Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	book_n	scripture_n	word_n	3,471	5	4.4436	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38480	Eikon basilike deutera, The pourtraicture of His Sacred Majesty King Charles II with his reasons for turning Roman Catholick / published by K. James.; Eikon basilike.		1694 (1694)	Wing E312; ESTC R14898	141,838	350

Plot and contributed much to my Lord Russel's Condemnation And though I have no reason to bewail his Loss because he might have prov'd a dangerous Enemy yet the Merit of the Father makes me regret the Fate of the Son which I could wish had been more favourable I perceive that it 's dangerous to go on in this Method too fast and I must not give my Brother too much way lest I should indeed dig a Grave for my self and therefore having gratify'd the Catholicks enough at once I may very well be allowed to pause a while and consider whether I may not be ship-wrack'd in the Tempest that I have raised before it be too late and therefore I think it necessary to recal the Duke of Monmouth whose natural Affection will make him tender of my Preservation And by this means I shall have a Check upon my Brother though at the same time I must not allow the Plot to be decried but find it convenient still to sacrifice Colonel Sidney and suffer Speke and Braddon to be prosecuted for offering to call in question the Earl of Essex's having been felo de se And in the mean time I will take surer though slower Measures to bring about my Designs For the Heads of the Faction being now cut off and the whole Party brought under Hatches I judg it better Policy to divest the Corporations of their Charters gradually while the Church-men are in the surrendring Humour than to pursue these severer Methods with heat lest the People should come at last to be enraged and rise in an universal Rebellion for if my Brother be suffered to follow his own Conduct he will quickly run himself and me both off the Stage FINIS Here follow the Copies of two Papers written by the late King Charles II. Published in 1686. by King James's Authority who attested that he found them in his Brother 's Strong Box written in his own Hand The First Paper THE Discourse we had the other Day I hope satisfied you in the main that Christ can have but one Church here upon Earth and I believe that it is as visible as that the Scriputre is in print That none can be that Church but that which is called the Roman Catholick Church I think you need not trouble your self with entring into that Ocean of particular Disputes when the main and in truth the only Question is Where that Church is which we profess to believe in the two Creeds We declare there to believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church and it is not left to every phantastical Man's Head to believe as he pleases but to the Church to whom Christ left the Power upon Earth to govern us in Matters of Faith who made these Creeds for our Directions It were a very irrational thing to make Laws for a Country and leave it to the Inhabitants to be the Interpreters and Judges of those Laws for then every Man will be his own Judg and by consequence no such thing as either Right or Wrong Can we therefore suppose that God Almighty would leave us at those Uncertainties as to give us a Rule to go by and to leave every Man to be his own Judg I do ask any ingenuous Man whither it be not the same thing to follow our own Fancy or to interpret the Scripture by it I would have any Man shew me where the Power of deciding Matters of Faith is given to every particular Man Christ left his Power to his Church even to forgive Sins in Heaven and left his Spirit with them which they exercised after his Resurrection First by his Apostles in these Creeds and many Years after by the Council at Nice where that Creed was made that is called by that Name and by the Power which they had re-received from Christ they were the Judges even of the Scripture it self many Years after the Apostles which Books were Canonical and which were not And if they had this Power then I desire to know how they came to lose it and by what Authority Men separate themselves from that Church The only Pretence I ever heard of was because the Church has fail'd in wresting and interpreting the Scripture contrary to the true Sense and Meaning of it and that they have imposed Articles of Faith upon us which are not to be warranted by God's Word I do desire to know who is to be Judg of that whether the whole Church the Succession whereof has continued to this day without Interruption or particular Men who have raised Schisms for their own Advantage The Second Paper IT is a sad thing to consider what a world of Heresies are crept into this Nation Every Man thinks himself as competent a Judg of the Scriptures as the very Apostles themselves and 't is no wonder that it should be so since that part of the Nation which looks most like a Church dares not bring the true Arguments against the other Sects for fear they should be turned against themselves and confuted by their own Arguments The Church of England as 't is call'd would fain have it thought that they are the Judges in Matters Spiritual and yet dare not say positively that there is no Appeal from them for either they must say that they are Infallible which they cannot pretend to or confess that what they decide in Matters of Conscience is no further to be followed than it agrees with every Man 's private Judgment If Christ did leave a Church here upon Earth and we were all once of that Church how and by what Authority did we separate from that Church If the Power of interpreting of Scripture be in every Man's Brain what need have we of a Church or Church-men To what purpose then did our Saviour after he had given his Apostles Power to Bind and Loose in Heaven and Earth add to it that he would be with them even to the end of the World These Words were not spoken Parabolically or by way of Figure Christ was then ascending into his Glory and left his Power with his Church even to the End of the World We have had these hundred Years past the sad Effects of denying to the Church that Power in Matters Spiritual without an Appeal What Country can subsist in Peace or Quiet where there is not a Supream Judg from whence there can be no Appeal Can there be any Justice done where the Offenders are their own Judges and equal Interpreters of the Law with those that are appointed to administer Justice This is our Case here in England in Matters Spiritual for the Protestants are not of the Church of England as 't is the true Church from whence there can be no Appeal but because the Discipline of that Church is conformable at the present to their Fancies which as soon as it shall contradict or vary from they are ready to imbrace or join with the next Congregation of People whose Discipline and Worship agrees with their Opinion at that

the Purles of his Subjects at command for him to be obliged to use Intreaties to his People who ought to receive his Dictates without Controul But Necessity has no Law the Constitution of this Government being such that English Kings are but a sort of Royal Beggars I must try if my Parliament will let me have Money now that I am disappointed as to my Hopes of seizing the Dutch Smyrna and Spanish Plate Fleets and that my Supplies from France come but slowly in I know that they are jealous of their Privileges have an envious Eye at my Prerogative and are particularly startled at the Dispensing Power therefore I must sweeten them by my Speech and indeavour to possess them with an Opinion that my Design therein was only to secure my self from Tumults and Insurrections at home while I was engaged in a War abroad which cannot be thought an unreasonable Fear by any thinking Man considering the Troubles which the Puritanical Party gave to my Father And as to their Objection that more Favour has been shewn to Papists than Dissenters I can easily answer it that the latter are abundantly more Loyal than the former and have been fast Friends both to my Father and my self and yet they were only allowed their Worship in private whereas the other Party had theirs in publick but as for dispensing with the Executive Part of the Law I am resolv'd to hold it as long as I can Their Fears that I shall make use of the Forces which I raise to subvert their Liberty and Property I must endeavour to dispel by fair Promises and the Interest of my Clergy and Pensioners and at the same time possess them with a Necessity of my raising more Forces for the Honour and Defence of the Nation that we may not be insulted over by the ungrateful Dutch whom my Predecessor Queen Elizabeth did raise from the Dust I have cull'd out the Earl of Shaftsbury for Lord Chancellor who may do me very great Service because a Popular Man so that I shall make use of his Influence and Eloquence both to palliate my having shut up the Exchequer and to demonstrate the Necessity of a War with the Dutch and at the same time of granting an Indulgence to the Papists I perceive that the bad Influences of my Stars are not yet exhausted for though I lay my Designs with all imaginable Policy they do often miscarry Who would have thought that so many fair Promises back'd with the Earl of Shaftsbury's Eloquence and the Interest and Influence of my Pensioners should have miscarried in Parliament and yet to my great Regret I do find that it has so that nothing will serve but a renouncing of my Dispensing Power and fresh Assurances that never any thing of that Nature shall be attempted again which rather than want Money I am resolv'd to comply with for if I could but once get a Standing Army on foot I should soon be able to retrieve it And in the mean time I shall take care to have all this Clamour against the Dispensing Power and Standing Army imputed to the Jealousies and envious Surmises of the Phanaticks and Republicans And from this Obligation laid upon me to recal my Act of Indulgence I shall at least reap this Advantage that it will heighten the Animosities betwixt the Dissenters and Church-men for I can easily bring it about to have the Refusal of it wholly imputed to the latter And though I have no reason to be well satisfy'd at the Check which is hereby put upon my Prerogative yet it hath thus much of a Cordial in it that I perceive the Episcopal Party wholly irreconcileable to the Presbyterians which at some time or other will very much forward my grand Design and at present it has had so much Influence as to procure me a considerable Sum though to avoid the Reproaches of the Phanatical Party the Parliament won't own that it is for carrying on the War against the Dutch but to supply my extraordinary Occasions If it were not that I question the Being of a Deity I should be apt to conclude that God fights for the Hollanders who have obtain'd some fresh Advantages against me at Sea and though they labour under the greatest of Pressures that can be they do also make good their Cause against the Power of France by Land And those pernicious Hereticks being sensible of the Apprehensions which my Parliament have that the Consequences of this War may be fatal to the Protestant Interest they have taken the most effectual Method that can be to possess that Heretical Divan that the French King and my self aim at nothing less than the Subversion of their Religion and the Liberties of their State with that of the Spanish Netherlands Nor have I any other way to save my self from the Influences of this Accusation than by insisting on the necessity of destroying those States to preserve our own Trade and to prevent the Incouragement which they give to those who are Enemies to the establish'd Discipline of our Church There is but too much Truth in the common Proverb That after one Mischief comes another for so I find it by sad Experience Though the Dutch and the Phanatical Party be both of them hated by the Church of England yet they have Influence enough to foment Jealousies in the Parliament that their Religion and Liberty are both in danger And hence comes the Address of the Commons against my Brother's Match with the Dutchess of Modena because a Catholick Princess and proposed by the French King 'T is true that this may indeed seem inconsistent with my reiterated Protestations of taking all imaginable Care to secure the Protestant Religion and the Peoples Liberties but amongst so many Concessions I may certainly venture on one Dram of Prerogative and tell them that the Marriage is concluded by my Authority that in Honour I cannot be worse than my Word and if this will not satisfy them I 'll cool them by a Prorogation What ill Fate is this that attends all my Measures I did reasonably hope that this Prorogation would have diverted the Commons from insisting on their Address against my Brother's Match but it seems that the Jealousy which they have conceiv'd has taken deeper Root than to be pull'd up so soon and therefore I find my self under a necessity to prorogue them again seeing they press me so hard to dissolve the Match because hitherto only concluded by Proxy They are become very sagacious and discern that this Marriage will engage me in new Alliances which may be dangerous to the Protestant Religion and that the Princess having so many Relations in the Court of Rome the Secrets of my Court must needs be open to them and therefore they are about to render Catholicks uncapable of sitting in either House of Parliament but this is too much for me to concede and if granted would ruine my Design intirely and therefore I must find out some Method to