Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	book_n	church_n	word_n	3,782	5	4.3994	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93560	A treatise against images and pictures in churches. And an answer to those who object that the times are changed. Written by George Salteren, Esquire.	Salteren, George.	1641 (1641)	Wing S468; Thomason E163_8; ESTC R431	18,372	39

A TREATISE against IMAGES and PICTURES in Churches And an Answer to those who object that the times are changed Written by George Salteren Esquire LONDON Printed for William Lee and are to be sold at the signe of the Turks head in Fleet-street 1641. A TREATISE against IMAGES and PICTURS in Churches And an Answer to those who object that the Times are changed THe old Serpent the father of lies is still the same he is full of inventions and devises to draw men from god and to bring them to destruction And the wicked heart of man is still like it selfe apt to apprehend whatsoever that Serpent suggesteth so it be pleasing to their depraved dispositions and corrupt affections Although it bee most cleare and evident that the setting up of the pictures of Saints in Churches is 1. no way warranted by the word of God 2. but severely prohibited and condemned 3. And therefore justly accursed by our common prayers 4. And so declared by the doctrine of our Church in the Homilies yet he hath found a shift to say that the Homilies were made for those times namely for the beginning of the Reformation and therefore the more severe but now the times are changed and a milder course is taken As if the whole Authority condemning these vanities and abominations depended only upon the Homilies and not upon the eternall and immurable truth of Gods holy Word and Commandement Let us not deceive our selves for the neglect of Gods Commandements which the Prophet Samuel calleth Rebellion is as the sinne of witchcraft apt to delude and blinde us But they that look into the cleare light of Gods word doe know that the negative precepts of Gods Law Obligant semper ad semper as our Church and all our godly and reverend Bishops and learned Divines in their books allowed authorised and published have taught us These books also agree with the doctrine of the Homilies that the words of Gods Law are to be taken by a Senechdoche speciei pro genere according to the doctrine of our Saviour Mat. 5. And the rules thereupon collected by the learned fathers of the Primitive Church Augustine Isidor c. And therefore the word graven Images must be extended to all Images whether molten carved or painted the word similitude to all kindes of similitude though but in conceit and the word thou shalt not worship nor bow downe to them to all kindes of worship though it bee but setting them in honorabili loco as our Homilies speake out of Saint Augustine And this hath been taught us for truth now almost these 80 yeares together And this truth is not made more strong but more cleare and evident to us by the constant expositions of godly men both before and since the making of the Homilies Vox populi Dei vox Dei est praxis Sanctorum interpres praeceptorum which yet is more manifest by the Lawes Ordinances Canons and Constitutions both Ecclesiasticall and Politick as well consequent as concurrent and by the continuance and renewed confirmations of the Articles and book of Common prayers without alteration or qualification in this point and lastly by the absurdities of the Consequents that must bee inferred upon this new conceit of the change of times For what will or can they say If wee demand when this change was made by whom and by what authority wherein how declared and how accepted was the doctrine of the Homilies true then and is it not so now or was the sense and meaning of the Law of God so then and it is not so now Is the truth of the eternall God mutable and temporary Are Gods Lawes subject to times Or is it not a meere non-sense or contradiction to say that Gods Law was once so to be understood but not so now Why then is the fact and judgement of that learned and godly Bishop Epiphanius together with the consent of S. Hierom. S. Augustine S. Ambrose the Elibertin Councell and all the Primitive Church the Councell of Constantinople the excellent godly Bishops Serenius Nassitiensis Claudius Thaurinensis Guilielmus Miniatensis whereof some with their hands and all with their writings and authority did teare and break downe Pictures and Images of Saints Why are they so highly commended and approved therein by our late godly and learned Bishops and Doctors Iewell of Sarum Hall of Exon. usher of Armagh Peter Martyr Mr. Perkins Doctor Iames Doctor Mayor the Catechist and others some of which books were new printed and set forth within these five yeares last past together with that excellent book of Martyrs ordeined to be set open for every man to read in all Cathedrall Churches and Bishops houses I demand therefore when this change was made that they pretend was it within these three yeares or two or one I demand also by whom or by whose authority For it is manifest and knowne to all the world that the most blessed Queen Elizabeth made none but constantly kept her selfe to her word semper eadem Our most noble and learned king Iames made none but by his Proclamation prefixed before the Common prayerbooke and every yeare new printed most straitly prohibited all Innovations Neither hath our most gratious and pious King Charles made any but by his Declaration before the Articles most severely forbiddeth all alterations and that also within these five yeares Who then are these that will have an Alteration or Innovation And by whose authority or by what meanes have they changed the times Thirdly how hath this change been made instituted or accepted For Leges instituuntur cum promulgantur confirmantur cum moribus utentium approbantur Lawes are then instituted when they are proclaimed and are confirmed when they are observed in the lives of the subjects What hath been done in this kinde Doe they think that Gods Lawes can bee altered by humane inventions or that Lawes once by supreme authority and publick consent made and approved can without equall authority and consent be altered and changed by the conceits of private men If they may by this trick shift off the doctrine of one Homily why not of all the rest why not of the Homily of reading the word of God of Faith of Repentance of Christian love and Charity of good works of Prayers of repairing Churches and lastly also those most godly Homilies of obedience and against disobedience and Rebellion and so set every mans conscience at liberty Yea why may they not proceed from the Homilies and by the same reason reverse also the consecrations of our Bishops and ordinations of our Ministers and all the Articles Canons and Constitutions Lawes and Statutes aswell of the Church as of the State and so bring all to confusion For if one Homily that hath been now these 80. yeares almost approved and by so many Canons and constitutions may now so easily be rejected and annulled why not all the rest If one Article may be so vacated why not all And if this setting

simulacrorum ad cultum simpliciten numerat inter Deos alienos ita prohibet at nullus elustoni aut acceptioni locus esse possit Et infra in statuis enim per statuas seu ad statuas seu imagines Deus nec se nec Angelos nec Sanctos nec ullam creaturam vult coli The use of Images for service is by God simply reckoned amongst strange Gods and therefore he prohibiteth all manner of delusions or exceptions And further for God will not have himselfe nor his Angels nor Saints nor any creature worshipped either in statues by statues or before statues or Images And againe he citeth another sentence of Epiphanius in these words Estote memores ne in Ecclesias Imagines inferatis neque in Sanctorum Caemiteriis eas statuatis sed perpetuò circumferte Deum in cordibus vestris Quin etiam ne in Domo communi tolerentur Non enim fas est Christianum per oculos suspensum teneri sed per occupationem mentis Be you carefull that you bring no Images into Churches nor into the Chappels of Gods people but alwayes carry God in your hearts for it is not lawfull that a Christian should be held in businesses of the eye but in contemplation of the minde Mark what he saith that it is not lawfull by Gods Law which is signified by the word Fas fas jus divinum est that a Christian should be held by the eyes but by the contemplation of his minde But our common Catechismes allowed and often printed most plainly teach the same doctrine namely the Catechisme called Mr. Balls Catechisme the eighth Edition 1631. page 176. upon the second Commandement to this Question What is here forbidden He answereth inter alia making of Images for a religious use Levit. 19.4 and 26.1 worshipping God in at or before an Image 1 King 19. will-worship grounded only upon good intent or custome Mat. 15.19 Col. 2. So the learned Catechisme of Doctor Mayer not only allowed but commanded in the fourth Edition 1630. page 212. What are wee forbidden in the second Commandement Answ All outward Idolatry which is 1. By making any Image of God or of any creature to bee worshipped 2. By falling downe before any Image 3. By serving God after our owne santasies and page 216. The second kinde of Idolatry is the falling downe before an Image whether with an intention the better to be put in minde of God or of any Saint or by bowing before the Image to give worship to the thing represented or ignorantly only according to the tradition of the fathers For howsoever or under what pretence soever if the knee be religiously bowed before any Image Idolatry is committed and this Commandement broken So the reverend Doctor Mayer with the consent of all our Church to which must be added that it is a point of Gods glory and worship to be alone in his holy Temple before whom not only all the earth must be silent Hab. 2.20 but the most holy Angels Cherubins and Seraphins must hide their faces and cover themselves yea both heaven and earth must flie away before him Apo. 20.11 And therfore in his Temple before him only we must performe those duties which the Prophet David so often calleth us to doe namely to come before him only to bow before him to kneele before him to worship before him to speak before him to sing before him Psal 95.96.98.100 c. even before him only in whose Temple all things must set forth his glory Psal 29.9 and who hath most solemnely sworne that he will not give his glory to any other Esa 42. For the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim hee shall bee wrath as in the valley of Gibeon that he may doe his work his strange work and performe his act his strange act Esa 28. Let us therefore returne and apply this to the sentence of the Scripture pronounced in our Common prayer book and expounded in our Homilies Cursed are the worshippers of Images And againe Deut. 27. Cursed is he that maketh the blinde to goe out of the way This curse is read and repeated in our Churches yearly Martii 6. and upon every Ashwednesday by the Canon of our Common prayer book and is thus applied by our Church in her Homily Hom. 3. against Idols pag. 55. I will out of Gods word make this generall argument against all such makers maintainers and setters up of Images in publick places And first of all I will begin with the words of our Saviour Christ Woe bee to that man by whom an offence is given Woe be to him that offendeth one of these little ones or weak ones Better were it for him that a mil-stone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the middest of the sea and drowned than hee should offend one of these little ones or weak ones And in Deut. God himselfe denounceth him accursed that maketh the blinde to wander out of the way And in Levit. Thou shalt not lay a stumbling block or stone before the blinde But Images in Churches and Temples have been bee and ever will bee offences and stumbling blocks especially to the weak simple and blinde common people deceiving their hearts by the cunning of the Artificer as the Scriptures expresly in sundry places doe testifie and so bringing them to Idolatry therefore woe bee to the erecter setter up and maintainer of Images in Churches and Temples Article 22. Anal. Propos 3. The Romish doctrine concerning Images is fond and not warranted by the holy Scripture nor consonant but contrary unto it Proofes out of the word of God Images are such an abomination to the Lord as to make them among all men odious he describeth the vanity of them by his Prophets as that they are the doctrine of vanity the work of errors the teachers of lies silver and gold the work of mens hands vanity c. He giveth a straight commandement not to bow down to them nor worship them not to make them to flie from them yea to destroy both Images themselves the Idolaters and the enticers to Idolatry Hee commendeth greatly and praiseth such men as have destroyed Images c. He finally curseth the Images themselves the Image-makers and the Image-servers or worshippers This Exposition of the Article above said is confirmed by all our Church and so published And his Majesty by his Declaration hath ratified these Articles commanding all his Subjects to continue in the uniforme profession of the same prohibiting the least difference from them and declaring that all the Clergy men within his Realme agree in the usuall literall meaning of the said Articles Which usuall literall meaning can be no other than that which is allowed by the authority of the Church of England and so published and namely upon the 22 Article in the words above Bishop Hall in his book of the old Religion cap. 10. commendeth the fact of Epiphanius and his famous Epistle which saith he is