Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	act_n	bishop_n	church_n	2,413	5	4.3810	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66115	Remarks of an university-man upon a late book, falsly called A vindication of the primitive fathers, against the imputations of Gilbert Lord Bishop of Sarum, written by Mr. Hill of Killmington	Willes, John, 1646 or 7-1700.	1695 (1695)	Wing W2302; ESTC R11250	29,989	42

as might justifie that design This is the foundation of all the stir that our Author has made which as I am truly informed the Archbishop of Canterbury and the rest of the Bishops look upon as a breach not only of Charity but of the Order of the Church For it is far from their thoughts that either a Bishop or even an Archbishop should have a Priviledge to corrupt the Faith and be safe when he has done it As they ought to be the chief Conveyors of this Sacred Depositum so if any of them should so far betray his trust as to offer to corrupt it he must be used with all severity But if such a case should happen the method of proceeding ought to be a denunciation to the Archbishop when it is in the case of a Bishop This ought to be first made to the Archbishop in private and if that will not do then it ought to be made in open Court by Articles If any thing is taught contrary to the Doctrine of the first Four General Councils it is by Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. Heresie And if it is contrary to the Creeds then it falls under the Act of Uniformity The Three Creeds being parts of the Book of Common-Prayer And if any Doctrine is contrary to the Thirty nine Articles then the Proceedings are to be founded on the Authority of the Church in a Convocation confirmed by the King This is a Regular Method and if Mr. Hill had took this way he could have met with no sort of obstruction But it is certainly intolerable that a Book writ by a Bishop and Licensed by an Archbishop should be thus attack'd and a Bishop be so openly defam'd I have one thing more to add and that is an account of that private Practice which our Author in his Preface objects against the Bishop as unjust and that is only this When his Lordship came to the See of Sarum he found the Prebends so scatter'd up and down England that there was seldom a Surplice-man to Preach The Cathedral was often very ill served So he resolved to keep the Dignities of the Church of Sarum within the Diocess and to oblige those that left the Diocess to leave the Church likewise according to the Tenth Canon of the Council of Chalcedon Which is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beverig Pandect Canon Tom. 1. p. 123. Non liceat Clerico in duarum Civitatum Ecclesiis eodem tempore in Catalogum referri Et in ea qua a principio ordinatus est in ea in quam tanquam ad majorem confugit propter inanis gloriae cupiditatem Eos autem qui hoc faciunt propriae Ecclesiae restitui in qua ab initio ordinati sunt ut illic solum ministrent Sed si jam quispiam ex alia in aliam Ecclesiam translatus est nihil prioris Ecclesiae vel corum quae sub ea sunt Martyriorum vel Phochotrophiorum vel Xenodochiorum rebus communicare And elsewhere as well as in the Scholia upon this Canon they are very express to the same purpose That no Bishop shall receive a Clergyman of another Diocess into his Church under pain of Excommunication to both In order to effect this his Lordship was advised by an Ancient and Venerable Prelate I may add one of the Worthiest and Learnedest now in the World to take Bonds of Resignation of those to whom he gave Prebends in case they should go out of the Diocess There is no General Bond this Condition is named and no other This was also the more necessary because his Lordship hath hitherto generally given the Prebends to the Ministers in Market-Towns where the Labour is great and the Provision mean So unhandsomely does this Man reproach his Lordship for a Method that seems so good and useful to the Church and which could be compassed no other way but that which his Lordship made use of Postscript to the Stationer Sir SInce I sent you these Papers I understand by one on whose Judgment I can well depend that there is another Answer prepared by a very learned Hand who has follow'd Mr. Hill through all his Pretences to Learning and the Study of the Fathers and discovers that he has just as much Knowledge as he has Modesty or good Breeding Ignorance and ill Nature go often together For you know whose Character it is That he rageth and is Confident I should be sorry to have sent this to you when there is another so much perfecter coming to your Hand But my Friend comforts me a little by telling me we write in such different ways that both ma prove acceptable and make one Compleat Answer I confess I was amaz'd to hear there was so much Learning employed to refute so poor a Book but the Answer made me was that though Mr. Hill's Book did not deserve it yet the Bishop's did and the Cause did it much more It seemed necessary to take the Diversion that Mr. Hill's Book has perhaps given to Libertines and Atheists as well as to Socinians and other ill-natur'd Men out of the way and to shew the World that Mr. Hill was all through equally blinded with Ignorance and Malice There is no hopes that any thing can convince so aukward a Man as he seems to be A short piece of Parchment founded on a Certain Statute is perhaps the only Answer that can work on him Unless his Friends can prevent it by shewing he has a better right to a Lodging in Moor-Fields where good Air and Discipline may restore him to himself This may seem too pleasant but it is really the charitablest Thought that can be entertained of him For I am sure if his Head is sound his Heart is naught Such Men as he are born to be the Pests of their Neighbourhood and the Plagues of the Church but I hope he will be so subdued that the World shall be no more troubled with him Only I will conclude with one pleasant thing concerning him which I have from so sure a hand that you may depend upon it and publish it While he was contriving to midwife this Book into the World he apprehended it seems that it might raise a Storm and he hoped to secure himself against that by writing another Book in defence of the present Government and for justifying the filling the Sees of the deprived Bishops as he had writ some Years ago a Pamphlet intituled Solomon and Abiathar upon the same subject In this he attack'd Mr. Dod ll's Principle with great Fury This Book he sent up to a Bishop and it seems he thought it was such a Performance and that the Archbishop of Canterbury and the rest of the Bishops would have been so sensible of this Service which to be sure he thought a signal one that they must have abandoned the Bishop of Salisbury to the indignation of such a Champion But when he saw that small account was had of that Trifle of his for without seeing it I can easily believe nothing stronger can come from such a Pen and that the Archbishop thought so base a Libel as this was such an Injury to the Church as well as to the Order of Bishops that he required him to come and make all due Submissions and Reparation otherwise he judged the Bishop of Salisbury ought for the Churches sake as well as for his own to prosecute him he then resolved to court his old Friends the Jacobites though I am told he treats them in that Book with the same brutality of Style which he bestows in this on the Bishop And therefore he has very earnestly desired his Book may not be printed but be sent back to him again and then if he had it once in his Hands he would perhaps as impudently deny that ever he wrote any such Book as he begins now to deny that he is the Author of this though if the Bishop wants Proofs of it this place can afford him a great many FINIS

not say as much concerning the Trinity I desire to lie under no better an Imputation than our Author has very justly deserv'd of stating other Mens Doctrines falsly and by halves according as the Byas of his present Inclinations turn'd him I could not imagine that ever Prejudice or Ill Nature should so far blind and mislead a Man as to hurry him into wilful Errors against the clearest Convictions both of Sense and Reason Don't we say every Day that there are so many Opinions about the first Origin of Things the Aristotelick Epicurean Christian c. and yet after all we acknowledge that the Christian is the only true Doctrine God forbid that every Man that mentions Opinion after that manner should commit a Sin For if he does I know none that can pronounce themselves Guiltless Our Vindicator after this spends a Page or two in shewing the difference between Faith and Opinion which Paper I think might have been better spared since it is nothing to his purpose For I know no where that the Bishop asserts Opinion to be Faith and if he had he might have been better and more clearly convinc'd of his Error by a few Pages in Bishop Pearson on the Creed than in a dark obscure Author But after all our Vindicator acknowledges that his Lordship sometimes calls it Doctrine but this term says he is Equivocal and agrees as usually to the Opinions of the Philosophers But here I must desire to know of our Critick whether ever he met with the Word Doctrine when it was applied in a Divinity Discourse to the Tenets of the Church to be meant of a Philosophical Opinion or when a Man is talking of the Doctrine of the Trinity of the Incarnation and Divinity of Christ he can at the same time refer it to the Opinions of Aristotle Plato Epicurus or Cartesius But it is the Fate of some of our over-grown Criticks to catch at Shadows when they can't lay hold of the Substance and to make themselves appear in their own Colours rather than say nothing In the next Place our Critick finds fault with the Bishop for saying That we believe Points of Doctrine because Pag. 6. that we are persuaded they are revealed to us in Scripture which he says is so languid and unsafe a Rule that it will resolve Faith into every Man's private Fancie and contradictory Opinions Now I had thought hitherto that the Scripture had been the adequate Measure and Rule of Faith and that whatsoever we were persuaded was really contain'd in the Scriptures we were oblig'd to believe it And though I am beholden to the universal consent of the Church for my Belief that those Books are the same that were delivered to us from the Apostles and Inspired Pen-men yet I am oblig'd to believe nothing as an Article of Faith but what I am persuaded is revealed in Scripture And certainly 't is much more safe to rely upon the pure Word of God for the Truth of any Doctrine if I am convinc'd that it was Divinely Inspired than as our Author would advise us to depend upon the best Tradition and most unanimous Exposition in the World Since at length I must recur to the Scriptures to examine that Tradition by and am no farther concern'd to believe this than I find it agreeable to the other 'T is true that it is every Man's Duty to submit to the unanimous Sense of the Church rather than to his own private Interpretation but yet it is no farther than he can find that Consent agreeable to the revealed Will of God And if this be not admitted as true Doctrine I can't imagine how we could ever have arriv'd at this Happy Reformation which we are now persuaded was absolutely necessary since it could never have been effected unless every Man has the Liberty of judging the Doctrine he professes by the Testimony of the Scriptures Nor are we to interpret the Scriptures so much by the Judgment of the Fathers and the Church as we try these by their Harmony and Consent with the former And hence it will follow that as we are not obliged to believe any thing which we think is contrary to Scripture so whatsoever we do or ought to believe as an Article of Faith we do it because we are fully and clearly persuaded that it is revealed to us in the Scriptures Else what shall those do who have no notion of Tradition and have no other Rule to guide them but the plain and direct Authority of God's Word And though every Man is not to be his own Interpreter yet he is to judge whether the received Interpretation is agreeable to Scripture or not If Mr. Hill had not here forgot the express Words of the Sixth Article of our Church which tells us That the Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary for Salvation So that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation he could not have run out so odly from it or rather against it it was the Foundation upon which the whole Reformation was built If Universal Tradition in the Third Fourth and Fifth Centuries was a good Argument in it self then why was not Universal Tradition in the Thirteenth Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries as good a one If the Authority of a Doctrine lies in the Tradition of it then all Ages must be alike as to this Therefore tho' it is a noble Confirmation of our Doctrine that we can appeal to the first Six Ages of the Church yet if the Corruption that happen'd after the Sixth Century had begun as early as the Third this had not at all chang'd the Nature of things And I believe it will be found a more simple and just way of interpreting Scripture by other places of it more easily and plainly express'd than by any other Method that can be found out for that purpose For if I am to judge of the Sense of Scripture only by Tradition and the Authority of the Fathers I shall be often at a loss and it will be as difficult to me to find out their Sense and meaning as it was that of the Text I was to enquire after But of this enough When I read this Criticism of our Vindicator's I was inclin'd to think he was though perhaps unwittingly set a work by the Papists as I before imagin'd he was by the Socinians to make Divisions and Schisms in the Church And this I take to be Mr. Hill's Orthodox Doctrine But let us carry him to his next Criticism His Lordship Pag. 8. says he is not clear in the point of Incarnation because he tells us that by the Union of the Eternal Word with Christ's Humanity God and Man truly became One Person Now here says our Authour we are not taught whether there were three or any one Person in the Godhead before the