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
A81829	The povver of the Christian magistrate in sacred things Delivered in some positions, sent to a friend, upon which, a returne of his opinion was desired. With some considerations, upon the answer; and a digression concerning allegiance, and submission to the supreame magistrate. By Lewis du Moulin, History-reader of the University of Oxford.	Du Moulin, Lewis, 1606-1680.	1650 (1650)	Wing D2551; Thomason E1366_4; ESTC R209267	40,736	161

the execution of the canons the consent of the Emperours was never expected I say that the Emperours themselves understood that their consent was not required in the execution of the canons which as they were Acts of his so might he disannull them adde to them or repeale them by his Soveraign Authority he had over all persons and causes In the year 815. Charles the great is said to have added something of his owne to the decrees of the Synod held in Theodon Towne hoc de nostro adijcimus and for the authority of the supreame Magistrate in altering changing or expunging the decrees of Synods Bochellus saith that Charles the Bald did reject a great part of what was set forth in Synods by the Bishops in the yeare 856. and that it was the usuall custome when ever Synods were assembled that their decrees were not ratified till the King in his Privy Councell had approved of them the said King taking away what he disliked as it was practised by the Councels of Tours and Cabilon under Charles the Great and as P. Pithoeus hath proved fully And for the Power of the Soveraigne Magistrate to make his Laws as valid as canons and as authenticall as Synods decrees I would goe no further for a witnesse then what is related by the Agents and Orators of the Councell of Trent as may be seen amongst the Acts. The most Christian Kings say they have made many decrees about sacred things following the examples of Constantine Theodosius Valentinian Justinian and other Christian Emperors and ordained severall Ecclesiastical Lawes which they have put amongst their owne decrees But that the execution of the ancient canons were as much acts of the Emperours as the execution of decrees made in Chancery or other Courts are acts of the Soveraign Magistrate though he never heares of it It can be easily proved by the liberty that the Soveraigne Powers have always kept to themselves to dispence with pennances imposed by the canons Gervasius a Bishop being excommunicated was againe received to the communion by Juo Carnutensis by the order and appointment of the King of France Philip the 1. This scandalized other Bishops whereupon Juo though a great friend to the Popes in a letter to his fellow-Bishops justifieth himselfe and the King saying That the Assembly of Priests and people ought to receive to the communion whom the Kings piety hath thought worthy of it In the like language speaketh John Bishop of Rome in the 181 Epistle to Justinian I beseech your Clemency to receive them to the unity of the Church and to your communion if they will forsake their errour Letter THose Reformers have believed that the change of Religion in Soueraign Princes could not take away what Jesus Christ had given them although it was a change for the better They remembred Christs words commanding him that hath received an offence of his neighbour to tell it to the Church that is to the assembly of Pastors and Rulers of the Churches and they were perswaded that this comand was perpetuall and to remaine in force to the end of the world When the Lord bestowed upon his Disciples the gift of working Miracles and speaking Tongues In this gift they have not had any successors because the miracles done by the Apostles are usefull to this day to confirme and strengthen the Gospel but the graces and callings granted for the peace of conscience and for reconciling penitent sinners and maintaining the Church in good order ought to be perpetuall and the Apostles were meerly trusted with them that they should transmit them to Posterity and it is certain that the pardon granted by the Apostles to some in their times namely to the Corinthian incestuous person cannot be of use to sinners of these dayes these graces and actions being personall The same Reformers have considered that as there are various turns of the things of this world and the wils of the great ones of the world are subject to mutability it may fall out that in a country where the Magistrate is Orthodox the same Magistrate may come to be an heretick idolater or persecutor and therefore it is not expedient that the spirituall graces and callings should depend of the instability of temporall things and of the changes which may happen in States and Common-wealths If so be the Pastors under an Orthodox Magistrate had resigned to him the power of the keyes no doubt but the Magistrate Idolater who succeedeth would not permit the Pastors of the Church to resume the authority which they so willingly did forgoe Consideration VVHether the Magistrate be Orthodox or no the maine duty and action of a Christian depends not of the Magistrate as to feare God and keep his commandements to bebeleeve in Jesus Christ yea even when the Magistrate is most averse he cannot hinder the last action of martyrdome from being an honourable badge of Jesus Christ sealing the truth of the Gospel with his bloud Now whereas the letter saith that had the Pastors quitted the power of the keyes to an Orthodox Magistrate a succeeding Magistrate that were an idolater would not permit them to resume it there can be no such fear for as an orthodox Magistrate permitting for some reasons of State an Idolatrous religion wil either disdain or make a scruple of conscience to have a hand in regulating an Idolatrous worship but will leave to the Professours the whole ordering of their Religion so it be not to the disturbance of the State In like manner will an Idolatrous Magistrate deal with Orthodox Christians within his Dominions and not so much vouchsafe to know what is that power of the Keyes much lesse to have the handling of them If he can but hold the Sword it matters little to him who handles the Keyes Letter I Wish the Authour of the Articles had explained himself more fully and since he is of opinion that the Pastours under a faithfull and orthodox Magistrate ought in obedience to God to render to him that power which they had under a Magistrate of contrary Religion he had alledged some places of Scripture proving that such a command is laid upon them that God may be obeyed Consideration COmmon sence teacheth us that when a Prince either through incapacity ignorance or minority knoweth not the extent of his just power he may upon knowledge thereof extend it further and behave himselfe otherwise upon better thought or instruction Thus if a Prince being a heathen knoweth not that his chief duty and office is to govern adorn and defend the Christian Religion and people and to promote the salvation of those which are under his Government who doubts but afterwards giving his name to Christ he is above all other cares obliged to care what heretofore he did not know to concern his care and if when he was a heathen the Pastours did supply that wherin he was deficient there is no question to be made when afterwards he is a Christian but

administer justice impartially though any or all of them may faile in the discharge of their duty The King being a persecutor of the christian people instead of being their nursing Father the Father leaving his children to the wide world and the Judge taking bribes and being prepossessed with prejudices If mens sins should exempt exempt them from their duty a wicked mans duty should be never to be converted None will say 't is not the duty of a Governor of a strong hold to defend it although he lets in the enemy without resistance That 't is not the office of a Magistrate to look to the safety of the high wayes because he either neglects that care or conniveth at such as doe commit robbery For the second ground Suppose that the Soveraigne Power doth not impose any Law or rather suppose his Lawes are unjust shall a man under such a power live lawlesse or shall not rather such a man being a Christian be tied to be a Law unto himselfe or rather to make the word of God a Law to his conscience Sure such a man must not expect the commands of the Soveraign Power to abstain from stealing or fornication which may be are authorised by Law but must avoid these not for wrath that is not for fear of punishment but for conscience sake as the Apostle speaketh thus when Christ commandeth the Ministers to preach baptise c. and the people not to forsake their mutuall Assembly no doubt but that both the Christian Pastor and people are bound to all Church duties though they have the Soveraign power opposite and threatning all kind of punishment to those that exercise them If those in authority be wanting to their duty I have no reason or ground to be deficient in mine As for the third ground concerning meetings assemblies c. I say that they may be such as though it should be granted on all sides that the Church and States Jurisdiction were but one that the very Soveraign power needs not to pretend to have an eye over them It being a kind of right of nature for Merchants trading in the same commodity to meet for acquaintance to appoint a Randezvous A man being a feciable creature it is no marvell if men are naturally desirous to converse together without expecting any order for so doing Were not the Heteries and Meetings of the ancient Christians of the same nature And upon that account I see not but the Meetings of congregations of those called Independents are very commendable and not to be enquired after by the Soveraigne Magistrate nor by Synods which cannot be proved to be of Divine institution but have taken their originall from those kinds of naturall and innocent meetings which when they were about things which were neither plots nor conspiracy to disturb the peace of the State needed not to be looked after by the Magistrate except when being converted to the Christian Religion he became himself a principall member of those meettings for then specially when the meetings are not onely in houses but in publick places and are tending to have the holy Ordinances set up and published as the main rule of life and ground-work of humane society his chief duty was to govern the Empire as Christian contributing his whole endevour towards the defence maintenance and encrease of the Christian Religion Thus Leo Bishop of Rome Ep. 75. to Leo the Emperour Debes incunctanter advertere Regiam potestatem tibi non solum ad mundi regimen sed maxime ad Ecclesiae praesidium esse collocatam Thou oughtest soberly to consider that the Royall power is not onely committed to thee for the Government of the world but chiefly for the defence of the Church Letter ALL the difficulty then is concerning the Orthodox Magistrate and one that is endowed with the true knowledge of God such as by the mercies of God the Magistrate of England is upon that the fifth Article saith that the Reformers have indeed purged the Popish Doctrine but have reserved to themselves the Soveraigne cognizance of the actions they call Ecclesiasticall challenging the power of the Keyes which when all is said is reduced to this sentence that God must be rather obeyed then men The Authour of the Articles thinks that the Reforming Pastors in retaining the power of the Keyes have not obeyed God he doth indeed acknowledge that under a Prince of contrary Religion the Christian people have done well to establish a government which they call purely Ecclesiasticall and create Elders who are deputies of the people but he is of that opinion that where the Magistrate is of the same Religion with the body of the people there ought not to be any further distinction of Jurisdiction the Church and State concurring into one Christian common-wealth To be short all his discourse is tending to that viz. that in a State where the Magistrate is Orthodox the Keyes and power which the Pastors had under Magistrates of contrary Religion doth no longer belong to them but doth onely belong to the Soveraigne Magistrate whose power is over all persons and things and that in all Assemblies Synods and Classes the conclusions have no force if they be not ratified by the will of the Supreme Magistrate by whom they usually are assembled Consideration VVHat he saith from the Author of the articles that where the Supream Magistrate becomes Orthodox the power of the Keyes doth no longer belong to the Ministers ought to be understood with some explication for the power of the Keyes is still and ought to be the same whether the Magistrate be orthodox or no there is not in the Ministers any addition of that power under the heathen Magistrate nor any substraction of it under a Christian suppose that the Christian Magistrate and Orthodox should turn Apostate I do not conceive that it follows thereupon that the power which the Christian Magistrate hath over the Church is through his Apostacy devolved unto the Ministers for that Legislation or Iurisdiction practised in Christian Congregations Synods or Assemblies under the heathen Magistrate is no more then a harmony of minds affections and actions to holy ordinances and orders by which Christians may worship God more purely and walk more closely with him which ordinances are either Gods word or such as encrease the power of piety and as they are published by common consent as the best rule to walk by so are they in the practise of them willingly and unanimously consented unto and every member of a Christian society submitteth himself to the rules exhortations and censures of that society or Church not being awed or compelled by any coercive power which they cannot avoid if they listed but led by voluntary submission to which by promise and pact they are in a manner already engaged Besides suppose that the Magistrate doth not impose any Lawes to restrain ungodlinesse or the currant sins in the world yea suppose that vices are authorised by Law doth either

persons are subject to the Soveraigne Magistrate in whose hands God hath put the Sword and that he hath power over the lives and goods of the Pastours of the Church and may iustly punish them when they are perturbators of the publick peace and become obnoxious by their wicked lives that the duty of the Magistrate is to restrain them if they behave themselves tyrannically in the use of the Keyes and break the peace of the State Consideration THis alone is sufficient to evince that in a Christian Common-wealth there can be but one Soveraigne power over all persons causes and actions for it is absurd to conceive that the Supream Magistrate hath power over the person of the Minister and not over the actions and causes for which he may and must be punished by the said Magistrate and 't is no lesse absurd to conceive that the Magistrate may justly put to death a Minister or punish him with banishment yet may not have the power to degrade him it being a rule in philosophy that if the whole be in the power much more a part of the whole and if the same Supream Magistrate may justly degrade him who doubts but he may as justly challenge to himself the right of choosing him else which is all one as if he had chosen the Pastour himself he may put by not onely the said Pastour but so many one after another as are substituted by the power they call Ecclesiasticall till the Pastor chosen be according to his owne mind Letter ANd because it might fall out that in Nationall and Provincial Synods the overseers of Churches should transgresse the limits of their calling and meddle with civill affaires in which the Civill Magistrate is interessed it stands with reason that these Synods be not convened without the will and consent of the Soveraign the ancient Emperours have yet done more then that for in the universall Councils they have been present as Constantine in the Council of Nicaea and Marcian at the opening of the Chalcedoine Council or in their stead they have sent Earls Patrices or Consuls as we may see in the Acts of the Council of Chalcedoine and the II. Councill of Nicaea in the said Acts we see that the said Patrices and Earles abated the insolency of some Bishops and commanded them absolutely The title given them by the Councill was Gloriosissimi Iudices Consideration THis likewise proveth the necessity of one Soveraigne power over all persons meetings causes and actions Synods being assemblies of wise and learned Councellours to advise the Supream power in matters of Doctrine and Discipline as the Supream Magistrates power is to call them so to determine the members that are called to it as Marsilius Patavinus saith Generale concilium convocare personas ad hoc idoneas determinare pertinet ad Legislatoris authoritatem part 2. cap. 20. and not onely so he only doth preside and reserveth himself the facultie of approving disproving examining and rejecting what he thinks fit even after the Synod is broken up and their conclusions and Canons are ratified by him as the Ecclesiasti-Historie tells us Letter AS for decisions of points touching Doctrine of faith although the Emperours never iudged of these matters yet did they maintain their authority giving Judges to whom they commanded to decide the differences as Constantine did when the Donatists came to complain to him for he gave them some Bishops for Judges to whose Judgement they not yielding he called a Councill to pronounce a definitive sentence but these Judges which the Emperour gave to decide matter of Doctrine were alwayes Bishops and Ecclesiasticall persons by that means the Emperonr kept his authority over Bishops Consideration OBserve that not the Churches nor the Synods but the Emperour nameth the Judges The difference was betwixt the Donatists and other Bishops of Africa the Donatists with a great deale of submission besought the Emperor to give them Judges out of France The Emperour gave them 3 French and with them Miltiades Bishop of Rome 'T is here further to be observed that as the Letter saith the Donatists did not condescend to the determinations of the 4 Judges which is not to be understood as if they rejected the sentence of the Judges or of the Emperor as issued from incompetent Judges or appealed to a Synod for quite contrary they appealed to the Emperour who indeed thereupon called another Synod to compose the controversie which was about Caecilianus accused by the Donatists of many crimes and to have been unduly elected from that Synod in which they were condemned they appealed againe to the Emperor who for the second time called another Councill at Arles of which the Donatists not being satisfied that Caecilianus should be confirmed in his Sea of Carthage appealed the third time from the Councill to the Emperour who condemned the Donatists and banished them Neither were the Donatists ignorant that the decision of the Emperour should be the ultimate definitive judgment And the very Bishops did use to give account of what passed in Synods Thus Constantine called the Bishops convened at Tyr to him to give an account of what passed in the Assembly Among the Councils of France we read that the heads of the debates in Synods were referred ad sacratissimum judicium that is the counsell of the King or rather the King himselfe and that in the year 813. the addresses to Charles the Great doe refer the determinations of the Councell to be examined amended and confirmed by him and that by his wisedome he would vouchsafe to supply what had beene wanting on their part Letter IF the Soveraigne Counsill be minded to reserve to himself the decision of points of Doctrine and of all Ecclesiasticall affaires it were in that case needfull that the Councill should be composed partly of Pastors and Doctors and Ecclesiasticall persons skilled in these matters as it was practised in the Palatinate afore the late troubles which is confirmed by the example alledged by the Author of the Articles We find saith he that in the Common-wealth of the Jewes in one onely Synedrium all causes were decided and all kinds of persons might be convented In this Synedrium the Nasi was President who usually was the High Priest and most in it were Priests or Levites The same thing was practised in England before these late alterations there being a Soveraign Counsell called the High Commission in which the Arch-bishop was President to whom were joyned in Commission as Assessors some Counsellors at Law of the Country Consideration 'T Is sufficiently granted that though it be admitted that Ecclesiasticall and Civill causes are belonging to two distinct Jurisdictions yet they may confluere in unum and be made of two one under one single Soveraign Power That the Powers were not divided in the Common-wealth of the Jewes it may be easily gathered by the Story of the Jewes from Moses to the Captivity Moses himselfe was a Soveraigne Judge in all causes