Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	church_n	minister_n	power_n	7,372	5	5.4211	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86056	The life of the apostle St Paul, written in French by the famous Bishop of Grasse, and now Englished by a person of honour.	Godeau, Antoine, 1605-1672.	1653 (1653)	Wing G923; Thomason E1546_1; ESTC R209455	108,894	368

THE LIFE Of the Apostle S T PAUL Written In French by the famous Bishop of Grasse and now Englished by a Person of Honour LONDON Printed by James Young for Henry Twyford and are to be sold at his shop in Vine Court Middle Temple 1653. To the Right Honorable EDWARD Lord VAVX Baron of Harroden c. My Lord HAving obteined by meanes of Your most noble Lady a view of this choise piece which through Your hands presents in our idiome Saint Pauls Life in whom wee Gentiles are so highly concerned My Reverence to the blessed Apostle and my Duty to my Countrey emboldened me to publish this elaborate transposition of Your Lordships out of French into English to a common perusal of all our Countrey-men who with S. Chrysostom ought to delight more in him and in his simple yet grave stile then all the swelling Criticismes or vaine Philosophy of posteriour Writers That I acquainted not Your Lordship with the publishing I finde examples of great Saints to have paralleld my adventure as of Saint Amand to S. Paulin who having published his Epistles sent him a fardle of them which he would have forgotten to have been his own if the veracity and authority of the Publisher had not forced his acknowledgment That Your Illustrious Consort gave me your Book to read and if upon dicussion I should esteem it able to bear the rubbs of rigid Censurers to print it was her commendable tenderness in order to Your Lordship and Christian providence in order to the Publique warranted by Great Saint Augustine in his 7th Epistle to Marcelline who desires severe Judges as Over-visours of his learned Workes and S. Ambrose to S. Sabinus Epist 63. gives the reason Because a mans own writings deceive him errours easily escape him as Children though deformed delight their Parents so ill digested conceits flatter the Contriver This Work for the subject commandeth Devotion and Reverence in the Reader for the accurate delineation of his Life and learned intermixtion of other contemporary Occurrences deserve so ingenuous and pious a Translator as Your Lordship In lieu of Translator I might beg leave to say Interpreter for You have not onely given us in English the things signified in the French which is the duty of a Translator but you have rendered the very mentall Conception of the Author which in Aristotles stile is the office of an Interpreter and in this much obliged all especially him who had the priviledge to suck the first morning sap which by all duteous expressions I must confess who am Your Honours Most obliged and faithfull Servant F. D. THE LIFE of the Apostle S. PAUL I Undertake to write the life of Saint Paul which containes the History of the Church in her Infancy Affection I confesse interesses me in this Subject yet I fear not to be suspected of any because I dive only into pure Sources and scarce say any thing that is not warranted by the authority of the Holy Ghost In this work you may behold both the power and wisdom of God in the Establishment of the Evangelical Doctrine and all those vertues which belong to a perfect Minister of the Gospel I need not go about to colour or disguise any matter herein or seek excuses For discretion marches here with zeal simplicity with prudence meekness with power and command The Synagogue is here demolished Idolatry overturned Philosophy confounded and the Cross triumphant Nor is this done without great opposition of the Infernal Spirits for they arm against one poor man the covetousness of the Priests of the Law the pride of the Pharises the envy of their Doctors the superstition of the people the authority of Magistrates the Insolency of Princes and the malice of false Brothers In the end they seem as it were victorious having brought Saint Paul to dye in the Capital City of the world But they are deceived in their malice The blood which the Apostle shed is the seed of Christians and by his death the Church takes possession of Rome The Ancient Philosophers were careful to write the lives of some particular persons illustrious either for their vertues or remarkable for some accidents of their lives to serve for a model or patterne of imitation by which they might arrive to the same glory much more ought Christians to endeavor to make known those Heroes of the Church whose whole actions have been examples of sanctity and in whom God would shew the power of his grace and the great wonders of his mercy For my part I have resolved hence-forward to labour in such glorious subjects I confess I ought not to begin my Apprentiship with the life of Saint Paul Yet the particular devotion I have for that great Apostle has prevailed over the knowledge of my weakness and makes me hope those Readers who are reasonable will excuse the zeal of a Disciple for his Master The Holy Ghost according to the promise of our Saviour was descended upon the Apostles in the form of fiery tongues and had fitted them with so Divine a light and Heavenly vigour that Saint Peter who trembled at the voice of a Woman in the house of the High-Priest did not then fear the fury of the Princes Doctors Pharises nor of the people but in the middest of Jerusalem he preached there aloud that Jesus Christ whom they had crucified was the Son of God and the Messias promised to their fore-fathers At his first Sermon there were three thousand persons converted and at his second which he made after that famous miracle of the lame man at the Gate of the Temple where he went up to prayer with Saint John he gained five thousand souls Every day the number of the faithful increased And the Sanctity of their lives served not a little to confirm the Doctrine which they professed The faith of Jesus Christ united them in so strict a bond that laying aside all difference in respect of body minde and fortune they had but one heart and one soul They heard the instructions of the Apostles with great respect and they practised them with so much fidelity that no earthly consideration could change them they imployed almost the whole day in prayer in the Temple where they met together and where they praysed God with one mouth and with one heart They assembled together sometimes in one house sometimes in another where they received the holy Eucharist and their repast was ever seasoned with an Evangelical frugality Their simplicity was without art their meekness without affectation and all their actions so full of great examples of vertue that the people of Jerusalem loved them and bare them great respect Wealth the origin and cause of quarrels and divisions amongst men was the Chain which united that new association for Charity made all things common amongst them The rich were ashamed to be so because they believed in him that was born and died as the poorest of men They sold their Inheritances and thought