What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?
Ver. 18. What profiteth the graven image] The Chaldees promised themselves much help against their enemies from their idols; and were ready to say, as that Roman emperor, Antoninus, the philosopher, did, when he was to meet his enemy, Non sic deos coluimus, ut ille nos vinceret: We have not so served the gods as that he should overcome us. The prophet here rejecteth their confidence, and layeth open their folly. See the like Jeremiah 10:8; Jer 10:14-15 Zec 10:2 Isaiah 44:16,17, &c. Confer Jeremiah 51:47; Jeremiah 51:52 Ezekiel 20:30; Ezekiel 20:32 .
That the maker thereof hath graven it] And can he hope for help from the work of his own hands? can the image give that to others which it hath not for itself? In Henry VIII's time one Mr Cotismore was accused of heresy, for saying that images were but carpenter's chips; and that when men go to offer to them, they did it to show their new gear. The men of Cockram, not pleased with their new rood, quarrelled with the joiner, and refused to pay him; he complained to the mayor of Doncaster, who gave them this counsel: Pay the poor man his money, and go your ways home, and look on it, and if it will not serve for a god, make no more ado, but clap a pair of horns on his head, and so he will make an excellent devil. This the parishioners took well in worth; the poor man had his money, and various laughed well at itt; but so did not the Babylonish priests, saith Mr Fox. Horace brings in Priapus, that ridiculous garden god, saying thus,
“ Olim truncus cram ficulnus, &c. ”
He thought no otherwise of the images of Jupiter, and the rest; but durst not say so, for fear of the people. So that of him it might be said, as Augustine doth of Seneca, who wrote a book against superstitions, but colebat quod reprehendebat, agebat quod arguebat, quod culpabat, adorabat, he reproved them, but yet used them (De Civ. Dei, lib. 6. c. 10).
The molten image, and a teacher of lies] Pictura falsa veritas est, saith one. It is but a shadow of the person that it representeth. God cannot be pictured or expressed by any image. Images of Christ are not only defects, but also lies, saith the homily against peril of idolatry, set forth in Queen Elizabeth's days. Irenseus reproveth the Gnostics for carrying about the images of Christ, made in Pilate's time, after his own proportion. Lactantius saith that there is no religion where there is an image. Varro had said the same long before him, as Austin reciteth him. Plutarch saith it is sacrilege to worship by images, and telleth us that Numa forbad the Romans the use of images in temples; neither had they any for the first 170 years together; no more had the Persians, saith Strabo, nor the old Germans, saith Tacitus. The old Britons indeed had their idols, Portenta diabolica (so Gildas calleth them), pene numero Aegyptiaca vincentia, ugly for shape, and almost as many as the Egyptians for number. These all fell down together, when Christ was first known here (as they say the Egyptian idols did, when Christ with his parents fled thither, for fear of Herod), but antichrist soon set up others in their stead, and taught the people that they were laymen's books. But if they be lying teachers (as here they are called) they must be lying books too; and therefore not to be read by any that would receive the love of the truth, that they may be saved. Bern, in Switzerland, was the first town that, after the Reformation, was purged of images; making a bonfire of them on an Ash Wednesday. The like was done here in England, in King Edward VI's reign, on that very day wherein the victory was gotten at Mussleborough, in Scotland; and now I hope we are rid of them for ever. The Turks will not endure them, no, not upon their coins; because of the second commandment; for they also do so honour piece of paper wherein anything of his is written, and do exceedingly hate Papists for their abominable idolatry; as do likewise the Jews.
That the maker of his work trusteth therein] Which he would never do, if not bewitched and bereft of his right mind. To trust in a god of a man's own making is a prodigious error, a stupendous stupidity.
To make dumb idols] In the Hebrew there is an elegant alliteration, Elilim illemim, speechless, No-gods, that give no answer to their suitors, and
“ quorum sunt numina nomina tantum. ”