Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	bishop_n	church_n	rome_n	17,242	5	7.2290	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66362	Eight sermons dedicated to the Right Honourable His Grace the Lord Duke of Ormond and to the most honourable of ladies, the Dutchess of Ormond her Grace. Most of them preached before his Grace, and the Parliament, in Dublin. By the Right Reverend Father in God, Griffith, Lord Bishop of Ossory. The contents and particulars whereof are set down in the next page.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1664 (1664)	Wing W2666; ESTC R221017	305,510	423

nature is noted unto us by him that had the face and appearance of a man And as his natures and the quality of his person are here thus mystically exprest so his offices that he was to discharge are here likewise in the same manner of the Egyptian Hieroglyphicks set forth unto us as 1. His Regal and Kingly office whereby he was to rule and govern his Church is here to be understood by the Lion which is the King of all the Beasts 2. His Priestly office whereby he was to teach and to instruct his people and to offer sacrifice unto God to appease his wrath and so to take away the sin of the world is here most aptly exprest by the Oxe or Calfe that was deemed the most acceptable sacrifice that could be offered unto God Num. 23.1 as you may see by the sacrifice of Balaam And as his natures and his offices are here thus to be understood so the chiefest things that he was to do and the chiefest points that we are to believe are likewise here fairly exprest under what is signified by these four Beasts as 1. His Incarnation by him that had the face of a man 2. His Passion by the Oxe or Calf 3. His Resurrection by the Lion 4. His Ascension by the flying Eagles Fourthly and lastly not onely the foresaid particulars concerning Christ and these main points of Christian Religion are hereby to be observed but also all the whole duty of man and the chiefest points that every Christian ought to discharge if he looks for eternal happiness are here exprest unto us under the qualities conditions description and practice of these Beasts as hereafter I shall more fully declare unto you And so you see here is sententia brevis a short speech but materia uberrima an Ocean of matter to sail over And do you think that I can passe through such a world of most weighty points within the compasse of one inch of time lesse then one little houre that cannot be by a far better head then mine Therefore I must crave leave onely to go as far as I can untill I shall have your Grace and this honourable audience leave to proceed at some other time unto the rest of these points And for our more orderly proceeding at this time I shall humbly desire you to observe these three points 1. The number of these Beasts 2. The description of these Beasts 3. The practice of these Beasts 1. The number of the Beasts four Gen. 31.7 1. For their number it is said they were four Beasts And you must remember that sometimes a certain number is put for an uncertain as when Jacob said unto Laban Thou hast changed my wages ten times that is several times But here I take this number to be as it is set down to signifie four Beasts and neither more nor less 2. The description of the Beasts 2. The description of these Beasts is two-fold 1. Particular and proper to each one 2. General and common to them all 1. The proper and particular description of the Beasts 1. Touching their particular description we are to consider 1. Who and what they are that are thus exprest by these Beasts 2. Why each one of them is so exprest as they are here described unto us Aug. de civit Dei l. 8. c. 3. For the first I may truly say with St. Aug. Alii atque alii aliud atque aliud opinati sunt several men have had their several interpretations of them and I finde four expositions of them to be most of all respected 1. Of the Papists 2. Of the Puritans 3. Of some latter Writers of the Protestants 4. Of the Ancient Fathers 1. The Papists interpreting this vision of the Militant Church do understand the same by Heaven and by the seat that was set therein they understand the authority of the Church of Rome by the Lamb or him that sate on the seat their universal Bishop the Pope and by these four Beasts they would have us to understand the 4. Patriarchships 1. Of Antioch 2. Of Ephesus 3. Of Jerusalem 4. Of Alexandria Which have always had the greatest power and cheifest authority next after the Church of Rome And by the 24. Elders that sate upon the 24. seats they understand the six arch-Arch-Bishops that were in every Patriarchship as 1. in Antioch The Arch-Bishop 1. of Mesopotamia 2. of Ninivee 3. of Babylon 4. of Assyria 5. of Parthia 6. of Media 2. In Ephesus The Arch-Bishop 1. of Smyrna 2. of Pergamus 3. of Thyatira 4. of Philadelphia 5. of Sardis 6. of Laodicea And so the rest of Jerusalem and of Alexandria But this exposition seemeth furthest from the truth I. Because they interpret it of the Priest-hood Church and Government thereof altogether externally Whereas indeed the Kingdom and Priest-hood of Christ is altogether spiritual Chrysost hom 82. in c. 18. Johan Non quod hoc etiam temporaliter non possideat sed quod in coelis habeat imperium as St. Chrysost saith II. For that the Church of Rome was not as then Empresse and cheif Lady of all other Churches nor afterwards till the time of the Emperour Phocas In Regist ejusdem Gregorii as it appeareth by the Epistles of Gregory Bishop of Rome unto the Emperour Mauritius III. Because that if this exposition were true the Arch-Bishopricks of Italy Spain France Britany Germany and the like should be excluded which were too great a wrong from this vision or they could not tell under which Patriarchship they should be comprehended 2. Exposition The second Exposition is of Brightman and his followers that say these four Beasts do signifie the four-fold state quality and condition of the Ministers of the Church of Christ from the time of our Saviours Ascension to his coming to judgment As 1. Age. 1. In the infancy of the Church they were bold and stout like Lions to preach the Gospel of Christ so that although as Eusebius saith Alii flammis exusti alii ferro perempti alii patibulo cruciati Euseb l. 8. c. 11 12. alii flagris verberati Some were burn'd to ashes some slain with the sword Some hanged and others whipped to death yet they ceased not to publish the truth of Jesus Christ because they knew that as S. Bern. saith Vere tuta pro Christo cum Christo pugna in qua nec vulneratus nec occisus fraudaberis à victoria To fight for Christ and with Christ is very safe when neither wounded nor killed we should not be deprived of the victory 2. Age. 2. In the next age of the Church after Constant the Great that closed up the dayes of Persecution the Ministers of Christ were as painfull and laborious in their vocation of Preaching the Gospel of God as the Oxen are in tilling our ground or treading out the Corn for us And so their voluminous works and pious devotions left behind them do sufficiently

and of how much damage I cannot imagine 3. 3. The giving of Relaxations of the Bishops Sequestrations without hearing what the Bishop could say for sequestring them When the Deane of Kilkenny came to be instituted into his Deanery that was Sequestred into the hands of Alderman Butler and would neither pay the Fees for his Institution nor take a Relaxation of that Sequestration to this very day and I letting him alone for this and for many other prejudices that concerned my self yet when divers of his Parish came unto me and complained how duely they paid their Tythes and all duties unto him and yet how roughly he used them and how negligent he was of them when as they had neither Service nor Sermon not Minister to Christen their Children Marry their Youths and Bury their Dead but they must go and entreat this man or that man to do it and that I could not perswade him to have a better care of his Flock nor to pay any Dues to his Majesty to my Lord Duke of Ormond and the Bishop I Sequestred his Living for the better Service to be done unto his people and the sooner to get those Duties due both to the King and Bishop and he understanding thereof instead of coming to me for to desire a Relaxation which I expected he went and desired to see the Sequestration and the man that had the Sequestration gave it him to read and he put it in his Pocket and keeps it to this day and gathered his Tythes giving many opprobrious terms and using great threatnings against the honest man to whose hands I had sequestred his Living And when Mr. Archdeacon Bulkley came to the Archbishops Visitation he without my privity and without any appeal or demanding what I had to say against him gives a Relaxation of that Sequestration And all this I cannot well understand but it puts me in mind of a Play Book that I saw on a Booksellers Stall intituled A King and no King and of what the Jews said to Christ Hayl King of the Jews that is in their mind Rex fine Regno For thus taking the Articles out of my Court and relaxing the Sequestration and undoing whatsoever I had done I conceived I should be a Bishop and no Bishop or a Bishop without the authority and power of a Bishop And truly I do think I were better to use no Jurisdiction than in vacuum laborare and to do things to no purpose but only to be undone againe which is not so much a prejudice unto me as it is to all those Parties that had or should have any Suits depending in the Bishops Court and must every third year go fifty or sixty miles to follow their Suits and with a vast expence in Dublin and I wish his Majesty would consider this agrievance of his People But now as Abraham said to God Gen. 18.30 I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord let him not be angry and I will speak so I say to my Lords Grace of Dublin The things that the Bishop of Ossory observeth to be considered out of the Letters 1. Touching the Refection seeing I have taken upon me to speak of these things let not his Grace be angry and I will yet speak a little of what I have observed in the afore-cited Letters And 1. For the Refections I will say no more but what you see in the Letters and what I said before touching this Point but desire if we must still continue to give Refections to the Bishops and Archbishops that the uncertainty of the expence might be remedied and either commuted for a certain Sum of money or limited not to exceed a Sum as shall be agreed upon to be convenient that the poor Clergy might be certain what they are to do and understand in what case they stand and not be punished for their ill-doing and neglect of their duty when they think they have been very bountiful and have done very well And 2. 2. For the reconciliation of the disagreeing persons For the Reconciliation of the persons disagreeing it was a very good and a very charitable work but for the submission of the Senior Cull unto the Deane it puts me in mind of Aesops Fable Lupus ad caput fontis bibens videt agnum procul infra bibentem for to say the truth Ea fama vagatur the Dean is reported and I will not justifie the report to be very litigious and covetous and to have much wronged the poor Vicars and to have been as Chaplain to one Delboire a Cosin of his at the Siege of Basing House against his late Majesty which if true makes me believe him to be a very unworthy man and not worthy to be countenanced against any honest man and I know Mr. Cull is reputed to be a very honest man presented so to me by the Maior and Aldermen of Kilkenny and I am sure a very constant and painful Preacher and yet the Deane charged him with such hainous crimes that if proved were sufficient utterly to undo him Whereupon Mr. Cull to quit himself of the Accusations preferred these Articles following against the Deane and delivered the same to me and I finding that if Fame be true they might be all very easily proved did put the same into my Court to be answered by the Deane And not to prejudice the Reputation of the Deane the things alleadged being not proved but that my Reader might the better understand the truth in this place And the Articles being exhibited unto me by the Junior Cull from his Father is I shewed before I required his Proctor to draw up the same in forma juris and my Register to deliver them to the Dean and in open Court I gave the Dean his own desired time to answer them all this being done the Articles exhibited the Dean having his own time to answer them and lying long in the Court before any tidings of the Archbishops inhibition came unto us I conceive it strange and cannot understand quo jure how these Articles should be taken out of my Court as they were without my privity without an appeal or any other due course of Law and the offendor quitted and set free without any answer to any Articles which I conceived to be rather a covering of faults and cherishing offences than a reformation of manners but especially to consider that the party wronged and so highly injured The strange injunction laid upon Jo. Cull should be enjoyned to make such a submission as flexis genibus upon his knees to ask forgiveness to him that did the wrong hoc mihi magnum est hoc miram I pray you forgive me that I did not thank you for abusing me to justifie herein the foresaid Fable true for I know no wrong that Cull did to the Dean but I can make it good that the Dean did many waies exceedingly wrong poor Cull And yet Cull must be enjoyned to ask the Dean