Chapter XXVII. Of the Use of Pictures and Images in the Catholic Church

Q. What is the doctrine of the church with regard to pictures or images of Christ and his saints?

A, First, that it is good to keep them and retain them, and to have them in churches, not only for ornament and for the instruction of the ignorant, but for the honour and remembrance of Christ and his saints, and for a help to raise our thoughts and hearts to heavenly things. Secondly, that there is relative honour due to them, by reason of the persons whom they represent. See the second Council of Nice, Act 7. and the Council of Trent, Sess. 25.

^ Q. Does the Catholic Church give divine worship to the pictures or images of Christ of his saints?

A. No, by no means: the second Council of

28S. CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN INSTSUCTEU.

Nice, in the 7th Action or Session, has expressly declared, that divine worship is not to be given ihemj to v^hich the Council of Trent, in the 25th Session, has added, that we are not to beHeve that there is any divinity or power in them for which they are to be worshiped,- and that we are not to pray to them, nor put our trust or confidence in fhem.

Q. But does not the first (or second) commandment absolutely forbid the making of any image, or the likeness of any thing in heaven, earth, or sea?

A, No: it only forbids the making of idols, that is, of such images as are made for gods, and are worshiped as such; or in which a divinity or divine virtue and power is believed to reside. Hence the ancient version of the Septuagint (which is venerable by having been made use of by the Apostles themselves) renders the words of the commandment thus, ' Thou shalt not make thyself an idol,' &c. And that God does not absolutely forbid the making of the likeness of any thing, is not only the general belief of all christians, who carry about with them without scruple the likeness of their kings in the current coin of their respective countries, but is visible from scripture, wherein * God commanded the making of two cherubims of beaten gold, to be placed over the Ark of the Covenant in the very Sanctuary,' Exod. xxv. 18, 19, 20, 21, 'and in like manner commanded the making of the brazen serpent, for the healing of those who were bit by the fiery serpents,' Numb. xxi. 8, 9, which serpent was an emblem of Christ, St. John iii. 14, 15.

Q, But at least, does not God forbid, by this commandment, all honour or reverence to pictures or images?

A, He forbids all honour or reverence to idols or image gods, but not the relative honour which Catholics show to the pictures of Christ and his saints, for the sake of the persons represented by them, for it is visible, that the images which by this commandment are forbid to be honoured, are also, by the express words of the commandments, forbid to be made. Now few or none christians suppose that the pictures of Christ or his saints are forbid to be made; therefore they cannot infer from this commandment, that they are forbid to be honoured, since this commandment does not speak of them at all, but only of idols or images set up to be worshiped for gods.

Q. What then do you mean by this relative honour, which you allow to the picture of Christ and his saints?

A. By a relative honour 1 mean an honour which is given to a thing, not for any intrinsic excellence or dignity in the thing itself, but only for the relation which it has to something else, which it represents or brings to our remembrance; as when christians bow to the name of Jesus, which is an image or remembrance of our Saviour to the ear as the crucifix is to the eye.

Q, Have you any instances of this kind of relative honour allowed to Protestants?

A. Yes: in the honour they give to the name of Jesus, to their churches, to the altar, to the Bible, to the symbols of bread and wine in the sacrament, to the king's chair, &c. Such also was the honour which the Jews gave to the ark and cherubims, to the sanctuary, &c. and which Moses and Joshua gave to the land on which they stood, as being boly ground, Exod. iii. 5. Josh. r. 15.

Q. How do you prove that there is a relative honour due to the images or pictures of Christ and his saints?

. A. Because it is evidently agreeable, as well to nature and reason, as to piety and religion, to express our esteem and affection for those whom we honour and love, by setting a value upon all things that belong to them, or have any relation to them. Thus good christians, that love God with their whole hearts, honour all things that are dedicated to his service, or that are memorials of him, or have a relation to him; as his temples, his altars, his name, his word, his sacraments, the sacred Yessels, &;c. And thus it is that we honour the effigies of Christ, of his blessed Mother, and of the saints, as memorials and representations of them, and as helps to raise our thoughts to them. And is it not thus that a loyal subject, a dutiful child, a loving friend, value the pictures of their king, father, or friend? And would not these very men that make no scruple of abusing the image of Christ, severely punish such as would abuse the image of the king?

Q. Do you then allow of worshiping God by an image?

A, If you mean by worshiping God by an image, the raising up your hearts to God by or upon occasion of the sight of the picture or image; or the referring to Jesus Christ and to his worship whatever honour or respect we show to his picture or image; there can be no reason to disallow the worshiping of God by a picture or image. But if worshiping God by an image be so understood, as if the divinity in some particular manner resided in the image; or some virtue or power, for which it should be worshiped or trusted in; or as if our worship or prayers were believed to be more acceptable to God and to have more influepce upon him, when offered or presented by or through any such image; such kind of worshiping God by an image is not only not allowed but condemned by the Catholic Church. See the Council of Trent,. Sess. 25.

Q, What means then the blessing of crucifixes or other images, if no virtue or power be believed to reside in them after they are blessed?

A, The church blesses all things that are used about the altar; not by way of imparting to theni any intrinsic power or virtue, but by way of dedicating them to the divine service, and begging God's blessing for those that make use of them; sa that whatever advantage may be supposed in the use of them after they are blessed more than before, is wholly to be attributed to the prayers of the church.

Q. But are there not certain images, to which great miracles are attributed; therefore Catholics must believe that in these at least there is some divinity, virtue or power?

A. There have been many instances of undoubted miracles wrought by God in the churches of the blessed Virgin and other saints, in favour of those that have sought their prayers and intercession before tie pictures or images. But these miracles are not to be attributed to any divinity or power in the image, but to the Almighty power of God, moved to work these wonders by the prayers of his saints, and bearing testimony thereby to the faith of his church, and showing his approbatioa of her religious practices.

Q. What do you think of the images or pictures of God the Father, or of the blessed Trinity?

A, I think that no corporeal image can bear a resemblance with, the divinity; and consequently that it would be unlawful to pretend to make* any such likeness or resemblance. Bui where no such resemblance is pretended, I do not take it to be more unlawful to paint God the Father under the figure of a venerable old man, because he was so represented in the vision of Daniel, chap. vii. ver. 9. than it is to paint the Holy Ghost under the figure of a dove, because he appeared so when Christ was baptized, St. Matt. iii. 16.

Q. What do you think of the charge of idolatry laid to the church by some of her adversaries, upon ac90unt of the use and veneration of images?

A. I think that nothing could be more visibly unjust than such a charge; since idolatry is giving divine honour and service to an idol, or false God: which is far from being the case of the Catholic Church. We acknowledge one only true and living God in three Persons, Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost: to him alone do we offer sacrifice or any other divine honours. Him alone do we adore in spirit and truth. Whatever else in heaven or on earth we religiously honour, we honour for his sake, and for the relation it has to him. And as for the worship of idols op false gods it has been banished out of the world by the labours and preaching of our church alone: so far are we from abetting idolatry.

Q. What then do you think of the parallel which some would make between the Heathen and Catholic worship?

A. I think that it is infinitely unjust and unreasonable, as must appear to any unprejudiced mind by the following remarks.

First, Catholics adore and offer sacrifice to one only true and living God: the Heathens adored and offered sacrifices to many false gods.

Secondly, the supreme object of Catholic worship is the sacred Trinity blessed for evermore: the supreme object of the Heathen worship was the sun, or some other part of God's creation; or else some wicked man, or more wicked devil. For Heathen idolatry, according to the Apostle, Rom. i. 25, 'changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiping and serving the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.' The sun, and his symbol, the fire, was of old the sovereign God of the Persians; as he was of late of the inhabitant* of Peru: the same was worshiped as their chief God by the Phoenicians under the name of Baal; by the Ammonites under the name of Moloch; by the Moabites under the name of Chamos; by the Accaronites under the name of Belzebub; by those of Gaza under the name of Marnas, &;c. according to Vossius, Selden, and the whole nation of the critics, alleged by the Protestant Doctor Parker, test. p. 97. Him they called the king of heaven; as they called the moon or Astarte the queen of heaven. Of like nature was the sovereign object of the worship of the Egyptians, viz. Ammon the ram, and Osiris the bull, which are the two first signs of the Zodiack, and were worshiped as symbols of the sun according to Doctor Parker, Ibidem, The chief God of the Greeks and Heathen Romans, was Jupiter, who was originally a king that reign A in Crete; as the wiser Heathens have aoknowl edged. He was not esteemed eternal by any of them; but the son of Saturn, that is, of time; and by much posterior to heaven and earth. As for his idols and oracles, he who gave answers thereby was no God, but an arch devil, as christians have ever believed.

Thirdly, Catholics honour, though not with any part of divine worship, the angels and saints of God, as belonging to him, and as truly worthy of honour, upon account of the excellent gifts of grace and glory received from him: but they ask nothing of them but what they know must come from God's hands; and therefore their usual address to them is. Pray for us: the Heathens not only gave the sovereign worship of adoration and sacrifice to their inferior deities, but looked upon them in many respect independent of their chief God (whilst they made him, himself dependent upon fate) and according they addressed themselves to them not as intercessors (for in the whole Heathen theology we shall scarce find an Ora pro nobis) but as distributers of blessings and gifts to men, according to their different offices and powers.

Fourthly, those whom the Catholics honour with an inferior veneration for God's sake are indeed the ministers and servants of the one true God. The inferior deities of the Heathens were wicked wretches, such as Mars, Bacchus, Hercules, Venus, &c. or rather devils as we learn from many texts of scripture: See Levit. xvii. 7; Deuter. xxxi. 17; Ps. cvi. 37; 1 Cor. x. 20.

Fifthly, as to images; not to speak of the immense distance between the objects represented by Catholics and by Heathens, it is certain that the heathens, at the least the generality of tlt%m, believed the very idols to be gods; for which see Gen. xxu 30, 32; Exod. xx. 23; Levit. xix. 4; Judges xviii. 24; 2 Kings xvii. 29, and xix. 18; Isai. xliv. 17; Jerem. ii. 26, 27; Acts xix. 26. And as for those who would seem to be more refined in their notion and worship, they believed at least that the idols by consecration became the bodies of their gods, the places of their peculiar residence^ the symbols of their presence, and the seats of their power. And accordingly these, as well as the others, offered prayers and sacrifice to the idols, and gave them the names of the deities which they worshiped in them. Now we neither believe our images to be gods, nor to be the bodies of God, nor the peculiar places of his residence, nor symbols of his presence, nor to have any power or virtue in them; nor do we put our trust in them, or offer sacrifice or other divine honours to them. Therefore there is no similitude between the heathen worship and ours.

As for the Jewish worship of the golden calf in the wilderness, and afterwards of the calves of Jeroboam at Bethel and Dan, which some are willing to extenuate, as if they did not take these images to be gods, but thereby only meant to worship the God of Israel, the Scripture gives us a quite different account; witness these texts, Exod. xxxii. 8. They have made them a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,' ver. 31. 'They have made them gods of gold.' Psalm cvi. (alias cv.) 19, 20, 21. 'They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped the molten image: they changed their glory (their God) into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass: they forgot God their Saviour, which had done great things in Egypt.! Acts vii. 39, 40,41. 'To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, saying to Aaron, make us gods to go before us. — And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven.' And of the calves of Jeroboam, 1 Kings xii. 28. 'He made two calves of gold and said unto them,— Behold thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt;' and ver. 32. 'He sacrificed to the calves that he had made.' And 1 Kings xiv. 9. ' he is accused by the prophet Abijah to have gone and made him other gods and molten images,' and 'to have cast the Lord behind his back.' 2 Chron. xi. 15. 'He ordained him priest for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made.' 2 Chron. xiii. 8. 'There are with you golden calves which Jeroboam made unto you for gods,' ver. 9. ' Have ye not cast out the priest, &c. and made you priests after the manner of the nations of them that be no gods,' ver. 10. 'But as for us, the Lord is our God.'

But if any one will be contentious and maintain that these idolatrous Israelites intended to worship in these calves, not the Egyptian Osiris, nor any other false divinity, but the God of Israel, because Aaron (who made the calf against his will by compulsion of* the people) seems to give it the proper name of the God of Israel, Exod. xxxiii. 6. 'Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.' Supposing this to be true, their worship would still have been idolatrous, and these calves properly idols; because they believed (as is manifest from the text above quoted) these very calves to be gods; or, if you will have it so, to be the Lord of Israel; or, at least, that the divinity had upon their dedication insinuated itself into them; and accordingly they gave divine praises and offered sacrifice to them. Now, to believe any image to be God, or to imagine any divinity, power or virtue in it, for which it is to be worshiped, or to offer sacrifice to an image, is an idolatrous worship, and cannot be excused, however the image be pretended by its worshipers to repesent the true God,

Q. Is there not in one of the church-hymns, and m one of the anthems of the Roman Breviary, a prayer to the cross? how then do you maintain that the Catholic Church does not attribute any power to images, nor prays to them?

A, The prayer you speak of is not directed to the wood of the cross, but Christ crucified, by a figure of speech, as when St. Paul says^ Gal. vi. 14. *that he glories in the cross of Jesus Christ.