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which yet ought not to be done.

And the words of the

reasons above alleged out of the Scriptures are, that images neither ought, nor can be made unto God. Wherefore to reply, that images of Christ may be made, except withal it be proved that it is lawful for them to be made, is, rather than to hold one's peace,-to say somewhat, but nothing to the purpose. And yet it appeareth that no image can be made of Christ, but a lying image as the Scripture peculiarly calleth images lies, for Christ is God and man; and as of the Godhead, which is the most excellent part, no image can be made, it is falsely called the image of Christ. Wherefore images of Christ be not only defects, but also lies. Which reason serveth also for saints,-whose souls, the most excellent parts of them, cannot be represented and expressed by images; wherefore they be no images of saints which as yet lie putrified in the grave. Furthermore, no true image can be made of Christ's body; for it is unknown now of what form or countenance He was; and there be in Greece and at Rome, and in other places, divers images of Christ, and none of them like one another, and yet every one of them affirmeth, that theirs is the true and lively image of Christ; which cannot possibly be. Wherefore as soon as an image of Christ is made, by and by is a lie made of Him. Which also is true of the images of any saints of antiquity; wherefore seeing that religion ought to be grounded upon truth, images which cannot be without lies, ought not to be made or put to any religious use, or placed in Churches and Temples. And thus much is plain, that no true image of God, our Saviour Christ or His saints, can be made; which fully confutes the allegation that images are laymen's books; for it is evident from all now said, that they teach nothing of God, our

Saviour Christ, or His saints, but lies and errors, wherefore, either they be no books, or if they be, they are false and lying books, and the teachers of errors, not of truth.

And now if it should be admitted and granted, that an image of Christ could truly be made, yet is it unlawful that it should be made to be set up in Churches or Temples, for the words of scripture are plain, which, saith Leviticus xxvi. 1," Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall you set up any image of stone in your land to bow down to it: for I am the Lord your God —and is not that which is written in the beginning of the Lord's most holy law, and daily read to you, most evident also? "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down to them nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation." Could more be forbidden or said than this; either of the kinds of images, or of the things whereof images are not to be made? are not all things either in heaven, on the earth, or in the water under the earth? And be not our images of Christ and His saints, likenesses of things in heaven and earth ?—If they continue in their former answer, that these prohibitions concern the idols of the Gentiles, and not our images; that answer is already confuted in what has been said concerning the images of God and the Trinity. And that images were not used at all in the primitive Church is plain from the writings of Origen, Cyprian and Arnobius, who testify that the Christians were sore charged and

complained of, because they had no altars nor images. If they had taken it to be lawful by God's word to have images, wherefore did they not conform themselves to the Gentiles in making of images, rather than sustain their heavy displeasure? It is evident therefore that they took all images to be unlawful in the Church or Temple of God, and consequently had none; following the rule that we must obey God rather than men. And Zephyrus, in his notes upon the Apology of Tertullian says, that all his vehement persuasion should be but cold, except we know that Christian men in his time did much hate images with their ornaments. And Irenæus reproved the heretics called Gnostici, because they carried about the image of Christ: so that it is declared by God's word, the sentences of the Doctors and the judgment of the primitive Church, which was most pure and sincere, that all images, as well ours as the idols of the Gentiles, are forbidden in Scripture, and therefore unlawful, especially in Temples or Churches.

We have omitted in this series of Essays one on the Scripture testimony against idolatry, which testimony is in a measure given in the remaining Essays; and another on the history of the introduction of idolatry, which though containing much interesting detail, would not, we found, bear comparison with the more exact researches of modern histories. Those of our readers who seek information on this subject, may find it in the Homily on Idolatry, from which these Essays are chiefly taken, which they may compare for themselves with the clear and graphic, though scornful picture given by Gibbon, in the first half of his 49th chapter, or with the details in Mr. Elliott's Horæ Apocalyptica, Vol. II. Part III. ch. 7. Sec. ii.-ED.

THE TWO BROTHERS.

ARE the embers smouldering, brother? Think not to revive their light.

Brother, I've a tale to tell thee I can better tell at night:

And their faint dun glow will glimmer till perchance my tale is done.

List!—that dull and heavy sound-it is the churchbell pealing one.'

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Strangely thro' the sere elm-forests come the fitful gusts of wind,

Strangely on the casement beats the hollow drifting rain behind;

Night broods round, a wall of darkness, such as moonbeams cannot scale,

And the blessed stars are blunted like a shaft from coat of mail.

Thirteen summers have waved round us, thirteen winters shower'd their snows,

Thirteen springs danced by, and thirteen autumns pass'd like music's close,

Since I witness'd gloom like this, wherein the stoutest heart would melt :

Thick close darkness on our eyelids weighing, darkness that is felt.

Oh, the memory of that midnight spectre-like within me sleeps ;

If I only gaze it rises dimly from my spirit's deeps

Rises with the sere elm forests struck by fitful gusts of

wind,

And the hollow drifting raindrops on that casement close behind :

Every wind-moan finds an echo in my moaning heart within,

And the rain is not as dewdrops to a soul once scarr❜d with sin.

Brother, thou wert ever to me, as a young and golden mist

Floating thro' blue liquid heavens, with the morning sunlight kiss'd;

Which the eye looks up and blesses, lingering on its track above,

With an old familiar fondness and an earnestness of

love.

Brother, I to thee was ever as a storm-cloud on the hills,

Lowering o'er the rocks and caverns and the laughter of the rills:

Yes, I've thought at times, my brother, from the sunshine of thy life,

Passing rainbow gleams have fallen on my spirit-world of strife:

For, when every fount was wormwood, every star had ceased to shine,

It was bliss in dreams to ponder how unlike thy lot to mine.

Yet in childhood I remember how our sainted mother

said,

Often on bright Sabbath eves, and thrice upon her dying bed,

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