Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A58090
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Religio laici, or, A lay-mans faith touching the supream head and infallible guide of the church : in two letters to a friend in the country / by J. R. a convert of Mr. Bays's.
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J. R., Convert of Mr. Bays's.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing R30; ESTC R16164
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20,013
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32
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some of them would impose upon us but almost the whole Body of them are of Opinion that their Infallible Master has a Right over Kings not only in Spituals but Temporals not to name Mariana Bellarmine Emanuel Sa. Molina Santarel Simancha and at the least Twenty others of Foreign Countries We can produce of our own Nation Champian and Doleman or Parsons besides many are nam'd whom I have not read who all of them attest this Doctrine that the Pope can depose and give away the Right of any Sovereign Prince Si vel paulum deflexerit if he shall never so little warp but if he once comes to be Excommunicated then the Bond of Obedience is taken off from Subjects and they may and ought to drive him like another Nebuchadnezzar ex hominum Christianorum Dominatu from Exercising Dominion over Christians and to this they are bound by Virtue of Divine Precept and by all the Tyes of Conscience under no less Penalty than Damnation Which is more than our Saviour and the Apostles ever taught or pretended to but the contrary is very evident and to that purpose St. Paul in the 13th to the Romans ver the 1. says Let every Soul be subject unto the Higher Powers c. which Power is there understood the Supream Magistrate and ver 6. For this cause pay you Tribute also for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing And to the same purpose St. Peter himself Commands this Duty Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supream or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him c. the first Epistle of Peter the 2. chap. the 13. and 14. verses So that 't is plain who the Apostles calls Supream and whom our blessed Lord own'd does appear by his putting himself to the Charge of a Miracle lest he should offend But this was a great while ago and the Cause and the Times alter'd and another sort of a Supremacy set up which was not known in those days not till many Centuries after for if St. Peter had been invested with any such Authority as his pretended Successors pretend too certainly our Saviour or the Apostles would in some manner one time or other have taken notice of it but for our Hearts we cannot find any such thing But to oblige our Roman Friends I will examine the Matter a little farther and the better to inform our selves of this great Point we will take a view of our Saviours treating St. Peter after this suppos'd Prerogative deliver'd him in the same 16th of St. Matthew where our Saviour is supposed to give St. Peter only the Power of the Keys we find our Blessed Lord telling his Disciples what he was to suffer c. From that time forth began Jesus to shew to his Disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the Elders and Chief Priests and Scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day Then St. Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee ver the 21. and 22. but pray mark our Saviours answer to this Infallible Head in the next verse But he turned and said unto Peter get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of Men. By which it appears it was not the Person but the great Truth in the Confession which he deliver'd in the behalf of himself and the rest that was the Rock our Saviour would build his Church c. which indeed is a good and strong Foundation such a one as our Saviour speaks of in the 7th of St. Matthew the 24. and 25. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him unto a wise man which built his House upon a Rock and the Rain descended and the Floods came and the Winds blew and beat upon that House but it fell not for it was founded upon a Rock which Parable is understood of a good Christians Faith which will hold out against the Storms and Tempests of Persecution which all good Christians will do whose Faith is built upon that Confession of St. Peters viz. Thou art Christ the Son of the living God which as a good and strong Foundation will support all the rest of our Creed and therefore by an Allegorical Expression call'd a Rock which must be understood in a Spiritual Sense on which Christ would erect his Spiritual Kingdom Agreeable is that place of St. Paul Ephesians the 2. and the 19. and 20. verses Now therefore ye are no more Strangers and Foreigners but fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner Stone So that here 't is plain and beyond all dispute that the Apostles and Prophets were the Rock and Foundation that is to say the Faith and Doctrine which they did profess and teach and not their Persons was the Rock and Foundation that both our Saviour and St. Paul meant on which the Christian Church was built if otherwise why should he omit telling them they were built upon St. Peter that Rock and Head of the Church and so of the rest but we see he takes no more notice of St. Peter than the rest Besides there is little reason to suppose our Saviour shou'd mean the Person of St. Peter when he so well knew the weakness of that Foundation for tho' he was indeed very forward upon all occasions as his attempting to go to our Saviour when he was walking on the Sea yet we find this presumptive Faith soon fail'd him for he was forc'd to implore our Saviour's Assistance by crying out Lord help me or I perish And again notwithstanding his Resolution to dye rather than deny his Lord c. yet we find our Saviour telling him Matthew the 26. and 34. verse Before the Cock crow he shou'd deny him thrice in all which we do not find any more notice taken of St. Peter by our Saviour than of any of the other Disciples unless it were to reprove him for his want of Faith and other Faults And we may observe further that on all occasions our Saviour was not wanting in cautioning his Disciples not only to forbear setting up such an Authority as we have been treating of amongst them but likewise commanded all Obedience to be given to the Supream Powers that was then in the World and from thence it was that he reprov'd St. Peters rashness in drawing his Sword though he did it with design to defend him against those that came to apprehend him John the 18. ver the 11. Then said Jesus unto Peter put up thy Sword c. and he gives the reason for it ver the 36. Jesus answer'd my Kingdom is not of this world if