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	church_n	power_n	4,609	5	5.2232	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B05065	A true representation of Presbyterian government, wherein a short and clear account is given of the principles of them that owne it. The common objections against it answered, and some other things opened that concern it in the present circumstances. / By a friend to that interest.	Rule, Gilbert, 1629?-1701.	1690 (1690)	Wing R2229A; ESTC R182954	15,429	16

Justly complain of Besides that it may be presumed that no Minister who regardeth his being useful or his own Peace and Comfort will enter into a place with the dislike 〈◊〉 any considerable part of the People either for Number or Quality If it be objected that there were great Divisions and Tumults about Elections in and about the Year 1650. Answer 1. So there were in the primitive Church which the Advocats for Patronages use as an Argument against our Opinion and yet that Church did not think of such a Remedy as putting the Election in the hand of one single Person nor of taking it from the People 2. At the time mentioned there was a lamentable Schism in the Church about other Matters and therefore it was no wonder it appeared in this Matter also People were for choosing Ministers that were of the same Sentiment with them about the things then in Controversie and this Schism was Industriously kept up and promoted by the Rulers that then had enslaved this Nation by force of Arms and made use of Our Factions to wreath their Yoke on our Necks It is a wide consequence to inferr from this that the priviledge of choosing their own Pastors should alwise be taken from the People of God 3. When divisions appear in this matter the controversie is to be decided by the Session or Presbytery Synod or General Assemblie And if it Amount to the breach of the Peace the Magistrat is to interpose his Authority These are the proper remedies of such divisions and not to deprive both parties of that which is their Right and Christs grant to them because they cannot agree about it It were a strange way of composing Civil contending about Meum and Tuum if that which they contend about should be taken from both and given to a third Person the better way is the Judge competent is to decide in favour of him who is found to have the best Right if Arbitrators cannot compromise the matter So it is here Another Objection the 10 Is concerning a question that ariseth from the present circumstances of this Church under which it is judged necessary that the Government of the Church should be in its first settlement in the hands only of them who are known to be truly Presbyterian Before we consider what is objected against this It may be needful to lay down the case and the grounds of the necessity of what we desire resulting from it It is then to be considered That the Church of Scotland hath almost ever been Presbyterian It received that Government with Christianity and retained it while the Antichristian Doctrine and Government prevailed in other parts as hath been of late made appear And after it had been overrun by Popery it was reformed by Presbyters and that Government as it is founded on Scripture so it hath continued in this Church ever since the Reformation save that it had some short interruption which did always breed disqueit in the minds of People and troubles in the Nation and sufferings to some of the most sober and best of the Ministers and People And when in the Year 1662. That Government was suppressed and Prelacy set up by an Act of Parliament the deed was never consented to by the National Church but Presbytery as it 〈◊〉 been settled by the Authority of the Church and State so continued and 〈◊〉 continue settled by the Authority of the Church Whence it may ration●●●● be Deduced that the Ministers that entred by and under Prelacy neither 〈◊〉 nor have any Right to be Rulers in the Presbyterian Church they having had no Call nor Authority given them from her whatever they might have in another Church that the State set up in the Nation beside the Church that then was in beeing from which a great Body of Ministers and People did dissent which Authority they were never suffered to exercise even in their own Church It is also to be considered that on this happy Revolution the King and Parliament have been pleased to abolish Prelacy and have declared their Resolution by their Authority to settle Presbyterian Government From this it followeth that the Prelatick Clergy should not be admitted to a share in this Government Except such of them as shall by the Presbyterian Church be found qualified for the Ministry and such from whom there is no hazard of overturning that Government that now is intended to be established For they being more in number than the Presbyterians is it to be imagined that Presbyterian Government can be safe in their Hands or that they will not erect a prelacy in the Church or something in stead of it or some way that is inconsistant with Presbytery in its purity And there being many among them known to be Insufficient Scandalous or erroneous it is not possible that the Church can be purged of such if they have the Government but rather there is an hazard that the best Men should be cast out and that by Church Authority least they should stand in the way of their Designs Wherefore as they have no just Right to such power so Necessity which quicquid coegit defendit doth barr their Exercise of such power in the present juncture Mean while Presbyterians do declare that they do not desire that all these Men should be restrained from the parochial exercise of their Ministry And that who ever among them as soon as the Church can be in case to purge her self is not proved to be Insufficient Scandalous Erroneous or extremly negligent shall be cordially received into Her Society and have the full Exercise of their Ministry and that where uncontroverted Scandals cannot be charged on them none shall be dealt with as Scandalous because of their having had a Hand in this late publick Defection These things thus laid down let us hear what is objected against this course 1st This is to set up Prelacy among Ministers even while it is so much decry'd that a few should have Rule of the Churches and the rest excluded Answ It is no Prelacy but a making distinction between Ministers of one Society and these of another Though they be Ministers they are not Ministers of the Presbyterian Church they have deported from it we have continued in the good old way that they and we professed It is not then unreasonable that if they will return to that Society they should be admitted by it and not be Imposed on it to overturn it At the Reformation from Popery was it a Prelacy in the few Protestant Ministers that they were not willing to let the Popish Priests govern the Church Or did Nehemiah and the Jews pretend to any power over Tobiah Sanballat and their party that they would not suffer them to build with them Pardon these Comparisons they are not intended to parallel our Burthen with either of these sorts of Men except in this that they are not of the Presbyterian Church more than those others were of the Protestant or Jewish Church and that there is hazard from them to our way as well as there was from the other to their wayes Obj. 2. By this means the lesser party in the Church of Scotland shall exclude the greater from the Government Ans This is not absurd where the greater party have left the Church they were of and the lesser had abode in it or rather are left as the constituent Members of it And when the greater party hath set up another frame of a Church which they are now forced to part with when they would return to the former way they cannot Incorporate again with them who abode in it without their Consent especially where this consent is ready to be given on any tollerable Security for the way that the lesser party doth owne and the other departed from Obj. 3. What warrant is there for leaving to these men the Parochial exerci●● of their Ministry and to deprive them of the other part of it seeing the exercise of the Ministry in Teaching and Ruling is Quid Indivisum Ans There are two Reasons for this one is the necessity of the Church which for such a critical interim as our lot is fallen into may warrant that which out of such an exigence and for a constant continuance in the Church were unwarrantable It is necessary on the one hand that the Parishes be not deprived of their Labours least a great part of the Countrey should be destitute of all Gospel Ordinances It is as necessary on the other hand that they have not Ruling Power in the Church with the Presbyterians lest that Government which Christ hath instituted and which is now designed to be Settled be over-turned And we know that many things may be done in turbato Statu Ecclesiae such as we now are in which ought not to be allowed in paccato Ecclesiae Statu● Another reason is we do neither deny their Teaching nor their Ruling Power Yet Teaching being common to the one Church way with the other we may well allow to them the exercise of that among us while Ruling being different in their way and ours and the Principle that they hold in it being aversive of our way it is rational to deny them a share among us Not to insist on further Objections whatever inconveniences may seem to follow on this conduct may be answered by the force of Necessity already held forth and obviated by the speedy settling the Church upon its right Basis FINIS

A TRUE REPRESENTATION OF PRESBYTERIAN GOVERNMENT Wherein a short and clear Account is given of the PRINCIPLES Of Them that owne IT THE COMMON OBJECTIONS AGAINST IT ANSWERED And some other Things opened that concern IT in the PRESENT CIRCVMSTANCES By a Friend to that Interest Licensed April the 18. 1690. Edinburgh Re-printed by the Heir of Andrew Anderson Anno Dom. 1690. A True Representation of Presbyterian Government THat any of the Truths or Ordinances of God should need an Apology to be made for them should be for a Lamentation For it proceedeth either from the Ignorance or Perverseness of Men. The Principles and way of Presbyterians have undergone the common Fate of other of the parts of that Religion that Christ hath taught It is the Sect every where spoken against and there hath been no small stir about that way And this hath proceeded partly from the enmity against that curb of mens Lusts and enormities that is in ungodly men And partly from want of knowledge of that way which even they may be under whose Studies and Thoughts are imployed about things of another nature and not about these matters though they be otherwise knowing and thinking Men Or from prejudice that their Interest may fill them with to the hiding of Truth in this from their eyes wherefore we think it our Duty to endeavour the vindication of this our Profession with as much brevity and clearness as we can attain by First giving a plain account of what we hold 2dly Taking off the most material Objections and these that are most common or reproaches that are used against us for we have to do not only with men otherwise Sober and Judicious who differ from us But with many whose Temper Practices and Designs are not such as becometh the Gospel We desire as to approve our selves to our blessed Lord and Master Jesus Christ so to satisfie the Minds of all Inquirers after Truth but especially to stand right in the Opinion of His Majesty our gracious Soveraign of his Grace the King 's High Commissioner and of the Noble and Honourable Estates of Parliament who we hope as Nursing Fathers to the Church will owne us in those ways that the Lord owneth us in Our Principles we lay down in a few Propositions First We owne Christ the Mediator as the only Head over and Lawgiver to his Church and we disown and visible governing Head over the Church however pretending to act in Subordination to him because we know none that he hath given such Commission to 2dly Christ as Head of the Church hath given forth Laws whereby the Affairs of his House should be mannaged and hath not left any Nomothetick Power in the Church to make Laws for her self her work being to declare and execute that Laws of Christ and the Laws of the Magistrat are not to appoint new Ordinances or Officers in the Church though he ought to give his civil Sanction to what Christ hath appointed and may make Laws about these things that are external to the Church that is which are common to her with other Societies 3dly Christ hath appointed Officers in his House and Declared how they should be qualified and what should be their work as in the beginning of the Gospel he was pleased to appoint several extraordinary and temporary Officers that were immediatly called and extraordinarily Gifted by himself as Apostles Prophets and Evangelists c. The Apostles by Divine derection did immediatly choose some by themselves for itinerant work either from amongst the ordinary or extraordinary Officers of the Church to exercise hic nunc their extraordinary Power which Officers we commonly call Evangelists so we do not find that he appointed any ordinary and perpetual Officers except Elders called also Bishops and Deacons Phil. 1.1 Of these Elders some were to Rule the Church also to Teach her Heb. 13.7 17. Others only to Rule 1 Tim. 5.17 which also we the practice of the first Antiquity and its desuetude complained of by Ambrose in the end of the fourth Century and there are few of the Fathers in the first three Centuries but they mention Seniores Ecclesiae that represented the People in the Government of the Church with the Ministers 4ly How the Officers of God's House should be qualified is at length set down 1 Tim. 3.2 under the Name of Bishops which was the Name of all Church Rulers and Deacons Tit. 1.6 5ly Their work is fully set down both negatively that they should not be intangled with worldly Affairs 2 Tim. 2. where having mentioned Ordination of Ministers vers 2. he requireth them vers 3 and 4. as Souldiers to endure hardness and to be abstracted from worldly Business which is to be understood as much their necessity doth permit Also positively it is told us in general that they are directed in this 1 Tim. 3.14 15. and particular Directions are given about Preaching and that in all the parts of it 2 Tim. 4.1 2. Censures 1 Cor. 5.4 5. 2 Thes 3.14 Ordination 2 Tim. 2.2 1 Tim. 5.22 6ly In all these Ministers and Elders have no Lordly Authority over the People but must acts as Christ's Servants and theirs in order to their Salvation 1 Pet. 5.3 2 Cor. 4.5 yet they have real and proper though Ministerial Authority under Christ 7ly It is not only of Divine Authority natural that there be a Government in the Church Anarchy and Confusion in any Society being contrary to the Dictates of natural reason but the Lord Jesus hath positively revealed his will in this He having expresly committed the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven to his Servants and that for binding and loosing retaining and remitting of Sins The Authorotative inflicting of Censures whereby the man is declared to be free from guilt and that his Sin is pardoned so far as Men can discern 8ly What should be the Species of this Government is not left indifferent to Men whether the Magistrat or the Church to chuse but is determined by Christ and revealed in the New Testament In that he hath appointed what Officers should be in his House how they should be Chosen and Authorized viz by Election and Ordination what should be their Qualifications and Work How they should manage their work and rule the Church in common That the Apostles committed the Ordination of Ministers to the Presbytry 1 Tim. 4.14 and the Censures of the Church to a Community 1 Cor. 5. 2 Cor. 2. And not to one person even in their own time is an unanswerable argument for this their Example being declarative of the mind of God where no peculiar reason appeareth for their Action 9ly This Government the Lord hath not committed to Magistrats who have no power to Ordain or Deprive Ministers or Elders nor to Excommunicate or to relax from that Sentence Nor to Administer or mannage any part of that Work that is peculiar to the Church as it is a Religious Society nor to appoint how the Church should