Lactantius likewise, an old and learned writer, in his book of the original of error, hath these words; "God is above man, and is not placed beneath, but is to be sought in the highest region. Wherefore there is no doubt, but that no religion is in that place wheresoever any image is: for if religion stand in godly things, (and there is no godliness but in heavenly things) then be images without religion." These be Lactantius's words, who was above thirteen hundred years ago, and within three hundred years after our Saviour Christ.

Cyrillus, an old and holy doctor, upon the Gospel of St. John hath these words: "Many have left the Creator, and have worshipped the creature; neither have they been abashed to say unto a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou begottest me. For many, yea, almost all (alas for sorrow) are fallen unto such folly, that they have given the glory of deity, or godhead, to things without sense or feeling.'

Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamine in Cyprus, a very holy and learned man, who lived in Theodosius the Emperor's time, about three hundred and ninety years after our Saviour Christ's ascension, writeth thus to John Patriarch of Jerusalem: "I entered (saith Epiphanius) into a certain church to pray: I found there a linen cloth hanging in the church-door, painted, and having in it the image of Christ, as it were, or of some other saint; (for I remember not well whose image it was:) therefore when I did see the image of a man hanging in the church of Christ, contrary to the authority of the Scriptures, I did tear it, and gave counsel to the keepers of the church, that they should wind a poor man that was dead, in the said cloth, and so bury him."

And afterwards the same Epiphanius, sending another unpainted cloth, for that painted one which

Lib. 2. c. 16.

he had torn, to the said Patriarch, writeth thus: "I pray you, will the elders of that place to receive this cloth, which I have sent by this bearer, and command them that from henceforth no such painted cloths, contrary to our religion, be hung in the church of Christ. For it becometh your goodness rather to have this care, that you take away such scrupulosity, which is unfitting for the church of Christ, and offensive to the people committed to your charge." And this Epistle, as worthy to be read of many, did St. Jerome himself translate into the Latin tongue. And that ye may know that St. Jerome had this holy and learned bishop Epiphanius in most high estimation, and therefore did translate this Epistle as a writing of authority, hear what a testimony the said St. Jerome giveth him in another place, in his Treatise against the Errors of John Bishop of Jerusalem, where he hath these words: "Thou hast (saith St. Jerome) Pope Epiphanius, which doth openly in his letters call thee an heretic. Surely thou art not to be preferred before him, neither for age, nor learning, nor godliness of life, nor by the testimony of the whole world." And shortly after in the same Treatise, saith St. Jerome, Bishop Epiphapius was ever of so great veneration and estimation, that Valens the Emperor who was a great persecutor, did not once touch him. For heretics, being princes, thought it their shame, if they should persecute such a notable man, And in the Tripartite Ecclesiastical History, the ninth book, and forty-eighth chapter, is testified, that "Epiphanius, being yet alive, did work miracles, and that after his death devils, being expelled at his grave or tomb, did roar." Thus you see what authority St. Jerome, and that most ancient history, give unto the holy and learned Bishop Epiphanius, whose judgment of images in churches and temples, then beginning by stealth to creep in, is worthy to be noted.

Lib. 9, c. 48.

First, he judged it contrary to Christian religion, and the authority of the Scriptures, to have any images in Christ's church. Secondly, he rejected not only carved, graven, and molten images, but also painted images out of Christ's church. Thirdly, that he regarded not whether it were the image of Christ, or of any other saint; but being an image would not suffer it in the church. Fourthly, that be did not only remove it out of the church, but with a vehement zeal tear it in sunder, and exhorted that a corse should be wrapped and buried in it, judging it meet for nothing but to rot in the earth; following herein the example of the good king Hezekiah, who brake the brazen serpent to pieces, and burned it to ashes, for that idolatry was committed to it. Last of all, that Epiphanius thinketh it the duty of vigilant bishops to be careful that no images be permitted in the church,for that they be occasion of scruple and offence to the people committed to their charge. Now whereas neither St, Jerome, who did translate the same Epistle, nor the authors of that most ancient History Ecclesiastical Tripartite, (who do most highly commend Epiphanius, as is aforesaid) nor any other godly or learned bishop at that time, or shortly after, have written any thing against Epiphanius's judgment concerning images: it is an evident proof, that in those days, which were about four hundred years after our Saviour Christ, there were no images publicly used and received in the church of Christ, which was then much less corrupt and more pure than now it is.

And whereas images began at that time secretly and by stealth to creep out of private men's houses into the churches, and that first in painted cloths and walls, such bishops as were godly and vigilant, when they spied them, removed them away, as unlawful and contrary to Christian religion, as did here Epiphanius, to whose judgment you have not only

St. Jerome, the translator of his Epistle, and the writer of the History Tripartite, but also all the learned and godly clerks, yea, and the whole church of that age, and so upward to our Saviour Christ's time, by the space of about four hundred years, consenting and agreeing. This is written the more largely of Epiphanius, for that our image-maintainers now-a-days, seeing themselves so pressed with this most plain and earnest act and writing of Epiphanius, a bishop and doctor of such antiquity and authority, labour by all means (but in vain against the truth) either to prove that this Epistle was neither of Epiphanius's writing, nor St. Jerome's translation: Either if it be,' say they, it is of no great force: for this Epiphanius,' say they, was a Jew, and being converted to the Christian faith and made a bishop, retained the hatred which Jews have to images still in his mind, and so did and wrote against them as a Jew, rather than as a Christian.' O Jewish impudency and malice of such devisers! It should be proved, and not said only, that Epiphanius was a Jew. Furthermore, concerning the reason they make, I would admit it gladly. For if Epiphanius's judgment against images is not to be admitted, for that he was born of a Jew, an enemy to images, which be God's enemies, converted to Christ's religion, then likewise followeth it, that no sentence in the old doctors and fathers, sounding for images, ought to be of any authority; for that in the primitive church the most part of learned writers, as Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, Austin, and infinite others more, where of Gentiles (which be favourers and worshippers of images) converted to the Christian faith, and so let somewhat slip out of their pens, sounding for images, rather as Gentiles than Christians, as Eusebius in his History Ecclesiastical, and St. Jerome saith plainly, "that images came first from the Gentiles to us Christians." And much

more doth it follow, that the opinion of all the rabblement of the Popish church, maintaining images, ought to be esteemed of small or no authority, for that it is no marvel that they, which have from their childhood been brought up amongst images and idols, and have drunk in idolatry almost with their mothers' milk, hold with images and idols, and speak and write for them. But indeed it would not be so much marked, whether he were of a Jew, or a Gentile, converted unto Christ's religion, that writeth, as how agreeably or contrary to God's word he doth write; and so to credit or discredit him. Now what God's word saith of idols and images, and the worshipping of them, you heard at large in the first part of this Homily.

St. Ambrose, in his treatise of the death of Theodosius the Emperor, saith, "Helene found the Cross and the title on it. She worshipped the King, and not the wood, surely, (for that is an heathenish error, and the vanity of the wicked,) but she worshipped him that hanged on the Cross, and whose name was written in the title;" and so forth. See both the godly Empress' fact, and St. Ambrose's judgment at once: they thought it had been an heathenish error and vanity of the wicked, to have worshipped the Cross itself, which was embrued with our Saviour Christ's own precious blood. And we fall down before every cross piece of timber, which is but an image of that Cross.

St. Augustine, the best learned of all ancient doctors, in his forty-fourth Epistle to Maximus, saith, "Know thou, that none of the dead, nor any thing that is made by God, is worshipped as God of the Catholic Christians, of whom there is a church also in your town." Note, that by St. Augustine, such as worshipped the dead, or creatures, be not Catholic Christians.