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	king_n	power_n	5,492	5	5.0298	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37900	The censors censured, in a brief discourse to which is adjoyned the authors letter to an anti-episcopal minister concerning the government of the church : written in the year 1651, but not printed till now.	Edmonds, Hugh.	1661 (1661)	Wing E178A; ESTC R36147	7,054	17

in the conference at Hampton Court who were scandalized with the word absolution in the Liturgy but well content with the Term Remission of sins What difference there is betwixt supream Governour and Head in a notional acception is more fit for Grammatical Criticks then politick Christians to inquire as they are complicated in one subject and determined to a constant onenesse both of action and end they must by the rules of honesty as well as Art be construed Synonymous and in a promiscuous manner adjudged to contract their literal variety into an identity of sense Indeed we cannot deny but the Title of supream Head was first given to King Henry the Eight by the Pope who being by his own institution in the world as the soul is in the body by Gods Creation Totus in toto and not onely singulis but universis major cannot be supposed to part with a piece of himself but for his own ends yet we conceive it no trespasse against any Canon either of Scripture or reason to convert that to a good use which was first bestowed to an ill purpose but for Presbyters to take that away for the better esteem of their own authority which was given by the Pope to disgrace the Kings jurisdiction in the Church is no lesse unreasonable to devise then irreligious to practise That great Bulwark of objection Christ is the sole Head of the Church ergo no other can have the Title which hath been presumed too strong for an army of Schoolmen to beat down must necessarily yield upon terms to our side For although as the Church is internally considered in respect of the kingdome of Grace and our Saviour Christ as Lord thereof by right of Redemption ruling the hearts of the faithful by his spirit there is no subjection allowable nor headship to be attributed but to him only yet as he is King by right of Creation loving an Imperial Sovereignty over all his creatures and the Church in a militant condition which by reason of an inseperable commixture of good and bad and common relation of the inward and outward man doth necessarily require an external policy to maintain a uniformity and order in the worship of God so he hath ordained his Vicegerent on earth to whom both Clergy and Laity must be subject And in this qualification of sense Kings may be truly stiled supream Heads in causes Ecclesiastical within their Dominions Thus Samuel called Saul the Head of the Tribes of Israel 1 Sam. 15. 17. which in eodem signo rationis doth imply all persons as well Ecclesiastical as civil in that Commonwealth to be his subordinate members And that the Priests were subject in their very Offices to the supreame power of their magistrates 2 Chron. 8. Solomons Acts in ordering their courses and appointing the Levites to their charges who in manifestation of their duty are said not to depart from the commandement of the King do sufficiently evidence whose authority likewise to punish sins of the first table that refer to Religion as well as those of the second which belong to humane society Gods own prescript Laws to Moses Deut. 13. Deut. 17. Levit. 17. are the authentique seals to confirm whereunto we may annex that fact of our Saviour Christ himself chastising the Jewish Pedlers by vertue of his divine Royalty for profanation of the Temple as an exemplary proof beyond all exception Having pickt out the pith of their Divinity in the former objection there resteth one hard Argument more a break wherein lies the marrow of their Logick if the power say they in Ecclesiastical matters be proper to the supream magistrate as a Magistrate then it should belong to all magistrates and consequently to the heathen the definition of a magistrate being one in Christian and Heathen Princes but this would be both sinful and ridiculous to assert ergo that cannot lawfully be maintained Truly this is a witty sophisme which deserves the Reply of an ingenious Respondent in the Philosophers School salse profecto sed falso quidem I presume the same learning which qualified them to oppose others may enable them to answer themselves in this point for if their consequence be good Baals Priests had as much right to the service of the Temple as the Levitical Clergy-men neither can our Protestant ministers have a better Title to the dispensation of Christs ordinances then the officers of the Romish Church do now claim Therefore if they will honestly defend their own as we do the Kings authority in the Church they must acknowledge their argument to be contrary to the principles of art as their opinion is to the precepts of Religion for when a Restrictive Term is adjoyned to an equivocal subject as magistrate is To argue from an indefinite to a universall is an illegal consequence the reason is because what is attributed by such a note of limitation is not an absolute but a comparate propriety which doth convenire subjecto mediante alio as the power of the King in c●uses Eccl●siastical is not proper to him simply secundum naturam but Relatively as he is a true Christian Magistrate according to which univocation if their Argument had been formed the consequence would be logically true But as we do appropriate this power onely to Kings truly Christian So I must acquaint them that the Heathen subjects had such a Reverend respect to the authority of the supream magistrate in matters of their idolatrous Religion that Aristotle Polit. l. 3. could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The King is Lord and Ruler of things that pertain to the Gods To conclude I wish those men who like the first matter have an indifferency to all forms and are so unfixedly disposed ●n Religion ●hat they can be content with the Sichemites to ●e circumcised for their advantage would not for wra●h but for conscience sake give a seasonable Testimony of their obedience by a willing conformity to the Kings power in Ecclesiastical causes that the Church may be no longer grieved with the rapine of forreign wolves or 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 but that sound doctrine may flourish within her gates and true discipline be established in her borders to which end the Lord send us a speedy Restauration of our ancient Government by the hands of Zerubbabel and Joshua the King and the Bishop that as we are baptized in one faith so we may be subject to one Rule as we are of one body we may be all of one mind to worship God both in the purity and beauty of holinesse and to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Amen FINIS