Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	king_n	power_n	supremacy_n	2,252	5	10.5244	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66932	A little stone, pretended to be out of the mountain, tried, and found to be a counterfeit, or, An examination & refutation of Mr. Lockyers lecture, preached at Edinburgh, anno 1651, concerning the mater of the visible church and afterwards printed with an appendix for popular government of single congregations : together with an examination, in two appendices, of what is said on these same purposes in a letter of some in Aberdene, who lately have departed from the communion and government of this church / by James Wood ...	Wood, James, 1608-1664.	1654 (1654)	Wing W3399; ESTC R206983	330,782	402

Church-Government is a Democratie all are Elders and Officers and Pastors and Teachers and Rulers alike and then what needs different names and stations when these as to distinct power signifie nothing Ans We do justly charge that way of Church Government maintained by the Author and his Associates with this that it sets up such a Democratie or popular Government in the Church condemned by the French Church in Morellius Which also Independents themselves would fain seem to disclaime but it will not be for them The Author is pleased in his wisdome to propound the Argument for evidencing this as slightly as he could But let him take it thus That Government in the Church wherein albeit there be such as bear the name of Officers and Rulers yet not only all the power of Government is placed in the body of the people as in the first and proper subject thereof and not in their Officers But also the whole body of the people formally and authoritatively concur and act in the exercise of all the acts of Government at least all acts of jurisdiction so that all maters of this kind are caried and determined by the authoritative suffrage consent and dissent of the people nothing therein being left to the Officers as Officers but to preside and moderate the body of the people in their authoritative acting or may be to prepare and ripen maters for their authoritative decision and to be their mouth to declare the sentence determined by their authority yea and wherein the body of the people may authoritatively call all the Officers to a judiciall account judicially cognosce upon their Administration censure degrade yea and Excommunicate them all together such a Church Government must needs be Democraticall or popular and therein all are Rulers and therein different names and stations signifie nothing I say not simply but as Mr. Lockier as to any distinct power of Authority If any will deny the connexion of this proposition I beseech such to give a description of a popular Government Sure I am that the very Government of Athens it self the most popular and Democratricall that we read of was never more popular then that which we have expressed in the Antecedent or first part of the proposition But now the Church Government maintained by the Author and his Associates is such in every one of these points expressed as is undenyably evident both by their Doctrine and practice Ergo c. section 3 Now what answers the Author to this Objection He brings us a number of words clouted up unhandsomely enough out of Hookers Surv. Par. 1. c. 11. which I think not worth the while to insist particularly upon Briefly the summe of all comes to this He tells us there is a power of Judging to take in and to cast out Members to exert Office he means to confer Office or to degrade from Office which he calls essential or fundamental power And there is the maner of managing this and exerting it He expresseth it also To declare act and exercise judgment in the name of the rest which he calls organicall power and Potestas Officii particularis And tells us that that former power is common to the whole Church Elders and fraternity The latter is in the Elders yet I cannot understand how this can stand with what he saith that it lyeth formally in one But be it so And so their to wit the Elders power is distinctly usefull and significative Ans To passe by here the exagitating of that distinction of a power essentiall and a power organicall the absurdity whereof in Philosophy might be shown abundantly might we stay upon every such triffle and other such minutias Here to the main purpose in hand 1. To talk of and suppose a power of judging in taking in and casting out investing Officers and degrading them belonging to the people and also exercised by them formally meaning as he doth of authoritative judging is but a supposing and begging the main thing in Question The place 1. Cor. 5. 12. proves it not Tho the Epistle be written to the whole Church of Corinth yet not every command and direction there relates to all and every one in that Church as to act formally in the work commanded or required We say that command of casting out the incestuous person judicially respects the Officers of that Church only See this made good by Mr. Rutherfurd Due Right pag. 36 37. Gul. Apollon Consider of certain controv c. 4. pag. 64 65 66. Mr. Lockiers Argument to the contrary is weak The Apostle sayeth cast out from among you But the incestuous person was not only amongst the Elders but among the people What a poor Argument is this Then it should follow that the Women and the Children should judicially and authoritatively voiced in the Excommunication of the incestuous person For he was not only amo●gst the men but also amongst the Women and Children These sure were a part of the people So then certainly the Apostle here cast out from amongst you tho Writing to the Church of Corinth in generall in the Epistle yet in this particular command must be understood to be spe king with relation to such in the Church as were invested with a morall capacity of power and authority to act that which he was commanding 2. When he sayeth the power of judging is common to the whole Church Elders and fraternity it s but a fallacy as to Elders For in effect Elders as Elders by his way have no power of judging As such they have only the manner of managing the judgement 3. When he expresseth the act of essentiall power as he calleth it competent to the whole Church thus Some to judge and then the act of the Originall or Officiall power thus Some to declare act and exercise that judgement I would aske him what he meaneth by acting and exercising judgement Either it must be the determining of the judgement But that is nothing else but judging it self which belongeth to the essentiall power of the whole body Or he must understand the execution of the sentence as for example shunning the company of the Excommunicat But that is no act of Office-power nor of authority but is common to all the Church Men and Women Or he must understand the publick uttering and pronouncing the sentence of judgement But that is just all one with declaring and to call this acting and exercising of judgement is very abusive speaking Except these words be used otherwise in English Language then I know of But 4. The chiefest thing I would observe is that the Author in saying much to the objection propounded has said just nothing but in effect yeelded it wholly For when as he sayeth that the power and exercise of judging to wit authoritatively for of this and not of judging by way of privat discretion is the present discourse belongeth equally to all the Church and that the matter of managing this only belongeth to the Officers

Concerning CHVRCH-GOVERNMENT And what is said for Confirmation thereof I Have been I confesse well long upon the Examination of Mr. Lockiers Lecture because I found not so clear and distinct handling of that mater in others as I could have wished and I thought it expedient that in regard he speaks with so great a deal of confidence in it and others made so much noise of it and this new-fangle itching-ear'd age is ready to take with every new fancy busked up with gay words and like children to be carried about with every wind of doctrine In this regard I thought it expedient the more fully to discover the weaknesse and unsatisfactorinesse of his alledgeances therein I shall not need nor mind I to insist so largely upon the Appendix * I mean as to every particular Question handled here For here are more particular questions handled The mater therein touched viz. What is the proper subject of Ecclesiastick Authority and Government And whether there be an union of more Congregations and Churches under one common Presbytery has been already so learnedly and fully cleared by others that it were but needlesse labour for me to insist on it And I confesse I mervail much that Mr. Lockier should have presented the world with so sory a discourse upon these maters as I think every judicious Reader will perceive this Appendix to be when as there are abroad so learned Tractats and Debates on them Alwayes we must be at the pains to animadvert upon this part of the Stone too else the world should be made believe we were fell'd dead with it But we shall do it as briefly as to particulars as we may and shall refer M. Lockier to such Pieces as are written already for further businesse and work to him as occasion shall require Mr. Lockiers APPENDIX SECTION I. section 2 HIs first Assertion is this That the Eldership which is within the particular Congregation is not in most weighty things to exert power without the consent and approbation of the Church whereof they are By things most weighty I mean these things which are most essentiall to the state of a visible Church as admission of Members ordination of Officers and excommunication of either section 3 'T is worthy Observation how the Author manages this mater of his first Assertion the point he propounds to be proven is that the Eldership of a Congregation may not in most weighty maters exert power without the consent and approbation of the Church and for proof of this his first Argument SECT 2. is an allegeance that the power of the Keyes was primarly given to the Church of believers as the subject thereof Math. 16. 16. which allegeance he is pleased to passe with a very light and slight shew of a proof as if it were a mater of small Debate Whether thus he has done from deliberate and advised policy to shun Debate upon that which is the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Question about Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction and to make his common Readers the more favourable to his part as pretending only to dispute for interest of consent and approbation to them in acts of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastick of greatest concernment and indeed as mans pride naturally carries him with a desire to have a finger in rule so it is a plausible subject to speak for it to him or if he has done it from some other principle I will not determine Let the judicious Reader conjecture what he thinks most likely Only I must say it seemeth to me a very strange and irrationall way of procedure to take so great pains and make so much adoe as Mr. Lockier doth here in pleading for a certain condition of persons formall interest and concurrence in acts and the exercise of jurisdiction and to make this the Question or conclusion to be insisted on And mean while to take it almost for granted without proof or at most in a slight overly word to alledge that they are chiefly invested with that power and authority from which these acts must flow when as he knoweth at least might have known that his adversaries not only deny but by many considerable Arguments goes about to demonstrate that that condition of persons never were invested with never received such a power or authority from him to whom it belongeth originally Mr. Lockier does just here as if a Papist or Jesuite going about to Dispute the Controversie concerning the Popes supremacy should be taken up all along the Dispute in bringing some topical Arguments that this and that and the other act of supremacy as calling of oecumenicall Counsels to be presiding in them finall and infallible determining of controversies in Religiō c. ought to be performed by the Pope of Rome And mean while should misken the Question if ever Christ gave him a grant of power and authority to perform these things but only suppose it be so or content himself to cite for it as it were in transitu Tibi dabo claves or Pasce oves meas as if it were out of question clear that these places held forth a soveraigne power and authority over all things and persons Ecclesiastick in Peter yea and in every Pope of Rome bestowed on them by Christ I think a judicious adversary might well laugh at a Papists disputing after such a manner And so may any judicious man at M● Lockiers manner and method of disputing here contending much in some topicall Arguments to prove that the people ought to have an hand in such and such acts of Government and mean while slight proving that they have the power and authority to govern granted them by Christ I think a rationall disputant would have laboured first and mainly about this And indeed were this made once clear we should soon be at an agreement about the acts and exercises of government once prove the forme or habit to be in such a subject and there will be no question about the acts thereof whether they be competent to that subject or not If any man shall say for him here that by shewing such and such acts to be competent to the people it is proven consequently à posteriori that the habit or power from which these acts do flow is in them I answer if that had been his intention so he might have done But then he should not alledged the inexistency of the power as a medium to prove that these acts are competent to them as he doth in his 1. Arg. for this is nothing else but to run in a round but we must apply our selves to follow his method section 4 To speak a word then to the first Assertion I will not question the an sit or being of the subject of this Assertion Whether there be de jure and of Divine institution an Eldership or Presbyterie within a particular Congregation i. e. a Colledge of Elders belonging to one single Congregation by it self having power of Government and exercising Ecclesiastick