IMAGE WORSHIP. 



human mind is more apt to indulge, than to en 

 deavour to bring the invisible Divinity within 

 the range of our senses, and to contemplate him 

 as such a one as ourse.ves. The necessity of 

 this injunction, its reasonableness, and the folly 

 and absurdity of the practice against which it is 

 directed, will appear from the following consider 

 ations. 



The Divine Being fills the immensity of space 

 with his presence, and to his essence we can set 

 no bounds. He inhabited eternity, before the 

 earth or the heavens were brought into existence, 

 rejoicing in the contemplation of his own excel 

 lences, and in the future effects of his power and 

 benevolence. He is a spiritual uncompounded 

 substance, and consequently invisible to mortal 

 eyes, and impalpable to every other organ of 

 sensation. His omnipotence neither man nor 

 angel can scan, nor can they explore the depths 

 of his wisdom and intelligence. When universal 

 silence and solitude reigned throughout the in 

 finite void when not a sound was heard nor an 

 object seen within the immeasurable extent of 

 boundless space at his command, worlds, nume 

 rous as the sand, started into being. Thousands 

 of suns diffused their splendours through the re 

 gions of immensity ; the ponderous masses of 

 the planetary globes were launched into existence, 

 and impelled in their rapid courses through the 

 sky ; their surfaces were adorned with resplen 

 dent beauties, and replenished with myriads of 

 delighted inhabitants. The seraphim and the 

 cherubim began to chant their hymns of praise, 

 and &quot; shouted for joy&quot; when they beheld new 

 worlds emerging from the voids of space. Life, 

 motion, activity, beauty, grandeur, splendid illu 

 mination, and rapturous joy, among unnumbered 

 intelligences, burst upon the view, where a little 

 before nothing appeared but one immense, dark, 

 and cheerless void. And ever since duration 

 began to be measured, either in heaven or on 

 earth, by the revolutions of celestial orbs, the 

 same omnipotent energy has been incessantly 

 exerted in directing the movements of all worlds 

 and systems, and in upholding them in their 

 vast career. Of a being invested with attributes 

 so glorious and incomprehensible, with power 

 so astonishing in its effects, with goodness so 

 boundless, and with wisdom so unsearchable, 

 what image or representation can possibly be 

 formed which will not tend to contract our con 

 ceptions, and to debase the character of the infi 

 nite and eternal Mind ! &quot; To whom will ye 

 liken ne, or shall I be equal, saith the HOLT 

 ONE.&quot; 



When a person of dignity and of respectability 

 of character is caricatured, and associated with 

 objects and circumstances that are mean, ridicu 

 lous, and grotesque, it has a tendency to degrade 

 his character, and to lessen our veneration. For 

 the respect we entertain for any individual is 

 founded on the view we take of him in all the 



aspects in which he may be contemplated. For 

 a similar reason, every attempt to represent the 

 Divine Majesty by sensible images, must have a 

 tendency to narrow our conceptions of his glory, 

 to debase his character, and to lessen our reve 

 rence and esteem. What possible similitude 

 can there be between that mighty being, who by 

 his word lighted up the sun, and diffused ten 

 thousands of such immense luminaries through 

 the regions of creation, whose hand wields the 

 planets, and rolls them through the tracts of 

 immensity ; between him who &quot; meteth out the 

 heavens with a span, and holds the ocean in the 

 hollow of his hand,&quot; and the most resplendent 

 image that was ever formed by human hands ! 

 Even the sun himself, with all his immensity of 

 splendour, although our minds were expanded to 

 comprehend his vast magnificence, would form 

 but a poor and pitiful image of Him, whose 

 breath has kindled ten thousand times ten thou 

 sand suns. How much less can a block of mar 

 ble or a stupid ox adumbrate the glories of the 

 King eternal, immortal, and invisible ! It will 

 doubtless redound to the eternal disgrace of the 

 human character, in every region of the universe 

 where it is known, that ever such an impious 

 attempt was made by the inhabitants of our de 

 generate world, as to compare the glory of the 

 incorruptible God to an image made like to cor 

 ruptible man. Wherever such attempts have 

 been made, there we behold human nature in its 

 lowest state of debasement ; the intellectual 

 faculties darkened, bewildered, and degraded ; 

 the moral powers perverted and depraved ; gro 

 velling affections predominating over the dictates 

 of reason, and diabolical passions raging without 

 control. Hence, too, the debasing tendency of 

 all those attempts which have been made to 

 introduce into the Christian church, pictures and 

 images, to represent &quot; The invisible things of 

 God,&quot; and the sufferings of the Redeemer. For, 

 wherever such practices prevail, the minds of 

 men will generally be found to entertain the 

 grossest conceptions of the Divine Being, and of 

 the solemn realities of religion. 



But the principal reason why any representa 

 tion of God is expressly forbidden in this com 

 mandment, is, that whenever such a practice 

 commences, it infallibly ends in adoring the 

 image itself, instead of the object it was intended 

 to represent. Or, in other words, the breach of 

 this commandment necessarily and uniformly 

 leads to a breach of the first. Notwithstanding 

 the shock which the human mind appears to have 

 received by the fall, it is altogether inconceivable, 

 that any tribe of mankind should have been so 

 debased and brutalized, as, in the first instance^ 

 to mistake a crocodile, or the stump of a tree, 

 however beautifully carved, for the Creator of 

 he.iven and earth. Such objects appear to have 

 been first used as symbols or representations of 

 the Deity, in order to assist the mind in forming 



