Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	bishop_n	church_n	jurisdiction_n	5,357	5	9.3309	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54578	A discourse concerning liberty of conscience In which are contain'd proposalls, about what liberty in this kind is now politically expedient to be given, and severall reasons to shew how much the peace and welfare of the nation is concern'd therein. By R.T.	Pett, Peter, Sir, 1630-1699.; Dury, John, 1596-1680.	1661 (1661)	Wing P1881A; ESTC R213028	34,446	118

the Church hath any spark of it but from him 'T is there said how the Legats were of opinion that the question of the Divine Right of Bishops was set on foot to gratifie the Authority of Bishops and that the importance of that might be to inferre that the Keys were not given to Peter onely that the Council was above the Pope and the Bishops equall to him they saw that the Dignity of Cardinals Superiour to Bishops was quite taken away and the Court brought to nothing that the Preventions and Reservations were remov'd and the Collation of Benefices drawn to the Bishops Thus we see how apt men are to make use of Divine Right as fire and to count it a good servant but a bad Master Nor are some without their feares that if Bishops were here publickly own'd as by Divine Right that the King would quickly lose his Power of nominating them and subjects the benefit of Appeals from their Courts to the King in Chancery I acknowledg that a moderate Episcopacy is generally reputed of Church-Governments the best But the believers of the Divine Right of it are of late years grown very few For the skirmishes in the Presse and Pulpit concerning it between the Divines of severall parties have occasion'd two popular reasons to be brought against it which how valid they are is not my task to determine The first is this That is not likely to be of Divine positive Right which is the Right here meant about which Christians equally considerable for strength of parts both naturall and acquired and for time spent in that part of Controversiall Divinity that concerns Church-Discipline and withall for holinesse in their lives do at last disagree The second Reason drawn from the eager Disputes of Church-men about their severall Divine Rights is this Nothing really oppressive of Civil Societies or destructive of their welfare is of Divine Right but so these forms of Church-Government have been by the opposite Divines of each Perswasion accused to be and likewise by other persons It hath been further observ'd by many that though severall things were once confirm'd in the Church by an Apostolicall Precept or Practise they are like Lawes abolish'd by desuetude and do not now oblige the Christian world according to the Vogue of all our Church-men as namely the Diaconissae the Anointing the sick with Oyle the Peoples saying Amen after the Ministers Prayers and Preaching with the head uncover'd c. To conclude the Examination then of this particular a considerable number of the Laity whose Fortunes and Parts do keep them from standing up and drawing their swords to maintain other mens Creeds in every circumstance of them having by the contests of the Clergy found out as they think the Vanity of all their pretendings to Divine Right will not encourage immoderate and high behaviours in any one party of them but upon this their imagin'd detection adhere to that form of Church-Government that shall seem to them most consistent with the Nations good just as the Roman Emperours were sometimes chosen in the Camp Evulgato as Tacitus saith Imperiarcano Principem alibi quam Romae fieri posse Thirdly it is naturall to Parliaments to check any Power that invades a due Liberty of Conscience themselves wanting it as well as those whom they represent Nor can any body of men be well without it as we see in the late Assembly of Divines that party which joyn'd against the Independents did want Liberty of Conscience about no mean points in Religion some of those Presbyterian Divines as they were call'd being of Calvins and others of Bishop Davenants opinions concerning Election and Reprobation And moreover the Parliament that call'd that Synod was in matters of Religion much more divided But I shall chuse to look further back on the nature of our Parliaments in reference to Religion It cannot be expected that while Popery was prevalent in England much Liberty of Conscience should be granted the Pope being then reputed the Vicar of Christ in Spirituall things was necessarily to be obey'd therein And yet notwithstanding the Authority he had here no man suffer'd death for opposing his Dictates in Religion till the second of Henry the fourth Nor are there wanting Lawyers and those both Learned in their Profession and in this case uninteressed who deny that this Statute was ever more then a pretended one and say that it was never assented to by the Commons and that whereas in the Act it self it is said Praelati clerus supradicti ac etiam communitates dicti regni supplicarunt that those words Communitates dicti regni are not in the Parliament-Roll in which when the Law comes to be Enacted it runs in this form of words Qui quidem Dominus Rex ex assensu magnatum aliorum procerum ejusdem Regni concessit statuit c. where the Commons are not at all named See Mr. Bagshaw of the Temple his Reading on the Statute of 25. Edward the III. call'd Statutum pro clero p. 32. But that de facto this Statute went currant for Law the cruell effects of it did too clearly shew Yet as high as the Popish Clergy then was with whom that usurping King complyed the Commons petition'd the King to take away their Temporal Possessions and that the Statute made against Lollards in the second year of the King might be repeal'd And by the complaint of the Commons as appeares by the Statute of 25. Henry the VIII it was then in part repeal'd Afterward in a Parliament held Vicesimo octavo of the Queen the Commons quarrell'd with the Excessive Power of the Clergy desiring to have it restrain'd both in the conferring of Orders and in their Censures and Oath Ex officio 'T is true the Foundation of the high Commission is built upon the Statute of the first of Queen Elizabeth but the design of that was chiefly to destroy the interest of the Popish Clergy then not exterminated In the Reigns of following Princes a party known by the Name of Puritan had obtain'd a large Vogue in Parliament insomuch that that party and another call'd the Patriots a sort of men who were Zealots for the welfare of the Nation though not for any Religion being frequently in conjunction were the over-ballancing party in the House of Commons And in the last Parliament on the fifteenth of December 1640. It was resolv'd nemine contradicen●e That the Clergy of England Convented in any Convocation or Synod or otherwise have no power to make any Constitutions Canons or Acts whatsoever in matter of Doctrine or otherwise to bind the Clergy or Layety of this Land without the Commons consent in Parliament and that the severall Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiasticall treated upon by the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York and the rest of the Bishops and Clergie of those Provinces and agreed upon by the Kings Majesties Licence in their severall Synods began at London and York 1640. do not bind

judging of Ecclesiastical causes according to the Canon Law a Law of which Albericus Gentilis that renown'd Civilian saith in the 19th chap. of his second Book De Nuptiis Sed hoc jus brutumque barbarum sane est natum in tenebris seculorum spississimis productum a monacho tenebrione c. was an occasion of our Lawyers contrasts with them And what may well create suspicions that the Bishops keeping of Courts as they did was not according to Law may be had from those words of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in his Epistle Dedicatory to the King before his Speech in the Star-chamber I do humbly in the Churches name desire of Your Majesty that it may be resolv'd by all the Reverend Iudges of England and then Publish d by Your Majesty that our keeping Courts and Issuing Processe in our own Names and the like Exceptions formerly taken and now renew'd are not against the Law of the Realm c. And how ready the Lawyers have been to check the severity of Ecclesiastical Courts their innumerable prohibitions shew In the dayes of Popery the Prelates could awe the Judges with Excommunication for such crimes as the Church call'd so But how little of terrour the application of that censure hath had since appears from the frequent denouncing of it against the same man And therefore that Learned Lawyer Judge Ienkins in the second part of his Works saith that for opposing the excesses of one of the Bishops he lay under three Excommunications Secondly the substantial body of the Gentry heretofore was and is still likely to be for the moderating the exercise of Episcopal power and for the opposing its extravagance The oath ex officio and commuting for penance and other such kind of things cannot but be thought troublesome to them But that which I shall here chiefly take notice of is how a considerable part of the Gentry of England is grown more inquisitive in matters of Religion within these late yeares then formerly Where this inquiring temper is not no opinion so horrid but may be universally believ'd Thus the Turks may be induced to think that there is a Devil in the juyce of Grapes and the Papists that there may be a God therein But when men are neither by Religion or temper restrain'd from searching into the causes of things they will not in civility to other mens understandings believe propositions to be true or false And that which makes me beside my own observation to conclude that many of the Gentry of late are grown more inquisitive in Religious things then formerly and are likely so to continue is because they are more then heretofore inquisitive in civil things As when the polish'd knowledg of Philologie had obtain'd a conquest over the insignificant Learning of the School-men no man was thought worthy the name of a Scholar but he who understood the Greek Tongue so since the late introduction of reall Learning into the World by Galilaus Tycho Brahe my Lord Bacon Gassendus Des Cartes neither the knowledg of elegant words or nice Speculations wil yield any man the Reputation of being Learn'd that is altogether rude in Mathematicks which as they were formerly counted the Black Art and their Professors such as Roger Bacon Conjurers so may possibly School-Divinity and School-Divines hereafter be Having thus asserted the present searching disposition of a great part of our ingenious Gentry it may well be hence inferr'd that liberty of conscience may be of high use to them and that if any Ecclesiasticall persons determine any thing contrary to their reasons they will not believe them or if against their safety not obey them I think therefore by the way it was very politickly done of the Consistory of Cardinalls to imprison Galilaeus for affirming the motion of the Earth since that notion of his might fill the world with several new debates and inquiries and so Ignorance the mother of Devotion be destroy'd To prevent which effectuall care is taken by the Iesuites as appeares by the instructions given them in the Directory of their order call'd Directorium exercit spirit Ignatii Loyolae part 2. p. 172. Where there are Regulae aliquae tenendae ut cum Orthodoxâ Ecclesiâ sentiamus And the first Rule is Vt sublato proprio omni judicio teneamus semper promptum paratumque animum ad obediendum Catholicae Hierarchicae Ecclesiae It followes p. 176. Reg. 13. Ut Ecclesiae conformes simus si quid quod oculis nostris appareat album nigrum illa definiverit debemus itidem quod nigrum sit pronuntiare This is in the Edition of that Book at Tholou Anno 1593. and confirm'd by the Bull of Pope Paul the third In short he that hath had but any conversation with that ingenious part of the Gentry who have concern'd themselves in the consideration of Church-Government cannot but take notice of these two assertions being in vogue among them which whether true or no 't is not here pertinent to determine The first that 't is possible for Monarchy to subsist here without that high power our Bishops formerly had and so that Maxim No Bishop no King hath been disbelieved This Maxim seems to them true concerning Turky No Mufti no Grand Signior because the Mufti can with the Screen of Religion as he pleases hide the ugliness of those actions the Grandeur of the Turkish Empire is supported by But our Kings govern according to Law and so the Engin of Superstition is not here of use for the amusing people into slavery I confess any party of men that wil not own the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical causes as well as Civil is not fit to be allow'd as the State-Religion But that Supremacy of the Kings in Ecclesiastical matters and in Civil is acknowledged by the Divines that are for the Lord Primates form of Episcopacy as much as by any other A second assertion very much receiv'd among them is that no particular form of Church-Government is of Divine right Of this opinion my Lord Bacon shews himself to be expresly in his Considerations touching the Edification and Pacification of the Church of England and so my Lord Falkland in one of his printed Speeches where speaking of Bishops he saith I do not believe them to be jure divino nay I believe them to be not jure divino but neither do I believe them to be injuria humana So that it is no wonder that among our ordinary enquirers after knowledg this notion is believed which was so by those two incomparably Learned persons And it may seem much more to gratifie the power of Princes then the Maxim No Bishop no King can do The Author of the History of the Council of Trent makes mention how Laymez Generall of the Jesuits spent a whole Congregation in proving that Bishops are jure pontificio and not jure divino and said that the power of Iurisdiction was given wholly to the Bishop of Rome and that none in

would dispose the Education of some of their Sonnes in order to Ecclesiasticall preferments and that a great deal of envy might be diverted by the same persons being Lords Spirituall and Temporall But it cannot be expected that persons nobly descended should be engaged in Holy Orders till they could see the way of Administring things in the Church to be as much in the affections of the people here or above danger from their hatred as in other Countries it is where the Nobless are many of them Church-men Now then the Reverend Fathers the Bishops may compasse the Affections of the people by Liberty of Conscience and security from the danger of their hatred by an Inquisition but as I said before that cannot it self be compast here Indeed our Ecclesiasticall Rulers have reason to steer us cautiously since they sit at Helm in such a ship as hath thrown very many Pilots over-board And it may well become those Worthy Divines that have been of late releast through Gods good Providence from the extremity of their sufferings to be of most calm quiet and sedate spirits just as persons taken from the rack do presently fall asleep The great alteration in the body of the people since these last twenty years requires that our old ends of promoting the welfare of the Church of England should be attain'd by the conduct of new means For the greatest part of the old Assertors of all the Ceremonies of the Church are lodged in graves many of the zealous Lovers of them are now in Heaven where Calvinists and Episcopal men agree and the present Major part of this Land consists of those to whom the introducing the old Church-Government will seem an innovation I grant the inconveniences which we suffer'd for want of Church-Government in generall have been many and those which we should have suffer'd from a Scotch Presbytery would have been more But yet it must likewise be granted that the undistinguishing vulgar will be but too ready to endeavour the removall of any Church-Government which doth at present inconvenience them without considering that the miseries they formerly felt will thereby recur upon them just as a horse will strive to fling any Rider that doth at present gall and spur him too much without considering that the next Rider may possibly gall him worse or as a man would try to repell the hand of one who held a burning coal to his flesh though he should tell him that if that coal were removed he would apply a hotter They therefore that would endeare any form of Church-Government to the Majority of the people are concern'd to make it largely diffusive of advantage to them 'T is very apparent how many parties among us have been ruin'd by narrowing their interest and not making it nationall And God grant that after all our enquiries about Church-Discipline the Gentry of England be not by any divisions the present Clergy may cause tempted to cry up the Divine Right of Erastianisme and say No Erastian no King which opinion doth as much exceed the Episcopal in giving power to the King as the Episcopal doth the Presbyterian or that the Independent perswasion It is therefore the true interest of the Clergy here so to temper the Government of the Church that it may be accommodated to the content and satisfaction of the Gentry or other Lay-persons and of its own Members And 't is very irrationall to think that any Church-Government in a Protestant Countrey can be so which doth restrain a large and almost absolute power to the hands of a few Nor is it more prudent for France to own no distinction between a Gentry and a Nobility but to allow equal priviledges to such as we reduce to two Orders here that it may effectually curb the insolence of the Peasants then for the whole Clergy here to grow into one body or form of Government and all the parts thereof to be influenced with a convenient power that so it may be in no danger from the Enemies of a Ministry in generall Nor was there ever any thing propounded as a means to make the Clergy of England very considerable that can be thought comparable to the form of Episcopacy described by the Bishop of Armagh And therefore I do not wonder that its publickly own'd by the Divines formerly call'd Presbyterian who now deserve a name less odious and to be call'd the Divines that are for moderate Episcopacy as I said before but rather that it is not as generally contended for by all their brethren of the Church excepting a few that are actually invested with the highest Dignities therein Now if we divide the Clergy here into 〈◊〉 parts not one in three hath these great Dignities or is likely in any time to attain to them But that which the Bishop of Armaghs model of Episcopacy offers to more then three parts of four is an Accession of power or a gaining of that Authority in Ecclesiasticall matters as namely in Ordination and Church-Censures which before they had not And certainly the grasping of present power must needs to any Ingenious men of the Clergy seem more delightfull then the tedious Expectation of distant preferments and the servile licking up of any mens spittle that others hereafter may do so with theirs By the practice of this modell the spirit of the Clergy would be kept from being embased and the ordinary sort of Vicars would be cured of affecting servility laziness and ignorance Industry Parts Learning would be likewise thereby encouraged For the power of the Keys being thus given to the Bishop and all the Presbyters in any Precinct or Dioces those men that could offer the best reasons for things and shew the greatest strength of parts would be most swaying in Ecclesiastical Conventions Nor is it likely that the Gentry would be aggrieved at the practice of this way of Episcopacy or every Church-Censure's passing through a Consistory of Divines For 't is not probable that in such an Assembly there should be a Combination to execute any censure on any man to gratifie the lusts or private piques of another Besides there is no such way that a Divine can use to make himself considerable with the Laiety as his being eminent for power in the sphere of his own Profession just as a Mercer that would by any sway influence the Company of Drapers must first obtain a large interest in his own Company In short the Clergy by this fair distribution of Ecclesiastical power among them will not be in danger of ruine by the discontents of any of its Members or of any of the Laiety while Liberty of Conscience is secured to them and Ceremonies are not imposed Nor is there any way by which the incoveniences of the Presbyterian Government can again invade us but by the engrossing of Ecclesiasticall power in the hands but of few persons and by their using Rigour and Violence I know 't is ridiculous to imagin that a Presbyterian Government can