Meditations, Meditation 82
82
The nature of man by the corruption thereof maketh a God of whatsoeuer it listeth. Therefore rightly is Idolatrie by the Apostle, reckoned among the works of the flesh, it being a work to which the flesh is prone. This hath the wicked custome of mankind grossely declared, while some make their wealth a god; some hauehave taken men for gods, as the Barbarians did Paul and Barnabas: and some hauehave made gods for all occasions, as did the Romans. But among the rest, this corruption of the flesh, hath a speciall lust and desire of some glorious and faire image, to make to it selfe a God. And this it doth not, by beleeuing the outward substance, as gold or wood, to be a God of it selfe, but that some diuine spirit inhabiteth and possesseth it, and so maketh it diuine by dwelling in it. This inclination and readinesse of man to idolatrie is expressed often in Scripture Ieremie 10. Ezechiel 16. Iudges 2. Yea, it hath so farre preuailed, that men hauehave beene inflamed with Idols, vnderunder euerie greene tree, burning in lust toward them; yea they hauehave adored and worshipped the very images of their friends which they kept as remembrances of them, Wisd. 13. 10. and more particularly, the image of the serpent which healed them, 2. King. 18. If this was the inclination of mans nature in former times, how can wee but still looke for the same fruites of the same roote? The same corrupt nature, yea worse in these last times still dwelleth in vsus; it is as neere kin to Idols as euer it was, and the diuell rageth more then euer hee did, knowing his time to be short. Therefore if an image was a stumbling blocke, and a teacher of lies, how do they teach the truth, that teach images? Where they are publikely proposed vntounto corrupt and fraile mankinde, yea where they are proposed to be worshipped with the honour due to the patterne, yea where they doe or are said to do great and diuine wonders, what can be looked for, but that the same mankinde which worshipped images in old time, and by that worship were idolaters, will worship images with the same worship now, and now also become idolaters? The same man, the same image, and the same idolatry. But now they are taught not to worship them with diuine worship. And then they were taught by the second commandement, not to worship them at all. Thy proposing of them doth draw men more to them, then thy teaching doth deterre from them. Say what thou wilt, if thou put an image before a man of flesh. Flesh and the image will together commit idolatry. Wilt thou take thy faire wife, and leaue her with a lustfull man, and tell him he shall only passe the time with her in ciuill conference. The Lord of hosts, is as ielous of his spouse, as thou of thy wife; he wil not hauehave temptations set before her, and therefore forbids altogether the making of images for any worship. Besides the ignorant man vnderstands not the difference betweene Dulia and Latria, but falls heartily to his businesse, and thinkes he cannot do it amisse if he do it with all his heart. And if hee did vnderstand it, yet when it doth miracles, how can they not worship it? since euen for that Israel worshipped the serpent, which their story told them to hauehave beene made of Brasse. Therefore let men cease to lay stūbling blocks before the blinde, though they hang vp lanternes by their sides. Let them not ioyne with the diuell to make temptations: yea let them auoide euen images of remembrances in the place of worship, since such hauehave drawne worship aside from God vntounto them: And cursed is hee that maketh the blinde to goe out of the way. Deut. 27.