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
A66416	A sermon preached upon the fifth of November, 1678. By a Protestant divine	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1678 (1678)	Wing W2723; ESTC R214125	17,281	35

thereby an opportunity of diving into the hearts and drawing out the secrets of others of understanding the tempers of persons the state of Families Towns and Kingdoms These are very dangerous persons wherever they do reside It 's such as these that will not suffer Princes or People to be quiet where they are admitted and indulged but are perpetually instigating them and putting them forward upon dangerous enterprizes These that pretend to be under an Obligation not to divulge the secrets of Confession although a Prince and Parliament and thousands of People suffer by the concealment of it as it had likely to have proved in the Gunpowder-Treason make their advantage of these to breed ill blood to foster and promote jealousies and contentions betwixt Prince and people betwixt Nation and Nation that their Cause may be promoted by it and by this means others may be made unable to hurt them or defend themselves It 's but fit therefore since such have chosen the life of a Cloyster that they should be confined to it or else they are enough to set all the World on fire and to draw men into perpetual quarrels and contentions These are they that keep the Church from being quiet and Christians from the practice of those duties that tend to the peace the order and the security of it 3. It proceeds from the interest of wicked men as it is Vers 3. They have consulted against thy hidden ones or as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred Psalm 17. 14. Thy treasures So Vers 12. They say let us take to our selves the houses or ornaments of God in possession The riches of the Temple amongst other things did it seems invite their avarice And this is frequently a reason of the enmity of such The Church may either have somewhat which they want or else if it should prevail deprive them of somewhat which they have and so gives therefore sufficient ground of a quarrel The Apostle tells us of some men whose God is their belly and that mind earthly things Phil. 3. 19. and of others whose gain is godliness 1 Tim. 6. 5 that are no further for Religion than Religion is for them and make use of that Sacred Name to obtain or secure their secular interest and if this be opposed Hell it self shall be moved and all that power and policy can do imployed to protect it Religion it self shall be abandoned and the Church of God harassed and persecuted if they make against it This is one great reason of the quarrel betwixt us and the Church of Rome and of all those attemps made upon us by a Foreign Power England is a fruitful Country and the people of their own temper inclined to devotion and it was a plentiful harvest which some men reaped here in former times from Peter-pence and first-Fruits and Pensions and Appeals and Dispensations and Indulgences and Jubilees and Pilgrimages they were goodly days when there were frequent returns in these kinds from hence to Rome but now that there is a great Gulph fixed by Laws and Statutes and Penalties betwixt us and them so that they which would pass from hence to them cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence about such affairs without danger whilst those Laws are in being and are put in execution their bank is sunk and they would fain be returning to their old quarter There are Abbies and Monastries Frieries and Nunneries with noble Mannors and large Demesnes there are Benefices and Colledges which they thirst after These are the Souls that they so dearly prize and venture so hard to rescue out of the fire these are the Proselytes which they above all labour to gain and because they are still kept out what broils and stirs do they make what do they not threaten and endeavour And besides there is danger lest if they invade not us that we should grow upon them and other people begin to be wise as well as ours Such also may come to see that Religion consists not in the visiting of a Church or looking devoutly upon a Relique or kissing a piece of wood or bowing to an Image or crossing the breast or in singring of Beads or saying Prayers by tale or being clad with the Robe of St. Francis or walking barefoot or in being all night locked up in a Cloyster or in fasting by eating of Fish or in lighting up of Tapers and making processions and a thousand of the like apish and fantastical Ceremonies nay they might come to understand that the Pope is not Christs Vicar nor his Holiness Infallible nor that he hath power to deliver Souls out of Purgatory and what is more that there is no such place as Purgatory and so no need of praying for the dead nor of Money to purchase those prayers This is a great reason why our Religion in the Church of England which is a Reformation of those corrupt errors and practices that are crept into the Church of Rome is so much disliked and inveighed against by the Popish faction For what would Rome signify if it had no supremacy over other Churches what appeals would be made thither what directions commands and grants would be expected thence if each had as much authority within it self as that now claims over all If the rest of the Apostles had authority equal with St. Peter if all their successours in the several parts of the World were of the same degree and none had superiority over the rest if the Church of Ephesus where St. John was or that of Jerusalem where St. James did preside had as much priviledge as that of Rome then she might sit as a widow in respect of what for these last ages she hath been and be bereaved of all that Pomp and Greatness that Wealth and Magnificence that she hath abounded in Again if there be no infallibility amongst them if their Popes have mistaken in point of faith and their decrees have been erroneous if their Councils have miscarried in their determinations if Tradition hath failed in what they pretend to be conveighed down by it if their Church that is be no better than others and whatever it pretends to can really claim no better infallibility Then what need will there be of being solicitous and inquisitive about what she shall require or determine what need any one take a long journey thither when he may with greater ease and as much certainty have his case resolved at home Could that Church do no more than others and had it no such thing as a treasure of Merits and Superarogaions no publick and general stock from whence such may be relieved as having made little conscience of Religion whilst they lived have no other claim to the priviledges of it when they come to dye where would be the profit that doth daily accrue to it by the issuing out of Indulgences Were there nothing in the Reliques that are shewed by them and no more in that Blood of Christ