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	peter_n	successor_n	2,942	5	9.2143	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10659	Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life of Christ. Being the substance of severall sermons preached at Lincolns Inne: by Edward Reynoldes, preacher to that honourable society, and late fellow of Merton Colledge in Oxford.	Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.	1631 (1631)	STC 20934; ESTC S115807	428,651	573

by meere naturall reasons and the assent produced by it is differenced from suspition hesita●…cie ●…ubitation in the opinion of school●…men themselves Now then in as much as we are bound to yeeld an evident assent unto divine truths necessary hereunto it is that the und●…rstanding bee convinc'd of these two things First that God is of infallible authoritie and cannot lye nor deceive which thing is a principle by the light of nature evident and unquestioned Secondly that this authoritie which in faith I rely upon is indeede and infallibly Gods owne authoritie The meanes whereby I come to know that may bee either extraordinary as revelation such as was made by the Prophets concerning future events or else ordinary and common to the faithfull This the Papists say is the authoritie of the Church Against which if one would dispute much might bee said Briefly granting first unto the Church a ministeriall introductory perswasive and conducting concurrence in this worke pointing unto the starre which yet it selfe shineth by its owne light reaching forth and exhibiting the light which though in it selfe visible could not bee so ordinarily to mee u●…lesse thus presented explaning the evidence of those truths unto which I assent for their owne intrinsecall certain●…y I doe here demaund how it is that each man comes to beleeve The Colliar will quickly make a wise answere as the Church beleeves But now how or why doth the Church beleeve these or these truths to bee divine Surely not because the Church hath so determined our Saviour Himselfe would not be so beleeved If I beare record of my selfe my record is not true Well then the Church must needes beleeve by the spirit which leads it into all truth And what is the Church but the Bodie of Christ the congregrtion of the faithfull consisting of divers members And what worke is that whereby the Spirit doth illuminate and raise the understanding to perceive aright divine truth but onely that Oyntment which dwelleth in you saith the Apostle whereby Christs sheepe are enabled to heare His voyce in matters of more Heavenly and fundamentall consequence and to distinguish the same from the voyce of strangers Now have not all the faithfull of this unction Doth it not runne downe from the head to the skirts of the garment Are wee not all a royall Priesthood and in both these respects annointed by the Spirit And having all the Spirit though in different measures and degrees is it not in congruitie probable that we have with Him received those vivificall and illightning operations which come along with him Capable is the poorest member in Christs Church being growne to maturitie of yeeres of information in the faith Strange therefore it is that the Spirit not leaving mee destitute of other quickning graces should in this onely leave my poore soule to travell as farre as Rome to see that by a candle or rather by an ignis fatuus which himselfe might more evidently make knowne unto me For the Spirit doth beget knowledge We have received the spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God And againe Hereby we know that wee dwell in Him and Hee in us because Hee hath given us of His Spirit And againe Hereby we know that Hee abideth in us by the Spirit which Hee hath given us Especially since wee must take even the determinations of the Church and Pope though they were infallible in themselves at second hand as they passe through the mouth of a Priest whose authoritie being not infallible nor apostolicall but humane impossible it is not but that he may misreport His holy Father and by that meanes misguide and delude an unsetled soule Againe I demaund How doth it appeare unto mee that the Iudgment of the Church is infallible when it alone is the warrant of my Faith That this is it selfe no principle nor to the light of naturall reason primo intuit●… manifest ex evidentia terminorum is most certaine For that this company of men should not erre when other companies of men may erre cannot possibly be immediate●…y and por se evident since there must first needs apriori be discovered some internall difference betweene those men from whence as from an antecedent principle this difference of erring or not erring must needes grow Now then I demand what is that whereby I doe assent unto this proposition in case it were true That the Church cannot erre The Church it selfe it cannot be since nothing beares record of it selfe and if it should the proofe would be more ridiculous then the opinion being but idem peridem and petitio quaestionis Above the Church a Priori there is not any light but the scriptures and the spirit Therefore needs by these must I assent unto that one proposition at least And if unto that by these why then by the same light may I not assent unto all other divine truths since evident it is that the same light which enables me rightly to apprehend one object is sufficient also to any other for which a lesser light then that is presumed to suffice So then a true faith hath its evidence and certainty grounded upon the Authoritie of the word as the instrument and of the spirit of God raising and quickning the soule to attend and acknowledge the things therein revealed and to set to its owne seale unto the truth and goodnesse of them But how doe I know either this word to be Gods Word or this spirit to bee Gods spirit since there are sundry false and lying spirits I answer first ad Hominem there are many particular Churches and Bishops which take themselves to be equally with Rome members and Bishops of the universall Church How shall it invincibly appeare to my Conscience that other Churches and Bishops all save this onely doe or may erre and that this which will have me to beleeve her infallibility is not her selfe an hereticall and revolted Church This is a question controuerted By what autority shall it be decided or into what principles á priori resolved and how shall the evidence of those principles appeare to the Conscience That the Popes are successors of Peter in his see of Rome that they are doctrinall as wel as personall successours that Peter did there sit as moderator of the Catholike Church that his infallibility should not stick to his chaire at Antioch as well as to that at Rome that Christ gave him a principality jurisdiction and Apostleship to have to himselfe over all others and to leave to his successors who though otherwise privat men and not any of the pen-men of the holy Ghost should yet have after him a power over those Apostles who survivd Peter as it is manifest Iohn did That the scripture doth say any title of all this that the traditions which do say it are a divine word are al controversed points and though there be sorceries more then enough