Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	peter_n	pope_n	successor_n	2,110	5	8.9988	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91392	The true grounds of ecclesiasticall regiment set forth in a briefe dissertation. Maintaining the Kings spirituall supremacie against the pretended independencie of the prelates, &c. Together, vvith some passages touching the ecclesiasticall power of parliaments, the use of synods, and the power of excommunication.	Parker, Henry, 1604-1652.	1641 (1641)	Wing P428; Thomason E176_18; ESTC R212682	61,943	101

was not the learning and knowledge of all Bishops at his command to be imployed as if it were his owne Bishops themselves might erre and dissent and in that point many of them did erre and hold against the truth and without his ayde this division was irreconcileable but by his influence and superintendence truth might obtaine a faire tryall and Bishops themselves might be convinced by Bishops This case in Divinity might be too intricate for his sole judgment and too pondrous for his actuall determination but what he could not doe single and personally Hee might well effect by the counsell and advice of his most moderate and disinteressed Clergie for in Divinity the Prince is as in juridicall or Martiall affaires As he is not alwayes the ablest Divine so neither is he the ablest Lawyer nor the ablest Souldier and yet by the advice of Divines Lawyers and Souldiers He may conclude that wisely which neither He without them nor they without him could ever have concluded Therefore against this remisse cold slacknesse and haesitancy of Valentinian we may oppose the politike and couragious resolution of Constantine Theodosius and diverse other pious Emperors who all did compose debates and end controversies and vindicate Truth and Religion from many errors and abuses wch otherwise had bin endlesse and remedilesse After the first 5. or 6. hundred yeares Episcopacy began to invade the rights of Royalty by the Sophistications and impostures of the See of Rome and till this last Age Princes almost every where did blindly and superstitiously too farre abandon their owne right but by the light of Nature the wisest Kings in all Countryes were ever the most refractory and most impatient of the Popes tyranny and in the most ignorant times some there were found that made resistance to the same Much bloud was shed upon this Theme in diverse other Countries and even in our own stories we find that though England was prone otherwise to be the Popes Asse yet in the quarrell of supremacy it was jealous and had almost perpetuall conflicts I will only cite one story Henry the second was a very puissant Prince and in all other things except only Ecclesiasticall He was fortunate and victorious but his misery was that He raigned in such an Age as the Pope was in his Zenith and had to doe with Becket of all the Popes dependents the most seditious Henry the first his Grandfather out of the greatnesse of his Spirit and wit had passed these Lawes That no Appeal should stand That no Bishops should go out of the Realme That no Tenant in Capite should bee excommunicated That no officiall of the Kings should be interdicted without the Kings leave and consent And that Clergimen should be subject to secular judgement and that Lay-men under the King should judge of Tythes and other causes Ecclesiasticall At these just and necessary Lawes the Clergie hitherto rested quiet if not contented but now a most rebellious Becket arises to spurne against them and in his mouth they are dangerous incroachments and breaches upon the Church Rather than hee will subscribe to these so long establisht Lawes He departs the Kingdome in contempt of the King and with all violence and bitternesse that may bee incenses the Pope the King of France and all the Italian and French Bishops against his naturall Lord The King at first gallantly relyes upon the edge of his temporall sword and whets it sharper in behalfe of his legall prerogative and for some yeares together stands out against the danger of the Popes confounding blow but at last when Becket the fierce Traytor was slaine through the execrations and anathemas of the Pope and by the threats and exclamations of the King of France and diverse other Bishops and Potentates He is beaten from his ground swearing fealty to the Pope and his successors and admitting of Appeales to Rome Long it was before hee would submit himselfe in this contestation betwixt a subject and himselfe to the Romish Tribunall or yeeld to any condemnation being untryed and unheard and it appeares by the Popes forbearance of his last thūderbolt that the Pope was diffident in his power and durst not sentence him if He had not yeelded before the sentence But I leave Popery come now to our reformed times The dead time of night being now over Luther began to crow in Germany and to give notice of light ready to dawn upon the Earth and no sooner did that light appeare but that diverse Princes began to awake and to shake off that blind servitude of Rome which had so long layne upon them and lock'd up their senses like a deepe sleepe How be it the light was not alike welcome to all some fully and wholly gave it entertainement others opened some Curtaines onely and so yeelded themselves to a little further slumber Henry the eighth here in England was well pleased with that Doctrine which discovered his owne independence and the weakenesse of the Popes Prerogative but those further monstrous deformed errors and superstitions of Rome which are founded upon its absolute Prerogative and are as inconsistent with light as the Prerogative it selfe He tooke no delight to looke upon So farre as his owne interest and worldly advantage was represented by the beames of the Gospell so farre his eyes thought it amiable And so farre Bishop Gardiner though a Bishop was ready to assist him but so farre as his spirituall interest and the generall advantage of his Subjects was concerned so farre Hee and Gardiner both could remaine as blind as Sir Thomas More T is wonderfull that so sharp-sighted a man as Sir Thomas More was should lay downe his life in justification of the Popes supremacie but t is more wonderfull that Gardiner should see the weakenesse of that supremacie and yet still adhere to diverse other Popish superstitions as absurdly resulting from the same principles The State of Venice also out of meere policy has long been at defiance with the Court of Rome so farre as meere rules of Government guide and direct it but in all other spirituall delusions and impostures it is as dead as heavie-eyed as ever Spaine France and Germany also though they speake not the same yet they now doe the same as Venice they all shut up and impale the Popes Authority within Peters Patrimony leaving him no command but within his owne Italian territories and yet besides his authority they cast off nothing else so much doe we generally esteeme Earth before Heaven and our temporall advantages before the subsistance of our soules But let reason of State bee what it will The Parliament here agrees to annex to the Crowne of Henry the eighth and his successors whatsoever sole independent power was before challenged in Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall things by the Pope or any Church-Man whatsoever And Hooker seemes both to confesse and justifie the same for sayes H Our Kings of England when they are to take possession of the Crown have it

THE TRUE GROUNDS OF Ecclesiasticall Regiment SET FORTH In a breife Dissertation Maintaining the Kings spirituall supremacie against the Pretended Independencie of the PRELATES c. TOGETHER VVith some passages touching the Ecclesiasticall Power of Parliaments the use of Synods and the Power of Excommunication LONDON Printed for Robert Bostock 1641. The Divine Right of Episcopacie refuted IN this Controversie about Episcopacie by reason of many mistakes of either side much time hath beene spent to little purpose and the right and truth is yet as farre imbosked and buried in darknesse as ever it was Me thinks the case is as if two well imbattail'd Armies had marched forth for a mutuall encounter but both not taking the same way there never was yet any meeting in any one certain place where this great strife might bee decided These mistakes and misadventures on both sides as I conceive have happened for want of an exact and adequate definition of Episcopacie first set downe and agreed upon by both and then by both equally pursued It shall be therefore my care at this time to begin with a definition of Episcopacy and that such a one as I shall take out of Bishop Hall one of the greatest asserters and in that the noblest of Episcopacy and that which hee indevours to maintaine as being of Divine right I according to my power shall indeavour to disprove The first definition given by the same Bishop is this Episcopacy is an holy Order of Church-government for the administration of the Church This definition I hold to be too large and unadequate for the determining of this doubt for Calvins discipline may according to this definition be called Episcopacy and it may be affirmed that Episcopacie has bin in all ages since God had never yet any Church wherein was not some holy Order of Church discipline for better ruling of the same And by the way I must here professe to shake off and neglect the mentioning or answering of any thing which the Patrons of Episcopacie have alledged and stuft their volumes withall in defence of Order and disparity in the Church for let our Adversaries be never so clamorous in this point yet it is manifest that no Church was ever yet so barbarous as to plead for anarchy or a meere equalitie neither did Calvin ever favour any such parity as was inconsistent with Order and government neither do we see any such confusion introduced into Geneva it selfe as our Hierarchists seem to gainsay To let passe all impertinent vagaries our dispute must be not whether Church politie be necessary or no but whether that Church policy which is now exercised in England be necessary unalterable or no And not whether such parity as is the mother of Confusion be politique or no but whether such parity as now is at Geneva amongst presbyters be politique or no but my present scope is not to defend the Presbyteriall discipline in all things it is only to maintain against the necessity of such an immutable Episcopacy as is now constituted in England so far to defend parity as our Hierarchists take advantage against it for the upholding of their own side To this purpose I cānot chuse but say that in nature that seems to be the best parity which admits of some disparity in Order and that seems to be the best disparity which prevents confusion with the most parity And therefore we see that our Saviour recommended as unlordly a disparity as might be not unlike that of marriage for there is a great and sweet parity in the tie of Wedlocke between man and wife and that is not maintained without some disparity yet that disparity is as little as may be and that only for parities sake Non aliter fuerint foemina virque pares But of this no more I come to Bishop Halls next more exact definitions and they run thus Episcopacy is an Eminent Order of sacred function appointed in the Evangelicall Church by the Holy Ghost for the governing and overseeing thereof and besides the Word and Sacraments it is indued with power of Ordination and perpetuity of jurisdiction Or thus A Pastor ordained perpetuall moderator in Church affaires with a fixed imparity exercising spirituall jurisdiction out of his owne peculiarly demandated authority is a Bishop Or thus Adde majority above Presbyters and power of jurisdiction by due Ordination for constant continuance and this makes a Bishop take away these and he remaines a meere Presbyter It is to bee observed now that foure things are here asserted First Episcopall power is such as none are capable of but only men within Sacred Orders A Bishop must be a Presbyter indued with power of Ordination and spirituall jurisdiction by due Ordination and without these hee remaines a meere Pastor Secondly Episcopall power is such as is wholly independent upon temporall Rulers Its institution was from the Holy Ghost in the Evangelicall Church It must rule out of its owne peculiarly demandated authority Thirdly Episcopal power consists in Ordination and spiritual jurisdiction and in majority above Presbyters Fourthly Episcopal power is unalterable by any temporal authority it is perpetual by divine right As it was fixed and where it was settled by Christ and his immediate successors so and there it must continue unchanged til the worlds end In briefe the summe of all these definitions is this Episcopacy is a forme of Ecclesiasticall policy instituted by Christ whereby a Superiour Order of Presbyters is indued with a perpetual independent power of Ordination and spiritual jurisdiction and with majority above Presbyters and this power as it appertaines to all that Order so it appertaines only to that Order And those things which we oppose herein are chiefly two First we see no ground in the word of God why Bishops should arrogate to themselves such a peculiar independent perpetual power of Ordination spirituall jurisdiction and such a majority above Presbyters as now they injoy excluding from all such power and majoritie not only all Laymen and Princes but also Presbyters themselves Secondly if power of Ordination and spirituall jurisdiction and preheminence above all the Clergie bee due only to Bishops yet we complaine that now in England that power and preheminence is abused and too farre extended and to such purposes perverted as the Apostles never practised or intended Of these two points in this Order but for my part I am no favourer of extreames some defend Episcopacie as it is now constituted in England as Apostolicall others withstand it as Antichristian my opinion is that the government is not so faulty as the Governours have beene and that it is better then no government at all nay and may be better then some other forms which some Sectaries have recommended to the World And my opinion further is that it is not alike in all respects and that it ought to be severally examined and ventilated and that so it will probably appeare in some things unprofitable in some things

Reign of wicked Emperours to whom in Ecclesiasticall affaires more might be denied then to ours for though Reges in quantum Reges serviunt Deo as Saint Augustine sayes yet in quantum pii Reges they serve God the more gloriously and have a neerer accesse to God and in that respect it may bee more truly said of them that they are à Deo secundi solo Deo minores and if so how awfull and venerable must this render their persons and with what submission must we prostrate our selves at their sacred feet and that it may not seeme strange that meer power and rule in an unbelieving or wicked Prince should be so sacred and inviolable wee must take notice that the wickednesse of Princes in ill commands though it discharge us as to those ill commands yet it does not discharge their power or rule either in those or in any other For when Princes rule well they are to be obeyed when ill they are to be endured and this very indurance is an effect of obedience and subjection Peter as a Citizen of the Common-wealth is a servant to Nero and though in the meere consideration of a Christian Hee has not dependance upon Nero further then is to be testified by suffering under him in ill commands yet in all civill things and things indifferent his dependance remayns undissolved If Nero forbid Peter to preach contradicting God herein whose power is still transcendent this prohibition binds not Peter but if Nero use the Sword hereupon against Peter this sword is irresistible because though in this it be injurious in other things it is still sacred This one violence of Nero is tyrannous but the authority whereby this is done is not tyranny For the same sword which offends one defends many still and if one here be defended many must be offended and the good of many is to be preferred before the good of one And yet if God had made Peter supreame Judge of such cases and had given him a power independent it had been necessary that he had given him withall some remedie and sufficient means to support the same Supremacy independent right for God gives no man an absolute right without some proper remedy appertaining to the same The use of power is not to intreat or perswade only for these may bee done without power but to command and commands are vaine without compulsion and they which may not compell may not command and they which cannot command may not meddle at all except to intreat or perswade Power then there must be and that power must be somewhere supreame that it may command all good and punish all evill or else it is insufficient and if all then in religious as well as in civill cases for Supremacie may be severally exercised but the right of it cannot be severally enjoyed if Peter may doe more then perswade Nero the Scepter is Peters not Neroes if hee may doe no more he is as meer a subject as any other Layman but in whethersoever the power of commanding rests it cannot rest in both the Scepter cannot be shared independence cannot be divided the people cannot obey both as equall Judges whilst their judgments remain contrary nor serve both as equal Lords whilst their commands are contrary To perswade and intreat in Ministers are the offices of a blessed vocation but they are not properly Ensigns of Royaltie and power and if the spirits of men are somtimes moved won by the perswasions of Ministers as they may by other means yet captivated and commanded they cannot be and therefore if this be called power it is but imaginary and improper and such as ought not to enter into any comparison or rivalitie with that solid sensible coercive binding power wherewith God has invested his true Lievtenants upon earth That power which is proper must include not only a right of commanding but also an effectuall vertue of forcing obedience to its commands and of subjecting and reducing such as shall not render themselves obedient The supreame civill Magistrate has this power grounded upon the common consent of Mankinde and as strong as is the politicall consent of humane nature in its supream Law of publike conservation so vigorous and invincible is this power Had Priests any such power or sword we should soon see it and feele it and voluntarily stoop under it but since they can pretend to none such the meere noyse of an imaginary spirituall power and sword must not deceive us The sword must be of sympathy and proportion answerable to those commands for which it was ordained if the commands be externall and politicall the sword must not be invisible and meerly spirituall If the Pope can impose an oath upō us to stand to his laws and to obey his awards our obedience being here politicall his power of imposing Oaths must be the like for if he pretend a right and have no remedy that is no power if he have a remedy that is not of the same nature with his command it will prove no remedy it will be found vain and uneffectuall Wee cannot thinke that God has given the Pope any power but for good and wee cannot think that power good whereby the Pope may destroy Millions of souls and yet cannot reclayme or convince one The Popes commands seeme to mee unreasonable unnaturall impious the Pope herein ha's no spirituall power to rectifie mee or to discover my errour to me or to procure obedience from me that power which he ha's over my soule is only to exclude it from heaven and to give it as a prey to Satan for not attributing more to him then to my own conscience and naturall light Can wee think that God gave this new Power never before knowne to these latter days out of mercy that all except one handfull of men should perish by it and none at all receive benefit by it It cannot be said that the same keys which shut heaven to so many open heaven to any one for those few which obey the Pope obey him either voluntarily or by constraint and they which are constrained obey him as a Prince not as a Priest and bow under his temporall not spirituall yoke howsoever it be otherwise pretended Voluntary obedience also is such as is rendred without any externall influence from the Pope For the will is capable of no compulsion and if it were my will would be as lyable to the same as any other mans and if the Pope may compell my will and so open Heaven to me as it were by his spirituall keys and will not t is his crueltie not my contumacie It s no glory to the Pope that some few by blinde voluntary obedience acknowledge the power of his keyes in this hee has no advantage of Mahomet that sword which was so victorious in the hand of Mahomet was as spirituall and as universally prevalent as the Popes So much of the imaginary rule and spiritual sword of

painted out before their eyes even by the very solemnities and rights of their inauguration to what affaires by the same Law their supreme power and authority reaches Crowned we see they are and Inthronized and Annoynted the Crowne a signe of Military dominion the Throne of sedentary or Iudiciall The Oyle of Religious and sacred power Hee here Attributes as supreme a rule and as independent in Religious and sacred affaires as Hee does either in Military or Iudiciall and hee accounts that venerable Ceremony of Vnction as proper to the Kings of England as that of Crowning or Inthroning Neverthelesse it is now a great objection against this chiefly of Dominion that it may descend to Infants under age as it did to King Edward the sixth Or to Women as to Queene Mary and Elizabeth and whatsoever wee may allow to men such as Henry the eighth yet it seemes unreasonable to allow it Women and Children The Papists thinke this objection of great moment and therefore Bellarmine in great disdaine casts it out that in England they had a certaine Woman for their Bishop meaning by that woman Q. Elizabeth And Q. Elizabeth her selfe knowing what an odium that word would draw upon her both amongst Papists and many Protestants also consults her Bishops about it and by their advice sets forth a declaration certifying the world thereby that shee claymed no other Head-ship in the Church but such as might exclude all dependency upon forreigne Head-ships and secure her from all danger of being deposed How this paper could satisfie all I cannot see My thinkes the Bishops in this did as warily provide for their owne clayme as the Queenes for whatsoever power Shee had in the Church it was either absolute Coordinate or Subordinate If it was subordinate Shee was in danger of deposition and was to bee ordered and limited and commanded by her Superior If her power was Co-ordinate She had no more power over her equall than her equall had over her and it being as lawfull for her equall to countermand as it was for her to command her power would be as easily disabled and made frustrate by her equalls as her equalls by hers In the last place therefore if her power or headship were absolute why did not her Bishops uphold and declare the same Such dallying with indefinite expressions and dazelling both our selves others with meere ambiguities does often very great harme for uncertainty in Law is the Mother of confusion and injustice and this is the mother of uncertainty According to this obscure declaration of supremacy in the Queenes paper many Papists at this day take the Oath penned in the Statute for that purpose they will abjure the Popes supremacy as to deposition of Princes but not in any thing else and they will hold the King supreme as to all deposers but not as to all men else Those which are not bloudy and dangerous but by the light of nature abhorre regicides rest themselves upon these shallow distinctions but such as are Iesuitically furious and murdrous break through them as meere Cobwebs and the more secure Princes are from the other the lesse safe they are from these These men will still insist upon absolute supremacy somewhere to rest and that it cannot rest in Women or Minors they will still insist upon this argument If the Queene be not competent for that lower Order to whom the Word and Sacraments are committed then shee is not competent for that higher Order which has power over the lower but the Queene is not competent for the lower therefore not for the higher They say that to prescribe Lawes to Preachers is more than to preach and to have power over Ordination is something greater than to enter into Orders and therefore the Law cannot justly give that which is more and greater when God denyes that which is inferior and lesse Our Divines make a very short unsatisfying reply to this Their reply is that though our Bishops owe some kind of subjection to Kings yet the authority of preaching c. is not from Kings but from Christ Himselfe Christ they say giveth the Commission Kings give but a permission only All the power at last of our Kings which is acknowledged equall with that of the Iewish and has been so farre all this while magnified and defended against Papists inables them now no further than to a naked permission in religious affaires their most energeticall influence is permission T is true the Commission of the Apostle was from Christ His Ite docete was their authority And so it remaines still to all their successors but is it therefore a reason that there is now no other Commission necessary Where Christs Commission was particular it was good without any other humane commmission nay permission it selfe was not requisite the Contents of that Commission was not only Ito Doceto but Tu Petre Tu Paule c. Ito doceto but now there remaines nothing of that Commission but the generality Ito doceto the particularity requires now particular Commissions and meere permissions will not serve the turne And as for succession we may suppose that our Saviours first Commission was vigorous as to that purpose but we must know That the Apostles being both Governours and Preachers all that commission which was given them as Governours was not given them as Preachers There must still be successors to the Apostles in Governing and Preaching but it s not necessary that the same men now should succeed in both offices and that whatsoever was commanded or granted to the one office the same should bee granted and commanded to the other The Civill Iudges and Councellors of State under the King are not without Generall Commissions from Heaven to doe justice and preserve order in their severall subordinate stations and yet they depend upon particular commissions too from Gods immediate Vice-Gerent And it seemes to me a weake presumption that Officers in Religion should have more particular Commissions from GOD than Officers of State or that Princes should bee more permissive and lesse influent by way of power in the Church than in the Common-Wealth He that observes not a difference betwixt these times under Christian Princes and those under unbeleeving Caesars is very blind and He is no lesse that thinks particular Commissions now as necessary when Princes joyne to propagate the Gospell as they were when supreme power was abused for its subversion And so makes no difference betwixt a Nero and a Constantine Did Constantine gaine the style of Head-Bishop or Bishop of Bishops meerely by permitting the true worship of God And let us lay aside the strangenes of the Name and apply the thing I meane the same Episcopall power to Queene Elizabeth as was to Constantine and what absurdity will follow What is intended by the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which may not bee as properly applyed to Queene Elizabeth as to Constantine If the Patriarchs and Kings of Iudah