Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	allow_v	church_n	scripture_n	2,953	5	6.4955	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85342	Good counsel in bad times, or, A good motion among many bad ones being a discovery of an old way to root out sects and heresies and an earnest desire for a complyance with all men to settle peace with justice : as also a relation of a remarkable piece of justice done by Duke William called the Good : likewise an epistle to the reader / by John Musgrave ...	Musgrave, John, fl. 1654.; Baudouin, François, 1520-1573.	1647 (1647)	Wing G1041A; ESTC R36608	23,472	37

condemne them by the very name and authority of some Councels without alledging the scriptures and reasons of the said Councels were out of reason for they submit themselves to prove that the Councels by the which their doctrine hath beene condemned were but petty Councels assembled and allowed by the tyranny of some who alone have decreed what they pleased against the authority of the scriptures without hearing or admitting of their adverse parties And doubtlesse in the ancient primative Church there were many Bishops which have rejected some Councels as suspect and not lawfull nor grounded upon the authority of the word of God but upon the authoritie of men as we read of Maximus Bishop of Ierusalem and of St Hillary Bishop of Poictiers yea and of St Athanasias Chrisestonie and Photinus so it is not without reason if many ages after them there have been Councels suspected to these men But as for the most Ancient and Received on either side they are content to allow of them so far forth as they prove their sayings by the word of God There resteth then nothing but that their reasons may be heard that the truth may be known and their heresies and errours avoided seeing there is no other means to procure a publick peace and to draw all the subjects to one Religion that if their adversaries as if there were no controversie in this point challenge the name of the Church and without hearing their reasons examined by the scriptures will that all that they shall ordaine or decree shall bee infallibly kept as an ordinance of the Church and so of God as they have done in the last Councel of Trent where the Pope was head and the adverse party not called but to be condemned and judged according to the ordinance of the Church that is to say of the Pope and Prelates or els to recant and then to bee receive into favour Without doubt there will be never any means to draw them from their beliefe seeing this Maxime will alwayes remaine graven in their hearts that they must in all things follow the word of God which alone hath authority to judge all Controversies and to define which is the true and the false Church which Maxime can never be wrested away by the authority of any man much lesse that the Pope and Prelats have any such Credit not by fire nor sword so as if their adversaries would not give them free audience as it is said but use violence they should but impaire their own Cause and make theirs better and more favourable whom they seek to root out Seeing then it is a Maxime or point resolved upon among all men of Judgement that touching the Faith and inward Beliefe no Corporall violence can command and that men must be confuted of errour in their Consciences we must examine the second point which wee have propounded which is Whether it were not possible to hinder the outward exercise of their Religion forbidding them to assemble preach teach nor to make any outward profession of that which they beleeve in heart And first In it were feasible whether it were fit and convenient to do it No religion whatsoever can subsist if it hath not some exterior exercises or ceremonies by the which it may be entertained whereupon the Emperor Gratian was wont to say that it was necessary the people should be maintained in some outward discipline of some Religion whatsoever it were good or bad For as man by nature is enclined to reject the yoke of God it is necessary he should be kept in awe and discipline else hee would bee like an untamed horse rejecting the fear of God and man Being then impossible to root out the Faith which they have in their hearts it were not convenient although it were possible to hinder their exteriour discipline and exercises by the which the people are maintained in their Religion and in the feare of God and of the Magistrate unless whereas in their Assemblies they are taught to be good men and to fear God and honour the King and his officers they will make them wicked Atheists Libertines and seditious perturbers of all good order and policy as we see plainly by daily experience For we see a number which have cast off the yoke of the Romish Church mocking at the Masse and Priests yet fear to lose their goods or honours refuse to apply themselves to discipline and exercise of any other Religion have become very Atheists without faith or law Yet there are no small number of villanous Libertines which make fects of themselves teaching that we must not serve God outwardly with any exterior form or discipline but onely in spirit and under this pretext they give themselves to all villany and abhomination to murthers rapes incests and adulteries holding that the outward things serve to no end so as the heart be cleer as they perswade themselves Yea some have been so audacious as to vaunt themselves to be Christ himself Others the Spirit of God And others Charity To conclude they are prophane people and contemners of God and the Magistrate maintaining that there ought not to be any sword or superiority used among men but that the spirit should rule govern and guide the heart of man as it pleaseth The which groweth through no other occasion but seing the great abuses which have reigned and do still reign in the Church and not being suffered on the other side to joyn themselves to any discipline and exercise of Religion they are grown to that pass as to think that dissimulation is not bad so as the heart be good and so mocking at Religion whereof they make a shew they must needs fall into wicked Atheism And there are none in the world more seditious and greater disturbers of all good order then these people as hath been seen in the Anabaptists of Munster and their like For the rooting out of which there were no better means whoso would consider all things without passion then to suffer them yea to command them expresly that all them which make profession of the Religion which they call Reformed should assemble in view of all the world and keep good discipline fit for the obedience which they owe unto God and the Magistrate correcting vices and excess for although there were no other good yet by this means they should get thus much which is of great importance for the preservation of the publick quiet That whereas we daily see spring up new and abhominable sects full of sedition and mutinies yea and of horrible blasphemies against the Majesty of God when as there should be but two publick kinds of profession in the view of all the world either of them performing the obedience which they owe unto God and the King when as any new one should spring up it would be easie to suppress it by the word of God But forasmuch as this seemeth strange to some to give Hereticks leave to sow their heresies let us