A92138:407
The divine right of church-government and excommunication
The divine right of church-government and excommunication: or a peaceable dispute for the perfection of the holy scripture in point of ceremonies and church government; in which the removal of the Service-book is justified, the six books of Tho: Erastus against excommunication are briefly examined; with a vindication of that eminent divine Theod: Beza against the aspersions of Erastus, the arguments of Mr. William Pryn, Rich: Hooker, Dr. Morton, Dr. Jackson, Dr. John Forbes, and the doctors of Aberdeen; touching will-worship, ceremonies, imagery, idolatry, things indifferent, an ambulatory government; the due and just powers of the magistrate in matters of religion, and the arguments of Mr. Pryn, in so far as they side with Erastus, are modestly discussed. To which is added, a brief tractate of scandal ... / By Samuel Rutherfurd, Professor of Divinity in the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Published by authority.The divine right of church-government and excommunication: or a peacable dispute for the perfection of the holy scripture in point of ceremonies and church government; in which the removal of the Service-book is justifi'd, the six books of Tho: Erastus against excommunication are briefly examin'd; with a vindication of that eminent divine Theod: Beza against the aspersions of Erastus, the arguments of Mr. William Pryn, Rich: Hooker, Dr. Morton, Dr. Jackson, Dr. John Forbes, and the doctors of Aberdeen; touching will-worship, ceremonies, imagery, idolatry, things indifferent, an ambulatory government; the due and just powers of the magistrate in matters of religion, and the arguments of Mr. Pryn, in so far as they side with Erastus, are modestly discussed. To which is added, a brief tractate of scandal ... / By Samuel Rutherfurd, Professor of Divinity in the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Published by authority.
London: printed by John Field for Christopher Meredith, 1646
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
else we should put on it the honour due to God: But if the Council mean, They have no divinity in them, but by way of representation, because they be Vicaria dei signa, signes resembling the Creator God; Now if this be denied, the images must be naked memorials before which people do adore God, as Mirandula, Durandus and others said, and yet latter Papists say more of their own Images: But I would have it remembered, that there be two sorts of deputed or Vicar-Images; some that do only signify, as the darkness of the Sky going before the morning light in the East, that doth nothing at all which the morning light doth, but nakedly signifieth that the Sun is rising: There be other Depute signs that can exercise acts,1 which the sampler would do, if it were present, as the deputy is not a naked Vicar or depute sign of the King, for he doth not only signify the Kings mind, but can do Royal Acts in the Kings name: Images are depute signs of God, of the first sort, that do only rub the memory and understanding, and therefore deserve no honour except the honour due to the means of worship, as the Bible, Sacraments, which deserve not Adoration, but only a Negative Reverence, or a not despising or contemptuous handling of them, Images being unlawful means, and not Commanded of God, deserve no Veneration at all; and though it be true, that the Ambassador deserve Princely Honour, for the Princes Place, whom he representeth; yet he can act the person of the Prince, and is not a naked deputed ⟨p. 159⟩sign, but Images are therefore convinced to be unlawful deputies representing (as Idolaters made them to be, Isa. 40. 18. Isa. 46. 6, 7.) Because they can do no acts at all, nor exercise any actions proper to the sampler, for Psal. 115. v. 6. They have mouths, but they speak not, eyes they have, but they see not, 7. They have ears, but they hear not; and therefore should not be trusted in, as in means and deputed representations of God, for which cause the Prophet inferreth ver. 8. They that made them, are like unto them, so are every one that trusteth in them. ver. 9. O Israel trust thou in the Lord. Therefore Religious trusting in them is Idolatry: But the Canon of Trent saith this same of their Images, to wit, that there be no Godhead or virtue in them. 2.