A vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat lux

or Peter, he hath no ground to imagine, but what is suggested unto him by his imagination, directed by the circumstances of its place and Title. When Clodius had thrust Cicero into banishment to do him the greater spite, he demolished his house, and dedicated it as a devoted place to their Gods, setting up in it the image of the Goddess Libertas. The Orator upon his return in his Oration ad Pontifices for the recovery of his house to overthrow this pretended dedication and devotion of it, pleads two things, first that the Image pretended by Clodius to be the Image of Libertas, was indeed the Image of a famous or rather infamous whore that lived at Tanager; had this dedication passed, I wonder how this Image could have any relation unto Libertas, but by virtue of the imagination of its worshippers when in very deed it was the Image of a Tangraean whore; And ⟨p. 522⟩the same Orator tells us of a famous Painter who making the picture of Venus and her Companions for their Temples; still drew them by some Strumpet or other that he kept company withal. And whither you have no• been so imposed upon sometimes or no, I very much question. In which Case nothing but your imagination can free you from the worship of a quean, when you aim your devotion another way; Again he pleads, that the dedication of that Image was not regularly religious, nor according to that institution which they esteemed Divine; whence no sacredness in it could ensue; and want of institution which may be so esteemed, is that also which we object against your dedication of Images. For besides a relation to this or that Individual person, which as I have showed, the most of your Images have not, but what in your fancy you give unto them, which is natural or Civil; you fancy also a religious relation, a sacred conjunction between the Image and Prototype, so that the worship yielded to the one should redound to the other in a religious way. And this, I say, is also the product of your own fancy. If it be not, I pray, will you assign some other cause of it:

or Peter, he hath no ground to imagine, but what is suggested unto him by his imagination, directed by the circumstances of its place and Title. When Clodius had thrust Cicero into banishment to do him the greater spite, he demolished his house, and dedicated it as a devoted place to their Gods, setting up in it the image of the Goddess Libertas. The Or•tor upon his return in his Oration ad Pontifices for the recovery of his house to overthrow this pretended dedication and devotion of it, pleads two things, first that the Image pretended by Clodius to be the Image of Libertas, was indeed the Image of a famous or rather infamous whore that lived at Tanager; had this dedication passed, I wonder how this Image could have any relation unto Libertas, but by vertue of the imagination of its worshippers when in very deed it was the Image of a Tangraean whore; And