Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	call_v	church_n	society_n	1,435	5	9.0715	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43802	Municipum ecclesiasticum, or, The rights, liberties, and authorities of the Christian Church asserted against all oppressive doctrines, and constitutions, occasioned by Dr. Wake's book, concerning the authority of Christian princes over ecclesiastical synods, &c.	Hill, Samuel, 1648-1716.	1697 (1697)	Wing H2009; ESTC R14266	76,389	151

of Imposture in Religions inlaid with the Power of the Sword the Merchandize the Hypocrites would make of it Athan. ad Orthodox Tom. 1. P. 944. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set up Bishops by Kingly force 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before its Divine Credit could be throughly established in the Hearts of Mankind and the Reproaches consequent against it there upon did not think sit to call many Mighty or many Noble Wise or great at first to the Profession of Christianity nor permit any Princes by his Providence to exercise any formal Authority in the least over the Church for 300 years tho' Abgarus Mamaea and Philip Gordius are said to have been Christian that the propagation of the Christian Church and Faith might not be attributed nor attributable to the Power of Man but of God only Else it had been as easie and as miraculous for our Lord to have made Princes his first Converts and Apostles and founded this Supremacy in them and their Successors beyond all Question for ever But that it might never in time to come fall under the reproachful Imputation and Character of a State Engine he lodged the Spiritual Powers elsewhere for three Centuries entirely that hereupon the Church might be emboldened as upon sure grounds to assert her proper Powers unalienated and pure against all Atheistical Calumnies whatsoever thro' all Ages that so tho' they were to be subject to Civil Powers to the enforcement of their Duties and for repression of Enormities yet not to the Omission of their Duties and Cares to which God hath called them which is the general Rule and Standard of Subjection in all Countries Ages and Nations Universally and forever § 11. The Christian Character of the first Princes in the Prescription But there is one thing more to be considered in the two first Emperors instanced by the Doctor for this universal Domination of Princes over Synods and that is their Christian Character to qualifie them for this Omnipotency For tho' the Doctor in his few interspersed Reasons for it gives no distinctive grounds for an higher and interiour Supremacy in Christian than in Heathen Princes yet for a good Grace Praef. p. 5. he tells us That whatever Privileges do belong herein to the Christian Magistrate p. 94 96. they belong to him as such which must I suppose be the Rule of Interpreting other Places where he more loosly omits the Christian Qualification But here I would fain know what 't is shall denominate a Prince Christian and that in order to this Authority Internal Authority in Societies grounded upon an Internal Right of Communion For all Internal Authority in all Powers presupposes a right to Communion more or less as the ground of Authority in all Societies whatsoever And therefore the Authorities asserted by the Doctor to all Christian Princes must suppose a right to Communion in all the matters subject to that Internal Authority For he that has no right to receive Sacraments has no Internal Right of Authority to make Laws about them he who is not within the Communion has no Right to pass Sentence for the Ejection or the Restitution of others He may presume to do it upon an uncontroulable Force and Tyranny and the reasons pretended for it may be in themselves good and necessary and so be admitted and observed by the Church at the Command of an Usurping Power not in Conscience of his just Authority but for the reason of the thing and for the avoiding unnecessary Persecution But a Right Internal there is none to them that are without Now tho' Constantine and Constantius so much concerned themselves about Church Synods yet were they not yet Baptised into the plenary Communion of Saints in the Christian Church nor so much as made Competents or Catechumens by Imposition of Hands and consequently what they did about Ecclesiasticals was not of an Office or Nature Internal to Ecclesiastical Polity or Communion but common only to the Prerogative of Princes in General or if it was of Internal importance 't was Usurpation and a Nullity in it self Had they been Catechumens or Competents a pretence might have thereupon been formed that they alone might make Ordinances for those preliminary Statious but not surely for Baptism Consirmation Lords Supper Holy Orders Anathemas Absolutions c. Had they been Baptized and so qualified for Confirmation and the Eucharist it might not have looked so odd in them to have set Rules for such Sacraments and the common Laity in their Celebration but for Ordinations and Hierarchical Powers of the Spirit over the Souls of the Laity and Clergy how incongtuous must it have been in any Emperour to assume the whole Legislature and Ordinance In these therefore the Laws of Princes may well follow Ecclesiastical Constitutions by the Sanction of Secular Penalties but the Constitutions of Sacred Canons ought not to be taken sway from the Hierarchy and lodged only in a Lay-hand that holds a long Sword and for no other Reason but this that the Sword is in it least they that use it Sacrilegiously perish by it Eternally Constantius his want of Right over Synods For as to Constantius whom most accuse to be aresolute Heretick and they that speak most sostly of him represent him as Patron of Heresie through simple Ignorance he thereby became not a Guardian of the Church or the publick Peace thereupon hereby to sound his Right of Supremacy but a very great Persecutor and Embroiler of the Catholick Church even by managing Synods which no doubt in an Unbaptized state of Heresie he had no true Right nor proper Authority to do for whatsoever Right a mere Alien Prince may have while he professes no Enmity no doubt a Professed Enemy has no Lawful Authority to manage that Divine Society and its Principles which he designeth to destroy by that very management And so I resolve that Constantius having declared himself against the Homoonsion had no Authority to call or manage any Synod at all and that no Obedience or Conformity to his Calls were due in Conscience to his Power tho' it might be in Duty ●to God and Care for his Soul as well as the Souls in general of the whole Church the whole Authority of meeting being in the Catholick Bishops but none at all in him or his Arians I might here add that the Fathers might Convene upon his Call for fear of Persecution not in Conscience of Duty to it but I think this did not so far enslave them as to obey but the hopes they had of doing him and the whole Church the useful Services of true Faith and Piety And hence it was that when upon their Petition he would not in answer concede their Dissolution at Ariminuns Right of Dissolution they dissolved themselves not thinking themselves guilty of any sin of Disobedience for who could imagine so of the Conscience of 400 Catholick Bishops suffering for the Faith under Constantius his Tyranny

Heathen Princes and servile Conventions under Christian ones The Letter Distinguishing all Power into Spiritual and Temporal founds both of them in God which no Christian will deny of the Ecclesiastical Authority That this can be Rightly Exercised among Christians only not as enclosed within any Civil State or Community but as Members of a Spiritual Society of which Christ Jesus is the Head who has also given out Laws and appointed a standing Succession of Officers under himself for the Government of this Society which continued near 300 Years before any Civil Governours embraced Christianity So that the Spiritual Authority is not in its own Nature simply dependent on the Temporal That when supernatural means of Governing the Church were thought by its Founder to be no more necessary to its continuance it was left to the best ordinary means of Conduct and Preservation viz. assembling debating and by Majority of Voices deciding concerning the Rules and Principles of Government That the Law of this Society is made to their hands not to be altered added or diminished but the applying thereof to particular Cases explaining Doubts upon it deducing Consequences from it in things not explicitly determined already by that Law and enforcing Submission and Obedience to their Determinations are the proper Objects of their Power That this Society can better claim an inherent and unalterable Right to the exercise of this Power than any Sect among us it not being Lost by Magna Charta by its Giving the Church a Legal Freedom Thus the Letter p. 17 18 19 20. The Doctor The Case stated on each side Is by no means satisfied that the Church has any Command or Authority from God to assemble Synods he is not aware that either in the Old or New Testament there is so much as one single direction given for its so doing And excepting the singular Instance of Acts XV. he knows of no Example that can with any shew of Reason be offered of such a Meeting And whether that were such a Synod as of which the Question is may justly be doubted The Foundation of Synods in the Church in his Opinion is the same as that of Councils in the State The Necessities of the Churches when they began to be enlarged first brought in the One as those of the Commonwealth did the other And therefore when men are incorporated into Societies as well for the service of God Then it seems the Church is not sociated till incorporated with the civil State to spiritual as well as temporal Ends. and salvation of their souls as for their Civil Peace and Security these Assemblies are to be as much subjost to the Laws of the Society and to be regulated by them as any other Publick Assemblies are Nor has the Church any inherent Divine Right to set it at liberty from being concluded by such Rules as the Governing part of every Society shall prescribe to it as to this matter As for those Realms in which the Civil Power is of another Perswasion Natural Reason will prompt the Members of every Church to consult together the best they can how to manage the Affairs of it and to agree upon such Rules and Methods as shall seem most proper to preserve the Peace and Vnity of it and to give the least Offence that may be to the Government under which they live And what Rules are by the common consent of every such Church agreed to ought to be the Measure of assembling and acting of Synods in such a Countrey Thus the Doctor p. 365 366 c. § 2. The Doctor 's Tergiversation This is what the Doctor replies about the Affairs of Ecclesiastical Synods to the Letter Wherein any Man may plainly see that he shuffles and turns his Back in the vety Fundamental Article in Controversie not daring professedly to refute the Hypothesis of the Letter by any good Proof from Reason or Authority nor yet ingenuously confessing those well-laid Truths which he was not able to oppose but to steal away the Reader from observing this Impotency he is fobb'd off with a poor precarious and not so much as evasive a Scheme of Imaginations for which he can hardly find any Church-Advocate nor any Credentials from any Divine or valuable Humane Writings § 3. Terms explained But before we come to winnow these Elements of Independent or rather Erastian Divinity for there is a mixture of these Contraries in which Erastiaenism much preponderates it is necessary that we six the principal Terms of Matters Fundamental in his Enquiry Authority what And first for Authority in Matters of Government it is known to signifie either a just or rightful or at least lawful Power to rule the Subjects according to Equity and Laws of Justice or else an uncontroulable Freedom and Impunity only of acting which is the priviledge of all Supreme Governors as being above all Legal and Judicial Coercion with their Subjects Right Now all Acts of Authority in the former and proper Sense appear in themselves Good and Right and no Powers or Persons whatsoever can have any opposite Good and Lawful Authority But the mere Exercises of an uncontroulable Domination Uncontroulable Domination tho called by the specious name of Authority cannot vacate any Just and Valid Rights Liberties and Authorities of any Subject Persons or Societies For it must be noted that an Inherent Right and Valid Title cannot be legally extinguished by any External Violations of Breedom or Obstructions of its Fruition or Practice which tho not accountable for at any Domestick Tribunal shall yet fall under the Sentence and Condemnation of God the present Civil Impunity giving no Right to any injurious measures nor Exemption from that divine Bar. Secondly We are to define an Ecclesiastical Council or Synod Synod what wherein I will take the Doctors Definition namely 't is literally a Meeting of Ecclesiastical Persons I mean Ministers upon an Ecclesiastical Affair (a) p. 60. And it is either subordinate The sorts of Synods consisting of one or more Bishops and inferiour Ministers or Co-ordinate consisting only of one equal Order either of Bishops alone or Inferiour Ministers alone For in want of a Bishop * Cyp. Ep. 3 Ep. 18. the Inferiour Clergy are the Council for the vacant Church according to the limits and powers of their Order A Convention of Clergy † Cyp. 26 Sect. 4 Ep. 31. Sect. 5. under their proper Bishop for Ecclesiastical Consultations or Acts we now should call a Diocesan Synod A Convention of a College of Bishops for a Province we may call a Provincial Synod which generally ever was attended with the Service of Inferiour Orders Councils called General are of the fame Nature in themselves tho of a larger extent and not of a Canonical originally but of Imperial Collection Other extraordinary and unusual Conventions of Select Bishops and Ministers not delegated so much by the Church upon her regular Constitutions

as convened by the Will only of Princes may be called Synods tho of themselves they have no Canonicol Authority for their Acts which must either stand or fall by the consequent Reception or Refusal of the Church notwithstanding all the Ratifications that the Temporal Powers give them a mere Ecclesiastical Commission from a Prince Ecclesiastical Commissioners of Princes no Canonical Synod being not of the same sort of Efficacy and Authority as a free Convention of the Powers Ecclesiastical Tho therefore such Commissioners may Grammatically be called a Synod yet Canonically a Synod is a Convention of the State or Powers Ecclesiastical on their own Right and Authority whosoever calls them to the Exercise thereof Thirdly we are to consider the. Attribute of Christian as given either to Princes or private Persons Now * Euseb reekons two lay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly a Christian is a Person baptized into and continuing in the Christian Faith but loosely and improperly Hereticks claim and use the Character which also may improperly be given to such as profess a Belief thereof before ever they are admitted to any Ordinance or Station of the Church for so Constantine the Great Dem. ev l. 2. c. 4. Sect. 38. So Origen con Cels l. 3. Ambr. de Myster initiand c. 4. Aug. in Joh. c. 2.3 Tract 11. and Constantius c. have been reputed Christian Emperors tho not Baptized nor so much as admitted Catechumens or Competents till a little before their Death Which Preliminary Explications will be found of great Use in this present Controversie § 4. Being thus harnessed we will consider the strength of the Doctor 's Hyyothesis first before we come to justisie that of the Letter The Doctor 's Principle worse than the Independents First then he makes a Synod under Heathen Powers to be but an independent huddle of Christians in common contriving their Affairs by no Authority but that of Humane Prudence But then I shall say that if this be a Synod such a Concourse of mere Lay-Christians may be a Synod and determine the common Process of their Conduct For he places this Care simply in the Natural Reason of the Members of every Church not the Governors nor Powers therein constituted for he does not suppose it a regular Society till incorporated with the Civil State Nor will it help to say that he defines a Synod a Meeting of Ecclesiastical Persons upon an Ecclesiastical Affair for all Members of the Church may with Grammatical Propriety be called and accounted Eccle jastica● Persons in distinction from Aliens or absolutely tho Custom has given this Title as a distinctive of the Clergy from the Laity So that tho I in assuming the Doctors Definition of a Synod do by Ecclesiastical Persons mean the Clergy yet 't is not certain that the Doctor intends so except only of Synods called by Christian Princes but rather these Members of the Church under Heathen Powers must be the Ecclesiastical Persons convened in Synod under them without any Distinction of Orders or Authorities among them And if we will but add one Pastor among them here we have the true form of an Independent Church or Congregation which is its own constant Synod at all Meetings only the Independent Principle claims a Divine Right and relies not alone upon mere humane Inauthoritative Prudence and so is nearer to Truth and Reason than the Doctor 's But if the Doctor 's Principles be true that such Synods are Conventions of Church-Members upon Prudence only without any inherent Right or Authority wherein they are to give the Insidel Powers the least Offence that may be I doubt that Prudence will oblige them not to convene at all For certainly we are not in Prudence to give Insidel Powers or any Persons whatsoever any needless Offence at all But certainly Subjects having no Authority to convene yet convening against the Laws of Civil Powers do incur their great Offence which natural Reason cannot prompt Men to For if Christians should be called by such Infidel Powers to account for such prohibited Conventions by what Authority they do such things if they should set forth a good Divine Authority this would be a good though not perhaps a successul Plea but if they should say we have no Authority for it but only natural Reason and Prudence how can that direct a Man to disobey Laws which destroy no Man's Authority or Right Nor can it be shifted here that they have Right but not Authority for tho even a mere Right to synodize is enough to the jus divinum asserted by the Letter yet a Right to synodize is a Right to a publick Conduct by Rules and Methods to preserve the Peace and Unity of the Church and that is Authority tho never so democratical And if they have natural Reason for this Conduct that Nature that has given them just Reason has given them just Right to it for in such Matters Right and Reason is the same doing Men Right being properly called doing Men Reason If then they have natural Reason they have natural Right and if natural Right natural Authority to convene for their publick Conduct and that is a good Plea against the Laws of Infidel Powers But on the contrary if they have no Authority so to do they have no Right and if no Right no Reason and if no Reason how can this be done without Offence against the Civil Powers that forbid it and have just Right indeed to forbid all Assemblies which have no Authority Right or Reason But to conclude the Dr. has given these Synods a more fundamental Authority than he was aware of when he tells us that the necessities of the Church when it began to be enlarged Common-wealth did brought them into the Church as the necessities of the Councils of State Very well and a good Parallel but are not Councils of State endued with Authority founded on that popular Necessity The Doctor dares not say No to the State because the Leviathan is not safely to be angred but why then should not the Councils of the Church be authoritative for its Conduct and Preservation upon the same bottom of equal Necessity and that under the Heathen Powers For it appears that on this Necessity Synods were held in the Church in full Vigour and Spiritual Authority before there were any Christian States for heir Incorporation And therefore the necessity was the greater and by these the Doctor 's Rules the Authority should be so too tho yet he allows them no Authority because no Society till their Civil Incorporation which is tho the Doctor sees not the necessary Consequence to deny the Unity of the Catholic Church and its Constitution under Spiritual Governors of its own for the three first Centuries of Christianity § 5. But he further tells us Incorp that the Incorporation of the Church into the State being an Association for the saving of their Souls as well as Secularities subjects them