Sermons upon Deuteronomy

And therewithal let us also behold mens madness. Is it in mans power (as saith the prophet Isaiah) to take a log of wood,¹ and with part thereof to go heat his oven, or to seethe flesh in a pot, or to bake his bread, or to warm himself: and to take another part of it, and to fashion a nose and ears upon it, and to say unto it: Thou art my God, and thereupon to worship it? Now when men make Gods, that is to say remembrances or representations of §10God, at their own pleasure, because the list to put a difference between two or three pieces of wood [to prefer one before another,] and say, behold, this is GOD: is it not too great a beastliness? yes, and the very heathen men themselves have affirmed it, as I have declared. Behold, a Paynim, a blind wretch that was before the coming of Jesus Christ, saith: Since the time that images came into the world,² there hath bin nothing but error,³ and it hath bin §20the mean to make men brute beasts, and to turn them away from the truth. Seeing that even blind men knew this, or rather that God did cast forth those words by their mouth: is it not a horrible condemnation to such as term themselves Christians, if they take not heed to it? Another heathen man bringeth in an idol speaking thus:⁴ The Carpenter or Carver (saith he) was in doubt what to make of me:⁵ in the end he thought best to make me §30a God, and so am I now worshipped. See how this blind wretch scoffeth at the beastliness that was among men, and yet he himself ceased not to worship idols still. But what? God wrested this acknowledgement from him by force, to the end that all mankind should be condemned, and that there should be no more excuse. But as for us, we will vaunt our selves to be taught by Gods word: and yet we will not know so much as the silly infidels have §40