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	ecclesiastical_a	king_n	3,581	5	4.1658	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42835	The zealous, and impartial Protestant shewing some great, but less heeded dangers of popery, in order to thorough and effectual security against it : in a letter to a member of Parliament.	Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.	1681 (1681)	Wing G837; ESTC R22540	45,186	68

The Zealous and Impartial PROTESTANT SHEWING Some great but less heeded DANGERS OF POPERY In Order to Thorough and Effectual Security against it In a LETTER To a Member of PARLIAMENT LONDON Printed by M. C. for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Pauls Churchyard 1681. The Zealous and Impartial PROTESTANT SIR WE have discourst a great deal of the Popish Plot and the commonly acknowledg'd dangers of Popery On that side we are justly sensible of our Perils and have not much need of more Warnings to look about us But all the danger of Popery doth not lie one way it hath other Methods to advance its Interests besides Killing and Burning and of some of those I doubt we are not sufficiently aware Like the percht Phesant we look so intently at the danger that makes the loud Noise that we little heed the Enemy behind the Bush that is ready to shoot us off I remember I said when I last waited on you that there are ways in which Popery is silently promoted I shall now represent some of them to you with Honest and Impartial plainness as becomes one who is an hearty enemy to Popery in all the Steps and Methods of it And THe First occasion of our farther Danger that I shall mention is the present Diminution not to say Extinction of Reverence to the Authority of the Church of England and the Protestant Reformation by Law establish't Popery was not thrown out here by Rebellion Sedition or popular Tumults but this Church was in a regular way Reformed by the deliberate and grave Counsels of our Rulers These our Reformers purged out the Roman Corruptions and in their steads settled the Ancient Primitive Christianity which was establish'd by all the Authority of the Kingdom both Ecclesiastical and Civil and this Establishment in Doctrine Discipline and Worship is that by which we know the Church of England This our pious Reformers Kings and Parliaments by the advice of Learned Grave Divines Bishops and others setled and bound upon us by most solemn Sanctions this they fixt as the National Profession to stand so in all Times and not to serve only for a present Expedient as some talk in their Dream for their Reformation they founded upon the Holy Scripture and upon the Doctrine and Practice of the First and Purest Times of the Primitive Fathers and Councils Christ himself being the Corner-Stone And the Grounds being unalterable the thing setled on them ought in the main to be so and must have been so intended by those Excellent men who so well knew what they did and the Reasons of their so doing Here was our Religion now purged from Popery a Religion that in the whole Constitution of it hath the greatest antipathy to that corrupt Profession this is our old Protestantism that which was persecuted by Papists with Fire and Faggot that which divers of the Reformers themselves sealed with their Blood in opposition to Popish Idolatries and Superstitions This was the Way the Religion of the happy Elizabeth-Days which are yet so Celebrated so glorious among Protestants and that finally which was stood to contended for to the Death by the Royal Martyr King Charles the First Here then is the standing Bulwark against Popery this is Primitive Christianity restored our Anti-papistry The Protestantism we understand and can defend and the Establishment and Maintenance of this is our security against the Popish Depravations When we would destroy this some thing we must set up the Church of England is that which our Protestant Law-givers have erected have by so many Laws confirmed This now is twisted with our Monarchy and the whole frame of our Civil Government so that the overthrow of one will be the destruction of both If this Church should be overturned which God forbid confusion in the State must follow and then Anarchy and cutting Throats and 't is most likely Popery at last For when this Constitution is ruined we must to new Modelling And where shall we rest Every Pretence every Way hath as much right as any other of the Competitors and then we fall into a Scufle and endless Disorders and who but the Roman Church will get by that If this Fortification should be dismantled before we could get another in the place of it Popery in all likelihood would be with us Now this Bulwark we are many of us throwing down and taking away the Ordinance and Artillery Or rather we have done it in great part and have made the Church weak and defenceless The Authority the Coercive Power in effect is gone And what doth Vice or Humour or Faction care for Words Papers Arguments Excommunication is the penalty and we know how little that is made to signifie so that the Church is obeyed by as many as please and as long as those please Such as will not at all or but in this and that take their own course and there is but little remedy This is the plain sad truth Laws we have still but the multitude of Offenders with other things make all in a manner unpracticable The Authority of the Church and the Reverence is lost and gone the People dissolv'd and at loose They fear not they care not for Ecclesiastical Laws or Penalties They will follow their own Ways and the Teachers they have heap'd up to themselves and the few that are left with us are divers of them ready to be gone too as soon as they are punish'd or take Pet and the Governors and Ministers of the Church do not humour them So that the strength of the Church is broken little of the Fortress is left standing besides the dead Walls and even these many would have down too Down with it down with it even to the ground is the Cry This is a sad part of the state of our Church and this its weak almost ruined Condition hath no doubt been the great temptation to many to desert it Every Constitution every Government ought to have Authority and Power or it is Precarious and will be in a little time Contemptible And ours having been made so by the loss of its strength and due force no wonder if it falls into disesteem even among divers that formerly revered it No wonder if these being so prejudiced betake themselves to a Church which hath Authority hath Power They have been brought up perhaps under a fense of the necessity of Ecclesiastical Government and Authority of the Obedience and Reverence that is due to the Church and its Constitutions and of the Mischiefs Schisms and Confusions that arise from the want of these And then observing that our Church is so weakned so disabled so despised and affronted they bid adieu to it and betake themselves to that Corrupt Idolatrous Church that yet hath Authority hath Rule over its Members This Sir I dare say hath been one of the chief occasions of the late increase of Popery and Papists and the revolt of so many from the Reformed Communion For one and