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	rome_n	successor_n	2,241	5	9.1979	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50252	A defence of the Protestant Christian religion against popery: in answer to A discourse of a Roman Catholick Wherein the manifold apostaties, heresies, and schisms of the chruch of Rome, as also, the weakness of her pretensions from the scriptures and the fathers, are briefly laid open: by an English Protestant.	Mather, Samuel, 1626-1671.	1672 (1672)	Wing M1278; ESTC R217670	45,074	64

overspread the whole face of the visible Church with smoke and darkness as was prophesied of him in the fifth Trumpet Revel 9.1 It was not said to the Pope What ye bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and to you it is given to know the mysteries of Heaven or that I will send the Spirit to you to remain with you for ever It was not said to him nor to the Roman Catholick visible Church You have been told so an Hundred times You have been challenged an Hundred times over to prove your interest in these promises if you can And now again if you reply to this paper what ever you pass by in silence yet I pray remember this That you prove your interest in them now once at last And to provoke you if possible thereunto give me leave to tell you That howsoever you labour to put a good face upon the matter yet there are not wanting appearances and grounds of diffidence even among your selves about it for Bellarmine numbers the alligation of the Apostolick See to Rome in no higher rank than that of pious and very probable Opinions B●ll de Rom. Pontif. lib. 4. cap. 4. Quod non sit omnino de fide à Romana Ecclesia non posse separari Apostolicam sedem patet quia neque Scriptura neque traditio habet sedem Apostolicam ita fixam esse Romae ut inde auferri non possit nibilominus tamen pia probabilissima est sententia But if the Apostolick seat be removeable from Rome then by your own principles she may erre and perish Therefore I say again prove your interest in any Scripture-promise if you can Do it if you can for instance concerning that famous Text upon which you found your claim Matt. 16.18 Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it This Text belongs as much to Mahomet as to the Pope you would fain give it to the Pope but how many postulata must you beg without proof before you can arrive at such a conclusion as 1. That Peter was at Rome 2. That he was there martyred and marthered by the Romans 3. That the murthering of an honest man doth give the Thief that did it a just right and title to all his Estates and Honours Cartwr on Matth. 16.18 or as Mr. Cartwright speaketh That innocent blood which polluteth other places should sanctifie Rome and that the Lord who in revenge threw down Jerusalem from her priviledges which she had above all the Cities in the world for spilling the blood of the Prophets should in reward lift up the head of Rome above all other Cities for shedding the blood of the Apostles Nay rather forasmuch as it was more drunken with the blood of Saints under the Government of the Emperors than ever was any and therein hath justified her elder sister Jerusalem therefore by the most just judgment of God it is become the Seat of Antichrist Yea by this Argument as he also observes Jerusalem that killed our Saviour Christ himself getteth the prize from her 4. That Peter was Bishop of Rome which was inconsistent with his Office of Apostleship 5. That he left a Successor in eodem gradu in his Apostolical power and office that whereas the Commission was personal to the rest to determine with themselves he onely of all the Twelve should hold the Apostleship as it were in fee-simple for himself and his Successors for ever 6. That the Bishop of Rome is this Successor though Peter taught at Jerusalem first Cartwr on Matth 16.18 afterwards at Lidda then at Joppa afterwards at Antioch and likewise at Caesarea lastly at Alexandria before he came to Rome And so the Apostolical Authority is holden by the tenure of Burrow English where the youngest enjoyeth all as Mr. Cartwright there observes Of all which suppositions the two first are meerly disputable and uncertain and can never be demonstrated but the four last are most certainly and indisputably salse But yet all these we must believe to the end we may believe the Popes concernment in this promise made to Peter And many a child of God have you offered in the fire to Molech for not believing these Romances But when will you go about to prove them You know in your own Consciences that there is as much footing in the Scripture for the old Pagan Theogonie their Pedigrees and Fables of their Canonized Ancestors and for the Jewish Thalmudick as for these Romantick Figments Learned men have observed That there may be some dark footsteps of the true Scripture History of Adam investigated and discerned in the old Heathenish Fable of Saturn some footsteps of the History of Cham and Cain in the Fables of Jupiter of Noah in Bacchus of Moses and Joseph in Mercurius Trismegistus of Joshuah and Sampson in Hercules c. And truly there is no more of Peter the Apostle in the Pope of Rome those being nothing else but depravations of and depraved Traditions and Additions to the Truths and Sacred Histories of the Old Testament and so is Popery to the New You reason from the promise made to Peter that the Church cannot fail being builded upon a Rock nor needs no new Masons to re-build her again But why do you not prove the Roman Synagogue to be a Church You know we deny it otherwise then as the dead carcass or picture of a man is called a man She is Ecclesia malignantium as Psal 26.5 A Church of evil doers but not a true Gospel Church not a Spouse of Christ Though if she were yet a true Church when declining or defective may need Instruments in the hand of Christ to Reform her call them new Masons or by what other name of honour or contempt you please Therefore after the renewed promulgation of the Gospel in the tenth Chapter of the Revelations Christ doth authorize and commissionate his servants to measure the Temple and to leave out the outer Court Revel 11.1 2. which importeth some further degree of Reformation but prove the Pope and Church of Rome to be at all concerned in what was said to Peter if you can Do it if you can concerning that other Scripture so much abused by you 1 Tim. 3.15 The Church is the pillar and ground of Truth because by the Ministry of the Church the Truth is published and propagated Mr. Bedle 's Letters to Wadsworth cap. 8. p. 118. as if a Law or Proclamation of the King be set up upon a pillar in the Market-place or in allusion as Mr. Bedle takes it to the bases or pillars that held up the Vail or Curtains in the Tabernacle And whether you refer it to Timothy as some or to the Church as others it comes much to one Evident it is that the Apostle speaks it directly either of Timothy or of the Church of Ephesus and that it holds by a parity of reason concerning all other