aking the sacred sacramental signs to be no otherwise
present than the walls of the church, the nails and timber of the material
table whereupon the elements are set, or anything else accidentally before
the communicants. But, 2. Put the case, they did make the elements only
active objects of worship when they kneel in the act of receiving them.
What! Do some Papists make more of their images when they worship before
them? They hold, as the Archbishop of Spalato noteth,(699) that _Imago est
medium duntaxat seu instrumentum quo exemplar occurrit suo honoratori,
cultori, adoratori: imago excitat tantummodo memoriam, ut in exemplar
feratur_. Will we have them to speak for themselves? Suarez will have
_Imagines esse occasiones vel signa excitantia hominem ad adorandum
prototype_.(700) Friar Pedro de Cabrera,(701) a Spaniard, taketh the
opinion of Durand and his followers to be this: That images are adored
only improperly, because they put men in mind of the persons represented
by them; and he reasoneth against them thus: "If images were only to be
worshipped by way of rememoration and recordation, because they make us
remember the samplers which we do so worship as if they had been then
present, it would follow that all creatures should be adored with the same
adoration wherewith we worship God, seeing all of them do lead us unto the
knowledge and remembrance of God." Whereby it is evident, that in the
opinion of Durand,(702) and those who are of his mind, images are but
active objects of adoration. Lastly, what saith Becane the Jesuit?(703)
_Imago autem Christi non est occasio idololatriae apud nos catholicos, quia
non alium ob finem eam retinemus, quam ut nobis Christum salvatorem, et
beneficia ejus representet._ More particularly he will have the image of
Christ honoured for two reasons. 1. _Quia honor qui exhibetur imagini,
redundat in eum cujus est imago._ 2. _Quia illud in pretio haberi potest,
quod per se revocat nobis in memoriam beneficia Dei, et est occasio ut pro
eis acceptis grati existamus. At imago Christi per se revocat nobis in
memoriam beneficium nostrae redemptionis_, &c. That for this respect the
image of Christ is honoured, he confirmed by this simile: _Quia ob eandem
causam apud nos in pretio ac honore sunt sacra Biblia, itemque festa
paschatis, pentecostes, nativitatis, et passionis Christi_. What higher
account is here made of images than to be active objects of worship? For
even whilst it is said that t