Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	according_a	church_n	word_n	2,966	5	4.1215	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48362	A reply to the Answer made upon the three royal papers	Dryden, John, 1631-1700.; Leyburn, John, 1620-1702.	1686 (1686)	Wing L1941; ESTC R9204	29,581	64

with truth cast it in the Teeth of the Church of England that she disobey'd her Mother Church whether she were Infallible or not the Church of England can never justly charge them with any disobedience to her But some Heads of the Roman Church have been not barely suspected of Heresie for one of them stands condemned for it in three General Councils But what 's this to the King's Reason who in neither of his Papers as I can see defends any Man from the possibility of falling into Heresie Not to multiply Disputes nor to recede from the King's Papers I shall not dive deeper into the Question Whether the Church of England be a true Church or no since the King did not Yet I could reply to this brisk Gentleman as St. Austin by me already cited did to the Donatists That all that he has raked together if it should be allowed to be in the Church of England yet something would be wanting to make her a true Church Well then what is the Church of England charged with 'T is thus says the King She would fain have it thought that they are Judges in matters spiritual yet dare not say positively there is no Appeal from them His Reply is from a Parity Betwixt Inferiour and Superiour Courts where both are truly Judges yet there lyes an Appeal from an Inferiour to a Superiour Court and he instances in Courts both Spiritual and Temporal But the Parity is very lame for the Church of England supposes her self nor inferiour to any other Church nor will she submit to any others Dictamen as things stand consequently as things stand she is the last Tribunal of Spiritual Doctrine In the next Paragraph the King argues thus What Country can subsist in quiet where there is not a Supreme Judge from whence there can be no Appeal From hence this Gentleman infers that every National Church ought to have the Supreme Power within its self This is no good Illation unless it be in reference to the Church of England which will have no such Superiour to it for the King speaks of a Country over which there is no Jurisdiction out of its self consequently there must be in that Country a Supreme Judge in all Temporal Causes but one Church which is subordinate to another Church and owns her self but a Member of an universal Church in Being cannot be said to be the last Tribunal from whence there can be no Appeal The rest of this Paragraph is a running division upon certain Abuses complain'd of by some Saints which because they may happen in the best of Ages and to the best of Men without prejudice to the lawful Authority of the Church I pass them by and shall make my Observation upon the next Paragraph that whereas the King's Expostulation is We have had these Hundred Years past the sad Effects of denying to the Church that Power in matters Spiritual without Appeal By which Expression as also by the antecedent and consequent Discourses is meant an Appeal to the Universal Church in matters Spiritual as Interpretation of Scripture Delivery of Doctrine Decisions of Faith c. He applies the Context against Personal Appeals to the Pope and then declaims against abuses of those Appeals of which both our own and neighbour Princes have complained and have been forced for the preserving of their own Dignity to set Bounds and Limits to Appeal to Rome But admit the king had intended Appeals to Rome does not this Gentleman by this reply That Princes have limited or bounded these Appeals to Rome own that Princes have believed that Appeals do of Right belong to Rome provided that Power be not abused And if the King himself was likely to suffer the most by them the more was his Integrity in preferring his Conscience before his Interest This Paragraph then is a Counterfeit of the Royal Stamp and so is the next by which the king is also misrepresented for which Reason I shall make no remark upon it Here begins the Kings application of his former Discourse by which this Gentleman may see his Error This is our Case here in England in matters Spiritual for the Protestants are not of the Church of England as it is the true Church from whence there can be no Appeal but because the Discipline of that Church is conformable at the present to their fancies c. He returns thus What Security can be greater than that of our Judgments For he will not have it to be Fancy I Answer That to submit our Judgments to that of the Catholic Church which God has appointed to direct us is the greatest Security we can have and in competition with this all is but Fancy And since he appeals to the whole World whether we have not made it appear that 't is not Fancy but Judgment which hath made us firm to the Church of England He is already cast by as many Votes as there are Men out of the Church of England Their adherence to the Crown of which he speaks is so principal a part of the Church of England as it is established by Law that without it that Church cannot subsist but when the Fancy shall move to change that Religion into Presbytery or any thing else Loyalty is out of Doors Now against those of the Church of Rome the Argument will not have that force for they and their Ancestors ever professing that Church to be their Infallible Mistress and that upon such Motives that nothing would be found more powerful their Judgment is fix't upon such a Basis that for want of it all other Churches which own themselves Fallible that is both apt to deceive and be deceived are but in a Tottering state What follows in this Paragraph is a Recrimination barely censuring without proving some Tenets of the Catholic Church as pure Fancy The Thread of the king's Discourse being still the same He concludes So that according to this Doctrine there is no other Church nor Interpreter of Scripture but which lies in every mans giddy Brain By which he may be assured the king calls that only a giddy Brain which stands in opposition to the great Authority of the Church interpreting Scripture But says the Answerer Let mens Brains be as giddy as they are said to be they are the best Faculties they can make use of for the understanding of Scriptures or any thing else Undoubtedly they are with that Assistance of an infallible Church which God has given them since many things to be understood there are out of the reach of Man's private Reason which he makes use of to find out his Guide being as visible as a City upon a Hill or a Light on a Candlestick and then submits to her Interpretation of Scriptures so that the infallible Church lies not in every Man 's giddy Brain but is as visible as the Sun Upon the winding up of this Discourse the king desires to know of every Serious Considerer of these things whether

so she either out of some disgust or for reasons best known to her self did not so well relish the advice given her by the Bishop of Winchester Had she no Body else to consult If she had there is no reason to charge her with the not using ordinary means unless this Gentleman has a Revelation for it After this he cites the following discourse of her Royal Highness That she spoke severally to two of the best Bishops we have in England who both told her there were many things in the Roman Church which it were much to be wished we had kept as Confession which was no doubt commanded of God That praying for the dead was one of the ancient things in Christianity That for their parts they did it daily though they would not own it And afterwards pressing one of them very much upon the other point he told her that if he had been breed up a Catholic he would not change his Religion but that being of another Church wherein be was sure were all things necessary to Salvation he thought it very ill to give that Scandal as to leave that Church wherein he received his Baptism Which discourse she said did but add more to the desire she had to be a Catholic By this long Text 't is clear that her Royal Highness had made many steps towards the Catholic Religion and that the Conference she had with these Bishops did but add fuel to the flame that was within her for such is the result of her last words did but add more to the desire she had to be a Catholic This being so her Highness and the two Bishops were now upon different terms as Party and Party she making advantage of their Concessions as of Truths coming out of the mouth of the Enemies to the Religion she either actually professed or was inclinable to and they notwithstanding those Concessions keeping their own ground So that it was not the Authority or Example of these Bishops that prevailed with her but Truth forced from an Enemy which for that reason convinced her the more Since therefore this Gentleman allows of the Concessions 't is unreasonable to put this question Why should not the last words have greater force to have kept her in our Church than the former to have drawn her from it Because 't is easier for a Catholic to believe a Protestant speaking against himself in matters of Religion than for himself Ex ore tuo te judico is an Argument invincible against a Man's self The Concessions then being admitted both by the Catholic party and these two Bishops she had reason to believe them as to the Concessions but not in that wherein the Catholics and they differ'd which was That all things necessary to Salvation are certainly in the Protestant Church and that it was ill to leave it The next two Paragraphs concern not her Royal Highness For whether the two Bishops did let fall words inconsistent with their own Religion or not her work was done she not being obliged to reconcile them to their own Religion But the late Bishop of Winchester instead of untying has cut the knot a sunder For says he he first doubts whether there ever were such Bishops who made such answers and then he affirms That he believes there never was in rerum natura such a discourse as is pretended What pity 't is the Bishop of Winchester should be a person of so small a faith as not to give credit to so great a Lady in a concern wherein 't was no advantage to her to tell a Lye and if she had was by all the Laws Divine and Humane bound to restitution for the wrong she did them Non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum Or if he doubted whether there were ever any such Paper we have now the Royal word of a King for it attesting it to be hers Matters being thus we do not charge upon the Church of England the single Opinion of one or two Bishops but 't is reason to believe that a Lady thirsting after truth might defer much to persons of so eminent a rank in that Church This Gentleman I perceive is very studious very industrious to find a Lady in Errour and hopes she may contradict her self thus then She protests in the presence of Almighty God that no person Man or Woman directly or indirectly ever said any thing to her since she came into England or used the least endeavour to make her change her Religion and that it is a blessing she wholly owes to Almighty God So that the Bishops are acquitted from having any hand in it by her own words But I beseech him did she or any else charge upon these Bishops that they said any thing to her or used any endeavours to make her change her Religion How oft doth it happen that the speaker of words may utter them for one design and the hearer make use of them for another though then the Bishops did not say any thing to her with endeavour to make her change her Religion yet their words may have added much to the change of her Religion He proceeds And as far as we can understand her meaning she thought her self Converted by immediate Divine Illumination This construction of her words so tickled his fancy that it made him sport upon the Church of Rome's private Spirit for a long time But for my part if he has done laughing I can understand nothing of this immediate Divine Illumination from her words For God who disposes of all things strongly and sweetly has infinite methods to convert Souls to himself without immediate Illumination by so unexpected a concourse of second Causes so well tempered and knit together by his wisdom that a conversion of a Soul may and will follow thence she not knowing how and consequently as 't is the sole work of the Almighty so that blessing she wholly owes to him What this Gentleman understands by a private Spirit I know not but be it what it will 't is therefore vitious because it is inconsistent with those publick Methods and Rules God has left to govern his Church by which whether the Protestants when they went out from the Roman Church did not desert by following an Ignis Fatuus of their own in their singular interpretation of holy Scripture against the known Sense of their Mother Church is the subject of another dispute or rather indeed 't is put out of all dispute that they then did unless they can shew that the constant Tradition and Practice of the Primitive Church interpreted Scripture as they then did in all the Points they reform'd in which they know is impossible Her Royal Highness declares that she would never have changed if she thought she could have saved her Soul otherwise and he answers if this were true she had good reason for her change if it were not true she had none as it is most certain it was not I cannot perswade my self