Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	bishop_n	church_n	jurisdiction_n	5,357	5	9.3309	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56698	A sermon preached on Saint Mark's Day MDCLXXXVI in the parish church of St. Paul's Covent Garden by Symon Patrick ...	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1686 (1686)	Wing P844; ESTC R7041	18,815	51

than the Lord Christ's was Can the Disciples convince men more than their Master did If that be a hopeless thing then there will be Controversies even about this Infallibility Which leads to the Third thing III. It appears plainly from hence that God never intended all errors should be kept out of the Church by an Infallible Authority No directly contrary St. Paul saith 1 Cor. xi 19. There must be heresies that they who are approved may be made manifest That is God thinks it just that men should be permitted to follow their own foolish conceits when they will not be guided by the plain directions of his holy Gospel By which means sincere and upright men are discovered and all men are tried whether they will obey the truth or turn aside unto unrighteousness There must be a tryal made of men and therefore such order must not be taken as to make it impossible there should be any heresies No God hath left it more than possible there should for there must be Heresies that there may be approbation made of Believers whether they will sincerly adhere to the plain truths of Christian Religion or part with them for pleasing and gainful errors Besides if God had intended to prevent this by establishing an Infallible Guide to whom all should resort He would have declared this intention the most plainly of all other things And have told us also where to find such an Authority and not have left this to be controverted and disputed which was intended to be the end of Controversies More especially if any one particular Church was to have this authority over all other Churches it would have been most needful that this should have been so clearly taught as to have put it out of all doubt For we can see no reason not so much as that of convenience why one Church should have it and all others want it but in reason every Church should have it if it were to be had that men might not be put to the trouble of going far for Infallible direction And as for that Church which now pretends to it there is the clearest evidence that no Church anciently thought it to have more Authority than other Churches who lookt upon themselves as her equals I speak of the Church of Rome whose Determinations and Traditions in matters of Doctrine were rejected by St. Cyprian Firmilianus and the rest of the African Bishops who write to the Pope as every one knows who reads St. Cyprian's Epistles not as their Superiour but as their good Brother their Collegue their fellow Priest rebuking him with much sharpness taxing him for pretending vainly * V. Epist LXXII LXXV Edit Oxon. to Apostolical Authority where he had none and for not conforming himself to the rule of Truth and Peace delivered by the Apostle and in downright terms affirming that every Bishop in the administration of his Church hath power to act according to his own judgment and that none could impose Laws upon another And as for matters of Ceremony all the Bishops of the East refused to submit to him challenging as much Authority from St. John as the Roman Bishop did from St. Peter This is notorious in the famous Question about Easter and sufficient to show the truth of what Aeneas Sylvius could not but confess before he came to be a Pope that little respect was had to the Roman Church before the Council of Nice And that Council expresly decreed the ancient Customs should be every where observed By which Antioch and Alexandria claimed the same Authority over the Churches subject to their Jurisdiction that the Roman Bishop did within his Diocess And thus it continued for many years after nor do the greater part by far of the Christian World at this day own any such Authority over them as the Bishop of Rome now challenges Let us not therefore be shaken by this Wind of doctrine no more than by any other wherewith this Church hath been troubled For there is no such Infallible Authority left in the Church for the deciding all Controversies much less can that Church lay the sole Claim to that Authority there is left in it or if it could justly pretend to the highest it would not be able to do what a far more miraculous Authority could not effect and there are other means of unity and peace prescribed by God which if men will not embrace there must be discords and dissentions whereby the integrity or falseness of every mans heart will be discovered What Means those are you shall see anon when I have spoken a few words of the Second Observation which now follows II. It is a childish thing to be unsettled in Religion because of this difference or contrariety of Doctrine wherewith the Church is at any time troubled So the Apostle might well call it because there being as I have lately shown you a form of wholsome words left by them in every Church which they planted a Summary of Sound Doctrine called the Faith once delivered to the Saints there could be no reason that any men who had this deposited with them should be unresolved what to believe and unsettled by the Preaching of other Doctrine but their instability proceeded merely from the weakness of their understanding and the strength of their passions These two things are remarkable in little Children as their understandings are weak so their passions are strong and their desires violent From whence it comes to pass that they are not only credulous but fickle and new-fangled as we speak delighting in that to day which they throw away to morrow These make them rash and hasty apt to quarrel one with another about little differences and dispose them to be taken with empty shows and pageantry with things that affect the senses and have a glistering appearance though void of all inward goodness and solid worth and usefulness In short while we are Children in understanding we are naturally injudicious and consequently inconstant We do not judge aright of things that differ and so are carried uncertainly to and fro as the Apostle here speaks from one thing to another and many times from better to worse especially when we meet with confident people who easily impose upon us This is a very dangerous estate and therefore it highly concerns us to get out of it by growing in knowledge and wisdom imitating little Children only in our endeavours to be without guile but labouring as the Apostle speaks in understanding to be men and to have a thorough knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus This St. Peter prescribes as a remedy against unstedfastness in the conclusion of his second Epistle Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things beware lest ye also being carried away by the errour of the wicked fall from your stedfastness but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Who it is most certain hath not left us in doubt