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	council_n	rome_n	10,036	5	7.5247	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40256	Something in answer to a book called Fiat lux being a discourse between a papist and a Protestant &c. who writes at the bottom of the title page, J.V.C. : also something in answer to the papists queries.	Fox, George, 1624-1691.	1667 (1667)	Wing F1910; ESTC R25206	11,959	18

which ye may read your selves Isa 8.19 Psal 115.17 Something in Answer to the Papists Queries THou sayest in the 338 Page Apostacy is not only a renouncing of the Faith of Christ but the very Name and Title of Christianity and no man will say that the Church of Rome had ever such a fall as this A. The Faith of Christ that works by Love the Romish Church hath renounced and made shipwrack of and then what remains but a Form of godliness when the Power is denied and such are to be turned away from and such a Church as deny the Faith deny the Power and to profess Christ and Christianity in Words and deny him in Life and Power is Anti-Christ and this the Church of Rome is fallen into For many that kept the Title of Jews as you have done the Title of Christianity were found of the Synagogue of Satan so will you when you come to be proved and tryed by the faithful as they that said they were Jews and were not but lyars blasphemers and Synagogues of Satan Querie 2. If the Church of Rome did ever adhere to any singular or new Opinion disagreeable to the common received Doctrine of the Christian World I pray you satisfie me as to these particulars A. The Church of Rome have set up new Opinions by which they force their people to adhere to them contrary to all the Primitive Churches as all may see who will read but the Decrees Orders and Canons in your Church and that read the Epistles that were to the Churches in the Primitive times to be contrary to the Doctrine of the Primitive times as your making your God and Christ in your Bread and Wine your Crosses Crucifixes Reliques making of Ministers Pilgrims Popes and all your Body of Clergy together with their Orders and Garments that are nothing like the Way Worship and Practice of the Primitive Church which was the first among the Apostles And was not Rome degenerated when the Bishop would excommunicate all the Eastern Churches who was reproved sharply for it Qu. 3. Thou sayest By what General Council was the Church of Rome Condemned and by what Authority was she Reproved A. Three hundred and seven years after Christ the Bishop of Rome denyed Christ and sacrificed to Idols mark denyed Christ then he must deny Christianity when he took up another Religion then what did he bring the People of Rome to when he had sacrificed to Idols The Bishops Name was Mercelinus and he was condemned by a Council of 300 Bishops And here thou mayest see the Authority that reproved him before your Popish Religion See Eusebius in Pag. 36. Chronograp Was not the Bishop of Rome the first that Decreed that Priests should not Marry in the 399 year of Christ And then the first Council held at Toledo in Spain in the year of Christ 401 Decreed That Priests should Marry and so contradicted the Bishop of Rome And were they not once of the Sect of the Arrians and Reproved Look in Eusebius and you will see Reproofs enough Also you may read in Scripture what work the Apostle had with the Church of Rome how they were in his day going 〈◊〉 the Works of the Law from the Faith Also in the 423 year of Christ how that the Bishop of Rome passed the bounds of his Priestly Order in his presumption in challenging to himself the Secular Power and Authority who was reproved sharply and then a Council held in Affrica Decreed That no Bishop should be called The Head of all Priests That no Appeal should be made at Affrica to any other Bishop And so the Church was Ruled by Councils till Boniface the Third who got up to be Universal Bishop of all the World by the means of Phocus that murdered Mauritius the Emperour his Master after the 600 year of Christ and then came in the Pope the Turk and the Devil with all their Body and pelting Ceremonies Then did the Pope lose the greatest part of Christendome and the Emperor the greatest part of his Empire and so in succeeding Ages in stead of the Bible you brought into the Church Legends of Lyes as you may read Euseb Pag. 410. Qu. 4. Thou Queriest If ever the Church of Rome divided her self by Schisme from any other Body of faithful Christians to break Communion or went from the Society of any Elder Church what Company did she leave from what Body did she go forth where was the true Church which she forsook Answ She went from the practice of the Church in the Primitive times and from the Body of their Elders in all their dayes and hath forsaken their Society and Communion and divided her self from Christ the Head and hath set up another and is divided from all the Apostles and Elders Compare your own Canons which you use in your own Church with the Writings of the Apostles and you may quickly see from what Church Body and Company of faithful Christians and Elders you are all g●●●●● and erred from into another Faith Worship Life Power Gospel and Practice than Christ and the Apostles were in in the Primitive times For what one thing is it that the Church of Rome practiseth that is agreeable to theirs in all your Worship and your Teachers that hold it up who are maintained by oppressing the People and are upheld by carnal weapons and by them are all your dark Doctrines and Inventions set up and by Goals and Prisons and Tortures But the Elders which you have forsaken and Ministers and Apostles their Weapons were Spiritual and not Carnal as yours are who are sold under the sin far off the Redemption therefore do you destroy so many Lives not knowing what Spirit ye be of persecuting them that have the mind of Christ who came to save mens lives and to love Enemies and one another whose Doctrine ye deny THE END

Lord turn him back again empty Read the Council of Trent And whether or no do the Churches of the Corinthians Philippians and Thessalonians joyn to the Pope or why hath the Pope made so many Orders to preserve the Unity by his Inquisitions And whereas thou Queriest How came the Bible into England was it not brought up hither at the Lands Conversion by the Romans Answ We say again That many Christians came over into England and preached the Gospel many hundred years before any Universal Pope was and dost thou think that there were no Books nor Epistles brought over before Boniface the Pope was whose time was 600 years after Christ when that Joseph of Arimathea with twelve more as hath been said came over within seventy years after Christ And whereas thou marvellest Of the many wayes of Rebellion in England not reconciled yet have not all this while appealed to the King as Supream Head of the Church and you have secretly murmured against Queen Elizabeth and King James Answ We know it and also against the King now its like you are murmuring as against King James is sufficiently known to this day and against Elizabeth too Do you not remember what striving there was in many parts of the Nation but what 's this you are troubled because the Pope is not Head It seems the Gates of Hell hath prevailed against your Church and if so a Lye is found in your right hand and you not to be the true Church according to yōur own Doctrine for proof whereof you may look about you in Turkey and Egypt and Jerusalem and all over Europe And whereas thou sayest The Pope easily managed the Peoples Consciences and kept them in order and peaceableness and thou sayest the Reason is because of the multitude of People about him and Priests who shine like Stars And thou sayest The Popes for the most part are very good yet it may happen that some of them are no better than they should be Answ Here the Clamourous Woman pluck's down her own house for how often have you written and told People that the Popes are Infallible and could not erre And as for the Pope and his Priests shining like Starrs and keeping the People in peace Your own Council of Trent manifests that sufficiently and also in other parts of the World you may read your Order But the Pope would be in the Throne of God and be Lord of the Consciences of People and have power over mens Faith contrary to the Apostles who had not power over any mans Faith And as for shining like Stars in the firmament you have wandred up and down till you have darkened the Air as Jude speakes But the Everlasting Gospel is again preached which shineth over you all And whereas thou sayest That none of your Ecclesiastical benefits were given by Princes and People to maintain Wife and Children but onely for such as were single and had consecrated themselves c. Answ Is it not better to Marry then to be called Concubinary Priests as you were called in the Council of Trent And did not your Benefits maintain the Poor aswell as the Priests And how long after Christ was it before Priests were forbidden to Marry Nay did not some of your own Popes allow Priests to Marry and afterwards denied it again Truly a man had need have a great deal of patience to read your Popes Lives and Lawes and Decrees and Councils they are so full of confusions and contradictions though stiled Unerring and Infallible they have wholly erred from the Apostles and the Scriptures of Truth And whereas you say You kneel at your Communion and you drew a compendious Common Prayer and you keep up the Pulpits for Catholicks who built them Answ Of these things you and others have made a Trade of and in though none of all these things you find among the Apostles The Scripture saith They sate when they received the Supper And whereas thou comparest the Quakers to Ishmael whose hand is against every man Answ This is your own condition as your actions declare tho you can flatter secretly for your own advantage have you not destroyed Protestants of all sorts to make them to bend to your Rudiments But the Quakers have an Universal Love to all mankind and are of the Faith of Abraham that works by Love and desire the everlasting good of all mankind of the Turk and Pope too as they are Men if they should come to our Houses and want Bread or Drink we can freely give them some but as for their Religion and wayes we deny And why dost thou contradict one of thy fellows sayings to us the Infallibility of the real Presence which said The Consecrated would wear away as the Unconsecrated And Page 196. thou sayest Why doth not the Bishop of Canterbury Summon a Council to end the Differences about Religion Answ Here thou seemest to be a lover of Peace and Concord but it is not the Bishop of Canterbury but it is the Popes Authority that thou wouldest have up as in the former Page where thou speakest of Benefits and of Single Life and of you Catholicks to come to your right again whilst others are fighting thou wouldest set them together to hasten the end but the Serpent is seen in his hole and out of it And whereas thou mentionest four Sects viz. Independants Presbyterians Anabaptists and Quakers of their disturbing the Peace thou mightest have left out the Quakers and taken the rest to your selves and been the head of them for who hath disturbed the Peace of all Nations more then ye have done Ye may truly take the right hand of Fellowship there And whereas in Page 201. thou sayest They are all Infallible and will not be moved so much as to moderation A. Thou mightest very well have kept in this and have read the Council of Trent of the Pope who said He would fire all the world but he would make them obey him And read in the Pagents of Popes there thou mayest see that your Popes which you say cannot erre are more like Beasts than Men And so your Immoderation and fallibility and erring spirit hath manifested it self sufficiently in Europe And we who are called Quakers do seek the peace of all men whose Weapons are Spiritual and not Carnal like yours who have degenerated from the Apostles And whereas thou sayest The Reformers cut off and slashed the Antient Faith Answ Ye are out of that Faith that works by Love which is the Antient Faith and out of the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and have slasht and cut those that be in it For where doth he bid you run to Graves for Reliques and set up Images and dress your Popes more like to Stage-players than Peter for Peter and the Apostles had none of these Titles given unto them as the Pope hath taken unto himself but such things were forbidden by Christ and he hath exalted himself above his brethren but God