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	church_n	power_n	4,609	5	5.2232	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13210	The falshood of the cheife grounds of the Romish religion Descried and convinced in a briefe answere to certaine motiues sent by a priest to a gentleman to induce him to turne papist. By W.S.; Seminary priest put to a non-plus	Sutton, William, 1561 or 2-1632.; Sutton, William, b. 1607 or 8.	1635 (1635)	STC 23508; ESTC S100149	32,996	132

and J will giue to thee the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind vpon earth it shall bee bound also in the heavens and whatsoever thou shalt loose in earth it shall be loosed also in the Heavens Math. 16. v. 18.19 And our Saviour said Simon Simon behold Satan hath required to haue thee for to sift as wheat But I haue prayed for thee that thy faith faile not and thou being converted confirme thy Brothren Luk. 22. v. 31.32 Our Saviour Christ asking Peter if he loued him more then these said yea Lord thou knowest I loue thee whereupon Christ said to him twice feed my Lambes and the third time feede my Sheepe Ioh. 21. v. 15.16.17 That Saint Peter was chiefe of the Apostles and the first Bishop of Rome When all the holy Apostles are named S. Peter is the first Math. 10. vers 2. After the Apostles had visibly receiued the Holy Ghost S. Peter made the first Sermon thereof whereat 3000. persons were converted Act. 2. v. 41. With his word and power he killed Ananias and Saphira for their Sacriledge Act. 5. v. 5. Saiut Peter called the first Councell of the Apostles held at Ierusalem and first spake therein Act. 15. v. 7. Jt is affirmed by old writers and some moderne learned Protestants that S. Peter was 15. yeares Bishop of Rome and by the auncient Ecclesiasticall wryters that S. Peter and S. Paul were both of them martyred together in Rome vnder the Emperour Nero. Orig. apud Euseb Lib. 3. cap. 1. Eus Cap. 24. Lib. 2. Hist Eccliastic Tertul. de praesc c. 26. Aug. tract 123 in Ioh. Chrysost Beda in hunc locum S. Ambr. Serm. 66.68 St Maximus Statu faelix Ecclesia cui totam doctrinam Apostoli cum suo fanguine pro funderunt vbi Petrus passioni Dominicae adaequatur vbi Paulus Iohannis exitu Coronatur Tertul. de Praescrip cap. 36. That St Peters Successors Bishops of Rome haue exercised chiefe authority in the Church Militant ever since to this day After the Martyrdome of St Peter first Bishop of Rome 32. of the succeeding Bishops there were martyred for the faith of Christ Eusebius Pope Victor in the first 200. yeares excommunicated the Asian Bishops about the observation or keeping Easter day Pope Silvester 314. yeeres called the first Councell of Nice against the Arian hereste Pope Damasus 367. called the second generall Councell at Constantinople against Macedonius the heretique Pope Caelestine 414. called the third generall Councell at Ephesus against Nestorius the heretique Pope Leo 440. called the fourth generall Councell at Calcedon against the heretique Eutiches And likewise euer since to the last generall Councell of Trent the Bishops of Rome haue called them all as heresies and false Prophets did arise in the Church Jt is confessed by divers learned Protestants that the Roman Church was the true Mother Church which Christ our Saviour planted some for 300. yeares some for 400. yeares some for 600. yeares and some for 800 yeares after Christ which being true that it was once the true Church and also true that our Saviour Christ promised to bee with it to the consummation of the world and to send the spirit of Truth to abide with it for ever and that Hell gates should not preuaile against it and Christ saith Heaven and Earth shall passe but my words shall not passe How then can it be true that the Roman Church being once the true mother Church should fall so fouly from her first puritie as is by some too too boldly affirmed Jt is so necessary for every one to know and beliene the holy Catholique Church Militant that whosoever is not a sound member of that society either in act or desire cannot be saved as all those which were out of Noahs Arke were drowned And to end with a demonstration all the Patriarchall Episcopall Seas of the Apostles be extinguished and worne out many hundred yeares since by Heretiques and Jnfidels onely the Church of Rome the Seate of Saint Peter stands at this day most conspicuous according to the prayer and promise of Christ that his faith should not faile and that the gates of Hell should not prevaile against it Thus briefly is proued the beginning encreasing and continuing of the holy Christian Catholique Apostolique and Romane Church as also the promised continuall assistance of the Holy Ghost the Spirit of truth to remaine therewith alwaies to the Consummation of the World that is for ever Of which Vine all Christians that shall be saued must be vnited liuely branches and members THE ANSWERE to the Priests Motiues GOod Brother Whosoever he was that sent you these lines as motiues to make you a Romish Catholique I must needs thinke him your friend and by that name I meane to call him hereafter because I thinke hee did it out of a desire to saue your soule although I am sure he goes the wrong way to worke And if you should follow him which God forbid hee will certainly leade you into the ditch Though his proofes bee simple ones as I hope you will see by the answere yet it seemes hee thought better of them and they were the best he knew and therefore if hee faile in his purpose as I hope he shall yet you haue some cause to thanke him in that hee vsed the same arguments to perswade you wherewith hee himselfe was perswaded But for the validity of his reasons doe you judge your selfe when you haue heard vs both speake or if not let it bee tried by God and the country And who soever he was he hath placed a sentence in the foot of his discourse which for the importancie thereof deserved to bee set in a higher roome therefore I will begin with that first The true Catholique Church Jt is so necessary saith hee for every one to know and beleeue the holy Catholique Church militant that whosoever is not a sound member of that society either in act or desire cannot bee saved All this is true and there is great reason for it for if it were once agreed among Christians which were the true Church of Christ other differences in Religion would more easily be composed by the authority thereof But so long as the doubt remaines concerning the Church it selfe as in these daies that is the capitall controversie betweene Protestants Papists there is small hope of any good accord vnlesse both sides could agree vpon some third party to be vmpire Who must be such a one as is of sufficient vnderstanding to discerne where the truth resteth and withall of that indifferency in affection that he encline no way to one side more then to another For that either the Romish or reformed Church being themselues the parties litigant that they should require to be made Iudges in their own cause though some of our adver saries be not ashamed to make such a proposition yet I thinke there is no man that hath his fiue wits about him

to haue named the Pope rather then to vse such a circumlocution of words for you must not doubt but that he is that Visible head whom he meanes Now it deserues a Quare why the Church being but one body should need two Heads Why being but one Monarchy it cannot consist without two Monarchs To say that one is a visible the other an invisible the one a principall the other a ministeriall head it is all one in effect as if they told vs of two Christs a visible and an invisible perhaps in time to come the world may heare of some such matter if this doctrine goe on In reason they ought to make two Churches because the body must bee multiplied according to the multiplication of the heads we are sure that Christ now in heauen is every way as able to governe his Church by himselfe as he was while he lived vpon earth if in regard of his bodily absence they thinke it necessary that he should leaue some deputie behind him Neither doth this hang well together with some other popish Positions for by their doctrine Christ is not so ascended into heauen but that they haue his body as they say remaining still among them vpon earth and that not only in a spirituall manner but most really and carnally They haue freer recourse to Christ now by the helpe of Transubstantiation Transubstantiation then they could possibly haue with him while he conversed here in the flesh Nay they haue not so free accesse to the Pope I am sure as they haue to him with whom they may speake when they list vpon every Altar and in every Pixe And what folly is it to seeke to the foote when we may goe to the head To set vp a ministeriall head in the Church where the principall himselfe is alwaies at hand Dulciùs ex ipso fonte bibuntur aquae Besides No visible head necessary if this visible Head were such a necessary implement in the Church of God as they would make vs beleeue it seemes strange to mee why his name should be forgotten and that in those very Scriptures where the Governors and the government of the Church is purposely treated of or how was it possible for Saint Paul speaking of Apostles and Prophets and Evangelists of Pastors and teachers ordained by Christ for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministry c. Eph. 4 11. and 1. Cor. 12.28 to forget the name of this Pastour Paramont who now takes vpon him to be Dominus fac totum and to rule the rost throughout all Christendome There is another thing that makes mee doubt much of this matter namely that whereas the Church hath still bin known by the name of a Monarchy yet the Pope among all other his titles hath not ordinarily taken vpon him the name of a Monarch till of late I know some such thing hath beene muttering a pretty while in the Schooles but it never past for currant Doctrine in the Church till within these few yeares nay it is not so farre past yet but that the Sorbonists of Paris generally the whole Church of France oppose strongly against it In like sort whereas the Church hath ever beene called the body of Christ Ephes 1.23 yet I never heard of a Pope so desperate that durst call the Church his body which yet in some sort hee might be allowed to doe if it bee lawfull for him in any sort to call himselfe the Head of the Church by the Doctrine of Relatiues Moreover I finde the maintainers of this Doctrine much puzzelled in seeking to expresse what authority it is that the Pope may challenge in right of his headship and Monarchie what power is appendant to that name whether it bee a meere spirituall power or a temporall or both or some third mixt power compounded of temporall and spirituall Difference betweene the Papists touching the temporall and the spirituall power of the Pope Here I see them at such deadly strife among themselues as I hold it no safe trusting either of them vntill I shall first finde that they trust one another better Card. Bellarmine himselfe within these few yeares knew not what to make of that matter as it appeareth by his latter writings compared with the former When he first set forth his bookes of controuersies he was of one opinion concerning this point which afterward hee changed became of another as you shall finde by his recognitions wherein hee did not mend that which was amisse as Augustine did in his Retractations but proficiens in peius like those of whom the Apostle speakes 2. Tim. 3.13 hee made that worse which was too bad before euen in the iudgement of his owne good friends In his former writings of this argument though hee had pleaded for the Papall authority Quantum honestè potuit Barclay Sixtus Quintus plus etiam quàm debuit saith William Barclay a Papist yet was Sixtus Quintus the Pope so discontented with his booke that he was once of the mind to haue damned all his writings because he did not speake home to his Holinesse contentment I meane because hee did not attribute such an vnlimited and transcendent power vnto him as that proud imperious Praelate did challenge in right of his pretended Monarchie because hee did not affirme him to haue as direct a temporall power over Kings as a spirituall over Bishops making all Kingdomes as well as all Churches subiect to his disposition See Barclay de potestate Papae in Principes christianos cap. 13. They that contract the power of the Pope within the confines of a meere Spirituall iurisdiction though they speake more modestly then other of their fellowes yet in as much as they extend this iurisdiction over the whole world which in respect of him they make to bee but as one Diocesse even this Paradox of theirs is as false as the others though not so impudent as iniurious to Christ and his Church though it be not so pragmatically dangerous to secular states and Princes Crownes for if the Spirituall Kingdome of Christ bee of no greater extent then the Popes iurisdiction it followeth that none are Christians but Papists which though some Popish Puritane in his fiery zeale will make no bones perhaps to affirme yet all of them are not so desperate and hee that speakes so in his heat must recall it againe in cold blood or else hee will leaue Christ but a poore Kingdome and a few subiects in respect of that multitude which God promised vnto him Psal 2.8 and Psal 72. v. 8.9 c. Nay how shall that Prophecy of Malachy bee verified of the Church spreading it selfe from the rising of the Sunne to the going downe thereof if there bee no more Christians in the world then there be Papists All the world knowes that the Popes Kingdome never extended it selfe so farre as that Prophecy speakes of by many degrees when it was at