If, again, you object that the great Epiphanius thoroughly rejected images, I would say in the first place the work in question is fictitious and unauthentic. It bears the name of some one who did not write it, which used to be commonly done. Secondly, we know that blessed Athanasius objected to the bodies of saints being put into chests, and that he preferred their burial in the ground, wishing to set at nought the strange custom of the Egyptians, who did not bury their dead under ground, but set them upon beds and couches. Thus, supposing that he really wrote this work, the great Epiphanius, wishing to correct something of the same kind, ordered that images should not be used. The proof that he did not object to images, is to be found in his own church, which is adorned with images to this day. Thirdly, the exception is not a law to the Church, neither does one swallow make summer, as it seems to Gregory the theologian, and to the truth. Neither can one expression overturn the tradition of the whole Church which is spread throughout the world. Accept, therefore, the teaching of Scripture and spiritual writers. If the Scripture _does_ call the idols of heathens silver and gold, and the works of man’s hand, it does not forbid the adoration of inanimate things, or man’s handiwork, but the adoration of demons. We have seen that prophets worshipped angels, and men, and kings, and the impious, and even a staff. David says, ‘And you adore His footstool.’ Isaias, speaking in God’s name, says, ‘The heavens are my throne, and the earth my footstool.’ Now, it is evident to every one that the heavens and the earth are created things. Moses, too, and Aaron with all the people adored the work of hands. St Paul, the golden grasshopper¹⁰ of the Church, says in his Epistle to the Hebrews, ‘But Christ being come, a high priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hand,’ that is ‘not of this creation.’ And, again, ‘For Jesus is not entered into the Holies made by hands, the patterns of the true; but into heaven itself.’ Thus the former holy things, the tabernacle, and everything within it, were made by hands, and no one denies that they were adored. Authentic Testimony of Ancient Fathers in favour of Images. St Denis the Areopagite. From his Letter to Bishop Titus. Instead of attaching the common conception to images, we should look upon what they symbolise, and not despise the divine mark and character which they portray, as sensible images of mysterious and heavenly visions. _Commentary._—Mark that he cautions us not to despise sacred images. The Same, ‘On the Names of God.’