Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	affirm_v	church_n	scripture_n	3,734	5	6.5982	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90688	Heautontimoroumenos, or, The self-revenger exemplified in Mr. William Barlee. By way of rejoynder to the first part of his reply, viz. the unparallel'd variety of discourse in the two first chapters of his pretended vindication. (The second part of the rejoynder to the second part of his reply being purposely designed to follow after by it self, for reasons shortly to be alledged.) Wherein are briefly exhibited, amongst many other things, the rigidly-Presbyterian both principles and practice. A vindication of Grotius from Mr. Baxter. of Mr. Baxter from Mr. Barlee. of Episcopal divines from both together. To which is added an appendage touching the judgement of the right Honourable and right Reverend Father in God, Iames Lord primate of Armagh, and metropolitan of Ireland, irrefragably attested by the certificates of Dr. Walton, Mr. Thorndike, and Mr. Gunning, sent in a letter to Doctor Bernard. By Thomas Pierce Rector of Brington.	Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691.; Gunning, Peter, 1614-1684.; Thorndike, Herbert, 1598-1672.; Walton, Brian, 1600-1661.	1658 (1658)	Wing P2181; Thomason E950_1; ESTC R207591	167,618	192

advancing the common interest of Religion as 't is exhibited in the Gospell and in the purest Ages of the Church Nor vvas their zeal for Reformation any vvhit the lesse religious because they desir'd it might be regular and bloodlesse after the tenor of the Gospell and according to the temper of Jesus Christ vvithout the miseries of Rebellion against the Deputyes of God vvhich is worse then the Disease of vvhich it is intended a means of cure 3. It had been vvell if Mr. Baxter had nam'd those Papists vvho stay in England under the notion of Episcopal Divines and having nam'd them it had been vvell if he had publickly declared he meant no more for fear his suggestion might reach so far as to asperse the vvhole Body of the Episcopall clergy in vvhom the Protestant interest doth chiefly stand If I except Bishop Goodman I have not heard of any Papist vvho hath vvorn the Protestant for a disguise which should no more be imputed to the rest of that order then it vvas to St. Peter or St. Iohn that one of their order vvas a Devill one in 12. is as much as two in 24. The other tvvo vvhom he mentions I knovv nothing of and am obliged by my charity to think none evill Nay I have heard of Bishop Wren that he is equally a learned and pious Prelate as far from being a Papist as Mr. Barlee from being an Episcopal Divine And untill I have reason for the contrary I will believe him to be as excellent as excellent persons do represent him What is added of Dr. Vane and two besides who are indeed turn'd Papists may be objected to that Rigor of the Presbyterians and the havock which they made whilst yet it lay in their power whereby they did not discover but make men Papists Some may possibly wonder they frighted so many out of our Church but I am still wondring the frighted wretches were no more For when they saw their Mother persecuted they esteemed her forsaken when they saw her a cast down they sillily thought her to be destroy'd Which defection of a few is no more to the disparagement of those that are faithfull in the Land then it was to St. Paul that Demas had forsaken him and had embraced this present world There are a multitude God be thanked who being c troubled on every side are notwithstanding not distressed and however c perplexed are far enough from despair 4. It may be proposed to consideration what may possibly be the reasons why Episcopal Divines professing an enmity to the Pope and to all that can truly be called Popish and writing whole volumes in opposition to all his interests should yet so easily be charged with being Papists and which is yet of sadder moment with a strong design to bring in Popery into the Land as the publick and generall Profession of it 1. It is not Popish to approve the Government of Bishops for so did orthodox Melanchthon and moderate Bucer so did all the great Protestants in the conference at Augusta and George Prince of Anhalt Earle of Ascaina whom no man living will call a Papist nay so did Mr. Calvin as himself declared to Cardinal Sadolet in excuse of what was done to the Bishop of Geneva Talem nobis Hierarchiam si exhibeant c. If they will give us such an Hierarchie wherein the Bishops may be so eminent as that withall they may not think themselves above obedience unto Christ then I confesse they deserve to be deliver'd up to Satan who do not reverently observe them with all obedience So did the same Mr. Calvin at Wormes and Ratisbone and when he subscribed the Augustan Confession Nay so did Beza himself which we should never have believed if he himself had not put it into the number of his confessions It is not therefore a Popish thing to approve of the Episcopal or Hierarchical Order Nor 2. is it Popery to adhere unto a Liturgie and Rites established in the church by Law and Canon For that was done by Mr. Calvin who did humbly advise the supreme Magistrate here in England even Edward the sixth that we might have in our Churches a set Form of Prayer from which it should not be lawfull for any Minister to swerve in his Ecclesiastical function and that for these two reasons 1. for the help of the more ignorant unskilfull people and 2. that a Harmony or agreement of all our Churches between themselves might appear the more plainly to all the world He farther declared his opinion that as the Rites and Ceremonies were to be set as well as the Prayers of the Church so they were also to be adapted to the use and capacity of common people He added that it was lawfull to make mention of the dead in publick Prayer after the ancient custome of the Church that the Communion of all the faithfull joyned together in one body might be declared by that means From all which it is evident that Mr. Barlee's jear doth reach as far as Mr. Calvin who had some kind of hand in liturgicall knacks and did many times approve of the Hierarchick Flaunt too And so did Zanchy in such a measure that he was censur'd severely for it The Protestant Churches in France have a publick Liturgy and yet are no Papists The Primitive Fathers had Liturgyes before Poperie was borne Nay Mr. Cartwright and others of the Geneva cut did make a new Common Prayer in Queen Elizabeths dayes and agreed to put it in publick practice without consent of Queen or Parlament They were not grieved at set Formes but that they were not of their forging The Common Prayer had no fault but that it was established by the Law of the Land Nor 3. is it Popery to reject the Presbyterian Discipline For besides that 't is a thing about which its chief Architects could hardly ever agree among themselves the learned Discourser saying one thing Mr. Travers a second Mr. Cartwright a third against both and a fourth against himself and a fifth against his fourth the first disturber of the Episcopal was the male-content Aerius who was a Heretick for his pains in the esteem of Epiphanius and of St. Austin and so affirmed to have been censur'd for the very fact of opposing Bishops by the unanimous consent of the Vniversity of Oxford 4. It is not Popery to yield a just Authority to universall Tradition the consentient judgement and practice of the universall Church For besides that the Socinians are enemyes to that it is declared by the Protestant Vniversity of Oxford to be the best Interpreter of Scripture in things not clearly express't and that without it we should be at a losse in sundry points both of Faith and manners at this day firmly believed and securely practised by us when by the Socinians Anabaptists and other Sectaryes we should be called upon for our

if you believe him 14. Bishop Davenant did once in private sadly bewail to Mr. Barlee as Mr. Barlee tells us the great growth of Popery and Arminianism 15. We must not dye in Ignorance that the Bishop writ a large letter to him about the Crosse in baptism 16. And which is most worthy to be communicated to late posterity by the indelible Characters of the Presse the Bishops letter was in folio To conclude in a word that I may not violate my promise of giving in a short Catalogue one while he strokes Mr. Whitfields Gray haires another while he cajoles a Worcestershire Minister now he tells us but unsincerely some Table-Talk at Daintry concerning Socrates and Iob anon he gives us to understand the severall parts of his Age. Somewhere he tells us what the brethren intended in case Presbytery had prosper'd and that he writes but a scrawling hand at the best Into such kind of subjects hath he been pleased to step aside from his pretended confirmation of irrespective Decrees § 7. There are but two things more in the making up of my Accounts with which I shall at present detain my Reader viz. the odnesse of his excuses and the prettinesse of his Wit A Tast or two of each will be an opiparous entertainment As for the former his facility is such that though his Tetters are never so spreading the least drop of his soveraign Ink will cure them all in an instant If angry blisters have been discover'd upon the two-edged member he gives us to know he is of a very small Stature and little men are still fretfull p. 5. If any thing ailes him in point of literature or manners it is no more but that his memory was terrible false to him p. 18. or the Printer did him a shrewd turn p. 19. or he had motives to it which shall be namelesse ibid. or he was told it by a Reverend Minister p. 18. or by a person of true honour p. 18. or by a conscionable Divine p. 19. or by W. C. p. 18. or by a Gentleman-entertainer p. 44. or else it crept at the Presse out of his Margin into his Text p. 19. and so all 's well If he is told of his clinches he shewes Scripture for it where there are none p. 29. If he is caught in the Act of doing violence to my Words he saith he did but allude to them not quote them directly p. 53. When he is brought to such a pinch he knows not which way to answer or any other wayes to evade then he saith of his opponent that he hath words and wit at will p. 53. or else he tells us a story of Dr. Twisse p. 54. and that he hath heard the Doctor spake it a hundred times over ibid. the whole vertue of which story doth consist in the tinkling of Thorns and Scorns ibid. Thus let the Difficultyes and streights of our great Artificer be never so many for number or never so monstrous for shape with a dash or two of his pen he winds himself out of all he makes all fair and unreprovable There is not a fault in his manners nor I warrant you a flaw in any one part of his undertakings So much for his artifice in drawing good over evill § 8. And because in the course of his studyes he hath attain'd to a pair of jests which in a volume of that bulk may run the hazard of being lost I will adde my mite to their conservation It seems he had learn't by one means or other that his Sympresbyter with the long breath which admonish't Mr. Baxter to keep his distance had in a Latin Epistle upon such an occasion as he could get shew'd the Dimensions of his wit in the mistaking of my Name No lesse then four whole times without the fourtieth part of a reason he was resolv'd to call me Persius and a little after took care to say what he thought would be pretty Difficile est Satyram non scribere Thus lay the Hint upon which Mr. Barlee held forth as shrewdly in his Abstersion that I am a Iuvenal Divine He thought it was pleasant for Iuvenal and Persius to be both predicated of Me and so hath left unto posterity this Memorandum that when two Sympresbyters joyn wit to wit they are able betwixt them to break a jest As his first jest is on my name so is his second upon his own in allusion to which he is again saith he call'd out to thrashing For Mr. Barlee to be a Thrasher it seems he thought to be as lepid as for the high-wayes of Egypt to become all Travellers when the Dust of the Land was wholly turn'd into Lice But he should have known whilst it was time what is now too late that he who is not skill'd in thrashing must take great heed how he fights with a Flaile lest in fetching back his weapon to lay it on so much the harder he prove so unfortunate as to break his own head Had I been in his case and he in mine this Book without Question had been Intitl'd Mr. Barlee thrashed with his own Flaile and found in the winnowing to be but Chaff AN APPENDAGE Touching the judgement of the late most learned and pious Primate of Armagh as to the matters in controversie betwixt the Two Parties THat it concerns me very neerly to perform my promises to my Reader and so to communicate the Grounds of what I have publickly a●firmed concerning the judgement of the right honourable and learned Primate of Armagh as to the Doctrines which I controvert with the unjust Usurpers of his Authority and bold Invaders of his Name my Reverend Friend Doctor Bernard hath made apparent for if I have wronged so great a Person it is by so much the greater wrong and exacteth from my conscience by so much the greater reparation Nor can I but take it very kindly from so Reverend a Person as Dr. Bernard that by opposing what I reported in that particular he hath given me an Occasion to shew the Truth in its Lustre which till now was exhibited in somewhat a thick vail by laying upon me a Necessity to clear my self To clear my self I say not from any aspersions which Dr. Bernard hath cast upon me for there are none in his letters if rightly taken and applyed he hath rather open'd a way to my vindication but from the sinister and irrational uses which Mr. Barlee and his peers if yet he is not a peerless person have had the skill or the unskilfulness to make of those letters against the intention of Him that writ them It is not therefore my purpose to clear my self or my Informers or the precious memorie of the L. Primate by a p●ofessed work of Hostility against those letters of Dr. Bernard but rather by shewing that those letters were so warily written as to have nothing in them of hostile against me or mine not pretending to