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Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
authority_n apostle_n bishop_n church_n 8,364 5 4.6820 4 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A30373 A letter occasioned by the second letter to Dr. Burnet, written to a friend Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. 1685 (1685) Wing B5819; ESTC R7791 6,927 10

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A LETTER Occasioned by the second LETTER to Dr. BURNET Written to a Friend SIR I Saw another nameless Paper directed to me two days ago and indeed it was so dull and so little to the purpose that I laid it aside as unworthy of an Answer But you have perswaded me once more to put Pen to Paper tho not to satisfy such a Trifler who would pretend to Wit if he knew how to lay his Claim to it but it is so course and his good Nature and Candor are so conspicuous that I did not wonder to hear a witty Gentleman say That I had certainly hired one to write it but I scarce know where I could have found out such another I do not trouble my self to ask after his Name for till he gives himself one I must let all lie where I laid it before since his Protestations without a Name set to them are things of as little weight as he that makes them and must go for nothing as certainly he that writ them is one of the next things to nothing But since I understand that some who have read the Papers that have passed in this mater desire to see the whole thing fairly stated which in such Points of Fact is of more force than all other Discourses can possibly be I will set it in a clear light and then it will appear what a sort of Men I have to do with who will so obstinately keep up a Noise where there is no Cause or Colour given for it The state of the whole thing is this In King Henry the eighth's time the method that was taken while the Points of Religion were under Consideration was this A Matter was put into Queries and these were given out to some Bishops and other Divines who by a set day were required to bring in their Answers to those Queries under their hands and then these being examined and compared they went on to determine it So when the Sacraments came to be enquired into there were seventeen Queries drawn up and given out to a ● number of Bishops and Doctors the last of these happens to be concerning Extreme Union Some of these relate to Church-Power as Whether the Apostles lacking a higher Power as in not having a Christian King among them made Bishops by that necessity or by Auhority given by God Whether Bishops or Priests were first Whether a Bishop hath Authority by the Scripture to make a Priest or no And whether any other but only a Bishop may make a Priest Whether in the New Testament be required any Consecration of a Bishop and Priest or only appointing to the Office be sufficient And whether if it fortuned that a Christian Prince having none but temporal learned Men with him conquered Infidels if it was forbid by the Law of God that he and they should preach and teach the Word of God there or no And also make and constitute Priests or no The like Question is put in Case that all the Bishops and Priests of a Kingdom were dead Whether the King of that Region should make Bishops and Priests to supply the same or no To these Queries Cranmer gave Answers that shew he then thought That Bishops and Priests derived their Authority from the King as much as Officers of State Mayors and Sheriffs do That Ordination was only a decent Form of Admission that Princes might dispense with it and that no Grace was given in it any more than in the committing Civil Offices and that what the Apostles did was only by reason of the extraordinary Measure of the Spirit of God that was in them to which the People that had then no Christian Prince to govern them did freely submit considering the Apostles not as Men that had any Empire or Dominion over them but as good Counsellors So he thought Bishops and Priests were at first the same thing and one Office and that Princes as well as Bishops might make Priests and that Consecration was not necessary by Scripture to make one a Bishop or a Priest but that Election or Appointing thereto was sufficient And that in Cases of Necessity Christian Princes might make Bishops and Priests The Archbishop of York differed from Cranmer and argued these Points copiously considering the Nature of those Papers and proved That the Apostles had Power from Christ to ordain Bishops and Priests and that no other Authority was required for doing that but that which they derived from God and that a Bishop is the Overseer of the Priests who are the Shepherds of particular Flocks which distinction he said was derived from the Apostles and the primitive Church and asserted That none but Bishops or Priests could make a Priest And by a great many Arguments both from the Old and New Testament he prove that Consecration was necessary and that Appointment without it was neither convenient nor sufficient and that tho in cases of necessity any Christian tho a Lay-man might preach and baptize yet he could not make a Priest for no Authority that comes from the Holy Ghost can be used by any Man unless he has a Commission for it grounded in Scripture Tradition or ancient Use and that this Authority was only committed by Scripture to the Apostles and was from them derived to their Successors All the other Bishops and Divines except the Bishop of St. Davids whose Paper is lost agreed with the Archbishop of York in most of his Opinions only some of the Divines Leighton in particular thought that a Christian Prince's Consent ought to have been asked by the Apostles if there had been any at that time before they had gone to make Bishops and Priests In the Point of Bishops and Priests being the same thing or a distinct Office at first Leighton it seems was doubtful for he says nothing to it Robertson thinks that a Priest may consecrate a Bishop if a Bishop cannot be found The Bishop of St. Davids Thirleby the elect Bishop of Westminster Cox and Redmoyn thought that Bishops and Priests were all one in the beginning and both Bonner Bishop of London and Edgeworth agreed with Robertson in this That a Priest might consecrate a Bishop if a Bishop could not be found As to the necessity of Consecration Robertson yields it but thinks the Office so given can never be used without the Consent or Permission of the Magistrate which Limitation is not added by Leighton In Cases of Necessity both Leighton and Robertson as well as many others think the Prince may make Bishops and Priests After they had all given their Answer to the seventeen Queries every Man except the Bishop of Rochester signed his Paper and Cranmer not only set his Hand to his own Paper with that modest Qualification That he did not temerariously define but referred the Judgment of it wholly to his Majesty But set his Name likewise to Leighton's Paper which has given the Rise to all this Noise and set it also to Robertson's which the late