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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63841	A discourse concerning the worship of images preached before the University of Oxford, on the 24th of May, 1686 / by George Tullie Sub-Dean of Tork, &c for which he was suspended.	Tullie, George, 1652?-1695.	1689 (1689)	Wing T3237; ESTC R6237	23,894	41

sign and indication of but naturally consequent upon the former and as absolutely requisite as is the publick external exercise of Religion the greater advancement of God's Glory and the acknowledgment of his superiority over one part of us as well as another it being necessary if for no other reason to glorifie God in our Bodies as well as Spirits because they are both God's and an unanswerable argument that external actions must bear a part in the due performance of Religious Worship is this That otherwise we could never be certain of any false Worship in the World since the internal actions of the mind do not fall of themselves within human cognizance As to the former part of this Worship the internal veneration and submission of our Souls there is no doubt at all but that he who gives that to Creatures or any Images of them gives them Religious Worship with a witness the only difficulty lies in the external actions of the Body as Bowing of the Head Genuflexion c. which being capable of different Constructions Civil as well as Religious the main point of our present enquiry must be how to know when such actions become of a Religious signification for when they do so they become acts of external Adoration which the common notions of mankind ever since the world began have determin'd to be parts of Religious Worship And whence I pray should such actions take the particular denomination of Religious but from what Physical Actions receive any other appellations and that is either positive appropriation to such an use or from the Circumstances of Time Place Occasion Object and the like as well as intention of him that does them Thus for instance acts of Sacrifice and Incense become acts of Religious Worship because God appropriated them to his Service Thus the Prostration which the Devil requir'd of our Saviour was by him interpreted Religious Worship because the occasion was argument enough that he could demand no other Thus tho a man may kneel bow his head or incline his body to his Friend his Father or his King and still keep within the bounds of Civil Decency and Decorum yet if he should use the Solemn Rites appointed for a Religious Performance consecrate his friend place him not only in the Church but upon the Altar and at the set times of Prayer there pay the same external acts of respect to him no man would stick to pronounce them religious from the natural notions we have of such actions so circumstantiated accordingly we find St. Austin in one place insisting upon the particular circumstance of placing their Statues over the Altar to prove that the Heathens constructively took them for Gods i. e. gave them Divine Worship Quod numen habeant pro numine accipiant illam statuam ara testatur c. Nemo mihi dieat non é Deus non é numen for it seems they stood upon the goodness of their Intentions too utinam ipsi sic norint says he quomodo nos novimus sed quid habeant pro quâ re habeant ara testatur Thus again when S. John in an Extacy fell down at the Feet of the Angel that action likewise came under the notion of Religious Worship which he bid him therefore give to God because the Angel the Object to which it was done was of a nature Superior in Power and Perfection to his own For such respects proceeding not from any civil Relations to such beings of which they are not capable but from a strange awful Apprehension of some secret Power and Superiority they have over us they partake of the formal Reason of the Worship of God himself and must therefore be look'd upon as Religious Upon the same ground doubtless did St. Peter interpret the Worship Cornelius gave him to be Religious from the extraordinary Sentiments which he saw he had of his Person as of one above the Power and Perfection of humane Nature as sufficiently appears from the Apostles bidding him stand up for that he also was a man Acts 10. And thus all mankind naturally judg of such Actions without the least Hesitancy or Demur tho perhaps they never state the Point unless upon occasion nor attend to the reasons why they do so And what has been said of such Actions in relation to animate Beings will for the very same reasons hold good of them when performed with regard to the Images of such Beings besides that the Worship of the Images being referr'd to the thing represented it must of necessity be the same and not a different kind of Worship Thus much then for the Explication of the term of Religious Worship The next and most natural advance now is to examine whether or no by the Authentick Doctrine and the best authorized Practice of the Church of Rome any such Worship given to Images And first I shall examine them in relation to the first and principal part of it the internal Veneration and Submission of the mind This I presume being the most considerable Part of that worship they are pleas'd to call Latria for that as the second Council of Nice describes it is done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Spirit or Mind That St. Thomas as the Phrase is and his numerous Adherents determin'd the worship of Latria and consequently the most interior Devotion of the mind to be given to the Images of Christ is notoriously known and yet St. Thomas may vye with any Bishop in Europe in Approbations from Rome witness the Elogies and noble Testimonies concerning him and his Doctrine by John the 22 d who Canoniz'd him by Paul the 5th Innocent the 6th Clement the 8th Vrban the 5th Pius 5th in their several Bulls or other Discourses relating to this Saint But because Testimonials signify nothing perhaps when urg'd the wrong way and that reason is altogether as satisfactory to those they call Hereticks as a naked Authority I shall show That this Opinion of Aquinas is undeniably consequent both upon the Doctrine and Practice of their Church First Upon the Doctrine The reason assign'd for the Worship of Images in the Council of Trent is Because the Honour which is exhibited to them is referr'd or as the second Council of Nice more clearly expresses it does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pass on or go through to the Prototypes which they represent Now says Aquinas who quotes this Reason from Damasus the Worship that is given to the Prototype Christ himself is certainly latria and consequently so must that be too which is given to his Image for otherwise how can the Worship be said to be referr'd to or pass on from the One to the Other if it be not the same but a different sort of Worship A Reasoning this as old as the second Council of Nice it self where it is urg'd without the least Contradiction by John the Vicar of the Oriental Bishops and they may refute it at their

leisure unless by a modern sort of Logick it be Answer sufficient to disavow a Consequence evidently deduc'd from Principles allow'd i. e. to hold fast the Premisses and yet deny the Conclusion But secondly this Doctrine of Aquinas is most undeniably consequent upon the Practice of the Church the best Comment upon her Doctrine and that in relation particularly to the Images of the Cross where I shall need only barely to relate the Prayers addressed to them and then leave any man to judge whether or no the great Doctor of the Schools and his Followers who expresly found their Opinion thereupon concerning the latria that is to be given them did not argue like Men of both that Sincerity and Logick which were to be desir'd in later Writers of that Communion In their Breviary then of as good Authority as the Council of Trent could make it by whose Order it was restored we find this Hymn to the Cross Arbor decora fulgida for I 'll repeat the words in their own Language for fear of a Misrepresentation ornata Regis purpurá electa digno stipite tam sancta Membra tangere O Crux ave spe●●●ita in hoc Paschali gaudio ange piis justitiam reisque doua veniam To which the Antiphona subjoyns O Crux splendidior cunctis astris mundo celebris hominibus multum amabilio sanctior universis quae sola fuisti digna portare talentum mundi dulce lignum dulces clavos dulcia ferens pondera salva presentem catervam in tuis hodie laudibus congregatam Where the Crux the Arbor decora electa digno stipite and the dulce lignum to which these notable Petitions are addressed are so expresly distinguish'd from the sancta membra the talentum mundi and dulcia pondera which they bore upon them that 't is not in the power of all the Figures in Rhetorick to construe them as put up to Christ himself unless Christ may be stil'd the Cross the Tree the Wood chosen of a worthy Trunk as well as the Person that hung upon it And but to add one word more The Rubrick in the Pontifical determining the manner of Procession at the Reception of the Emperour orders the Cross of the Legate to have the Right-hand quia debetur ei latria without any distinction or farther explication of the term If to what I have prov'd from Authorities very little inferiour to a positive Decree of Council be oppos'd the silence of the Trent-Fathers in the matter and I see nothing else at present that can be objected I answer First That their silence in a Point which they ought to have condemn'd had they disliked ought certainly to pass for a tacite Approbation Secondly That I have already made it appear from the Reason of Image Worship assign'd in the very Decree of the Council that the Images of Christ are to be worship'd with latria the most proper Divine Worship imaginable Thirdly That they still retain'd those Prayers and Hymns to the Cross which the best Heads of that Communion grounded their Opinions upon as is evident from the Breviary restored by their Order publish'd and revis'd since by several of their Popes And fourthly and lastly That the Council plainly enough countenances this Doctrine as well as any other for defining only in general That due Worship and Veneration is to be given them any man certainly may give the Images of Christ and the Cross the Worship of latria who thinks it their due especially when back'd with the Practice of the Church the best Expositor of what the Council meant by their due Worship And thus much in proof That the internal Veneration of the Mind is paid to Images After which it will be no hard matter to prove that the acts of external Adoration are perform'd to them likewise tho upon the account of their relation to their Originals which alters not the Object but only the Reason of such Worship And for this I might appeal not only to the Epistle of Tarasius Patriarch of Constantinople at the time of the second Nicene Council to Constantine and Irene besides infinite other places but to the very Definition of that Council in the seventh Action where they are anathematiz'd who deny it I only observe that the word by which the Council expresses such Worship is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same whereby the Holy Ghost stil'd that which the Devil requir'd of our Saviour which Tarasius in the forementioned Epistle explains by the exterior actions of Kissing Bowing Prostration c. the internal signification of which Actions he there affirms to be improv'd and augmented by the addition of the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the obsolete Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all which that Council adds in its very Definition the burning of Lights and Incense As for the Synod of Trent which confirms it the Fathers there expresly decree the exterior acts of Adoration to be done to Images The Trent-Catechism tells us they are plac'd in the Church ut colantur that they may be worship'd The Pontifical informs us That in the Benediction of a new Cross the Priest flexis ante crucem genibus ipsam devotè adorat osculatur The Choir sings upon a Good-Friday upon uncovering the Cross to the People Venite adoremus which they accordingly perform by Prostration and such-like Actions The Head of the Church himself good Man on that day goes between two Cardinals ad adorandum to adore the Cross says the Ceremonial bowing himself in great humility to it Now all these exterior actions being perform'd with all the Formalities Occasions Circumstances and Solemnities which the common sense of Mankind pronounces sufficient to denominate them Religious as at set Times of Religious Worship fix'd Places of it in Temples and before Altars with burning of Lights oblation of Incense and with Intention of worshiping the Image thereby for otherwise 't is all but Mockery and Grimace as several of their own Authors irrefragably argue and a Man only plays the fool with an Image for the sake of its Original such Actions I say must therefore inevitably fall under the Notion of Religious Adoration a necessary part of Religious Worship and consequently Religious Worship as it relates to the actions of both Body and Mind is given to Images themselves in the Church of Rome But because these Men have sought out many Inventions to vacate rather the force of this Law than totally to recede from a Doctrine and Practice repugnant to it when once decreed by Infallible Church let us in the last place briefly examine how they qualifie the matter and palliate the Cure which they resolve not to perfect And first as to the Images of the Trinity which he must be a very bold man who affirms it unlawful either to make or to worship in the Church of Rome they tell us That they are not intended for Representations of the Divine Nature as it is in it self