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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	church_n	time_n	3,239	5	3.7702	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79437	The Catholick hierarchie: or, The divine right of a sacred dominion in church and conscience truly stated, asserted, and pleaded.	Chauncy, Isaac, 1632-1712.	1681 (1681)	Wing C3745A; ESTC R223560	138,488	160

it is not to be doubted but that a Christian professing people gathered together in the Name of Christ injoying the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments in purity are a Church of Christ and uniform with all the Churches of Christ without any distinction by this or that Name of Singularity or any Ceremonial Appendixes § 12. And whereas it is pretended that a full and free Conformity in Ceremonies would be the only cure of all our Differences and Divisions Let all Ages witness if any will but impartially enquire what hath been the Grand Cause of all the Factions Breaches Divisions and Schisms in the Church yea and Ecclesiastical Persecutions ever since the Primitive Times it will be found to be the Usurpation of this aforesaid Legislative Power of Christ by some or other and still all the excuse that is made for it is that they assume this Power only in matters of Indifferency and what pretence can any make to a Legislative Power in things necessary already determined by Christ to one part there is no place for a Law in such things unless it be to ratifie or to null the Law so that what Legislative Power is exercised of this kinde must be in matters of Indifferency only i. e. which are so in relation to Christ's Law antecedently to man's Law but by the supervening of such a Church-Law it becomes in kinde Ecclesiastically necessary it being enjoyn'd as to practice under Penalties annexed and it 's no new thing with some sort of men to call necessary things indifferent and indifferent necessary and thereby take occasion to justifie their presumptions when they make Laws even abrogatory to the known Laws of Christ And if weak Brethren as they are apt in derision to call them either take any just exceptions against them pleading their Liberties or it may be from a mistaking judgment are apt to call indifferent things necessary and therefore out of tenderness of Conscience refuse to yield acts of Obedience they are so far from having compassion on their tenderness that they exact the said Law-penalty with greater violence and rigour than they do any that doth directly concern the Glory of Christ established by himself § 13. The greatest Plea that I know can be made for matters of this kinde is the power that Oecumenical Councils have taken upon them especially in the Primitive Times even in the Apostle days and in the first second and third Centuries of the Church especially To which I answer First If the Foundation of this Authority lie in Oecumenical Councels let never any of these Church-Statutes be made and imposed on the world but by them and let not every particular National Independent Church take upon her to make Penal Laws and gull the World into a submission to her Authority by her saying she is The Church as if she were the Catholick Church and Mother-Church Secondly I question whether there were ever any true Oecumenical Council at all much may be said against the best that is pleaded for since the Apostles days and it is easie to prove that Assembly at Jerusalem held by the Apostles and Brethren to be none in the sence intended which is that the chief Officers and Representatives of every particular Church in the World meet together with a determinating Power in matters of Doctrine and with a binding Legislative Power in matters of Discipline and Ceremony Now it will appear that that Assembly was not so though there were more reason for its being so than for any other Assembly being so neither ever was there any Assembly so impowred in the world of that nature § 14. That that Assembly Acts 15.28 was no Oecumenical Council is easie to judge for there were but the Representatives of two Churches Jerusalem and Antioch and they of Antioch came to ask counsel and to be resolved in matter of doubt of the Apostles residing most of them at present in Jerusalem 2. The case in question was argued in foro Ecclesiae particularis and the Apostles making the minde of Christ manifest to that Church have the consent of the Brethren to their determination and sent it forth in and with the Authority of the Holy Ghost 3. The Apostles and Church of Jerusalem changed no Indifferencies into Necessities but enquired after and found out the Will of Christ concerning the present Infant-state of the Gospel-church in some matter of things necessary of two sorts some Absolutely and Morally so others expediently so for that time First Absolutely such as Abstinence from Fornication and things offered to Idols Secondly Respectively only and that in the behalf of the believing Jews coming lately from that Pedagogy that they might not be scandalized or grieved at the freedom of the Gentiles and therefore that the Gentiles should then abstain from things strangled and Blood Now no sound Interpeter will say that this Canon was binding to the Church semper ubique but in behalf only of th Jews who could not so easily at present be brought off from the whole of Judaisme and 't is likely by this concession the Apostles got off the Jewish Believers from many Ceremonious Observations which they stood upon besides or at least abated their edge towards them And therefore the Decree was but as to a necessary Expediency for a time which the Apostle Paul fully explicates who was well acquainted with the Minde of Christ and the Judgments of the Apostles Elders and Brethren in these matters § 15. As we have little evidence for an Oecumenical Council exercising a Legislative Jurisdiction in the Church so we have as little ground for such sorts of Officers as are contended for in the Church of which such Councils as they are pleaded for should principally consist which are Patriarchs Metropolitans Archbishops Bishops Priests and there being not such Officers in the Church by Christ's Institution there is no such Power to be exercised in the said way and manner of Legislation neither may they jure proceed so far as to Execution of any Laws established by Christ being not lawfully commissionated with a Gospel-power If this Assertion be proved I doubt not but it will be granted that there is no Legislation to be exercised in the Church the present Assertors whereof challenging this Power only on the behalf of the said Officers I lay down two things by way of proof 1. That there is no such Officers to be found in the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour as a Pope a Patriarch a Metropolitan an Archbishop a Diocesan Bishop a Parish-Priest no Dean Prebends Canons c. the Scriptures are altogether strangers to all those Ecclesiastical creatures Christ and his Apostles knew nothing of them but prophetically in the foresight of the rise of the Kingdom of Antichrist In this Point I should deal with two sorts of men the Papists and the Protestants As for the Papists the case hath been fully managed over and over against them that there is no such Supreme Officer in

or over the Catholick Church as the Pope and if there be no such Monarchical Substitute of Jesus Christ here on Earth it will appear that all the rest will fall to the ground Therefore as to them I shall not actum agere my principal part will be with the Protestants that do assert such Officers in the Church and yet deny the Popes Supremacy To whom I say in the second place and anon shall prove that there cannot be any such Officers as above-mentioned in the Church without a Supreme Pastor those Pastors being Subordinate Pastors of Subordinate Churches And that this Question may be cleared to every rational Protestant that is not fanatically blinded with Pride Ignorance and Interest I shall crave leave of my Reader in a short Digression to handle this Question Whether a Subordination of Pastors in the Church doth not necessarily infer a Supreme Pastor CHAP. XIV A Digression concerning the Subordination of Pastors § 1. AMong the many Difficulties and inevitable Rocks that the Protestant Prelacy is necessitated upon by casting off the Headship of the Oecumenical Pastor not only in asserting but exerting their Episcopal Jurisdiction or Pastoral Power in the Legislation and Execution Ecclesiastical pretended unto I thought it not amiss to debate one main Question wherein some part of the greatest stress of difficulty in that kinde doth consist and that is this Whether the asserting the Subordination of Pastors in the Church doth not by all good consequence infer the Supremacy of an Oecumenical or Vniversal Pastor We understand the word Church here as before explained i. e. when we say The Church by way of eminency we understand not or should not at least any Individual Parochial Diocesan Provincial National Congregational or Classical Church but the Vniversal Church comprehensive of all these and enfolding them as the outmost skin of an Onion involves all the other subordinately one within another By an Oecumenical Pastor is meant a Pastor of the highest degree here on Earth related in his Pastoral charge to the whole visible Church by whatsoever Names Titles or Dignities he is known and is a Bishop in the highest preheminence of Ecclesiastical Rule and Jurisdiction here on Earth from whom there can be no Appeal to any Earthly Bishop or Governour and this is the Militant Pastor of the Church-Catholick Militant to which according to their supposition of Subordinated Pastors all the other Degrees and Orders must be subjected By Subordination is meant the substituting or subjecting one under another the terms of which is the Supreme Highest and most Vniversal on one side and the most particular Priest or Pastor on the other The Question being stated and the Terms explained the Truth will by necessary Consequence appear on the Affirmative part that Subordination of Pastors in the Church doth necessarily infer● the Supremacy of an Oecumenical Pastor or Bishop And I prove it thus § 2. There is the same Political Reason for an Vniversal Pastor or Supreme Head on Earth over all other Pastors and Churches that there is for any Subordinate Pastor that hath other Pastors subjected unto him Instance in a Diocesan Bishop ruling his Parish-priests or Parochial Pastors if they may be allowed any higher title than the Bishops Curates the chief end of the said Bishop being Jurisdiction Determination of Ecclesiastical Causes Regulation and Ordination of his Clergy Unity Order Uniformity c. By the same political Reason though in a higher Sphere of Government is an Archbishop or Provincial Pastor required for regulation of Bishops of Diocesses committed to his charge maintaining the Unity of the Provincial Church Order and Vniformity therein that every weak giddy-headed Bishop may not govern after the Fancies of his own brain but that every one should be notwithstanding all their Lord-like Grandeur accountable to the Archbishop for any male-administration of Government or neglect of charge committed to their care The reason holds good in like sort for a National Pastor the Metropolitan Primate or Patriarch that the whole National Church consisting of Provinces divided into Diocesses and they into Parishes be maintained Vniform in Worship and Vnited under one National Ecclesiastical Head and Governour to whom the supreme Administration of Pastoral Function in the Church National should belong as to oversee nextly and more immediately the Provincial Pastors and Churches and more remotely all other Pastors and Churches in the Nation that there be no Divisions Schisms Heresies Contempts disorderly Conversation irregular proceedings among Pastors and People but an harmonious concatenation from the highest to the lowest to whom and his Commission-courts all Appeals from Inferiour Provincials and Diocesans may be made The Subordination of Pastors thus far allowed and granted an Universal Pastor must be inferred by unavoidable consequence For as yet there is the like necessity of uniting National Churches in one Universal Church under one Catholick Pastor as was for uniting Provincial Churches in a Nation and subjecting them to a National Pastor or Primate or subjecting Diocesses and their respective Bishops to an Archbishop or Provincial Pastor sic deineeps For by how much the more universal the Church is by so much the more universal the Pastoral Charge and Jurisdiction must be And as the National is to the Vniversal Visible Church so the National Pastor to the Catholick Pastor by a Mathematical Proportion And the like ground of relation as is betwixt a National Pastor and a National Church consisting nextly of Provinces is also betwixt an Oecumenical Pastor and an Oecumenical Church consisting nextly of Nations And if Unity Uniformity and regular Administration of Church-Government be indispensably necessary in a National Church and the care of these things to be committed primarily and principally to a National Pastor how much more is it necessary in the Catholick Church constituted and made up of National Churches nextly the care of which to be committed to an Oecumenical Pastor And if the Schisme of a Province or Diocess be of so dangerous consequence to a National Church of how much more dangerous will the Schisme of a National from the Catholick Church be § 3. Secondly I prove that they that maintain the Government of the Church by Bishops Archbishops and Primates must also own an Universal Visible Pastor from the nature of the Catholick Visible Church 1. It must be either an organized or unorganized Body and made up of partes similares only the latter will not be owned by such Assertors by reason of the gross Absurdities tending to Separation and Phanaticisme that must necessarily be inferred on such a concession If they say it is an Organized Body which is most suitable to the Grandeur and Splendour of Mother Church that she should be made up of the most curious texture and the most proportionate adaptation of parts it is by no means to be supposed that a visible Body eminent in all other parts should be Corpus vivum animatum and yet want a Visible

contrary to the truth of the Word of God 6. The Magistrate cannot be conteded to be such a Judge nor is useful as such unless he may be acknowledged to be infallible A supream Judge in our sence and that which must be here understood is one into whose judgment our Faith hath its last and utmost resolution but we cannot acquiesce in a humane fallible determination And besides what Prerogative hath the Magistrates judgment above another mans and what ease and advantage is it to us if our minds lie open to doubt as much after as before the determination No Christians minde can rest satisfied in a humane fallible opinion of divine things the authority causing Belief must have the same original that the Revelation hath therefore Faith built upon a Testimony must be onely on his own fidelity as one infallible as we believe that Truth also which carries its own Evidence with it axiomatically delivered or evinceth it self from the light of another Truth dianoetically § 11. The second Case consists in Causes disciplinarily debated being Differences arising within one particular Church or between Church and Church or between Pastors and Churches c. All Causes usually handled and determined in Ecclesiastical Courts The Question is Whether the civil Magistrate be the supream Judge or Head and Governour By Causes Ecclesiastick are without doubt meant in the Oath of Supremacy all disciplinary Causes handled in Spiritual Courts the supream Head and Governor whereof was the Pope in whose name and authority those Courts were called and managed and to whom it was lawful for any grieved party to appeal before the reign of King Henry the 8th who by the Oath of Supremacy cut off the Popes Supremacy and established his own Now I thus resolve as followeth § 12. If Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Courts be not jure divino nor held jure divino Episcopacy as it 's setled in the Hierarchy and all its Offices and Appurtenances being onely a humane politick device as hath been abundantly by the Opposers thereof proved and by many of the Asserter and Defenders confessed then I say it 's fitter that man should be supream Head there and if any man the supream civil Magistrate within whose Realm or Dominion their Courts and Causes Ecclesiastical be The nature of this Supremacy is or should be that 1. That all Ecclesiastical Courts be called and kept in the Kings Magisties name 2. That the Sentence denounced should be also grounded on some penal Law of the King for all the Kings Courts should judge by his Laws 3. That any party grieved may appeal to a superiour Court of the Kings or to himself from whom there is no Appeal 4. That the King hath power by himself or Judges to prohibit or supersede the proceedings of the said Court at his pleasure This is the true sence of the Oath of Supremacy which the Bishops notwithstanding all the noise they make against Dissenters from their Church will least subscribe unto whereas most others of the Kings Subjects that refuse to own the divine right of Episcopal government will willingly swear the Kings Supremacy in their Ecclesiastical Courts and Causes in the largest extent And though that sort of ruling men use all endeavours to suggest the disloyalty of the said Dissenters yet I doubt not but most Puritans in England would rather refer themselves to the Kings judgment and stand or fall at his Tribunal than at the Churches and have generally found more relief from under the severities of Excommunication in the Kings Courts than in the Ecclesiastical Supposing that all Ecclesiastical proceedings in Spiritual Courts of Judicature and the whole Fabrick of Church-government as now it stands is a humane Polity as is not denied by the most ingenious I know not why any Puritan or Papist should refuse for to take the Oath of Supremacy for it is no more than to acknowledge the King to be supream Head and Governour in his own Courts which is but Reason Justice and Religion that he should be § 13. But if Ecclesiastical Causes be understood of disciplinary Controversies such as follow upon the execution of Laws and administration of the Institutions of the Lord Jesus in the visible Gospel-churches of such Ecclesiastical Causes it is not the Magistrates part to be the determinating Judge of for 1. To judge and determine a Cause in the Church of Christ is to judge Ecclesiastically and such an act of Judicature is a Church-act which is always preceded by a Church-Officer and no other in foro Ecclesiae and if the agrieved party appeal it must be to an Officer of the same kind it 's not to an Officer of another State 2. He that is supream Judge of a Church-cause on Earth must be an Officer substituted by Christ for none can hold any Place or Office in the Church but by Subrogation from Christ much less the highest Authority but none can shew that Christ hath substituted the Magistrate his Church-Vicar on Earth 3. If the civil Magistrate be supream Head to the Church Ecclesiastically then because he was always so since Christ was on Earth then there was times when Heathen Magistrates in whose jurisdiction the Churches was were his Vicars and Christ himself when on Earth was subject Ecclesiastically though Head of his Church to Heathen Church-Officers for he was no civil Magistrate disclaim'd it nor could be appeal'd unto as such 4. If the civil Magistrate be supream Judge he is the supream Church-Officer for he cannot be denied to be an Officer of that state wherein he doth acts of Judicature as his right And if a Church-Officer then the civil State hath power to chuse and constitute a Church-Officer and that of the highest rank for if he become a Church-Officer his Calling and Constitution must needs be Civil and not Ecclesiastical So that the civil State hath the power of Peter's Keys both to dispose of them and give them to whom she will and the Church cannot be entrusted with them they must still be kept in the Magistrates pocket Hence it will follow that Christ hath not left power enough in the Church for the management of its own political affairs nor wisdom enough for the determining her own Controversies § 14. Seventhly No civil Magistrate can imposse Articles of Faith on any of his Subjects to be owned subscribed or sworn to by a Penal Law for quatenus a Magistrate he is not an universal competent Judge for it 's not necessary that he should be religious understanding found in his principles because he is a Magistrate 1. If he can do it as a Church-Officer we have shewed that Christ hath made no such Officers in his Church 2. If he were Christ never empowered any Church-Officer to use a Magistratical Sword he never put Temporal Crowns on their heads nor Scepters into their hands if any of them out of ambition have got Miters and Crosier Staffs they had them from Antichrist and not from Christ