Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	act_n	bishop_n	church_n	2,413	5	4.3810	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85279	Vnparallel'd reasons for abollishing episcopacy. 1. It will assure his Majesties authority royall. 2. Increase his revenue. 3. Settle a good union in his Majesties owne kingdomes, and between them and other reformed churches. 4. Cause a good understanding betweene his Majesty and his people. By N. F. Esquire.	Fiennes, Nathaniel, 1607 or 8-1669.	1642 (1642)	Wing F883; Thomason E121_39; ESTC R22631	3,732	10

potent to assure mens mindes that there is no intention of returning to popery as the abolishing of Episcopacy whereby we shall receive further from popery than ever we did since the reformation as by the late innovations we were drawn neerer to it then ever we were since the reformation Those that think this to be a running too farre to the other extream should also consider admitting it were so yet being a thing indifferent and fearfull to be done whether it be not necessary at least expedient to do it at this time for the satisfaction of mens mindes that have bin possessed with so great and so just a jealousie in respect of the latter declining so far to the other extream 2. Multitudes cannot thinke themselves secure from popery and popish innovations so long as Episcopacy continueth because conceive that as Episcopacy and Popery were hatched and grew up to their height together so that they are bottomed upon the same grounds and principles there being the same reason for an Archbishop and so for a Patriarch and a pope to keepe Bishops from Schismes and factions as that there should be a Bishop over other Presbiters to keepe them from schismes and generally throughout that the same reasons which serve to maintaine the one serve proportionably to maintain the other and that the same effects that follow upon the one will also proportionably follow upon the other and withall they observe that there hath not been the like shew and fear of defection unto popery in any reformed Church as in this where Bishops are retained and that it hath proceeded also from the Bishops and their adherents 3. Multitudes cannot think themselves secure from alteration in religion till they are assured of the preaching of Gods Word whereby mens minds may be instructed and established in the truth They cannot be assured of the enjoying of preaching so long as Bishops continue for they have found to be the violent suppressors thereof The Bishops will alwaies suppresse diligent preachers which cary away the reputation from them may in time also cary away their reward and share their Bishoprickes among them and for the same reason they will alwais favour dumb priests that preach as little as themselves because they neither eclipse their honour nor endanger their profits The Bishops neither can nor will be diligent preachers themselves so long as besides their Ministeriall functions they have a whole Diocesse to rule and cumber themselves with places of civill Iurisdiction besides and they much accompanied with great temporall dignities and revenues multitude and diversity of employments make them unable and the height of temporall honour● excess● of w●rldly wealth make them too stately and too idle to discharge their Ministerial functions as they ought so that they must leave their sweetnesse and their fatnesse if with the bramble they will reign over the trees Upon the whole ma●ter the questi●n is whether the appointing of a certain number of Lay-men by his Majesty and his Parliament to exercise all Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction under them and by their authority instead of Arch-bishops and Bishops appointing a certaine number of Laymen to exercise it under them by their authority in their names and under their seales and whether 5 or more of their learned Divines appointed by authority of Parliament to ordain Ministers in stead of one man when his Majesty gives the title of a Bishop appointed to do it by act of Parliament together with 4 or more other Ministers be an alteration of that consequence as to be put in ballance with the safeguard of his Majesties royall authority the encrease of his revenue the unity of his Majesties Kingdomes in and between themselves and with other reformed Churches and the setling of a good understanding betweene the King his people by securing unto them their Religion and Liberties FINIS

Vnparallel'd REASONS for abollishing Episcopacy 1. It will assure his Majesties authority Royall 2. Increase his Revenue 3. Settle a good union in his Majesties owne Kingdomes and between them and other reformed Churches 4. Cause a good understanding betweene his Majesty and his people By N. F. Esquire Printed at London for S. S. dwelling in Budge-row at the signe of the blacke Bull. 1642. Vnparallel'd Reasons for abolishing of Episcopacy 1 It will assure his Majesties Royall Authority THe Bishops have and doe claime their power as of divine right intitling themselves to their severall dignities by the permission or Grace of God and their authority accordingly delegating it to others to execute under them in their owne rights in their names and under their Seales terming the Clergy under them their subjects and exacting an Oath of obedience from them It is very prejudiciall to soveraigne power that such a claime should be set up or upheld because it not onely introduceth a right superior to all Civill power so that it neither may be limited nor can be controled by it but also inforceth by consequence the acknowledgement of Forraigne power for the limits of Civill Jurisdiction being not of force to set bounds unto Divine Right a Bishop shall by divine right have authority within the Dominions of a prince to whom he is no subject in case his Diocesse shall extend into the territories of severall sufferages which it may doe as well as the pretended Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome doth 2 It may be very dangerous to Soveraigne power and the whol Civill State that the Clergy should in-body it selfe within it selfe by which meanes it may be drawne into a faction against it for being united into a body it is made able to be a strong faction and being so is liable by practice to be drawne against the State The more united this Body is and the greater dependance it hath by subordinate Officers upon some one or few heads the more dangerous it is because more exposed to parties and more capable to act or to be acted and to put any thing into execution speedily secretly and unanimously By meanes of this Corporation of the Clergy with their dependance upon a few Bishops and of them upon one Arch-Bishop the Pope ruling the whole body of the Clergy within this Kingdome at his pleasure raised constantly a potent Faction against the Kings of this Realme Since the Reformation though Bishops have bin knocked off from the Pope yet were they never joynted into the King and his Authority to derive and exercise power under him but remaine in all things as before and so are ready upon any occasion to be coupled againe to their old head or to any other which they shall make amongst themselves when time shall serve the time will serve for such a purpose when by his Majesties power they shall have totally suppressed the party opposite unto them whereof they stand in feare for they will then reduce the Clergy unto an absolute blind obedience unto them againe and by them the people and by both the Prince as formerly they have done 3. Such a Faction cannot be safe for the King for if they be used against him they are as dangerous as they are potent and if they be used by him it is worse by reason it will continually keep up great jealousies and mis-understandings betweene him and his people Besides to make the prince which should be the head of the whole to be the head of a Faction is a demunition tending to destruction the next step below it tending to make him head of nothing in case the party whereon he doth rely either faile him 〈◊〉 betray him and that Faction that one while may seeme to serve 〈◊〉 another while upon the turne of times and change of circumstances may be used as powerfully against him 4. The two opposite parties the Bishops and those that are against them are now so exasperated and pointed one against the the other that either the one or the other must fall and bee suppressed if the Bishops supported by his Majesty shall prevaile and suppresse totally the other party his Majestie will be wholy in their hands again as his Predecessors have been for they will be able to rule absolutely the Clergy and the people and then it was not their use to be ruled by their Prince if the other side prevaile against the Bishops as possibly they may have to deal with a party long since rejected by other reformed Churches and lately so blasted in both the Kingdomes of England and Scotland then will his Majesty run the hazard that they do which support a tottering wall 5. It wil encrease his Majesties revenues The temporalities of the Bishops being in this bill granted to the King there wil be an augmentation of his revenues by the constant rent of them and besides by fines upon leases and otherwise there will bee opportunities and mean● for his Majesty to gratifie his servants that will be now disappointed of monopolies and projects And that his Majesty may take these lands thus given without scruple is clear by these considerations following As times termed that the Clergy in the constitution they now are in under Bishops have been a potent faction against the liberties of the Subject and the purity and power of Religion the abolishing of Episcopacy must needes give them a great ground of assurance in those respects As to civill rights and liberties because men of all rankes have suffered in their person and estates by the power of this faction Those of the better sort have felt their sharp teeth and their ill wil to the Subjects liberties in the house of Peers Star-chamber Counsell Table and the high Commission Those of inferiour ranks have felt the sting of their tayls in their Eclesiasticall courts wherein by their under Officers they have pilled and polled the poor people at their pleasure and laid upon them a burden heavier then ever ship money was unto them Neither can they beleeve that these have bin the personall faults only of some few men seeing it hath been so generall to the whole tribe and so constant at all times not this time excepted that they have lien under such a cloud and yet have been as ready to do or suffer any thing which might be to the prejudice of the Subject as heretofore Lastly they finde that their aims interests and dependancies are such as that they will alwaies do the like and that both the fearn and exercise of their government being altogether diverse from and disproportionable unto that of the civill state they are obliged thereby to run counter to it As to Religion because the jealousies of an alteration intended therein arising from the introduction of divers popish innovations and ceremonies and the suppressing of preaching it is evident that the Bishops and their adherents have beene the author therof And consequently 1 There can be no means so