Yet this is condemned by the Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Habbakuk. (Is. xl. 18-27. xliv. 9–21. Jer. x. 1-17. and Hab. ii. 18-20.) But further, if the sin of the Jews was only the having false gods, and if the worshipping an image was only evil, because a false deity was honoured by it, why is image worship condemned with reasons that will hold equally strong against the images of the true God as of false gods, if it had not been intended to condemn simply all such image worship. Certainly the Prophets could not have expressed themselves more clearly on the subject.

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3. It appears from the history of the golden calf, that it was intended by the Jews as an image of the true God. For it is called " the God who brought up the Israelites from the land of Egypt." (Exod. xxxii. 4.) The feast which they proclaimed was a feast to the Lord." (v. 5.) They might have thought that as Moses delayed so long in Mount Sinai, they should never see him again, and they therefore desired a visible representation of the Deity to go before them, as a guide, instead of him they had lost. Nevertheless, the calf is called an "idol ;" (Acts, vii. 41;) and they are said to have "changed "their glory into the similitude of an ox that

a It is probable that the Jews expected some visible representation of the Deity from these words, " Behold I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way." (Exod. xxiii. 20.)

"eateth grass." (Ps. cvi. 20.) Worshipping an emblem of the true God is therefore idolatry.

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4. The same inference may be made from the story of the calves set up by Jeroboam in Dan and Bethel, which were intended as representations of the true God. This is evident, (1.) from Jeroboam's design, which was to secure the kingdom for himself. For this purpose, it was not necessary to change the people's religion, but merely to prevent them from going up to Jerusalem, and to furnish them with conveniences for worshipping God nearer home. (1 Kings, xii. 28.) (2.) From the opposition that is made between the worship of Jeroboam's calves, and of Baal, which was brought from Tyre by Ahab.b The family of Jehu, who destroyed the latter, yet departed not from the sin of Jeroboam." (2 Kings, x. 28, 29.) And though they continued to worship the calves at Dan and Bethel, they are still said "to be zealous for the Lord." These images therefore could not have been emblems of false deities. (3.) When the ten tribes

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Jeroboam, too, would be particularly cautious in submitting to the worship of false gods, since the occasion of God's giving him the government of the ten tribes was the idolatry committed by Solomon. (1 Kings, xi. 33.)

b This distinction is particularly marked in 1 Kings, xvi. 31, "It came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk "in the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he went and served "Baal, and worshipped him."

were carried into captivity by the kings of Assyria, new inhabitants were sent to people the country, who brought their idols with them, and did not acknowledge the true God. On their arrival, Jions were sent to plague them, and in order to put an end to their ravages, the king of Assyria sent one of the priests who had been carried out of the country. Now it is expressly said, that this priest taught them to fear the Lord." (2 Kings, xvii. 28.) It is certain, therefore, that under the images of the calves the ten tribes had continued to worship the true Jehovah. Yet these images are called "idols." (Hos. viii. 4, 5.)

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5. In the New Testament, which gives us clearer ideas of God and true religion than the Old Dispensation, it were extraordinary if those practices were allowed in it which are prohibited in the latter. Accordingly it is remarkable that the two most decided passages in the Gospel concerning images are directed against the most refined idolatry that existed in the world, which was at Athens. When St. Paul was there," his

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spirit was stirred within him, when he saw the "city wholly given to idolatry." (Acts, xvii. 16.) He rebukes them for thinking that "the God"head is like unto gold or silver or stone graven "by art and man's device." (v. 29.) He argues from the majesty of God who made the world, and who consequently needed nothing, since "he

a

gives us life, breath, and all things." He therefore condemns that worship as the effect of ignorance. Now it is certain, that the Athenians did not then think their images the proper resemblances of the Divinity. For we are told by Cicero, that the philosophers worshipped the eternal mind, and subordinate to him some inferior beings who, they believed, governed the world. St. Paul therefore argues against image worship in itself, which is calculated to give man low thoughts of God, and is contrary to his nature and perfections.

6. Again, when St. Paul came to Corinth, and learned from Aquila and Priscilla the state of the Church at Rome, and the admiration in which the philosophy and manners of the Greeks were there held, he commences his Epistle to the Romans by arraigning the latter, which he had no doubt become fully acquainted with, not only by his long stay in Greece, but also from his convert, Dionysius the Areopagite. He condemns those among them who "when they "knew God, yet glorified him not as God, but

a See Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1. 1. c. 27.

b St. Paul seems here to allude to two distinct species of idolatry, both of which are practised in the Roman Catholic Church. First, the worship of the true God by an image: "they changed "the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man." And secondly, the worship of saints and angels: "who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and "served the creature more than the Creator."

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"became vain in their imaginations, and their "foolish heart was darkened." (Rom. i. 21.) They entertained high speculations on the unity of the Divine Essence, but they aimed at finding excuses for the idolatry of the vulgar, and thus complied with them in the grossest of all their practices. They had known the true God, for "God had shewn them that which might be "known of him, but they held the truth in un"righteousness, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man." (v. 18-23.) From this, St. Paul traces the origin of all the corruption that overspread the Gentile world; which he considers partly as the consequence of idolatry, which debased men's ideas of God, and partly as arising from the judgments of God upon those who thus dishonoured him.

In support of image worship two arguments are adduced: 1. It is said, that the cherubim which were in the Holiest, were worshipped, at least by the Priest, once a year. But (1) a distinction must be made between a form of worship prescribed by God, and another which he has ex

* Those who endeavour to support a false doctrine can never agree in the means of defending it. Thus Cardinal Cajetan, in speaking of images in the Roman Church, says "such images are

not merely for shew, as the cherubim in the temple, but they are "set up, that they may be worshipped."—See Cajet. in Aquin. 3. q. 25. Ac. 3.

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