Selected quad for the lemma: honour_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
honour_n	image_n	worship_n	worship_v	5,699	5	9.5098	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61294	A discourse concerning the devotions of the Church of Rome, especially, as compared with those of the Church of England in which it is shewn, that whatever the Romanists pretend, there is not so true devotion among them, nor such rational provision for it, nor encouragement to it, as in the church established by law among us.	Stanley, William, 1647-1731.	1685 (1685)	Wing S5244; ESTC R1838	44,628	70

Dead Now if they Print such things in English what do they Print in Spanish If they do such things in a Green Tree what shall be done in the dry And I fear that even their nicest Casuists give too much Countenance to this so gross Practice For they have determined that Honour 's above Civil cuitus Hyperduliae are due to the Virgin Mary that is in plain English Divine Honours must be paid to her For it must be a very Metaphysical Head that can in this Sense apprehend a kind of Honour above Civil and yet not Divine it must be somewhat like his that would pretend to find a mean between Creator and Creature between Finite and Infinite Lastly this is most notorious that they enjoyn acts to be used and propose Objects of Worship which they themselves cannot deny but there is danger of offending in them and even of falling into that Idolatry and yet take little or no care of giving caution concerning them and if the grossest abuse should happen there is scarcely any possibility of redress Indeed wherever they speak of Veneration due to Reliques and Images of worshipping of Saints and especially the Virgin Mary they always seem as if they cared not how much Honour were paid to them only they must make as if they put some Restriction on it for the sake of the reformed who would exclaim against them And therefore their Command for the worshipping of them is general and absolute but the Limitations are so nice and forced that one may easily see that they very unwillingly deny any Worship to be paid to them For so the wary Council of Trent speaking of Images says They are to be kept and due Honour and Veneration paid to them And though by and by they seem as if they would limit this Honour yet presently they put in such words as make that pretended Limitation to signifie nothing For they tell you That whatever Honor you pay to the Image goes to the person represented v. g. to our Saviour it seems the Honor is paid to him whether we intend so or no And hence you may easily gather what Honor is due to the Image of our Saviour and how little fear there is of paying too much Honour to it For I suppose we are all agreed there is no fear of paying too much Honour to our Blessed Saviour and whatever Honour is paid to his Image is paid to him if we can believe these Gentlemen And agreeably hereunto it is very rare to hear of any person censured or blamed for paying too much Honour to Images though surely it is as possible for men to be Idolaters now as in the former Ages and I suppose that neither the common people nor all the Priests are Men of such extraordinary Understanding and Learning as to be altogether free from the like Temptation Nay the Caution which is given seems only to concern Imagines falsi dogmatis Rudibus periculosi Erroris Occasionem praebentes but there is not one word concerning the abuse which may be made of the Image of Christ or of a true Saint There is no Provision made that Men be warned not to perform too much Devotion in their Minds to a good Image And by what this Council says the Priest understands well enough what it intends and therefore scarcely ever dare preach against the excess and abuse of Images Reliques c. tho they cannot but see it actually committed every day And now if there should happen to be any Idolatrous Worship pay'd to an Image tho the Bishop hath power indeed to set the Image up yet he hath not power to pull it down or to correct any abuse concerning it without the leave of the Archbishop and other Bishops of the Province and even of the Pope himself So unwilling do they seem that any Provision should be made for redressing abuses in so great and common a Case as the excess in Worship of Images must needs be v. Concil Trid. Sess 25. Lastly as we have seen how deficient and very faulty the Church of Rome is in her pretences to Devotion wee 'll now consider what Provision is made for the due Exercise of Devotion among our selves that we may thank God for our being settled in the Communion of the Church of England and may learn to be conscientiously strict and regular in our own as well as to despise the Romish Devotions And in order hereunto I reckon that these four things are especially to be regarded First That among us none but the true Object of Devotion is proposed to be worshipped God the Father Son and Holy Ghost none of the most blessed Angels or Saints in Heaven being ever invoked or adored by us For we look on them only as our Brethren and Members of the same Church with us triumphing indeed whilst we are here below still in our Warfare We thank God for them and keep Feasts in the Memory of them at the same time praising God for his Goodness and Grace bestowed on them and shining forth in them and also stirring up our selves by such Commemorations to follow their good Example and this we think is as much as is due from us to our fellow Creatures and believe that neither God allows nor do they expect more from us Secondly Only proper Expressions of Devotion are commanded or allowed by our Church For the matter of them they are such as God himself hath required to be served by are significant of that disposition of Mind which we know God accepts and have an aptness to the producing of that temper in us which God intends to work us up to by them We use all the Instances of Devotion which they of the Church of Rome use if they be either necessary or fit though indeed often to other and better purpose We pray constantly but only for the living for we look on the Dead as past the means of Grace and consequently past the benefit of our Prayers We praise God for his Excellencies in himself and thank him for his Goodness to others as well as to our selves We practise Confession of Sins to God in publick and in private and advise it to be made also to the Ministers of Gods Word when it is necessary for Ghostly Counsel and Advice for the satisfying of their Consciences and the removal of Scruple and Doubtfulness but we cannot say it is necessary to be made to Men in order to the Pardon of God We reckon it rather as a priviledg or advantage than a Duty And if Men will not make use of this priviledg as often as there is Occasion unless we tell a lye to advance the credit of it we cannot help that We enjoyn Fastings and disallow not of Penances but advise People to take an holy revenge on themselves when they have sinned but not as the Papists do to satisfie for their Sins or merit at Gods hand but to shew the sincerity of their Repentance and to

their Secular Priests too are generally in a sad Condition notwithstanding the infinite Riches of that Church And so the Regulars only have any considerable advantage by them and they also as it were club together to set up one great Man as Cardinal or Head of their Order in mighty Pomp and State and heap Riches and Preferments on him till he can hardly bear them So that one can scarcely suppose so great Riches as that Church is in common endowed with to be gotten into fewer Hands or do less Good than it doth amongst them Let them not therefore boast of their Charity whilst amidst so great Plenty they suffer the Poor to want so extreamly and yet to make a Show build a fine Hospital in two or three of their chief Towns For perhaps no where in the World do the Rich more exalt themselves and tyrannize over the Poor no where is there a greater inequality of Conditions no where is there so much given to the Church and Charity and no where is the Estate of the Church engrossed into so few Hands to maintain Grandeur rather than to be a Relief to Poverty For the Cardinals above Seventy in number are maintained out of the Church-Revenues and yet are by their Creation equal to Kings and superior to Princes Now if this be Charity to have a prodigious Revenue for the Maintenance of the Church and Poor and yet to employ this to the Luxury of a few and to let the rest perish I will acknowledge the Church of Rome to be the most charitable Church in the World And if it be said that a great deal indeed hath been given to good and truly charitable uses but is now perhaps misemployed I answer it is possible it may be so yet still I have some reason to question it For their Doctrines of Merit and of buying Souls out of Purgatory c. are enough to spoil their works of Charity and make them to be rather esteem'd a Bargain of Sale than a free Gift And yet their Donations run commonly in this Form I give this to such a Monastery for the good of my Soul or of the Souls of other persons deceased or for the Honour of such a Saint but seldom for the good of the Poor the Maintenance and Support of true Piety and Religion or for the Glory and Honour of God And yet in my Opinion such as these are the only ends for which a Gift ought to be esteemed charitable or will be accepted by God as such But now on the other side though the Church of England own not either Purgatory or any other of their Pick-pocket Doctrines yet Charity urged by us from truly Christian Principles hath had more force and done more good than all their Tricks and Devices put together For so Dr. Willet hath in part shewn and it might be more fully demonstrated that in these last 120 or 130 Years since the settling of the Reformation among us there hath been more and greater Churches Schools and Hospitals built and endowed better Provision made for the Poor more and better care taken not only for the Maintenance but especially for the Instruction of the ignorant and meaner sort of People In short all parts of Charity more fully exercised than can be shewn in any the like number of Years since Christianity came into this Countrey Indeed the general Strain of our Peoples Charity runs to the doing of more good and is more properly expressed than theirs is The Papists build Monasteries in which Provision is made for a few people to live in Idleness and Luxury under pretence of Devotion and Retirement Ours relieve the Sick and Needy tho not Regulars and think it better Charity to preserve a poor Family from starving of which so many thousands die in Popish Countreys than to maintain an idle Monk or Nun or to make a Present to the Lady at Loretto or offer Candles and Tapers to the Image or Saint of the Town in which we live We by so bestowing our Charity both honour God and do good to Men. They do neither but do Homage to a Saint that neither knows them nor receives any Good by the Honour which they give them It is indeed confessed that our Churches are not so adorned as they ought sometimes But that is no Fault of our Church but of the Iniquity of the Times and of those Dissentions which they raise among us but generally they are decently grave and as well sitted to assist a devout mind without Distraction as can be We love to have our Churches neat and handsom to shew we do not grudge whatever may be required to make them in some measure a fit place for Divine Worship but we see not any necessity of having them so splendidly rich and fine we think it would rather divert mens minds from the Business of the Place than assist them in the Duties of it In short in no part of Charity can they pretend to exceed us considering our Circumstances unless it be in that of Prayer for the Dead when they hire so many Masses to be said for them but we think not this so much Charity to the person deceased as to the Priest for he doubtless receives most Benefit from it Thirdly And whatever they pretend the great number of Saints canonized and commemorated among them is neither a Sign of their good State and Condition of their Church nor is their keeping so many Holydays in remembrance of them any instance of true Devotion As for many of the Saints which they commemorate we own as well as they and can pretend as good a right in them as they can because we own and will submit to whatever can be urged from them such are the Blessed Virgin the Apostles and Evangelists and after them also the Bishops Martyrs and Confessors in the Primitive Church But we confess that we have not the same esteem of many whom they commemorate as Saints and utterly disallow of their Canonizing or Sainting of them For many of them I believe never had any Being but in the Fancy of these Saint-makers who yet are commemorated and prayed to as well as any others Such are St. Longinus under which name they have made a Man of the Spear which pierced our Saviour's Blessed Body St. Almachius on Jan. 1. which only comes from the Corruption of Almanack St. Amphibalus who was only St. Alban's Cloak St. Vrsula and her 11000 Virgins of whom no Foot-steps can be found in true History Many of them I fear it had been better that they had never been as being notoriously vicious and scandalous in their Lives And others though more innocent yet if we believe what is written in their Lives were so prodigiously ridiculous that a wise and religious man would be asham'd of such Company To hear Men in an Extasie of Devotion to talk Nonsence or to preach to Birds and Beasts to run naked to wander voluntarily in Desarts c.