not remain free of this vice: we have hence still the names sunday, monday, &c. The Germans and the Dutch worshipped particularly the sun, moon, Vulcan, Wodan, (called otherwise Mercury,) whence wednesday, Tuisco, and his son Man, who were forefa hers of the Germans and Dutch. From Tuisco they seem still to be called Dutch. and from Man, Germans. The heathens made images of all these gods, bowed down to them, and practised every kind of worship before them. At first the idolaters were not so curious, as to make images of their gods, they contented themselves with an unhewn stone, or the unpolished trunk of a tree; but the arts multiplying, and the art of making images being invented, they made images of their gods of every form, of wood, stone, gold, silver, and other materials, according to their erroneous conceptions, which they had formed of their gods.

It was not so strange, that the heathens, whom God had abandoned to walk in their own ways, should be so madly addicted to idolatry, as that even the posterity of Shem, who were beloved by God, should apostatize thereto. "Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor, served other gods," in Ur of the Chaldees, Joshua xxiv. 2. Laban swore also by those false gods of his fathers, Gen. xxxi 53. He had also his Teraphims, or household gods, and Rachel, who Jacob was foolishly inclined to them, "stole them, Gen. xxxi. 19. indeed purged his house of them, Gen. xxxv. 2-4, but his posterity multiplying in Egypt, defiled themselves with the idolatry of the Egyptians. And although the Lord had brought them out of that house of bondage with great power, and with an outstretched arm, yet they made a calf at Horeb, and bowed down to a molten image: "They changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass." When Israel was come to the borders of the Moabites, "they joined themselves to Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead," Psalm cvi. 19, 20, 28. The Israelites were but just settled in Canaan, when they adopted and served the gods of the heathens, who dwelled among them, and of the nations who were round about them. They served the Baals and Molochs of every people, the Apis, or calf of the Egyptians, the Ashtoreth of the Zidonians, the Chemosh of the Moabites, and other gods and goddesses, yea, they served them with the filthiest, lewdest and most cruel ceremonies: they made for them temples, high places, groves and images, which were fitter to frighten and to shock a per

or as they are usually distinguished by the English, the Germans and the Dutch.

son, than to be worshipped; yea, they multiplied these images so exceedingly, that "they filled their land with them: they had gods, images, altars and high places, not only according to the number of their cities," but even "according to the number of their streets," Jer. xi. 13. Ezek. xvi. 24, 25, 31. But the Lord punished them severely by the Babylonish captivity, which impressed a horrour of every kind of image-worship on them, that cleaves to their posterity even until this day.

It might be imagined, that Christians, having such examples before their eyes, greater privileges, and a clearer revelation, would not apostatize to image worship. The first Christians also knew nothing of images; neither the Saviour nor the apostles ordered the Christians to worship images; they who defended the laws of God time after time could not do this. The Christians were accused by the heathens of atheism, because they had no images. In the fourth century, when the church began to decline from her purity, there was here and there an image seen in the church; but Epiphanius, seeing a picture of Christ in a church, tore it in pieces. After this a certain bishop of Nola introduced images into churches for ornament and instruction; but they were not yet worshipped. When men began after this to worship images, Serenus, bishop of Marseilles, cast them out of the church. The bishop of Rome commended him for watching against image-worship, but blamed him for casting them out of the church, because, as he said, they might serve to instruct the ignorant. In the eighth century there were severe contests in favour of and against images. When John, Patriarch of Constantinople, a Monothelite, who held that Christ had only one will, was condemned by the Synod of Constantinople, in the year 711, the Roman bishop, Leo the second, caused pictures of all the members of that synod to be hung up in the porch of St. Peter. The emperour Leo Isaurus took this exceedingly ill, and ordered in the year 726, that no man should worship any image made by hands, and that all the images should be destroyed. The bishop of Rome excommunicated the Emperour on this account; but the Emperour laughed at him, and said, he is an idolater, and is himself excommunicated. Constantine Copronymus succeeding his father, as Emperour, was not less zealous against the images, and procured in the general synod of Constantinople, in the year 754, that the worshippers of images should be condemned, as idolaters; but the Empress Irene, who was sottishly addicted to image-worship, obtained in a Synod at Nice, in the year 787, that the images should be restored, served and worshipped. To manifest her special zeal for images,

she caused her father-in-law Constantine Copronymus to be digged up, burned, and his ashes to be thrown into the sea. She was so imbittered against her son also, on account of his aversion from images, that she caused his eyes te be thrust out, and afterwards ordered him to be slain, But Charles the great set himself against this madness, and assembled a synod at Frankfort, in the year 794, in which that Nicene synod was condemned. Nevertheless, all this struggling against the images did not reform the church of Rome, she adheres even until this day to the judgment of the false synod of Nice, the members of which doting upon the images, said, "We judge that the images of the angels and saints ought to be worshipped. If any man be not of this mind, but scrupulous and doubtful concerning the worship of the venerable images, the holy synod denounces an anathema against him." Therefore she appealed in the assembly of Trent to this synod; she likewise punctually observes the decree to worship images. Like the Armenians in the fifth century she represents the Holy Trinity by images, the Father, in the form of an old man, the Son like a young man, and the Holy Ghost like a dove. She conducts in this manner also toward the saints; her temples, cities and streets are full of the images of the saints; are they men she decks them like worldlings; are they women, she be dizens them, as if they were of the most wanton sort, and she acts thus especially with the images of Mary; they kiss the images, they burn incense to them, they bow themselves down to them, and mutter their prayers before them. Yea, this new Babylon, like the old, is "a land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols," as the Lord speaks, Jer. 1. 38.

But we oppose such a conduct with this second commandment, which strictly forbids such making of images, bowing of ourselves to them, and serving of them. Hear how Moses explains it, when he saith to all Israel, Deut iv. 15-18. "Take ye therefore good heed to yourselves, (for ye saw no manner of similitude in the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb, out of the fire) lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make yourselves a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, the likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth." The Papists, like the heathens, "professing themselves to be wise, have become fools, since they have changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image, made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things," Rom. i. 22, 23. How can

we indeed represent that purely spiritual, infinite and invisible Being by images? Can he be expressed by the image of an old man, of a young man, and of a dove? no: "to whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare to him?" so we ask with the prophet, Isaiah xl. 18. "Who, or what" is like him? None, according to Jer. x. 6. And although there were no other evil in making an image of God, than that it causeth the rational creature to form a mistaken idea of God, and unfits him for contemplating God in Spirit and in truth, it ought nevertheless to be utterly detested. It doth not surely help the Papists, that God exhibited such tokens of his presence sometimes, Dan. vii. 13, Matt. iii, 16, 17. But where have we either a command of God, or an example of the saints to warrant a delineating of God after those tokens ?

But may we not make images of Christ and the saints, who conversed on earth in bodies, capable of being represented by images? But who among the makers of images hath ever seen them? who can tell us that the images, which men make now of Christ and of his saints, are like them, and not like others? hath any one informed them, that Christ was of a middle stature, neither too tall nor too short, of a fair and ruddy complexion, and that his hair was light, and dangled upon his shoulders in curls? he hath never seen Christ, but bath vainly depicted him thus in his own brain. If it were even so, that the makers of images had seen him and his saints, what need would there be that we should make images of them? ought not God's image of his Son, depictured in the gospel and in believers to suffice us? can we delineate the saints better to ourselves than by imitating their virtues? have the saints ever represented other saints to themselves by images? It is a mere fable, that Christ, when going to Golgotha, expressed the form of his countenance in the handkerchief of Veronica, (for that handkerchief is shown both at Rome and in Spain.) But that which presses the Papists here, is that they will worship the human nature of Christ, and the saints, which we have refuted before, and therefore they imagine that they ought to make images of them, that they may worship those images also.

The Papists transgress still more heinously by bowing down to those images, and serving them, yea, worshipping them. "We must worship and serve God only," as Jesus commands, Matt, iv. 10. Do the images know our wants? can they help us? are they not mere lifeless and irrational works? can they make, clothe, or keep themselves from being spoiled or robbed ? shall a man bow himself down to what his fingers have made? what difference will

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there then be between the imageworship of Jews and Gentiles, and the imageworship of Christians? yea, doth not the worshipper of images make himself like his images? let the worshippers of images hear how they are derided, Psalm cxv. 4-8.

The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not; hands have they, but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them" The epistle ascribed to Jeremiah, among the apocryphal books, at the end of the larger bibles, is worthy of a repeated perusal, that we may see the vanity of image-worship pourtrayed in the most lively colours.

We have refuted on the foregoing Lord's day, (a) the opinion that this prohibition of imageworship is the same with the first commandment, which forbids idolatry. And although it were even so, as the Romanists assert they do still commit idolatry with the images, which they say are forbidden in this commandment. (b) The Papists manifest their folly, when they say that this relates only to the Jews, who were inclined to idolatry, in consequence of their sojourning in Egypt; doth it not then relate to the Romanists also, who are not less inclined to idolatry than the Jews were? the law, and the reasons with which it is enforced, are universal, and reach to every person, who is subject to God, as a Lawgiver. This prohibition flows from the spiritual nature of God, which cannot be depicted, and it pertains thus to every man; and therefore Paul proves against the heathens, Acts xvii. 22, 29, " that we ought not to think that the Godhead is like gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device, because we are the offspring of God." Is not this argument as forcible against the images of the Papists, as against those of the heathens? Those among the heathens, who followed their natural principles would not suffer any images. I should be too prolix, if I should relate with others what many ancient writers of the heathens say of these things, and how many nations worshipped their gods without images. Or hath God forbidden only idolatrous images, and not images of himself and of his saints? but God doth not except any kind of images: "Thou shalt not make

The Apocryphal books are placed at the end of the Dutch bibles, and not in the middle, as is usual in the English bibles. In these different arrange ments the Dutch have consulted dignity, and the English method.