Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	authority_n	church_n	expound_v	3,134	5	9.6969	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29201	A replication to the Bishop of Chalcedon his Survey of the Vindication of the Church of England from criminous schism clearing the English laws from the aspertion of cruelty : with an appendix in answer to the exceptions of S.W. / by the Right Reverend John Bramhall ...	Bramhall, John, 1594-1663.	1656 (1656)	Wing B4228; ESTC R8982	229,419	463

untill of later daies that the Popes hving gotten into their hands the bestowing of the most and best ecclesiasticall Preferments in Europe did finde out their own advantage in that behalfe above a generall Councell which hath neither Dignities nor Benefices to bestowe When or where or by whom the primacy of Order was conferred upon Saint Peter it concernes R. C. to enquire more then me They have yet another evasion that the highest ecclesiasticall Power was given not only to Saint Peter but to all the rest of the Apostles but to Saint Peter as an ordinary Pastor to descend from him to his Successors because they were appointed heads of the universall Church which they could not govern without universall Power and to the rest of the Apostles as Delegates or Commissioners only for tearm of their lives not to descend to their Successors This distinction I called a drowsie dream hatched lately without either reason or authority divine or humane Against this he takes exception And I am ready to maintain my assertion That if he can produce but one Text of holy Scripture expounded in this sense by any one ancient Interpreter or but one Sentence of any one Councel or single Father for a thousand years after Christ who taught any such Doctrine or made any such distinction as this is directly without far fetched consequences and I w●ll retract but I am confident he cannot produce one Author or Authority in the point All his reason is because Saint Peter was the ordinary Pastor of the Church and the rest of the Apostles but Delegates which is a meer begging of the question Neither was Saint Peter sole Pastor of the Church nor his universal Authority necessary to a true Pastor neither were the Apostles meer Delegates for then they could have had no Successors which yet he acknowledgeth that they had Sometimes Bellarmine will admit no proper Successors of the Apostles no not of St. Peter as an Apostle At other times he makes the Pope an Apostolicall Bishop his See to be an Apostolicall See and his Office to be an Apostleship It is strange the Spirit of God should be so silent in a piece of Doctrine which they assert to be necessary and that the blessed Apostles and the Nicene Fathers and holy Athanasius should be so forgetfull as not to insert it into their Creeds But that the whole Church should be ignorant of such a mystery for fifteen hundred years is not credible I passe by their comparison of a Bishop who is Pastor and ordinary of his Diocesse whose Office descends to his Successors and a Frier licenced by the Pope to Preach throughout the same Diocesse whose Office determineth with his Life So what they can not prove they endeavour to illustrate Before they told us that the Apostles were the Vicars of Christ are they now become the Vicars of Saint Peter and his Coadjutors Before they taught us that the Apostolicall power was summa plenissima potestas a most high a most full power and comprehended all Ecclesiasticall power and is it now changed to a licence to Preach No the Apostles had more then licences to Preach even as ample power to govern as Saint Peter himself The Pope having instituted one man into a Bishoprick cannot during his incumbency give the joint government of his Church to another This were to revoke his former grant I confesse that which R. C. saith is in part a truth That the rest of the Apostles did not leave an universall and Apostolicall authority and jurisdiction to their successors But it is not the whole truth for no more did Saint Peter himself The Apostles had diverse things peculiar to their persons and proper for the first planters of the Gospel Which were not communicated to any of their successors As universality of jurisdiction for which their successors have assignation to particular charges Immediate or extraordinary vocation for which their Successors have episcopall Ordination The gift of strange Tongues and infallibility of Judgment for which we have Christian Schools and Universities The grace of doing miracles and giving the holy Ghost by Imposition of Hands If the Bishops of Rome will take upon them to be Saint Peters Heirs ex asse and pretend that their Office is an Apostleship and that they themselves are truely Apostolici excluding all others from that priviledge let us see them doe some Miracles or speak strange Languages which were Apostolicall qualifications If they cannot certainly they are not Saint Peters Heirs ex asse and though their See be Apostolicall yet their Office is no Apostleship Nor may they challenge more then they shew good evidence for or then the Church is pleased to conferre upon them The Bishops of Rome pretend to none of these Priviledges but only this of universall jurisdiction for though they challenge besides this an infallibility of judgment yet it is not an Apostolicall infallibility because they challenge no infallibility by immediate revelation from God but from the diligent use of the means neither doe they challenge an infallibility in their Sermons and writings as the Apostles did but only in the conclusions of matters of Faith And why doe they pretend to this Apostolicall qualification more then any of the rest Either because that if they should pretend to any of the rest the deceit would presently be discovered for all men know that they can work no Miracles nor speak strange Languages nor have their calling immediately from Heaven but are elected by their Conclave of Cardinals many times not without good tugging for it Or else because this claim of universall power and authority doth bring more moliture to their mill and more advantage to the Court of Rome This is certain that when the Pope is first elected Bishop it may be of some other See before he be elected Pope he is ordained after the ordinary form of all other Bishops he receives no other no larger character no more authority and power either of order or of jurisdiction then other ordinary Bishops doe Well after this he is elected Pope but he is ordeined no more Then seeing the power of the Keies and all habituall jurisdiction is derived by Ordination and every Bishop receiveth as much habituall jurisdiction at his Ordination as the Pope himself tell me first how the Pope comes to be the root of all Spirituall jurisdiction Which though it be not the generall Tenet of the Roman Church as R. C. saith truely yet it is the common Doctrin of the Roman Court. Secondly tell me how comes this dilatation of his power and this Apostolicall Universality Since all men doe confesse that the same power and authority is necessary to the extension of a character or Grace given by Ordination which is required to the institution of a Sacrament that is not Humane but Divine But the election of the Cardinals is a meer Humane policy without all manner of Sacramentall virtue and therefore can neither

the Councel That there was no fear so long as none but Italians were in Trent and ingageth himself to secure it The grievances which they complained of were done in Germany the redress which they sough was in Germany Germany not Italy had been the proper place for the Councel R. C. proceedeth the Protestants were the first accusers of the Pope It may be so but not in a legall or judiciary way He confesseth That in doubtfull cases there ought to be four distinct persons the accuser the witness the person accused and the Iudge but not in notorious rebellion in which case there needs neither witness nor accuser And doth not this merit the reputation of a doubtfull case wherein so great a part of the occidental Church are ingaged who are ready to prove evidently that he who is their accuser and usurps the office of their Judge is the notorious Rebell himself I confess that in some cases the notority of the fact may supply the defect of witnesses but that must evermore be in cases formerly defined by the Law to be Rebellion or Heresie or the like The Popes Rebellion hath been already conde●●ed in the Councel of Constance and his heretical maintaining of it in the Councel of Basile But the Protestants renouncing of his usurped authority hath never yet been lawfully defined to be either the one or the other Yet he saith The Protestants were condemned not only by the Councel of Trent but by the Patriarch of Constantinople to whom they appealed One that readeth this and knoweth not otherwise would beleeve that the Protestants in general had appealed from the Councel of Trent and were juridically condemned by the Patriarch of Constantinople Who gave the Appellants procuration to appeal in the name of the Protestants in general Who gave the Patriarch of Constantinople power to receive the Appeal Where is the condemnation Is the English Church included therein No such thing The case was this One or two forrein particular Protestants made a representation to the Patriarch of Constantinople of some controversies then on foot between the Church of Rome and them And he delivered his opinion it should seem as R. C. conceiveth more to the advantage of the Romanists th●n of the Protestants This he calleth an Appeal and a condemnation I crave pardon of the Reader if I doe not in present give him a punctual and particular account of the Patriarchs answer It is thirty years since I see it Neither doe I know how to procure it Thus farre I will charge my memorie that the questions were ill chosen and worse stated and the Patriarchs answer much more to the prejudice of the Church of Rome then of the Church of England The right stating of the question is all in all When the Church of England have any occasion to make their addresses that way they will make them more apposite more to the purpose But since he hath appealed to the Patriarch of Constantinople to the Patriarch of Constantinople let him goe I mean Cyrillus since the time of Hieremy whom that learned Gentleman Sir Thomas Roe then Ambassador for our late King at Constantinople had better informed of the true state and belief of the English Church He published a Treatise of his own much about the year 1630 which he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a confession of the Christian Faith so conformable to the grounds of the Church of England that it might seem rather to have been written by the Primate of Canterbury then by the Patriarch of Constantinople I will cull out a few flowers and make a posie for him to let him see whether the Patriarchs of Constantinople doe condemn the Church of England or the Church of Rome In the second Chapter he declareth That the authority of the Scripture is above the authority of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. for it is not equall or alike to be taught of the holy Ghost and to be taught of man In his tenth Chap. he declareth That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mortall men can by no means be the head of the Church and that our Lord Iesus Christ alone is the head of it In the thirteenth Chapter he asserteth justification by Faith alone just according to the Doctrine of the Church of England In the fifteenth Chapter he acknowledgeth but two Sacraments In the seventeenth Chapter he professeth a true reall presence of Christ the Lord in the Eucharist just as we doe and rejecteth the n●w devise of transubstantiation In the eighteenth Chapter he disclaimeth purgatorie c. All this he declar●th to be the Faith which Christ taught the Apostles preached and the orthodox Church ever held and undertaketh to make it good to the World And after in his answer to some questions which were proposed to him he excludeth the Apocryphall Books out of the Canon of holy Scripture and condemneth the worship of Images In a word he is wholy ours And to declare to the World that he was so he resolved to dedicate his confession of the Faith of the Greek Church to the King of England When this Treatise was first published it is no marvel if the Court of Rome and the congregation for propagating of the Roman Faith in Greece did storm at it and use their uttermost indevor to ruine him But he justified it before the Ambassadors of Roman Catholick Princes then remaining at Constantinople and came off fairly in despite of all those who did calumniate him and cast false aspersions upon him Besides his own autograph and the testimonies of the Ambassadors then present if there had been nothing else to justifie this truth the instructions given by Cardinal Bandini to Cannachi Rossi in the name of the Pope alone had been sufficient proof and the plots which they contrived against him either to have him taken away by death or deposition For at the same time they decryed the Treatise here as supposititious and accused him there as criminous for being the Author of it But God delivered him out of their hands He pleadeth moreover That the Bishops assembled in Trent were not the Popes Ministers Yet he knoweth right well that they had all taken an Oath of obedience to the Pope for maintenance of the Papacy Were these equall Judges I confess there were many noble souls amongst them who did limit their Oath according to the Canons of the Church But they could doe nothing being over-voted by the Popes Clients and Pensioners He asketh who were the accusers witnesses and Iudges of the Pope in the Parliament 1534 but King Henry himself and his Ministers I answer that they were not King Henries Ministers but the Trustees of the Kingdome they were not sworn to maintain King Henrie's usurpations they acted not by a judiciary but by a legislative power neither did they make any new Law but only declare the ancient Law of the Land Otherwise they medled not with the person of