Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	apostle_n	peter_n	successor_n	2,335	5	9.6117	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43647	An apologetical vindication of the Church of England in answer to those who reproach her with the English heresies and schisms, or suspect her not to be a catholick-church, upon their account.	Hickes, George, 1642-1715.	1687 (1687)	Wing H1840; ESTC R20398	73,683	104

and his and are under a political oeconomy of the same nature and he that understood it very well said That Satan was not divided against Satan because if he were his kingdom could not stand But it hath stood firm and undivided ever since it was first formed before the sensible Creation it was never yet shaken with intestine Divisions there was never two or three opposite Soveraigns at one time in that cursed Hierarchy nor two or three Pretenders to the Chair of Lucifer And therefore I hope bare Unity or want of Divisions will never hereafter pass among considering men for a mark of a truly Catholick Church And as it is among Spirits so 't is among men The worst Fraternities have sometimes the firmest Union as we of this Nation very well remember the Time when those of the great Rebellion boasted that God had united the Hearts of his People in his Cause as one Man nevertheless those pretended People of God whose Hearts and Hands were so united that we could not break their Bonds of Union asunder were no better then a Band of Rebels and their Cause downright Rebellion against God and the best of Princes tho' they acted in it as if they had been all informed with one common Soul. The like hath often happened in Ecclesiastical Societies The Samaritans who had neither Sadduces nor Pharisees nor Essenes nor Herodians nor Cabalists nor Carraites among them for that Reason had a firmer Union among themselves then the Church of the Jews had and yet they were not the true Church So among the ancient Christians the Novatians lived in perfect Peace and Unity among themselves when there were many Feuds and Contentions among the Catholicks Which shews that bare Unity is not a good Test whereby to try Churches or if it were I am confident the Church of England upon a fair tryal would carry the Garland from the Roman and appear to be the more Catholick Church Could there be found any fit and indifferent Judge between them I durst as far as I am concerned put the merit of the Controversie between us and the R. Cs. upon this single point of Union and would engage to render my self a Proselyte if their Church carried the Cause Perhaps they may think his a very bold Challenge because of the great number of Sectaries that have gone out from us but then they are to consider that as the Protestants which in several Parts of Europe under several Denominations have gone out from them are now nothing unto them so neither are the Congregational Sects which went off from us any thing or of any account to us But take our Church and theirs as they are precisely in themselves without any regard to their respective Separations and I am very confident for all their boastings of Union that the Church of England will be found to have both more potential and actual Union in it then the Church of Rome For first as to potential Union however the Church of Rome is actually united it hath the seeds of Division in its Bowels and as Rebeckah once had different Nations so has she different Churches struggling in her Womb. The Principle of the Pope's Supremacy is it self sufficient were there no more to cause continual Feuds and Factions in the Popedom and * In his excellent Tracts De causis dissentionum in Ecclesiis de primatu Papae ad calcem Salmasii de primatu Papae Nilus Bishop of Thessalonica did most judiciously assign it for the cause of all the Divisions that then tore the Catholick Church into pieces the Bishops of Christendom not being able to endure the Usurpation nor other Churches contrary to their fundamental Liberty to be Subjects to the Roman Church The exercise of this usurped Power of the Pope's being the supream ordinary of the Universal Church is that which makes the Roman Bishops themselves sigh and murmur in private and say with Spalatensis where they can say it safely Frater noster ille est Collega Coepiscopus nobiscum and however they conceal their Resentments as the Spanish Prelates did before the Council of Trent yet they are willing upon the first opportunity to assert their Apostolical Equality and like the English Prelates at the time of the Reformation will be glad when they can do it with a prospect of success to cast off the Yoke which makes Christendom groan and which neither they nor their Predecessor were able to bear Let but Christian Princes say the word and then we shall see what the Bishops will do or let there be but a free and general Council indeed and then let us see if the Pope shall not be told in both ears That the Church Universal is a great Colledge and the Government of it Aristocratical that the Episcopat is one but that it is divided among all Bishops whereof every one hath his share that the Apostles received equal Power and Authority from the same Masters that the Bishops were their Successors and that the other Bishops receive their Authority no more from the Successor of St. Peter then he doth from them but that all receive it alike from Jesus Christ When it shall be safe the Bishops of the Roman Church will talk and write as much to this purpose as ever the English Divines did who in asserting this Doctrine follow the Example of their Ancestors before the Reformation I mean the Saxon Bishops one of whom in his Advice to his Clergy speaks thus * Ge sceolon eac ƿitan þat eoƿre hades syndan þa aesteran hadar aester urum hadum and us þa nystan gelice þa biscopas syndan ongeƿrixle þara Apostola on þaere haligþa gesomnunge sƿa syndan þa maesse preostas on þam geprixle ●pister þegna þa B●sc●opas Aapones and þa maesse preostas ƿone had his suna Spelm. Concil uol 1. p. 586. Ye ought to know that your Order is next after and next to ours for as the Bishops are in the place and stead of the Apostles over the holy Church so are the Priests in the place of the Disciples The Bishops are of the Order of Aaron and the Priests have the Order of his Sons This Doctrine in all likelihood will one day revive against the Soveraign Pontif for the Spirit of the Archbishop of Granata will for ever be upon the learned Prelates who like Elastick Bodies under pressure are under a constant inclination to recover their liberty and will recover it as soon as they can The next dividing Principle in the Church of Rome is The Doctrine of Transubstantiation which is a Doctrine more full of Contradictions then perhaps any other which Men or Angles can invent It is contrary to all the Senses and Reason of Man to the plain and obvious sense of those very words upon which it is grounded to the Belief of the ancient Catholick Church to the Principles of almost all Sciences It multiplies the hypostatical Union it makes Christ to

abstain from Pollutions of Idols from fornications from things strangled and from blood To him the Apostles and Elders and the whole Church consented and said it seemeth good to the holy Ghost and to us and yet the Authority of this infallible and unanimous Council did not quite put an end to the Controversie for as it appears out of several of St. Paul's Epistles and more especially out of that to the Galatians some * Ad Magnesios ad Philadelph Epistles of St Ignatius there were those afterwards who taught the Gentile Christians Judaism and commanded them to be circumcised and keep the Jewish Law. So I need not relate how the oecumenical Council of Nice tho' backed with the Authority of the Emperor was not able to extinguish the Arian Schism nor make the Arians acquiesce in its Determinations And to multiply no more Instances the learned R. Cs. know very well how far the Christian World was from submitting to the second Nicene Council which they call the seventh general Council in its Determinations for Image-worship Quite contrary the Northern and Western Bishops unanimously opposed that Council and its Doctrine and in another † Concilium Franco surtes A. D. 79● Council wherein about 300 of them met together they condemned it and its Decree for Image-worship and proscribed it out of the number of general Councils and the Church of England at the Time was so far from acquiescing in its Determinations that her Pastors received that Decree for worshipping of Images with great indignation and contempt But then tho' it appears from these Examples that general Councils are not infallible Remedies for Heresies and Schisms yet it must be acknowledged that they are very good ones and the best that can be had when they are truly * Cum dicunt Concilium Catholicum aut universale hoc intelligunt ut in eo debeant adesse viri pii docti prudentes ex omnibus nationibus P. P. Vergerius in secretar pontific Act. primâ general and † Cum dicunt Liberum volunt ut liceat tum publicis tum privatis personis sub fide publici salvi conductûs praesliti venire stare discedere quoties illis libitum fuerit ante omnia ut liberè sine ullo metu aut impedimento loqui liceat suamque sententiam dicere in ipso Concilio ibid. free And therefore as Nilus of Thessalonica proposed a free and general Council as the best Expedient for ending all Differences between the Greek and Latin Church above 300 years ago so I hope I may without offence propose it now as the most hopeful Remedy to heal all Differences between the Church of England and the Church of Rome It would be an Enterprize worthy of the Greatness and holy Character of the Pope dispensing with the Pontifical Oaths to use his Interest among Christian Princes for the procuring of a free and general Council wherein * Statuerunt etiam quod amnes definitiones conclusiones articulorum de quibus suerit disputatum sierie debeant ex divinâ sacrâ Scripturâ doctrinàque antiquorum patrum ibid. Scripturae eloquia aliter atque aliter alius atque alius interpretatur aliter nameque illam Novatianus aliter Photinus aliter Sabellius aliter Donatus exponit aliter Arius Eunomius Macedonius aliter Apollinaris Priscillianus aliter Jovinianus Pelagius Caelestinus aliter postremo Nestorius atque idcirco multùm necesse est propter tantos tam varii erroris ansractus ut Prophetice Apostolicae interpretationis linea secundum Ecclesiastici Catholici sensûs normam dirigatur Vincent Lirinens adversus haeres cap. 2. the holy Scriptures and the Writings of the ancient Fathers should be laid open and the Differences of the two Churches fairly tryed by them as the Difference between Nestorius and his Antagonists was tryed in the third general Council The Differences happened in the following manner Nestorius Patriarch of Constantinople openly taught that it was not lawful to call the Virgin Mary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Mother of God. This alarmed Cyrill of Alexandria and many other Bishops who suspected that Nestorius had a design under the covert of that Assertion to bring into the Church the Doctrine of Paulus Samosatensis and Photinus who asserted that Christ was a meer man. Upon these Suspicions they stoutly opposed Nestorius and his Adherents for their new Opinion and the Contention grew so high that the Emperor was fain to call a Council at Ephesus to compose it and the Bishops being met together after some previous Altercation at last thought it the most Catholick blessed and desirable way of determining the Controversie to produce the Opinions of the holy Fathers who had been Martyrs or Confessors for the Faith or at least had continued in the true profession of it unto the end of their lives Upon this were brought into the Council the Writings of St. Peter Patriarch of Alexandria St. Athanasius St. Theophilus St. Basil St. Gregory of Nazianzum Gregorius Nyssenus St. Cyprian St. Ambrose and St. Foelix and St. Julius Bishops of the Imperial City of Rome with the Writings of other Fathers all which being examined it did appear that Nestorius was an Innovator and that Cyril was in the right who said that the ancient Fathers used to call the Blessed Virgin the Mother of God. I have taken this short account of the manner in which the Council of Ephesus proceeded against Nestorius because it is proposed by † Quod ne praesumptione magis nostrâ quàm autoritate Ecclesiasticâ promere videremur exemplum adhibuimus Sancti Concilii quod ante triennium fermè in Asiâ apud Ephesum celebratum est Viris clarissemis Basso Antiochoque consulibus Vbi cum sanciendis sidei regulis disceptaretur ne qua illic forsitan prophana novitas in modum perfidiae Ariminiensis obreperet universis Sacerdotibus qui illo ducenti sere numero convenerant hoc Cacholicissimum faelicissimum atque optimum factu visum est ut in medium sanctorum patrum sententiae proferrentur c. Vincent Lirin adversus haeres cap. 42. Vincentius Lirinensis as the best method of ending Controversies in Religion and I am perswaded if the same Apostolical course was taken in a General Council now the Differences between the Church of Rome and the Churches that dissent from it would come to an happy Conclusion and by God's Blessing make them all unite into one Communion and become one Catholick and Apostolical Church I know very well that the Gentlemen of the Roman Communion are apt to tell us that the Council of Trent was a Free and General Council but we know the contrary that it was neither Free nor General or if it were why may not the Church be represented anew in another Free and General Council as She was represented in the Council of Chalcedon shortly after the second Council of Ephesus and in the second Council of Nice within thirty years