omit the second commandment, as supposing it to be a part of the first, according as we account them; and their offence rises higher, because they observe, that in the New Testament, where the decalogue is six times repeated, in special recitation and in summaries, there is no word prohibiting the making, retaining, or respect of images. Concerning which things Christians consider, that God forbade to the Jews the very having and making images and representments, not only of the true God, or of false and imaginary deities, but of visible creatures', which, because it was but of temporary reason, and relative consideration of their aptness to superstition, and their conversing with idolatrous nations, was a command proper to the nation, part of their covenant, not of essential, indispensable, and eternal reason, not of that which we usually call "the law of nature." Of which also God gave testimony, because himself commanded the signs and representment of seraphim to be set upon the mercy-seat, toward which the priest and the people made their addresses in their religious adorations; and of the brazen serpent, to which they looked when they called to God for help against the sting of the venomous snakes. These instances tell us, that to make pictures or statues of creatures is not against a natural reason; and that they may have uses which are profitable, as well as be abused to danger and superstition. Now, although the nature of that people was apt to the abuse, and their intercourse with the nations in their confines was too great an invitation to entertain the danger; yet Christianity hath so far removed that danger, by the analogy and design of the religion, by clear doctrines, revelations, and infinite treasures of wisdom, and demonstrations of the Spirit, that our blessed Lawgiver thought it not necessary to remove us from superstition by a prohibition of the use of images and pictures; and, therefore, left us to the 8 Ο Μωσῆς τὰς δοκίμους καὶ γλαφυρὰς τέχνας, ζωγραφίαν καὶ ἀνδριαντοποιίαν, ἐκ τῆς κατ ̓ ἀυτὸν πολιτείας ἐξήλασε. Philo de Gigant. Vide Exod. xxxiv. 13. Imò et Ecclesia 8. Novemb. celebrat martyrium Claudii Nicostrati et sociorum, qui, cùm peritissimi fuerant statuarii, mortem potiùs ferre, quàm Gentilibus simulacra facere, maluerunt. Deut. iv. 16, and vii. 5. Numb. xxxiii. 52. *Αγαλμα οὐ κατεσκεύασε, διὰ τὸ μὴ νομίζειν ἀνθρωπόμορφον εἶναι τὸν Θεὸν. — Diodor. Sic. de Moyse. sense of the great commandment, and the dictates of right reason, to take care that we do not dishonour the invisible God with visible representations of what we never saw, nor cannot understand, nor yet convey any of God's incommunicable worship in the forenamed instances to any thing but himself. And for the matter of images we have no other rule left us in the New Testament; the rules of reason and nature, and the other parts of the institution, are abundantly sufficient for our security. And possibly St. Paul might relate to this, when he affirmed, concerning the fifth, that "it was the first commandment with promise." For in the second commandment to the Jews, as there was a great threatening, so also a greater promise of" showing mercy to a thousand generations." But because the body of this commandment was not transcribed into the Christian law, the first of the decalogue which we retain, and in which a promise is inserted, is the fifth commandment. And, therefore, the wisdom of the church was remarkable in the variety of sentences concerning the permission of images. At first, when they were blended in the danger and impure mixtures of Gentilism, and men were newly recovered from the snare, and had the relics of a long custom to superstitious and false worshippings, they endured no images, but merely civil: but as the danger ceased, and Christianity prevailed, they found that pictures had a natural use of good concernment, to move less knowing people by the representment and declaration of a story; and then they, knowing themselves permitted to the liberties of Christianity, and the restraints of nature and reason, and not being still weak under prejudice and childish dangers, but fortified by the excellence of a wise religion, took them into lawful uses, doing honour to saints, as unto the absent emperors, according to the custom of the empire; they erected statues to their honour, and transcribed a history, and sometimes a precept, into a table, by figures making more lasting impressions than by words and sentences. While the church stood within these limits, she had natural reason for her warrant, and the custom of the several countries, and no precept of Christ to countermand it: they who went farther were unreasonable, and, according to the degree of that excess, were superstitious. 17. The duties of this commandment are learned by the intents of it for it was directed against the false religion of the nations, who believed the images of their gods to be filled with the Deity; and it was also a caution, to prevent our low imaginations of God, lest we should come to think God to be like man ". And thus far there was indispensable and eternal reason in the precept: and this was never lessened in any thing by the holy Jesus, and obliges us Christians to make our addresses and worshippings to no god but the God of the Christians, that is, of all the world; and not to do this in or before an image of him, because he cannot be represented. For the images of Christ and his saints, they come not into either of the two considerations; and we are to understand our duty by the proportions of our reverence to God, expressed in the great commandment. Our fathers in Christianity, as I observed now, made no scruple of using the images and pictures of their princes and learned men; which the Jews understood to be forbidden to them in the commandment. Then they admitted, even in the utensils of the church, some cœlatures and engravings: such was that Tertullian speaks of, "the good shepherd in the chalice.” Afterwards they admitted pictures, but not before the time of Constantine; for in the council of Eliberis they were forbidden. And in succession of time, the scruples lessened with the danger, and all the way they signified their belief to be, that this commandment was only so far retained by Christ as it relied upon natural reason, or was a particular instance of the great commandment; that is, images were forbidden, where they did dishonour God, or lessen his reputation, or estrange our duties, or became idols, or the direct matter of superstitious observances, charms, or senseless confidences; but they were permitted to represent the humanity of Christ, to remember saints and martyrs, to recount a story, to imprint a memory, to do honour and reputation to absent persons, and to be the instruments of a * Τὸν ἀόρατον εἰκονογραφεῖν ἢ διαπλάσσειν οὐχ ὅσιον. — Philo de Legatione. Prioribus 170 annis templa quidem ædificabant [Romani,] simulacrum verò nullum effigiatum faciebant; perinde atque nefas esset meliora per deteriorum similitudines exprimere. — Plutarch. Numa. Εἴη γὰς ἓν τοῦτο μόνος θεὸς, περιέχον ἡμᾶς ἅπαντας καὶ γῆν καὶ θάλατταν, ὃ καλοῦς μεν οὐρανὸν, καὶ κόσμον, καὶ τὴν τῶν ἀυτῶν φύσιν. τούτου δὴ τίς ἂν εἰκόνα πλάττειν θαῤῥήσειε, νοῦν ἔχων, ὁμοίαν τινὶ τῶν παρ' ἡμῖν; ἀλλ ̓ ἐᾷν δεῖ πᾶσαν ξοανοποιϊαν, τέμενος ἀφορίσαντας, καὶ σηκὸν αξιόλογον τιμᾷν εἴδους χωρίς. — Strab. lib. xvi. - Οφθαλμοῖς οὐχ ὁρᾶται, οὐδένι ἔοικεν· διόπες αυτὸν οὐδεὶς ἐκμαθεῖν ἐξ εἰκόνος δύναται. - Antisth. relative civility and esteem. But, in this particular, infinite care is to be taken of scandal and danger, of a forward and zealous ignorance, or of a mistaking and peevish confidence; and where a society hath such persons in it, the little good of images must not be violently retained, with the greater danger and certain offence of such persons, of whom consideration is to be had in the cure of souls. I only add this, that the first Christians made no scruple of saluting the statues of their princes, and were confident it made no entrenchment upon the natural prohibition contained in this commandment; because they had observed, that exterior inclinations and addresses of the body, though in the lowest manner, were not proper to God, but in Scripture found also to be communicated to creatures, to kings, to prophets, to parents, to religious persons*: and because they found it to be death to do affront to the pictures and statues of their emperors, they concluded in reason, (which they also saw verified by the practice and opinion of all the world,) that the respect they did at the emperor's statue was accepted as a veneration to his person. But these things are but sparingly to be drawn into religion, because the customs of this world are altered, and their opinions new; and many, who have not weak understandings, have weak consciences; and the necessity for the entertainment of them is not so great as the offence is, or may be. The Third Commandment. 18. "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." This our blessed Saviour repeating, expresses it thus: "It hath been said to them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself;" to which Christ adds, out of Num. xxx. 2. "But thou shalt perform thy oaths unto the Lord." The * Gen. xxiii. 12; xxvii. 29; xlii. 6; and xlviii. 12. 1 Sam. xx. 41. 1 Kings, i. 16. y Apud Romanos sancitum est, ut si per Deum jurans quis pejeraret, ad Deum ipsum plectendus remitteretur, quem satis esse idoneum suæ majestatis vindicem dicebant.-L. Jurisjurandi, C. de Rebus Credit. et Jurejur. Sin per genium principis quis jurans pejerâsset, castigabatur fustibus, cum hoc elogio, Temerè ne jura.-Si duo Patroni, Sect. fin. de Jurejur. Lysander dixit homines uti posse pro suo commodo juramentis, sicut pueri astragalis.-Plutarch. in Lysand. Idem in Æmylio ait, Macedonas usos esse juramento uti moneta. meaning of the one we are taught by the other. We must not invocate the name of God in any promise in vain, that is, with a lie which happens either out of levity, that we change our purpose, which at first we really intended; or when our intention at that instant was fallacious, and contradictory to the undertaking. This is to "take the name of Ged," that is, to use it, to take it into our mouths, for vanity; that is, according to the perpetual style of Scripture, for a lie. "Every one hath spoken vanity to his neighbour," that is, he hath lied unto him; for so it follows, "with flattering lips, and with a double heart:" and "swearing deceitfully" is by the Psalmist called "lifting up his soul unto vanity a." And Philo the Jew, who well understood the law and the language of his nation, renders the sense of this commandment to be, "to call God to witness to a lie." And this is to be understood only in promises, for so Christ explains it, by the appendix out of the law, "Thou shalt perform thy oaths:" for lying in judgment, which is also with an oath, or taking God's name for witness, is forbidden in the ninth commandment. To this Christ added a farther restraint. For whereas, by the natural law, it was not unlawful to swear by any oath that implied not idolatry, or the belief of a false god, (I say) any grave and prudent oath, when they spake a grave truth; and whereas it was lawful for the Jews in ordinary intercourse to swear by God, so they did not swear to a lie, (to which also swearing to an impertinency might be reduced by a proportion of reason, and was so accounted of in the practice of the Jews,) but else, and in other cases, they used to swear by God, or by a creature, respectively; for, "they that swear by him shall be commended," saith the Psalmist; and "swearing to the Lord of Hosts," is called "speaking the language of Canaan." Most of this was rescinded; Christ forbade "all swearing," not only swearing to a lie, but also swearing to a truth in common affairs; not only swearing commonly by the name of God, but swearing commonly " by heaven," and "by the earth, by our head," or by any other oath: only let our ὁ Οὐκ ἔλαβεν ἐπὶ ματαίῳ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ· μάρτυρα δὲ καὶ καλεῖν ἐπὶ ψεύδει θεὸν ἀνοσιώτατον. Philo. c Psal. lxiii. 11. d 1 Sam. xx. 17. Isa. xix. 18. |