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
A51652	Motives and reasons for dissevering from the Church of Rome and her doctrine wherein after the declaration of his conversion, he openeth divers absurdities practised in that Church, being not matters of report, but such things whereof he was an eye and ear witness / by Chr. Musgrave, after he had lived a Carthusian monk for twenty years.	Musgrave, Christopher, fl. 1621	1688 (1688)	Wing M3143; ESTC R28845	14,573	39

ambition of the Clergy which by these means glean the common People and pick their Pockets under pretended Piety whilst they make them pay so much for every Pardon so much for Masses that are said or sung for the Dead give this or that to the Church for to have an Annual or Anniversary Mass for themselves and their Friends and intice men to buy hallowed Medals Crosses Agnus Deis and such like perswading them that laying such hallowed things upon an Altar where Mass is said or sung they shall deliver a Soul out of Purgatory Having no warrant of Scripture for any such thing but only their Tradition depriving indeed the Laity of the use of Scripture yea and from reading of any Books whatsoever that do not agree with their Doctrine and Discipline impose upon them the Yoke of Tradition and by this means keep them not only in blindness of Conscience but also in slavish Obedience it being as they teach Anathema for any man to contradict or reject whatsoever the Church shall impose or injoyn under the Title of Tradition it being indeed the chiefest and strongest Pillar they have to support their Positions insomuch that Andradius speaking of Tradition saith Quam Traditionum Authoritatem si tollas nutare jam vacillare videbuntur that is many points of the Romish Faith would reel if they were not supported by Tradition The due Consideration of this point bred a great distaste in my Soul and no less dislike I took of Romish Doctrine and Discipline when I began to consider the great Ambition of that Church which is so far gone from the Humility of the Primitive Church that whereas in former times the Bishops of Rome lived in great Humility Patience and Poverty attending unto that one thing which is most Necessary and before the time of Constantine the Great and many years after were so far from assuming any secular Authority upon them that without the Emperours favour and assent no man was admitted to be Bishop of Rome now are so far gone from the path of Humility that they sit upon the Pinnacle of Arrogancy assuming more Authority by many degrees both spiritually and temporally then ever Christ gave unto his Apostles or unto Peter whose Successors they challenge themselves to be insomuch that as before no man could be Bishop of Rome without the Consent of the Emperour so now no man can be Emperour but by the assent of the Pope otherwise he shall be excommunicate yea and the Pope is now of that Authority or at the least taketh so much Authority upon him that he maketh no scruple to depose Emperours and Kings and to dispence with Subjects for withdrawing their Allegiance from their true and natural Princes which are any way opposite unto the Church of Rome These things are sufficiently known both by Ancient and Modern Histories which mention both Ancient and Modern Examples to this effect Again reflecting upon the bad behaviour and living of Romish Priests it did breed a great distaste in my Conscience to consider how Priests which as they hold have vowed Chastity lye wallowing in the sordid puddle of Lust. And if any man shall think or imagine that I speak out of spleen and not of sincerity I could refer him for proof hereof unto the very Place a great and populous City of theirs wherein he is not accounted a Noble and Worthy Gentleman that is not descended from a Priest either secular or religious the most part of that City being descended from Priests such is the Incontinency of that Place And not only there but also in all other places it is a common practice of Church-men under the pretence of keeping spiritual Daughters to keep damned and common Courtezans or else make little or no scruple at all to frequent dishonest Houses as a little before my coming away from Macline a Priest at Brussels did verifie by going in the Night-time to a dishonest House and missing the Door went unto a wrong House where knocking at the Door the good Wife came to open it and seeing the Priest told him that he was deceived and that that House was not a House of that quality he took it to be The Priest for anger drew his Knife upon the Woman which had a Child in her Arms the Woman crying out her Husband came in and reprehended the Priest whereupon the Priest cut him with his Knife quite over the Belly and hurt both the Woman and the Child Many such Examples might be produced both of seculars and religious Priests and Nuns The due consideration of these things and of many more of which I cannot now intend to discourse as also the daily reading of the Scriptures and Ancient Fathers together with the assistance of Gods Grace restored me to sight again which through my own Folly I had lost And when I clearly perceived how far I had done amiss not only by assenting unto the Church of Rome but also by betaking my self unto such a course of Life as that was I was wonderfully sorry and much afflicted in Conscience most willing if Opportunity had served to have given over all and retired my self unto my Mother Church only the Consideration of my Profession did somewhat daunt me thinking that I should be accounted an Apostata until it pleased the Lord to send me this Resolution that an undiscreet Vow is better broken then kept especially when it tendeth to the endangering of a mans Soul. And because some may ask of me wherefore I did not consider these things at the first in the time of my Probation I must answer as I did in the beginning That in the time of a mans Noviceship he is so much imployed in learning the Ceremonies and Observations of that Order that he hath no time vacant to look after other matters and besides he is not permitted to read any Books but such as the Prior and his Master shall appoint which commonly are Books fit only to nuzzle a man in blind Devotion not to instruct him in Matters of Religion Having therefore lived a long time in great Perplexity and not finding any comfort or rest of Conscience in that Sea of Disquiet and Perturbation I resolved with Noe's Dove to return unto my Mother Church the which by Gods good Assistance I have obtained unto the great comfort of my Soul and do with all my Heart imbrace all and every Article of the Church of England being most ready according to my Ability to impend all the Power and Strength both of my Soul and Body yea and my dearest Blood for the Assertion and Promotion of them desiring and wishing no greater Blessing at Gods Hands but that I may be found worthy and able though in the meanest degree to do God and my Sovereign Service in the Ministry FINIS John 9.10 John 9.32 Luke 1. The policy of Superiours to keep their Places Mat. 26.29 Mark. 14.25 Dialog in mutat Dialog inconfusus Historia Tripar lib. 9. cap. 35. Socra li. 5. cap. 9. Zozom lib. 7. cap. 16. Niceph. lib. 12. cap. 28. Pag. 256. edit Venit 1603. 1 Vol. Annal. An. 53. Regul Contrac 95. Orthodox explicat lib. 2.

according as Christ himself warned his Disciples saying Do this in remembrance of me And St. Chrysostome ad Cesarium Monachum saith Bread before it be sanctified we call Bread but when the Divine Grace sanctifies it it is delivered from the name of Bread and it is thought worthy the name of the Lords Body though the Nature of Bread remain still This is Theodorets Opinion who saith that the mystical signs after Consecration do not depart from their Nature but abide in their former substance figure and form and may be seen and touched as before And moreover this Opinion is so far dissonant and differing from the Opinion of the Primitive Church that it is generally confessed that before the Lateran Council about four hundred years ago no man was bound to believe it as Tonstall in his Book de Veritate Corporis Sanguinis Christi saith that before that time it was free for all men to follow their own conjecture as concerning the manner of the real presence And also Byel and Scotus two ancient Schoolmen as Swarez doth affirm in his 3. Tom. distinct 5. and also Sotus in his 4. book distinct 9. q. 2. art 4. doth affirm did hold this Opinion to be very new and lately brought into the Church and believed only upon the Authority of the Laterane Council And Peter Lumbard was so far from being of this Opinion which the Church of Rome now holdeth that in his fourth Book of Sentences distinct 2. he saith of himself If it be demanded what manner of Conversion this is whether it be formal or substantial or of another kind I am not able to define Finding therefore this difference betwixt the Church of Rome and the Primitive Church yea betwixt the Church of Rome and Christ himself in this point I thought it more secure for my Souls health to adhere unto the Opinion of him that cannot err then unto the Opinion of Pope Innocent the third upon whose Shoulders our new Opinionists in this point are glad to lay their Burden having no other warrant for their novelty but a poor sinful mans Authority who to make himself great is not ashamed to derogate from Christs Authority and Exposition in this point who telleth us that so often as we eat or drink of this Bread or Wine we shall do it in remembrance only of him feeding on him in our Hearts by Faith with Thanksgiving telling us in the sixth of John verse 36. The Flesh profiteth nothing it is the Spirit that quickeneth And under correction I would demand of a Papist whether the Sacrament of the Lords Supper was instituted for the feeding of our Souls or of our Bodies or of both Now if they answer That it was instituted for feeding and nourishing of both or of the Soul especially then they must confess a thing most contrary to their own Tenents that is That the Body and Blood of Christ is spiritually in the Sacrament to feed the Soul and not substantially to feed the Body because the Soul of man being a Spiritual substance cannot feed upon corporal food which must needs follow if so be that the Body and Blood of Christ be corporally in the Sacrament Now again that it is only a Spiritual and not a Corporal food to feed the Soul and not the Body Christ himself insinuateth in the sixth of John verse 51. saying I am the Bread of Life which came down from Heaven if any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever which is meant of the Life of the Soul we being almost certain that this our corruptible Body must be dissolved and cannot live for ever but so far as at the day of Judgment it shall participate with the Soul of perpetual Joy or of perpetual misery sustaining in the interim a dissolution because according to our Bodies Earth we are and into Earth we must return again And therefore to preserve our corporal Life we need not the Food of the Body and Blood of Christ we have other material and natural Food sufficient And to feed our Souls therewith we cannot eat it corporally but only spiritually by Faith the Soul of man being incapable of any corporal Food And again if so be that the Body and Blood of Christ be corporally in the Sacrament we cut off one Article from our Creed wherein we Confess that Christ sitteth at the right Hand of God for he being with a true natural Body upon the Altar as the Papists hold is not sitting at the right hand of his Father in his Humanity But because we believe that he is ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right Hand of his Father in his Humanity we must also believe that he is only spiritually in the Sacrament by his Omnipotency And out of one absurdity they infer another for by holding that Christs Body and Blood is corporally in the Sacrament they make that which is no Sin to be Sin defining that if so be that by any accident or misfortune a Priest should let a consecrated Host fall or shed any of the consecrated Wine it is a mortal Sin be it never so much against your will. Now how absurd this is I refer both my self and others unto the Judgment of Saint Augustine who saith that Omne Peccatum est voluntarium adeo voluntarium quod nisi esset voluntarium non esset peccatum that is that every sin understanding actual sin must be voluntarily that is committed This consideration concerning this point of Transubstantiation was a great motive unto the alteration of my Profession CHAP. V. Concerning Abuses committed in Auricular Confession ANother motive of dislike of the Church of Rome and her Doctrine did arise from the consideration of those manifold absurdities and abuses committed under the colour of Auricular Confession It being a thing which the Church of Rome without any warrant of Gods Word and quite contrary to the practice of the Primitive Church hath taken up at her own hand For first of all to prove that they have no warrant of Scripture for it their own Canon-Law in the 5. distinct de poenitentia in the Gloss saith that Auricular Confession was taken up only by a certain Tradition of the Church and not by any Authority of the Old or New Testament And Petrus Oximensis sometime Divinity-Reader at Salamanca many years ago publickly taught that Auricular Confession had the beginning from a positive Law of the Church and not from the Law of God of the same mind was Bonaventure Medina and others And to prove that the Primitive Church did not use it both Erasmus in his Annotations ad Hieron de obitu Fabiol and Rhenanus in his Annotations ad Tertul. de poeniten being both at that time learned Papists did affirm that neither Christ did ordain Auricular Confession neither the ancient Church used it which is confirmed by the act of Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople who as the three-fold History doth testifie when as auricular