Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	church_n	ecclesiastical_a	jurisdiction_n	2,674	5	9.0374	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50842	The originals of rebellion, or, The ends of separation a sermon preached on the thirtieth of January, 1682 in the parish-church of Great Yarmovth / by Luke Milbourne ...	Milbourne, Luke, 1649-1720.	1683 (1683)	Wing M2036; ESTC R916	23,150	48

of themselves were necessitated to make a Directory for the worship of God and to endeavour the settlement of a Classical Presbytery for the due Execution of such Laws as should be necessary for the establishment of their Confused Church and the Independents or Congregational Men where they bear the Sway as in New England are forced to settle certain rules of government in their Churches nay the Quakers themselves are not without some Methods of Policy in their Conventicles All these agreeing as far as possible with those fond and Sceptical principles the several Factions have studied to advance and to do thus in the sense of all those I have instanc'd in is to do what tends in their several ways to Edification and indeed this course seems agreeable to Natural Prudence tho' we had no Divine Command for it This then being a Method so universally agreed to it seems very obvious that a breach made upon it must necessarily tend to the dissolution of that Society wheresoever it is admitted and yet a nicety or tenderness of Conscience as it is abusively called is as good a Plea for allowance of such a breach in one Church or Religious Society as in another He who has scruples against the Jewish Church-Laws may have scruples too against Mahometism against Popery against Presbytery Independency nay against all the Religion in the World if a pretence to such a tenderness and scrupulosity be enough to loose every Bond and to break every Yoak and it must needs procure Contempt to the best and purest Religion if it be not thought worth the while to oblige men by all just ways to those Laws whereby it is guided and established When Sects and Heresies were permitted among the Jews notwithstanding the Fundamental Constitutions of their Church the solid Doctrines of Truth delivered to them by the Divinely inspired Prophets dwindled away into nice and useless Speculations obscure glosses and uncertain and Heretical Traditions Sincere Piety gave place to the transitory flashes of Hypocrisie and Intestine Broils and Divisions in the Heat of which God's Honour was forgotten contributed largely to the utter ruine and subversion of their Nation which was indeed no wonder Vengeance commonly taking place where Faith is banish'd and so low was that grown among them that a poor Proselyted Centurion exprest more of Faith to our Saviour than he could find in Israel Matth. 8.10 And since the time that the Followers of Mahomet gave way to new Prophets and Expositors of the Originals of their Profession their zeal is extremely abated and much of that debauchery and irreligion which the very Alcoran forbad has gotten ground and favour among them and the Papacy has lost as much almost of its power and Interest in these parts of the World by the relaxation of its Discipline and Indulgence to Contradictory Doctrines and Practices as it has gain'd by all its Legendary Miracles and new-fangled Arts and Stratagems assisted with the extraordinary activity of its most zealous Agents and Emissaries Thus Puritanism in our Fore-fathers days through its ineffectual attempts to settle the Holy Discipline prepared the way to Brownism and separation a little loosening the Golden Reins of Government in the Church of England gave entrance and encrease to super-Puritanical Presbytery and that not being sufficiently guarded by Directories and Ordinances introduced Independency Quakerism Familism Libertinism and all the Sects and Heresies and more than ever the Christian World had been acquainted with before When Humane Politiques first took place and men united themselves into regular Bodies it was presently found that the wisest and most rational Laws could not restrain the extravagancies of the multitude unless some penalties were annexed and a Power setled in some particular persons to execute those penalties upon offenders the same was prov'd true in Religious affairs also for though the ground and reason of all commanded or forbidden was never so plain and notorious yet Corrupt Man was ungovernable by pure Reason and wisdom so that some punishments were as necessary among Ecclesiastical as among Civil Criminals and this necessity has always made a necessary Connexion between the Temporal and Spiritual Laws that one might be Assistant to the other that Religion might oblige men obedience to the Civil Powers and Corporal punishments compel them to submission to the Church Thus God himself in the Jewish Government joyns the Judge and the Priest together Deut. 17.8 13. If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment between blood and blood between plea and plea being matters of Controversy within the gates then thou shalt arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse thou shalt come unto the Priests the Levites and unto the Judge that shall be in those days and enquire and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment and the Man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the Priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God or unto the Judge even that man shall dye and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel and when the Law was compleated by Moses we are told that he wrote this Law and delivered it unto the Priests the Sons of Levi which bare the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord and to all the Elders i. e. the Princes and Civil governors of Israel Deut. 31.9 so making the Priests and the Princes joynt Commissioners in the encouraging moral vertue and devotion and in repressing irregularity and disobedience and though the sentence of Excommunication denounced only by the Pastors and Governours of the Church be really the most dreadful of all others yet so much quicker generally is Man's sense of bodily than of spiritual pain or danger that the Temporal Magistrate is frequently forced for the keeping Men in the better aw to make the Execution of National Laws the best evidence of the inconveniences attending of the Anathema's of the Church those who are willing enough to quit for ever God's service being very loath to lose the smallest temporal Revenue or Privelege This mutual Assistance which Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws give to one another has at all times been found of so good effect for the keeping Men in due bounds of sobriety and obedience that so soon as there were any Christian Princes they presently set the Seal of their Authority to the Canons and Rules made by Church Governors for the use of Christians So the Imperial constitutions gave security to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that men might know there was a Coersive Authority invested in their spiritual Superiors and that such a one as from which there could lye no advantageous appeal and on the other Hand Church Censures gave a strong confirmation to Imperial Sanctions evidencing the Consistency of Supreme Dominion and the power of Sword with the fundamentals of Christianity from which to the great satisfaction of temporal Princes it must notoriously appear that no Insurrection Conspiracy

and Church disorders shall escape unpunishment and this hint brings me to the next degree of wickedness which the Apostle in the Text purges himself from i.e. From any offence committed against the Law of the Jews those Politics whereby their State was governed the natural Consequence of troubling and dividing the Church the Gnosticks the Spawn of Simon Magus were the first Hereticks that Broke the peace of the Church and the first pretenders to Christianity that appear'd in opposition to the Caesarean Laws engaging even in Rebellions contrary to that Doctrine they profest to own Nor did those zealots among the Jews who thought the rest of their own Nation too impure for their Society transgress less when they sent for the Edomites to assist them in ruining their Native Country and oppressing those who were better than themselves and how frequently the Edicts of Christian Emperours were slighted by the Arrians Eutychians Donatists and other Hereticks and Schismaticks we may learn from the most Authentick writers of Church History and indeed this Crime seems inevitable where the former is admitted since those who separate from others on account of purer administrations and so make a Schism in the Church must of necessity hold meetings of their own Associates to make a show of Divine worship and so break the Edicts of the State It is plain that Vnity in the Church and State both carrying on the same good design must needs be the most happy and desirable thing in the World but if every one be permitted to act according to this own apprehension in the one it must unquestionably produce confusion and have a fatal influence on the other Thus if a man be permitted to separate from the Church of God and to enjoy his own way quietly in that state of separation if he believe the end of Church Discipline and Laws generally to be the good of his Soul his better part he may reasonably conclude he may as well and upon as good grounds withdraw his obedience from the Laws temporal which only concern his Body his meaner part or his estate and Fortunes and this principle once entertain'd what the Consequences of it may be a very ordinary Capacity will soon discover So we see it has been questioned by Anabaptists Socinians and others whether it be lawful for a Christian to exercise the Authority of a Magistrate or to assume to himself though enabled by never so many humane Laws the power of Life and Death now what trouble such Sectaries and Hereticks have given to the Churches of Christendom we all know but may they not as justly question whether it be lawful for a Christian to submit to any such Authority as he concludes unlawful and an usurpation and if they may not submit to Laws and if they may not be compell'd by punishments extending to Life and Limb to that submission the Legislative power must be of small value it being a mere Scare-crow at which none but Fools can tremble I am ready as any Man to Believe that were all men as sincerely Religious as they ought to be Laws without penalties or bare directions from their Superiors would be enough to govern them by but the World is acquainted with no such perfection and therefore that burthen which men by Sins have brought upon themselves they must submit to and as self-preservation will engage a man who has several enemies to secure himself from their attempts by all means imaginable the same reason obliges Princes and other Publick persons who are the constant objects of Envious and Ambitious Spirits to fortify themselves by the best Laws and those by the best Alliances they can find out Now tho' Heathen Princes out of a distrust of that Religion with whose Principles they were utterly unacquainted were afraid to expect security from their own Christian Subjects and therefore rather chose foreign Confederacies and Leagues whereby they might be able to depress those whom they always suspected tho' unjustly ready for a Rebellion Yet Christian Princes have insisted on contrary Methods and have endeavoured by Unity and mutual Confidence in their Subjects to secure themselves against Foreigners for which end they have advanced uniformity in sacred Worship as well knowing that Nothing can create a more complete Love and Union among men than a close agreement in the weightiest actions of this life and this agreement at home once well setled a Confederacy abroad against their own Subjects if they be Christians indeed is altogether needless But this Vniformity must be establish'd and impos'd by Law for we sind sew Subjects so submissive to their Rulers as for their bare desire to agree to any such thing and by this means it comes to pass that Church Vniformity cannot be interrupted but Civil Constitutions must be broken at the same time that a Schism cannot commence in the Church but it will produce a faction in the State every one concluding it their Interest to cry up those of their own opinion and they if in power making a retribution of encouragement and protection While the Constituent Members of the Church and State are but Men Subject to mistakes and Errors it can be no hard matter for malicious Wits to find several imperfections in both The most pious and wise among Church-Governours and State-Politicians may take wrong measures of things and ordain sometimes such things as though Lawful may upon tryal be found inconvenient or though their Ordinances may be proper for the present Juncture of Affairs yet they may be impracticable afterwards So the Canons of the Apostles concerning abstinence from things strangled and from blood though absolutely necessary to prevent giving Scandal to the Believing Jews at that time and though Dictated by the Holy Ghost yet when the reason of that Canon ceas'd was soon antiquated and laid aside by the Churches in General So we in this Kingdom have had several Statutes made only upon probation for a term of years which expired as they were found profitable or otherwise they were renewed or repeal'd now this argues an acknowledgment of imperfection on both sides but is no reason for the disobedience of private persons on either It is the Apostles command Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give Account that they may do it with Joy and not with grief and it is a command back'd with the same authority 1 Pet. 2.13 14 15. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake Whether it be to the King as Supreme or to Governours as those that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers but for the praise of them that do well for so is the will of God that with well doing we may put to silence the Ignorance of foolish Men. Now these commands being of the same Authority and force being both absolute and illimited and respecting both our Temporal and Spiritual Governors