Selected quad for the lemma: honour_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A85804
|
A prudent and secure choice. Worthy of due consideration being a sure land-mark to all those who have been tossed to and fro in these wavering times. / Written by H.G. Gent.
|
G. H., Gent.
|
1650
(1650)
|
Wing G24B; ESTC R177290
|
17,462
|
57
|
God which sinne hee chastized by miracle Math. 9. Secondly not beleeving a Power given to man to forgive sinnes this also he blamed And that you may know that the Sonne of man hath Authority in earth to forgive sinnes c. And the multitude glorified God who had given such Authority to men to his Apostles John 22. Hee saith Receive yee the holy Ghost whose sinnes yee remit they are remitted to them whose sinnes yee retaine they are retained Math. 18. Whatsoever yee shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever yee shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Questionlesse the prime sense of these words imports a power given to men to forgive sinnes nothing then is presumptuously believed but received as a mercifull priviledge left by Christ to his dearly redeemed Church In opposition J find no Scripture but only admirations of a few denyers in comparison of the Believers though they deny not but temporall Princes may give Commission to subjects to forgive Treasons against themselves dangerous then is their deniall CHAP. 5. Securely wee beleive one Church vnder one Head thereof 14. NEcessarie it is in one Family one Master in one Citty one Major in one Company one Captaine in one Army one Generall in one Common-wealth one State in one Kingdome one King And can it beare any colour of offence to believe that in the most perfect Common-wealth instituted by Christ there should be one flock under one Pastor vt fiat unum ovile et unus Pastor Where there are two not subordinate Governements there is not one Common-wealth and two peaceable governing Kings argue two Kingdomes where then in Christians wee find divers Spirituall governments not subordinate wee must acknowledge divers Churches yet wee all say in one Creed delivered by the Apostles conformable to what Christ promised J believe the holy Catholique Church Not one if not subordinate to one visible head who as hee ordained a visible Church so he ordained a visible Pastor That there may be made one flocke and one Pastor Necessary for the preseruation of Unity and decent Conformity without which no Common-wealth is permaent 15. I find this no where verified but in the successors of Peter and the Church adhering to them cleerely promised Math. 16. vers 8. Thou art Peter and vpon this rocke will J build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevaile against it Behold one rocke one Church and that permanent against all assaults now knowne by its singular Constancy in the middest of continuall assaults Iohn 21. To Peter Christ said Feed my sheepe which words imply the office of a Pastor that is not onely to provide nourishment but also to Governe and defend without which it were not compleat That also these words were spoken to Peter only and consequently only to his successors It is manifest by that three-fold Interrogation Simon Peter louest thou mee Especially when hee added More then these Whereby he excluded the rest of his Apostles To which when Saint Peter had answered that he loued him Christ replyed to him siingularly Feed my sheepe That is the supreame dignity of Pastorship and Vicegerency J give you requireth a singular love and as you love mee so be a true Pastor in my Church Grant that by probable arguments all said may appeare not evident I will not dispute it yet the common voyce of the World so long continued expressed also in the Creeds may justifie the Believers of one holy Catholique and Apostolique Church and not one unlesse in one belief under one supreame visible Governour whom such as reject out of a perswasion that they need none but Christ make many Churches disagreeing in confused Beliefes every one equally challenging CHRIST for their Governour securely then one Church under one visible Pastor is believed but with danger denied Hee that will not beleive the Catholique Church he that heareth you heareth mee he that dispiseth you dispiseth mee c. CHAP. 6. 16. Securely wee commend our selves to the intercession of Saints TO justifie this it is sufficient if wee prove it conformable to reason and no injurie to Christ Saint Paul commended himselfe to the prayers of Christians what must be answered in his excuse will secure us since wee goe to Saints as Intercessors not as Givers and so truly goe to Christ You say Saints cannot heare us How know you this Not by Scripture It witnesseth that many Prophets saw objects not only absent but not existent untill many hundred yeares after their time only by Divine inspiration and shall wee now deny this to Saints injoying God face to face Nor by reason for if their hearing were by corporall eares there might be some difficultie yet since their hearing is understanding which is indifferent to conceive objects as well absent as present this difficultie is vaine since wee know not how our soule understands nor how our eyes see or eares heare What hindereth then but that securely I may believe it CHAP. 7. 17. What is Secure concerning the making and worshipping of Images FOr a safe resolution in this Point it is necessary First to declare what manner of Worship is pretended due to Images and for Example J will discourse of the Image of CHRIST Crucified whereby it will appeare what with proportion may be said of the rest The Worship then pretended lawfull tendeth not to the Image out of apprehension of Divinity therein contained but onely out of a Faith in CHRIST represented and imagined to us by that Image that is believing CHRIST represented by it in manner as the once Visibly appeared worthy of all honour which by his Image as his representative I give him Whence evident it is First that by such worship CHRIST is immediately worshipped that is for Himselfe and his Picture onely for him both morally one object of the worship Secondly that no honour due to GOD is transferred to a Creature since God is onely truly Worshipped for himselfe and no Creature religiously worshipped but for GOD. Thirdly that whatsoever honour exteriour or interiour tendeth toward the Image is not for it nor resteth there as in case of Jdolatry but by our Faith and interiour reverence is transferred to CHRIST for whom and to whom it is exhibited Since therefore perfect Worship consisteth both in interiour and exteriour acts conjoyned the interiour giving life and the very being of worship to the exteriour the interiour respecting Christ for himselfe and the Jmage onely for CHRIST jmage-Jmage-worship differeth infinitely from Jdolatry In a word the worship here in question is only an outward honour toward the Jmage proceeding from an outward reverence to CHRIST represented As St. Mary Magdalen worshipped Christ as Man out of a beliefe of the Divinity in him or rather as some worship their Communion for the relation it hath to CHRIST by their Belief So in like manner worship given to Jmages is for the connexion they have with Christ himselfe The Question then is whether
the worship of Jmages thus understood bee lawfull 18. ACcording to the new Translation of our English Bibles the negative part against the Believers seemeth justified Exod. 20. Expresly forbidding both making and worshipping any Jmage whatsoever But this Translation is evidently false unlesse it meane Jmages with relation to Jdolatry For in the Law what is forbidden to be worshipped is also forbidden to bee made Thou shalt not make to thy selfe nor Worship But the Law forbiddeth nor Jmages to be made as it appeareth by the Jmages in the Temple and Cherubims over the Arke the brazen Serpent Numb 21. Kings lib. 1. Chap. 6. vers 23 27 29. according to the English translation Lyons Oxen c. 1 Kings chap. 7. vers 29. Then likewise it forbiddeth not Jmage-worship Jmage then is a false Translation unlesse it be understood with relation to Idolatry then it maketh nothing against the use of Jmages declared Moreover wee have manifest warrant in holy Scripture both for the making and worshipping of Jmages not reconcileable with the Law if understood as the new Translations import The Prophet David teacheth Adore the foot-stoole of our Lord for hee is holy Was not the Arke a creature Yet because God is holy whose foot-stoole it was it was judged worthy to be worshipped Joshua chap. 7. Fell prostrate before the Arke what did hee lesse then is required in the worship of Images Or did he breake Gods Command Wee read Exod. 3. 28. Genes 18. Jos 5. 14. Apoc. 5. and in other places How the holy Prophets adored GOD in Images or in Angels representing his Person prostrating themselves before them and though their intention was directed to God yet their outward act of worship was directed to those sensible apparitions or Jmages representing God to their Imaginations wherein they conceived God as represented and those Jmages representing God morally one object in the same manner as it happeneth in the honour of Jmages and in the worship of the figurative Communion 19. Finally it is manifest by the end of the Law that Idolatry not Jmage-worship is forbidden which was that the honour of GOD should bee unviolably kept by giving Divine worship onely to him Therefore in the beginning hee said J am thy Lord God thou shalt have no other Gods before me The reason also hee added why they should make no Idols For J am thy Lord God a jealous God That is make to thy selfe nothing for thy GOD for J am thy God Jmages J have proved were Commanded therefore Jmages as declared oppose not Gods honour consequently are not forbidden else wee must prove a manifest contradiction in the Law Thus the received use of Jmages is justified and not to bee cryed downe by new Dis-believers whose danger is apparent untill they bring evident proofes It may be objected that since Jdolatry hath beene begun and maintained by Jmages and since men are prone to apply themselves most to Corporall objects the secure way is to abandon Jmages at the least in Churches This is spoken without Law or reason Law there can be none brought since not Jmages but Jdols were the beginning of Jdolatry Jmages J have proved warrantable in holy Scripture Nor Reason for whereas an Jdoll representeth nothing besides it selfe and so is worshipp'd without any farther relation an Jmage representeth a true object distinct from it selfe therefore moveth a man to a reverence proportionable to the object represented Whence in reason an Jdoll occasioneth Jdolatry not representing any farther object whether our thoughts and honour may be transferred when an Jmage of a true object necessarily draweth our minds and reverence to something besides it selfe So that aske any simple Believer whether hee pray to the Jmage or put any confidence in it he will answer No. Aske him againe when he is kneeling before a Picture with his eyes fixed on it whether he directs his Prayer He will answer to God or some Saint represented whose intercession hee desireth What hurt is in this St. Mary Magdalen prostrated her selfe kissed and bathed with her teares the feet of CHRIST what justified that act But the union which those Sacred feet have with his Divinity which yet she saw not but apprehended by Faith Though betweene Christ and his Picture there be not so immediate yet there is a morall connexion sufficient to termine one morall act of Adoration Securely then J honour CHRIST and his Jmage as one morall object therefore cannot dishonour the Picture without danger of dishonouring the Prototypon CHAP. 8. 20. The like security is shewed in all other Articles believed in generall VVHo can doubt but that Purgatory Free-will Merit of good workes by the grace of God Tradition Indulgences c. are probably proved by Believers That also the Belief containeth no hurt securely then they are believed Probability also is the most Disbelievers can challenge unsufficient to secure them since the contrary may be true and obliging to Beliefe for though they produce seeming places of Scripture obscure Authority of auntient Fathers endlesse reasonings and disputes satisfactory to few they can convince no more even in their owne judgements then a shew of Probability which all though contradictory equally pretend If then there appeare no harme but probability in the Beliefe Disbelievers are in danger being nearer to that sentence Hee that will not Believe shall bee condemned Wherefore if any endeavour to disprove any such Point of beliefe by Scripture Reason or Authority unlesse they bee so evident that they suffer no Interpretation or solution which is not possible J reject them as impertinent and proving an insufficient Probability which to prevent endlesse Contention J grant and the most that can be expected But withall askes whether they can deny but that the contrary Beliefe is apparently proved by great Authority and probable places of Scripture they must grant it Whence it must needs follow That to Believe is secure and to deny is evidently dangerous Hence that Security which some pretend is manifestly proved to be vaine They say God obligeth not men to impossibilities since then at least the vulgar sort of people cannot discerne those differences wherein Learned men disagree each one may securely rest in that hee hath beene taught believing his Creed c. If wee rely onely upon Arguments out of Scripture the probability of the Believer is onely Secure which is evident notwithstanding the disputable Differences bee not discernable for who cannot discerne a difference betweene Believing and Disbelieving which though they have equall arguments yet they cannot bee equally Secure Probability onely securing Belief But that discourse cleerly convinceth the necessity of a Church as a living rule For God obligeth us not to impossibilities but it is impossible for many to judge between the monstrous differences of private mens interpretations of Gods word Therefore hee obligeth us not to the beliefe of his Word upon that accompt but hath provided a Church which for that end hee protecteth as is