Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	believe_v	church_n	father_n	2,359	5	5.4153	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16506	The true vvay of a Christian, to the nevv Ierusalem Or, a three-folde demonstration: first, of the excellencie of the true and sauing knowledge of Christ; and the meanes to attaine it: with the antiquitie, necesitie, and benefit of catechisme. Secondly, of our vnion and communion with Christ, and his Church. Thirdly, of our new creation in Christ, by the blessed Spirit. With diuers questions, and cases of conscience, most comfortable for a Christian. Deliuered first in briefe, in a sermon preached at Paules-Crosse, the first Sunday in the new yeere, 1617. And newly reuised and enlarged by Immanuel Bourne ...	Bourne, Immanuel, 1590-1672.	1622 (1622)	STC 3419; ESTC S106545	102,817	130

and counsell that he may apply somewhat vnto thee to cure thy disease so must thou doe in this sicknesse of thy soule Thou must flye to the Minister of God whom he hath appointed for thy helpe herein The Priests lippes must preserue knowledge Malac. 2.7 and thou must seeke the Law at his mouth To him thou must open the wounds of thy soule Iam. 5.16 the causes and occasions of thy feare whether they be thy sinnes if any trouble thy conscience or thy temptations to sinne thy weakenesse of faith and holinesse or the like that hee vpon sight of thy estate and arguments of thy faith and repentance though they be weake may apply the promises of mercy the refreshing oyle of the Gospel vnto thy soule Thou must confesse thy sinnes and weaknesse as that reuerend Diuine Mr. Perkins Perkins Cases of Conscience lib. 1. cap. 1. sect 1. well obserueth that the Minister of God may pronounce the sentence of absolution of thy free remission and reconciliation with God in Christ vnto thee that hence thy hope and confidence in God may be confirmed which he may truly doe if by thy confession he finde in thee the grounds and signes of faith and repentance of which thou mayest finde many signes in this Treatise and no doubt but some in thy selfe if thou be called brought to repentance and faith in Christ I will here put you in minde A most comfortable ground of assurance that our sinnes are pardoned in Christ but of one ground of comfort for many And this is that A desire to repent and beleeue in a touched heart and conscience is faith and repentance it selfe though not in nature yet in Gods acceptation by Christ This is euident in Scripture First because If there be a willing minde it is accepted not according to that a man hath not but according to that he hath 2. Corinthians 8. verse 12. Againe God doth not onely call all that thirst and desire to the waters of life and offers them freely Esay 55. verse 1.2 but if they doe but desire and thirst for it he promiseth to giue it them freely Reuel 21.6 Reu. 22.17 And he will be as good as his word to thee thou shalt be sure to receiue and taste of these waters of comfort if thou wilt pray for it and desire it and expect with patience and tarry the Lords leisure for it Thou art blessed in the desire of it Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse for first or last they shall be satisfied Matth. 5.6 and then blessed shalt thou be in the happie possession of it A bruised reede will he not breake and smoaking flaxe will he not quench that is the least sparkes of grace but kindle them to thy comfort Matth. 12.20 The Lord saith Dauid heareth the desires of the poore the poore in Spirit especially who are blessed though they be poore in their owne eyes seeing but little or no faith or holinesse in themselues yet they are rich in Christ in whom God accepteth them for theirs is the kingdome of heauen Matth. 5 3. If thou confessest that thou hast but this desire in thee as thou thy selfe mayest apply to thy selfe with the help of thine own co●science spirituall vnderstanding so may the minister also boldly and certainly apply the promises of grace and mercy to thy soule M. Perkins Cases of Conscience lib. 1. cap. 7. sect 5. And that with this or the like argument He that hath an vnfained desire to repent and b●leeue in Christ hath remission of sinnes and life euerlasting But thou hast an earnest desire to repent and beleeue in Christ as thy owne conscience cannot choose but tell thee and as thou confessest vnto him and therefore as thou mayest apply and conclude so if thou canst not he may certainly conclude to thee and for thee That remission of sinnes and life euerlasting belongs to thee and therefore he may assuredly and boldly for to procure thy peace the better pronounce vnto thee that excellent sentence of Absolution The Booke of Common Prayer in the visitation of the sicke appointed by our Church for the comfort of sicke and distressed soules Our Lord Iesus Christ who hath left power to his Church to absolue all sinners which truly repent and beleeue in him of his great mercy forgiue thee thine offences And by his authoritie committed to me I absolue thee from all thy sinnes in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost Amen And if thou be as thou oughtest to be perswaded of the power of this absolution thou mayest after this possesse thy soule in peace with assurance that thou art iustified freely in Christ and labouring to increase in holinesse thou needest not doubt of happinesse in the end For this is one end why Christ hath giuen that power of binding and loosing vnto his Ministers those keyes of the kingdome of heauen That whatsoeuer they doe binde on earth Math. 16.19 should be bound in heauen and whatsoeuer they should loose on earth should be loosed in heauen And withall gaue them the holy Ghost to direct and guide them Receiue yee the holy Ghost saith Christ whose soeuer sinnes yee remit they are remitted vnto them and whose soeuer sinnes yee retaine they are retained Ioh. 20. verse 22 23. And this power though it be not absolute but ministeriall Christ absoluing by his ministers yet as no water could cure Naamans leprosie but the waters of Iordan 2. King 5. because God had giuen a speciall gift vnto them So the same words of absolution being pronounced by any other cannot haue that power to worke on the conscience or to perswade to peace as when they are pronounced by him that hath this ministeriall office because the promise only is giuen to Gods Ministers who are sent forth to this end Ioh. 20.12.13 And being pronounced by them in this forme and manner Christ doth as certainly loose thee from the bonds of thy sinnes by his Ministers as he did loose Lazarus by his disciples from the bonds with which he was tyed when he had raised him to life Iohn 11.44 Be at peace therfore quiet thy conscience with diuine Answ 3 Hope and confidence in Christ and the God of peace shall be with thee 2. Cor. 13.11 And yet further thirdly for thy decay in grace Quench not the spirit saith the Apostle to the Christian Thessalonians Against decay in grace 1. Thes 5.19 in whom no doubt the grace of Gods Spirit was in good measure The Spirit therefore may bee quenched and Gods dearest children may lose grace for a time though not finally and totally because God in his mercy doth in due time renue the vigour and strength of his graces in them Thou must not conclude then by thy decay in grace for a time or want of holinesse that thou art excluded from the fauor of God in Christ The best wheate hath

witnesseth Ephes 4.11 so the primitiue Church being carefull to enlarge and increase the knowledge of Christ following the steppes of the Apostles amongst other offices they did appoint some to be Catechists or teachers of the Catechisme as S. Ambrose Ambros in Epist ad Ephe. Cap. 6. affirmeth And such Catechists amongst other had the Church of Alexandria in a continued order from the Apostles times for many yeeres together For as Eusebius relateth after the Apostles they had Pantaenus who had learned all things from the Apostles and by word of mouth Catechized that Church saith S. Hierome Hierom in Catalog After him they had Clemens Alexandrinus whose Schoolemaster a booke which he intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of the varietie of the matter in it is yet extant and it is nothing else but a kinde of Catechisme with which he had instructed that Church of Alexandria After him came Origen who in the eighteenth yeere of his age restored the order of Catechizing which before in time of persecution was intermitted And after these was Heraclas and Didimus and Dionisius and diuers others as S. Cyprian Cyprian lib. Epist 3. cap 22 records The like order we finde in the Church of Ierusalem Socrates Hist Eccle lib. 2. cap. 25. The like in the Church of Carthage in the Church of Rome in the purer times the like in diuers reformed Churches And the like at this day commanded continually inforced by the authoritie and care of the Reuerend Bishops and religious fathers of our Church though the practise be too much neglected To conclude Ancient Catechismes a signe of the Churches care to plant knowledge would you haue this care of the Church further confirmed looke but to the ancient Catechismes and briefe summes of Diuinitie which haue beene compiled to this purpose Saint Paul to the Hebrewes sets downe a briefe Catechisme Heb. 6.1.2 which he calles the foundation of Repentance from dead workes and of Faith towards God of the doctrine of Baptisme and of laying on of hands and of the resurrection of the dead and of eternall Iudgment Heb. 6.1 2. And what else is the Apostles Creede but a briefe Catechisme or summe of the Christian Faith made by the Apostles for the instruction of beleeuers in the knowledge of Christ For hauing receiued that command of Christ to goe and teach all nations Matth. 28.19 and being fitted and prepared by the power of the Spirit who inabled them with the gift of tongues in a wonderfull manner Acts 2.4 being about to depart one from the other Normam prius futurae praedicationis in commune constituunt They doe first constitute and appoint amongst themselues a rule or square or guide of their future preaching as Ruffinus Ruffinus Expos symbol as S. Cyprian Tom. 3. pag. 56 a. records Vide Baron Tom. 1. Annal. pa. 317. S. August de Tempore serm 181. Hierom. de Script Eccle. Betulaius Comment ad Lactant. lib. 2. cap. 11. Ignatius in Epist ad Ephes the Presbyter who liued in the time of S. Hierome about the three hundred and ninety yeere after Christ in his preface to the Exposition of the Creede relates and he giueth this reason that being separated their preaching might yet agree and the faithfull be grounded in one rule of faith by which they might be directed to the true and sauing knowledge of Christ And for this end as S. Hierome affirmes there was a Catechisme written by S. Cyrill Bishop of Ierusalem And there was another written by Iohn Bishop of the same place which Betulaeius mentioneth in his Commentaries vpon Lactantius And to these I might adde the briefe partitions and compendiums of Diuinitie giuen by diuers both ancient and moderne writers for the instruction of the ignorant Jgnatius who was the second Bishop of Antioch ordained by the Apostles and succeeded Euodius the first that gouerned that Church as he himselfe testifieth in his Epistle to the men of Antioch the 71. yeare after Christ Hee giueth this short diuision of Christian doctrine Irenaeus Martyr lib. 4. cont Hares cap. 76. Lactantius Diuin Institut lib. 4. cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The beginning of life is faith the end of life is charitie or good workes and these two saith he if they agree in one they make perfect the man of God And Lactantius lib. 3. cap. 30. concludes thus All the wisedome of man consists in this one thing That he may know God and serue him S. Augustine August Tom. 3. lib. 2. de Doct. Christ cap. 9. Bishop of Hippo speaking of the bookes of the old and new Testament Either the precepts of doing or rules of beleeuing are diligently saith he to be traced out Answerable to these is that of Polanus Polan Syntag. who makes two parts of Christian Doctrine the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things to be beleeued the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things to be done The summe of all our wisedome saith iudicious Caluin doth consist in two things Caluin Institu lib. 1. cap. 1. Aquinas Catechisme The knowledge of God and of our selues Aquinas in his Catechisme obserues fiue things to be remembred The first concerning Faith the second Hope the third Charitie the fourth of Christian righteousnesse the fift of the Sacraments Vrsinus Vrsinus Catechisme giueth but three as principally to be learned The first concerning mans miserie through the fall of our first Parents and so by sinne The second concerning our deliuerance and freedome from this misery by Christ The third concerning our thankfulnesse to God by conforming our liues according to his Law Iohan. Duns Scotus in Prolog quaest 3. fol. 10. colum 2. And besides these the Schoole-men and later Diuines Musculus Peter Martyr Beza Danaeus Zanchius Bucanus Nowel Iacobus Kimedontius and others haue taken like paines and written seuerall treatises and sums of Diuinitie The confessions of the reformed Churches Harmony of confessions in particular of the Church of England in the Articles of Religion and that Plat-forme of Catechisme set forth in the booke of Common Prayer and rightly commanded by authoritie for preseruation of Vnitie in the Christian faith and to auoide the danger of Schisme in the body of Christ All shew plainely the care of the Church and of religious men in their seuerall ages to plant the Catechisme or grounds of Christian knowledge in the hearts and minds of men And well they might so doe because these principles of Catechisme not onely are and are rightly called Theologicall verities and Capita the heads of Christian Religion but Cardines religionis the very Hinges of religion as Scaliger Scaliger exercit 307. sect 20. calles the Articles of our faith Because vpon these are turned the doores and gates by which the way to happinesse is opened vnto vs. Catechisme is Clauis Scripturae the Key of the Scripture because as a key doth open the doores that we may