Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	government_n	king_n	power_n	6,332	5	5.0174	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29730	A dissuasive from popery sent in a letter from A.B. to C.D.	A. B.; C. D.	1681 (1681)	Wing B5; ESTC R23574	10,610	32

The present state of France says that one third of that Kingdom is theirs and it must be worse in Spain Then their Pilgrimages Ransomes from Purgatory Offrings at shrines and Divifications are notable Pick-pockets But how do divifications work Why the people look upon a new Saint as a new Adovcate for them in Heaven But here it may be said that some of our people think the Protestant Clergy Especially of the Church of England pretty chargeable I answer that the means of our Clergy is so small a pittance in comparison of that which went away with Popery that they must be very unreasonable who grutch it And really I never knew any maligne the decent maintenance of our Church but such as discovered a great many other vices In our late confusions all that were against the Church were against God and the King and their fellow Subjects they were shamefully prophane and yet Hypocrites in contempt of all our senses But this is a digression The truth is Religion must be in some degree Chargeable for if we will serve God only out of that which costs us nothing then in our Eye the service of God is nothing worth But there may be too much taken as well as there may be too little given I might add other grievances as the horrible imposing on the vulgar by miracles to which no man of reason among themselves gives any credit Then how restles are their Bigotts in Plotts But they are told of that by Enough We had here a Barbarous Rebellion in the year 1641. I do not know whither the Pope rais'd it or no but he own'd it and encourag'd it and hindred all expedients offer'd for a closure of the Wound to the undoing of very many Gentlemen of that party who yet are so well natur'd as to love his Holiness never the less Nay of late Fanaticisme thrives by Popery The Presbyterians say the Indulgence to them and others was but to cover that to the Papists But I never believe it the sooner for their saying it No I think the Papists help'd the Fanatiques only by Antiperistasis The late Plot makes them look so black that the Ignorant people run to those Religions which pretend to greatest distance from Popery I would now draw to a conclusion but that I find my work is not don against Popery till I cleare Protestancy from some dirt thrown on it which I shall endeavour to do as briefly as I have don the rest Ob 1. Protestants generally yield that a Papist may be sav'd how then came Reformation from Popery to be necessary why should the unity of the Church be broken for That without which we may be Eternally happy I answer we condemne no man there is one that will judge the world and charity commands us to hope that well meaning Papists will be sav'd in that day But if any man thinks the Popish doctrines false and yet professes them as Articles of the Christian Faith his Hypocrisy is a damnable sin Hence the Reformation became necessary God open'd the Eyes of several people They saw errours in the Church refus'd to own them declar'd against them and in some Countries prevail'd against them They must either do so or be Hypocrites in professing what they did not think Not that men are every where bound to proclaim their Religion but in the Church of Rome they are There they must profess every thing with the Church or suffer as Hereticks In Summe the Church of Rome kept the Christian Faith therefore we did not neither might we leave it because of some erronious superstructious not for example sake because they believed Transubstantiation and ador'd the host but because they compelled us to believe and to do so Ob 2. If it be lawfull for Protestants to reform from Popery for conscience sake then it is lawfull upon the same account for Presbyterians to reform from Protestants and for Independents and for Anabaptists Quakers c. without end And if this be allowed in what a perpetual toss of troubles will Christian Countries be One crying up one way to Heaven and another crying up another way and their words often proceeding to blows each one party condemning all the rest but most of them joyning against the Chief Magistrate Besides the unity of the Church is gone the Communion of Saints is gone and the Church will soon be gone for division is not many steps before destruction This objection goes a great way with many people therefore I will set down my answer distinctly in branches 1. I confess that divisions in the Church do naturally tend to the destruction of it but of this Evil they only are guilty who cause the division Now who caus'd our departure from the Church of Rome we that were driven or they who drove us away If it be said who drove you away I answer They that made it mortal for us to stay We must either hear our Conscience or them or the Word 2dly Every man is bound to reform himself according to his conscience that is he is bound not to profess that which he does not believe and not to do that which he thinks is unlawfull But though every mans reason be his own guide yet no one mans reason is the guide of other men unless they make it so as in the case of Magistracy c. therefore no particular person ought to press the Reformation of other men unles he be authorised by God or man Yet it is possible that private persons may think themselves bound in conscience not only to reform themselves but others also to Preach and perhaps fight up their own way And when this frenzy is prevalent t is a great judgment from God both upon the persons possess'd with it and upon the Nation in which it happens But the rule is that as they follow their own erronious conscience in these pranks so the chief Magistrate is to follow his conscience which is not to suffer them to do hurt to the Church or State 3ly I confess that our being subject to troubles from Presbyterians c. is an imbecility in our Church but t is common to us with the Church of Rome We are vexed with Sectaries and they are vex'd with the same Sectaries and with us too 4ly But I shal be told that the strength of the Objection is in this That by our Reformation from Popery We gave a Precedent inviting others to Reform from Us To this I say that in our Reformation the King and People were of a mind and Reform'd according to order of Law therefore Our Reformation is no Precedent for the tumultous and violent Endeavours of Presbyterians c. Again the Sectaries have not the same necessity of Seperating from us as we had for Separation from Rome for we could not stay there without declaring for Transubstantiation c. which we could not believe but the Presbyterians Anabaptists c. may hold their own Opinions in our Church without ever being enquir'd into about it nay if they are known to be of such Opinions there is not the least punishment for it So that our Reformation was of Necessity Their 's of Wantonness We are no Precedent for them To conclude upon this Objection I say human affairs cannot but be subject to inconveniences therefore we must not reject any thing for an adhering Inconvenience unles its Opposite be less Inconvenient Let us then consider whether possible Troubles from Sectaries or the certain Intolerablenes of the Roman Yoke upon our Consciences Lives and Fortunes be the greater Inconvenience Ob. 3. At least the Romish Religion by the power it has upon peoples Consciences seems apter than the Protestant to keep the people in Obedience to a Catholick Prince and so ought to be cherish'd by such Princes I answer Popery is not so good at keeping Subjects quiet as it is at raising tumults witnes the French League against a Roman Catholick King Yes Popery has made many Rebellions where no interest was concern'd but its own but where did it ever hinder a Rebellion to which other interests invited Did it hinder the Barons Wars in England Did it hinder the Rebellion of almost all Spain against Charles the first Did it hinder Massanello in Naples Did it hinder the Suiss-Cantons from revolting from the house of Austria Papists have often Rebell'd But we can say of the Protestants I mean the Church of England that they have never yet rebell'd that if ever they would Rebell they would have done it in the late times when their Loyalty contended with all the miseries of an unsuccessful War of long penury of Captivity of banishment of shameful Deaths But they bore all these and also despis'd Cromwells many slattering invitations Whereas the Papists of England were then said to offer in purchase of their Liberty an Abjuration of the Royal Line and a Submission to the Line of that Vsurper I am not absolutely sure of this last but I perfectly sure that in those dayes Mr. White a Romish Priest of England published a book Dedicated to Sr. Kenelm Digby entitl'd Of Government and Obedience wherein he pretends to prove that God Himselfe is no otherwise Monarch of the World than by his Omnipotence and consequently that an Earthly King loosing his Power loses his Authority and that neither ought others to raise troubles for the recovering of his right nor would he if honest desire it Certainly what ever Religion a King himself is of he has reason to wish for Protestant Subjects FINIS