Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	peter_n	pope_n	successor_n	2,110	5	8.9988	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62129	A gentleman's religion in three parts : the 1st contains the principles of natural religion, the 2d. and 3d. the doctrins of Christianity both as to faith and practice : with an appendix wherein it is proved that nothing contrary to our reason can possibly be the object of our belief, but that it is no just exception against some of the doctrins of Christianity that they are above our reason.	Synge, Edward, 1659-1741.	1698 (1698)	Wing S6380; ESTC R24078	100,488	452

in Scripture as Joyned together in one Society or Body which is called the Church of which Christ Jesus is the chief or Head and under an obligation to live in communion and fellowship one with another under those Laws and Constitutions which Christ has given them but not that I can find in Scripture obliged to joyn with or submit to any one person as the Vicar of Christ and the visible Head of the Church upon Earth For if Christ had appointed any such person as his Deputy upon Earth he must either have declared a matter of such consequence with great plainness and evidence or else it would be very hard to find fault with any man for being mistaken in it Whereas the Arguments which those of the Church of Rome bring to prove either that such a Vicar there must be or that St. Peter the Apostle was the Man or that the Pope or Bishop of Rome and not the Bishop of Antioch is the Successour of St. Peter both in his Bishoprick and Authority are all so weak and precarious so forced and perplexed and so fully confuted by the Protestant Divines that nothing in my Opinion but Blindness of Understanding or worldly Interest can prevail with the Members of that Church still to insist upon them Now that Christ instituted but one Church in which all true Believers and good livers are for ever to be comprised is very plain And altho through the Mistakes and Perverseness of Man this Church is rent and divided into opposite and contending parts and parties yet this does not hinder but that according to its true and primitive Constitution it is or ought to be one as a Kingdom or Common-wealth by its Laws and Constitutions is but one Society altho there may arise Factions and different Interests in it nor shall any Man be esteemed as a Member of the Church before God who is not ready and willing according to the best of his power and knowledge to maintain the Unity of it and that upon those very Terms and none other which Christ has appointed as near as possibly he can find and apprehend them Moreover that all the Laws and Constitutions on which Christ has founded the Church and by which he would have it regulated are exactly agreeable unto the Rules of sound Morality and the Will of God cannot be so much as doubted and therefore it is truly said that the Church is Holy altho every particular Member thereof has both his frailties and his sins which yet he must repent of and so become holy as the Church is holy or else he violates one of the main and fundamental Laws and so becomes as it were an Out-law of the Church and forfeits his part in all the Privileges that belong unto that Society And whereas before the coming of Christ the People of Israel did enjoy more of the Favour of God and had greater privileges and advantages on the score of their being God's chosen and peculiar People than any or all other Nations of the World The Gospel of Christ on the contrary now looks upon all as equally entitled unto God's Favour and the advantages thereon depending who take care duly to qualifie themselves for it So that whereas formerly the Church that is the chosen People of God might have been said to be particular as being in a manner limited to one Nation or People now on the contrary it is Catholick that is to say universal as being no way confined to one place or Nation all People being equally chosen by God in Christ who will receive and love according to the Gospel 41. In those several Revelations which God was pleased to make of himself after the Fall of Man unto Adam to Abraham and to the People of Israel there was still a plain intimation given them that in the time to come there should an extraordinary Person arise in the World who should yet more clearly make known the Will of God to Mankind But when Christ who was That Person did accordingly come and send his Apostles to preach the Gospel over all the Earth he neither suggested to them nor they unto the World that any other Revelation was ever after to be expected But always gave them to understand that God had in the Gospel compleated and finished all that declaration which he intended to make of Himself or his Will unto Mankind until the general Judgment and Dissolution of the World If therefore the Holy Scripture had given me no manner of assurance of the perpetuity of the Church my own Reason would have been enough to make me conclude that God in his Providence will so order the matter as that the Christian Religion being the only known and ordinary means of eternal Salvation shall never be wholly extinguished while the World lasts so as to stand in need of any new Revelation to revive and restore it But that there shall always be a certain Company of Men evidently conspicuous to the World teaching and professing the true Christian Religion without any Errour or Corruption in Doctrine or Worship is what I can no where find promised or foretold either by Christ or any of his Apostles On the contrary there are several passages in the New Testament which do plainly seem to foretell that in process of time most pernicious Doctrines and practices should prevail and take place even amongst the generality of those who should profess themselves to be Disciples of Christ And whosoever shall but lightly compare the state of Christianity for several Centuries before the Reformation with that Draught of it which is left us by Christ and his Apostles in the Holy Scriptures must if he be impartial I think be fully convinced of the truth of those Predictions 42. Whether or no God has or does at any time communicate or bestow any extraordinary Grace or Assistance upon those who are no visible Members of the Church but altogether strangers unto that Revelation which he has made of himself is a question which the virtuous lives and heroick actions of some brave Heathens make it hard positively to determine in the negative But that he will give so much Grace and strength to every one who shall become a Member of Christ's Church as that thereby they may if the fault be not their own sufficiently qualifie themselves for eternal Happiness by the performance of those things which he requires on their part to be done is what I think no man can doubt of who does but in general consider the Mercy and Love which God designed even unto all men but more especially unto the Church in sending our Saviour Christ Jesus into the world altho there were not any particular Promises of this nature in the Gospel And that this Grace and ability to do good is in Scripture ascribed unto the Ministry and Influence of the Holy Ghost upon the hearts and minds of true Believers is plain and generally owned by all Christians But that this