Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	king_n	power_n	supremacy_n	2,252	5	10.5244	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67044	A word in season for Christian union to all Protestant dissenters from the Church of England, especially those of the ministry / by an hearty well-wisher to them, and the establish'd religion.	Hearty well-wisher to them and the establish'd religion.	1680 (1680)	Wing W3546; ESTC R23485	5,302	8

A Word in Season FOR Christian Union To all Protestant Dissenters from the Church of England Especially those of the Ministry By an hearty Well-wisher to them and the Establish'd Religion LONDON Printed in the Year 1680. A Word in season for Christian Union SOme will say The times are such as we know not what to say or think but I am sure they are times wherein we all ought to think and do To think what may conduce to the pleasing of our gracious Sovereign and preservation of our Religion and to do it with all speed We have reason to believe from his Majesty's frequent Proclamations and Protestations of his Resolves to maintain and preserve the Protestant Religion as now established that all our lawfull endeavours to do the same will be grateful and acceptable to his Majesty whatever some Malecontents may suggest to the contrary Now our business is seriously to consider what on our parts is meet to be done towards this great end The Papists are our greatest and most dreaded Adversaries Now if we may take our measures from the Enemies own Maxim Divide and Reign Union is the most likely way to our preservation And since Unity and Conformity to the established Church is the proper means and required of all by Law why should we hazard all and resolve to see the utmost of the Game rather then yeild obedience to that Law I fear upon serious thinking it will be found there is more of Deception Interest and Will than of Reason or Religion in our standing out For would our dissenting Brethren of the Ministry plainly tell the People how far they are from those Oaths and Covenants whereby they themselves as they say stand bound And that those obligations required now of the Ministers are not required of the People Would they faithfully inform them what they dare not deny to be true that the Church of England is far from all Idolatry and sound in her Articles and Constitutions that this is as Soul-saving Doctrine preached by her Ministers as by any others that they may go to the Publick Assemblies and join in the Publick Ordinances without sinning in so doing that they may be built up in their most holy Faith and instructed to lead a religious life there as well as elsewhere In a word if they would convince them that Ceremonies cannot ought not to fright us from the substance That in an established Church not infected with Heresie or Idolatry nor defective in any part of Religion it is duty to bear with much Which is the Judgment of a very late considerable * J. Corbet's Kingdom of God among men pag. 172. Author on their side All which is true and granted by many of the most admired men of their Party doubtless the Meetings would be thinner and the Publick Churches fuller than they are And as for you of the Clergy if you would lay aside Prejudice Popularity and Self-interest and seriously consider a few things methinks you might bring both them and your selves too to some reasonable Friendship with the Church of England As 1. That many of you my Brethren were Episcopally Ordained and have vowed Conformity to the Church of England Which Orders and Obligations you have not openly retracted and declared void and null and so are bound still by them they being in their own nature as obligatory as any other which you have since taken For the former Oaths and Obligations you took upon in obedience to lawful Authority a considerable circumstance which in the latter you cannot pretend to unless you will have that to be Law which the longest Sword establisheth as such which I presume you will not avouch because you may easily foresee whither such a Principle will lead you 2. That while you refuse Conformity to the established Church you dwindle into a thousand Factions And are so confused that multitudes of your followers like the dispersed Jews know not what Tribe they are of who is their Head what their Government or whither they tend As suppose a Man should take an account of the swarms in the private Meetings and ask them what Judgment or Perswasion they are of not one in an hundred can tell you Because in truth they know not the difference between Episcopal Presbyterian Independent c. understand not what those cramp words signifie Nor indeed some of you their Teachers I have heard some of your Brethren and none of the most inconsiderable neither affirm themselves Presbyterians who upon examination and discourse proved themselves Independents And the truth is as the case stands with you you are most of you Independents as to practice And those very Men of the Ministry who were wont to decry that Faction both in the Pulpit and through the wider mouth of the Press now herd with them whom they heretofore judged to stand at a greater distance from them as to the power and placing of the Keys the administration of and admission to the Sacraments than the Church of England And therefore whereas all dissenting Protestants are hudled together under the name of Presbyterians I think it were more proper under the title of Independents who are certainly the greater number 3. If also it were well weighed that what the Magistrate requires in order to your admission into the established Church cannot be made by the Word of God so apparently sinful as it is apparent by that Word that Obedience to Magnistrates is a Duty I need not cite the many plain Texts that require the latter I wish you my Brethren would publish the Text as plain for the former If you cannot as I think if I am not mistaken in my Bible you cannot the meanest Logician will tell you you leave a certian Duty for an uncertain and run upon and persist in a known Sin to avoid that which is only doubted and disputed to be so which men of your great Reason and tender Conscience one would think should not be guilty of 4. Nor is it unworthy your thoughts who are of the Ministry how far you have owned the King's Supremacy by accepting the Indulgence his Majesty was pleased once to give you by his Royal Proclamation When his late Majesty of pious memory K. Charles the first required your Conformity you obeyed the Parliment against him and fought many years against the King's Supremacy by the Ordinances of Parliament And now when his present Majesty granted you an Indulgence without the Parliament or consent of the Law made by King Lords and Commons then you owned his Supremacy which is as much as to say the King hath a Power for you but none against you Or when he yeilds what you desire 't is lawful to obey him but if he denies you will disown him and deny his Authority And I am induced to believe there is no dissenting Party but would own his Majesty's Supremacy in establishing them If his Majesty would set up the Presbyterian Government they would applaud it If