Selected quad for the lemma: father_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
father_n	believe_v	faith_n	holy_a	10,213	4	5.4982	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30359	The infallibility of the Church of Rome examined and confuted in a letter to a Roman priest / by Gilbert Burnet.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1680 (1680)	Wing B5805; ESTC R15581	20,586	38

different substance from the Father how shall I know to which of these Decisions I must submit my self The Histories give account of these Councils as called by the same Authority for all were summoned by the Emperors Writ all are represented to have been General Councils and we are told of a greater appearance of Bishops in some of them than were at Nice which of these must therefore determin my faith 12. What reason have I to believe any Council is general from which all the Greek and Eastern Bishops are excluded upon so slight a pretence as that they believe the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father by the Son and not from the Father and the Son and that in their rooms then are substituted a great many mock Bishops who are neither Canonically elected for these places nor perform any part of the Pastoral charge in their pretended Diocesses but are onely named by the Popes and brought to Councils to make so many Votes 13. Suppose the Pope give out a general summons for all Bishops can this be more than a Meeting of all within his Patriarchate for on what grounds can he pretend a right to summon his fellow Patriarchs who by the Councils of Nice Constantinople and Chalcedon are declared equal to him and therefore since the Emperors in the primitive times summoned their whole Empire to a General Council they did it by their own Authority as appears by all the Acts and Synodal Epistles of the first General Councils What power then hath the Pope to call this great Meeting of the Church And even these General Councils the Emperors called seem onely to have been the Councils of the Roman Empire called Oecumeneal as the Romans called their Empire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Christians of India and the more remote parts of Asia were called to none of these Councils nor could the Emperours Writ reach them 14. Suppose the Popes Writ goes over all Christendom must all the Bishops come to the Council or not Or what number is necessary If we examine the Subscriptions of the first Councils what ever reverence we justly have for their decisions we cannot call them Oecumenical since there were so few Bishops from the Western Churches in them Nor do I see a reason to convince me that a whole Province or Nation can depute a few to represent them such Plenipotentiaries may do well in Political matters but in a Judicatory that pretends to Infallibility you must give me a good Warrant before I believe such a deputation can inspire one with more degrees of Infallibility The Bishops of a Province can indeed send their decisions by any of their number but this is not the method of Councils where every Bishop hath but one suffrage though but one from a Nation though another Method was used at Basil. But in the case that a Prince is so dissatisfied with the Pope that he will suffer none of his Bishops to appear at the Council as it was in the Translation of the Council of Trent to Bologna to which the Emperour would suffer none of his Bishops to go and after that in the next Session at Trent to which the French King would permit none of his Bishops to go Whether can such a meeting be called a general Council or not No man can be obliged to that which is not in his power and he cannot forfeit his right because of a force on his Person Nor can it be a free Council to which all have not free access Those also who live at a great distance from the place where the Council sits and either through Infirmity or Poverty cannot perform the Journey are in a hard case For that which is morally impossible cannot be overcome If then the meeting must be of all the Bishops I do not see such a Constitution is practicable or how all the Bishops can be brought together And if the Infallibility be spread among all no reason can perswade me that a packt Meeting can have the power of the whole because the Writ was general 15. The Bishops in their decisions either go upon immediate Inspiration or judge as men according to the Premises laid before them I know you do not pretend to the former but if you did I would ask you what grounds there were to believe this For if you gave any good ones I should submit to the suffrage of every single Bishop since every person Inspired must be Master of my belief And why should this Inspiration rest on some and not on all since all bear the same Character But I insist no longer on this because I know you reject it If then they judge as rational men from the reasons that are laid before them why may not other persons examine those Reasons as well as they If an Inspired person speak to me in the name of God I must submit to him but if he speak not by Commandment but by permission then it is not the Lord but he that speaks And though I owe great reverence to him as to one that has obtained grace to be faithful yet I may examine what he says in that stile Therefore if they proceed according to the Rules of Discourse and Reason I presume I may make bold to examine both the truth of the Premises and the Conclusions they drew from them Since as there can be no more strength in the Conclusion than was in the Premises so the light of Nature and Reason directs me to know what is a well deduced Conclusion 16. Whether can that be called a free Council where the Bishops have sworn obedience to the Bishops of Rome contrary to their Liberties and the Primitive practice In which time all the Bishops pretended an equality in their Character and called the Bishops of Rome their Colleagues their Brethren and fellow-Bishops and treated them as Equals in their freedom with them as appears from the Instances of Irenius Cyprian and the Contest of the Affrican Bishops concerning Appeals to the See of Rome Nor did they yield him any other subjection but what practice had brought in by reason of the eminence of that City which was then Mistris of the World and because they also believed St. Peter and St. Paul had founded it with their Labours and Bloud But these Bishops who have so sordidly and meanly given up their rights to that high Pretender and have sworn obedience to him cannot be the proper Judges and Representatives of a Church whose Liberties they have abandoned I had almost said betrayed 17. Whether must I believe the Decrees of a General Council before they are approved by the Pope or not If the Council be infallible in her Decrees then I am bound to submit to them for all the Popes rejecting them But if the Council be fallible then the Popes ratification cannot make the Decrees of the Council Infallible For things cannot change their natures and if the Vote of the Council was by an Infallible direction then