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
A64582	Parish-churches no conventicles from the minister's reading in the desk when there is no communion : for the vindication of the practice of parochial ministers : in answer to a late pamphlet, stil'd, Parish-churches turn'd into conventicles, pretended to be written by Rich. Hart, but really penn'd by Mr. T.A. Barister at law, shewing how he hath defamed the Church of England, contrary to Canon XI, of those 1603 / by O.V. in a letter to his friend, N.D. ...	O. U.	1683 (1683)	Wing U1; ESTC R5198	18,321	42

the Canon of the Mass of the Body of Jesus which it may be this Gentleman was much taken with when a profest Papist But our Rubrick is not for the Priest's muttering and unnecessary walking but expresly requires that he should read distinctly with an audible Voice so standing and turning himself as he may be best heard of all such as are present And in a Book of some Canons of English Discipline de AEdit Eccles it is ordered That if a Rector Vicar or Curate in his Officiating behaves himself otherwise than as becomes one of his Order by reading confusedly as well as by living loosly he shall be presented 2. These Ministers have by the Rubrick some Things left to their Discretion So that tho they are not to decide some Things about which there may be doubting which the Law and Canons empower the Metropolitans and Diocesans to determine yet they are obliged to use their best Understandings in the Things of God's Solemn Worship and therefore have a power of discerning which they are highly concerned to exercise by comparing one Rubrick with another that they may discharge their Duty most acceptably As for Instance When in one Rubrick we have Te Deum shall be said throughout the Year in the next Rubrick t is said Or this Canticle Benedicite 'T is not said both on the same Day but taking the Rubricks conjunctly one that exerciseth his Mind to discern would understand the meaning of the Law givers to be disjunctive for the same Day i. e. either one or the other and not Te Deum every Day for then would be no room any day for Benedicite unless the Minister should without Prescript lengthen the Service with that Canticle and make the disjunctive Particle or in the Rubrick to be of no import but as if it did signify and and then why not every Day as well as any Day In these therefore as in other Rubricks the Legislators had reference to the Minister's Discretion for the doing and executing the Things contained in the Book appointing a resort to the Bishop of the Diocess in case Parties take any Thing diversly which may occasion doubting So that the Bishop not disallowing what is done we ought in such a diversity of Acceptation charitably to conclude that the Minister doth duly officiate As in the Rubrick about the Offertory it is reserved to the Priest's Discretion to say one or more of the following Sentences as he thinks most convenient So that he that saith but one doth what the Law requires And yet in the very next Rubrick 't is said Whilst these Sentences are in reading which being Plural signifies more than one and in strictness agrees not with one which is Singular and therefore there is somewhat to be understood for Concord sake Which may intimate that the Legislators had more regard to the Duty than to the Place of it and had more respect to the Discretion of the Priest than this Localist hath he labouring more for the Circumstance of Place to gratify his own Humour than the Intention of the Thing to edify the Congregation Being a Zealot not according to Knowledg zealous to have those who officiate contrary to St. Paul 2 Cor. 3. 6. Ministers of the Letter rather than the Spirit weak not able Ministers of the New-Testament Hereupon it may be noted that the Parochial Minister on a Non-Sacrament-Day is supposed to be found in the Desk when Part of the Communion-Service is assigned to him by the Rubrick which may cross this Gentleman's Frontispiece wherein he would make the Congregation a Conventicle if any part thereof be read in the Desk yet just before the reading of the Epistle the Collect of the Day is ordered to be read 't is not said both in the Desk and at the Table without any direction that the Priest should leave the Desk and go up to the Table there being no necessity to go thither then for the Edification of the whole Congregation many of which to be edified were not confirm'd and so no Communicants For by our Ecclesiastical Laws Lib. Can. de Concionat Reformat Leg. Eccles Tit. de Eccles Minist ejus c. 10. it is appointed to Ministers in discharging their Functions to do all for Edification as they have the best Warrant from the Old and New Testament yea and the Bishops are required so to govern and feed the whole People of God not indeed that they may rule over their Faith but that they may shew that they themselves are truly the Servants of the Servants of God and that the Authority and Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical is more especially committed to them not for any other cause but that by their Ministry and Diligence very many may be joined to Christ and they who are already Christ's may increase in him and be edified and if some be deficient they may be brought home to the Shepherd Christ the Lord and be confirmed by wholesom Repentance Hence 3. These Ministers find no Prescript or Rubrick expresly enjoining the reading of part of the Communion-Service at the Table when there is no Communion there For in the last Rubrick where part of the Communion-Office is annexed to that of the Morning-Prayer viz. Upon Sundays and other Holy-Days if there be no Communion shall be said all that is appointed at the Communion untill the End of the general Prayers you may plainly observe the Convocation in compiling the Book aim'd at having the Thing done not at the Place where And when this Lawyer looks back from this last Rubrick to one of the first he considers not that the Station in the Place he contends for respects the Communion-Time when the Table hath a fair white Linnen-Cloth upon it not when it is uncovered with such a Cloth and stands unprepared for the Communion-Office Neither doth he consider that the Minister doth officiate rightly as well as truly if he doth as in Can. 14 with 45. read the Things prescribed in the Common Prayer-Book distinctly and reverently in such Place of every Church with the Allowance of the Bishop so as the People may be most edified or to their best Edification Nor that in Can. 56. for Preachers and Lecturers to read Divine Service the Church doth not appoint reading any of it at the Altar under the East end of the Chancel when there is no Communion which they would no doubt have done in that very Canon where they appoint twice in a Year reading for a Test of thorow Conformity if the reading of it twice there as this Lawyer would have it had been essential to Conformity and the not so doing had been constitutive of a Conventicle Nor the Advertisement Artic. 1. Jan. 5. 1564 7 Eliz. in Bishop Sparrow's Collections that the Common-Prayer may be said or sung decently and distinctly in such a Place as the Ordinary shall think meet for the Largeness and Straitness of the Church or Quire so as the People may be most edified And I am

Queen's Injunctions to justify the Fact or ordering the Table to be plac'd Altar-wise and rail'd in Yet it was observed that he left out the most material Passages in those Injunctions for the matter the same with that before-cited from the Canon viz. Saving when the Communion of the Sacrament is to be administred At which time the same shall be so placed in good sort within the Chancel as whereby the Minister may be more conveniently heard of the Communicants in his Prayer and Administration and the Communicants also more conveniently and in greater Number communicate with the said Minister And after Communion done from time to time the said Holy Table to be placed where it stood before And the King then said He lik'd it well that the Table should stand as it used to do before In which it seems his Majesty accorded with what was said in commendation of the Prudence of Bishop Andrews That wheresoever he was a Parson Dean or Bishop he never troubled Parish College or Diocess with pressing other Ceremonies upon them than such he found used there before his coming thither Yet to return that Great Archbishop afterwards which may evince he was not infallible when charg'd with it at the Lords-Bar he peremptorily denied it and protested solemnly that he never gave Order for railing in the Table c. till his Vicar-General Sir Nath. Brent from his Autograph did evince the Truth of that he had forgotten So that this second Testimony is not so convincing as the Pamphleteer conceited For I may take occasion here to call to mind what Bishop Mountague who complied with him for the Rails wrote to the said Archbishop viz. that If I might be bold to deliver my own private Opinion I hold it a meer unnecessary cumbersom or irregular Course viz. for Eight or Ten more or less to come up to the Rails and so go down and others come up I know it hath no Volam or Vestigium in Antiquity Then adds in another Paragraph I know of no Law Articles Advertisements Canons Injunctions that require it I cannot tell where when by whom it came up This I know it is the Practice of the Roman Church at least in Italy and Rome and yet draws near upon the Laws of the Geneva-Discipline I suppose he means because in their great Congregations there they walk to the Table and receive the Sacrament there and so pass away Further the same Bishop giving the same Arch-bishop an Account of his Visitation at Ipswich 1638 writing of successive coming up to the Rails a first second third c. and so going down again after receiving into some Place in the Chancel or Church adds Again it may be cumbersom and inconvenient it being for ought I know to the contrary an ancient Tradition of the Church for no Man to go out of the Chancel or from his Place having received it until the Ite missa or dismissive Blessing upon them which we call the Peace of God Again The People cannot digest the going up and coming down and disquieting the Assembly which do neither I my self approve of c. Again Those who have promised Conformity in all Things but in rising up and in going up and down which I neither will nor do require of them let this suffice Further It troubles me wherein I desire Resolution and Direction It is inter minutiora Legis to make the best of it and haply in these Times of Opposition it were better to follow that wise Direction of the greatest Council of Christendom the First of Nice Let ancient Customs be observed Which this innovating Lawyer perverts p. 18. when a Parochial Minister may say to him Let the ancient Practice of the Church of England be observed As to his last Testimony from Bishop Sparrow p. 20 21. which Notion this Gentleman seems to be most fond of in the foregoing Page 19. That the Church may keep her Ground It may be said it is a Conjecture without any solid ground for indeed the Church will best keep her Ground when her Officers in Divine Service do that which is most for the Edification of all the Church present whether confirm'd or not rather than only for a few The standing of the Minister in the Desk when there is no Communion is more likely to preserve the Government in quiet than for him to go up then to the Altar which was reckoned one of the novel Circumstances that occasioned the People in Scotland for a time to disturb it I have been upon certain grounds informed that Dr. Sparrow whilst Incumbent and residing at his Benefice in Suffolk when he himself read Prayers he did not go up to the Altar when there was no Communion but only to the parting of the Church and Chancel It seems he himself doth change and not keep his Ground If Bishop Mountague did not harmonize with the great Archbishop in all Circumstances for the manner of Worship and this Bishop vary from himself in a Circumstance of Place for Worship Yet the Archbishop and Bishops accorded in the one Use or Liturgy their little Variations about Modes and individual Places will not be of validity to conventicle or disconventicle Parochial Churches Wherefore upon the expence of Circumstances the Authority of this famous Triumvirate will not avail this ungown'd Lawyer to prove parish-Parish-Churches turn'd into Conventicles till he cites the Words of his other Authors and then to better purpose than he hath done these I have nothing to say to him only if I were in his Country near him and could converse with him I would civilly demand of him Who makes the Ministers not standing on the North-side of the Communion-Table when he rehearseth the Ten Commandments and it is not covered with a Linnen Cloth there being no Communion to be constitutive of a Conventicle Whether he likes best that the Table stands with the Ends North and South or in the Body of the Church or the Body of the Chancel with the Ends East and West as most accustom'd If the former the Rubrick cannot be observed exactly and according to himself he would have the Minister to transgress the Order of our Church If the latter he discommends and disparages the Judgment of the great Archbishop Laud. Yet if the Testimonies of Archbishop Abbot Archbishop Usher Bp. Jewel Bp. Hacket and Bp. Whetenhall c. should be brought in favour of the Practice of our Parochial Churches for ought I hear he would but laugh at them as he doth at those his Reverend Fathers who go to the Font in the West when the Sacrament of Baptism is to be administred there yet think it not convenient to go to the Altar in the East when the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper is not to be administred there p. 13. And his Reverend Fathers could easily allow him to appear with his Latin Sentence Risum teneatis in his Mouth half open if he should see them stand at the Font to read there

part of the Office of Baptism as suppose the Lord's Prayer when none is there to be baptized as 't is fit the Church should keep her standing so near the Church-Door p. 19. To what he saith after all his Reasons and Authority of his not only convincing but converting Argument concerning the Forms of Common-Prayer set forth upon several occasions of Fasting and Thanksgiving p. 21. I may say Where can this invariable Lawyer tying himself to the Letter of the Liturgy as he doth p. 9. speaking of the Bishops Authority and not having recourse to the Practice of the Church of England find any Liberty from the Liturgy for any to compose any other Forms of Prayer not already in the Liturgy If the Bishops when appointed by his Majesty as usually they have done compose those occasional Forms the two Houses of Parliament judging them at any time defective as not long ago may order a Suppletory ●o be drawn up by other Divines which may be most suitable and proper to the Exigency of State-Affairs These most times requiring haste may occasion a reference to part of the Prayers in the Communion-Service but to be read in the accustomed Place of the Church where on Days of Fasting and Humiliation they have most usually been for the Edification of all the People most solemnly met together for the Deprecation of Evil and the Apprecation of Good And therefore as I have been assured old Dr. Layfield sometime Archbishop Laud's Chaplain and by him made Arch-deacon of Essex when his Curate this Lawyer 's Convert whom he brags of as a Trophy of his Conquest p. 22. did pragmatically without ever acquainting the old Doctor go up to read part of the Prayers at the Communion-Table on a Fasting-Day appointed since the Discovery of the horrid Popish Plot the Doctor himself being present did severely check him for his Insolence And one would think that he who was Prebend of St. Paul's London and had been a matter of forty Years Archdeacon should better understand where all the Prayers should be read on such Days than this circumstantial Lawyer or his Pupil doth As for his upbraiding us with being blinder than the Presbyterians p. 17 18. who were willing to prevent the Mischiefs which some by their ill Expositions of the Rubricks which this Writer followeth were likely to bring in I suppose they cannot be so blind any of them as not to see that they or any other Dissenters cannot be excused from their going to their Parish-Churches upon the Plea of this one Lawyer that they are Conventicles which if really they were the Statute against Conventicles had excused them When he hath laboured much he himself doth not charge us in our Ministrations with the Neglect of any one Thing in the Establishment p. 10. only the Place he conceits it should be done in For his extravagant Politicks about Four Estates in this Kingdom p. 10 11. and after all his pleading for a Non-neglect of a little Circumstance of Place he conceits establish'd by Law his singular Flattery under a shew of Loyalty to the great Scandal of his Sacred Majesty insinuating as if he would soon declare something in opposition to that which is establish'd by Law which he would account as binding as any Act of Parliament since the Conquest Our Superiours possibly may some time or other call him to a stricter Account as an Expectant of a Toleration of that Religion which he sometimes profest However it concerns us now Easter approacheth to desist at present from any further minding of his Disputation and seriously apply our selves to our Devotion in commemoration of the Passion of our dear Lord praying God He would mercifully grant that we may both follow the Example of his Patience and also be made Partakers of his Resurrection through the same Jesus our blessed Master To whose Service he is entirely devoted who remains Dear Sir Your Affectionate Friend O. U. April 5. 1683. FINIS