Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	church_n	king_n	pope_n	8,185	5	6.6003	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23611	A defence of true Protestants, abused for the service of popery, under the name of Presbyterians in a dialogue between A. and L. two sons of the church : where it is debated, whether discenting Presbyterians be as bad or worse than papists : and other popish assertions are detected.		1680 (1680)	Wing A1; ESTC R21360	17,633	34

not to believe the Pope hath this Power is Madness and damned Heresy That not one Catholick Author can be brought who denies it That Christ had not been sufficiently careful of the Church if he had not given the Pope this Power over Kings That he had not sufficiently provided for our Salvation if Kings might not be thus deprived That the Popes only have not this Power but even Inferiour Prelate may throw down Kings Bishops how poor and weak so ever have this Authority for Kings are but their Subjects and a Priest is as much above a King as a Man is above a Beast L. Do their approved Authors publish such things as these A. Yes And I will shew you their own Words for it in their own Language when you please Indeed they have made the Proof of such a Charge very easy by their other Principles We need not trouble our selves to shew that this or that Practical Assertion is decreed by a General Council or entertained by their whole Church it will be evident enough if it be made appear to be the Judgement of some of their Grave Doctors for it is a received Maxim That in Matters of Morality a Probable Opinion may be followed with a safe Conscience and an Opinion is made probable by the Authority of the Doctors who deliver it Caramuel assures us four Doctors will do it currently In Father (a) Abbot Antilog Cap. 13. P. 191. Garnet's Judgement two or three will be sufficient but many hold that one Grave Doctor is enough Verricelli (b) Opuse Pag. 56. as Guimenius tells us quotes twenty four of their Authors that maintain this I suppose he might have made them up Forty by what I have seen And those that require the Concurrence of four in an Opinion to make it probable must grant that one will suffice unless they will contradict themselves since there are more than Twenty Four who hold that One Doctor is sufficient Now there is not the most extravagant Assertion among all these forementioned but the Authority of One grave Doctor at lest may be produced for it and this is enough to make it lawful in practice past all scruple So that there needs no more but the Opinion of any one grave Casuist or Confessor to assure the lawfulness of the most Horrid Villany that ever was or can be acted Be it the Killing ef a King or all the Princes on Earth that are Hereticks The Life of Queen Elizabeth was divers times atrempted with an assurance the Attempt was Lawful upon no better Authority Or the Burning of such a City as London though 't is like there was a Concurrence of more in this Or the blowing up a Parliament the Opinion of Harry Garnet alone satisfyed the most scrupulous of the Conspirators that the Fact was both Lawfull and Meritorious L. I think these last Maxims upon which they raise their Doctrine of Probability will prove as pernicious as any before mentioned since they are virtually all that is wicked And Papists must be more dangerous Persons than I was willing to suspect since a Priest can make any thing Lawfull for them The Opinion of One Doctor is as good for this purpose as a Popes Bull or the Decree of a General Council A. True These might make it more Certain but there 's no need of Certainty in the case a meer Probability makes their Practice safe enough in Conscience And though a constitution of a Pope or Council might make it more Certain and more Safe they are not Concerned for that but may Lawfully act according to an Opinion that is both less Probable and less Safe that 's their common Doctrine and so follow the Opinion of One though a weaker Doctor rather than the Judgment of many how eminent so ever For Instance suppose Forty or an Hundred of their best Divines determine that it is unlawfull to suborn Witnesses by false Oaths to take away the Reputation Estate or Life of a Protestant and Two or Three or but One Priest of repute among them conclude that this is Lawfull a Villian bribed to do it may be secured in Conscience of the lawfulness of it by his sole Authority And thus the Just or more Specious Determinations of the better sort of their Divines will signify nothing and we shall be deluded if we rely on them one obscure Doctor or Confessor of whom we have no notice may carry it against them all for the Lawfullness of a Design or Attempt to Ruin Particular Persons or a whole Countrey Prince and People L. God bless us from Men of such Principles A. I have given you a tast of the Priests Principles can you shew me any owned by the Priesbyterians like to these L. It may be their are not so many nor quite so bad but they are bad enough A. Be it so But that will not make them worse nor so Bad as Papists as you declared them to be before No nor worse than your self and those that Symbolize with you in this Censure of your Fellow Protestants For you will not Presume that you are better than the best on Earth and even those are bad enough But pray where may we see those Principles of theirs which you count bad enough For I have reason to believe that it is either Passion or Malice that manages this charge and neither of these are to be trusted further than we can see L. I will not send you far for this You may see it in a late Print Intituled The Cloak in ' its Colours where ' its Demonstrated from the Writings of Calvin Beza Knox and Buchanan A. I have seen that Pamphlet some Moneths since and find these four Authors cited whose Sayings alledged right or wrong must pass for a Demonstration against the whole Party and yet they are the very same Persons whose words the Jesuit Parsons long fince abused to prove that the Protestants Principles are in this Particular worse than the Papists By which we may discern whose Disciple this Scribler is and what Difference they make between Protestants and Presbyterians Both must fall under the same Reproach as they intend both shall Fall by the same Execution if their Plot Succeed There needs no other Vindication of the Presbyterians but Doctor afterwards Bishop Morton's Answer to the Jesuit in behalfe of the Protestants for they must stand or fall together and he that runs at those Wounds those through their sides and forgets if he be a Protestant his Duty to the Common Interest to serve his Particular Passions Parsons and his (c) Pag. 7. Second towave the Foolish and nauseous language with which he ushers it in make Calvin Speak thus Earthly Princes do deprive themselves of all Power when they Oppose God nay they are not worthy to be held in the number of Men we must therefore rather Spit in their Faces than Obey them To this Dr. Morton Answers haveing shew'd the Jesuits Ignorance in abusing Calvins words at