Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	law_n	power_n	resist_v	2,109	5	9.2401	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97168	A convocation speech, by Mr. Thomas Warmstry, one of the clerks for the Diocesse of Worcester: against images, altars, crosses, the new canons, and the oath, &c.	Warmstry, Thomas, 1610-1665.	1641 (1641)	Wing W882; Thomason E199_23; ESTC R14000	17,332	25

contemplari velint jam sentiant quod non indigeat lucernis eorum Deus Num igitur mentis suae compos putandus est qui autori datori luminis candelarum cerarum lumen offert pro munere Aliud verò ille à nobis exigit lumen quidem non fumidum sed ut ait Poeta liquidum atque clarum mentis scilicet quod exhibere non potest nisi qui Deum agnoverit Haec est religio coelestis non quae constat ex rebus corruptis sed virtutibus animi qui oritur è coelo Hic verus cultus est in quo mens colentis seipsam Deo immaculatam victimam sistit I wish there may not be so much as an Embleme of a fruitlesse Prelacy or Clergy in the Church that only fill the candlestick but give no light I love ornaments in the Church so that they be not toyish or theatricall I hold it very fit that God as he is the author of our riches so he should be served with them But I wish that may not befall our times that Aegidius Viterbiensis noteth to have befallen the times of Constantine Constantini tempora saith he ut sacris rebus multum adjecere decoris ornamenti ita morum vitaeque severitatem non parum enervârunt Verus ornatus Templorum utilis Deo gratus saith Hemmingius est concio cantio oratio communio non quae haec impediunt vitiant Yea an holy congregation is the best furniture of the Church I wish our speciall care may be for this and then let the outward adornation as farre as grave and decent not be neglected The truth is I can beare much in the Church rather than disturbe the peace or resist the Government which gives me occasion to speak of the last thing mentioned in the Oath The Government of the Church And for this I doe acknowledge my selfe bound by the law of God to beare great respect to this Ordinance of God wheresoever I finde it I am to esteem it as a pretious stone though I finde it in a dunghill of vices But where it is set in gold found associated with vertue and holinesse there indeed it is exceeding glorious and may challenge a double respect but howsoever it is due to Gods Substitute whatsoever the man may be in his owne person and that in point of conscience and this duty doth consist chiefly in three things Honour Obedience and Subjection I am to honour them in my thoughts in my words in my actions yea with my estate too if there be ability in me and exigence in them To obey them in all just commands whatsoever wheresoever either in the commands themselves or in the acts which they en●oyne me so they are not contrary to Gods law for I know the Governour may transgresse his duty in commanding and yet my duty may tie me unto obedience He offends if he lay any tyrannous or frivolous bonds upon me God will not have his people abridged of their liberty without some reason or ground And therfore all the commands of Governours whether in Church or Common-wealth ought to have their ground either in Scripture or Reason and to be streames from those fountaines they must depend upon the law of God either naturall or revealed either as a confirmation thereof or a declaration or as a conclusion from these principles or as a determination where his law hath appointed diverse things to the same purpose and end either absolutely or dis-junctively either in the things themselves or in the end unto which they tend they must finde an originall there from whence they must be extracted and coppied out as it were The law of God in Scripture and reason is the maine and generall root and trunk and all good lawes are branches that grow from thence and whatsoever humane constitutions cannot either in a direct or collaterall line derive themselves from them are bastard issues and shamefull to their Parents and the lawmaker sinnes in framing of them Yet the difficulty of Government is to bee considered and many things to be borne with for though he have no ground in Gods law for his injunction but it is meerly frivolous and perhaps burthensome yet if his authority disables him to make it and it enjoyne me to no act contrary to mine allegiance unto God it is his sinne but my affliction and must be borne as other calamities for though his law bath no good end yet my obedience hath obedience it selfe is a good and laudable thing and I may have the end of maintaining order or preserving peace and avoiding disturbance in the Church or Common-wealth of preventing scandall unto others and the like which are ends prescribed by Gods law to regulate and frame our actions by All things are not to be turned upside downe upon every inconvenience that may be apprehended in a law whether it bee Ecclesiasticall or Civill For besides that there are few that are fit Judges of a Law That may be unlawfull for the Governour to command which yet is not unlawfull but expedient for me to obey being commanded As it was unlawfull for Pharaoh to command the children of Israel to make brick without straw as being tyrannous and so sinfull in him but it was not unlawfull but rather commendable in them to obey it as farre as they could And S. Paul will have servants to be obedient unto their Masters though they befroward and perverse Indeed if they doe enjoyne me to doe any thing wherein I should offend against Gods lawes in the least degree no pretence of any though never so many or so great good ends must make me withdraw my allegiance from him and pay it to humane powers The authority of all men is limited and so must our obedience to them be also The supreme power of God is the foundation of all authority and therefore our duty unto that must be preferred in the first place and without all leave or exception whatsoever Peace must not be maintained with the ruines of Piety and Trust And any Scandall to my brother must rather be admitted than I should prevent it without Gods leave The rule of Master Calvin is good here Sicut libertas charitati ita charitas fidei subjicienda est Yet in this case I am to disobey as modestly and offenselesly and with as much shew of reverence to the Governour as may stand with our duty unto God yet resolutely too not faintly or fearfully but as the three Children unto Nebuchadonezar Dan. 9.15.17 c. And where we cannot yeeld obedience we must yeeld the third Duty of Subjection especially where the Authoritie is absolute and supreme under God which may be variously stated according to the Lawes and Customes of severall Countreyes and Dominions Then in case we cannot obey we ought not to resist but suffer and yeeld a passive obedience where we may not yeeld an active one according to the rule of Gods word They that resist

they refused they were executed not as Christians but as despisers of the Emperour in his resemblance And truly the case is very like with Christians now in respect of these Images As those wicked Persecutors of which Ruffinus lib. 1. cap. 7. who set up the Image of Venus in the place where our Saviour was crucified that if any should come thither to worship our Saviour they might bee thought to worship that Idol c. Et ob hoc infrequens penè oblivioni datus fuerat locus saith Ruffin being set up in place of Gods worship if they doe outward reverence unto God they are in danger to be misinterpreted to doe it to the Altars and Images if they refuse to doe it unto them they are accused and punished as denying it to God and so they are in a manner necessitated to appeare either prophane or superstitious and idolatrous Neither doe they any way further men in the use of the Sacrament Wee know the eyes of the body and soule have both their full work there and therefore should be sequestred as much as may be from other objects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at that most dreadfull time as Epiphanius calleth it The eye of the body is there to be fixed upon the representation of Christ and his sufferings and benefits which himselfe hath set before us in the holy Sacraments and is not to bedistracted by any other Images whether Crucifixes or other set up as it were to outface them which seeme to lay a secret imputation of imperfection and insufficiency upon that blessed Ordinance of Christ as if that were not enough without a Crucifix or as if the painter or carver had set forth the passion in the Picture better than Christ in the holy Supper And for the eye of the soule that is to be fixed on Christ himselfe his bitter sufferings and those glorious blessings thereby imparted unto us and not to be taken up with any humane artifices the splendor whereof may steale away the soule from its attention to this holy businesse and so deprive it of the comforts of the Sacrament And for Almes-deeds Though the Priests of Rome finde I doubt not good commings in by this meanes and receive good Rent for their Tenant-Images for the house-roome they allow them in their Churches yet they are not like to be beneficiall to the poore Yea the fruitlesse charge and cost which is bestowed upon them in their framing adorning and offerings is a great meanes both to disable and discourage Gods people for enlarging their hearts or at least their hands to the poore Indeed these Images though they have no mouthes to speak yet they have as it were mouthes to devoure the bread of the hungry and the costly attire of these dead Images is paid for dearly it may bee feared by many poore living Images of Christ that by this means are faine to goe naked to the shame of Christian Religion And if we adde unto this the dangerous opposition that is in the use of them in Gods worship unto the rules and lawes of God himselfe whereby they are not only scandalous but impious thwarting the rule not only of charity but of faith too as may appeare by the second Commandement and also by many other places in holy Writ wherein this practice is vehemently opposed and condemned Concil Elibert can 36. Placuit Picturas in Ecclesia esse non debere ne qnod colitur aut adoratur in parietibus depingatur Vide Athanas contra Idol August in Psal 113. Chrysost in Genes Hom. ad Philippens 1.3 Hom. 11. Theodor. in Psal 113. Iustin Mart. in dialog cum Tryphon Clem. Alex. Strom. 6. in Paraen Tertul. de idolat c. 3.4.5 Cyprian de Valera in the Preface of his Dos Tratados del Papay de la missa Lamprid. in Alex. Sever. vide drelincourt Triomphe de l'eglise part 2.1.26 art 4. And the contrariety that it hath both to the judgement and practice of the Primitive Church which in other matters we talk much of judgement being absolutely and clearly forbidden by that ancient Eliberian Councell celebrated in Spaine in the yeare 305. as Binius computes and extremely disliked by the ancient Fathers of the Church as Origen Iustin Martyr Tertullian Athanasius Epiphanius c. insomuch that they proceeded so farre some of them it seemes as to condemne the very art of painting and carving as deceitfull and mischievous and as brought into the world by the Devill himselfe And Practice also sutable to their judgement in that they were not in use among them in Gods service as learned Drelincourt observes to be acknowledged by divers of the Popish authors themselves as Libius Gregorius Gyraldus de Dits Gentium Syntagm 1. Georg. Cassander Consult art 21. and as may be seen if we look but upon the descriptions of the Temples of Adrian hereby noted to have been distinguished from the Heathenish Temples and of the Temples of Constantine the magnificence and ornaments whereof are described in Ecclesiasticall history as is observed by a learned French writer without the least mention of Pictures or Images yea it was the reproach as one noteth that the Heathens laid upon the Christians in the ancient times That they had neither Temples nor Altars nor Images Vide Orig. contra Cels lib. 6.7 Minut. in Octav. Lactant. div Instit lib. 2. Clem. Alex. Strom. 5.6 Iren. advers Haereses lib. 1. cap. 23.24 Epiphan lib. 1. Haeres 27. August de Haeres cap. 7. Pet. Crinit lib. 9. de honesta disciplina And if we note as one noteth that they were not used in those times but by infamous Hereticks and that there have beene Lawes made against them by publick authority in those times as that Law of Valens and Theodosius c. if I say we adde these things That they are contrary to the Word of God to the judgement and practice of the Primitive Church have not been anciently used but by wicked Hereticks and lastly have been openly cried downe by authority we shall finde I beleeve little ground to make so much of them in the Church as some have done But what then must we demolish these Churches that are decked and adorned with Images There is no need of that I hope There are many things now to be reformed that I hope will not be pulled downe And yet if there were such need I dare say better fortie Churches demolisht than one Soule ruined since a Soule is the purchase of Christs blood materiall Churches not so These Scandalls I desire may bee removed And as I desire there may bee nothing scandalous in the Church so that there may be nothing frivolous or irrationall that our service may be a reasonable service I know not why we should have candles in the day time Concil Eliber cap. 34. Lactant. div instit lib. 6. cap. 2. Accendunt lumina velut in tenebris agenti Si coeleste lumen quod dicimus solem

shall receive unto themselves damnation and answerably to the practice of the Primitive Christians as we may see in that notable example of the Theban Legion mentioned by Grotius de Iure Belli out of Eusebius who when they were commanded by Maximianus to worship his Idols being Christians they constant'y denied to obey his command but when he required their lives they submitted without resistance though they were a strong Legion of valiant souldiers But I am yet in generals and generals are clouds more clearly and particularly therefore I willingly submit to the present Government of the Church in all parts specified in the Oath by Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons and Deanes and wish them so well that I desire they may never moulder away in corruptions that may make them justly odious to the people or bring any disrepute upon them that may bee destructive to their Eminencie I envie not their Honours but praise the bountie of Christian Princes therein yet I wish they may bee more glorious in holinesse and pietie than in outward state and dignity That their honours may bee more adorned by them than they by their honours that the raies of their excelling vertues may even dimme and overcome the splend or of their outward additions and that they be above others more in goodnesse than in greatnesse and not so much affect the one as to neglect the other nor feed the one so much as to starve the other nè filia devoret matrem devoratà matre devoret etiam seipsam you may easily perceive there is some danger of it I willingly submit to their Authoritie and wish it may bee so moderated by Piety and Charity that it may be fatherly not despoticall much lesse tytannicall not as Lords over Gods heritage but as Stewards of the manifold graces of God that they may manage all things with Christian compassion and punish others when they must needs doe it with such hearts as are ready even to suffer with them in their corrections like a tender mother that will weep when she is driven to chastise her child like S. Paul in whose language as a learned man observeth to bewaile and to correct seemeth to have been all one 2 Cor. 12.21 I feare saith he that when I come againe my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewaile many that have sinned already and have not repented of their uncleannesse and fornication and lasciviousnesse which they have committed Surely the censures of the Church and Church-men should bee pronounced rather with teares than fury rather with sighes than supercilious frownes that their love and pity to mens persons may shine in the midst of their greatest severitie that they may see that they are armed not against them but against their offenses and so as much as may be make their punishments lovely even to the sufferers of them I wish that they may weigh out the justice of Discipline and correction too with an equall hand bending themselves most against those offences which are most against God and not punish the weak and scrupulous which hath more need of binding up than lancing more need of Cordials than Corrosives as the stubborne and perverse nor the omission of an indifferent Ceremony as the trampling upon the Law of God it selfe Never let it be heard in our Israel that the lawes and inventions of men though harmelesse though convenient and wholesome are more valued than the immediate lawes of God himselfe There is greater Scandall many times it is doubt in such method and manner of punishing than that is which they pretend to remove I desire that their Authoritie may be supported by those pillars of Learning Zeale Holinesse Industrie Meeknesse Courage and Humilitie which may be like the seven pillars of the house of Wisedome which they should be Of Learning that they may bee shining Lights to illustrate the dark places of the earth Of Zeale that they may be burning and shining Lights like Iohn the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord in mens Soules Of Piety and Holinesse that they may shine in their lives as well as in their doctrines and their whole conversation may be a continuall visible Sermon unto Gods people Of Industry that their light be not hid sub modio desidiae but that they may be like starres in the firmament as well of the bigger as of the lesser magnitude orderly and constantly fulfilling their courses and imparting their benigne aspects unto one another and their wholesome influences unto the people in the Church not forgetting those maine and apostolicall works of prayer and preaching the word offering incense and dressing the lamps the most glorious part of their functions Surely howsoever some may mistake it a Bishop is more splendid and more like an Apostle in a Pulpit than upon the Throne as some stile it Of Meeknesse that it may never be said of them as S. Paul speaketh of himselfe when he was Saul concerning zeale persecuting the Church That the fervour that is in them may be a gentle not a scorching flame not like the heat of a fever to distemper and destroy but like the naturall heat of the body to preserve and nourish that it may be a fire of charity not any immoderate fervour in them and that it may be with them as with God that mercy may still be more eminent than judgement especially in their owne cause I wish they may remember that of Livia to Augustus nihil gloriosius Principe impunè loeso It is a glory that ever deserves to be conspicuous amongst us that is said to have been observable in Reverend Cranmer noted to have been so meek in his owne injuries that it grew almost into a Proverb of him If any man will have the Archbishop to bee his friend let him doe him an injury Of Courage that they be not so gentle as to desert the cause of God in his Church And of Humility the best basis for greatnesse to stand firme upon that their eminency make them not supercilious which is a signe indeed that men esteeme themselves but usually abates their esteeme with others Qui fastum in sublimitate castigat docet se meruisse quod adeptus est You see I hope that I am very well contented with the Doctrine and Discipline and Government of the Church And yet notwithstanding as I have done so I doe still disapprove of the late Oath For though I approve of the Doctrine yet it may be doubtfull whether it be fitly averred of any humane act absolutely That it containeth all things necessary to salvation since it is the judgement of one of no small note and esteeme with many here I beleeve L. of Canterb. against A. C. S. 18. p. 121. That before the question may so much as be admitted whether a thing containeth all things necessary to salvation it must be granted to be of divine institution or to be the word of God Though I dislike not the

Discipline yet I hold it not unalterable That were to fall into the errour of the Disciplinarians whom wee have hitherto opposed upon this very ground That the Discipline of the Church may bee varied according to the varietie of times persons and occasions Though I approve of the Government yet I cannot hold it in all parts to be necessary since I doubt not there were times when the Church was well governed without some of them which are clearly mentioned in the Oath The truth is I conceive the Oath unfit either to be taken or imposed I say either because I conceive they are two questions Whether the Oath be fit to be imposed Or being imposed whether it be fit to be taken I hold it unfit to be taken chiefly in foure respects 1. As ambiguous in some things 2. As hardly consisting with truth in others 3. As contradictory and destructive in the parts thereof unto one another 4. As tying us to that which may be inconvenient to the Church if not now yet in after times 1. As Ambiguous whereas an Oath ought to be cleare being a bond of so strict a nature and so great a for feiture That every man ought to be sure of the tenour of the obligation ere he enter into it since a mans whole estate of happinesse both in present possession and in future hopes and expectation yea the soule it selfe and that eternall inheritance wee look for in another world is as it were tyed over for the performance Now this seemeth to be full of ambiguity Ambiguous in the meaning and extent of the word Doctrine since I take it it is not so cleare but it may be doubted whether that only is here meant which is contained in the 39 Articles or that also in the Homilies the publick Catechisme and the Apology of the Church of England and there hath been some controversie of the Articles themselves some or one of them and others have been diversly interpreted to serve the turnes of Arminians and those that have been dis-affected to the true sense of them Ambiguous in the meaning and extent of the word Discipline whether it be to be understood only of that which is contained in the ordinary book of Canons in our Church and the Rubrick in the Common prayer book or whether of some other Rules before given in the time of King Henry the eighth King Edward the sixth or Queen Elizabeth or whether also of the Provincialls of Lindwood and of the whole Canon lawes of the Popes where they are not clearly revoked by Statute From which dangerous uncertainties I wish the Church were delivered by a setled establishment of some certaine Rules for the government thereof agreeable to the word of God and sound reason that we might not be faine to borrow from the Church of Rome and to be governed by lawes borrowed from Antichrist though not Antichristian perhaps as they are selected and restrained here Befides there is doubt whether the Discipline be to be taken in the full extent of the word or to be restrained only to the Government as it seemes abusively to bee restrained in the Oath whereas in it selfe it is much larger than Government and therefore to make that the exegesis of Discipline may favour I doubt of Collusion And yet so it is not altogether so cleare what is here meant by Government whether we sweare to it only in respect of the Governours or in respect of all the Rules and exercise of Authority which may be doubted yea was actually questioned and doubted of in the last Synod in the point of Excommunication by Lay-men And if the Governours only are here meant then there is doubt which and how many they are that are here meant Especially this Ambiguity is much encreased by the c. which I never remember to have been in the Oath when it was read to us in the last Synod neither am I alone in this forgetfulnesse but the like hath been affirmed by others also How it crept in I know not but I doe not beleeve that ever before this such an obscure addition found a roome in an Oath neither doth it consist with that clearnesse which is required in that which is acknowledged to be strictissimi Iuris And though perhaps some of the larger siz'd consciences hold it unreasonable that we should querelam offerre apicibus verborum yet a good Christian will be nice in the smallest point where his salvation may any way be endangered And besides I learne from my Saviour that one jot or tittle of his Word shall never passe away obedientia in apicibus servanda est Ambiguous also it seemes in the word established whether that only is to be accounted established which is setled by knowne and publick Lawes generally received in the whole Church or that also which by the pretended authoritie of some particular Governours hath of late beene brought into the Church since it runs not as it stanas by Law established as for my part I thought it had done and therefore my memory failes me thereto but as it stands established and no more which in a large signification might perhaps tie us to divers Innovations which have been brought in not without some shew of Authority Ambiguous it is likewise in the word Consent c. whether it tie only from yeelding a consent to those alterations which shall be made by others in Authoritie or whether he may be said to consent which obeyes only or he only that approves or admits of an alteration having power to dissent from it If the former then it would clearly contradict the Oath of Supremacy yea of Allegiance too which though I doe not so firmly beleeve I confesse because I conceive a man may obey the alteration being made and yet not be said to consent to alter notwithstanding this is not free from obscurity and is too apt to be mis-understood Secondly as it is thus full of Ambiguities so I know not how in all points it will stand with Truth it selfe where it is said of the Government in the particulars named viz. Archbishops Bishops Deanes and Archdeacons with the unmeasurable enlargement of an c. that of right it ought so to stand the words are these as it stands now est ablished and as by right it ought to stand which word right if it be equivocall and to be understood either of Divine right or Ecclesiasticall as was answered in the last Synod then wee should admit of Equivocations in an Oath But it seemes if well considered to imply a Divine right for that clause as it stands now established if it be meant well it must bee understood I conceive of that which is established by Law and that Law is the Ecclesiasticall right whereby they stand And therefore in That after this it is further added and as byright it ought to stand it seemes to averre that there is a further right than the Ecclesiasticall Law it selfe even a right which doth