Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	ancient_a	church_n	father_n	3,954	5	5.0522	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64128	A sermon preached at the consecration of two archbishops and ten bishops, in the Cathedral Church of S. Patrick in Dublin, January 27, 1660 by Jeremie Taylor ...	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1661 (1661)	Wing T391; ESTC R23465	25,378	54

Church In stead of thy Fathers thou shalt have childen whom thou mayest make Princes in all Lands that is not onely the twelve Apostles our Fathers in Christ who first begat us were to rule Christs Family but when they were gone their Children Successors should arise in their stead Et nati natorum quinascentur ab illis their direct Successors to all generations shall be principes populi that is Rulers and Governours of the whole Catholick Church De prole enim Ecclesiae crevit eidem paternitas id est Episcopi quos illa genuit patres appellat constituit in sedibus Patrum saith St. Austin the Children of the Church become Fathers of the faithful that is the Church begets Bps and places them in the seat of Fathers the first Apostles After these plain and evident testimonies of Scripture it will not be amiss to say that this great affair relying not onely upon the words of institution but on matter of fact pas'd forth into a demonstration and greatest notoreity by the Doctrine and Practise of the whole Catholick Church For so St Irenaeus who was one of the most Ancient Fathers of the Church and might easily make good his affirmative VVe can says he reckon the men who by the Apostles were appointed Bishops in the Churches to be their Successors unto Vs leaving to them the same power and authority which they had Thus St. Polycarp was by the Apostles made Bp. of Smyrna St. Clement Bp. of Rome by St. Peter and divers others by the Apostles saith Tertullian saying also that the Asian Bps were consectated by St. Iohn and to be short that Bps are the Successours of the Apostles in the Stevvardship and Rule of the Church is expresly taught by St. Cyprian and St. Hieron St. Ambrose and St. Austin by Euthymius and Pasianus by St. Gregory and St. Iohn Damascen by Clarus à Muscula and St. Sixtus by Anacletus and St. Isidore by the Roman Councel under St. Sylvester and the Councel of Carthage and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or succession of Bps from the Apostles hands in all the Churches Apostolical was as certainly known as in our Chronicles we find the succession of our English Kings and one can no more be denyed then the other The conclusion from these premises I give you in the words of St. Cyprian Cogitent Diaconi quòd Apostolos id est Episcopos Dominus ipse elegerit Let the Ministers know that Apostles that is the Bps were chosen by our blessed Lord himself and this was so evident and so believed that St. Austin affirms it with a nemo ignorat No man is so ignorant but he knows this that our blessed Saviour appointed Bps over Churches Indeed the Gnostics spake evil of this order for they are noted by three Apostles St. Paul St. Peter and St. Iude to be despisers of Government and to speak evil of dignities and what Government it was they did so despise we may understand by the words of St. Iude they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the contradiction or gainsaying of Corah who with his company rose up against Aaron the high Priest and excepting these who were the vilest of Men no man within the first 300 years after Christ oppos'd Episcopacy But when Constantine receiv'd the Church into his armes he found it universally governed by Bps and therefore no wise or good man professing to be a Christian that is to believe the holy Catholick Church can be content to quit the Apostolical Government that by which the whole Family of God was fed and taught and rul'd and beget to himself new Fathers and new Apostles who by wanting Succession from the Apostles of our Lord have no Ecclesiastical and Derivative communion with the fountains of our Saviour If ever Lirinensis's rule could be us'd in any question it is in this quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus That Bishops are the Successors of the Apostles in this Stewardship and that they did always rule the Family was taught and acknowledged always and every where and by all men that were of the Church of God and if these evidences be not sufficient to convince modest and sober persons in this qestion We shall find our faith to fail in many other articles of which we yet are very confident For the observation of the Lords day the Consecration of the Holy Eucharist by Priests the Baptizing Infants the communicating of Women and the very Canon of the Scripture it self rely but upon the same probation and therefore the denying of Articles thus proved is a way I do not say to bring in all Sects and Heresies that 's but little but a plain path and inlet to Atheism and Irreligion for by this means it will not onely be impossible to agree concerning the meaning of Scripture but the Scripture it self and all the Records of Religion will become useless and of no efficacy or persuasion I am entered into a Sea of matter but I will break it off abruptly and sum up this enquirie with the words of the Councel of Chalcedon which is one of the four Generals by our Laws made the measures of judging Heresies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Sacriledge to bring back a Bishop to the degree and order of a Presbyter It is indeed a rifling the order and intangling the gifts and confounding the method of the Holy Ghost it is a dishonouring them whom God would honour and a robbing them of those spiritual eminencies with which the spirit of God does anoint the consecrated heads of Bishops And I shall say one thing more which indeed is a great truth that the diminution of Episcopacy was first introduced by Popery and the Popes of Rome by communicating to Abbots and other mere Priests special graces to exercise some essential Offices of Episcopacie hath made this sacred order to be cheap and apt to be invaded But then adde this If Simon Magus was in so damnable a condition for offering to buy the guifts and powers of the Apostolical order what shall we think of them that snatch them away and pretend to wear them whether the Apostles their Successors will or no This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bely the Holy-Ghost that is the least of it it is rapine and sacriledge besides the heresie and the schism and the spiritual lie For the government Episcopal as it was exemplified in the Synagogue and practised by the same measures in the Temple so it was transcribed by the eternal son of God who translated it into a Gospel Ordinance it was sanctifyed by the Holy Spirit who named some of the persons and gave to them all power and graces from above It was subjected in the Apostles first and by them transmitted to a distinct Order of Ecclesiasticks it was received into all Churches consigned in the Records of the Holy Scriptures preached by the universal voice of all the Christian