Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	call_v	pope_n	rome_n	2,580	5	6.4809	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60407	A sermon preached July 17, 1681, at the assizes in Huntingdon before the Right Honourable the Lord Chief Baron Mountague and Mr. Justice Windham, judges of the assize / by Benjamin Smith, Rector of Boxworth, in Cambridge-shire.	Smith, Benjamin, fl. 1681.	1682 (1682)	Wing S4021B; ESTC R37563	22,452	38

Now it is an Article of their Faith that the Pope is Head of the Universal Church A thing that was not thought to be so from the beginning For Saint Chrysostom in his Exposition of that place Rom. 13. 1. Let every soul be subject to the Higher Powers says that the Apostle enjoynes this to all both to Priests and Monks and not to Lawmen only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Although thou be an Apostle although thou be an Evangelist although thou be a Prophet or whatsoever else thou art And for the other Point the Council of Calcedon determined that the See of Constantinople should have Conc. calced ●a● 2● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal priviledges with old Rome which they never had done had the Pope then been thought the Supream Head of the Church and Christ's onely Vicar upon earth Again we can tell them when the Worship of Images was first Authorized in their Church and it is notoriously known that the Second Council of Nice was the first that determined for it and that was past the middle of the Eighth Century Their Prodigious Doctrine of Transubstantiation the peculiar Doctrine of the Church of Rome was first defined by Gregory the Seventh but not compleatly setled nor the Name brought in till Innocent the Third in his Lateran Council in the year 1215. A thing utterly unknown to all the Fathers of the eight first Centuryes and a Name so strange and unusual that a learned French Antiquary observes that no Antient Dictionary Mr. Spon M. S. either Greek or Latine hath the word or any other that so much as contains or expresseth the Sense of it not in two so Copious Languages And so for their gainful Doctrine of Purgatory it 's evident that the Primitive Times as well as the Scriptures are ignorant of it and utterly strangers to it And it 's somewhat a puzling Question that the forementioned Antiquary asks Le Chese this present French King's Confessour that if the Doctrine of Purgatory be Ancient and not of a late Coinage and Date why in all the Ancient Epitaphs before the seventh or eighth Century we never meet with an Orate pro anima or a Requiescat in them And yet now no Roman Epitaph is made without them Their Half Communion it s well enough known was first determined in the Council of Constance and they had the face to do it with an non obstante to our Saviours own Institution and to the Practice of the primitive Church And though they grant that Jesus Christ administred it to his Disciples in Both Kinds and in the primitive Church the Faithful used to partake of it so yet ad evitandum aliqua pericula scandala to avoid some imaginary Dangers and Scandals they would venture to determine contrary to the Practice of the Church and the Institution of Christ And this bold Council sate not till the Beginning of the Fifteenth Century And so would my Time and your Patience serve I could easily go over all the Articles in difference between us and either tell you the Time when they were first introduced and the Council that gave them Authority or prove that there was a Time long before them when the contrary Practice was in use and when the Doctrines which we Contend for in opposition to theirs were received and embraced Is this then the Faith once delivered to the Saints that neither the Scriptures nor Antiquity knew any thing of Is this the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles which is so lately crept forth and that in Contradiction to what they delivered on Record in Scriptures These must therefore needs be the effects of a Prodigious Insolence for Men to take upon them to add to or alter what God hath established and first Themselves to depart from that Faith which was once that is immutably and unalterably delivered to the Saints and then to require Others under pain of Damnation to go along with them No Church or Society of men upon earth either hath or can have sufficient Authority or power to Coin new Articles of Faith and give them a sacred Stamp and make them Obligatory to the Consciences of men Every Church hath a sufficient Power in matters of Discipline for her own Government and can make Laws and Cannons relating to Decency and Order which the Members of that Church are bound to Obey not onely for Wrath but Conscience sake and for this we need not go to Rome nor are we bound to stand to her Determinations we have all the just Rights and Power of a Church within our selves and what have we to do with Rome or Rome with us But to add more Articles of Faith to the Apostles Creed and to require those to be believed and received with the same Faith and Assent of mind that the others are as Pope Pius the Fifth falsly so call'd hath impiously done it is an intollerable Encroachment upon the Authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and a wide Deviation from that Doctrine once delivered to the Saints and so delivered as not to be altered For this is the Faith that we are concerned in and the onely Faith that we are to Contend for that which was delivered to the Saints that which was preached by the Apostles and believed and embraced by the Saints those ancient and eldest Christians What is Contrary to this we ought to reject and for this we ought to Contend that we may retain and preserve intire and pure the True Religion the truly Ancient Catholick and Apostolick Faith And this for the First thing What we must Contend for 2. The Second thing in the words to be enquired into is How this Faith must be Contended for And this is worthy our most serious Enquiry For the Faith we must Contend for being a matter of so great Concern the Manner of our Contending for it is of important Consideration also for if we Contend not as we ought or otherwise than we ought we may lose what we strive for instead of obtaining it for it hath been known that some have so Contended for the Faith and by such Ways and Means as have been a real Prejudice to it and they have either lost their Religion or shewed that they had None while they Contended for it by unjust and irreligious Ways And this indeed as much as any thing proves that the Religion which the Church of Rome Contends for and would impose upon the world is none of the Faith Once delivered to the Saints in that she useth such irreligious and unconscionable Methods to impose and Crow'd it upon us by 'T is fit for the Turkish Alcoran to be presented upon the point of the Sword and false Religions have need of external Force and Violence to introduce and settle them in the world but this is so contrary to the Progress and Proceedings of the Gospel and the Ways of its Advancement that this alone is a Disparagement to any Religion that it