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
B10083	Tracts theological. I. Asceticks, or, the heroick piety and vertue of the ancient Christian anchorets and coenobites. II. The life of St. Antony out of the Greek of Sr. Athanasius. III. The antiquity and tradition of mystical divinity among the Gentiles. IV. Of the guidance of the spirit of God, upon a discourse of Sir Matthew Hale's concerning it. V. An invitation to the Quakers, to rectifie some errors, which through the scandals given they have fallen into.	Stephens, Edward, d. 1706.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Asceticks, or, the heroick piety and virtue of the ancient Christian anchorets and coenobites.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Life of St. Antony.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Antiquity, tradition, and succession of mystical divinity among the Gentiles.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Enthusiasmus divinus: the guidance of the spirit of God.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Apology for, and an invitation to, the people call'd Quakers, to rectifie some errors, which through the scandals given they have fallen into.	1697 (1697)	Wing S5444E; Wing S5444E; ESTC R184630	221,170	486

those things which fill the Lives of Mortals nor by any Necessity neither is it provoked with Contumelies nor being injured doth it revenge it self nor doth it sink being pressed either with Sickness or with Penury of Necessaries but doth rather triumph over those in which she exerciseth Patience and Meekness and Contentation of Mind all the Life long and as far as is possible to Humane Nature becomes near to God using this present Life as in a Passage is neither anxious for the acquest of Earthly things nor doth so much as think of things present even in urging Necessity but perpetually prizing a Life frugal and discharged of temporal Furniture respects the Felicity which it hath from thence and is always disposed for a Blessed End But incessantly breathing out Piety towards God it abhors the Defilement of filthy Speaking not so much as enduring in Speech those things which in Fact it hath banished from its Course of Life and by degrees contracting the Necessities of Nature and compelling the Body to be content with mean things it doth with Temperance overcome Prodigality Injustice with Justice and corrects Lying with Truth and in right order keeps Moderation in all things and orders its Method of Life in keeping Concord and Communion with Neighbours It provides for Friends and Strangers communicates its Good to those who want confers upon every one what are commodious for them not being troublesome to those who rejoyce but administring Comfort to those who are sad But in all studiously reaching after the True Good discoursing with sound Speeches and wise Thoughts void of Elegance and Rudeness as with certain Medicines doth cure its Auditors with Decency and Respect without Contention Scorn or Anger For since it is furnished with reason it refuseth every unreasonable Motion and compleatly rules the Affections both of the Body and the Mind This most Excellent Philosophy was begun as some say by Elias the Prophet and John the Baptist but PHILO the Pythagorean writes That the most Excellent of his Nation the Hebrews being assembled from all Parts in a certain place at the Lake Maria did Philosophize in a little Hill thereunto adjacent but describes their Habitation Living and Conversation such as we also now see amongst the Monks now living in Egypt For he writes that they who began to Philosophize forsook their Estates and renounced both Things and Persons belonging to them and lived without the Walls in solitary Fields and Orchards then that their Houses were Sacred which they called Monasteries that they did devoutly worship God with Psalms and Hymns nor did touch any Food till Sun-set that some among them abstained for three days together or more and lay certain days upon the Ground but Wine and Things that have Blood they never at all used but their Meat was Bread and Salt and Hyssop and their Drink Water That ancient Women and Virgins dwelt among them and for the Love of Philosophy or Wisdom of their own choice abstained from Marriage And Philo writing to this purpose seems to intend the Jews who in his time imbracing Christianity lived a little too much after the Jewish Manner and observed the Rites of their Nation For among no others is that kind of Life to be found from whence I conjecture that this Philosophy hath from that time flourished in Egypt But others think that the Persecutions of those times gave Occasion to this Religion For because those who escaped by Flight lived in Mountains and Desarts and Woods they contracted a Habit of this kind of Living This of St. HIEROM being omitted in its proper place pag. 46. it was thought fit to insert it here MARK the Disciple and Interpreter of Peter intreated by the Brethren at Rome wrote a short Gospel according to what he had heard Peter relate Which when Peter had read he approved it and by his Authority gave it to the Church to be read as writeth Clemens in sexto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 libro and Papias Bishop of Hierapolis Of this Mark doth Peter also make mention under the Name of Babylon figuratively signifying Rome The Church which is in Babylon salutes you and so doth Mark my Son Wherefore taking the Gospel which he had composed he went to Egypt and first Preaching Christ at Alexandria he founded the Church there with such Doctrin and Continence of Life that it enforced all Followers of Christ to their Example At length Philo the most Eloquent of the Jews seeing that first Church at Alexandria yet Judaizing wrote a Book concerning their Manner of Living as in Praise of his own Nation And as Luke relates that the Believers at Hierusalem had all things Common so doth also he what he did see done at Alexandria under Mark commit to Memory He Died in the Eighth Year of Nero and was Buried at Alexandria Anianus succeeding him Of the Ancient MONKS of Egypt And their Original A Relation of Piammon an Ancient Egyptian Abbot and a Presbyter or Priest of great Grace and Virtue even to the doing of Miracles Cassian Coll. 18. cap. 4. THERE are in Egypt Three sorts of Monks whereof Two are excellent but the Third tepid and sloathful and by all means to be avoided The first is of the Coenobites who living together in a Religious Society are governed by the Judgment and Order of One Elder or Superior of which sort a very great number of Monks are resident throughout all Egypt The second is of the Anchoretes or Hermites who being first instructed in the Monasteries and become already perfect in their Conversation have chosen the Secrets of the Desart of whose Perfection we also wish to be Partakers The third the reprehensible one of the Sarabaits Of all which we shall discourse severally more fully in order The Discipline of the Coenobites took its beginning from the time of the Preaching of the Apostles For such was that whole Multitude of Believers at Jerusalem which in the Acts of the Apostles is thus describ'd The Multitude of them who believed were of one Heart and of one Soul neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed were his own but they had all things Common Neither was there any among them that lacked for as many as were Possessors of Land or Houses sold them and brought the Prices of the things which were sold and laid them down at the Feet of the Apostles and Distribution was made unto every Man according as he had need Such I say was then the whole Church as it is now difficult to find a very few in the Monasteries But when after the Apostles decease the Multitude of the Believers began to grow Tepid and that most of all which came into the Faith of Christ of Foreigners and divers Nations of whom the Apostles according to their Rudiments of Faith and inveterate Custom of Gentisism did require no more but that they should abstain from Fornication and from things strangled and from Blood and that

principally to be considered and they are to take care of the Dissenters If we consider the Great things belonging to the Charge of the Governours of this Church both severally in their particular Diocesses the State of the Clergy and People there and joyntly to them all as one Body viz. The Court and the Nobility The Vniversities The Parliament so far as Religion is concerned there The Prisons which might be made Schools of Virtue but are now Nourseries of all Vice and Wickedness and Condemned Persons there for whose Assistance they of the Roman Communion imploy the ablest and best qualified of their Clergy and we the most ordinary though they are not a few who are every Year Executed in this City and throughout the Nation The Foreign Plantations and the Propagation of the Christian Religion by that Means abroad for our Neglect of which the Monks and Jesuits and Quakers and such as we call Phanaticks will rise up in Judgment against them and the Dissenters at home for they also belong to their Care to remove all just Occasions give all reasonable Satisfaction and to use all truly Christian Means to reduce them If all these besides divers others which cannot presently be thought on be considered What Account can be given that may reasonably pass with a considerate Mortal Man of any of these and What Account then can be given of all to the Immortal All-seeing Righteous God These are Generals of each of which a particular and clear Account must be given by every one of that Order what sense he hath had of his Duty in that respect and what Care and Endeavours he hath used in discharge thereof To these I will add but one or two Particulars of Occurrences in this Reign One of a Bill for Suppression of Vice and Debauchery drawn indeed at their Request but after it had been perused and perfected not only by able Counsel but by all the Judges then in Town particularly the Lord Chief Justice Polexsin the Lord Chief Baron Atkyns Mr. Justice Dolbin Baron Letchmare and I think one or two more and fair written out put into their hands and a Motion made by the Bishop of Chester to bring it into the House and granted by the Lords and yet stifled and suppressed in their hands Another a Needful and Hopeful Reformation begun by the Authority and Encouragement of the QUEEN and not only vigorously prosecuted here in Middlesex but in a hopeful way in many other Cities and Counties all over the Nation and this stopped first by a Combination of Middlesex Justices I need say no more but at last more effectually in a Judicature of Equity in the Presence of no less than seven of our Reverend Prelates by two wicked Men the one Speaker and the other a Member of Parliament the * Mr. Ralph Hartley who is still a Sufferer between a Succession of City Magistrates and a Combination of Surry Justices and some other persons and shamefully oppressed by them Justice of the Peace who had been most diligent and other persons concerned in the Promotion of that Good Work checked vilified and abused without any just cause to the discouragement of the Execution of the Laws and Contempt of Her Majesty's Authority and all in the Presence of those Bishops who came on purpose to countenance the Cause of Reformation were satisfied of the Iniquity of the Proceedings against it and yet not one of them ever appeared after in it to any purpose more than in one little printed Discourse in Vindication of the Gentleman so abused as aforesaid And what Account can be given of these things It is a great Truth That neither King nor Parliament nor Bishops of themselves and their own Motion have done any one Act that I know of worthy of the Name of Christian And where lyeth the Fault of all this but at their door who instead of Admonishing and Exciting and Animating to due Returns of true Gratitude in Fact to God for his admirable Providence have by their Neglect and the consequences of it provoked the Favours of Providence to withdraw and to leave us to our selves and to eat the Fruit of our own doings And whence comes this Neglect of so many so obliged but from a common Defect of Good Education at the Universities and the Enchantment of their Preferments But is not this Great Uncharitableness may our Grave Prudential Gentlemen say thus to lay open to the World the Nakedness of our Governours and of the Church Doubtless as great as for a Physician to prescribe a bitter Potion to a tender Patient or a Chirurgeon to cut or burn after tryal of more gentle means what is found otherwise incurable It is that they at whose door lyeth the Root of all our Evil may give Glory to God by taking Shame to themselves and giving Good Example of Humiliation and Reformation to others But if they will not I hope the despised Quakers will be so wise as to accept the Honour of beginning the Example For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God But Who call'd You to this Office may our Prudentialists say By what Authority dost Thou this and Who gave Thee this Authority He who gave me Eyes to see and a Heart to be sensible of it and a Mind to be Faithful to Him who call'd me and led me by his Hand to his Holy Service not for filthy Lucre's sake not to make a Trade of it not to seek the World in the Church but to serve Him in the Service of all Men in the best manner I can FINIS