Another Reason, may be the Pride of the human Mind; that is not satisfied with rational plain Truths, but will adulterate them with foolish Imaginations: Hence it was that they would have such Objects of Worship, as might immediately strike their sensible Powers; nothing would serve their Turn but a Divinity visible to the Eye, therefore they brought down the Gods to the Earth, and represented them under certain Images, which by degrees commenced inferior Deities.
The Egyptian Priests not being able to persuade the People, that there were any Gods or Spirits superior to Men, were constrained to call down Demons, or Spirits, and lodge them in Statues, and then bring forth those Statues to be visible Objects of Adoration, and from hence sprung Idolatry.
Among the Pagans were various Opinions about religious Images. Some looked upon them as only Representatives of the true God, as Seneca, a Stoick Philosopher, and Plato a Native of Athens, and a noted Academick.
OTHERS said, they did not adore material Images, but the Gods in them, into which they were drawn by virtue of their Consecration, or, in a more modern Language, their Canonization[[368]].
[368]. Arnobius, lib. vi.
SOME were of Opinion, that after the Consecration of Images, the Gods actually incorporated with them, or were animated by them, as Man’s Body is by the Soul[[369]]. The vulgar Heathen paid their Adoration to Images as if they were real Gods; which monstrous Practice was ridiculed by the most sensible Pagans, as appears farther on[[370]].
[369]. Trismegistus, a learned Egyptian, a great Philosopher, a great Priest, and a great King.
[370]. See Lactantius, lib. ii.
The Use and Worship of Images has been long, and still is controverted. The Lutherans condemn the Calvinists for breaking the Images in the Churches of the Catholicks; and at the same time they condemn the Romanists (who are professed Image-Worshippers) as Idolaters. The modern Jews condemn all Images, and suffer no Pictures or Figures in their Houses, much less in their Synagogues, or Places of Worship.
The Mahometans have a perfect Aversion to all Images. This is it that made them destroy most of the beautiful Monuments of Antiquity, both sacred and profane, at Constantinople.