man is so enclosed in his body, that he cannot naturally understand supernatural, divine and invisible things, but by some visible, audible, or sensible means; and also that every virtuous action hath two vicious extremes, as hath the use of signs, pictures, or images, which extremes are superstition and profaneness, and that it were a hard task for him to win men, who formerly had been faithful Christians; to fall into superstition, and publicly to use these or the like images, signs or pictures, as his similitudes, and adore them to his honour and glory, as if he were their God, as he doth the Heathen and Gentiles, suggesteth unto them in whom he hath power, either to profane them, or wholly to deface or beat them down, that though he cannot directly and publicly apply them (or the like) to his honour, as he doth amongst the Pagans, yet by breaking, disgracing, or casting them down, he may (at least) conduct men into ignorance, misprision or contempt of divine, holy, and supernatural things, and the mysteries of our faith, so to lead them into such a profane and barbarous kind of life, as that they shall not bear any affection, either unto Religion, or Superstition, or unto any kind of Sect, good or evil, more than may serve them for a cloak to colour their barbarism, or advance their temporal affairs, or not to be discovered that they are Atheists, or profane.  
Wherefore to prevent this mischief, and the utter ruin of our Nation by Atheism and profaneness, I have written this book of The Nurse of Pious Thoughts, thereby at large to show unto thee, dear Reader, that the relative religious worship which Roman Catholics do give unto sacred pictures, signs, and images, and the use they make of them, is neither idolatry, or any sin or misdemeanour, as the●enemy of mankind● suggesteth, but to nourish in themselves and others pious thoughts, divine meditations, and elevation of their souls to heavenly things, thereby to keep out the devil from dwelling in their hearts, or doing them any mischief, and to conduct the Holy Ghost (to their infinite comfort and consolation) to dwell with them for ever, which is that I wish unto thee Reader, and so I rest  
Thy servant in Christ Jesus, F. P. Philopater.   

The Contents of the Chapters.  

Chap. 1. WHat our thoughts be in general, and how they are visions, or words, or speeches of our hearts. p. 1  
Chap. 2. Of pious and impious thoughts, and what pious thoughts are. 5  
Chap. 3. How all evils proceed from evil thoughts. 8  
Chap. 4. The excellency of pious thoughts, and how good works and heroical actions proceed from them. 17  
Chap. 5. How the thoughts commonly follow the senses, and that the senses consented unto beget our thoughts. 25  
Chap. 6. The power which the senses have to move the mind to think good or evil, as they present. 28  
Chap. 7. How pious objects and sacred pictures furnish our souls with pious thoughts. 34  
Chap. 8. The necessity of sacred artificial pictures, signs and images, to the nourishing of pious thoughts, and what we call sacred pictures and signs. 40  
Chap. 9 What we mean by a relative religious worship, and of the distinction of honour and worship. 48  
Chap. 10. That a relative religious worship belongeth unto sacred things, pictures, signs and images, as they immediately or mediately conduct us to God. 55  
Chap. 11. Almighty God never prohibited either the making of sacred pictures; signs and images, nor yet their relative religious worship. 67.  
Chap. 12. That it is lawful to make holy artificial pictures, signs and images, which may immediately or mediately bring us to think upon God, and heavenly things, and place them in Churches or Temples. 75  
Chap. 13. That in time of peace, when there is no persecution, the pictures and images of Angels and Saints ought to be placed in Churches, and there honoured with a relative religious worship. 86  
Chap. 14. How the Nurse of Pious Thoughts doth not only consist in the having and beholding sacred pictures, signs and images, but also in giving unto them a relative religious worship, not for the material things themselves, but for the sacred things which they represent. 101  
Chap. 15. How free Roman Catholics are from idolatry, by worshipping of sacred pictures, signs and images, with relative religious worship. 107  
Chap. 16. By the second Commandment God commanded all men to honour and worship his name, which is but a sacred sign, picture or image of himself, with a relative religious worship, thereby to beget pious thoughts in our souls. 118  
Chap. 17. The third Commandment commandeth all men to honour and reverence the Sabbath day, which is but a sacred sign 124  
Chap. 18. Of the sweet name or sign of Jesus, and how this name is to be worshipped with a relative religious worship above all names; thereby to beget pious thoughts of Jesus above all things. 132  
Chap. 19 Greater honour to be given unto the name Jesus, as it signifieth Christ our Lord, then to any other name of God. 138  
Chap. 20. How terrible the name of Jesus is unto the devils, when it is honoured with a relative religious worship. 149  
Chap. 21. Many miracles wrought in confirmation of the relative honour and worship given to the name of Jesus. 155  
Chap. 22. Of the honour and glory of the Cross of Christ, as it representeth his person and passion, and how it shall distinguish the faithful from the followers of Antichrist. 163  
Chap. 23. That the faithful in the Primitive Church used a relative religious worship towards the sacred sign of the Cross. 173  
Chap. 24. The Cross adored with a relative religious worship in the Primitive Church, not for the matter, but for the holy passion of our Saviour which it representeth. 191  
Chap. 25. Of four sacred images which were made of Christ our Lord, whilst be lived upon earth, and of the religious relative honour done unto them, to the enriching of their minds with pious thoughts. 205  
Chap. 26. Of the enemies of the Cross and sacred images, and of the miseries that befell them. 214  
Chap. 27. The relative religious worship which the faithful in the Primitive Church used towards the sacred pictures, signs, and images of the written Word, and thereby learned the true sense, and endued their souls with pious thoughts. 223  
Chap. 28. Answer to objections. 24●  
The Conclusion. 263    

The Nurse of Pious Thoughts.  

CHAP. I. What our thoughts be in general, and how they are visions, or words, or speeches of our hearts.  
BEfore we enter into a discourse, how to nourish pious thoughts, it is necessary first to speak of thoughts in general, what they be, and how they have place in our souls: Then secondly, of pious thoughts, and how to attain unto them: and last of all, how to cherish and nourish them, that we may abound with piety, which is a virtue of so great eminency, and excellency, that as S. Paul saith, It is profitable to all things. 1 Tim. 4.8. and withal, as there he saith, hath the promise of this life that now is, and of that to come; and what more can be desired of men in this vale of tears?  
Now for the better understanding what our thoughts are, it is necessary first to observe, that many things in the outward senses are two, which in the inward soul are but one: as for example, to see, and to hear, in the outward senses are two real distinct things, which in the inward soul are both one. The soul having real distinct powers, but not parts, from whence it cometh to pass, as S. Augustine in the nineth and tenth chapters of his fifteenth book of the Trinity excellently noteth, that to hear and to see, as also to speak and to see, in the inward soul are both one. Whereupon he describeth a thought, saying: A thought is a certain vision of the soul, whether these things be present, which are seen with the corporalleys, or perceived by the other senses; or they be absent, and their likeness only is seen by thought; or if neither of these, but these things are thought upon, which are neither corporal, nor yet have corporal shapes, as virtues and vices, or as the thought itself, when it is thought upon. Thus S. Augustine of our thoughts.  
Again in the same place he saith also, That thoughts are speeches, or words of the heart, which he proveth by the Scriptures, which say, They said, thinking within themselves, Wis. 2.1. Again, certain of the Scribes said within themselves. Mat. 9.3. Again, The Scribes and Pharisees began to think, saying, Luk. 5.21. where the thoughts of men are called the words, or say of the heart; so that a thought is rightly described, according to S. Augustina, to be a vision, word, or speech of the heart, which if we could bring to be pious in all men, and to be strengthened and nourished, we should easily make piety to abound in the world; for as S. Aug. there saith; When we say, that thoughts are words of the heart, we do not therefore deny them to be visions, sprung from the vision of things signified unto us, because in the inward soul they are both one.  
Now if it could be brought to pass, that men in their inward souls should neither hear, nor see, nor speak, or that which is all one, not think of any thing, but with detestation, which were not pious, they must needs abound with piety, and be very happy; because, as S. Paul saith, they should be profitable to all things; and also be partakers of the promises which God hath made unto his servants in this life, and in that which is to come; here to be happy by grace, and in the other by glory, which I hearty wish unto thee Reader.   

CHAP. II. Of Pious and impious thoughts, and what Pious thoughts are.  
NOt every thought of a good thing is therefore presently a pious thought. The devil sometimes thinketh upon God, though he cannot have a pious thought, because he is confirmed in malice; and evil men think many times upon good things, but with an evil intent: Wherefore as S. Augustine in his twelfth Sermon upon the 118. Psalm saith, We should not only think that it is good which we do, but also, and that chief, if it he good, for which we do it: Wherefore for a thought to be pious, it is not only sufficient that we think of a good thing, but also that we think upon it to a good end; & God being the last end of man, than our thoughts are truly pious; when we think on holy and sacred things, or the works of mercy, or the obligations of our estate, &c with an inclination of mind to adhere unto them, as unto things which may either immediately, or mediately conduct us to God, the end of all our h●pes: So that in few words, an absolute pious thought is an inward vision, speech, or motion of the mind, by which we either immediately, or mediately adhere unto God, the last end our happiness.  
From hence it is that the Prophet David, a pious man, and a man according to Gods own heart, saith, I have inclined my heart to do thy justifications for ever for reward, Psal. 118.112. Again in the same Psalm, I have not declined from thy Testimonies. Thus the Prophet; to instruct us, that the only thinking upon a holy or sacred thing, is not sufficient to beget an absolute pious thought; but the thinking upon it, with an inclination of mind to adhere unto it, for the benefit we receive by it, and for God's sake, the end of our happiness.  
On the contrary, an absolute wicked thought is a full or deliberate consent of the mind, or thought, to do any thing against the Commandments of God, whereby men become cursed and wicked, as witnesseth the Prophet in the same Psalm, saying, Thou hast very much commanded thy Commandments to be kept, cursed are they that decline from thy Commandments, though it be but with full consent of thought, as he further witnesseth in the said Psalm, saying, Thou hast despised all that revolt from thy judgements, because their thought is unjust, or wicked.  
As to think upon an evil thing, or to have a suggestion of evil put into our minds, either by the flesh, world, or devil, who are our enemies, without any inclination of will, or consent of heart to do it, is not properly called an evil thought, but a suggestion, carnal motion, or temptation. So likewise to think only upon a good or holy thing, without any inclination of heart, or mind unto it, is not properly a pious thought; but when we have an extension of heart to adhere unto it, as unto a thing which may either immediately, or mediately conduct us unto God, the last end of all our happiness.   

CHAP. III. How all evils proceed from evil thoughts:  
IF we would seriously consider from whence all the evils, miseries, and mischiefs, which have happened in heaven or earth, are originally sprung, or have had their beginning, or yet do daily arise; we shall easily find, that they originally have proceeded, and even at this day do proceed from impious and wicked thoughts.  
In heaven all the Angels and intellectual Spirits lived in peace, and unity with God, and amongst themselves, until Lucifer one of the chiefest amongst the Intelligencers or Angels, begun to think wickedly, and to say in his heart, I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of God I will exalt my throne, Esay. 14.13. And upon earth there was no evil, sickness, or infirmities, or miseries amongst men, until man began to think impiously, that he would be like God, Gen. 3.5. Whereupon truth itself saith, Out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, theft, false testimonies, blasphemies, these are the things which defile the soul, Mat. 15.19. which is also confirmed by experience, for in all our voluntary actions, we first think before we do; whereby it is sufficiently manifest unto any reasonable man, that all the miseries and calamities which heretofore have been, or now are in the world, or hereafter shall be, originally proceed from evil thoughts; wherefore if we could but plant the Nurse of pious thoughts amongst men, we should in great part, at least, ease them of their miseries, contentions, civil wars, Sects, and brawls.  
Neither would the planting of pious thoughts amongst mankind be a thing of so great a difficulty to bring to pass, if they would but firmly and constantly believe the truth in this matter; which is, that evil thoughts do not only separate, and divide one man from another, and bring in all those calamities and miseries, which we daily see amongst men, but also divide man from God, make divisions even in himself, and deprive him of his everlasting weal, as witness the Scriptures, saying, Perverse thoughts separate from God, Wisd. 1.3. Again in the same chapter, The Holy Ghost will withdraw himself from the thoughts that are without understanding: and yet more, In the thoughts of the impious there shall be examination, and the hearing of his works shall come to God, to the chastising of his iniquities. Again, evil thoughts are abomination to our Lord, Prover. 11.16: Whereupon God further saith by the Prophet I say, take away the evil of your thoughts from mine eyes, Jsa. 1.16. Again, Let the impious forsake his ways, and the unjust man his thoughts, and return to our Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, Isa. 55.7. Again, Woe be to you, who think that which is unprofitable, Micheas 2.1. And with these agree the Prophet Zachary, saying, Think ye not every man in your heart evil against his friend, and a lying ●●th love ye not, for all these things are such as I hate, saith the Lord, Zach. 8.17. Thus the Sctiptures, of the miseries, and wretchedness, which accompany evil thoughts.  
Now what man is there, who is endued with reason, and will be sensible of his own good or evil, that (the aforesaid miseries considered) will not hate all impious thoughts, and be glad of the means how to nourish in himself pious thoughts, especially the Scripture saying, He who thinketh to do evil, shall be called a fool, Prov. 24.6. of whom our Saviour saith, Thou fool, this night they (the devils) require thy soul of thee; and the things which thou hast provided, (by wicked thoughts) whose shall they be? Luk. 12.20. for he (saith S. Hieruome upon this aforesaid Text) is truly to be called a fool, who consenteth in his thoughts to the suggestion of sin, although to the eyes of men he seem never so wise.  
For the aforesaid reasons, our dear Lord and Saviour being careful of the good and salvation of mankind, reprehendeth man for his evil thoughts, saying; Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts, Mat. 9.4. And S. Paul knowing the many miseries and wretchedness which attend upon impious thoughts, exhorteth all men to practise, and nourish in themselves pious thoughts, saying; Brethren, what things soever be true, whatsoever honest, whatsoever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever amiable, whatsoever of good fame; if there be any virtue, if any praise of discipline, those things think upon, Phil. 4.8. and for a reward of nourishing such pious thoughts, addeth, and the God of peace shall be with you; whereupon S. chrysostom upon this Text saith, You may see how S. Paul would cast all wicked thoughts out of our minds, for from evil thoughts all wicked deeds proceed. From hence it is that the Prophet calleth those happy, who presently correct, or kill their evil thoughts, which he calleth Daughters of Babylon, saying, daughter of Babylon, (Blessed is he that shall hold, and shall crush thy little ones against the rock, Psal. 136.9. who are these little ones of Babylon, saith S. Augustine upon this Text, but our arising evil desires, when it is a little one or as soon as it ariseth, crush it. We kill our little ones; saith S. Gregory (in the end of his expositions upon the fourth Penitential Psalm) against the rock, when we mortify or kill the first unlawful motions, or thoughts, by an intention to follow Christ, for Christ was the rock, 1 Cor. 10.6.  
Almighty God foreseeing so many evils to proceed from wicked thoughts, to prevent those miseries, of the ten Commandments which he gave unto men, two of them are against vicious thoughts, saying, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, neither shalt thou desire his wife: Exod. 20.17; and writ them in the hearts of all people, Rom. 2.15. whereupon Juvenal an heathen Poet, in his third satire saith, He who shall think any secret wickedness within himself, is guilty of the fact. And Valer●us Maximus, in the second chapter of his seventh book, reporteth, that Thales the Philosopher being demanded whether God were ignorant of the works of men, answered, No not of their thoughts, wherefore (saith he) we ought not only to have pure hands, but also pure minds, seeing that we should believe the divine Godhead to be present at our secret thoughts. From hence also if is that Alexander the Great (as affirmeth S. Basil in his twenty fourth Homily) knew that it was an offence by beholding, to covet a woman in thought, although he did not accomplish the fact. And Cieero a moral man writing divers books of Offices unto his Son Mark, for the well disposing of his life, in his first book, not fare from the beginning, amongst other things, admonisheth him, That in all his opinions and deeds, he should neither do, nor think any thing (libidinese) lecherously, the light of Nature teaching even the more moral sort of heathen men, that evil thoughts were corrupters of good manners, and originally the cause of all miseries and disorders; and therefore desired that they might be avoided, at least for the benefit of their Commonwealth.   

CHAP. IU. The excellency of Pious thoughts, and how good works, and heroical actions proceed from them.  
THe substance of all men's souls are of one celestial incorruptible matter, the difference between soul and soul in excellency, beauty, and purity in this life, is the inherent grace, infused virtues, pious thoughts, virtuous operations, and in the other celestial splendour, and everlasting bl●sse, which God bestoweth upon his servants; all which in such as are baptised, and of years of discretion (of whom I intent only to treat) depend upon the pious thoughts, and virtuous operation of the soul in this life, according to the words of our Lord, saying, Out of the heart come forth evil cogitations; these are the things which defile the soul, Mat. 15.19. of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, Mat. 12. Whereupon S. Paul saith, that Christ is a Discerner, or censurer of the cogitations, and of the intent of the heart, Heb. 4.12.  
God will not only examine our outward works and words, but also our very thoughts and intentions of our hearts; whereupon the Prophet Jeremy saith, Wash thy heart from malice O Jerusalem, that thou mayest be saved; how long shall hurtful cogitations abide in thee? Jer. 4.14. to signify unto us, that no outward act of alms or prayers, or of any other seeming good deed, is acceptable, or of esteem before God, as long as wicked thoughts, or impios intentions have place in the soul; but first it is necessary to wash our hearts, and cleanse our souls from malicious thoughts, and evil intentions, before we can do any good deed, or be saved.  
Amongst the Sacrifices which were offered to God in the old Law, the Sacrifice which was to be acceptable, and propitious to his expectation who offered it; The extrails, and feet, (which signify the thoughts and affections) were washed with water, before they were offered upon the Altar, Leu. 1. to signify unto us, that no Sacrifice of any kind was acceptable, or propitious before God for the remission of our sin, unless it were offered with pious thoughts, and sincere affection or intention: whereupon, though throughout the book of Leviticus God had commanded Sacrifice to be offered unto him, and also the feasts of the new-moon, and Sabbaths, and other festival days to be kept, yet he saith to the Jews, To what purpose do you offer to me your victime●? the holocausts of rams, and the fat of fat things, and the blood of calves, and lambs, and buck, goats I have not desired, who sought for these things at your hands? The new Moon, and the Sabbath; and other festivities I will not abide, Isay 1.11.  
And showing the reason why he was so a versed from the things which formerly he had expressly commanded, addeth, because they were not performed with such pious thoughts, and purity of heart, as he desired, saying, Your assemblies are wicked, your hands are full of blood, wash you, be clean, take away the evil of your cogitations from mine eye, etc. and come and accuse me, saith our Lord, if your sins shall be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow; and if they be red as vermilion, they shall be white as wool, Isa. 13. So that neither corporal, nor spiritual Sacrifice, nor any other outward act, is grateful or acceptable to God, unless they be accompanied with pious thoughts, and intentions to do them for the love of God; whereby appeareth the excellency of pious thoughts, for that they give grace, beauty, and lustre unto all our actions before God.  
The Patriarch Abraham resolved with himself so far to obey God, as to sacrifice unto him his only son Isaac; & though by the providence of God, he was hindered from the fact; yet because he had a real intention, and pious thoughts to perform it, this work was so acceptable unto God, as that thereupon the made unto him the prologise, That in his seed (Christ) all Nations should be blessed. King David resolved with himself to build a glorious Temple for God, wherein, though he was prevented by Gods own appointment, yet he received so great a reward for these his pious thoughts, and good intentions, that God said unto him by the Prophet Nathan, I will give thee rest from all thine enemies, and will make thee a house when thy days shall be accomplished, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall come forth of thy womb, and I will establish his Kingdom; He shall build a house to my name, and I will establish the throne of his Kingdom for ever, 2 Kings 7.  
Our Saviour sitting over against the Treasury of the Temple, observed how the multitude did cast money into the Treasury, and many rich men gave liberally; but when there came a poor widow, she cast in two mites, which is a farthing; he calling his Disciples together, said, Amen I say to you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than all the rest, for all these of their abundance have cast into the gifts of God but she of her penury hath cast in all her living that she had, Mark 12. Luk. 21. So though her gift in substance was the least, yet the piety of her mind, and purity of her thoughts, made it amount to be the highest in value before God.  
As our ears (saith S. Augustine upon the 148. Psalms) are to our voices, so the ears of God are to our thoughts; as our ears listen unto our words, or unto the tune of our voices, to give testimony what they are, even so saith S. Augustine, the ears of God watch upon our thoughts: I know (saith God) their works, and their cogitations, Isa. 66.18. and as there it followeth, I will judge every man accordingly, whereby it doth appear, how careful and vigilant every one ought to be of his thoughts.  
It is not possible (saith S. Augustine in the place before cited) that he can have evil deeds or works, who hath good thoughts, for the deeds or works proceed from the thoughts: neither can any man do any thing, or move any of his members to do any act, unless first the commandment of his thoughts precedes: Even as whatsoever the Emperor in his inward Palace doth command, passeth throughout the whole Empire, and into all the Provinces; what a motion or stir is made at the command of the Emperor sitting within his Palace? He only moveth his lips when he speaketh, and all the Provinces are moved to do that which he saith: So in every one of us the Emperor is within he sitteth within in our hearts; if he commands good, good things are dene; if he command evil, evil and sin is committed Thus S. Augastine. And this is sufficient to show unto thee Reader, the excellency of pious thoughts, that they make all a man's life pious and virtuous, and have promise of this life, and of that which is to come.   

CHAP. V How the thoughts commonly follow the senses, and that the senses consented unto beget our thoughts.  
THe Philosophers seeking out how the understanding of men come to know, or think good or evil thoughts, affirm with one consent, as a general maxim or principle, that there is nothing in the understanding, which either by itself, or else by some resemblance, shadow, or picture, was not first in some of the senses, in such sort, as Aristotle in the 8. cha. of his 3. book of the soul absolutely affirmeth, That sensible things in sensible forms, are also forms in the understanding; whereupon it cometh to pass, says he, That he who wanteth senses, can neither learn, nor understand any thing, as also we find by experience, for he who is born deaf, though the organs of his tongue be never so perfect, yet he cannot learn to speak; and he who is borne blind, though he have his other senses and understanding perfect, yet shall he never be able to discern or dispute of colours.  
The senses bring in the outward visible species, images, signs, figures, or forms of things, and place them in the fantasy and memory; the memory and fantasy propounds them to the will and understanding, and the understanding and will embracing them, frame thoughts and actions accordingly: for as S. Augustine in the eighth chapter of his t●n●h book of Confessions saith, The things themselves do not enter into the memory, only the images of the things perceived by the senses, are ready there at hand, whensoever the thoughts will call for them. Thus S. Augustine; whereby it appeareth, that according to the images or forms, which the senses bring in, the soul thinketh; wherefore if the senses bring in images and species of good and pious things, the thoughts are noble, heroical, and pious; if of vicious and wicked, than the thoughts will also be base and vile.  
From hence it is that the Prophet Jeremy, speaking in the person of one, who through the liberty which he gave unto his eyes, had infected his soul with wicked thoughts, and himself with filthy sins, saith, Mine eye hath spoiled my soul, Lament. 3.51. Again, death is come up through our windows, Jer. 9.21. The eye (saith S. Ambrose in the first chapter of his book entitled de fuga seculi) hath looked, and hath perverted the sense of the mind; the ear hath heard, and hath changed the intention, a smell ascended, and hath hindered the thought, the mouth tasted, and sin is committed, the touch approached, and the fire burned; for as the Prophet saith, death entereth by the windows, and thy windows are thine eyes. Thus S. Ambrose, to show unto us, that the thoughts commonly follow the senses, and that the senses consented unto, beget our thoughts.   

CHAP. VI The power which the senses have to move the mind, to think good or evil, as they present.  
WHat force our eyes have to move our mind to think good or evil, as they present unto it, may well appear by our first parent Eve, her fall, who living in the delights of Paradise, clothed with original grace, and possessed of what her heart could honestly desire, looked only upon the forbidden fruit, and saw that the tree was good to eat (as her senses told her) and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold, and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and so brought not only original sin into the world, but also evil thoughts and deeds, and sickness, and infirmities, and all diseases, and death, which w●re not before, nor should have been, if sin had never been committed; whereby it doth appear, how much it importeth man, to have always before his eyes sacred forms, pictures, signs, and images, that his senses beholding them, his thoughts may be pious: for as S. Gregory the Great (in the first chapter of his sixth book upon the first of Kings) saith, seeing that we cannot think two things at once, it is easily brought about, that thinking of other things (which are good) we cannot be troubled with evil thoughts.  
Holy Job considering the power which the object of the senses have, in filling our hearts and minds with pious thoughts, saith, I have made a covenant with mine eyes, that I would not so much as think of a Virgin, Job 31.1. The object of the eyes, being for the most part the matter of our thoughts, holy Job made a covenant with his eyes, that they should not behold the beauty of a Virgin, lest it might administer vain and carnal matter to his thoughts: whereupon S. Gregory the Great upon this text saith, That Job might keep the thoughts of his heart chaste; he made a covenant with his eyes, lest that they might first with liberty behold, that which afterwards he should even, as it were, against his will, love, for it is a great burden which the flesh draweth downward, and the Image or Picture of Beauty once tied to the heart, by means of the eyes, it's hardly loosed with the pulling of both the hands: wherefore if we will not be troubled with slippery or wanton thoughts, we must be provident before hand, for it is no way safe for us to behold that which we may not covet; wherefore, that the mind may be preserved in pious thoughts, the eyes (like thiefs who are posting to steal) are to be drawn back from lasciviousness in their pleasures; for even Eve had not touched the forbidden tree, had she not first with too great liberty looked upon it. Thus S. Gregory; to demonstrate unto us, how much the beholding of sacred pictures, signs, and images, which represent unto us, either God, or the things of heaven, or the mysteries of our faith, may be beneficial unto us, seeing they are, or may be Nurses of Pious Thoughts.  
Plutarch reporteth of Alexander the Great in his life, that after he had taken the daughters of Darius' King of Persia captives, he visited and saluted them very seldom, and then always with his eyes cast upon the ground, being, saith he, afraid of himself, least that he might be entangled in their rare beauty; neither would he ever come in the sight of Darius his wife, who was, (as they told him) a most comely woman, but many times resorted unto her mother, whose years took away the occasion of vain thoughts, or sensual allurements, and not to be hindered in his designs, and conquests by the beauty of the Persian Dames, as Curtius relateth, he imagined them to be Statues of wood, or stone, saying, The Persian Ladies are the grief of the eyes, but I pass by them, as by Statues.  
S. Hierome showing unto us, how much the object of our senses help, or hurt our souls; in his second book against Jovinian saith, by the five senses, as it were by windows, vices find entrance into the soul: The chief City and Castle of the soul cannot be surprised or taken, unless the A●my of the enemy enter in by the gates; by the tumultuous motions of the senses the soul is oppressed, it is led away captive by the sight, by the hearing, by the smelling, by the taste and touch.  
According as the senses present unto the soul, so she discourseth, thinketh, and worketh; whereupon the Council Agathensis in the twenty eighth chapter forbiddeth Clergy men, and those who were bound to live chaste, to be present at marriage feasts, or at other profane meetings, where Lovesongs were sung, or wanton speeches used; where unclean motions of the body, by dancing, or lascivious kissing, might be stirred up, lest (as it saith) their ears and eyes (which according to their obligation, are bound to attend the sacred mysteries) should become polluted with the infection of vain speeches and filthy words.  
Neither art thou Christian Reader stronger than Samson, nor more holy than David, nor wiser than Solomon, who were all overcome, and made a prey to their enemies, by the vain object of the senses; whereby appeareth the power which the senses have to move the mind to think good or evil, as they present.   

CHAP. VII. How pious objects, and sacred Pictures furnish our souls with pious thoughts.  
THe object of the senses having that power with our souls, as that it can for the most part forcibly persuade us, to think good or evil, as it representeth. If thou wilt Christian Reader have pious thoughts, thou must always, or for the most part, have before thine eyes and senses pious objects, such as are the presence of God under some borrowed form, the passion of our Lord, things of heaven, and the mysteries of our holy faith, which because they are all either invisible, or absent, or both, it is requisite as long as thou art in this vale of tears (whereas the Apostle saith, we see by a glass in a dark sort) to have of the aforesaid things sacred artificial pictures, signs, and images, or borrowed forms, which may represent unto thy senses these holy things, as a Nurse to feed thy soul with pious thoughts.  
Neither is it sufficient to the maintenance of pious thoughts, only to have sacred artificial pictures, signs, and images before you to behold, but also it is necessary that you bear a relative religious honour and respect towards them; for this doth not only prepare, and open wide your heart to receive the said Species into your understanding, and to love and understand the sacred things which they do represent, but also doth imprint a perseverance of pious thoughts in your heart, for every one easily embraceth and entertaineth that which he honoureth and esteemeth, as we see by daily experience; for if a thing be never so good, yet if you do not esteem it, to you it is not good, but hurtful, who contemn a sacred thing.  
For this cause S. John Baptist honoured and worshipped the latchet of our Saviour's shoes with a relative religious worship, which ended in our Saviour, saying, whose latchet of his shoe I am not worthy to unloose, John 1.1.2.7. And he who so much honoured the latchet of his shoe, as that he thought himself not worthy to touch it, in respect of the supereminent honour which belonged to our Saviour; imagine if you can the innumerable pious thoughts of God, and of the mysteries of our faith which were in his soul, seeing that God exalteth the humble: whereupon S. Augustine upon this text saith, He humbled himself very much, in that he thought himself not worthy to do this; certainly (saith S. Augustine) he was full of the Holy Ghost: what a consequence is this? S. John said, I am not worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoe; and thereupon S. Augustine inferreth, that he was full of the Holy Ghost, because that relative religious honour which he gave unto the latchet of our Lord's shoe for our Saviour's sake, opened wide his l●● art, to receive into it all kind of pious thoughts, or any impression of our Saviour, or of the Holy Ghost, who dwelleth with a contrite and humble spirit, Isay 57.15.  
From hence also it is, that the faithful in the Primitive Church so much honoured with a relative religious honour the shadow of S. Peter, and the handkerchiefs of S. Paul, as that they did bring forth the sick into the streets, and laid them in beds, and couches, that when Peter came, his shadow at the least might overshadow them, Act. 5.15. and brought from S. Paul's body napkins, or handkerchiefs unto the sick, Act. 19.11. that by any thing which had relation unto these holy servants of God, they might at least beget in the sick pious thoughts, and sometimes also health of body, or cure of their diseases.  
From hence also it is, that the faithful at all times have not only had respect and reverence to the memory of the Martyrs, the local places of Churches, Chappells, and Altars, and to the holy name of God, and jesus Christ our Lord, but also unto the sacred text of the Scriptures, pious books, and service of the Church, which are but holy signs, notes, pictures, similitudes, and objects to our senses, which may Furnish our souls with pious thoughts, as S. Augustine after his conversion in the sixth chapter of his nineth book of Confessions affirmeth they did in him with great consolation, saying, By the notes of the Church so sweetly sung, the words did fl●w into my ears, and the truth which was contained therein, distilled m●lting into my heart, and the affection of piery even boiled in my breast, my tears ran trickling down my cheeks, and it was well with me. Thus S. Augustine, to demonstrate unto us, that as obscene and filthy objects, and the names and notes of profane loves and vicious things respected, beget in our hearts impious and wicked thoughts, so pious objects and sacred pictures, when they are respected for the holy things which they represent, do presently furnish our minds with pious thoughts, as I shall further show in the ensuing Chapters.   

CHAP. VIII. The necessity of sacred artificial Pictures, Signs and Images, to the nourishing of pious thoughts, and what we call sacred Pictures and Signs.  
THe thoughts for the most part following the senses, (as I have showed in the precedent chapter) to have pious and golden thoughts, it is not only necessary to avoid vain and idle species and forms, but also to have often, or for the most part, before our eyes sacred artificial pictures, signs, and images, thereby to imprint in our hearts sacred and pious thoughts: but we call these sacred artificial pictures, signs and images, which represent unto us holy, and divine, and invisible things, or the mysteries of our faith, etc. and as they do represent them unto us, and imprint in our hearts the knowledge of the aforesaid divine things or mysteries, and beget in our minds pious thoughts, these we call sacred, not for the matter they are made of, but for the sacred things they do or may represent, and as they do represent them unto us, this we understand by sacred artificial pictures, signs and images, and nothing else: Now how necessary these things are to the begetting in us pious thoughts, appeareth first by what I have said in the former chapters; for if we can learn nothing, or understand or think of any thing, but either by itself, or else by some resemblance, picture, or sign, it must pass by the senses: and all the things of heaven, and mysteries of our faith, etc. are invisible, and insensible to the senses, unless we use sacred artificial pictures, signs and images; we can never come to know any thing of the heaven of glory, or of the mysteries of our faith, etc. as further appeareth by the Heathen and Pagan people, who for want of the use of these things, and of a Preacher to preach or teach them these things, by audible sacred artificial signs, or visible sacred artificial pictures, signs and images, remain until this day in their infidelity, or Paganism.  
And we also, who at this day, and in ●ormer tim●s are Catholic Christian●, have learned our Christianity by those sacred artificial signs, pictures and images, neither otherwise could we ever have known it, as witnesseth S. Paul saying how shall they hear without a Preacher, Rom. 10.14. If Preachers had not come and taught all the Christian Catholic Nations that are, the things of heaven, and mysteries of their faith, by audible artificial sacred signs, or visible sacred signs, pictures and images, they should never have learned them, or have come to know them; for as S. Paul in the aforesaid chapter saith, faith is by hearing, and hearing is by the word of God; and words are but signs of things, as witnesseth Aristotle in the first chapter of his first book of Perihermanias', and Pierius in his book of the sacred Egyptian letters throughout; neither as I have proved in the precedent chapters, do the things themselves enter into the mind by the senses, but their signs, pictures, forms or images, whereby it appeareth that the necessity of using sacred artificial signs, pictures, and images is such, as that without them we cannot learn divine things, or the mysteries of our faith.  
Now seeing that the mind (as Cicero in his first book of Offices affirmeth) is never quiet, but is always thinking or doing, as we may find by our dreams, and discourses upon things in our memory and fantasies, when we are even asleep, and no divine thing can naturally enter into our hearts and minds to be thought upon, or agitated, or discoursed of, which passeth not by some form, picture sign, or image through the senses, it necessarily followeth, that if we will have pious thoughts, we must propose to the senses sacred artificial pictures, signs, forms or shapes, that they may represent unto the heart, and mind sacred things, as matter of pious thoughts; from whence it is, that Catholic Christians in the Primitive Church, and at all times used sacred artificial pictures, signs and images, as of the Nativity, Preaching, working of Miracles, Passion of our Lord, upon his Ascension into heaven, his glory there, and of his coming again at the day of Judgement, and also sacred signs, pictures or images of all the things contained in both Testaments, as the pictures, signs and images of Angels and Saints, and of all virtues, etc. the rebv to furnish the mind by these objects of the senses with pious thoughts.  
For as Abbot Mo●ses, a virtuous and learned old E●mite, who retired himself into the deserts of Egypt for the salvation of his soul, in the eighteenth chapter of the first book of Casians Collations saith, The exercises of our souls may very fitly be compared unto a Water-mill, which is so continu ●lly turned about with the violence of a stream running forth amain through certain holes, that it can never cease from grinding, yet it is the Mill●rs or Masters power, whether it shall grind Wheat or Barley, or if he will cast into it to grind o● work upon Oats; for that certainly will be broken in pieces and grinded, which the Master or Miller will cast into it. In like manner, the mind (saith he) turned about by the incursions of this present life, and by the torrents of temptations which rush in upon us, cannot be free from the heat of thoughts, whereof, which to admit, or to repulse, every one ought to learn by his diligence and pains, for if we continually apply our minds unto the meditation of the holy Scriptures, raise up our memory to the memory of spiritual things, elevate our desires to the desire of perfection, and to the hope of the happiness to come; it must needs be, that the thoughts which arise in our minds shall be spiritual, the mind being brought to stay herself upon those things which she hath meditated, but if overcome by sloth and negligence, we spend our time in vices and idle talk, or else busy ourselves with the superfluous cares of the world: then our hearts will be filled with hurtful thoughts, like a k●nd of a cockle sprung from thence; for as our Saviour said, where the treasure of our works or intentions is, there also our heart must necessarily be fixed.  
Thus Abbot Moses, a holy Hermit, who lived about twelve hundred years passed in the deserts of Sciti in Egypt, as affirmeth Ruffinus in the eighth chapter of his eleventh book of histories, where their letters were all visible pictures, signs and images, as witnesseth Pierius in his book of the sacred Egyptian letters: And the like comparison of the operation of our souls in matter of thoughts hath S. Anselme, sometime Archbishop of Canter bury; in the forty one chapter of his book of Similitudes, and others, to demonstrate unto us the necessity of often hearing with respect and reverence sacred sounds, which are but signs of holy things, and of often seeing, beholding, and looking upon sacred artificial pictures, signs and images, which represent unto us divine things, or the mysteries of our faith, etc. with a relative religious worship, that by hearing or beholding them after that manner, the divine things or mysteries of our faith may easily pass and enter into our minds, and fill our hearts with pious thoughts, as I shall yet further show in the ensuing chapters.   

CHAP. IX. What we mean by a relative Religious Worship and of the distinction of honour and worship.  
AS our Opposers would not understand what we mean by sacred pictures, figures and images, no more will they understand what we intent by a Relative Religious Worship, unless we explicate it unto them; wherefore here it is necessary to repeat what I have said in the first and second chapters of our book, of the honour and prayer to Saints, where I have showed, that as there are in general two Kingdoms upon earch, th'one temporal, th'other spiritual, so also in general (and for as much as will serve for our purpose) there are two kinds of honours and worships, the one civil, belonging to the temporal Kingdom, the other religious, belonging to the spiritual Kingdom, and both these kinds of honours and worships have divers degrees, divisions, or distributions, according to the divers and different dignities in the said Kingdoms, and yet keep one or the same name of honour or worship, with little variety in words, more than the terms of religious, civil or superstitious.  
As for example, all the honour and worship which is in the temporal Kingdom, as it is temporal, and not Christian, whether it be exhibited to God, or Gods, or Kings, or his Officers, or other of his Subjects, is but civil or superstitious, though it be divided into divers acts, operations and degrees, for these who have no true Religion (as Turks, Jews, and Infidels,) can have no true religious worship amongst them; therefore all the honour and worship which can or may be amongst them, is but civil or superstitious, according to the humane virtues, dignities, or superstition, which is used amongst them, though it be divided into divers degrees; and that civil or superstitious worship  they bestow upon God, or Gods, or their Kings, may not be given to every temporal man or Officer amongst them, but an inferior, according to the civil or superstitious dignity, or office, or esteem of every one, or the relation any thing amongst them hath to a higher civil or superstitious power; the same we say of Religious Worship in the spiritual Kingdom of God's Church, as it is spiritual, that whether it be exhibited to God, or to the Officers of his Church, or to other Christians, or to sacred things dedicated to his honour, yet we call it still a Religious Worship, though that Religious Worship which we bestow upon God, as he is God (such as are Sacrifices, oaths and vows) may not be exhibited to his creatures, but an inferior, according to the qualty, dignity or esteem which the said creature's have in God's Church, or the relation they haxe unto higher powers; and therefore for distinction sake, we call this inferior worship which is bestowed upon creatures, a Relative Religious Worship, and not an absolute, as having relation to God, the end of all goodness, esteem and dignity, and this we intent and mean by a Relative Religious Worship, and after this manner we affirm that sacred pictures, signs and images may be honoured and worshipped, with a Relative Religious visible and invisible worship (and not with an absolute) as having relation either immediately or mediately unto God, the end of all goodness.  
This noble moral virtue of Religion, as also other moral virtues, hath divers acts or operations, some whereof only respect God, as he is God and Creator of all things, others his Angels and Saints, or spiritual persons, or ecclesiastical and sacred things dedicated to his honour and service; as it respecteth only and chief God, it is divine honour and worship, or an absolute worship, independent upon any other thing, as it respecteth the creatures and sacred things dedicated to his service, it is relative religious honour and worship, because it is not absolute, or stayeth there, but hath a further relation to God, the end of all goodness, as of whom, and by whom, and from whom the thing worshipped hath that honour and worship, and not of itself, by itself.  
The like we find in other moral virtues; as for example, in Justice, though the substance and nature of this virtue be one particular virtue, yet her operations and effects are divers and different, whereof some are occupied about God, as he is God and Creator of all things, others about his creatures; and that work or operation which according to Justice we bestow upon God, as he is God and Creator of all things (as love of the whole heart) may not be bestowed upon his creatures, but an other of an inferior and relative quality; and the like we may say of other moral virtues, and also of Religion, which is described by S. Thomas in his 2 a. 2 ae, quaest. 81. to be one special most noble moral virtue, distinct only by reason from holiness, which according to her proper acts and operation doth only respect God, and by other virtues which she commandeth his creatures; and therefore when she is described according to her most principal office or operation, or principal Analogate, she is said to belong unto God only, and when she is described according to her largest extent or signification, than she is said to belong unto God and holy things; that Religion, and a religious worship and honour doth belong unto God, that our Adversaries do confess, that she doth also belong after the aforesaid relative manner, unto sacred pictures, signs and images, and other holy things, either mediately or immediately dedicated to the honour end service of God, that I shall further show in the ensuing chapters.   

CHAP. X. That a Relative Religious Worship belongeth unto sacred things, Pictures, Signs and Images, as they immediately or mediately conduct us to God.  
S. Paul. speaking of the sacred things, Rites and Ceremonies which were used by the faithful in the Old Law, in the service of God, saith, These things were done in a figure of us: Again, All these things happened to them in sign (or example, as Protestants translate) 1 Cor. 10. Again, For the Law having a shadow of things to come, not the very image of the things, Heb. 10.1. whereby it appeareth that the Rites, Ceremonies, and Sacraments of the Old Law were but sacred Signs, Pictures, Images, Shadows, or imperfect and obscure representations of the sacred things of the New Testament; whereupon S. Paul saith, that Abraham received the sign of Circumcision, seal of the Justice of Faith, that is in prepuce, or Christians, Rom. 4.11. yet they worshipped these figures, signs and shadows in the Old Law with a relative religious worship and honour, as witnesseth the Scripture, saying, You shall observe these Ceremonies, (in the Sacrifice of the Paschall Lamb) and when your children shall say unto you what is this Religion? you shall say to them, it is the victim of your Lord's passage, when he passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, Exod. 12.16. where the Scriptures call the reverence and respect which was borne unto the Ceremonies and signs which represented our Lord's passage over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, a Religion, where they used a relative religious worship, as of the same nature, and not a civil, which is of another kind.  
Again, Aaron and his children shall be Priests to me by a perpetual Religion, Exod. 29.9. Again, This is the anointing of Aaron and his sons in the Ceremonies of our Lord, etc. by a perpetual Religion in their generations, Exod. 7.35. where the Scriptures call the signs and ceremonies which were used in the consecration of Aaron and his children to be Priests, a Religion, and therefore to be performed with an outward and inward relative religious respect and reverence. In like manner, a red cow being offered in burnt victim for sin, the Scriptures say, This is the Religion of the victim which our Lord hath appointed, Num. 19.2. where the Scriptures call the Rites and Ceremonies used about the Sacrifice for sin a Religion, and therefore performed with a relative religious honour, respect, and reverence.  
The Scriptures also speaking of an addition of many people unto the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jews, say, Many other Nations and Sects were joined to their Religion and Ceremonies, Hester 8.17. whereupon S. Paul saith, According to the most pure Sect of our Religion, I was a Pharisee, Act. 26.6. where the Scriptures and S. Paul call the whole practice which they had about sacred things or things dedicated to the honour of God, and use of their divine service, a Religion, and then the respect and reverence which they were to use about the said things, must be religious, as of the same nature, for as our Saviour said, We do not gather grapes on thorns, or figs on thistles, Mat. 7.16.  
S. James saith, If any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, this man's religion is vain, james 1.26. where he supposeth that Religion, and so likewise a religious worship may be used about the tempering of the tongue. Again in the same place S. james saith, A Religion clean and unspotted with God the Father is this, to visit Orphans and Widows in their tribulations, and to keep himself unspotted from the world: where likewise he supposeth, that Religion and religious worship may be exercised in visiting Widows and Orphans, and the acts of virtue.  
Aristotle in the third chapter of his book of Politics, taught by the light of reason, saith, Honour is justly given, when it is distributed according to dignity. And S. Paul saith, Render to all men their due; Rom. 13.7.  
And some men are religious, as witnesseth the Scriptures, saying, All religious bless ye our Lord, Dan. 3.90. Again, There were at Jerusalem Jew's, religious men of all Nations, Act. 2.5. Again, Cornelius the Centurion is called Religious, Act. 10.2. and you cannot give honour according to the dignity of one who is religious, or render unto him his due, unless you give him some kind of religious honour or worship, all other being inferior unto his dignity; whereby it appeareth, that some kind of religious worship may be given unto creatures.  
Civil honour, worship and adoration may be given unto profane men, as witnesseth the fact of Jacob, who seeing Esau coming towards him, going forward, he adored prostrate to the ground seven times, Gen. 33, 3. yet Esau was a profane person, as witnesseth S. Paul, Heb. 12.16. The Roman soldiers of all Nations, as well faithful as Infidels, adored the Imperial Ensign called Labarum, as witnesseth Zozomenus in the fourth chapter of his first book of histories; and all people and Nations, who are not exceeding barbarous, have worshipped and honoured the Chair of Estate, Sceptre, Crown, and the very name of their Kings and Emperors, when it hath been pronounced in public Edicts: whereby it appeareth, that a worship more than civil is due unto the friends of God, and sacred things dedicated to his honour and service, otherwise you put no difference between sacred things and profane, which God condemneth, saying, Her Priests have contemned my law, and have polluted my Sanctuaries, between a holy thing and a profane they have put no difference, Ezech. 22.26. whereupon our Saviour, when he had made as it were a whip of little cords, he cast them who sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, and bankers out of the Temple, Joh. 2.13. And S. Paul reprehended divers Christians for eating in the Church, saying, Have you not houses to eat and drink in, or contemn you the Church of God, 1 Cor. 11.22.  
The Officers of Christ in his Church are his Legates, according to the words of S. Paul, saying, We are Legates for Christ, 2 Cor. 5.20. and Legates by relation do participate in some part of the honour and worship which is due unto their Lords and Masters; wherefore seeing that to God is due an absolute religious worship, to the Officers of God's Church, or his Legates, must be due an inward and outward relative religious worship; whereupon S. Paul saith, The fathers of our flesh we had for instructors, and we did reverence them, not with civil honour only, but with some kind of religious, as instructors of Religion, Heb. 12.9.  
Our Saviour saith of his followers, You are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, joh. 15.19. Again, of the world they are not, as I also am not of the world, joh. 17.17. and therefore there did belong unto them an honour and worship, not worldly, which is religious.  
Father and Son are relatives, and the Son by all right (though in an inferior degree) is partaker of his Father's honour and worship, our Adversaries confess that religious honour belongeth unto God, and the Scriptures confess that pious and devout Christians are the adoptive sons of God, saying, We are the sons of God, and if sons, heirs also, heirs truly of God, and coheirs of Christ, Rom. 8.17. whereby it may justly be doubted, that those who deny an inward and outward relative religious worship unto the Saints and eminent servants of God, have neither part nor portion in the inheritance of Christ.  
The things which are dedicated to the service of God, are called sacred by God himself, Exod. 31.10. therefore there is due unto them an inward and outward sacred relative worship, which is the relative religious worship we speak of; whereupon all the Lexicons and Dictionaries, not only of Roman Catholics, but also of our adversaries themselves, (as of Thomas Thomasius) do interpret this word, Religio; a true worship of God or holy things, and all Nations cannot be deceived.  
Moreover, our Adversaries cannot deny, but that there are religious things, or things which belong unto Religion, as the Scriptures, Preaching, Teaching, Prayer, the Sacraments; unto which if our Adversaries will grant no kind of religious worship, they destroy all Religion, and prove themselves to be profane as Esau, Heb. 12.16.  
Religion and holiness do not really differ, as S. Thomas (2.2 ae. quaest. 81. Art. 8.) proveth; therefore neither can their operations or effects really differ, but holiness is exercised about creatures, as witnesseth the Scripture, saying, follow peace with all men, and holiness, Heb 12.14. Again, holiness becometh thy house O Lord, Psal. 92.5. not an absolute holiness, for so God only is holy; but a relative, as conducting us by means unto God, who is only holy of himself; so likewise the chiefest part of the Tabernacle was called The Sanctuary of Sanctuaries, and Holy of Holies, Exod. 26. God also commanded Moses to make holy vestments for Aaron and his sons, wherein they might minister unto him, or serve him, Exod. 28. But to serve God belongeth to Religion, therefore these were religious vestments, and had both an inward and outward relative religious reverence and respect born unto them, seeing that none might wear them but Aaron and his sons, and then only when they attended unto the service of God. The like we may say of all the things which belonged unto the Temple, and vessels of the Altar, of holy ground, holy Mountain, holy Scriptures, etc. which are holy by a holiness that referreth us to God, and also religious, and to be reverenced with a relative religious worship, for the same cause holy and religious being really both one.  
And to conclude, at all times, and in all ages the faithful honoured and worshipped sacred things, whether they were immediately or mediately dedicated to the service of God, which are inward and outward relative religious worship, as I shall further show in the ensuing Chapters.   

CHAP. XI. Almighty God never prohibited either the making of sacred Pictures, Signs and Images, nor yet their relative religious Worship.  
ALmighty God commanded us that we should not make vain and idle graven things, that might divert us from him for our own pleasures, or for ourselves, without any respect unto him, saying, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing, Exod. 20.4. but it is never read in the Scriptures, that he prohibited either the making or worshipping of sacred pictures, signs or images, with a relative religious worship, when they are made to his honour and glory, and not our own only, or to ourselves; hereupon it followeth in the same text, Thou shalt not adore them (which thou hast made to thyself, and not to the honour of God) nor serve them, for this is Idolatry: but faithful Roman Catholics never make any such pictures to themselves only, much less do they worship them or serve them, or adore them.  
God created all things in heaven and upon earth for man, and man for himself, so that man may not use any of the creatures of God or himself for himself, or to himself only, or do any thing to himself, or for himself only without offence to God, much less may he make pictures, signs and images to himself only, or to bow down to them or worship them, or serve them for himself only.  
This is self-love, or Philantia, not only forbidden by the first Commandment, and condemned by S. Paul, saying, In the last days shall approach perilous times, and men shall be lovers of themselves, 1 Tim. 3.1. but also by the moral Philosophers, as by Aristotle in the third chapter of his second book of Politics, and in the eighth chapter of his nineth book of Morals, ad Nichomachum, saying, They use to call those who love themselves filthy people: whereupon Suidas reporteth of Narcissus as beautiful young man, who was enamoured of himself, that the Nymphs upbraided him, saying, Many hate thee, because thou too much lovest thyself: wherefore seeing that Almighty God bindeth all men by the obligation of their creation to love and serve him with all their hearts, no marvel that he hath tied man from making or doing any thing for himself, as for himself, and from adoring or serving such things after they be made, especially pictures and images, seeing there is nothing so hurtful to the love and service of God, as self-love, and the working or doing any thing for ourselves, or the worshipping or serving it; whereupon the Ancients compared self-love to the love of the Ape unto her Cub, which she killeth with embracing, as they do, who make to themselves and not to God graven things or images, or pictures, and after fall down to them and worship them, without any reference or order to God.  
Our Saviour, to keep all Christians from this self-love, or from making any graven thing, or image for themselves, and not with reference, order, or relation to God, taught them, saying, If any will come after me (to heaven) let him deny himself, Mat. 16.24. that is, saith S. Basil in his answer to the sixth Interrogation of his large disputation upon Rules, forsake all his own pleasures, and do, or make nothing for himself, much less to make a graven thing, or image for himself, and after to bow down unto it, and serve it: This to be the sense of these words the Scripture doth witness, saying in the same chapter, You shall not make gods of silver, nor gods of gold shall you make to you, ver. 23. Again, mine Angel shall bring thee unto the Amorrheite, and Hetheite, and Pherezeit, and Canaanite, and H●veit, and jebuzite, whom I will destroy, you shall not adore their gods, nor serve them, Exod. 23.23. Again, He hath cut down cedars, taken the elm tree, and the oak, etc. he took of them and was warmed, and kindled them, and baked bread, but of the rest he wrought a God, and adored, he made a graven thing, and bowed down before it, half he burned with fire, etc. but the rest thereof he made a god, and a graven thing to himself; he howeth down before it, and beseeching, saying, Deliver me, because thou art my god, Isa. 44.14. whereupon when the children of Israel in the desert fell into Idolatry, whilst Moses was in the Mount with God about these Commandments, God said to Moses, Thy people have made to themselves a molten calf, and have adored, and immolating hosts unto it, have said, these are thy gods Israel, Exod. 32.8. whereby it is manifest, that this text only forbiddeth the making of Idols, and of vain and idle pictures, or images, which have no reference or relation to God, but to men only, and the affection or service done to them, which is by all Roman Catholics accounted sinful and wicked; and therefore if any Roman Catholic make to himself any such image, sign or picture, their Adversaries shall do well to punish him.  
That these words, a graven thing, or as it is in the Hebrew text, Pesel, signifieth an idol or vain image made to a man's self, and not to the honour of God, the seventy Interpreters of the Scriptures, who were assigned for that purpose by the Jews, to translate the Old Testament into Greek do witness, for they translate for the Hebrew word Pesel (which our Adversaries erroneously call a graven image) Idolum an Idol. In like manner Origen in his eighth Homily upon Exodus, and S. Augustine twice in his 71. question upon Exodus readeth this text, Thou shalt not make to thyself an Idol. And Calvin himself in his Commentaries upon the second of Exodus put forth in French, saith upon this text, Moses only speaketh of Jdols. And a little after, That which some foolishly have thought, here to be condemned all graving and images, needeth no confutation, seeing that Moses hath no other intent, but to exempt the glory of God from all fictions which tend to corrupt it; whereby it appeareth that this text maketh nothing either against the making of sacred pictures, signs or images, or the adoring or worshipping them with a relative religious worship, which conducteth us to God and heavenly things.  
In like manner this first Commandment, (or the second, as our Adversaries will have it) is again set down in the fifth of Deuteronomy, where it is also said, Thou shalt not make to thee a thing graven, nor the similitude of any thing that is in heaven above, etc. thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them; where Almighty God prohibiteth the making of graven things, pictures, signs or images to ourselves, and not to his honour and glory, and likewise prohibiteth the adoring or worshipping of such pictures, signs and images as are made to ourselves, and not to his honour; neither in all the Bible is there found any prohibition, either to make any sacred artificial picture, sign or image, or to adore or worship them, being made with a relative religious worship for the holy things they do represent; where upon I may conclude that Almighty G●● neither prohibited the making of sacred artificial pictures, signs and images, nor yet their worship after the manner abovesaid, as I shall yet further show in the ensuing chapters.   

CHAP. XII. That it is lawful to make holy artificial Pictures, Signs and Images, which may immediately or mediately bring us to think upon God and heavenly things, and place them in Churches or Temples.  
FIrst the arts of painting, carveing, printing and writing were never prohibited, and if it be lawful to exercise these arts in natural and moral things, it cannot be denied, but that they may be used to assist our minds or memories in painting, printing, or carving such holy and sacred things, as may put us in mind of God, or of the mysteries of our faith, or of heaven, and the things which are therein.  
It is manifest, that the Tabernacle of Testimony, with the Cherubins and two Tables, wherein were written or engraven the ten Commandments, and all that which belonged unto the Tabernacle were graven things, artificial pictures, signs and images, for the Scriptures are herein most plain, God saying to Moses, Behold I have called by name Beseleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the Tribe of Juda, and I have replenished him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge in all works, to devise whatsoever may be artificially made of gold, and silver, and brass, of marble and precious stones, and diversity of wood, and I have given him for his fellow Ooliab, and in the heart of every skilful man have I put in wisdom, that they may make all things I have commanded thee, Exod. 31. Thus God to Moses, to demonstrate unto us, that holy artificial images, pictures, signs and graven things, which represent unto us God and heavenly things, may be made or placed in Churches or Temples, seeing that God himself, not only gave Commandment to make such things, and to place them in the Tabernacle, but also endued men with extraordinary wisdom and knowledge, to devise for the Tabernacle whatsoever may be artificially made of gold, and silver, and brass, of marble and precious stones, and diversity of wood, as here the Scripture saith, and God cannot be the Author of sin or evil.  
Moreover that these things which Beseleel and Ooliab made by the Commandment of God, were artificial pictures, signs, similitudes and images, the Scripture further witnesseth, saying, Look and make it according to the pattern that was showed thee in the Mount, Exod. 25.40. whereupon S. Stephen said unto the Jews, The Tabernacle of Testimony was among our fathers in the desert, as God ordained, speaking to Moses, that he should make it according to the form which he had seen, Acts 7.44. which S. Paul also confirmeth, Heb. 8.5. wherefore it cannot be denied, but that it is lawful to make holy artificial pictures, signs and images, and to place them in Churches, seeing that by the Commandment of God such things have been made for the Tabernacle and Temple of the people of Israel, which were signs and figures of the Christian Church, as witnesseth S. Paul, 1 Cor. 10.  
Again God said to Moses, The children of Israel shall make to me a Sanctuary, and I will dwell in the midst of them, according to all the similitude of the Tabernacle which I will show thee, etc. Two Cherubins also shalt thou make of beaten gold on both sides of the Oracle, Exod. 25. Solomon also in building the Temple, made in the Oracle two Cherubs of Olive trees of ten cubits in height, etc. and all the walls of the Temple round about he graved with divers engravings and carvings, and he made in them Cherubins, and palm trees, and divers pictures, as it were standing out of the wall, and coming forth, 3 Kings 6.  
Moreover the two Tables of the Commandments which God gave to Moses in the Mount Sinai, were sacred artificial graven things, signs or pictures, as witness the Scriptures, saying, Moses' returned from the Mount, carrying the two Tables of Testimony in his hand, written on both sides, and made by the work of God, the writing also of God was graven in the Tables, Exod. 32.15. And words are but signs, figures, or images of things, as witnesseth Aristotle in the first chapter of his first book, Peri-Hermenias, and Pierius in his books of the sacred Egyptian letters.  
Moreover the nature of man considered, it cannot be, that the making of a picture, sign or image only (as they are the similitudes of other things) or the placing of them within Churches or Temples should be forbidden, for so God should be contrary to himself, who hath created man after such a manner, that he cannot naturally learn, know, or understand any thing, without conceiving the same, under some corporal image or likeness, his knowledge so depending upon his senses, that he cannot know any thing, which either by itself, or in some similitude, is not first represented by some sense; as for example, we see visible creatures, and hear sounds or voices, whereby the common sense being informed with such an image, as it is able to conceive, offereth the same to our fantasy or imagination; whereupon the mind beginneth to gather knowledge, and to print (as it were) or to engrave in itself that which is represented unto it by the senses, and therefore maketh judgement, and gathereth knowledge out of these images, species, or representations, in such sort, that as often as the mind will either use knowledge, or seek to increase in it, she always returneth to these images, figures or species which she hath received, and laid up in the gulf of her memory, to the end, that she may have wherewithal to occupy herself, and take delight, as occasion requireth: And thus God of his goodness hath created man, whereby it appeareth that he neither hath prohibited men from making sacred pictures, signs or images, nor from the placing them in Churches, seeing that both Almighty. God commandeth them to be made, and to be placed in his Temple, and that man cannot learn divine things, but by sacred artificial pictures, signs and images.  
As there are profane and vain images, pictures, similitudes, and signs, so there are sacred and holy, as witnesseth God himself, who called the Tabernacle and the artificial images, and graven things which did belong unto it, sacred things, Exod. 31.10. and S. Paul calleth the written words of the Bible, which are but signs, pictures and images (as I have proved heretofore) holy Scripture, 2 Tim. 3.25. and the places most fit for holy things, which either directly or indirectly represent unto us God, and heavenly things, are Churches, Chappells, and Temples, which also themselves are, or aught to be signs, images and pictures of heaven; so that the places of sacred pictures in holy Churches, Chapels or Temples, is but the observance of a decorum, in placing like with like, not to cast pearls before swine, nor do injury to holy things, by putting them in profane places.  
Temples, Churches, and Chapels ought to represent unto us heaven, as witnesseth the Scriptures, saying of the place where jacob worshipped God, This is none other but the house of God, Gen. 28.17. in whose house be Angels and Saints, whose Similitudes, Temples, Churches and Chapels are to represent; whereupon the Temple in the Old Law, which was a figure of Christian Churches, and Chapels, was adorned with pictures and images, as witnesseth the Scriptures, saying, Solomon made in the Oracle (which was in the most inward part of the Temple) two Cherubins of olive trees of ten cubits in height, etc. and all the walls of the Temple round about he graved with divers engravings and carving, and he made in them Cherubins, and palm trees, and divers pictures, as it were standing out of the wall, and coming forth, 3 Kings 6.  
S. Paul also calleth Christian Churches the house of God, 1 Cor. 11.22. and our Saviour divers times calleth his Church upon earth, the Kingdom of heaven; as Mat. 13.24. and again verse 47. and the Temple and Churches his Father's house, joh. 2.16. where not only God dwelleth, but also Angels and Saints, according to the words of S. Paul, saying to the Christians, You are come to Mount Zion, and the City of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and the assembly of many thousand of Angels, and the Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, Heb. 12.22. whereupon it cometh to pass, that there was never in the world any Church which did belong unto Catholic Christians, which had not in it an Altar, as a picture, sign, or image of the Altar in heaven, and some sacred pictures, signs or images, either to represent unto those who should enter into it the society of heaven, or the mysteries of our faith, or both, otherwise it could not represent the Temple of God, or house of God in heaven, from whence it hath his denomination; S. John saying, that he saw a great multitude (in heaven) which no man could number, of all Nations, Tribes, and peoples, clothed in white robes, and palms in their hands, etc. these (saith he) are they which are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, therefore they are before the Throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his Temple, Revel. 7. Again he saith, I saw an Angel come forth from the Temple which is in heaven, Revel. 14.17. whereby it appeareth, that as we have sacred Temples, Altars and Churches, which represent the Temple, Altar, and house of God in heaven, so also we ought to have sacred images, or pictures of Angels and Saints, to represent unto us the Inhabitants in the Temple of heaven, or the mysteries of our faith; and that our adversaries, who disgrace, deface, and beat down these things, are enemies to pious thoughts, and to the elevation of men's minds to heaven and heavenly things.   

CHAP. XIII. That in time of peace, when there is no persecution, the pictures and images of Angels and Saints ought to be placed in Christian Churches, and there honoured with a relative religious worship.  
AS I have proved in the last chapter, Christian Churches, Temples and Chapels ought to resemble unto them heaven, and the house of God in heaven, wherein do dwell Angels and Saints, and therefore it is as manifest, that Christians ought to have some sacred pictures of Angels and Saints in their churches, temples and chapels, and there to honour them with a relative religious worship, to represent unto them heaven, as is manifest, that they ought to have churches, unless it be in time of persecution, when sacred pictures are more subject to be profaned, than the churches themselves, by Pagans and Infidels, who do more hate sacred images, than they do material churches, and therefore do sooner deface and abuse them, than they do the churches themselves.  
In the Old Testament, because the gates of heaven were not open before the Ascension of our Lord, as the Scriptures witness, Colos. 1.18. therefore in the Tabernacle and Temple of the Old Law, were only the pictures of Angels, and not of Saints; but now in the New Law, that the Saints have passage into heaven, and the Inhabitants of heaven do consist of Angels and Saints, as witness the Scriptures, Heb. 13.22. Revel. 7.9. it is as requisite that the pictures and images of Saints should be placed in Christian churches and chapels, and there respected and honoured with a relative religious worship, as that it was necessary in the old Law the pictures of Angels should be in the Tabernacle and Temple, and there respected and adored after the manner aforesaid, the same reason serving equally for both.  
The Inhabitants of the Temple and house of God in heaven, consisting of an innumerable multitude of Angels and Saints, he should be but an unskilful workman, who would undertake to make a description of it unto our corporal eyes, and not paint or carve any image or picture of any Saint, seeing that heaven is the house of Saints, as further witnesseth S. Paul, 2 Cor. 5.1. unless he should excuse himself by reason of persecution, that he omitted these things, lest they should be profaned by Pagans and Infidels, or administer occasion unto them of greater wrath or indignation against Christians: whereupon it came to pass, that though the Primitive Christians always used pictures and images of Saints in their churches, chapels, and places of meeting, and respected and reverenced them with a relative religious worship, as they did their churches, thereby to nourish in themselves pious thoughts; yet in the time of persecution they used them not carved or painted upon the walls, or so fixed, as that they could not easily remove them, as doth witness the Council of Jliberis held in the time of of persecution, and before the church had peace, in the thirty sixth Canon, saying, It hath pleased the Council that pictures should not be in the Churches, (that is to say, fixed or fastened to the walls) lest that which is worshipped and adored should be painted upon walls, where the Pagan and Infidels coming might easily abuse them.  
But after that persecution ceased, and the church had peace; for the statues, pictures and images of false gods, and profane men, which the Pagan and Infidels used in their Temples, and the honour which they bestowed upon them, the Christians brought in the pictures, images and memories of the Saints, with a relative religious respect and honour unto them, as witnesseth Theodoret in the end of the eighth book of the cure of Greek affections, or of Martyrs, saying, The Temples of those false gods, and profane men, together with their groves, are now so destroyed, that there doth not remain any of their footsteps, neither can we know after what manner their Attars were built, for the very matter of those things is purged out, by the erected Temples and Altars of the Martyrs, for our Lord God hath brought in his dead into the Temples in place of your gods, he hath made their glory void and vain, and hath given their honour to his Martyrs; and for the solemnities of all your gods and goddesses, are brought in the common feasts of Peter, Paul, Thomas, Sergius, Marcellus, Leontius, Antonius, Moritius, and other holy Martyrs. Thus Theodoret, who flourished in the year 430. to show unto us, that as soon as the church had peace, the faithful kept the feasts of the Saints, placed their pictures in the churches, and gave unto them all the exterior visible honour which the Pagans did unto their false gods, except Sacrifice, and their relation to their Idols, as to the true and living God: Until the conversion of Constantine the great the church of God for the most part remained in persecution, as soon as he was converted, and begun to erect Christian churches, in the first church which he built, which was the Constantiniana, (afterwards called the Church of our Saviour) he placed in it the pictures and images of our Saviour, and the Apostles, as witnesseth Damasus in the life of S. Silvester, saying, In these times Constantine Augustus built the Church Constantiniana, where he bestowed these gifts, a balcone of silver, with our Saviour sitting in the fore front thereof, in a chair of five foot high, weighing one hundred and twenty pounds, and at his back the twelve Apostles, every one of them of five foot in height, weighing every one of them ninety pounds, with crowns of most pure gold; looking through the Cancels of our Saviour, sitting in a throne of five foot of most pure silver, etc.  
Not long after Constantine lived, S. Gregory Nazianzen, who for his excellent knowledge in divinity, was commonly called the Divine, a man of noble parents, and brought up at Athens with S. Basil the Great, as his School-fellow, yet this man making an Oration in the presence of S. Basil of the death of his Father, which is the nineteenth amongst his works, highly extolleth his father for building a stately and sumptuous Church, adorned with pictures so artificially made, that they did not (as he saith) yield to nature itself, yet profane and vain pictures were never permitted to have places in Churches.  
Moreover Helladius S. Basils' successor in the Church of Cappadocia, writing the life of S. Basil, affirmeth, That the pious man stood before the image of our Lady, where also was painted the effigies of the famous Martyr Mercury; and he stood praying that he might be freed of wicked Julian the Apostata, and he learned of the said image the event that followed, which was of his death.  
S. Gregory Nissen was brother to S. Basil the Great, and lived at the same time with S. Gregory Nazianzen, yet he writing an Oration in the praises of Theodorus the Martyr, and coming to describe the beauty and sumptuousness of a Church built to his honour, in the City Euchita, afterward called Theodorpolis of his name, amongst other things saith, The Painter also by the flower of his art hath set forth in pictures the valiant acts or deeds of the Martyr, his repugnances, his torments, the figures of barbarous and savage tyrants, the violent force of the flames of fire consuming the Champion, a pattern of the combats of our General Christ in humane shape; and to conclude, he hath expressed unto us, as in a book, which containeth the interpretation of tongues, all the combats and labours of the Martyr, by artificially painting them in colours. Thus S. Gregory Nizzen, to demonstrate unto us, that in the primitive Church, and even in the most flourishing time of the Church, the faithful had the pictures and images of their Saints in their public Churches, and respected and reverenced them with a relative religious worship, as Roman Catholics do at this day, thereby to nourish in themselves pious thoughts.  
Anastasius Sinaita, Bishop of Antioch, flourished about the year 544. who as it is set down in the third Oration of S. Damascenus, de Jmaginibus, relateth, that twenty Saracens breaking into the Church of the aforesaid S. Theodor●s, and making their retreat in it, one of them (as he saith) shot an arrow at the image of S. Theodorus, which wounded it upon the right shoulder, whereat blood issued out, and ran down unto the lowest part of the image, yet they all beholding what was done, and seeing the arrow sticking in the shoulder of the image of the Saint, and the blood gushing out, were nothing moved with this wonderful miracle, neither he who did it, being sorry for it, nor any of the rest for their evil behaviour; within a few days they all died, and none else, except those Saracens who had taken up their lodgings in the said Church. This image (saith he) thus strucken with an arrow is yet remaining, bearing the wounds of an arrow, and the stains of blood, many of those who were then living, and see this thing are yet alive, and I also see the image, and have written what I have seen. Thus Anastasius Bishop of Antioch.  
S. chrysostom set forth a public Church-Service-book for the Church of Constantinople, translated out of Greek into Latin by Erasmus, wherein is set down the manner how the Priest is to proceed in the Service of the Church, and amongst other things he saith; That the Minister or Deacon going before with a light, the Priest cometh forth of the Vestry, with the Gospel in his hands, and turning himself to the image of Christ, which stood between two doors, bowing down his head, saith with a loud voice, O Lord Governor of all things, etc.  
The religious Nilus was a Disciple of S. John chrysostom, yet he instructing Olympiodorus, a Proconful, how he would have Churches adorned, saith, I would have the walls of the Church on both sides filled with the histories of both the Old and New Testament, set forth by the work of a most skilful Painter, to this end, that those who were not taught to read, and cannot read the Scriptures, by beholding the pictures may be taught, who they were which by worthy deeds sincerely served God, that they also may be moved to undertake the like glorious works, by which these men have made an exchange of earth for heaven, and honour these things by contemplation, which they never see with their eyes.  
Prudentius in his Hymn of the Martyr S. Cassianus, setteth down at large, how over his Tomb stood his image painted with a thousand wounds torn in all the joints, his skin broken with little pricks, and a many boys sticking bodkins into his wounded members, showing the cruelty of his death and Martyrdom, yet Prudentius flourished in the year 390.  
S. Augustine in the tenth chapter of his first book de consensu Evangelistarum saith, In many places Peter and Paul were seen painted with our Saviour: Evadius in the fourth chap. of his 2. book of the miracles of S. Stephen, saith, that before the memory or Altar of S. Stephen was a vail, wherein was painted S. Stephen, bearing a glorious cross upon his shoulders: Nicephorus in the second chapter of his fourteenth book affirmeth, that Pulcheria Augustae placed in the Church which she had built in Constantinople in the year 43●. a picture of our blessed Lady, received from Eudoxia at Jerusalem.  
Theodoret Bishop of Syria writing the admirable life of Simeon Stilites saith, an innumerable people from divers Nations came by troops unto him, into the territories of Antioch, and many from Spain, Britain and France, who in Rome itself was so famous, that in all their porches and entrance into their places of offices, they put little pictures of him, thereby (as he saith) to procure help and defen●e unto themselves: Yet Theodoret flourished in the year 430. whereby it appeareth that both in their public Churches, and private houses, the faithful of the Primitive Church had the pictures of Saints, and respected them with an outward and inward relative religious honour and worship, thereby to nourishin themselves pious thoughts.   

CHAP. XIV. How the Nurse of Pious Thoughts doth not only consist in the having and beholding sacred pictures, signs and images, but also in giving unto them an outward and inward relative religious worship, not for the material things themselves, but for the sacred things which they represent.  
TO the preservation of pious thoughts in our hearts, as I have said heretofore, it is not only sufficient often to hear sacred artificial sounds, and see or behold sacred artificial pictures, signs and images, but also to honour, worship and respect them, with an outward and inward relative religious worship, not for themselves, or for the matter they are compounded of, but for the divine things and mysteries of our faith which they represent unto us, and as they do represent them unto us, and not otherwise; for not only vicious and wicked men, whose hearts are of wicked thoughts, but also the devils themselves hear, and see sacred pictures, signs and images, as appeareth by the fourth of S. Matthew, where the devil both heard and alleged Scripture. And Mr. Sanderson a Protestant Minister, in his second Sermon preached at Grantham in the year 1634. §. 6. & 8. telleth us of many Sectaries here in England, who are so addicted to the material visible artificial signs, and sounds of the Bible, that to do any thing at all without directions from the written material Word (as they say) is unlawful and sinful, even so far, as for the taking up of a straw: whereby it appeareth, that not the often hearing of sacred artificial material signs, or seeing of sacred artificial material pictures, signs or images only, is sufficient to the begetting and nourishing of pious thoughts in the hearts of men, but also it is necessary, that we should reverence and respect them with an outward & inward relative religious worship and honour, for the things which they represent, as often as we hear or see them; so to worship them, not for the sounds themselves, or for the pictures, signs and images themselves, or for the matter they are made of, but as they represent divine things unto us, and the mysteries of our faith, thereby to prepare and open our hearts for the worthy receiving of the knowledge of these sacred things, and mysteries of our faith which they do represent, and to distinguish between sacred pictures, signs and images, and profane or civil.  
First, honour and reverence towards any thing begetteth a great esteem and love of the thing itself in the heart of man; for as Aristotle well observeth (in the eleventh chapter of his first book of Rhetoric) saith, Honour and glory is of most pleasing things; so that these things which we honour, we cannot but love, and love openeth the heart, and maketh a passage to the thing beloved; and when we honour, worship, or respect any thing which belongeth to God, or that may conduct us to God for God's sake, or as it belongeth or conducteth us to God, the honour endeth, or is terminated in God, and not in the thing honoured: whereupon (as I have said heretofore) S. John Baptist so much honoured the latchet of our Saviour's shoes, for our Saviour's sake, that he thought himself not worthy to unloose it, Joh. 1.27. And the faithful Centurion so greatly honoured and reverenced our Saviour's words for our Lord's sake (as that he said) I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my boy shall be healed, Mat. 8.8. In like manner, the woman which was troubled with an issue of blood, so highly esteemed of our Saviour's garments, that she said, If I shall touch only his garment I shall be safe, Mat 9.1. And as also I have said heretofore, the Primitive Christians so highly esteemed and honoured the very shadow of S. Peter, for our Lord's sake, That they did bring forth the sick into the streets, and laid them in beds and couches, that when Peter came, his shadow at least might overshadow any of them. Act. 5.15. There were also brought from Paul his body, napkins or handkerchiefs upon the sick, and the diseases departed from them, Act. 19.12. of so great force was the relative religious worship that the faithful gave unto the things which belonged unto God, or unto his servants, to endue them with pious thoughts, and a constant faith.  
Almighty God will not only have these things which immediately belong unto himself, to be honoured with a relative religious honour and worship for his sake, but also these things which appertain unto his servants, whom he also so highly esteemed, that he keepeth an account of every hair which groweth upon their heads, according to his word, saying, your very hairs of the head are all numbered, Mat. 10.30. And if Almighty God will have the hairs of his servants heads, which are but excrements, to be of so great esteem, who is there that is not exceeding proud, an enemy of his own good, that will deny an outward and inward relative religious worship to sacred pictures, signs and images, as they are sacred pictures, signs and images, and administer unto our minds pious thoughts of heaven and heavenly things, seeing this ingrafteth and settleth in our hearts the knowledge of the pious things themselves, which are represented by these pictures, signs and images, and may well be described to be the Nurse of Pious Though   

CHAP. XV. How free Roman Catholics are from idolatry, by worshipping of sacred pictures, signs and images, with the aforesaid relative religious worship.  
TO let thee dear Reader most clearly and manifestly understand how free Roman Catholics are from committing Idolatry in the worship which they give to sacred artificial pictures, signs and images, I desire thee first to remember, that they call sacred pictures, signs and images, these artificial things, which represent unto them, either the things in heaven, or the mysteries of their faith, or the holy actions of our Saviour, or his Saints; etc. and as they do represent them, these they call sacred pictures, signs, and images, for the holy things they represent, and as they represent them; as God himself called the artificial things which did belong unto the Temple sacred, Exod. 31. And secondly, that they worship them, not as they are absolute things or substances, or as they are carved stocks, or stones, or painted , or creatures, this is but the false calumniations of their Adversaries, (who whilst they can find nothing that's evil in their Religion, of which they can justly charge them withal, do impute that unto them, which they do not) but they worship them as they have relation to the aforesaid known holy things, and either mediately or immediately conduct their hearts and minds to God, the Author of all goodness, as a mark, sign or note which should show unto us a thing of greater worth, eminency or dignity than itself, in such sort, as if it did say, I am none of your God, or last end, seeing I do but represent only a thing more excellent than myself, like the stamp upon the coin; whereupon our Saviour said unto the Jews, who shown unto him the tribute money, whose is this image and superscription? they say to him Caesar's; then he saith to them, render therefore the things that are Caesar's, to Caesar, Mat. 22.20.  
Wherefore seeing that sacred artificial pictures, signs or images, do but tell us of things more excellent than themselves, certainly as such, and by these who esteem them such, they can neither be esteemed or reputed as a God, or Gods, nor be as God worshipped; for whoever esteemed, thought or imagined that to be a God, or worshipped that for a God, which he affirmed to be but a shadow, or a relation unto another thing of greater dignity, none who was endued with reason, seeing that every one esteemeth God to be the chiefest of all Gods, and the last end of all things, according to the words of our Lord, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, and I am the first and the last, Revel. 1.17.  
And de facto that any one doth esteem a thing to be a sacred artificial picture, sign or image, and doth worship it as a sacred artificial picture, sign or image of another thing, he doth deny it to be a God, or to worship it as a God, and therefore cannot commit idolatry unto it, by worshipping it as a sacred artificial picture, sign or image.  
Secondly, as I have said heretofore, an artificial picture, sign, or image, about which the controversy is, as such is neither substance, person, nor creature, nor so esteemed by any one who is endued with reason, because they are but the work of a Painter, Printer, Writer or Carver, who cannot make a substance, person or creature, because they are reserved to God alone; whereby also it is manifest, that whilst Roman Catholics do worship sacred artificial pictures, signs and images, as they are such, and no otherwise, they cannot commit idolatry, because idolatry is, when the honour and worship which is due unto God, as he is God and Creator of all things, is given unto another person, or unto a creature or substance, which Roman Catholics acknowledge, and confess sacred artificial signs, pictures and images, are not: And what reasonable man ever, either worshipped or acknowledged, or esteemed that for a God, which he publicly and constantly professed to be neither person nor substance, nor yet so much as a creature; nor to have any subsistence of itself: whereby you see that the clamours of some Sectaries against the idolatry of Roman Catholics in the worshipping of sacred artificial pictures, signs, and images, are but as the cry and noise of frogs, which to hearken unto, do but dull men's ears, and hinder them of better thoughts.  
That Roman Catholics do not honour or worship sacred artificial pictures, signs or images, with any other honour or worship then relative, unto divine and heavenly things after the manner abovesaid, is first manifest by the decree of the Council of Trent, which in the twenty fifth Session saith, The image of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God, and of other Saints, are to be had and retained, especially in Churches, and that due honour and worship is to be imparted unto them, not for that any divinity is to be believed to be in them, or virtue, for which they are to be worshipped, or that any thing is to be begged of them, or that hope is to be put in them, as in times past the Pagans did, who put their trust in Idols; but because the honour which is exhibited to them is referred unto the first pattern which they resemble; so that by the images which we kiss, and before which we uncover our heads, and kneel, we adore Christ and his Saints, whose likeness they bear. Thus this Council, to demonstrate unto us, that even by the decree of this Council, which all Roman Catholics are bound to follow, they honour, worship and respect sacred artificial pictures, signs and images, with a relative honour and worship only, and no other.  
Secondly, it is yet further manifest, that Roman Catholics do not honour or worship sacred artificial pictures, signs or images, with any other honour or worship but relative; for that though they worship pictures, yet they do not worship all pictures, signs or images, which they should do, if they worshipped pictures absolutely, neither yet do they worship the same signs, pictures or images, when they do represent, or have relation unto other things, as appeareth in the name of God, and Jesus, and the material Temples and Altars of Jews and Gentiles, which they represent, or have relation unto any other thing, then unto the living God, or Christ our Saviour, or the Temple, or Altar in heaven.  
As for example, though the third Commandment say, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; and the Scriptures say, In the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, Phil. 2 16. yet they do not worship the name of God, where it is said to Moses, I will make thee God of Pharaoh, Ezod. 7.1. nor the name of Jesus, when it signifieth unto us, Jesus the son of Nun, or Joshua, Act. 7.45. or Jesus the son of Sirach, writer of Ecclesiasticus, or the Temples or Altars of Pagans or Heretics, because they want that relation to the living God, and things in heaven; whereby it is demonstrated, that Roman Catholics give no other worship or honour unto sacred artificial pictures, signs or images, but relative, as they induce them to think, and put them in mind of other things which are more excellent and eminent than they, and whoever worshipped or honoured God with a relation unto another thing more excellent or eminent in dignity than he? or whoever esteemed that to be a God, which he respected and worshipped with relation unto another thing, more excellent in dignity then that which he worshipped? whereby it is manifest that Roman Catholics neither do commit idolatry in their worshipping of sacred artificial pictures, signs or images, as they do, neither can they, seeing that in the fact itself they demonstrate, that the pictures, signs or images which they worship, are no gods, nor yet so much as creatures, or substances, after the manner which they worship them, nor yet have of themselves so much as any subsistence.  
Thirdly, this is generally and universally the Tenet of all Roman Catholics, that a material thing which hath neither life, sense, nor reason, such as is a carved or engraven stock or stone, or painted cloth, of itself, or by itself, without relation or reference unto another thing, is not capable of any honour, worship, or reverence, much less of a religious honour or worship, whereby it is manifest that Roman Catholics do not worship stocks or stones, or painted  nor graven, nor carved, nor painted things, as they are such, or as they are things absolute, but as they have relation to the things of heaven, and the mysteries of our faith, and stir up in their minds pious thoughts.  
And this is sufficient to show unto any indifferent Reader, how free Roman Catholics are from committing either idolatry, or any superstition, in the honour and worship which they give unto sacred artificial pictures, signs and images, and how their adversaries do calumniate them herein unjustly, not only to the breach of the peace, concord and charity which should be amongst the natives of this Island of Great Britain, but also to the great hindrance of the elevation of men's minds to heavenly things and pious thoughts, for the which God forgive them.   

CHAP. XVI. By the second Commandment, God commanded all men to honour and worship his Name, which is but a sacred sign, picture or image of himself, with a relative religious worship, thereby to beget pious thoughts of him in our souls.  
AS I have said heretofore, no Artificer, Carver, Printer, or Writer, can make an essence, substance, or person, or creature, because these things are reserved to God the Author and Creator of all things, but all that these men can do, is to produce an accidental form, figure, sign, picture or image; and all letters, words, characters, hieroglyphics, Tabernacles, Altars, etc. as they are such, are but artificial signs, pictures and images of the things which they represent, made by artificers; yet God not only commanded that a relative religious respect, and honour, and reverence should be used towards the Tabernacle, and propitiatory of the people of Israel, as is often specified in the Scriptures, but also so straight bound all men to give a relative religious honour and worship unto his name, as that he made it the second Commandment of the first Table, saying, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for our Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain, Exod 20. and our Saviour taught us to pray unto God saying, hallowed be thy name, which name is but an artificial thing, sometimes pronounced, sometimes painted, written or engraven; other sometimes expressed in pictures and images, as witnesseth Pierius in the thirteenth chapter of his seventeenth book, and fifth of his thirty third book of the sacred Egyptian letters; where he affirmeth, that for these graven, printed, or written letters, or word God, which we use, they had the picture or image of an eye, as a God seeing all things, according to the words of S. Paul, saying, There is no creature invisible in his sight, Heb. 4.3. or a God father of lights, as the Scriptures call him, James 1.17. other sometimes they express this word God, or the name of God, by the picture of a Crocodile, or of a Stork, which have no tongues, as of a thing unspeakable; whereby it appeareth, that men were always bound to honour and worship sacred signs, pictures and images, with some kind of religious worship, to the engrafting in their hearts pious thoughts, seeing that the Commandments of God bind all men in all ages and times, as our Adversaries do confess, and we cannot give a relative religious honour unto any sacred thing as it is such, but it will put in our minds pious thoughts.  
According to this second Commandment, the children of Israel had this name of God jehova; which was esteemed most proper unto him, in such honour and reverence, as for the respect they bore unto it, the common people abstained from pronouncing it, and the Priests forbore to speak it, unless it were in their sacrifices, and solemn blessings of the people, or in entering into the holy of holies, as witnesseth Philo in his book of the life of Moses; and when in reading the Scriptures this name occurred, in place thereof they pronounced another, as Adonai, or Elohim, in such sort, as that ●●t only the seventy Interpreters, who translated the Old Testament into Greek, and our old translation in Latin; and Origen in his Tetr●plis, or Hexaplis; but also our Saviour, and the Apostles, as often as the word Jehova doth occur, they put in place thereof Adonai.  
And not only the name of God was worshipped by the people of Israel, with a relative religious honour and worship, but also the plate wherein the name of God was engraven, and hung in the mitre of the High Priest before his forehead, as witnesseth the Scriptures, saying, They made also the plate of sacred veneration, of most pure gold, and they wrote in it with the work of a Lapadario, or jeweller, the holy of our Lord (or the holy name of our Lord) and they tied it to the Mitre with a lace of Hyacinth, as our Lord had commanded Moses, Exod. 39.29. whereupon josephus in the eighth chapter of his eleventh book of Antiquities relateth, that Alexander the Great seeing jaddus the High Priest bearing this venerable plate on his forehead, with great reverence went unto him, and adored the name of God written in the plate.  
Moreover an oath being an act of Religion, to bind all men to use a relative religious worship towards his name, which is but a sign, character or Hieroglyphic commanded them, that when just occasion was offered of swearing, that they should swear by his name, saying, By my name thou shalt swear, Exod. 6.13. Again, He that sweareth in the earth, shall swear by God, Isay 65.16. and divers Nations, as the Egyptians and Chinois, using pictures and images in place of words, they must of necessity, according to this command, use a relative religious honour and worship to pictures and images; neither may our Adversaries say, that this reverence and honour to the name of God is only civil, seeing that all Divines grant an oath to be an act of Religion, and that the Commandments are religious things; whereby it is manifest, that by the second Commandment we are bound to use a relative religious honour and worship to some kind of signs, pictures and images, as unto those which represent unto us the living God, and that this relative religious worship to these sacred signs, do nourish in us pious thoughts, otherwise God would not have commanded it.   

CHAP. XVII. The third Commandment commandeth all men to honour and reverence the Sabbath day, which is but a sacred sign.  
THe third Commandment saith, Remember that thou sanctify the Sabbath day, or as Protestants translate, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, Exod. 20.3. Again, observe the day of the Sabbath to sanctify it; or as Protestants translate, keep the Sabbath to sanctify it, Dout. 5.12. now that days are but signs, and not God, or Gods, the same Scriptures do witness, saying, Let lights be made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and night, and let them be for signs, and seasons, and days, and years Gen. 1.14. to manifest unto us, that days, and years, and so likewise the Sabbath or Sunday, is but an artificial sacred sign, gathered by the calculation of the Sun, as is yet further manifest; for that some begin the Sabbath day from the first appearing of the stars, after the setting of the Sun, as the Jews, others from midnight, as Catholic Christians, others from Sun rising, as the Protestants, etc. In some Countries the days are sometimes as long as one of our months, in others as two, in others as three, and in some it is day for half a year together; so that if they did not calculate a time for the observance of the Sabbath, they should either keep none, or else sanctify it for half a year together.  
Again, as I have said here before, men cannot change essences and substances, because these things belong to God, but they have changed the Sabbath, from Saturday unto Sunday, as our Adversaries do confess, whereby it is demonstrated, that that the Sabbath day is but a sacred sign of rest from the Creation of the world, as also of the eternal rest of heaven, and of the Resurrection of our Lord, and of the people of God; etc. whereby they might be distinguished from other Nations, and yet our adversaries themselves do honour reverence this day after their kind or manner with a religious worship, though it be but a sign, and no substance, or person, or God; neither may they say, that this sanctification of the Sabbath, may be, or is performed by a civil worship, seeing that first the Commandments of God, as I have said heretofore, are divine and religious, and pertain to Religion. Secondly, civil worship may be used by Pagans and Heathens, who cannot sanctify any thing to God, because they want faith, without which it is impossible to please God.  
Moreover, that the Sabbath day or Sunday is but a sign or ceremony to put us in mind of another thing, God himself doth yet further witness, saying, See that you keep my Sabbath, because it is a sign between me and you in your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord which sanctify you, keep you my Sabbath, for it is holy unto you, he that polluteth it, dying, shall die, Exod. 31.13. to demonstrate unto us, that the Sabbath or Sunday is but a sign, to distinguish the people of God and faithful from the Infidels and reprobates, and yet all faithful people worship and honour it with solemn rites, ceremonies and circumstances, as offering of Sacrifice, rest from labour, attending to proper preaching, reading of the Scriptures, and other pious works and exercises, so that it cannot be denied, but that sacred signs, pictures, images, and such things as represent unto us, or have relation, either immediately or mediately unto divine things, or to the things of heaven, or mysteries of our faith, may be honoured and worshipped with a relative religious honour and worship, for the things of heaven, or holy things which they represent, and that this relative religious worship begetteth in us pious thoughts, seeing God commandeth it.  
Again, God would have this sign of the observance of the Sabbath or Sunday so much honoured and respected by men, as that he promiseth great rewards to those who shall religiously and carefully observe it, saying, If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy will in my holy day, and call the Sabbath delicate, and the holy of our Lord, glorious and glorify him (by keeping it) whilst thou dost not thine own ways, and thy will be not found to speak a word, then shalt thou be delighted upon the Lord, and I will lift thee up ab●ve the neights of the earth, and I will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy Father, Isay 58.13. Thus the Scriptures, to demonstrate unto us, that there is no cause why our Adversaries should so dislike of the religious relative worship which Roman Catholics do give to sacred signs, pictures and images, as they represent either heavenly things, or the mysteries of their faith, seeing that God not only commandeth it, but also promiseth great rewards to those, who shall zealously and carefully reverence and respect them.  
The cause why Almighty God so presseth man to sanctify the Sabbath day, which is but a sign of the rest which he made from the creation of the world, and of our Saviour's Resurrection, and of the eternal rest in heaven, with a relative religious worship, is because we cannot worship this sacred sign of the Creation of the World, Resurrection of our Saviour, and eternal rest in heaven, without thinking upon these things, and begetting in our hearts pious thoughts of the Creation of the World, Resurrection of our Saviour, and eternal joys of heaven; the Sabbath being a holy sign of those sacred mysteries, as words are of things; when we worship this sign with a relative religious worship for those things which it doth represent, we cannot but think upon the things themselves, because (as I have said heretofore) we cannot think upon two things at once; from whence it is, that the relative religious worship which is given to sacred pictures, signs and images, as they are such, cannot but nourish in the doers pious thoughts; for which cause the devil stirreth up those, in whose heart he dwelleth, to have them cast down or profaned, lest by their remaining, and the relative respect born unto them for the sacred things they represent, and as they do represent them, he should be forced to change his lodging.  
And to conclude, God speaking of the observation of the feast of Easter, or Pasche, saith, The first day of the Pasche shall be holy and solemn, and the seventh day with the like festivity shall be venerable, Exod. 12.16. To show unto us, that the children of Jsrael by the Commandment of God, gave honour and worship to the first and seventh day of the Pasche, which are but instituted signs of our Lord's passage over their houses in Egypt, and of the Resurrection from death, to life everlasting; whereby we see that of the ten Commandments, two command us to worship, respect, and reverence with a relative religious worship sacred artificial signs, pictures, and images, because this begetteth in us pious thoughts.   

CHAP. XVIII. Of the sweet name or sign of Jesus, and how this name respectively is to be worshipped with a relative religious worship above all names, thereby to beget pious thoughts of Jesus above all things.  
ALthough the word, sign, or name Jehova was of great honour, and worship amongst the faithful Jews, yet it should be inferior in honour and reverence to the name or word Jesus, as it signifieth our Saviour amongst the Christians, because Jehova doth signify God, as he is our Lord and Creator, but jesus doth signify. God, as he is our Saviour and Redeemer; wherefore as the benefit of our Redemption is greater than that of our Creation, so the name of jesus, or a Redeemer, or Saviour, is greater than the name of God, or a Creator; whereupon the Church in the blessing of the Paschall candle, saith, It had availed us nothing to be born, if we had not received the benefit of our redemption. Moreover the name of God a Redeemer, doth include in it the name of God as Creator, but not the contrary; whereby it appeareth, that the word or name Jesus respectively is more holy, and more to be honoured and worshipped amongst Christians, than was the Word or name Jehova in the Old Law, seeing that respectively it is of greater dignity and eminency, as Abulensis in his seventh question upon the twentieth chapter of Genesis proveth more at large; where upon I may conclude, that we are bound to honour with a relative religious worship the sweet name of Jesus by the first and second Commandment.  
Christ jesus (saith S. Paul) humbled himself made obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross, for the which thing God hath exalted him, and hath given him a name, which is above all names, that in the name of Jesus every knee bow of celestials, terrestialls and infernals, Phil. 2.8. Thus the Scriptures; to demonstrate unto us, that we may honour and worship graven things, signs, pictures, and images, when they are not made to ourselves, as are Idols, or vain images; but to express and represent unto us, sacred and holy things, and have relation unto God the end of all goodness, S. Paul here saying, In the name of Jesus (whether it be engraven, and so a graven thing, or painted, and so a picture, or printed, or written, or spoken, and so a sign) every knee shall how.  
The Angel Gabriel said to our B. Lady, Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, he shall be great, and he shall be called the son of the most high, Luke 1.31. so great, as that S. Peter said, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you did crucify, in this same, this lame man standeth before you whole, etc. neither is there any other name under heaven given to men, wherein we may be saved, Act. 4.10. wherefore if it were an offence, as it was amongst the people of Israel, not to honour and worship the name jehova, which signified God, as God and Creator of all things, much more it must be an offence amongst the Christians not to honour and worship the name Jesus, as it belongeth to Christ our Lord, because it signifieth the whole work of the Incarnation, and our redemption; whe●● to do concur the wisdom, power goodness. Majesty, and all the attributes of God, more than in any his other works made, o● created, and putteth us in mind of all these things; whe●● upon the Scriptures say, A most strong tower the name of our Lord, the just unneth to it, and shall be exalteb, Prov 18.10. Again, whosoever shall invocate the name of the Lord, shall be saved, joel 2.22. Rom. 10.13. for as S. Paul saith, None can say our Lord J●sus, but in the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. 12.3. that is, saith Sedulius upon this text, in heart, word and work.  
In this name the Fathers and Prophets of the Old Law rejoiced, saying, as it may be read in the Hebrew I will expect thy salvation (or thee Jesus) O Lord, Gen. 49.18. Again, the Prophet David foretelling the preaching of the name of Jesus amongst the Gentiles, saith, our Lord hath made known his salvation (or his Jesus) in the sight of the Gentiles) Psal. 97.2. Again in the same Psalm, all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God (or the Jesus of our God:) whereupon the Prophet I say, singing a song in Thanksgiving for the benefits the world was to receive by Christ, saith, God is my Saviour (or Jesus) I will do confidently, and will not fear, because our Lord, God of God (that is to say, the son of god jesus) is my strength, and my praise, he is become my salvation (or my Jesus and Saviour) you shall draw waters of joy out of the Saviour fountains (or out of the fountains of Jesus) And you shall say in that day, confess to our Lord, and invocate his name, make his inventions known among the people; Remember that his name is high, I say 1●. 2. Thus these Fathers of the Old Law, whereby it appeareth, that more relative religious honour and worship is to be given unto the name of Jesus respectively, as it representeth unto us Christ our Saviour, then unto any other name of God, otherwise the Scriptures and ancient Fathers of the Old Law would not so highly extol, commend, and rejoice at this name, more than in other names of God, as I shall yet further show in the ensuing chapter.   

CHAP. XIX. Greater honour to be given unto the name Jesus, as it signifieth Christ our Lord, then to any other name of God.  
GOd the Father, as it were rejoicing at the salvation of mankind, and glorying at the name of his only Son our Lord, said by the mouth of the Prophet Malachy, Great is my name among the Gentiles: Again, my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of Hosts, Malachy the first; which words S. Irenaeus in the thirty third chapter of his fourth book of heresies, expounding, saith, What other name is there, by which he is glorified amongst the Gentiles, but that of our Lords, by which the Father is glorified, and man glorified, and because it is the name of his proper son, who was made man by him, he calleth it his name; as if a King himself should paint the image of his son, in two respects he might justly call that image his first, because it is his sons, and secondly, because he made it; so the name of Jesus Christ, which throughout the whole world is glorified in the Church, the Father doth confess to be his, both because it is his sons, and he writing it, hath given it for the salvation of men. Thus S. Jrenaeus, who lived with the Apostles Scholars, to signify unto us, how glorious and honourable this name of Jesus (as it calleth into our memory Christ our Lord, and all the benefits received by him) was in the Primitive church, seeing that it was glorified (as this Saint affirmeth) in his time of the whole Church, dispersed over the world; and how could it be glorified so universally and early by all Christians, if the Christians of these times should have given no more honour or worship unto it, than they did to Dick, or Tom, or john; yet Origen in his fourteenth Homily upon S. Luke saith, The glorious word Jesus is to be spoken, or called upon, with all honour and worship.  
In these Primitive times the religious respect and reverence which the ancient Father's bare unto this name of jesus, as it had a relation to Christ our Lord, was so great, that S. Ambrose chap. 9 of his book of Hexameron, or six day's work, saith, This is the gift of the eternal Father to his Son, that in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of these who are in heaven, upon earth, and under the earth. Thus S. Ambrose. Now if this be a gift given by God the Father unto his Son jesus, that all his creatures which have understanding shall do honour and worship to the name of Jesus, as it hath relation unto his Son; he must be in the nature of an Infidel or beast, who will not put off his hat, or incline his head, or bend his knee at it, whether it be written, engraven or spoken.  
S. chrysostom in his Sermon of the praises of God, set down in his fifth Tome, so highly esteemed and reverenced this name of jesus, as it hath reference to Christ our Lord, that he saith, This name Jesus is a terror, not only to those in hell, but also to diseases and vices, therefore l●t us challenge to ourselves from it ornament and forces. Thus S. Chrysostom; whereupon Theophilact upon these words of S. Paul, Whatsoever you do in word or in work, all things in the name of our Lord jesus Christ, saith, for the name of God driveth away devils, and doth make all things easy unto thee, and to succeed well; which being so, he is worthy to perish, who will not bear a relative religious respect and honour unto this sacred name of jesus.  
From hence it is that Abulensis upon the twentieth chapter of Exodus saith, That it is a greater-sin to take the name of Jesus in vain, then that of God. And giving a reason, addeth, The common and laudable custom of the Church, doth more honour that name of Jesus, than this of God: From whence it is that the devout faithful people, as soon as they hear the name of Jesus, either bow down their heads, or bend their knees, which they do not when they hear the name of God; he therefore who doth offend against this custom, dishonouring the name of Jesus, doth commit a greater sin, than he who dishonoureth the name of God. Thus Abulensis, of the outward and inward relative religious honour and worship which the Church of God hath always given unto the name of jesus, because it is the proper name of the Word Incarnate, and of God, as he is our Redeemer, a name so much honoured by S. Paul, as that he not only hath it 219. times in his Epistles, but also the faithful persuading him, with many tears, that he would not go to Jerusalem, because as the Prophet Agabus had foretold, there he was to be taken prisoner, and to be cast into bands by the Jews; he answered, I am ready, not only to be bound, but to die also in Jerusalem for the name of our Lord Jesus, Acts 21.13.  
After the people of Israel were conducted by God through the red Sea, and delivered out of the hands of Pharaoh, and the Egyptians, Wisdom saith, that they sung thy O Lord, Wisdom 10.20. If this the faithful in the Old Law did, because they were preserved out of the hands of their temporal enemies, by the passage through the red Sea, how much more ought Christians to sing and extol the name of jesus, who by the red Sea of his blood, hath redeemed us from our infernal enemies, and say with the Prophet; All Nations shall glorify thy name because thou art great, and doing marvellous things, thou only art God; conduct me O Lord in thy way, and I will walk in thy truth, let my heart rejoice, that I may fear thy name, I will confess to thee O Lord my God with all my heart, and I will glorify thy name for ever, because thy mercy is great upon me, and thou hast delivered my soul from the lower hell, Psal. 85.9. O Lord our Lord, how marvellous is thy name in the whole earth! Psal. 8.10. because thou hast magnified above every thing thy holy name, Psal. 137.2. the name of Jesus which is magnified above all names or temporal things: whereupon S. Hilarius upon this Psalm saith, I have manifested thy name to men; and what name this was, he shown before, saying, Father the hour cometh, cause thy son to be honoured, therefore he adoreth this name. Now if the Prophet did adore the name of God, not for the material letters or characters, but for that it represented unto him an infinite goodness and greatness; why should we now doubt, whether we ought to adore and worship holy names, pictures, and signs, which conduct us unto the same God with a relative religious worship, seeing that it doth fill our souls with pious thoughts.  
Again, the same Saint saith upon the same Psalm, He confesseth the Word made flesh in truth, and the cause of his confession is taken from this, because thou hast magnified above every thing thy name; the name of God is not known to one Nation only, but it is magnified above all things, and the greatness of his sanctity is extended to all, not a barbarous, nor Soyth, nor servant, nor freeman, neither woman, nor man, nor any age is exeluded from it, for the name of God is magnified above all: Temples fall down, Idols grow mute, Oracles at the coming of the Saints are silent, the credit of Augurs is lost, the only name of God is holy amongst all Nations. Thus S. Hilary.  
Arnobius also expounding this Psalm, saith, The Prophet doth confess unto his name, because in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of the things in heaven, of the things upon earth, and of these things under the earth, and what doth he confess unto his holy name? he saith, thy mercy, and thy truth: A soul doth confess nothing else to God in the sight of the Angels, but the mercy wherewith he is redeemed, and the truth which he is taught; what truth? without all doubt this, wherein his holy name is magnified above all things, for this is a name which is above all names. Thus these Fathers of the relative religious honour, respect, & reverence which the faithful in their times bare unto this sacred name of Jesus, as it representeth Christ our Lord, and all his mercies, and putteth into their minds pious thoughts.  
And to conclude, the relative religious respect which the Primitive Christians bore unto this sacred name of Jesus, was such, that Procopius an ancient Father, who lived above eleven hundred years past, in his Commentaries upon the forty fourth of Esay affirmeth, they caused it to be imprinted with an hot iron upon their bodies; and now the world is ascended to that height of pride, that there are found men who will not call themselves Christians, and yet not vouchsafe either to uncover their heads, or bend their knees, or incline their stiff necks at this sacred name, to verify upon them the prophecy of S. Paul saying, In the last times men shall be haughty, proud, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of voluptuousness more than of God, 2 Tim. 3. If at the reading or publishing of a Proclamation, all who are well-affected toward the King or State put off their hats, or bow or bend their heads at the name of the King or State politic, how much more ought all Christians to do it, at the holy name of Jesus, which is a name above all names? Phil. 2.9.   

CHAP. XX: How terrible the name of Jesus is unto the devils, when it is honoured with an inward and outward relative religious worship.  
AS this name of jesus, as it representeth our Saviour, is honourable and glorious both in heaven and earth, so also when it is pronounced with a relative religious worship, it is a name of terror and fear unto the devils, whose place is to live under the earth, in such sort, that not only in the time of our Saviour, the Disciples by virtue of his name, and power given unto it, cast devils out of the bodies of men, when returning from preaching they said, Lord also the devils are subject unto us in thy name, Luke 10.17. And our Saviour said, I saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven, but also at all times the devils are to be cast out of the bodies of men, by virtue of this name, pronounced or used with a relative religious worship, according to the words of our Lord, saying, Them that believe, these signs shall follow, in my name shall they cast out devils, Mark 16.17. whereupon S. Paul, when he would cast an evil spirit or devil out of a woman, said no more, but I command thee in the name of jesus Christ to go out of her, and he went out at the same hour, Act. 16.18.  
And it was so common a thing in the time of the Apostles for divers of the faithful, by virtue of the name of Jesus, as it representeth Christ our Lord, to cast devils out of the bodies of men, that in imitation thereof, certain also of the Judais all Exorcists went about, & assayed to invocate upon them that had evil spirits the name of our Lord jesus, saying, I adjure you by jesus whom Paul preacheth, Act. 19.13. And our Saviour affirmeth, that many shall appear before him after their death, who in pretence of right to their salvation, will say, Have not we in thy name cast out devil's? Mat. 7.22. To demonstrate unto us, that not only the faithful shall at all time's honour and worship the name of jesus, as it representeth unto us Christ our Lord, but also many wicked men and reprobates, and the devils themselves, though against their wills.  
S. justine Martyr lived with the Apostles Scholars, and was a famous Martyr; yet he in his first Apology for the Christians unto the Roman Senate, before the midst, saith unto the Senators, Many of our men, who are called Christians, both throughout the world, and even in this City, adjuring them by the name of jesus Christ, who was crucified under the Praetor Pontius Pilate, have cured many, who were possessed of devils, when by no other Exorcists, or any Magicians they could find remedy, and even at this day they do cure, casting and driving the devils out of their bodies. S. Antonius, as affirmeth S. Athanasius in his life, not only with the name of Jesus often put the devil to flight, but also taught Martinianus a perfect of soldiers to dispossess his daughter by invocation of the name of Jesus, with a relative religious worship unto it.  
S. Hierome writing the life of S. Hilarion saith, That on a night he heard as it were the crying of infants; the bleating of sheep, the bellowing of beasts, the mourning of women, the wring of Lions, the noise of an army, and the horror of barbarous voices, that being first affrighted by the outcries, amazed, he might be moved to fly at the sight; but understanding that these were policies of the devil, casting himself upon his knees, he made the sign of the Cross of Christ upon his forehead, armed with such a helmet, and compassed about with the breastplate of faith, remaining in his posture, desiring after a manner to see him whom he did abhor to hear; whilst he carefully cast his eyes on all sides, upon a sudden the Moon shining, he see a Chariot drawn with fiery horses to rush upon him; whereat when he had cried out Jesus, even before his eyes, of a sudden all this pomp was swallowed up at a chink into the earth.  
S. Ephraem the Deacon writeth of S. Abraham an Ermite in Syria, that singing Psalms at midnight, of a sudden a beautiful light shined in his Cell, and a voice was heard, as it were of a multitude; saying, Blessed art thou Abraham, thou art truly blessed and faithful, there is none found like thee amongst men, who hast done whatsoever I have desired; forthwith the holy man knowing the craft of the malignant spirit, with a loud voice said, O full of deceit and policy, thy darkness be to thee in perdition, for I am a poor sinner, yet armed with the shield of hope through the grace of God I nothing fear thy treacheries, neither do thy many fantasies affright me, for the name of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ whom I have loved, and do love, is to me a strong fortress, in which name I check thee, filthy, and thrice miserable dog. At which words presently, as smoke, the devil vanished out of his sight. Whereby it appeareth, that the devils fear this very name of Jesus, as it hath relation to our Saviour, and do fly away when it is spoken, with honour, faith and confidence, that for his name sake he will protect us.  
Almighty God being favourable unto all those who love and honour his name, it hath always been thought a good prayer to say, For thy name sake thou wilt be propitious to my sin, for it is much, Psal. 24.11. Arise Lord, help us and redeem us for thy name, Psal. 43.26. Help us O Lord our Saviour, and for the glory of thy name, O Lord deliver us, and be propitious to our sins for thy name's sake, Psal. 78.9. whereby it appeareth, that he must be a savage Christian, that will not bear a relative religious honour, reverence, or respect unto the sacred name of Jesus.   

CHAP. XXI. Many miracles wrought in confirmation of the inward and outward relative honour and worship given to the name of Jesus.  
THis name of Jesus hath always amongst the Christians been a name of so great a relative religious honour and worship, that by virtue of it, as it representeth Christ our Lord▪ and all his mercies, many miracles have in several times been wrought in the church, S. Peter saying to the man who was lame from his mother's womb, silver and gold I have none, that which I have, the same I give to thee, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk, and taking his right hand he lifted him up, and forthwith his feet and soles were made strong, and springing, he stood and walked, and went with them into the Temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God, Act. 3.6.  
S. Paul not only did miracles by virtue of this name, as it hath relation to our Saviour, whilst he lived, as I have showed heretofore, but also as it is related by constant Tradition at his death when his head was cut off; it gave three rebounds or leaps, and three times repeated this sacred name of Jesus, whereat three fountains gushed out, which yet remain until this day, and was so desirous, that all Christians should honour this name, that he saith, Whatsoever you do in word or work, do all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God, and the Father by him, Col. 3.17.  
Surius in the life of S. Ignatius, who lived long with the Apostles, writeth, that being urged by the Pagans to deny Jesus Christ (as their custom was in them times) answered, that it was a thing impossible for him to do, because it was engraven in his heart, which after death they cut in pieces, and found to be true, his heart every where expressing in images the name of Jesus.  
Nicephorus in the third chapter of his seventeenth book of histories writeth, that there being a great Earthquake at Antioch about the year of our Lord 524. so fearful, that it destroyed almost the whole City, yet divers having confidence in the name of Jesus, writ over their doors, Jesus is with us, let no man move from his place, & they, & their houses escaped, and stood firm.  
S. Gregory the Great, a man of no little credit in the Church of God, in the first chapter of his first book of Dialogues writeth, that Honoratus, a holy man built a Monastery near to the City of Pundi amongst the Alps, where he had almost two hundred Monks under him, and a mighty great stone breaking from under the hill, under which his Monastery was built, came rolling down, as if it would destroy both his Monastery and Monks, which the holy man Honoratus seeing, he often called upon the name of Christ (which was Jesus) and with his right hand made the sign of the cross upon it, and so stayed it presently, even in the declining of the side of the Mountain.  
Also the same S. Gregory in the third chapter of the same book, relateth another miracle which was done by virtue of the same sacred name of Jesus, which was as followeth, certain Monks had an Orchard of fruits and herbs for their provision, with a Lay-brother, a holy man for the Gardener, into which a thief used to break for to steal away the fruit and herbs, which the pious Lay-brother perceiving the loss, looking about, found the place where he passed over the pale, and seeking for a remedy, found a Serpent, whom he commanded, saying, follow me, which the Serpent did, until he came to the passage which the thief used, and then said to the Serpent, I command thee in the name of Jesus that thou keep this passage, and do not permit the thief to enter here any more; presently the Serpent extended herself along the passage, and the Lay-brother returned to his Cell. About midday, whilst all the Monks were at rest, the thief according to his custom came, and putting his f●ot ov●● the pale to enter into the O●c●●●● 〈◊〉 sudden he perceived that 〈◊〉 Serpent lay in his passage, whereat astonished, he fell backward, with his head downward, and his foot fixed in the pale, where the Lay-brother coming at his ordinary hour found him, and said to the Serpent, Thanks be to God thou hast done as thou wast commanded, go thy ways, which she did. And then losing the thief's foot, without doing him any hurt, he said, how dared thou brother so often steal the labours of the Monks, follow me. And so conducting him to the gate of the Orchard with much courtesy, he gave him the fruit and herbs which he would have stolen, saying, Go thy way, and hereafter do not steal, but if thou shalt be in want, come hither unto me, and that which now thou labourest to take away by stealth, I will freely give unto thee.  
Moreover it was so common a thing for the Christians of the Primitive Church to reverence the name of Jesus with a relative religious worship, that pious parents taught it their children, even from their infancy, as witnesseth S. Augustine in the fourth chapter of his third book of Confessions, saying, For this name according to thy mercy O Lord, this name of my Saviour thy son, had my tender heart, even together with my mother's milk devoutly drunk in, and carefully treasured up, so that what book soever was without the name, though never so learned, or neatly and truly penned, did not fully delight me. Thus S. Augustine.  
And to conclude, this sacred name of Jesus and of God, is so much to be honoured, & worshipped upon earth, that even in heaven the elect shall have them written in their foreheads, there to remain with honour and glory for ever and ever, as witnesseth S. john saying, And I looked, and behold a Lamb stood upon Mount Zion, and with him one hundred forty four thousand, having his name, and the name of his father written in their foreheads, Rev. 14.1. whereby it will manifestly appear unto any indifferent reader, that to honour, respect, and worship the name of God, and Jesus Christ our Lord with a relative religious worship for the persons they represent, is a great sign of election, and to make no more account of them, than they do of other vulgar names, is an apparent sign of reprobation, from which God of his goodness deliver thee Reader.   

CHAP. XXII. Of the honour and glory of the Cross of Christ, as it representeth his person, and passion, and how it shall distinguish the faithful from the followers of Antichrist.  
SO great is the obligation which all mankind hath unto the Son of God for his death and passion upon the Cross, for their redemption from everlasting pains; that as S. Augustine saith, he who is not thankful to God for his creation, is worthy to go to hell, but he who is not willing to have a pious mind, and thankful remembrance for his redemption, is worthy to have another hell created for his greater torments; whereupon all pious faithful Christians have ever born a venerable relative religious worship unto the sacred sign or image of the Cross, not as it is a piece of wood or stone, or painted cloth, or action of the hand, but as it representeth unto our memories the sacred passion of our Lord, as words do things, and endueth our minds with pious thoughts; whereupon S. Paul, as enamoured of the holy Cross, saith; God forbidden that I should glory, but in the Cross of our Lord jesus Christ, Gal. 6: 14. And complaining of the little respect and reverence which the carnal men of his time bore unto the sacred Cross of Christ, saith, Observe them that walk, as you have seen our form, for many walk, of whom I often told you, (and now weeping also I tell you) enemies of the Cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is the belly, and their glory in their confusion, Phil. 3.17. where he giveth us to understand, that to be a lover and honourer of the sacred Cross of Christ, as it representeth unto us his passion for us, is a sign of election, and the neglect a token of perdition, which also in another place he confirmeth, saying, The word of the cross to them indeed that perish is foolishness but to them that are saved, that is to us, it is the power of God, 1 Cor. 1.18.  
Likewise at the later day, when Almighty God shall send his Angels to destroy the earth and Sea, to make a distinction between the servants of God, and the followers of Antichrist, he will give them a command, that all the Elect shall be marked with the sign of the Cross, that thereby they may be known from the Rebrobate, as witnesseth S. John saying, I saw an Angel ascending from the rising of the Sun, having the sign of the living God, and he cried with a loud voice to the four Angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, hurt not the earth, or the sea, nor the trees, until we sign the servants of our God in their foreheads. Thus S. John, Rev. 7.2. whereupon Andrea's Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, an ancient learned Author, in his Commentaries upon the Revelations, saith upon this text, This place, as is before said, doth belong unto the time of Antichrist, when the sign of the quickening cross (vivificae crucis) shall distinguish the faithful from the infidels, who shall without any fear, and without any shame, carry the Cross of Christ before the face of the impious.  
Antichrist, to blot out the memory of the sacred cross, and to hinder men from signing themselves with it, and from using any reverence or respect unto it, shall cause all his followers to have his name, or the character of his name imprinted in their right hand, or in their forehead; that if they would sign themselves with the sacred sign of the cross, in testimony that they believe the blessed Trinity, and march under the protection of Christ crucified, they cannot, as witnesseth S. John, saying, Antichrist shall make all, little and great, and rich, and poor, and freemen, and bondmen, to have a character in their right hand, or in their foreheads; and that no man may buy or sell, but he that hath the character or name of the beast, or number of his name, Rev. 13.16. And this Antichrist shall do, as witnesseth S. Hippolytus a Martyr, who suffered death for the profession of the Catholic faith, about fourteen hundred years past; lest that any man with his right hand should make the sign of the Cross in his forehead.  
The like hath S. Ephrem, who flourished not long after him, in his Tract of Antichrist, saying; Antichrist will imprint his character in the right hand, and forehead of all his followers, that it may not be possible for any with his right hand to sign himself with the sign of Christ our Saviour; or by any means to imprint the terrible and holy name of God in his forehead; or the glorious and fearful Cross of our Saviour; for that wretch will know very well, that by impression of the Cross of our Lord all his power is made void: And therefore he will have his character imprinted in the right hand of men; because we with our right hands do sign the rest of the members of our bodies with the sign of the Cross. Thus S. Ephrem.  
Moreover, our Saviour will have the sign of the cross, as it representeth him crucified, to be had in such honour and reverence amongst the sons of men, that when he shall come to judge quick and the dead, it shall appear before him in the air, as his standard, as himself witnesseth, saying, Immediately after the tribulation of these days (of Antichrist) the Sun shall be darkened, and the Moon shall not give her light, Stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be moved; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, Mat. 24.36. Whereupon S. Methodius in his Oration of the consummation of the world, saith, The sign of the Cross exceeding in brightness & glory the shining of the Sun, shall be seen from the East unto the West, to tell the appearing & coming of the Judge. In like manner S chrysostom upon this text saith; Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man, that is to say, the Cross itself; for the Cross shall be seen more bright than the Sun; for, the Sun shall be darkened, and the Cross shall appear, which cannot be (saith he) but the Cross with his brightness must obscure the beams of the Sun. And then ask the question, why, or for what cause shall the sacred Cross appear so glorious? answereth, That it may abundantly confound the impudence of the Jews. Thus S. chrysostom, who never could imagine that there would arise men, who should call themselves Christians, and yet abuse, contemn, and beat down the Cross of Christ: Whither will these men run at the terrible day of judgement, who now not only shun and avoid by all means the Cross of Christ, but also call the reverend relative religious respect thereof idolatry?  
In like manner S. Ephrem, in his Sermon of these things, which are to be revealed after the appearing of the Cross, at the coming of our Lord, saith, The sign of the Son of Man shall appear in heaven, with a multitude of Angels, lightning the whole earth above the brightness of the Sun, even from one end of the world unto the other, foretelling the coming of our Lord. And with these further do agree Theophylact and Euthemius upon this text, saying, Then the cross shall appear, shining more bright than the Sun. Again, the Cross shall then be far more glorious than the Sun, which when the impious, who in this life have had aversion from the sacred cross shall see, then as our Saviour there saith, shall they weep and bewail their follies, when it is too late.  
Agreeable unto this which hath been said, the holy Church in the office of the cross doth say, This sign of the cross shall be in heaven, when our Lord shall come to judgement, and the Sibyls in the end of their sixth book do sing;  

O lignum foelix, in quo Deus ipse pependit!  
Nec te terra capit, sed coeli tecta videbis.  
Cum renovata Dei facies ignita micabit.   

O happy Tree, upon whose arms didst spread,  
Our God himself did hang alive and dead.  
Earth cannot hold thee, but a glorious sign  
Thou shalt appear in heaven, when Gods divine  
Immortal face shall bright in judgement shine.   
According to the words of our Lord of the day of judgement, Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the Tribes of the earth bewail. And after the Standard of the cross, as it followeth in the text, they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with much power and Majesty, Mat. 24. which joy being propounded unto him (before his passion, as S. Paul saith) he sustained the cross, Heb. 12.2.   

CHAP. XXIII. That the faithful in the Primitive Church used an inward and outward relative religious worship towards the sacred sign of the Cross.  
ALmighty God having bestowed that honour and dignity upon the cross, as not only to be a sacred sign of the passion of his only Son for our redemption, but also to be a badge of a Christian; and his standard, when he shall come with his Army of Angels and Saints to judgement, as I have proved in the precedent chapter. The ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church, and all the faithful, ever bare an inward and outward relative religious respect, honour, and worship to that sacred sign, image, or picture, not as it is a stock or stone, or painted cloth, or carved or painted thing, but as it representeth the person of our Lord, his sacred passion or mysteries of our faith unto our memories, as words do things. For S. Dionysius Areopagita, who was converted to the faith by S, Paul, Acts 17. (in the second §. of his second chapter of his book of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy) relateth unto us, that amongst the religious rites, and holy mysteries of Baptism, the sacred sign of the cross was so much honoured, that it was often used, even sometimes thrice together, and in the fifth chapter of the said book and second §. speaking of the administration of orders, or consecration of Clergy men, he saith, The Bishop who consecrateth them, doth imprint upon every one of those whom he consecrateth the sign of the cross.  
S. Ignatius the Martyr, a man who lived for a long time with the Apostles, speaking of the honour and dignity of the sacred cross of Christ, in his Epistle to the Philleppenses, saith; the Prince of this world, or devil doth rejoice when any one shall deny the cross, for he very well knoweth, that the confession of the cross is his destruction, for that it is a trophy or triumphal Ark against his power, which as soon as he shall see, he abhors, and hearing of it, is affrighted.  
S. Martiale, who is supposed by some to have lived in the Apostles times, in the eighth chapter of his Epistle to those of Bordeaux in France, giveth them this counsel, saying, Remember the cross of our Lord, upon which you believe the true God, and Son of God suffered, keep it in your mind, speak often of it, and have it in the sign; for the cross of our Lord is your invincible armour against Satan, a helmet defending your head, a breastplate protecting your breast, a shield driving back again the darts of the malignant enemies, a sword which by no means will suffer the iniquity, or treachery of the perverse powers to come near unto you; by this only sign the heavenly victory is given unto us, and by the cross the baptism of God is sanctified.  
S. Hippolytus the Martyr, who lived near the Apostles times, in his tract of the consummation of the world, saith, that in the time of Antichrist, many believing in him, shall receive the character of that impure fellow, and enemy of God, in place of the quickening cross of our Saviour.  
Tertullian who flourished in the year 200. speaking of the relative religious honour and reverence which the Christians of his time used towards the sacred sign of the cross, in the third chapter of his Corona Militis, saith, At every pace, or moving, at our coming into the house, at our going out, in putting on our apparel and shoes, when we wash our hands, when we take meat, when we light candles, when we go to bed, when we sit down, and in every thing which we do, we tear our foreheads with the sign of the cross, but if you expect a text out of Scripture for these, and other such like observances, thou shalt find none, tradition will be pretended to be the defender, custom the confirmer, and faith the observer. Again in the 22. chapter of his third book against Martion, he saith, The Cross is the Greek letter Tau, or our Latin letter T. the form of the cross which as it was foretold should be imprinted in our foreheads in the true Catholic Jerusalem. Thus Tertullian, where he alludeth to the Prophecy of Ezechiel, when God said to one clothed in linen garments, Pass through the midst of the City in the midst of Jerusalem, and sign Thou upon the forehead of the men that mourn and lament upon all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof; and to them who had weapons of destruction in their hands, he said in my hearing, Pass through the City, following him, and strike, let not your eye spare, neither have ye mercy, the old, the young man, and the Virgin, the little one, and the women kill to utter destruction, but upon every one upon whom you shall see Than, kill not, and begin ye at my Sanctuary. Thus Ezechiel in the nineth chapter of his Prophecies of the signing those, whom God would spare and show mercy upon, with the letter Thou, which is the last of the Hebrew letters, and according to the old Hebrew characters, beareth the form and similitude of the cross, to show unto us, that the signing ourselves with the sign of the cross, and the bearing a relative religious worship unto it, for the mysteries of the passion of our Lord, which it putteth into our minds, is a great sign of election to eternal salvation; and the hatred or aversion which many Sectaries of this age bear against the sign of the cross, which is used in blessing, is an index of their reprobation, according to the words of the Prophet, saying, He loved cursing, and it shall come to him; and he would not blessing, and it shall be far from him, Psal. 108.18. even so far, as that for all eternity he shall never have, nor yet hear of any.  
Origen lived early in the Church, who also speaking upon this text of Ezechiel, in his eighth Homily upon divers places of the Gospel, saith, He who doth not fear the golden Capitol, doth fear the cross. In Ezechiel, when the Angel slew all these unto whom he was sent, beginning his slaughter from the holy place, they only are preserved whom he had signed with the letter Thou; that is to say, with the image of the cross; let us therefore rejoice brethren, and let us lift up our holy hands to heaven in likeness of the cross, seeing that the devils are oppressed when they find us so armed; whereupon in his sixth Homily upon Exodus he saith; What do the devil's fear? what will make them tremble? without doubt the cross of Christ, by which they are led captives in triumph, by which they are spoiled of their principalities, and power; fear therefore and trembling will fall upon them, when they shall see the sign of the cross faithfully imprinted upon us.  
S. Cyprian flourished about the year 240. and he also in his Epistle to Demetrianus, speaking of this aforesaid Prophecy of Ezechiel, saith, God doth show in another place, that those only can escape, who are born again, and have been signed with the sign of the cross, when sending his Angels to consumed the world, and to destroy mankind, as he grievously threatneth at the last day; saying, go and kill etc. as is set down Ezechiel the nineth. Again in the 22. chapter of his first book of Testimonies against the Jews, speaking of the said prophecy of Ezechiel, he saith, That in this sign of the cross is salvation to all those who are signed in their forehead; God in Ezechiel doth declare, saying, pass through the midst of Jerusalem, and thou shalt make a sign in the foreheads of men etc. So what will become of these men who will not have the sign of the cross made in their foreheads?  
Lactantius flourished about the year 320. and he speaking of the practice of the Church of God, concerning this point of the relative religious honour and worship, which was given to the sacred sign of the cross, in the twenty seventh chapter of his fourth book of Institutions, saith; Now it is time to declare the great power of the sign of the cross, of what terror this sign is to the devils, those know who have seen it; forasmuch as that adjured by Christ they fly out of the bodies which they did possess; for as Christ himself whilst he lived amongst us, put to flight all the devils by his word, and brought men again into their former senses, who had been troubled in mind, and furiously mad by assaults of the devil, even so now his followers, both by the name of their Master, and by the sign of his passion, do expel the same wicked spirits out of men, whereof the proof is not hard; for if whilst the Pagans offer sacrifice to their Gods, any one be standing by, who beareth the sign of the cross in his forehead, they cease from Sacrifice; neither can the consulted Oracle give any answer: and this hath often been the chief cause that evil Kings have taken occasion to begin a persecution; for when some of our Christian servants have stood by their Lords whilst they offered Sacrifice, and have made the sign of the cross upon their foreheads, they put to flight their gods; neither could they describe in the entrails of their victim the things to come. And in his verses of the benefits of Christ, he said, bond thy knee, and adore the venerable wood of the cross, etc. whereby it appeareth what a good fee these Christians deserve to have from the devil, who have beaten down crosses, and call the signing of ourselves and other creatures, conjum.  
Eusebius lived about the same time, who writing the life of Constantine the Great, in his 32. chapter of his first book, relateth how the sign of the cross appeared to him in heaven, with this inscription, in this sign thou shalt overcome; that is to say, his enemies; and in the second chapter of his third book affirmeth, that he used now and then to sign his forehead with that healthful sign of the passion, and many times very much rejoiced in that victorious Trop●e, or sign.  
S. Athanasius flourished in the year 340. who in his book of the Word Incarnate, saith, A man only using the sign of the cross, doth drive away from him the deceits of the devils, etc. let him come who will m●ke an experience of my words, and amongst the illusions of the devils, or impostures of their foretellings or prophecies, or the miracles of their Magicians, and do but make the sign of the cross, which they deride, and call upon the name of Christ, and he shall see with his eyes, how for fear thereof the devil flieth away, their prophecies cease, and their enchantments and witchcrafts are made void.  
S. Basil the Great flourished about the year 370. who in his Oration of the Martyr Gordian, saith, He fortified himself with the sign of the cross, and so with great constancy of mind, without any fear or changing of countenance, went merrily to his death. Again, in the twenty seventh chapter of his book of the Holy Ghost, he saith, If we should go about to rèject these customs, which are not delivered in writing, as though they were things of no moment, we should imprudently condemn many things, which in the Gospel are esteemed necessary to our salvation, of which sort is (that I may repeat that first, which is the first and most common thing used amongst us) (the sign of the cross) for who hath taught in writing, that we should sign those with the sign of the cross, who have put their hope in Christ; is it not by a tacit and secret tradition? is it not from the doctrine which our Fathers have kept in silence, which curious and idle people call in question?  
S. cyril of Jerusalem lived at that same time with S. Basil the Great, and he in his fourth Catechesis, or instructions for Christian life, saith, Let us not be ashamed of the cross of Christ, but if any one shall hid it, do thou publicly sign thyself in the forehead with the cross, that the devil's seeing the standard of the King, trembling may make haste to be gone; see also that thou make this sign, when thou beginnest to eat or drink, when thou sittest down, and when thou arisest, when thou beginnest to speak, or to walk and in every one of thy affairs.  
S. Ambrose also flourished at the same time with S. Gregory, and S. Cyril, who in the seventy seventh Epistle of his nineth book saith, Christian people do in every moment write the contempt of death upon their own foreheads, for they know, that without the cross of our Lord they cannot be saved. Again in his fifty sixth Sermon, he saith, In what place the cross of Christ is erected or planted, there presently the iniquity of the devil is driven away, and tempests of winds cease; and also the good husbandman when he prepareth his land by tillage, and seeketh nourishment for life, he doth not begin to go about it, but by the sign of the cross. S. Hierome chapter 6. of his eighth Epistle to Demetriades saith, Thou often fortifiest thy forehead with the sign of the cross, lest the Master of Egypt should find any abode or habitation in thee. Again upon the eighth chapter of Ezechiel, he saith, In the Hebrew Characters, which the Samaritans do use until this day, the last letter Thou is made after the likeness of the cross, which is imprinted in the foreheads of Christians, and often made with their hands. And upon the fifty eighth Psalm he prayeth, saying; We beseech thee O Lord, that guarded by the sign of the cross, and defended by the assistance thereof, we may deserve to be freed from all the deceits of the devil.  
And to conclude, so honourable was the esteem which the Primitive Christians had of the sign of the cross, as that they used it in all the rites and ceremonies of their Religion, in such sort, as that they accounted no solemn act of their Religion to be well and perfectly performed, unless the sacred sign of the cross was added unto it, as witnesseth S. chrysostom, for the Greek church, who in his fifty fifth Homily upon S. Matthew saith, All things which help to our salvation are perfected by the Cross; for when we are regenerated, the Cross of our Lord is present, when we are nourished with the most sacred meat, when we take orders; every where, and always that sign of victory is at hand. Thus S. chrysostom for the Greek church. And for the Latin; S. Augustine in his one hundred & eighteenth Tract upon S. john, saith; Unless the sign of the cross be applied, as well to the forehead of the believers, or to the water wherewith they are regenerate, or to the oil wherewith they are anointed; none of these are rightly administered. Thus these two Doctors, of the honour, reverence, respect, which both the Greek and Latin Fathers of the Primitive church bare unto the sacred sign of the cross: And if any one desire yet further proof, either for the frequent use of the sign of the cross, or the relative religious worship which was bestowed upon it, or the many miracles performed by it, refer him to the nineth article of the second book of the first Tome of Coccius to Grotserus de Cruse, and to the sixteenth chapter of the second book of the Progeny of Catholics and Protestants.  
It being all one to speak by known signs, or by words; and when the faithful do make the sign of the cross, their known intent is to profess, that they believe in the B. Trinity, and desire to march under the standard of Christ crucified, as is set down in our Catechisms: And when they do worship or reverence the cross, they do it not, as I have said heretofore, as it is a carved stock or stone, or a graven thing, or a painted cloth; but as it putteth us in mind of the mysteries of our Redemption, and the passion of our Lord for the remission of our sins, and imprinteth in our heart's piety, which as S. Paul saith, is profitable to all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that to come, 1 Tim. 4.8.   

CHAP. XXIV. The Cross adored with an inward and outward relative religious worship in the Primitive Church.  
THough all exterior visible honour and glory is due unto God, according to S. Paul, saying, To the King of the worlds, immortal, invisible only God, honour and glory, 1. Tim. 1.17. yet all exterior visible honour is not due unto God alike; but some is so immediately due unto him, and given unto him, that it may not be given unto any other: of which kind are visible sacrifices, oaths and vows: Other is immediately due unto him by means of his eminent creatures, as adoration by bowing, or bending to the ground, kneeling, lifting up the hands to men in dignity, etc. For Abraham (who is called the father of the faithful, Rom. 4.) adored the children of Heath, Gen. 23.7. jacob, who is called the elect of God, Psal. 104.6. when he did see his brother Esau coming towards him, Going forward he adored, prostrate to the ground seven times, Gen. 33.3. It being told Moses, that jethro his father in law did approach, going forth he met him, adored and kissed him, Exod. 11.7. And it hath always been the custom of Christian children to ask their parent's blessing kneeling, with their hands elevated on high, and closed together; and also of inferior servants after the same manner, to ask their Master's forgiveness of their offences; Jacob also adored the top of joseph's rod, Heb. 11.11.  
The Scriptures also call the Tabernacle, the house of God, Exod. 34.26. And the Propitiatory his seat, who sitteth upon the Cherubins upon it, 2. Kings, or Samuel 6.2. and the Ark, the foot stool of the seat of our God, Chronicles 1.28. and 2. and commanded it to be adored, saying, Adore his foot stool, because he is holy, Psal. 99.5. And even from the beginning of Christianity, and from the first propagation of the Gospel, the Christian soldiers, both Greeks and Latins, & of all Nations, adored the Imperial Standard of the Romans, which was called Labarum, as witnesseth Zozomenns in the 4. cha, of his 1. book of histories, & S. Gregory Nazianzen in his 1. Oration against Julian the Apostata, about the midst, where he relateth at large, that it being the custom of the Roman soldiers to adore the picture or image of the Emperor Julian the Apostata, by deceit and guilt to win them to adore the devil, intermixed his image with the picture of devils; whereby first it is manifest, that exterior visible adoration and prostration, is not so immediately due unto God, as that it may not be given unto any creature, seeing that the faithful, both in the Old and New Law, adored creatures, and that sometime by the Commandment of God.  
Secondly, that the cross, not as it is a carved piece of wood, or an engraven stock or stone, or painted cloth, or a cross in general, but as it representeth unto us the mysteries of our Redemption; the seat or Altar whereupon our Saviour suffered for our sins, or the Standard of Christ Jesus, and of all faithful Christians may be adored; seeing that in this sense it is not inferior either to joseph's Sceptre or rod, or to the Ark of the children of Israel, or unto the image or picture of the Roman Emperors in their standards, or to the standards themselves; whereupon it came to pass, that even in the most flourishing time of the church, and as soon as the church had peace, and was freed from the persecution of the Heathen, the cross, as it representeth unto us Christ crucified, and the mysteries of our salvation etc. was publicly and openly adored by all Christian Nations, as witnesseth Zozonienus in the place before cited; where he relateth at large, how Constantine the Great placed it in the Imperial Standard, to this intent and purpose, that it might be adored of his soldiers, consisting of all Nations; adding in the same chapter, saying;  
It is also reported that the soldier, who on a certain time bore this Ensign (with the cross in it) being amazed with a sudden assault of the evemies, delivered the standard to another, and withdrew himself out of the battle, where being out of the danger of any dart, of a sudden fell down deadly wounded; and he who had taken of him the divine Ensign of the Cross, remained free from any hurt, ●hough many darts were cast at him. Moreover it is said, that never any ●uldier whose office it was to bear this sign, either suffered any great calamity in the wars, or was wounded, or taken prisoner, which truly is very credible. Thus Zozomenus, to show unto us, that the sacred cross representing unto us the sufferings of our Lord as soon as the church had peace, and persecution ceased, was after th● manner abovesaid publicly and openly adored by the faithful Christians of all Nations.  
In further witness hereof, S. Cyril Archbishop of Alexandria, an● Precedent in the General Counce●● of Ephesus, holden in the year 431 in his Homily against Nestorius' B●shop of Constantinople, for who●● condemnation the said Counceil was called, set down in the end 〈◊〉 the second act, and made in the presence of the whole Council, saith All hail Mother of God etc. by who●● the holy Trinity is glorified and ad●●red, through whom the precious cro●● is made famous, and is adored throughout the whole world. Thus S. Cyril, Precedent of the General Council, before all the Bishops which were assembled from all parts to the Council, and before Nestorius' Bishop of Constantinople, then deposed for heresy; and yet neither Nestorius' the heretic, nor any of his Adherents, who were many, nor any of the Bishops in the Council, amounting to the number of 200. gainsaid him, or contradicted what he said. Neither could the adoration of the cross become practised allover the Christian world in few years, if at any time it had not been adored by Christians, as we see by experience in the contrary doctrine taught by the Sectaries, who have laboured against it, now about 80. years, and yet have prevailed but in some corners of the North part of the world only; whereby it appeareth, that the cross representing our Redemption upon it, hath at all times been adored with a relative religious honour throughout the whole world, even since Christianity was planted amongst the Nations.  
For suppose, but not granted, that there was a time when Christians did not adore the cross, and that the adoration of the cross in the manner aforesaid was idolatry, as our adversaries would have it, how should all the Christian world, without a known Preacher or Teacher, or without any known Law, or Edict either of Pope or Emperor, fall into this their supposed idolatry of adoring the cross, and no known man to oppose them, or contradict this doctrine? if there were Presbyterians in these Primitive times, (as our adversaries would gladly make the world to believe) it seemeth that they were not such fighters for Religion as now they are; seeing that known and reputed Heretics and Infidels to both parties only excepted, there is not found any one man in these ancient times, who did oppose it.  
Moreover the Fathers in that General Council at Ephesus, so much insisted upon the Doctrinal Succession, or preservation of the doctrine delivered by the Apostles from the beginning, that Capreolus the Primate of Africa, being hindered by the Wandall persecution to come to the Council, sent Besulam a Deacon with letters, exhorting them, that by the authority of Antiquity, they would expel all new opinions, and persevere in that one verity of the Church, which from the beginning, even unto that present time, with a simple purity, and an invincible authority, had come unto them: whereupon his letters being read, and S. Cyril declaring the mind of Capreolus to the Council, saith; The will of Capreolus Bishop of Carthage is, that the ancient dogmatic points of faith be confirmed, and the new and absurdly devised, and wickedly divulged, be exploded and condemned. All the Bishops together with a loud voice cried, This is the voice of us all, this we all affirm, this is the vow of us all, as is set down more at large in the first Act of the second part of the said Council, before the sentence of the deposition of Nestorius, to demonstrate unto us, that the adoration of the cross, as is aforesaid, was taught by the Apostles, and hath been used by the faithful, even from the first plantation of the Christian faith over the world, thereby to imprint in the hearts of men pious thoughts of the passion of our Lord; and therefore (the promises of God unto his church considered) it is vain and idle now for any man to oppose or contradict it.  
The verses attributed to Lactantio antius of the passion of our Lord, set down in the end of his works say, Flecte genu lignum quae crucis venerabile adora, bend thy knee, and with reverence adore the wood of the cross. S. Ambrose in his Sermon upon the death of Theodosius the Emperor, affirmeth, that not only the cross of Christ was adored, but also the nail wherewith his feet was pierced, saying towards the end of his Sermon, Helen was wise, who placed the cross upon the head of Kings, that the cross of Christ might be adored in Kings; neither is this insolency, but piety, seeing that it is born to our holy redemption: And some lines after, Kings are bended down to the iron of his feet. Prudentius in his Apotheosis against the Jews, before the midst, saith, Purpura supplex sternitur Aeniadae rectoris ad atria Christi, vexillumque crucis summis dominator adorat, he that is clothed in purple, lieth prostrate in the porch of Christ, and the Emperor adoreth the Standard of the cross. S. Hierome in his 27. Epistle written to Eustochius, a Virgin of the Epitaph of Paula, in the 3. chap. commendeth Paula deceased, for that lying prostrated before the cross, she adored, as if she had seen our Lord hanging upon it. Prostratam ante crucem quasi pendentem dominum cerneret adorabat.  
And it is so manifest, that the faithful in the Primitive church adored the cross, with relation unto our Saviour who suffered upon it for our redemption, that S. Paulinus Bishop of Nola, a man well known to S. Ambrose, S. Hierome, and S. Augustine, in his 11. Epistle saith, that the Bishop of Hierusalim did every year in the solemnities of Easter, expose the cross to be adored of the people, he himself adoring it first. And to conclude, it is yet so manifest, that the Fathers in the Primitive church adored the cross, that our learned adversaries, who have read the ancient Father's works confess it, as Danaeus in his other part of his first part against Bellarmine, page 1415. saying, that Cyril and sundry other Fathers, were plainly superstitious, and blinded with this enchantment of the crosses adoration. Parker against symbolising, part. 1. page 14. and part 2. chap. 6. and page 61. allegeth the say of Photius, Sedulius, chrysostom, Propertius, Paulinus, Hierome, and Evagrius, to that effect. Fulk against Heskins' page 657. affirmeth, that by report of Paulinus, The cross was by the Bishop of Jerusalem brought forth at Easter to be worshipped of the people; and Perkins in the 83. chapter of Problems, confesseth, that Prudentius, Hierome, and Evagrius held the adoration of the cross, and so forth, as is set down more at large in the 16. chapter of the 2. book of the Progeny of Catholics and Protestants. And this is sufficient to show, that in the Primitive church, and in the most flourishing time of the church, the sacred cross of our Lord was adored with a relative religious worship by the faithful; and this kind of worship being free from all manner of suspicion, or idolatry, as I have proved heretofore; there is no reason or cause why all Christian▪ Nations should not still use it, to the nourishing in themselves pious thoughts, and holy meditations of our Saviour's sacred passion, and of our redemption upon the cross.   

CHAP. XXV. Of four sacred images which were made of Christ our Lord, whilst he lived upon earth, and of the relative religious honour done unto them, to the enriching of their minds with pious thoughts.  
EVsebius in the 14. chapter of his 7. book of histories, and after him Casiadorus, Nicephorus, and other historiographers relate, that the woman which our Saviour cured of an issue of blood by the touch of the hem of his garment, as is set down in the 9 of S. Matthew; in gratitude thereof, in the City of Peneada where she was borne, erected two cast images or statues of brass, the one of herself kneeling, and holding up of her hands, as is used in prayer, the other of our Saviour standing right over against it, with his garment to his ankles, and his hand stretched out toward the woman, at the foot whereof, even upon the thing it stood upon, grew a strange kind of herb, which when it ascended to that height, as to touch the hem of his garment, had virtue to cure all kind of diseases, which Statue Eusebius going to the said City of Penedda, saith, that he see with his eyes.  
Zozomenus in the 20. chapter of his 5. book, continuing the same history, saith, that Julian the Apostata being certified that in Caesarea Philippi (for so now Peneada was called) was the famous image or statue of Christ, which the woman, who was cured of an issue of blood had set up, sent to have it cast down, and his own to be set up in the place which being done, saith Zozomen, a violent fire descended from heaven, struck his statue above the breast, and so cast the head together with the neck against the earth, that it stuck fast in the ground with the face downward, and even until this day it remaineth black, as burned with lightning. At which time also the Pagans' or heathen people so dragged the statue of Christ up and down with such fury, as that they broke it into pieces, but the Christians afterward gathering together the broken pieces, placed them in the church, where they are still preserved. Thus these ancient Authors, to show unto us, that the Primitive Christians honoured & worshipped with a relative religious worship the image & statuas of Christ, not for the matter or metal they were made of, but for the pious thoughts they represented unto their memories, as Roman Catholics do at this day; and that those who do deface sacred images, & beat down, as Julian the Apostata, and the Pagans, are enemies of pious thoughts and Christianity.  
Evagrius Scholasticus, who flourished about the year 596. in the 26. chapter of his fourth book of histories, writeth, that in the City Edessa, near unto the river of Euphrates, where sometime Abgarus reigned as King, there was a picture of our Saviour kept which he himself had sent unto the said King; and the City being so straight besieged by Costroes' King of Persia, that they were almost in despair, his works of great heaps of wood and timber approaching so near their walls, that they could not defend them; and they had made mines of fire underneath, which could not burn for want of air, not knowing how further to defend themselves, saith Evagrius, They brought forth the most holy image, divinely made, and not by the hands of men, but by God Christ, which he had sent to Abgarus, when he desired to see him, and put it into the mine which they had made, sprinkling it with water, whereof they had put a good quantity, both into the fire and wood, which was in their mine, and so aid coming by divine power to their faith doing this, that which before they could not perform, was now easily done; for presently a flame took hold of the wood, which was below, and burned it into coals, and after ascended to that which was above: And when the besieged see the smoke to begin to break out above, to blind the eyes of their enemies, they take little tankers, and fill them with sulphur, tow, and such like, as are apt to burn, and make a smoke, and and cast them upon the top of their enemy's works, which by the force of their throwing kindled, and of themselves cast out smoke, whereby they so obscured the smoke which came out of their mine, that all those who were ignorant of the fact, imagined that the smoke which they see came from the tankers, and not from any other place; but three days after flames of fire were seen to break out of the earth, and then the Persians who fought upon thesr bulwarks, perceiving their danger, Costroes striving against the divine virtue and power, turneth the conduct of water, which ran in the outside of the City upon the fire, thinking thereby to extinguish it, but the fire receiving the water as if it had been oil, or brimstone, or some such other thing, which easily taketh fire, burned the more, until it had destroyed all the works of the enemy, and brought them to ashes; whereupon Costroes failing of his hope, returned home with shame. Thus Evagrius of the picture which our Saviour had sent to King Abgarus.  
Mention is also made of this image which our Saviour made by his divine power, without workmanship of hands, and sent to Abgarus by Procopius a Scholar of S. Augustine's, in his 2. book De bello Persico, and by the seventh General Council in the 5. Act, where Leo a Lecturer of the Cathedral church of Constantinople saith, I your unworthy servant, when I went into Syria with the King's Commissioners, passed to Edessa, and there see the holy image not made with hands, honoured and also adored by the faithful. Of this image likewise make mention Adrian the first, in the 18. chapter of his book to Charles the Great, S. Damascenus in the 17. chapter of his 4. book Orthodoxa fidei, and in his Oration de Imaginibus, and Constantius Porphyrogenitus in his Oration made before the Emperors, the Clergy, and the people, which is set down in Metaphrases upon the 16. of August.  
Moreover this image was of such fame and respect, that it was translated from Edessa unto Constantinople, as witness Zonoras' in Romana Lecapeno, Nicephorus Callistus in the 7. chapter of his 2. book, and S. Thomas upon the third of the sentences dist. 9 q. 1. Art. 2.  
Marianus Scotus in his Chronicle at the year 39 and others relate, that our Saviour going to his passion, a woman called Veronica gave him a handkerchief to wipe the sweat which run down his face, and he returned it unto her again with his image upon it, which image was in the time of Tiberius conveyed by the Christians to Rome, where even until this day it hath been preserved, and reverenced with a relative religious worship of all pious Christians, and is commonly set forth to be seen in S. Peter's church, upon Maunday Thursday.  
Moreover Athanasius in his book of the suffering of the image of our Lord, printed amongst the works of S. Athanasius speaketh of an image of Christ our Lord, which Nicodemus, who took him down from the eross gave to Gamaliel, which after many ages fell into the hands of the Jews at Berith, who out of spite to our Saviour spit upon it, struck it with a reed, crucified it, and pierced the side thereof with a spear, whereat blood and water issued out, which cured all diseases, as is more at large set down in the said history, to manifest it is that sacred images have always been in use amongst Catholic Christians and that a relative religious worship ought to be bestowed upon them, seeing that even from our Saviour's time the faithful have practised it, and God hath been pleased to confirm their piety by miracles.   

CHAP. XXVI: Of the enemies of the Cross, and sacred Images, and of the miseries that befell Images, and of the miseries that befell them.  
THe first enemy that the cross had was Satan, who lived long with the Apostles, who as S. Ignatius in his Epistle to the Phillipenses saith, Before the cross was framed, the devil laboured that it might be made, and to that purpose he wrought with the children of disobedience, in Judas, in the Pharisees, in the Sadduces, in old men, in young, in the Priests; but after that the cross was finished, he was troubled, moved Judas to repent, shown him a halter, and taught him how to hang himself with it; he terrified and troubled the same woman in her sleep, (that is to say) pilate's wife, spoken of in the 27. of S. Matthew, and he endeavoured that they should cease from crucifying, who before had laboured by all means, that the same cross should be had in a readiness, not that he repent him of so great an evil, for so he should have been less wicked; but now he begun to apprehend his own destruction, for the cross of Christ was to be the chiefest cause of his condemnation, death, and perdition, therefore he worketh it in many that they should deny the cross, and be ashamed of the passion, and affirm that Christ tasted death only in opinion, etc. for the devil is divers and sundry ways the author of all evil, deceiving men's minds by false reasons. Thus S. Ignatius, to demonstrate unto us, that the first enemy of the cross was the devil.  
The second enemies of the cross were the Jews, who as S. Ignatius in the same place before cited affirmeth, the devil stirred up to deny the cross, who also unto this day remain reprobate.  
The third were the Gentiles, whom as the said S. Jgnatius in the same place affirmeth, calumniated the cross of witchcraft, or enchantment, as divers do at this day.  
The fourth were certain Libertine Christians and Apostates, who in the Apostles times fell from the faith, denied the cross, and put their whole felicity in sensual life, and carnal pleasure, of whom S. Paul speaketh, saying, Many walk, whom often I have told you of (and now weeping, also I tell you) enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is the belly, and their glory in their confusion, who mind worldly things, Phil. 3.18. Thus S. Paul against certain Heretics, who in his time were enemies of the cross of Christ, and gave themselves to luxury, gluttony, and sensual delights, casting off abstinence, temperance, continency, mortification, and austere life, which the cross doth teach us, which heresy then took root, not only in Juda, but in Greece, in divers of his Epistles doth so extol the cross of Christ, as to affirm, that he knew nothing but Jesus Christ crucified.  
These Heretics were Simon M●gus and his followers, Cerinthus, B●silides, etc. who taught that Christ was not indeed crucified, but withdrew himself from the cross, and suffered only in his image, and the like; whereof see S. Ironaeus in his 1. book and 25. chapter of heresies, and Epiphanius heresy 24. and 28. and S. Ignatius in his Epistle to the Trallians.  
After these followed the heretical Nicolaites, Theo●●orus and Cleobulus, who as affirmeth S. Ignatius in his aforesaid Epistles, were so great lovers of voluptuousness, carnal pleasures, and such Sycophants, as that they became enemies of the cross of Christ, denied the cross, and were ashamed of his passion. And it is a thing worthy to be noted, that all those who denied the virtue of the cross, or the signing themselves with the cross, were carnal sensual people, whose God was their belly, and their glory in their confusion; for within few years they ended their days in ignominy and shame; and these also denied that the Christians ought to give any reverence or respect to the images or pictures of the Apostles, or Saints, affirming themselves to be immediately sent from God to reform the world, as witnesseth S. Epiphanius, Haeres. 21. and 22. and contemned the Martyrs of Christ, as witnesseth S. Irenaeus in the 20. chapter of his 3. book of heresies, saying, they ascended to that madness, as to despise the Martyrs, and found fault with these who had been slain for the confession of our Lord.  
After these followed the Manicheans, who as the former Heretics had done, taught that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had not a true body, but a phantasma, or an appearance of a body, whereof no pictures or images were to be worshipped, as affirmeth Terasius in the 2. Council of Nice, Michael Syngelus in the life of Dionysius Areopagita, and S. Augustine in the fifteenth chapter of his 20. book against Faustus a Manichean. This Manicheus or Manes taking upon him by his virtue and power to cure the son of the King of Persia, sick in the hands of the Physicians, the Physicians being dismissed, and Manes taking upon him the cure, he died presently; whereupon the King, as affirmeth Suidas, caused Manicheus or Manes to be flayed quick, and so naked to be delivered to dogs to be eaten.  
After the Manicheans followed the Arians, so called of Arius, who as is affirmed in the 7. Synod, denied that any worship ought to be given by Christians to the image of Christ, or his Saints: This Arius after many troubles and afflictions which he had brought upon the courch, at an appointed time that he was to dispute with Alexander Bishop of Alexandria, f●ll into a Flux, and as Carrion in his Chronicle relateth, going aside to ease himself, died suddenly upon the privy.  
After these followed Julian the Apostata, who falling from Christianity to Paganism, not only erected his own image in the place where the statue of our Lord stood in Caesarea (of which I have spoken of heretofore) but also, as affirmeth S. C ril B shop of Alexandria in his sixth book against him, upbraided the Catholic Christians of his time with the adoration of the cross, as our Adversaries do at this day, saying, O wretched men who adore the wood of the cross, and imprint the sign thereof in your foreheads, and before your doors. Thus the Emperor Julian in his heat against the Christians, who soon after in the midst of his Army was slain from heaven, as affirmeth S. Gregory Nazianzen in his second Oration against him, and Z z●menus in the 2. chapter of his 6. book of histories.  
After julian the Apostata followed Xenaia, a servant by condition, and an Eutichian Heretic by profession, a man who w s never baptised, yet feigned himself a Christian Clergyman, and by the Eutychian Heretics was made also a Bishop, this man, saith Nicephorus, in in the 27. chapter of his 16. book of Histories, was the f rst (who in these times) belched out this opinion, that the images of Christ, and of those who pleased him, were not to be worshipped; and so to the Eutychian heresy added the contempt of sacred Images, and died excommunicated by the Council of Chalcedon.  
After him followed the Mahometans and Turks, who do so abhor the Cross, as (with the Sectaries of this age) they call the Christians Idolaters for adoring it, as witnesseth Cedrenus upon Heraclius: neither do they permit unto those of their Sect the use of Images, as appeareth by the 15. and 16. chapters of their Alcoran; which Turks being enemies of Christ and Christian Religion, are without all hope of salvation. And this is sufficient to show unto thee, dear Reader, the ancient enemies of the Cross and sacred images, and the miseries they fell into. In thee it lieth to be a follower of the Catholic Roman Church, and to honour, reverence and respect sacred images, with a relation unto the things they represent, thereby to nourish in thee good thoughts; or with the Devil, Jews, Turks, Infidels and Heretics to condemn them, and fill thy heart and mind with filthy shapes, vicious thoughts, and ugly representations.  
As for the more modern haters of the Cross and sacred images, and their evil ends or miseries which befell them: If out of curiosity thou desire to see them, I refer thee to the 12. chapter of Bellarmine's book, of the images of Saints, and to the 9 Article of the 2. book of Coccius, and to the 10. Article of his 5. book in his first Tome, where they are set down at large.   

CHAP. XXVII. The visible and invisible relative religious worship, which the faithful in the Primitive Church used towards the sacred pictures, signs, and images of the written Word of God, and thereby learned the true sense, and endued their souls with wholesome meditations, and pious thoughts.  
IF thou wouldst (dear Reader) examine the cause from whence it proceedeth, that divers in this age do so much apply their minds to the reading of the Bible, that they have it almost continually in their hands, or lying by them, and are so earnest upon it, as that many of them think they must have a text out of the Scriptures for whatsoever they do, or else they sin, as witnesseth Mr. Sanderson, a Protestant Minister, in the sixth and eighth §. of his second Sermon preached at Grantham, in the year 1634. and yet for the most part reap no other benefit out of it, but errors, heresies, and blasphemies against God, thou shalt find the original cause thereof to be,  
First a pride of mind, and a contempt or scorn to bestow any relative worship, respect, or honour upon the material character, or books, or letters, sent from God himself unto his faithful followers, or chridrens, penned by the Holy Ghost, as S. Peter affirmeth, 2 Pet. 1.21. but handle, look upon them, and use them, after the same manner, and with the same respect they do the books, or letters of sensual carnal men; and sometimes also to show their contempt, or little esteem, change the material word of God, as though that should be the sacred word, what they would, and not what God had ordained.  
And secondly a want of an invisible relative religious worship, respect and honour unto the divine and supernatural sense which God hath given unto his sacred word; whereupon they also easily change the sense into their own, or other profane, whereby they turn faith into infidelity, truth into error, and the things revealed by God himself into blasphemy, and please themselves in it.  
Whereas holy and sacred things are not to be handled or treated upon, but holily, with a relative religious worship, respect and esteem, for the sacred things which they do represent, and as they do represent them; & the text of the Scriptures is not only called the holy or sacred Scriptures, Rom. 1.2.2. Tim. 3.15. but also our faith is called our most holy faith, Judas ver. 20. those must needs fall into great errors, heresies, and blasphemies, who read, speak of, or handle them, without a relative religious honour and respect unto them, for God disperseth the proud in the conceit of their hearts, Luk. 1.51. Again, To whom shall I have respect, saith God, but to him that trembleth at my words, Isa. 66.2. as at the words of his Creator?  
S. Paul calleth the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, The Gospel of the glory of the blessed God, 1 Tim. 1.11. wherefore those who give no more religious worship and honour unto it, than they give unto other books, but rudely read, interpret, and handle them, as they do profane Authors, must of necessity abound with errors, heresies, and blasphemies, according to the words of our Lord, saying, Whosoever shall glorify me, I will glorify him, and they that contemn me shall be base, 1 Kings, or Samuel 2.29. as of no Religion established by the Son of God, or Scriptures, seeing that Religion (even by the consent of our adversaries) is described to be a due worship of God, and holy things, and fall into the error of those wicked Priests, of whom God complained, saying, Between a holy thing and a profane they have put no difference, Ezek. 22.26.  
Whereupon the faithful servants of God to profess a Religion, and to nourish in their hearts and souls the pious thoughts, and piety comprehended in the Bible, always honoured and respected the sacred text or Bible with relative religious worship, both for his sake that writ it, and for the divine things it represented unto their memories; in such sort, as in the Old Law the faithful Jews kept it in the Tabernacle, and adored it with the Tabernacle, never touched it, without first washing their hands, kissed it as often as they either opened or shut it, would not sit upon that seat upon which it lay; and if by accident it fell to the earth; they fasted for their negligence one whole day, as affirmeth Corn●lius à Lapide in his preface to the phrases of the holy Scriptures.  
The reason why they did so was, for that wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sin, Wisd. 1.4. whereupon the Prophet prayeth, saying, establish thy word in thy servant in thy fear, Psal. 118.38. Again, blessed is the man, whose will is in the way of our Lord, in his law he will meditate day and night. Psal. 1.1. where the Prophet affirmeth, that those who walk in the way of our Lord, will not make so slight account of the Scriptures, as to read them only transitorily, but he will meditate upon them, which is performed always with great humility and submission of mind; whereupon S. Hilary upon this text saith, The meditation of the law is not only in the words of the reader, but in the religion of works.  
In the New Testament our Saviour saith, Give not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast ye you pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again, and tear you in pieces, Mat. 7.6. Pearls (saith S. Hierome upon this text and the 13. of Matthew) are the Gospel, and the Law, and the Prophets; the dogs, saith he, are those, who after they have received the faith, return to the vomit of their former sins; and swine, those who have not yet believed the Gospel, but stick fast in the mine of infidelity and vices, to demonstrate unto us, that our Lord would not have heretics, vicious men, or infidels, to read the Scriptures, whereof in the 13. of S. Matthew he yields a reason, because they do not esteem them above the things of this world; and therefore if such men read the Scriptures in lieu of reaping benefit by them, they corrupt them, and become, as our Saviour there saith, persecuters of the church, which we find true by experience in this age.  
Again, our Saviour saith to the Jews, Search the Scriptures, Joh. 5.39. with that honour, care and affection that they ought to be searched into: for, as S. chrysostom, in his Sermon of Abraham, well observeth, he saith, Search the Scriptures, do not corrupt them: search them not only by reading them, but carefully enquiring after the sense: God gave indeed the sacred letters or characters, but he laid not open their contemplations or mysteries, but reserved them to their senses, that so he might maintain equity or justice, and behold thy care or industry. Thus S. chrysostom, to show unto us, that he who shall read the sacred letters or characters of the Bible without a relative religious worship unto the text, for the divine things they represent, and follow the sense which God gave unto the text, will reap no thing but error and heresy: for, our Saviour commanding a diligent search to be made into the Scriptures, forbiddeth us to corrupt them, and willeth us that we should not omit any means of finding out the sense or height of their contemplation, which (amongst other things) is an inward and outward relative religious worship to the sacred text, signs, pictures, or images of the Bible, as did the Jews in the old Law, lest for want thereof we corrupt the text by false senses, or interpretations.  
Our Saviour, out of a desire that all men might be saved, and to fulfil what was necessary on his behalf, commanded the Apostles, saying, Going into the whole world, preach the Gospel to all creatures. And they going forth preached every where, Mar. 16.20. Yet our Saviour himself in Matth. 13. saith, that of four sorts of hearers of the Gospel, three hear to their greater damnation. The first are only hearers, who are like men who dwell by the highway, and look after very thing that passeth, and entertain all kind of thoughts, friendships and affairs; like an Inn, which is open to good and bad, known and unknown, friends and strangers, of whom S. James speaketh, saying, If a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding the feature of his face in a glass, who considered himself, and went his way, and presently forgetteth what a manner of man he was, James 1.24. The second hear, and with joy receive the Word, but are temporal, and have no root, and so for a time they believe, and in time of temptation they revolt, because they did not esteem of the Gospel above all earthly things, as did the Prophet David, saying, The law of thy mouth is good to me above thousands of gold and silver, Psal. 118.71. and therefore for temporal pleasures or commodities easily forsook it.  
The third hear the Word, and the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and concupiscences about other things entering in choke the word, and it is made fruitless. For, as S Paul saith, They who will be made rich, fall into temptations, and the snare of the D●vill, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men in destruction and perdition, 1 Tim. 6.9. The fourth are they, who with with a good and very good heart hearing the word of God, do retain it, and yield fruit in patience. Thus our Saviour, to demonstrate unto us, that there is required on our parts an esteem of the Word of God above all earthly things, that we may adhere and cleave unto the sense given unto it by God, and it to us, and fill our hearts with pious thoughts, otherwise the reading or hearing of it, or picking of our faith out of it, will but increase our damnation.  
Honour is due unto virtue, as affirmeth Aristotle chap. 5. of his book of Ethics, and also the Scriptures, 1 Tim. 5.17. And the Scriptures are the virtue of God, Rom. 1.16. 1 Cor. 1.18. wherefore as to God is due an absolute religious worship, so to the Scriptures, which are his Word, signs, figures and images, is due a relative religious worship, because it is his Word; whereupon S. Paul, describing the manner how the Christians in the Primitive church received the word of the Gospel, saith, We also give thanks to God continually, because that when you had received of us the word of the hearing of God, you received it not as the word of men, but (as it is indeed) the word of God, 1 Thes. 2.12. and there also showing the effect which the Word of God worketh in men, when together with the sense it is received and embraced after this relative religious manner, presently addeth their constant suffering for the Gospel, as received into a good and very good heart, which yields fruit in patience.  
In regard of this visible and invisible relative religious worship, and honour which is due unto the sacred Word of God, when Bishops make Deacons, and give them authority to read the Gospel, they receive the holy books kneeling, as is set down in the Pontifical: And anciently when the Gospel was read in the church, all men who were present laid down their weapons, stood barehead, even the Christian Kings and Emperors, and the Bishops, Priests and Deacons, who celebrated the divi●e Service, and handled the book of the Gospel's in honour thereof, often kissed the sacred book with a holy kiss, as witnesseth the ancient Roman order, published in the 8. Tom Biblioth●cae Patrum; which relative relig●ous honour is so due unto the sacred Scriptures, as that Justinus Martyr, who liv●d with the Apostles cholars, in his Oration to the Gentiles, commendeth Prolomaeus King of Egypt for using it, saith, after that the seventy Interpreters had translated the Old Testament into Greek, P●olom● us sent them home with rich gifts, and as it was befitting, kissed the books, and consecrated to God, put them in his Library.  
Moreover in honour of the Gospel, when it was read in the church, candles were lighted, not to drive away darkness, for the Sun than many times shined bright, but to show signs of joy, and to express under the type of a temporal light, that light which is spoken of in the Scriptures, saying, He was the true light, as witnesseth S. Isidorus in the 12. ch. of his 7. bo●k of Etimologies, and S. Hierome in his book against Vigilantius; a●d to distinguish the honour which they gave unto the holy Bible from other books, they made a sacred place in the church only to keep it in, as witnesseth S. Paulinus in his 12. Epistle to Severus. So the relative religious respect which the Primitive Father's bare unto the sacred books, and their divine Christian Catholic senses, delivered unto them by doctrinal succession from the Apostles, brought forth in them an abundance of pious thoughts, and healthful meditations of the unity of the Christian Catholic faith, constancy in one and the same Religion, sincerity in all their actions, and charity towards God and man, seeing the relative religious honour and respect which they bore, both to the sacred material letter, and divine sense imposed upon them, an obligation rather to die a thousand deaths, then to suffer any alteration, or change in one jot of the material text, or title of the divine sense.  
On the contrary, our adversaries by denying all kind of visible religious respect, honour, or worship to the sacred Word of God, have made those books which they now call the Bible, as they use them, the most wretched, miserable, visible creatures that are upon the earth, the Panders of all heresies, schisms, and blasphemies, and the protector and defender of all rebellions, wickedness, and sin, as we find by too lamentable experience; whereby appeareth the necessity of this visible and invisible relative religious worship, and honour unto the sacred Word of God, by all Christian men, to nourish in their hearts pious thoughts of the things contained therein, and to possess them with a firm and constant resolution to adhere unto that material text, and divine sense, which were delivered unto the faithful in the beginning, to persevere in the same until the end of the world, according to the words of S. John, saying; That which you have heard from the beginning, let it abide in you; if that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning, you also shall abide in the Son, and in the Father, 1 Joh. 2.24.   

CHAP. XXVIII. Answer to Objections.  
OBject. Some Roman Catholics pray to pictures, and adore them as God.  
Answ. I do not think that any of our Adversaries ever heard any Roman Catholic to say, Picture pray for me, or have mercy upon me, or to call a picture a God, or to say that there were more Gods than one; if he should hear any to say so, or know of any who should believe that any picture or image were a God, this man or woman could not be a Roman Catholic, but an heretic or Pagan idolater, seeing that the catholic Roman Church teacheth all her followers in the three Creeds, and in her Catechisms, to believe u●der penalty of damnation, that there is but one God.  
Ob. They pray before pictures, and kneel before images.  
Ans. So our adversaries pray before their Bibles, and kneel before their books, yet I do not think that they believe their Bible, or other Prayer-books to be Gods.  
Ob. They say that their pictures are holy, & call the cross holy cross.  
Ans. So do our adversaries call their Communion the holy Communion, and their Bible the holy Bible, and the Scriptures the sacred Word of God; for the same reason that they call the Bible holy, and the Scriptures sacred, for the same reason Roman Catholics call the picture of our Saviour and his Saints holy, that is, because they represent unto us holy things, as well as words, as I have said heretofore: anciently in Egypt, and at this day in China, that which we in Europe express by letters and characters, they express by pictures and images; so that the Christians of these countries must either have no Bible, or a Bible of pictures, and images; and if our adversaries will allow them to have an holy Bible, and sacred Scriptures, than they must also allow of holy pictures and sacred images, distinct from profane.  
Ob. Images and idols are all one.  
Ans. How absurd this is, appeareth by the Scriptures, which say, Christ is the image of the invisible God, Col. 15. God created man to his own image, to the image of God he created him, Gen. 1.17. Adam lived 130. years, and begat to his own image and likeness, Gen. 5.3. man is the image and glory of God, 1 Cor. 11.7. And if images and idols be all one, than the Christians in Egypt and China when they put forth Bibles, set forth idols, and when they respect or reverence their Bibles or sacred Scriptures, they worship idols; which how absurd it is, I leave to the piety of the Reader. Again, many idols are no images, as trees, mountains, the Sun, Moon, and Stars, unto which the Heathen offered Sacrifice, as unto their gods; whereby they made them idols, which yet were no images.  
Moreover images and idols differ in this: First; that idols, as they are idols, had no truth at all in nature, but were feigned things, all our sacred images have some estentiall truth extant, either in heaven or earth, which they represent. Secondly, all idols are without truth, concerning faith and religion; all our images contain such a truth as belongeth to Christian faith or religion. Thirdly, Sacrifice was offered to idols, but we never offer sacrifice to any image or picture. Fourthly idols, as they are idols, were either images of wicked men, or creatures not worthy of honour; ours of our Saviour and his Saints, who are worthy of worship and honour; whereby it appeareth that sacred images and idols are not all one.  
Ob. Roman Catholics adore, kneel before, and worship their images, as the heathen did their idols.  
Ans. The heathen, at least for the most part, adored, kneeled, and worshipped the material carved piece of wood, or engraven stone, or molten image, or painted cloth, as a God, as witness the Scriptures, saying, make us gods, that may go before us, Exod. 32.1. Again, he cut down Cedars etc. and kindled them, and baked bread, but of the rest he wrought a god, and adored, Isa. 44.15. Again, Balthasar the King made a great feast to his Nobles, etc. and they praised their gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, and of wood, and of stone, Daniel 5.4. whereupon God himself said to the Israelites, that when they should fall into idolatry, you shall serve gods that were framed with men's hands, wood & stone that see not, Deut. 4.18. But as I have said heretofore, no Roman Catholic either esteemeth or thinketh any sacred image to be a God, or adoreth or kneeleth to it, or worshippeth it as a God; if he should, he should cease to be a Roman Catholic, and become an infidel. Again, the heathen terminated their adoration, kneeling, and worshipping in their idols, as in their last end, God and chiefest good, as is before showed; Roman Catholics adore and kneel before their sacred pictures, and worship their images only as remembrances of holy things, and neither as gods, or as things which contain any Godhead, nor yet as before an absolute thing, creature or person. Thirdly, they offered sacrifice unto their idols, as witness the Scriptures, saying, They have made to themselves a molten calf, and have adored, and immolated hosts unto it, Exod. 32.8. Again, They sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, Psal. 105.38. The Roman Catholics never offer sacrifice unto any picture, or image whatsoever.  
Ob. Some of you say, that the same honour is due unto the image, which is due unto the example, but Christ, as you confess, is to be adored with divine honour, or honour of latria.  
Ans. Whatsoever any of ours for disputation sake shall say in this point, yet they all submit their judgements to the church, which in the 7. Act of the seventh General Council hath decreed, that the image of Christ is not to be honoured with divine honour, and in the third Canon of the last Act, that the image of Christ is no otherwise to be adored, then is the books of the Gospel: and before these Counsels, to worship the image of Christ with divine honour, was condemned amongst us for heresy, as witnesseth S. Jrenaeus in the 24. cha. of his. 1. book of heresies, S. Epiphanius in his 27 heresy, and S. Augustine in the 7. heresy of his book ad quod vult Deus.  
So first no Christian Catholic ever affirmed that it was lawful to offer exterior visible sacrifice to the image of Christ our Lord. Secondly, these men do not say that the image of Christ, as it is the image of Christ, and as it is separated from Christ, may by itself independent of Christ be worshipped with divine honour, but as it is one thing with Christ, or is reduced to Christ, as the garments of a King are annexed to the King, or as the splendour, beauty or proportion of a body is coherent to a body; and so by a subtle distinction they may peradventure defend, that the image of Christ may by accident, or reductively, be honoured with the same honour that Christ our Lord is honoured, though not of itself, or by itself, for all Roman Catholics do hold, that a thing which hath neither life, sense, nor reason, (such as is an artificial image or picture of itself, and in regard of itself) is neither worthy of any honour, nor capable; and therefore though these Roman Catholics do differ in words, and subtle distinctions, yet they agree in substance, effect, and meaning, and say, that the cross or picture of our Saviour, as it is a molten, or graven, or painted thing, & hath no relation to our Lord, is worthy of no honour or worship, but may be burned or broken without offence; & as it hath relation to our Saviour, or as it is the picture of Christ of itself, it speaketh of an inferior thing to Christ our Lord, as the picture of Caesar speaketh of an inferior thing to Caesar, and therefore cannot be worshipped with the same honour which is due to Christ, but by accident or dependence, and this is the opinion of all. Roman Catholics.  
Ob. Moses said to the Israelites, You saw not any similitude in the day that our Lord spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire, lest perhaps deceived, you might make you a graven similitude, or image of male or female, Deut. 4.15.  
Ans. This text answereth itself in the verses following, Beware lest at any time thou forget the Covenant of the Lord thy God, etc. and make to thee a graven similitude of these things which our Lord hath prohibited to be made. So this text only prohibiteth the making of vain images to ourselves, and not to the honour of God, as I have showed more at large hereupon, and so the alleged text saith, lest deceived, you might make you for yourselves, and not for the honour of God. Again in this same chapter it saith, and being deceived, make to you some similitude; whereby it appeareth, that this text only prohibiteth the making of vain and idle pictures to ourselves, and not the pious pictures of our Saviour and his Saints, nor yet of the civil pictures of well-deserving men, which may redound to the honour and glory of God, by putting civil good thoughts into our minds.  
Ob. You picture God and the Holy Ghost contrary to the Scriptures, which say, To whom have you made God like, or what image will you set to him? I say 40.18.  
Ans. There be three sorts of images or pictures, some are made to express the perfect similitude, form, essence, and nature of the thing itself, and so no faithful man goeth about to make an image or picture of God, because as so he is incomprehensible and invisible, and this is that which is forbidden by this text.  
The second kind is by images to represent to our sight some visible apparitions of God unto men, in such shapes and forms as his will hath chosen, and not his nature framed, as his walking in Paradise to seek Adam and Eve in the shape of a man, Gen. 3. his standing upon the top of a ladder, Gen. 18. his conversing with Moses, as one friend with another, Exod. 33. his sitting upon a Throne, as he appeared to the Prophets Isay and Micheas, Isa. 6. and the 3. of Kings and last chapter, his appearing in the form of a Dove, and cloven tongues as it were of fire, Mat. 3. Act. 2. etc. to picture God after any of these manners, to express the manner of his apparitions to mankind, hath always been lawful, otherwise these who in place of letters and characters use pictures and images, as the Egyptians and Chinois could have no Bible, neither do they give him any new form, but express the form, in which (out of his infinite goodness) he appeared unto men.  
A third kind of setting forth God unto our minds by pictures and images, is not to express his immediate form, nature or essence by pictures or images, which is impossible, but by some remote and mediate similitude, which according to our weak capacity may put us in mind of him, or his attributes: As for example, to express him as allseeing by an eye, or as of in speakable power, wisdom goodness, by a Stork, which hath no tongue, for that no tongue is able to express his essence, nature, goodness, etc. or else to show that God is eternal, without beginning or ending, by a circle which hath neither end nor beginning, etc. as is more at large set down by Pierius in his book of the sacred Egyptian letters, and this kind of painting or setting forth of God by pictures and images, hath also always been lawful, otherwise those who writ, or print pictures and images for letters or characters, could have no Bible, or writ any thing of God, or of the mysteries of our faith, as the Egyptians and Chinois; and this is called the expression of the nature of a thing by Analogies, or metaphorical and mystical significations: as also for example, to set forth the strength, agility, and glory of an Angel, by Analogy and mystical signification, we use to paint, or print a beautiful young man with wings, as were the pictures of Angels in the Temple; & this kind also of setting forth God or Angels hath always been lawful.  
Ob. The Scriptures say, whereunto have you resembled me, and made me equal, and compared me, and made me like? Isa. 46.5.  
Ans. This text, as the former is spoken of idols, as appeareth by the text itself, which saith whereunto have you made me equal, which cannot be, but by making of an idol, no Christian Catholic, either thinking, or esteeming, or imagining any artificial picture, or image to be equal with God; and it presently followeth in the same text, You that contribute gold out of the bag, and w●●gh silver with balance, hiring a goldsmith to make a god, to demonstrate unto us, that this and such like places alleged out of the Scriptures, only prohibit the making of idols, or the going about to paint or print an image or picture which immediately shall set forth the nature, substance, or essence of God, which is impossible, and forbidden.  
Ob. The Council of Eliberis in the 36. Canon, forbiddeth images in churches.  
Ans. It prohibiteth the painting of them upon the church wall in time of persecution, lest they should be profaned or abused, but confesseth, that they ought to be worshipped or reverenced, as I have showed heretofore.  
Ob. Tertullian in the 12. chapter of his Apology for the Christians against the Gentiles, saith, they did not adore statues or images.  
Ans. Not as the Gentiles did thei● statues or images with divine honour▪ as Gods, but with a relative religious worship, as in the 16. cha. of the same book he affirmeth, saying, who doth not think us to be religious towards the cross, or of the cross?  
Moreover the faithful Christian soldiers at all times adored the image of the Roman Emperors in the Imperial standard, as witnesseth S. Gregory Nissen in his first Oration against Julian the Apostata, number 76. saying; They think it not enough that they themselves are adored, unless it be given also unto them in their pictures and images. The like hath Zozonteus in the 4. cha. of his 1. book of histories, saying; The soldiers used to adore the Ensign of war called Labarum, which was inferior to sacred pictures, signs or images.  
Ob. They adored the pictures and images of the Emperors with civil worship, but not with a religious worship.  
Ans. Then first you confess, that adoration may be given unto the pictures and images of Christ and his Saints, but not a religious adoration; for if it be lawful to adore the pictures or images of heathen men, you cannot deny it unto the pictures of our Saviour and his Saints, who are far more eminent; and that relative religious worship may be given unto them, I have proved in the former chapters; and by the same reason, that civil adoration may be given to the eminent temporal things of the world, by the same reason a relative religious adoration may be given to eminent, religious or spiritual things in the Kingdom of God's church, because the hierarchy in the one, is answerable to the Monarchy in the other; wherefore seeing that you grant a civil adoration to the pictures of eminent men in the one, you cannot with any reason deny a relative religious adoration to the pictures or images of Christ and his Saints in the other.  
Ob. Some of the Fathers say, that neither Angels or Saints, or any other creature, may be worshipped or adored with a religious worship.  
Ans. As I have said heretofore, the virtue of Religion hath divers acts or operations, whereof the chief is extended to God only, such as is the profoundest humiliation and prostration of the will, as to the first truth, first beginning, the chiefest good and last end of man, which for his excellency, is or may be called absolute adoration, or a religious worship without addition, or a divine worship, because it hath no relation or dependence upon any other, and this may not be given unto any creature: So when the Fathers say that a religious worship may not be given to the Angels and Saints etc. they understand this absolute religious worship, which is made with a whole prostration or submission of the will, as to the chiefest good and last end of man, which were injustice to bestow upon any creature; and when they say that a religious worship may be given to creatures, as S. Augustine doth in the 21. cha. of his 20. book against Faustus, and others; they intent this relative or inferior kind of religious worship, which we call for distinction sake relative, which may be bestowed either upon the eminent creatures of God, according to the supernatural excellency or dignity which he hath communicated unto them, or upon sacred pictures, signs or images, for the relation they have unto the mysteries of our faith, or things in heaven; so as when we say God only is good, for that he is good of himself, infinite, and independent, it doth not hinder us to say that his creatures are good by communication from his goodness, no more doth it hinder us to say, that his eminent creatures, upon whom he hath bestowed grace and glory, or sacred pictures, signs or images, which have a relation to the mysteries of our faith, or to the things of heaven, may be worshipped with a relative religious worship, depending upon God, and sending us unto him, as unto our last end.  
According to this argument, you may prove that we ought not to use charity or love towards our neighbour, or towards any man, because the Scripture saith, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God from thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and thy whole mind, Deut. 5.6. Mat. 22.37. therefore may you say as you do of religious worship, you may not use charity or love unto any creature which is absurd; but as the highest charity, and chiefest extension of our loves belongeth to God alone, as to our chiefest good, and an inferior kind of charity with relation unto him, may be used, and aught to be used towards his creatures; so likewise in the virtue of Religion, some acts are due unto God alone, others to be communicated to his eminent creatures; and if you can understand this of charity, you may easily understand the same of religious worship, or of any other virtue, how it may be used towards God alone, and how it may be communicated to his creatures depending upon him.  
Ob. Some of the more simple sort of people amongst you adore your pictures of God, or pray unto them, as unto a living thing.  
Ans. I never could either see or hear of any such amongst them: If we cannot find a dog that will not be able to distinguish between a true living Hare, and a painted, how much more the simplest man? but if any such things should be amongst them, he could not be a Roman Catholic, but an heretic or infidel▪ and as such would have been punished.  
Ob. Mr. L●mbert in his preambulations, and divers of our Authors do write of the abuses, which were committed in England about images.  
Ans. These abuses, and the like were committed by Protestants, and after the time that King Henry the VIII. had separated himself from the Cat holike Roman Church, and had by virtue of his Supremacy, and the Supremacy of his Protestant Clergy, placed Protestant Bishops, Abbats, and Abbatesses in the Monasteries, who to disgrace them, and bring them to desolation and ruin into which they after fell, invented these and the like abuses, that they might with the better colour seize upon their lands and goods, as appeareth, for that images were not taken out of the Churches, Monasteries, until the the time of King Edward the VI in the year 1547. which was about thirteen years after that the Pope's Authority was by Parliament excluded out of England, as do witness your own Chronicles.  
Neither is it a sufficient cause to take away a good thing from amongst men, for that divers do abuse it, for so we should neither leave Bible nor Sacraments in the church, seeing that both are abused by many, our Lord (saith the Prophet) will not leave the rod of sinners upon the lot of the just, Psal. 124.3.    

The Conclusion.  
FOr conclusion, it is necessary to observe, that amongst the many oppressions, which the enemy of mankind practiseth over those who by sin he hath made his slaves, this is one, that he permitteth not unto any one of them the use of a pious thought, but if at any time a pious thought begin to appear in any of their hearts or minds, he presently snatcheth it away, as witnesseth our Saviour, Matth. 13.19. thereby to force his subjects to begin their hell here upon earth: Wherefore if you permit no text of Scripture publicly to pass amongst the people, but such as is corrupted by dissenting translations, nor any Sermons to be heard, but such as are made vain by differing opinions in faith, nor sacred pictures, signs, and images to be seen, which shall not be beaten down, as Idols, and their relative religious respect and reverence to be preached against as superstitious, as they are in this Island; what will be the issue? but that both pious thoughts and works banished, every man's heart will be his hell, not only to the loss of their souls, but also in process of time to the destruction of our Nation, by vicious life, and wicked deeds.  
The Scriptures command us, saying, Labour the more, that by good works you may make sure your vocation, 2 Pet. 1.10. But as S. Augustine in the 6. ch●p. of his book of Grace and free will, w●ll observeth, There could be no good works, if good thoughts did not go before them; wherefore if you will take away the abundance of iniquity, wicked deeds, witchcrafts, and other impious crimes, which reign amongst men in this Island, it is necessary, that you not only publicly admit of true Copies of the holy Scriptures, Sermons of the Catholic F●ith, which only is true; end of sacred pictures, signs, and images but also that they be reverenced and respected with a relative religious respect and worship for the divine things which they represent, and as they do represent them, thereby not only to put good thoughts into the hearts of men, but al●o to nourish them, to the bringing forth of an abundance of good works▪ to the honour of God, salvation of our souls, and prosperity of our Country, which God grant. Amen.  
To only God be honour and glory.