Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	spiritual_a	worship_n	worship_v	1,653	5	9.0507	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35023	A letter written to a friend concerning Popish idolatrie	Croft, Herbert, 1603-1691.	1674 (1674)	Wing C6968; ESTC R3785	21,890	35

conferred by the true God yet broken down when worshipped contrary to this Commandment And I pray you observe how this Serpent is ranked with the Images and Groves and other Idolatrous things destroyed by good Hezekiah And what was the Idolatrous Worship given to this Brazen Serpent They did burn Incense to it the very same the Papist Priests do to their Images of Christ the blessed Virgin and Saints And ought they not likewise to be broken down as well as the Brazen Serpent set up in honour of the true God and which is more by the special Command of the true God which the Papists have not for their Images Yet Dr. Thorndick will needs have it that there is no fear of Idolatry among Christians now though we now see such gross Idolatry committed by them 'T is evident then that this Commandment concerns Christians as well as Jews and all Mankind for give me lieve to say that all Mankind always were and will be prone to Idolatry as appeared by the gross Idolatrous Worship of the wisest Heathens of old the Greeks and Romans the Chineses and Papists now We are by nature very sensual much pleased with sensible things but averse to spiritual To worship God in Spirit and in Truth is a sublime thing far above Nature this will always incline men to Idolatry and to worship God by sensible things by Pictures and Images contrary to his Command And you may be sure the Devil will be more forward to tempt Christians to it than ever he was to tempt Jews or Heathens his malice being more against us which makes our danger of Idolatry greater than theirs being as prone by Nature and more tempted by the Devil This made St. Austin very averse to Image-worship and gives the reason in his Tract on Psal. 113. Plus valent Simulacra ad curvandam infoelicem animam c. Images having the appearance of men with eyes ears mouths hands and the like do more deprave the minds of their Worshippers and more encline them to Idolatry than they are rectified and kept from Idolatry in that the Image doth not really see hear speak and the like 'T is strange the Papists will allow this holy Father for a Doctor and Saint of the Church for no man in the World can argue more against their Image-worship than he doth ' t is true his whole Discourse was intended against the Heathens because at that time there were no Christians that made use of Images by way of Worship as now the Papists do but his Arguments are as clearly and fully against the Papists now as they were against the Heathen then The Heathens then told St. Austin that they did not worship the Idol it self but the Deity represented by it just as the Papists say now and St. Austin in effect replies to both Let them excuse the matter how they please yet their practice was abominable for saith he the worshipping of any thing by an Image doth soon bring the Worshippers to forget the thing represented and apply their whole Worship to the Statue representing and come by degrees to be so affected to it as to believe the very Statue sees hears and furnishes them with those things they pray for The people set up a Statue in honour to the Sun and at length turn their backs to the Sun but their faces to the Statue pray offer Incense sacrifice and perform all their devotions to that Here you have St. Austin's Opinion of Statue and Picture-worship how by degrees it draws away the hearts of men from the Persons represented by them and brings them at length to worship the Statues themselves And this Idolatrous inclination of the people is very much advanced by the Popish Writers who in their Legends mention several Statues and Pictures which have moved and spoken to their Worshippers and thereby have made the silly people run a madding and as the Scripture phrases it run a whoring after their Idols So that St. Austin's Opinion is as fully verified among the Papist Christians as ever it was among Heathens as you will see by that which follows When our late King of blessed memory went into Spain several of this Nation were Eye-witnesses of what I now relate At Madrid upon a Festival-day of the Blessed Virgin the Bishop Priests with hundreds of Monks and Friars and many thousands of the City went in solemn Procession carrying an Image of the Blessed Virgin under a rich Canopy of State born by several Noble persons with innumerable Torches and Wax-candles born by others the Priests and Religious Orders singing the Litany made to her the houses and streets all along garnished and here and there at the house of some great person much devoted to her was erected an Altar most splendidly adorned upon which the Image was set down to rest and some Hymn made to her was there sung mean while the Bishop and Priests putting Incense on Censers offer it up to her At length they came to a large place where was an Altar on the one side and a Theater on the other magnificently set forth the Image was placed on the Altar the Bishop Priests c. attending the Actors come forth on the Theater and begin a holy Comedy the people eager Spectators forgetting their duty to their Lady on the Altar flock round about the Theater the Officers of Misrule with great indignation fall on the people fiercely and forcing them to give place make a Lane from the Altar to the Theater that their Lady might have a full view of the Play a pleasant Comedy indeed and made all our English Protestants very merry but some of the discreeter English Papists there present were much troubled at this supposing with good reason it would be laid home to their charge as gross Idolatry for just as Saint Austin saith by the Papists great Devotion to this Statue they came to believe it had seeing Eyes and hearing Ears and so partakes much of this Comical entertainment and if so truly the Officers had just cause of indignation to see the people so rudely rush between their Lady and the Theater In the word of a Christian I affirm that one of the discreeter English Papists there present told me this passage and therefore there can be no doubt of the truth In the principla Church at Rome dedicated to the Blessed Virgin called Sancta Maria Majore The great holy Mary is a most stately high Altar and a little above it in the Wall is made a hollow place like a Cabinet where is reserved a Picture reported to be made by St. Luke which is commonly shut up but upon the special Feasts of the Blessed Virgin 't is exposed to view with store of goodly rich silver Lamps burning before it the smoak whereof hath black'd and quite defaced the Picture is it therefore cast away into the fire mark on the Door of this Cabinet is another fresh and excellent Picture lively representing the Blessed Virgin yet

see most clearly set down by St. Austin in his Eighth and Tenth Books de Civ Dei where he particularly enumerates the parts of Divine Worship as Sacrifice Invocation Dedication of Churches and Altars Oblations and Vows which the Scripture appropriates to God all which the Greeks saith he comprise in one word viz. Latreia but the Latins have not any one word of full signification to express it and then St. Austin flatly denies that the Christians do give Latreia that is any part of this Divine Worship to the Saints and there challenges the Heathens to prove the contrary if they can Whereas 't is as evident as the Sun at noon-day that the Papists do give not one but all those parts of Divine Worship called in general Latreia unto their Saints unless it be the sacrificing of Beasts this they reserve to God alone and truly he is much beholding to them for it they will give unto him the flesh of Bulls Rams Goats but unto the Saints their own their Hearts and Lips the Saints shall have their living holy and acceptable Sacrifice the very Soul of the Sacrifice and God shall have the dead Body even stinking in his divine nostrils which his Soul loaths and abhorrs as he hath often declared in his holy Word It was the devout prayer of the heart that sanctified and made acceptable the sacrifice of the Beasts without which they were an abomination unto God and are now in the pure times of the Gospel wholly laid aside and the Calves of our Lips and of our Hearts and Souls is the sacrifice of Christians and the principal part of Divine Worship Now I ask a Papist was it lawful for the Jews to sacrifice Beasts to Angels or deceased Patriarchs the very chiefest of them Noah Abraham Moses had not this been Idolatry in them who can deny it and why had this been Idolatry Because Sacrifice is a Divine Worship and to give Divine Worship to any Creature is Idolatry Is it not much more Idolatry to give unto Michael Gabriel Abraham Moses the purer the holier the diviner part of God's Service the Worship of Prayer is not this greater Idolatry can any man of sence deny it and yet this more holy part more divine Sacrifice the Papists give unto their Saints and in sum there is not any one thing that true Christians do or can do to God but the Papists do the very same to Saints and transcendently to the Blessed Virgin to whom the generality of the Papists pay ten times as much devotion as to God and are so far from being reproved for it as they are encouraged to it by their greatest Doctors I cannot but wonder at the grossand ridiculous mistake or rather abuse in wresting of St. Austin's word Latreia which he puts as a general word comprising all parts of Divine Worship but the Papists turn it quite to another sence and will understand thereby the Belief wherewith they worship which is not at all to St. Austin's purpose for there he mentions not any thing of Belief but Matter of Fact viz. what Worship is and ought to be given to God only as invocation by Prayer Dedication of Churches Altars Oblations Vows all which in St. Austin's sence is Latreia and all this the Papists give to the Blessed Virgin and Saints But say the Papists they do not give this with Latreia that is they do not believe them Gods when they worship them which they cannot do as I shewed before And thus they give them Latreia but not with Latreia Divine Worship but not with Divine Worship a most ridiculous juggling foppery Perchance a Similitude may make this matter plainer thus The King makes a Law that it shall be Treason punishable with death to give Kingly honours to a subject and then declares what he means by Kingly honours as to set a Crown on his head to call him Majesty to erect for him a Chair of State to serve him on the Knee c. all which the King comprizes in one word Royalty and as I said makes it treason to give Royalty to any Subject Now the Earl of Kent to whom the people of that Country are much devoted comes thither to a Gentlemans House who the more to magnifie this great Earl sets a Crown on his head calls him Majesty erects him a Chair of State serves him on the knee c. my Gentleman is called in question accused of Treason for giving Royalty to the Earl the Gentleman confesses all the Fact but pleads that he did not believe the Earl to be King nor did intend to set him up as King but only to give him all the honour he could 't is true he gave him Royalty in every part but not with Royalty the King though full of indignation for such a bold presumption and total breach of his Law burst out into laughter at the Gentleman 's ridiculous Plea and answers the Gentleman Well you gave your honured Earl all the honour due to me you gave him Royalty but not with Royalty so you shall die the death of a Traytor but not as a Traytor I suppose we shall at the day of Judgment hear the Papists subtil Doctors make this rare plea and excuse for their Idolatry and distinguish the point 't is true they gave the Saints Latreia but not with Latreia and I fear we shall hear their heavy doom for it Alas poor wretches the plain Text of Scripture must then take place the subtil Distinctions of Aquinas and Scotus will then be ridiculous and eternally deplorable folly 1 Cor. 1. 20. Where is the wise where is the scribe where is the disputer of this world hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world God of his infinite mercy open their eyes to see and bewail this their dangerous folly The plain and clear Truth is this They worship the Saints and chiefly the Blessed Virgin just as God or rather more than God it will be no excuse to say they do not believe her to be the very God nor call her God for as I shewed before 't is not the belief nor the calling her God makes it Idolatry but the giving her the Worship due to God And for the fuller convicton of the Papists I pray observe that though they do not call her in that very express word God yet they give her words and titles fully declaring her a Goddess as much or more than the Heathens did their Goddesses all which I cannot doubt but she fully detests her Humility being as great as her Dignity and indeed raised her to it as she expresses in her Magnificat That God regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden surely then she cannot but abhorr that they should call her Queen of Heaven and make Oblations to her so expresly declared Idolatry in Scripture Jer. 7. 18. They make their supplications and call upon her in time of trouble and even in the point of death which God expresly requires to