Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A55307
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The Samaritan shewing that many and unnecessary impositions are not the oyl that must heal the church together with the way or means to do it / by a country gentleman who goes to common-prayer and not to meetings.
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Polhill, Edward, 1622-1694?
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1682
(1682)
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Wing P2756; ESTC R3092
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63,931
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131
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Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That if any Person shall without making any Interpretation of his own unless it be such as shall be allowed to be Orthodox by his Diocesan or two other Bishops Subscribe and Declare his Assent and Consent unto and Approbation of the Articles of Religion mentioned in the Statute made in the 13th Year of the late Q. Elizabeth except only the 34th 35th and 36th Articles and also except these words in the 20th Article Viz. The Church hath power to decree Rites Ceremonies Authority in Controversies of Faith in like manner as he is already Obliged to Subscribe and Declare his Assent and Consent unto and Approbation of all the said 39 Articles Every such Person shall be as capable of taking any Degree in either Vniversity or being Ordained Priest or Deacon or of being Collated Admitted or put into and to Hold and Enjoy any Ecclesiastical Benefice or Promotion as if the said Person had Subscribed and Declared his Assent and Consent unto and Approbation of all the said Articles of Religion And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That every Person Ordained between the Year of our Lord 1644 and the First of May in the Year 1680 according to the Form of Ordination used by laying on of hands by the Presbytery shall be as capable of any Ecclesiastical Benefice or Promotion as if he had been Ordained according to the Form of Making and Ordaining Priests and Deacons in the Church of England And that every Person Ordained only by Presbyters since the Year of our Lord 1660 shall not be admitted to any Benefice unless he receive a second Imposition of Hands from some Bishop to recommend him to the Grace of God for the Work or Exercise of his Office in the Place or Charge unto which he is call'd and the Bishop shall frame his Words accordingly And Whereas by a Statute made in the 13th and 14th Year of His Majesties Raign that now is Entituled An Act for the Uniformity of the Publick Prayer and Administration of Sacraments other Rites and Ceremonies and for Establishing the Form of Ordaining Consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons in the Church of England there are two Declarations imposed upon several Persons and in such manner as is there specified Be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Person that hereafter shall be Presented or Collated or Put into any Ecclesiastical Benefice or Promotion shall declare his unfeigned Assent and Consent to the Vse of all things contained and Prescribed in the Book of Common-Prayer nor Make and Subscribe the other Declaration or Acknowledgment Viz. I A. B. do declare That it is not Lawful to take up Arms against the King c. according to the Formes in the said Act in the 13th and 14th Year of His Majesties Reign directed and appointed but that Both the said Declarations shall be wholly Omitted any thing in the aforesaid Statute to the Contrary Notwithstanding And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Person shall hereafter be capable of being collated Admitted or put into any Ecclesiastical Benefice or Promotion before such time as the said Person shall have taken the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance which Oath of Allegiance is contained in the Statute made in the 3d Year of King James before the Bishop of the Diocess who is hereby Impowred to administer the same and shall also Make and Subscribe the Declaration mentioned in an Act of Parliament made in the 30th Year of His Majesties Reign that now is Entituled An Act to prevent Papists from Sitting in either House of Parliament And the Name of every Person so taking the Oath and Making and Subscribing the Declaration aforesaid shall be Enrolled with the Day and Time of his Taking the same in Rolls to be kept by the respective Bishop of each Diocess for that purpose And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Person shall hereafter be Obliged to take the Oath of Canonical Obedience or to make the Subscription required by the Canons or to go to the Bishop for a License to Preach being already lawfully Ordained any Statute or Custome to the contrary Notwithstanding And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That from henceforth no Person whatsoever wear a Surplice during the time of Reading Common Prayer or Preaching or Performing any Religious Worship in any Church or Chappel whatsoever except only in the Chappel of the Kings Majesty and all Cathedral Churches of this Realm of England and Dominion of Wales And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That from henceforth no Minister or other Ecclesiastieal Person shall be Obliged or compelled to use the Signe of the Cross in Baptism or any Parent Obliged to have his Child Christened by the Minister of the Parish if the said Minister will not use or omit the Sign of the Cross according to the Desire of the Parent who in that Case may procure some other Minister to do it Nor shall the Child of any Person be refused Baptism for want of Godfathers and Godmothers so long as the Parent is present to fill their place And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Minister or Ecclesiastical Person that shall Officiate in the Administration of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper shall refuse it to any Person that desires to be admitted to the same although such Person shall not use the Gesture of Kneeling in the Act of Receiving nor come up to the Communion Table but shall go to such Convenient Place in the Church where such Person is and there give it him in some other decent Gesture of Ordinary use in the Reformed Churches Nor shall any Minister be troubled for the withholding his own Act in delivery of the Sacrament from any whom he Judges notoriously unworthy or unfit for it Nor for suspending his reading the Sentence of Excommunication against any of his Parish until he be satisfied in the Case that his crime deserves it And to the intent that Vniformity may so far as it is needful and so far as it can be still maintained Be it enacted Moreover by the Authority aforesaid That every Parson Vicar and Lecturer shall conform to the Liturgy of the Church in the Ordinary Lords-day Service reading the same by himself or by his Curate as by Law it is Established Reserving a Necessary and Just Liberty for his Conscience in any Matter or Words which himself esteems unlawful and so to him it is sin in the By-Offices Occasional Service the Rubricks and otherwise and also for Prudence in the whole Mannagement to Act with respect to Time Place and Circumstances so as appeares most conducive to Edification And so long as the main Body of the Service appointed is there Read and the Substance of
Head of the Church it will be enquired whether they claim their Title Jure Divino or Humano If Jure Divino they must prove it which will not easily be done If Jure Humano I hope they will grant the King Superior to them and that they are but His Officers and Delegates which is the same thing that I desire and which is agreeable to the Opinion of our First Reformers as is apparent in Dr. Burnet's History of the Reformation For Cranmer took a Commission from K. Edward by which he held his Bishoprick and exercised his Jurisdiction Vid. Par. 2. pag. 6. And so Bonner had done before him from King Henry the Eighth Vid. Par. 1. l. 3. p. 267. And this is the same thing that hath been lately proposed by that Thoughtful Man Mr. Humfrey in the End of a Discourse written by Himself and Others and dedicated to the Right Honourable the Earl of Hallifax that great and sagacious Statesman I know some Men are Deaf Adders who will not be brought to regard it let a Man have Charmed never so wisely but These I take it are such only who are Enemies to Peace and will part with nothing for the sake of it And why now these Tolerated Churches should not be accounted true Churches and Parts of the National-Church whereof the King is the Head I do not imagine In my Apprehension they look very like the Churches we read of in the New Testament which no Man doubts were of Divine Appointment For although I do not know but that some particular Persons from among the Clergy fittest for it As St. Paul chiefly imployed himself in Preaching the Gospel and meddled but little with Baptism may be lawfully and prudently chosen and employed chiefly in the Government of several Congregations even as many as they can personally know and be acquainted withal and if they be called Bishops and have a peculiar Consecration and nothing be done in Ordination Censures and Absolutions but with their Knowledge Direction and Approbation I would have no Controversie with them about it Yet I do professedly avow that I can find no such thing in the Scripture nor in the Practice of the Church for 200 Years I know 't is said That the Apostles were Diocesans and that they governed all or most of the Christian Churches whil'st they lived but I see no Proof of it and there 's one Argument against it which I cannot tell how to answer and 't is this If the Christian Churches in the Apostles days had no Governours but themselves 't is certain that for the most part they had none at all for they never fixed in any place but having preached the Gospel planted Churches and settled Officers amongst them they left them and went to other Places and Countreys 'T is true they did sometimes return and visit the Churches that they planted but who Governed them in the intermediate Periods of Time Or were there no Ordinations Censures or Absolutions performed in them or none but by their Direction and Command That some Acts of Discipline were performed by their Direction and Command I do acknowledge but that all were so and that none ought to be performed without it I see no reason to believe Touching the Practice of the Church after the Apostles till the end of the Second Century I must say That I can find no Evidence of Diocesan Episcopacy or of any Churches bigger than some single Congregations among us at this day I think the Churches of Corinth Ephesus Antioch c. single Congregations and that they all Communicated at one Altar and that there are many Congregations in England as numerous and some much more numerous than they Yea I will add after all that hath been said of late to the contrary that I am not convinced that the Church of Carthage in Cyprian's days which was Two hundred and fifty Years after Christ was any bigger than some of our Parochial-Congregations In an Epistle to the Clergy of Carthage he tells them That from the beginning of his Episcopacy he determined to do nothing by his own private Judgment nor without their Counsel and the Consent of his People A primordio Episcopatus mei statuerim nihil sine Consilio Vestro sine consensu Plebis meae privata sententia gerere Ep. 6. ex Edit Goulartii What doth St. Cyprian mean by His People in these words Doth he mean the whole or Major Part of a Diocess in the Modern sense of the Word Did he assemble his Diocess and take their Consent in all things that did concern them Credat Judaeus Appella Many Passages of like nature might be produced from this great Saint and Martyr and are by Learned Men which I will not repeat And for ought that I can perceive Diocesan Episcopacy was unknown in this Nation for several hundreds of Years after Christ Jesus The Culdees were the great Preachers of the Gospel and Promoters of Christianity in Scotland Those Culdees were no Bishops nor had any Ordination but such as was performed by the Monk or Abbot of the Monastery in the Island Hii This Monk who was himself no Bishop and his Pressters gave them their Orders and from thence came Aidan and Finan into England and are called Bishops but had no other Ordination than that abovementioned Wini was the first Canonical Bishop in Britain as Bede reports Non erat tunc ullus excepto Wini in tot a Britannia Canonice Ordinatus Episcopus Lib. 3. cap. 28. Which was near Six hundred Years after Christ The Prefecture and Jurisdiction of Bishops in England seems to me of Humane Institution and derived partly from the Favour of Princes and partly from the Usurpation of the Pope and thus gotten and obtained they enjoyed and exercised it for many Hundreds of Years even till the days of Henry the Eighth who reassuming the Authority that had been granted by former Princes and usurped by the Pope obliged them to acknowledg their Jurisdiction by derivation from Himself and subjected them to a Premunire in case of refusal And of this Opinion those Bishops seem to be that took Commissions from K. Henry the Eighth and K. Edward the Sixth for their holding their Bishopricks and Exercise of their Jurisdiction as I have signified already Let our present Diocesans therefore as such acknowledg themselves the King's Officers and by Deputation from Him let them exercise such Authority circa sacra as appertains to Kings Let them enjoy their Honour and Revenues as a Reward of their Service Let the Powers granted by Christ to such Bishops as I have above conceded lawful and their Presbyters be left inviolable And let our Diocesans supervise them in the Exercise of them and see that they neither neglect nor abuse them And all our Controversies about Church-Government will come to an end Such Churches as should be thought worthy of Toleration as well as those that have the Approbation of Authority would submit to such an