pent that Moses had made : for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it.”—3 Kings, vi. 29. “ And Solomon carved all the walls of the Temple round about with carved figures of Cherubim and palm-trees, and open flowers within and without."-32. “The two doors also were of olive-tree; and he carved upon them the figures of Cherubim and palm-trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold.”—Ibid. vii. 23. “ And he made a molten sea.”—25.“ And it stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three toward the west, and three toward the south, and three toward the east."-29. “ And on the borders that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and Cherubim."
These various figures were made by the express command or sanction of God, given to Moses and Solomon, and dedicated to religious purposes, after the prohibition so distinctly marked in the first Commandment. (Exod. xx. 4, 5.)“ Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth : thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them.”
FATHERS.
It cannot be necessary, that, on this subject, I should adduce any authorities from the Fathers, which would prove that, in the early ages, particularly from the time of Constantine, painted representations of mysterious facts, of the lives of the Saints, were exhibited in the places of public worship. They were designed for ornament, but more for instruction, that the unlearned particularly might read in them the mysteries of man's redemption, and while they contemplated, as painted on the walls, the sufferings and deaths of the Martyrs, they might be excited to an imitation of their constancy in the cause of truth.
