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	universal_a	3,072	5	9.1316	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25609	An answer to the Popes letter written to the king of France wherein he insinuates that barbarous doctrine, that temporal dominion is founded upon religion : with a refutation also of the popes supremacy.	Anglicus.	1680 (1680)	Wing A3432; ESTC R227	5,200	4

generality of men after that dear-bought Universality who will be the better Man will have but the whole World and so he hath now But again if this be so then since all the Persuasions do hold themselves Orthodox for no man will profess a Religion and say it is false It is very likely this Principle will be one Ingredient of all their Religions and so all parts of the Universe by a certain Idiosyncrisis of fighting for their own will be moving War together and so we shall affect the World with a universal principle of Contention Slaughter and Destruction and all the miserable Concomitants of War and that not as an accident of its depravation not as the issue of its corruption but as matter and part of the original rectitude of its constitution because all this is to be quatenus Truth and Orthodox Faith And as it is in the World at large so will it be with the Factions in every particular Kingdom Every one as he thinketh himself Orthodox will also think himself entituled to Dominion and Property over all the rest Now for that I know Your Holiness maketh no question but the Truth of the Orthodox Faith is in the Church of Rome and consequently the Right of Dominion when you shall have conquered all the World I pray you which of all the 300 Factions among you shall have it since but one can be the Orthodox and Your Holiness can tell if you are infallible As for the putting Saints out of the Temple if your Authority be not good as I shall shew presently there are no such Saints then as to the condemning the Forefathers if you mean those we commonly call the Fathers we deny it We approve every word of every one but all that say as you say we deny to be Fathers But the question of the Fathers is not rightly taken by some for they spake nothing of any point as if it were in controversie for it was not then If you mean the Popes then to their and your Authority we say thus 1. The whole Difference betwixt you and us depends upon the Authority of the Pope at least that is the grand Controversie 2. That Authority depends upon his Succession to S. Peter 3. The Virtue of that Succession depends upon three things in conjunction viz. S. Peter's being Universal Bishop his sitting at Rome in that capacity and his Authority for both for if he sate at Rome and were not Universal you are not Universal if he were Universal and sate not at Rome you are not his Successor if he had no Authority neither have you 4. This Authority of the Pope is Matter of Faith or equivalent to it for you say To be out of the Church is damnable and to deny the Popes Authority is to be out of the Church 5. This great Matter of Faith is built upon these three things two of which are Matter of Fact and the other Interpretation of Scripture 6. That upon which Matter of Faith depends ought to be as certain as the Faith ought to be stedfast then if those three things are so certain shew me the Evidence which I require to be as plain as that whereby we know Christ was the Messias because it is to support a point of Faith the want of which you make as dangerous as the want of that And now in this case Your Holiness is prevented of the use of your Archimedes's Engine having no where to stand while you use it viz. The Pope saith so therefore it is true For the question is not whether the Pope say so but whether it be true because the Pope saith so So that this must be previously proved to ground his Credit upon Do not mistake the Elenchus the Dispute is not of S. Peter's being Universal Bishop or sitting at Rome nor of his Authority so to do but of such a Certainty of these things as Faith requires We are not sure that S. Peter was not so and did not so and had not so but we are sure that we cannot be sure he was so and did so and had so and so long no man can be required to ascribe this Authority to the Pope Take by the way but Bellarmine's first Argument to prove that he was at Rome Bishop or no Bishop S. Peter saith he in his Epistle writeth thus The Church at Babylon salute you which Babylon is figuratively Rome A proper basis to build Faith upon I am confident that he himself did not take either this or any other he useth to be so Then as to the Interpretation it is positively impossible that God could deal so unreasonably and unmercifully as to leave that Uncertain upon the Certainty whereof the Temporal and Eternal Peace of his Church depends if all the true Religion rest upon this question namely Whether the Pope be what he pretends to be or not Is it possible that the Scripture which came on purpose to teach us Religion should let us understand nothing of it but what we can pick out as if we were reading a Riddle or interpreting a Dream or an Oracle nay and must pick out that which by no rule or measure of Interpretation can be found out Is God such an Egyptian Task master Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Whatsoever thou bindest in Earth shall be bound in Heaven Feed my sheep Now as we tender our being in the Church and consequently our Salvation we must find in these words all these Institutions and that as certain and conspicuous as Thou shalt do no murder 1. That S. Peter was thereby made the greatest of the Apostles 2. That being so he was Bishop of the World 3. That being so where ever he sate that place should retain that Holiness that who so ever succeeded in that Seat should be Universal Bishop 4. That that Universal Bishop hath an Infallible Faculty and Authority in interpreting Scripture and dictating the Doctrines of the Church 5. That he hath power over Kings and several other things Now no man can say that these things do naturally flow from these and then though they could which they cannot by dint of Syllogism involved Reasonings and Concatenations of Inferences be deduc'd yet then they would not seem to be the things that every one is required to believe because every one then is not capable of them Perhaps you will object Every one is bound to believe the matters in the Athanasian Creed yet those are not found in Scripture but by Inferences which every one is not able to make neither doth every one understand it The Case is not the same for we believe there is a God before we come to the Athanasian Creed and do also naturally suppose great things in that God and then from that learn the manner and nature of his Being which then we have no reason to disbelieve unless we know any thing more likely to be true or any thing that were likely to make that false and no man is bound to believe any more of this than he understands But that there is a God in general every one is bound to believe but now in this case we do not first believe a Pope and then come to this dark Analogy to learn the Nature of his Office But we come to this to learn that there is such a thing as a Pope it being all the way that he is to be proved which therefore since you make so necessary ought to be depending upon a common Testimony To conclude then he that cannot find Evidence for the Matters of Fact aforesaid and a certain Rule for this Interpretation must not be a Papist and he that can deserves to be a Pope Your Holiness's As far as is Lawful ANGLICVS