Fifty Godly and Learned Sermons (The Decades)

Moreover, shall the poor man, that he may have somewhat to set up, choose a tree that is not •otten, and seek out a cunning workman, to carve there out an Image that moveth not? Know ye not this? heard ye never of it? And again, It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the world, whose inhabitants are, in comparison of him, but as Grasshoppers. It is he ⟨p. 120⟩that spreadeth out the heavens like a curtain, he stretcheth them out as a Tent to dwell in: It is he that bringeth princes to nothing, and maketh the judges of the earth as though they were not. To whom now will ye liken me, and to whom shall I be like, saith the holy one. Lift up your eyes on high, and consider who hath made those things, which come out by so great heaps, and he calleth them all by their names. And so forth. Thus much out of Isaiah.

Moreouer, shall the poore man, that he may haue somewhat to set vp, choose a tree that is not •otten, and seeke out a cunning woorkeman, to carue there out an Image that moueth not? Know ye not this? heard ye neuer of it? And again, It is he that sitteth vpon the circle of the worlde, whose inhabitours are, in comparison of him, but as Grashoppers. It is hee ⟨p. 120⟩that spreadeth out the heauens like a curtaine, hee stretcheth them out as a Tent to dwell in: It is he that bringeth princes to nothing, and maketh the iudges of the earth as though they were not. To whome nowe will yee liken mee, and to whome shall I be like, sayth the holy one. Lift vp your eyes on high, and consider who hath made those things, whiche come out by so great heapes, and he calleth them all by their names. And so foorth. Thus much out of Esaias.

Moreover, Paul the Apostle of Christ, disputing at Athens of true religion, saith: God that made the world, and all that therein is, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in Temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with mens hands, as though he needed any thing since he himself giveth life and breath to all and every where, and hath made of one blood all nations of men, to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and also the limits of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might have felt and found him: though he be not far from every one of us. For by him we live, and move, and have our being, as certain of your own Poets have said, For we are also his offspring. For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like to gold, or silver, or stone graven by Art or mans device. These testimonies are so evident, and do so plainly declare that which I purposed, that I need not for the further exposition of them to say any more. They were great causes therefore that moved S. Augustine precisely to pronounce it to be horrible Sacrilege, for any man to place in the Church the image of God the Father, sitting in a throne with bended hams. Because it is detestable for a man so much as to conceive such a likeness in his mind. His very words I have rehearsed in the eight Sermon of my first Decade, where I had occasion to speak of the right hand of the father, and to teach you what it is to sit at the fathers right hand.