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
A86197	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable House of Lords, in the Abbey-Church at Westminster, Wednesday the 28. of May 1645. Being the day appointed for solemne and publick humiliation. / By Alexander Henderson, minister at Edenburgh.	Henderson, Alexander, 1583?-1646.	1645 (1645)	Wing H1443; Thomason E286_3; ESTC R200073	26,557	39

and when the estate of the Church was corrupt many things were allowed or permitted as in the times of Eli and Samuel which in other cases were not lawfull 3. We are to distinguish betwixt the supream Civill power of the Magistrate about matters of Religion or things Ecclesiasticall and the ultimate and highest jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall in matters of this kind the one is not onely lawfull but necessary as a principall point of the Magistrates duty the other doth not belong to the Magistrate or any civill authority but to the Church and authority Ecclesiasticall To assume ordinarily after religion is setled the last resolution and highest jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall in matters of Religion unto which formall and legall appeales shall be made in Church matters from the Assemblies of the Church is more I hope then needeth to be feared from the wisdome piety and justice of the honourable Houses of Parliament They have in their great wisdome piety and justice removed Church-men from their Senat and will neither have Prelats nor Pastors to sit with them in that supream civill Court They have abolished high Commissions and Star-chambers and therefore will not intermeddle unlesse it be at extraordinary times and in extraordinary cases with Church matters It cannot be denied but persons distressed by Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction may by way of complaint although not by way of accusation expresse their unjust sufferings to whatsoever kind of persons private or publick in Church or State and each one is to bear the burthen of another much more therefore may they flie to the supream civill authority not to this end that the cause be recognosced by them but if need be and they find it necessary they may desire or command the same to be resumed and examined again of new but this Christian way of complaining maketh nothing for any formall or legall appeal from one kind of authority to another Appellations must be from the inferior to the superior in the same kind Before I proceed there is one objection to be removed If the power of the Church be not above the State in civill matters nor the power of the State above the Church in matters of religion if the Kingdoms of the world be not subordinate to the Kingdome of Christ and if the Kingdome of Christ be not subordinate to the Kingdomes of the world then it will follow that they are equall that they are parallell and collaterall and therefore will be emulous and jealous one of another and will strive one against another For answer This objection savoureth of much malice against the Ministery of the Gospel and which is suppressed against the Kingdome of Iesus Christ It is not unlike the speech of the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin against the building of the Temple at Jerusalem unto the Lord God of Israel This Citie is a rebellious Citie and hurtfull unto Kings and Provinces It hath made insurrection against Kings and rebellion and sedition hath been made therein Ezra 4.15 The practises of such are not unlike the practises of the enemies Nehem. 4. who by craft by rumors and by hired prophesies would have terrified Nehemiah and others that were with him from building the walls of Jerusalem Their calumnies are not unlike that of Haman Esther 3. There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the Provinces of the Kingdome and their laws are divers from all people neither keep they the Kings laws therefore it is not for the Kings profit to suffer them In a time of reformation when the Temple or walls of Jerusalem are to be builded there be ever some Rehums and Shimsaies some Sanballats Tobiahs Gash●…es or Hamans that endeavour to hinder the work It is a matter of humiliation that there are any such in this land and wil prove greater matter of humiliation if they shall have their desire But the wisdome and vigilancy of the honorable Houses of Parliament will take heed unto and note such unhappy instruments that their wicked desires be not satisfied It cannot be denied but there is some kind of mutuall and reciprocall subjection or subordination of the one authority and government unto the other such as useth to be must needs be in all such societies as have divers ends before their eyes those who command in respect of the one end must obey in respect of the other such as obey in respect of the one end must command in respect of the other When a company of Souldiers entreth into a ship to fight against the enemy at sea in so far as they are in the ship and within boord they are to be governed by the master of the ship who is to command all in matters of navigation but as they are Souldiers fighting against the enemy they must obey their own Captain and be directed by him He that commanded in the one respect although a Generall or a King must obey in the other respect nor is it any derogation but wisdome to do so When the son is a Consull and the father a private man the son obeyeth the father as his father and the father obeyeth the son as his Consull or Magistrate And thus in divers respects there is a mutuall subordination yet is there no such equality as to make the two Governments jealous one of another for there is a threefold difference betwixt them which being well observed will cure all this unnecessary and groundlesse jealousie one is in respect of God to whom both are subject another in that respect which the one of them hath to the other and the third is in respect of the people concredit unto them In respect of their subjection to God the one is subject as a deputed and inferior Lordship or Dominion the other is subject as a ministery or service Christ onely being Lord of his Church The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise authority upon them are called Benefactors But yee shall not be so Luke 22.25 26. Domination is forbidden Church-men Ministration is commanded It is one thing to be a Viceroy and another thing to be a Legat or a Stewart Christ hath Legats to declare his wil but hath no Deputies or Vicegerents In that respect which the one hath to the other we may observe this difference that the subordination of the Minister to the Magistrate is to the Magistrate himself as to the Vicegerent of God of whose power he doth participate but the subordination of the Magistrate to the Minister is not to the Minister himselfe but to Jesus Christ whose servant he is Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5.20 In respect of the people under their charge every soule is subject to the higher powers but the Church onely is subject to the Ministery they have nothing to do with those who are without and which is

produced by another power whether of the body or of the soule as by the Understanding at the commandment of the Wll For the Will may command the Mind or Understanding quoad exercitium although not quoad specificationem The Magistrate hath actum elicitum as his proper operation about civill matters as his proper object but in spirituall things not so He may neither preach nor minister the Sacraments nor exercise discipline yet hath he actum imperatum he may and ought by his place to command Ministers to do all these duties And if he be negligent in this he sinneth against God Upon the other part the Minister may not judge civill or criminall causes nor performe the proper offices of the civill power yet as the Minister hath actum elicitum for performing of spirituall duties so hath he although not actum imperatum yet actum excitatum for exciting and in the name of Christ exhorting and charging the Civill Powers to the performance of their duty This generall use of Doctrine may be brought neerer home by the following use which is for reproof of two main errors which at this time make a great deal of trouble in the Christian world and which being once removed there might be greater peace and quietnesse in Churches and Common-wealths The one is of the most unjust tyrannous claim made by the Pope of temporall dominion over the whole world or at least to intermeddle with the affaires of Princes and Kingdomes in reference to the Church or as the Papists expresse themselves in ordine ad spiritualia For the Pope not contenting himselfe with the transcendency of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction over the whole Church though he hath no warrant for it in his boundlesse and endlesse ambition did climb yet higher and partly by the favour or foolishnesse rather of Christian Princes and partly by his own fraudulent and violent dealing as the son of him who hath been a murtherer a lier from the beginning hath set himselfe up first amongst and next over the greatest Princes and mightiest Emperours to dispose of their Crownes and Dignities at his pleasure which is the mark and character of him who is spoken of by the Apostle 2 Thess 2.4 Who sitteth in the Temple of God as God shewing himself that he is God and opposing and exalting himselfe above all that is called God As the Text sheweth that Christ was no earthly King that he left no Regal power to Peter and therefore the Pope can have no temporall power as the Vice-gerent of Christ so the supream power to dispose of Kingdomes and temporall things in reference to things spirituall and the lawfulnesse of civill dominion which the Pope claimeth by the donation of Princes are overturned by the grounds laid in the Text The Kingdome of Christ is not of this world About this point there be three things which may astonish our hearts and indeed are matters of admiration one is the wonderfull patience of God suffering that man of sin so long to rage and to be drunk with the blood of the Saints which should make us to say with the Spirit and Bride Come Lord Jesus come quickly the sins of that Sea are long since at the height Lord why tarriest thou Never since the beginning of the world was there such an example of divine patience Learned men have applied themselves to search into the causes of the so long continuance of the Sect of Mahomet and conceive that the detestation of Idolatry and of persecution of the Gospel are two principall causes thereof the contrary whereof is found in the Church of Rome which makes the patience of God so much the more admirable A second is that he who calleth himself the servant of servants doth make himself the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and yet the Kings and Lords of the earth do still give their strength and power unto the Beast and lie under his yoke drunk with the wine of his fornications nor will they yet awake after so full a discovery of that mystery of iniquity which is from the spirit of slumber in the justice of God possessing their spirits And the third is that such Kings and Kingdomes as are begun to hate the Whore and make her desolate and naked doe suffer themselves by whatsoever tentations or worldly respects to be divided or retarded in accomplishing the work And here we have just reason to lament that the work of God maketh so slow progresse in this Land And it may be unto us this day just cause of deep humiliation that our sins in former times and since the beginning of this work of Reformation are such as make obstruction unto it The Lord I confesse hath done much already especially in removing the Prelats and other members of that Popish Hierarchy who had transformed the Kingdome of Christ in this Island into a wordly Kingdom very conform unto the Pope the head of the Hierarchy In this England hath as great cause to rejoyce as any Nation under heaven because never any nation hath felt more of Popish and Prelaticall tyranny then England and that both of old and of late witnesse your own Histories There is also another error to be reproved which is upon the other hand and may be called a new Papacy the former error is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Court-parasites politicians and such other enemies to the Kingdome of Christ would introduce into the reformed Churches ascribing to the highest civill authority or to the supream Magistrate the same place in the reformed Church within his dominion that the Pope hath in the Roman Church and making him head of the Church by which the Pope is changed but not the Papacy the Dominator but not the Domination Nor is there any difference but 1. that this opinion maketh as many Popes as supream Magistrates which would cease if Caesars or Emperours as of old did rule the world 2. That it will be acknowledged that such civill Popes are subject to error which is no great difference for the chiefest Doctors in the Roman Church do admit that the Pope may erre and for this cause will have him subject to generall Councels For clearing of this great difficulty and that we may give to Caesar what is Caesars unto Christ and his Ministers what belongeth to them we are to observe these three distinctions 1. We are to distinguish times in the times before the Law the Civill and Ecclesiasticall power might be in one person as in Melchisedeck Job c. not so after the Law when the Republick and Church of Israel were once constitute and setled The Lord that maketh Summer to succeed after Winter the day after the night and youth after infancy would have it to be so The saying of the wise Physitian Vindiceanus quia ego non jussi belongeth to God in matters of this kind August Epist 5. 2. We are to distinguish between cases in extraordinary cases