Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	allege_v	church_n	scripture_n	2,665	5	6.1884	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07344	An antidote against popery confected out of scriptures, fathers, councels, and histories. Wherein dialogue-wise are shewed, the points, grounds, and antiquitie of the Protestant religion; and the first springing vp of the points of popery: together with the Antichristianisme thereof. Being alone sufficient to inable any Protestant of meane capacitie, to vnderstand and yeeld a reason of his religion, and to incounter with and foyle the aduersary. By Iohn Mayer, B.D. and pastor of the Church of little Wratting in Suffolke.	Mayer, John, 1583-1664.	1625 (1625)	STC 17729; ESTC S102861	69,172	94

so freshly in my memory since you resolued them vnto me at that I am fully reselued that they are but wrested and wrung by the aduersary to sorne his turne Elym But by your fauour sir nothing hath yet beene sayd to one place plainly distinguishing betwixt veniall and mortall sinnes and concluding prayer for some dead viz. that sinne not vnto death but are penitent before they dye Paul You doe well to recall that againe which I thought not worth the answering How can it be spoken of mortall and veniall sinnes Is he that hath sinned a mortall sinne to be giuen ouer then as a desperate Reprobate and not to bee prayed for any more What is this but to condemne Peter himselfe and Dauid and Manasseh c. as vnworthy to bee prayed for If your distinction of mortall and veniall sinnes haue no better ground but this it is set vp altogether vpon the sands And for praying for any dead nothing can bee more absurd then to alledge this for he doth not note out the time of continuing or breaking off from sinne as making his case that hath sinned desperate or reparable by the prayers of others by reason of this circumstance but plainely in it selfe for hee saith There is a sinne vnto death And againe There is a sinne not vnto death that is in plaine English there is a sinne which who so committeth it shall dye therefore without all hope of life whatsoeuer prayers should be made for him but there is sinne also the proper sequell and wages whereof is death yet not so necessarily but remission and life may be obtained notwithstanding And if it be taken in this sense there is the consent of other places to confirme it as that All sinnes shall bee forgiuen to the sonnes of men but he that sinneth against the Holy Ghost shall neuer bee forgiuen of such a sinne Saul seemeth to haue beene guilty when the Lord forbiddeth Samuel to pray any more for him But take it of praying for such as dye repeneantly and where can you finde any to second it Serg. Paul I see it is in vaine for you Elymas to hold argument with him any longer by the testimonies of holy Scripture preceed therefore to your plea of antiquitie for therein ●o● may happen to put him downe indeed Paul It must needs bee so Sir as you haue said for whatsoeuer flourishes they make their conscience telleth them that the Scriptures are against them seeing they can no more abide them then the ●●●tle the day-light Why else doe they keep them lockt vp in an vnknowne tongue Why doe they condemne our translations as hereticall and allow onely of Ieromes translation for it were a mad part for them to condemne and forbid that which maketh on their side This their cracking therefore of the Scriptures is but a fruit of their late impudency putting them on to vndertake the proofe of any thing that can bepropounded But they are very confident that we cannot demonstrate in particular the time and persons when and by whom their false doctrines were broached and their superstitions brought in yet I feare as little to enter the lists with him about this argument as about the other Elymas And I doubt not but to put you to shame enough in so doing for the most ancient Orthodoxe Fathers of the Church haue alwayes taught the same that wee doe and haue often mentioned the particulars of our deuotion which yee falsly call superstition Which being so I weigh not all your places of Scripture if you had as many more nor your colourable answers to such as haue beene by mee alledged for the customes of the Church and traditions deliuered from age to age are of the same authoritie with the holy Scriptures and they are rather to bee regulated hereby as being certaine then these by them speaking as euery man listeth to wrest and turne them Paul It is a false slander by you laid vpon the Scriptures that they are vncertaine and a burthening of Christian people for which you shall answere to obtrude traditions thus vnto them as I haue before declared To passe that ouer therefore here Who can tell whether the ancient Fathers in those passages wherein they haue made some mention of some practices by you vsed were made to speake so by some audacious forger seeing there are so many supposititious writings falsly fathered vpō so many imaginary Fathers that neuer were in rerum natura and such purging and altering of ancient Writings hath beene made of late by the authority of the Councell of Trent Moreouer it is possible that through the neglect of Historians or wittingly in fauour of your abuses the originall and first springing vp of them may be concealed But if not few men are read in History neither is history reading necessary to saluation and therefore it maketh not any whit the more on your side though they cannot precisely set downe when and by whom your heresies and superstitions were brought in euen as Mahumetisme were no whit the more approueable though the originall thereof were vnknowne For by this reason the Heathen priests of old sought to maintaine the credit of their idolatries challenging the Christians for imbracing a new Religion It is a poore shift when any thing is particularly disproued by the Word of God to cauill about the beginning of it as if the day were lost if that could not be done for if the leakes of a Ship or the decayes of an House be apparant if corruptions within or blemishes vpon the bodie be made manifest what auaileth it to approue that they are no decayes or blemishes by pleading But can any man tell when these first began Elym Our errours as you call them are not so euident yet as your comparisons If you cannot therefore shew their beginning it is plaine that they were deliuered from the Apostles and it is heresie and impiety in you to impugne them Paul Doth the same fountaine send forth salt water and sweet Doth the same mouth speake contradictories for so certaine is it that these things cannot bee deriued from the Apostles seeing they are altogether against them But because you vige it so much I will set downe the time and age of euery part of your Religion that the nouelty of it may appeare to all the world And first I will begin with the chiefe and head of all your errours the Popes headship This was first established in a Councell at Rome of seuenty two Bishops thirty Presbyters and three Deacons in the time of Boniface the third Anno Dom. 607. Plat. in vita Bonis 3. being then obtained of Phocas who came to the Empire by murthering Mauritius his Master and therefore to prouide the better for himselfe he was willing by granting the supremacie ouer all to ioyne vnto him the Pope of Rome Conc. Constant the eight generall Councell Afterwards there was a Councell held at Constantinople in the dayes of Pope Adrian vnder Basilius

grace as that there is in him no imperfection or want at all Of the former the Lord speaketh that wee should loue not onely friends but also enemies and exercise benignitie to all and not of the other Againe there is a perfection of sinceritie and a perfection of sanctitie of the former of which onely I spake and not of the latter for I had immediately before acknwoledged my selfe not perfect in that sense Serg. Paul What is the eleuenth particular point Saul The eleuenth point is that mans will is so corrupted euer since the fall of Adam as that hee cannot desire to be conuerted or thinke a thought tending to conuersion but of his owne will he is caried onely to euill till that God of his grace changeth his will by putting a new heart and spirit into him Gen. 6.5 2 Cor. 3.5 Phil. 2.13 For all the imaginations of mans heart are onely euill continually and we are not able to thinke a good thought as of our selues but it is God that worketh in vs the will and the deed of his owne good pleasure Serg. Paul Why then are we bidden to turne from sinne to repent and beleeue the Gospell and why is it vsed as an argument of iust iudging How oft would I haue gathered you together and ye would not if they could doe no otherwise Saul Wee are bidden to turne to shew that the Lord will not turne vs without our being willing and by thus calling vpon vs he worketh a willingnesse in such as bee elected and if any notwithstanding are still hardened and finally damned the cause is not in God who is tyed to no man but in the corruption of their owne will brought in by mans owne default when at the first it was not so Serg. Paul What is the twelfth particular point Saul The twelfth point is that mariage is free for all men and that none ought to be debarred from it but if any can containe they are to bee exhorted to vse this gift that they may be more free to serue God not being intangled with so much worldly businesse as they which haue wife and children For mariage is honorable amongst all men Heb. 13.4 1 Tim 4 3. and it is a doctrine of Deuils forbidding to marry yea the Apostles themselues were maried men and I might haue vsed the same libertie also neither doth the Lord approue it to bee good for any sort of men not to marry Math. 19.12 but for such onely as can containe Serg. Paul If mariage bringeth worldly incombrances and the Ministers of the Gospell had need to enioy all freedome that they may the better attend vpon their office it seemeth that the vnmaried are rather to bee preferred if a sufficient number of such may be had and if any bee therefore willing to liue alwaies single that they may be the more fit for this seruice it is no forbidding of mariaege to receiue onely such to holy Orders Againe though mariage be lawfull and a mans companying with his wife be no sinne yet it disableth him for a time to communicate in such things as wherein holy persons onely haue libertie as to eate of the Shew-bread Abiathar telleth Dauid 1 Sam. 21.4 that if they had not lately companied with women they might cate of it and the Priests vnder the Law when their course came to serue in the Temple liued apart from their wiues as appeareth by the example of Zachary Luk. 1.23 Saul If any sufficient and fit for life and learning hauing the gift of continencie liue single it is not to bee doubted but that they are to be preferred but because this gift is very rare and for preferment men will take vpon them that which they haue no abilitie vnto to admit onely such into holy Orders is in effect to forbid mariage to some and damnable as of the Deuill as hath been already shewed Yea it is a maruell that they which pretend the Apostolicall title so much should bee so plainely against the Apostle who saith Let a Bishop be the Husband of one Wife 1 Tim. 3. Neither are they that inforce themselues to a single life but want the gift the more free but rather much more troubled seeing lust is an hundreth times more incombring then any domesticall troubles of the maried And lastly if it bee a good reason against the mariage of Priests that companying with women makes them vnfit to partake of the Holy Bread for a time it is good also against the mariage of any Christian man who is now also to partake of this bread as well as the Priest No more therefore can be hence concluded but that all should abstaine from companying with their wiues against the time of communicating as against the time of fasting Prayer For so I haue elsewhere directed Defraud not one another 1. Cor. 7 5. except it be by consent for a time that ye may giue your selues to fasting and Prayer and come together againe Serg. Paul What is the thirteenth particular point Saul The thirteenth point is that the holy Scriptures that is the canonicall bookes of the Old and New Testament are alone sufficient for saluation neither are any other either Apochryphall Writings or vnwritten Traditions of like authoritie but onely so far forth to be receiued as they agree with the contents of these Bookes For it is plainely expressed that though Iesus did and spake many things more then are written yet these things are written that wee might beleeue and beleeuing haue eternall life Ioh. 20.31 Gal. 1 8. And if we or an Angell from Heauen bring any other Gospell let him bee accursed We that are the Apostles of Christ haue euer submitted our doctrine to bee examined by the written Word and therefore Act. 17.11 if any thing be pretended to haue been taught by vs by word of mouth or by any that haue followed vs not consonant to the written Word it is without doubt to bee reiected Serg. Paul It is no where written that the Lords day is to bee kept holy in stead of the old Sabbath nor that infants are to bee baptized nor that the Lords Supper is to bee receiued in the morning or at the Church or by women as well as by men and yet these things are necessarie Saul These are agreeable to the written Word and therefore good reason that they should bee obserued but this maketh nothing for vnwritten traditions contrary to the Word of God or for the authoritie of any that are without ground here Serg. Paul The Scriptures are obscure and therefore alledged euen by the vilest Heretikes so that if they onely be receiued it seemeth that there will be nothing to patronize the truth more then errour It is not therefore necessarie to take them with the sense receiued by the Church that wee may hold aright and be saued Saul Many places of Scripture are plaine and easie to be vnderstood namely so many as doe