Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	bishop_n	church_n	primitive_a	2,286	5	9.3719	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93560	A treatise against images and pictures in churches. And an answer to those who object that the times are changed. Written by George Salteren, Esquire.	Salteren, George.	1641 (1641)	Wing S468; Thomason E163_8; ESTC R431	18,372	39

A TREATISE against IMAGES and PICTURES in Churches And an Answer to those who object that the times are changed Written by George Salteren Esquire LONDON Printed for William Lee and are to be sold at the signe of the Turks head in Fleet-street 1641. A TREATISE against IMAGES and PICTURS in Churches And an Answer to those who object that the Times are changed THe old Serpent the father of lies is still the same he is full of inventions and devises to draw men from god and to bring them to destruction And the wicked heart of man is still like it selfe apt to apprehend whatsoever that Serpent suggesteth so it be pleasing to their depraved dispositions and corrupt affections Although it bee most cleare and evident that the setting up of the pictures of Saints in Churches is 1. no way warranted by the word of God 2. but severely prohibited and condemned 3. And therefore justly accursed by our common prayers 4. And so declared by the doctrine of our Church in the Homilies yet he hath found a shift to say that the Homilies were made for those times namely for the beginning of the Reformation and therefore the more severe but now the times are changed and a milder course is taken As if the whole Authority condemning these vanities and abominations depended only upon the Homilies and not upon the eternall and immurable truth of Gods holy Word and Commandement Let us not deceive our selves for the neglect of Gods Commandements which the Prophet Samuel calleth Rebellion is as the sinne of witchcraft apt to delude and blinde us But they that look into the cleare light of Gods word doe know that the negative precepts of Gods Law Obligant semper ad semper as our Church and all our godly and reverend Bishops and learned Divines in their books allowed authorised and published have taught us These books also agree with the doctrine of the Homilies that the words of Gods Law are to be taken by a Senechdoche speciei pro genere according to the doctrine of our Saviour Mat. 5. And the rules thereupon collected by the learned fathers of the Primitive Church Augustine Isidor c. And therefore the word graven Images must be extended to all Images whether molten carved or painted the word similitude to all kindes of similitude though but in conceit and the word thou shalt not worship nor bow downe to them to all kindes of worship though it bee but setting them in honorabili loco as our Homilies speake out of Saint Augustine And this hath been taught us for truth now almost these 80 yeares together And this truth is not made more strong but more cleare and evident to us by the constant expositions of godly men both before and since the making of the Homilies Vox populi Dei vox Dei est praxis Sanctorum interpres praeceptorum which yet is more manifest by the Lawes Ordinances Canons and Constitutions both Ecclesiasticall and Politick as well consequent as concurrent and by the continuance and renewed confirmations of the Articles and book of Common prayers without alteration or qualification in this point and lastly by the absurdities of the Consequents that must bee inferred upon this new conceit of the change of times For what will or can they say If wee demand when this change was made by whom and by what authority wherein how declared and how accepted was the doctrine of the Homilies true then and is it not so now or was the sense and meaning of the Law of God so then and it is not so now Is the truth of the eternall God mutable and temporary Are Gods Lawes subject to times Or is it not a meere non-sense or contradiction to say that Gods Law was once so to be understood but not so now Why then is the fact and judgement of that learned and godly Bishop Epiphanius together with the consent of S. Hierom. S. Augustine S. Ambrose the Elibertin Councell and all the Primitive Church the Councell of Constantinople the excellent godly Bishops Serenius Nassitiensis Claudius Thaurinensis Guilielmus Miniatensis whereof some with their hands and all with their writings and authority did teare and break downe Pictures and Images of Saints Why are they so highly commended and approved therein by our late godly and learned Bishops and Doctors Iewell of Sarum Hall of Exon. usher of Armagh Peter Martyr Mr. Perkins Doctor Iames Doctor Mayor the Catechist and others some of which books were new printed and set forth within these five yeares last past together with that excellent book of Martyrs ordeined to be set open for every man to read in all Cathedrall Churches and Bishops houses I demand therefore when this change was made that they pretend was it within these three yeares or two or one I demand also by whom or by whose authority For it is manifest and knowne to all the world that the most blessed Queen Elizabeth made none but constantly kept her selfe to her word semper eadem Our most noble and learned king Iames made none but by his Proclamation prefixed before the Common prayerbooke and every yeare new printed most straitly prohibited all Innovations Neither hath our most gratious and pious King Charles made any but by his Declaration before the Articles most severely forbiddeth all alterations and that also within these five yeares Who then are these that will have an Alteration or Innovation And by whose authority or by what meanes have they changed the times Thirdly how hath this change been made instituted or accepted For Leges instituuntur cum promulgantur confirmantur cum moribus utentium approbantur Lawes are then instituted when they are proclaimed and are confirmed when they are observed in the lives of the subjects What hath been done in this kinde Doe they think that Gods Lawes can bee altered by humane inventions or that Lawes once by supreme authority and publick consent made and approved can without equall authority and consent be altered and changed by the conceits of private men If they may by this trick shift off the doctrine of one Homily why not of all the rest why not of the Homily of reading the word of God of Faith of Repentance of Christian love and Charity of good works of Prayers of repairing Churches and lastly also those most godly Homilies of obedience and against disobedience and Rebellion and so set every mans conscience at liberty Yea why may they not proceed from the Homilies and by the same reason reverse also the consecrations of our Bishops and ordinations of our Ministers and all the Articles Canons and Constitutions Lawes and Statutes aswell of the Church as of the State and so bring all to confusion For if one Homily that hath been now these 80. yeares almost approved and by so many Canons and constitutions may now so easily be rejected and annulled why not all the rest If one Article may be so vacated why not all And if this setting

Agent but many times the consequent of the Act as in that of our Saviour Christ Matth. 5. He that looketh on a woman to lust c. The meaning is not only with an intention to lust but to look so as lust doth follow Whereupon our Saviour addeth If thine eye cause thee to offend pluck it out c. And Saint Paul putteth the case that some may bee provoked to offend by seeing a man eat a thing offered to an Idoll and although he granteth that meat is a thing indifferent yet hee addeth If meat make my brother to offend I will eat no meat while the world standeth 1 Cor. 8. So here the consequent is to be avoyded The second ex consequentia suppositi For where the second Commandement is Thou shalt make no Image c. Hee that will adde this clause to the intent to worship it doth utterly evacuate and overthrow the judiciall part of the Commandement For it is manifest by Deut. 12. and 13. and many other places of Scripture that God ordained this Law to bee a Judiciall Law and the offenders to bee punished by the Magistrate which is not possible if it be restrained to the intent for de occultis cordium Indicabit Christus sayth the Apostle 1 Cor. 4. cogitationis poenam nemo patitur sayth the Law As if a man should stab another and yet say he meant not to kill him or as if one should lie with another mans wife and yet say he did it not to the intent to commit Adultery will this excuse him Is it not an absurd thing to conster a Law according to the conceit of an offender and not according to the sentence of the Judge or Judiciall Interpreters So we have seene before that the learned Divines both of the Primitive Church and of our own present Church doe agree in this that colit qui facit colit qui locat in honorabili sublimitate hee worshippeth them who maketh them he worshippeth them who setteth them in an high place of honour Never regarding the intent and that to set up an Image aloft in the Church with what intent soever is not onely against this precept Thou shalt not make any Image but against this also Thou shalt not bow downe nor worship it The third ex sensu mandati for it is answered also by our Learned Catechismes that in the commandements one sinne is put commonly for all of the same ranke yea for all instruments occasions per Synechdochen speciei And this prohibition of making Images was as Tertull. sayth ad eradicandam materiam Idololatriae to subvert the causes of Idolatry Also commonly the greatest sinne is named to make all the rest more odious Therefore this word to worship it is not put to restraine but to aggravate Let us now therefore come to another point of Tertullians exposition and see how that also is confirmed both by the Ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church and by the now reverend Fathers of our Church Colit qui patitur quaedam patientia est Idololatria he worships them that permits them some kinde of permission is Idolatry sayth he Hom. 2. against Idol pa. 22. Epiphanius Bishop of Salanim in Cyprus a very holy and learned man who lived in Theodosius the Emperours time vriteth thus to Iohn Patriarch of Jerusalem I entred sayth Epiphanius into a certaine Church to pray I found there in it a linnen-cloth hanging in the Church doore painted and having in it the Image of Christ as it were or of some other Saint for I remember not well whose Image it was Therefore when I did see the Image of a man hanging in the Church of Christ contrary to the authority of the Scriptures I did teare it and gave counsell to the Keepers of the Church that they should winde a poore man that was dead in the sayd cloth and so bury him And afterwards the sayd Epiphanius sending another cloth unpainted for that painted one which he had torne to the said Patriarch writeth thus I pray you will the Elders of that place to receive this cloth which I have sent by this bearer and command them that from henceforth no such painted clothes contrary to our Religion be hanged up in the Church of Christ And this Epistle as worthy to be read of many did Saint Hierom himselfe translate into the Latin tongue sayth our Church in the Homily adding further certain proofes that S. Hierom had this holy and learned Bishop Epiphanius in most high estimation and therefore did translate this Epistle as a writing of Authority And thereupon observeth these speciall points First that Epiphanius judged it contrary to Christian Religion and to the Authority of the Scriptures to have any Images in Christs Church Secondly that he rejected not onely carved graven and moulten Images but also painted Images out of Christs Church Thirdly that he regarded not whether it were the Image of Christ or of any other Saint but being an Image would not suffer it in the Church Fourthly that he did not only remove it out of the Church but with a vehement zeale tare it in sunder and exhorted that a Corse should be wrapped and buried in it judging it meet for nothing but to rot in the Earth Thus doth our Church and all our Reverend Bishops not only allow the judgement but commend the fact and zeale of Epiphanius And the same points were observed upon this Epistle of Epiphanius by our godly and learned Bishops in the time of King Edward in their reasons exhibited to the said King to shew why they would not agree to suffer Images in Churches as appeareth in the book of Martyrs pag. 1929. a book allowed by all our Bishops and Church and lately new Printed and set forth this last yeere and appointed by our Canons to to be set up in all our Cathedrall Churches for every man to read that Will. Hom. 3. against Idols pag. 61. Suffer Images to bee set up in the Churches and Temples yee shall in vaine bid them beware of Images as S. Iohn doth and flee Idolatry as all the Scripture warne us yee shall in vaine preach and teach them against Idolatry for a number will notwithstanding fall headlong into it what by the nature of Images what by the inclination of their owne corrupt nature Wherefore as a man given to lust to sit downe by a strumpet is to tempt God so it is likewise to erect an Idoll in this pronenesse of mans nature to Idolatry nothing else but a tempting c. What S. Augustines opinion is appeareth before Quis adorat vel orat intuens simulacrum c. Who worshippeth or prayeth looking upon an Image and is not perswaded in minde that the Image heareth him Hom. 3. against Idols pag. 49. What meaneth it that Christian men after the use of the Gentile Idolaters cap and kneele before Images infra is not this stooping and kneeling before them adoration of them Chemnic in exam Deus usum