des Eglises Reformees of Basnage, tom.ii.p.

1310-1337.
He was a Protestant, but of a manly spirit; and on this head the Protestants are so notoriously in the right, that they can venture to be impartial.

See the perplexity of poor Friar Pagi, Critica, tom.i.

p.
42.] The merit and effect of a copy depends on its resemblance with the original; but the primitive Christians were ignorant of the genuine features of the Son of God, his mother, and his apostles: the statue of Christ at Paneas in Palestine [7] was more probably that of some temporal savior; the Gnostics and their profane monuments were reprobated; and the fancy of the Christian artists could only be guided by the clandestine imitation of some heathen model.

In this distress, a bold and dexterous invention assured at once the likeness of the image and the innocence of the worship.