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	power_n	synod_n	3,603	5	9.6685	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62675	An essay concerning the power of the magistrate, and the rights of mankind in matters of religion with some reasons in particular for the dissenters not being obliged to take the Sacramental Test but in their own churches, and for a general naturalization : together with a postscript in answer to the Letter to a convocation-man.	Tindal, Matthew, 1653?-1733.	1697 (1697)	Wing T1302; ESTC R4528	95,152	210

according to the Submission c. That the Clergy shall not presume to attempt c. unless they have the King 's most Royal Assent and Licence to make c. So that it 's evident the King's Licence is antecedently necessary to their making or even attempting which includes all conferring or debating in order to the making any new Canons and that they are to be punished unless they have the King's Authority on that behalf And none but our Author can be so absurd as to think the King 's confirming the Canons the Convocation has made is a Licence to them to make or attempt the making new ones Is the King 's signing an Act a Licence to the Parliament to make a new one But the Author's Ingenuity in reciting this Act and his Reasoning upon it is much alike 14. The Author demands Why are the Clergy called to a Convocation if when they come they are not to act The Convocation was once a Limb of Parliament and the Writ they are now summoned by is not much different from that of the Commons and no doubt did then meet were Adjourned Prorogued Dissolved with the rest of the Parliament and this continued till H. 8. when they lost all their Parliamentary Rights but of Taxing themselves for the doing of which they were still summoned according to the Antient Form and tho they have now lost that Right too and so the Reason of summoning wholly ceaseth yet the Writs are issued out still after the same manner It is not their being summoned by this Writ that alone makes them a Synod for Ecclesiastical Matters for in the Popish Times they were always summoned with the rest of the Parliament yet they were not a Synod nor could not act as such without Authority from the Pope and instead of any such Authority now the King makes them a Synod and gives them Power to enact Canons by Licence under the Broad-Seal and this with Submission I take to be the true state of the Case 15. As to the third that a Convocation is as essential and necessary to the Church and Constitution and binds all People in Ecclesiasticals as a Parliament does in Temporals I answer If the Clergy have another Right to make Canons besides the Will of the Legislative Power viz. a Divine Right their Canons would be valid without the King 's confirming them nor could an Act of Parliament abrogate or annul any of those Canons made by a Spiritual Authority which is so far from depending on theirs that the Parliament it self is subject to them in those Matters nor could they hinder them from sitting when and as long as they had a Mind to because they that have a Divine Right to make Ecclesiastical Laws must have the same Right to sit in order to make them which is but necessary to the making them and in a word they must be as absolute and independant in all things relating to Ecclesiasticals as the Lay-state is in Civils but there cannot be two Independant or Legislative Powers about the same or different things for then People would be obliged to obey contrary Commands about the same things or different Commands at the same Time which is impossible but that Power which can annul the Commands of the other must be able to command in all Cases and be alone Supreme because as great a Power is required to take off as to lay on If therefore the Civil Power can annul any Ecclesiastical Laws the Convocation can have no Power but what is dependant on theirs which they can abridg curtail or annul as they think fit therefore it 's absurd to pretend that a Convocation has the same Rights or Privileges or is as essential to the Constitution as a Parliament without whose Authority no Laws relating to Church or State can be made And a Convocation is so far from being necessary to make Laws for the Church that it 's usurping the Rights of the English Churches or Christian People of England who are to be tied up by no Laws about indifferent things which alone are subject to humane Empire whether of a Civil or Ecclesiastical Nature but by their own Consent given in Parliament And I know no Law of Christianity that deprives them of this Right which from the first spreading of the Gospel here they have always claimed There were no Laws in the British and Saxon Times that concerned the whole Church but as our Historians testify were made by the same Power that made the Temporal Laws and were put in execution by the same Persons The tearing the Ecclesiastical Power from the Temporal was the cursed Root of Antichrist those Powers were not distinct in England nor in most Nations till the See of Rome got the Ascendant then and not till then did the Clergy attempt to bind the Laity by those Laws they never consented to but their design was never brought to perfection for such was the Genius of a Government built upon this noble Foundation That no Man ought to be bound by a Law he does not consent to that as muffled up in Darkness and Superstition as our Ancestors were yet that Notion seemed to be so strongly engraven in their Nature that nothing could deface it and accordingly we often find them protesting that this and the other thing does not bind them because done without their Consent that they would not be bound by any Ordinances of the Clergy without their Assent that they would not subject themselves to the Clergy no more than their Ancestors had done And 25 H. 8. cap. 21. they tell the King that besides Acts of Parliament The People are bound by no other Laws but what they have taken at their free Liberty by their own Consent to be used amongst them and have bound themselves by long Vse and Custom to the observance of the same No marvel if we find this People submitting to nothing in Religion but what was ordained by themselves De majoribus omnes was one of their Fundamental Constitutions before they came hither and so it has continued to this Day and Matters of Religion were amongst their Majora even before they received Christianity And what neither the Pagan nor Popish Priests could cheat or scare them from our Author will find a hard Matter to harangue them out of If no Canon is valid that is contrary to the Custom or Law of this Realm How can a Canon oblige contrary to this most antient Custom and Fundamental part of the Constitution of the Peoples being obliged by no Laws but of their own making What 's become of the boasted English Liberty if they may be excommunicated and consequently imprisoned for Contempt or Disobedience to a Law they never made This I think is sufficient to show the Frivolousness of our Author's Reasons for making his Majesty guilty of the breach of his Coronation-Oath in denying those Rights to the Convocation he pretends are their due which I think I have proved to be contrary both to the Law of God and the Realm I shall therefore conclude praying that the God of Patience would grant that no Priests of this Man's Principles in or out of Convocation may hinder Men from being like-minded one to another nor disturb the Peace of Church or State FINIS Books sold by Andrew Bell at the Cross-Keys and Bible in Cornhil A New History of Ecclesiastical Writers Containing an Account of the Authors of the several Books of the Old and New Testament and the Lives and Writings of the Primitive Fathers An Abridgment and Catalogue of all their Works c. To which is added A Compendious History of the Councils c. Written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin Doctor of the Sorbon In seven Volumes Fol. A Detection of the Court and State of England during the four last Reigns and the Interregnum Consisting of Private Memoirs c. with Observations and Reflections And an Appendix discovering the present State of the Nation Wherein are many Secrets never before made publick as also a more impartial Account of the Civil Wars in England than has yet been given By Rog. Coke Esq The third Edition much corrected with an Alphabetical Table Advice to the Young or the Reasonableness and Advantages of an Early Conversion In three Sermons on Eccles. 12. 1. By Joseph Stennett His Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. John Belcher Scotland's Sovereignty asserted A Dispute whether the K. of Scots owes Homage to the K. of England Written in Latin by Sir Tho. Craig Translated by Geo. Ridpath with a Preface against Mr. Rymer Answ. 1. * D r. Burnet 's Hist. Reform Part 1. Col●ect N. 17. * Rot. Parl. 40 Edw. 3. Num. 7 8. Rot. Parl. 5. Edw. 3. Art 46. Rot. Parl. 6 Rich. 2. Num. 62. † Tacitus de Moribus Germanorum C. 11.

as make the Reformation it self criminal and which must unavoidably oblige a Man that acts agreeable to those Principles to return to the Popish Yoke as shall be demonstrated in my next Discourse It was these Principles that made the most judicious Person the Church could ever brag of the famous Chillingworth return to the Church of Rome and continue there a long time But what his Principles were upon leaving it and how inconsistent with that of High Church may be learn'd by what I have quoted of him And I could give an Instance of one who in the late Reign going into the World from the University where he had a long time imbibed these Notions of the Power of the Clergy and meeting with the Romish Priests who then were very busy they quickly show'd him the Inconsistency of the Reformation and the Protestant Religion with these Powers which had that Influence over him as to cause him who did not then suspect the falseness of those Notions owned by both Churches to join with them who are consistent with themselves in the Powers they claim until so many particular Absurdities in their Practice made him happily examine these Notions which had like to have cost him dear for refusing to join with them after Candlemass 87 and receiving the Sacrament the next Opportunity the Easter after in his College Chappel it exposed him to the Malice and Revenge of the Popish Priests then in the height of their Prosperity who of all Men will the least spare a relapsed Heretick But why do I instance in Particulars since it 's these extravagant Notions of the Clergy's Power the support the Romish Cause and make thousands embrace that Religion for Men with scorn and contempt reject contradictory and inconsistent Opinions But of these things more fully in my next Discourse where I doubt not to demonstrate as far as a thing of such a Nature is capable that the Clergy are so far from having these Powers by the Law of God that there is no Power or Jurisdiction whatever belongs to them by that Law But to return 9. I 'll demand of this Author Should a Convocation determine contrary to his Judgment which may easily enough be supposed since he saith P. 7. That there is no Order Degree or Place amongst us wholly free from the Infection of undermining or overthrowing the Catholick Faith whether he could or were it in his Power would renounce his Faith for the sake of the casting Voice or Voices in a Convocation If he dares not say he will prostitute his Belief at so vile a Rate Why should he suppose others either should or would do so Tho I believe he may assure himself that there 's none amongst those he calls infected so little Christians and Protestants but what think they ought to be able to give a better Account and Reason of their Faith than the Determination of a Convocation now-a-day especially when they know that not only Particular but General Councils have constantly made their Market of their Faith and always sold it to the fairest Chapmen and that it was a meer Accident that established the present Orthodoxy Theodosius being bred that Way and so resolved to force his Subjects to be of the same Sentiments and his living a long time so as to survive most of the Hereticks was the Cause that there were no more Emperors to make the Christian World become again Arian And the Cruelty used to establish Orthodoxy would at the same Rate have established Mahometism So that the mere Authority of a Convocation can no ways influence Hereticks who by being out of the Church show how little they value the Authority of Church-men And for any Power by which they might be forced he very honestly owns the Church has none over them For P. 27. you pretend not to meddle with those without nor to exercise any Act of Jurisdiction over them but only to frame Rules and Decisions that shall hold within your selves and to govern and judg your own Members And the Design of a Convocation is it seems to censure some of the Church and make them retract their Opinions For P. 13. as long as these Books pass uncensured and unretracted under the Stile and Name of Men of great Place and Character in the Church the Mischief which the Authority they have yet left with some Men may be able to do is not sufficiently prevented nor the Scandal wiped off from our Church and Nation But what can be more scandalous to the Church and Nation than to force People to lie both to God and Man by making them retract those Opinions they believe to be true And nothing can be more abominable than this constant practice of the Clergy in making Men solemnly and publickly disown what in their Hearts they still believe and this is generally done without the least colour of convincing them nay without giving them any new Arguments or any further Time to consider and lest they should relapse as they call it that is dare to be no longer Hypocrites they threaten them with greater Punishments and even Death it self So that if this be the Business of a Convocation I know not a more compendious way of making Men Villains I have been the longer insisting on this Point to show that the very End and Reason that the Author pretends for the Sitting of a Convocation and the Powers he saith belong to them of judging of Religious Doctrines for the People and enforcing Submission and Obedience to their Determinations concerning them are Antiprotestant and Antichristian and consequently not to be permitted in any Protestant Country 10. It 's one of the most important Duties incumbent on the Clergy as I have shown Par. 2. Chap. 6. to take care that Differences of Opinions which in this State of Darkness and Ignorance are unavoidable should not destroy Love and Charity nor disturb the Peace of the Church by erecting Schisms and Divisions But the Pious Clergy so far from doing this have made the direct contrary their almost sole Business by imposing their own Conceptions instead of the Word of God on the People and by industriously contriving such Expressions as are the likeliest to create Divisions and then cursing damning persecuting and ruining them for those Divisions themselves were the sole Cause of and this has been their constant Practice in their Synods and Councils And therefore it 's not at all strange that that Great and Good Man the late ABp should say what P. 8. of the Letter is objected to him That he never knew any Good come from those sort of Meetings But he is not the only Person has said it for Gregory Nazianzen Epist. 55. has long ago said when Heresy was more universal than now it is That he was resolved to avoid all Assemblies of Bishops because he never saw a Synod that had any Success but what did rather encrease than lessen the Evil without any Exaggeration the Spirit of Dispute