pardon my faults. For this reason I respect and "honour their images, principally because we are "instructed to do so by the tradition of the holy "apostles, and because, far from such images being "prohibited, they appear in our Churches." What more can be desired in favour of our cause, than to find it fixed, in the middle of the fourth century, even on an apostolical tradition, by the most correct theologian of the Greek Church? And yet we are able to refer to witnesses of still greater antiquity.

Far be it from us Christians to adore images as "gods, after the manner of the Greeks. We con"fine ourselves to shewing our affection and love "for the original, the representation of which is

placed before us. Wherefore, when the features "of the image are effaced, we make no difficulty in

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burning as useless the wood, from which it had "been formed." We learn from Pope Damasus, that under the Pontificate of St. Silvester, the Emperor Constantine erected the Basilick bearing his name, and that among the magnificent presents, with which he ornamented this Church, "there was "to be seen the statue of our Saviour worked in "silver, of the weight of a hundred and twenty "pounds, seated on a chair of the same metal, and "five feet in height: the statues also of the twelve "Apostles, each five feet high, and weighing ninety "pounds, &c." Here then we have the statues of our Saviour and his Apostles in the first temple, that the Emperors raised to God. And as for paintings, them we find mentioned in St. Basil, whose apos

1 St. Athanasius, an. 330. Quest. and Rep. to Antiochus, No. 38.-2 An. 320.

trophe to painters I have given before; in the description which Gregory of Nazianzum gives of the Church built by his father; for he there expressly says, that it was ornamented with paintings of workmanship so finished and perfect, that they yielded in nothing to nature: in a description given by Gregory of Nyssa of a Church, in which all the scenes of the protracted martyrdom, endured by Theodorus, were admirably represented; instruments of punishment, tortures, burning furnace, the martyr in the flames, the horrible figures of the tyrants appearing by the light of the flames, and the image of Jesus Christ presiding over the combat of his generous champion, &c.

Tertullian, impelled by the severity of his character to the excesses of the Montanists, reproached the Catholics for granting peace and absolution to adulterers, and for justifying this indulgence from the parable of the good pastor, represented on the chalices. These last words, used accidentally, are become for posterity a ray of light and evidence, They manifestly shew that sacred representations were not unknown to the primitive Church. At a time when she had neither temples, nor fixed places of assembly, it would have been impossible for her to put up images, as she did afterwards: but she had portable ones, attached to the sacred vessels employed in the sacrifice, the only ones which could agree with her situation, then precarious and uncertain. Tertullian again alludes to it in the same work, where he says: "Let us now produce the

'Book on Chastity, c. X.-2 Ib. c. 7.

VOL. II.

2 R

paintings on the chalices." And because at the end of the second century this author speaks of the paintings on the chalices, as of general prevalence, there will certainly be no presumption in referring it to the apostolical ages.

I cannot conclude these quotations without adding a fact, which may gratify your curiosity. Eusebius' relates it in these terms: "It is said that "the woman labouring under a flux of blood, and "miraculously eured by our Saviour, as we read "in the Gospel, was a native of Cesarea-Philippi; "that her house is still shewn there; and that, to 66 perpetuate the remembrance of the benefit she "had received, she had placed before her door, on a pedestal of stone, a brazen statue of a woman

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on her knees, stretching forth her suppliant "hands; near her, another brazen statue of a man "clothed in a long robe, in a standing posture, with 66 one hand extended towards the woman. At the "foot of the man was growing an unknown herb, "which, touching the fringe of his garment, ac“ quired the virtue of healing all sorts of diseases. "It is positively asserted that this statue repre"sented Jesus Christ; and we can testify to its present existence, having seen it with our own eyes in a journey we took to Cesarea. There is nothing surprising in people, who are born among pagans, having raised statues to our Saviour, in "gratitude for the benefit he had conferred upon "them during his life, since we have seen portraits "of the apostles Peter and Paul and of Jesus "Christ, which are still preserved in our days.

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6.6

It

1 Eccles. Hist. B. VII.

"is probably a custom derived from the ancient 66 pagans, who honoured in this manner their bene"factors and protectors." In these cures, we may discover the finger of God, and in this miraculous herb an apology for Christian images, proclaimed by heaven itself. Let us conclude the interesting account of this celebrated monument. It existed entire in the time of Eusebius, who declares that he had seen it. It was destroyed by Julian the apostate, in the manner related by Sozomen, more than a century after Eusebius. Julian the apostate, “having been informed that at Cesarea- Philippi was still preserved the statue that had been raised "to Jesus Christ by the woman healed of the flux "of blood, sent orders to demolish it, and to put "his own in its place. This order was executed. "Butimmediately, fire from heaven struck the statue

of Julian on the breast, and struck off the head ❝and the neck. From that day the fragment has "remained discoloured, as a proof of its having "been struck with lightning. The soldiers of Ju"lian had so violently torn away the statue of "Christ, that it had been broken. But the Chris "tians, having collected the pieces, replaced the "statue in the Church, where it is still preserved."

The modern Iconolasts have but too often renewed the violence of Julian and his satellites, whereas Catholics have always taken pride in prais

1 Whether the cures of this miraculous herb are now-a-days admitted or not, it is most evident, from this account of Eusebius, that they were believed in those primitive times. They were, therefore, persuaded at that time, that heaven did not disapprove indiscriminately of the erection of images.

1 Book V. C. 20.

ing and imitating the zeal and religious respect of the Christian of Cesarea.

Let me, however, caution you Sir, not to imagine that I comprise in the modern Iconolasts all the members of the Protestant religion. The Calvinistic societies, although they have been the most loud in their clamours, and the most violent in their hostility against images, have still furnished apologists for them: and Daillè himself, who has written so much against us on this subject, has not been able to find us deserving of condemnation, except by palming upon us principles which never were ours. When he allows that they entertain for images the same veneration and respect as for the altars, the sacred vessels, and the holy books, without knowing it he is in perfect accordance with us. For we ask for them neither more respect nor veneration. All Lutheranism professes on this question the principles which we all profess. Luther and all his followers have a hundred times refuted the iconomachs, and justified images from the imputation of idolatry, or prevarication against the Decalogue. They have preserved them in their Churches, as monuments calculated to refresh the memory with holy things, and to excite sentiments of piety. "It is very certain that there is no virtue in "images, and therefore that we cannot adore "them nor pray before them, but inasmuch as they

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are a visible means of exciting in us the remem"brance of Christ and heavenly things. And if we "would adore or invoke God before an image, we "must put ourselves in the same disposition, in "which the Israelites were before the brazen ser"pent, beholding it with respect, but placing their "faith not in the serpent, but in God." Do you not