Selected quad for the lemma: opinion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
opinion_n	church_n	council_n	trent_n	1,107	5	10.4717	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50855	A sermon preached on the Feast of the Annunciation of the B. Virgin Mary, at St. Martins in the Fields, Westminster by John Mill ...	Mill, John, 1645-1707.	1676 (1676)	Wing M2059; ESTC R14945	14,174	34

for his Inconsiderate Zeal See thou do it not says the Angel I am thy Fellow servant and of thy Brethren that have the Testimony of Iesus Worship God And certainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if the Blessed Virgin now in Heaven have any Knowledge of what is done here below if she sees the many Shrines and Altars erected to her and hears the Prayers and Devotions offer'd up continually by stupid and superstitious Votaries she cannot but infinitely disdain the Religious Homage paid her so much in Derogation to God and his Christ A Worship which has not the least countenance from Sacred Writ there being in those holy Books neither Precept nor Example of Devotion in this kind Our Saviour is so far from enjoyning the Worshipping of Her that he restrains upon all occasions all extravagant apprehensions of the Honour due to her as foreseeing the proneness of succeeding Ages to Superstition in this matter When he was told that his Mother and his Brethren stood without Who saith he are my Mother and my Brethren He that doth the Will of my Father the same is my Mother and Sister and Brother And when the Woman brake forth into that Rapture concerning the Blessed Mother of our Lord Blessed is the Womb that bare Thee and the Paps which Thou hast sucked Our Saviour diverts it to another thing Yea rather blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it Nor do the Apostles give us the least advice of addressing our selves to the Virgin and making use of her Intercession nay they have not so much as once mentioned her Name in all their Epistles Now if the Worship of the Blessed Virgin had been a thing in practise from the beginning can it with any colour of reason be imagin'd that our Saviour and his Apostles would have been silent in so considerable a part of Religion The truth is 't is so far from Apostolic or Primitive that neither the Scriptures nor the Christian Writers for the first three hundred years give any countenance at all to this sort of Devotion To be plain This Superstitious Practice began about the middle of the fourth Century and Epiphanius who liv'd about that time particularly calls it as he might have done a great many more The Heresie of Women There were in his days certain devout Women of Arabia who as an instance of their Worship of the Blessed Virgin offer'd up to this Queen of Heaven as they thought her certain Cakes call'd Collyrides whence they had the name of Collyridian Heretiques The Good Father hearing of this preposterous Devotion of theirs inveighs with all possible vehemency against that Superstitious Practice accounting it Damnable and Diabolical and the Persons devoted to it no better than those that attend to Seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Daemons And then he states the Worship due to the Virgin Mary thus Mary says he was a Virgin 't is true nay more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very Honourable Virgin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but she is not propos'd to us as an Object of Religious Worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the same Father Though Mary be a most Excellent Holy and Venerable Woman yet is she by no means capable of a Religious Adoration And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the Virgin be Reverenc'd but God only Worshipp'd So Zealous was Epiphanius in the matter of the Virgins Invocation a piece of Superstition before his time not known in the World What would he have said had he seen this Idolatry of Worshipping the Virgin of calling upon her and imploring her Mediation with Christ grown into such a general Reputation as to be Universally Practis'd and Establish'd by the Law of a Church which Glories in the style of Catholic His Spirit undoubtedly upon Observation of the Churches Shrines and Altars Erected to her Devotion as St. Pauls once was would have been stirr'd within him when he should have seen not only one particular City but a whole Church wholly given to this and many other Branches of Idolatry The Idols or Images set up in Honour of the Blessed Virgin being infinitely more numerous than those the great Apostle saw at Athens and both made use of to the same Religious Ends and Purposes Indeed the Romish Superstition relating to the Blessed Mary as 't is now practis'd is infinitely too gross and absurd to be in any tolerable manner accounted for and justified 'T is wholly Anti-Scriptural and 't is evident the Church of Christ knew nothing at all of it for above three hundred years after our Saviour Alas The several Periods of the Rise and Growth of this Superstitious Folly and Will-Worship as to all the parts of it are too notorious to allow it the least Pretensions to Antiquity The Council of Ephesus towards the beginning of the fourth Century gave her indeed the style of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mother of God in Opposition to the Nestorian Heresie And I know very well that in the Ages immediately succeeding they fell to making lofty and unreasonably high Harangues in her Commendation But 't was above a thousand years after Christ before any Daily Office was Instituted to Her And a long time after that was it ere the Doctrine of her Immaculate Conception appear'd in the World The Canons of Lyons are the first Men upon Record who inserted that Doctrine into their Ecclesiastical Offices and are upon that account sharply reprehended by St. Bernard About three hundred years ago Duns Scotus a School-Doctor reviv'd That Opinion and propos'd it as a thing meerly probable In favour of it Pope Sixtus the Fourth afterwards Published a Bull which was finally Approv'd and Ratifi'd by the Council of Trent So that She now passes among the Romanists if they be true to the Decrees of their Church for a Virgin perfectly free from Original Sin not to mention the several other Prerogatives and Perfections they have out of very great kindness doubtless fix'd upon Her They style her in their Missals and Offices The Queen of Heaven The Empress of the World The Ladder of Paradise The Gate of Salvation The Mediatrix between God and Man The Saviour by whom God hath sent Redemption unto his People A Goddess The Omnipotent Lady c. And the peculiar Offices which have been instituted to her are so extreamly Wild and Blasphemous that I cannot mention what they speak of the Virgin without offence to this Intelligent and Noble Auditory A Cardinal of the Romish Church who Compiled the Ladies Psalter as they call it has taken the liberty very fairly to Burlesque the Psalms of David and roundly to apply and direct to the Holy Virgin all those Noble Hymns and most Pious Ejaculations and Prayers which the Royal Psalmist presented to Almighty God So Indiscreet a Thing is Superstition that whilst it labours to Gratifie and Please God it blindly falls upon such means in order thereto as do most highly disoblige and