Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	bishop_n	church_n	rome_n	9,289	5	7.3911	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44091	A letter from Mr. Humphry Hody to a friend concerning a collection of ca[n]ons said to be deceitfully omitted in his edition of the Oxford treatise against schism : in which is likewise contained offer of certain propositions to be prov'd by the advocates for the new separation ...	Hody, Humphrey, 1659-1707.	1692 (1692)	Wing H2342; ESTC R35437	30,096	47

constitute others who are willing to submit to the State and whom the State shall approve of as fit to be trusted by it in that Post. Thus for Matters of Heresy Christ has given no Authority to any to preach in his Name or to govern in his Church but on this Condition that they preach and maintain the true Faith If that Condition be not observ'd the Church is then to deprive ' em In the Case of Heresy it belongs to the Church to Deprive that being the proper Judge of that Question What is the true Faith In the Case of Rebellion or of Non-submission to the Government it belongs to the Government as being the proper Judge of what is necessary for its own Support I lay down this as a Principle on which both the Power of the Church of Depriving for Spiritual and likewise the Power of the State of Depriving for Political Crimes does depend Query What Security the Civil Government which is God's own Institution and antecedent to the Ecclesiastical can have if a Bishop that refuses to own it and to submit to its Authority may not be Depriv'd by it What Security can it have Especially considering that Men of that Character are generally Persons of very great Power and Authority and may easily go a great way in the Subversion of a Government by the Influence of their Eloquence and their great Reputation for Learning and Piety In such a Case is the Bishop to be Depriv'd by a Synod of Bishops Here a Second Query will follow What if all the Bishops that are under a Government should conspire against it And what if we suppose that there 's onely one Bishop within the Bounds of that Government a thing that has often happen'd What must be done in that Case Will our Adversaries grant that supposing a Bishop should conspire against the Government or Rebel the Government has Authority to imprison him or to banish him but not to Deprive him of his Bishoprick so as that another may be plac'd in his See If this be the Plea of our Adversaries I shall then desire to be satisfied in one Query more How does this consist with the Nature and End of Church Government How can He continue a Pastor that is utterly banish'd from his Flock and render'd utterly uncapable of doing the Duty of his Charge Shall the Neighbour Bishops be his Delegates and act by his Power and Authority But what if we recur to our former Supposition that all the Bishops of a Kingdom are Rebels When they are all banish'd by the State who then must govern the Church Who ordain and do other Duties that are proper to a Bishop Or supposing that there is but one Bishop when he is sent into perpetual Banishment how must his Office be supply'd When in the first Planting of the Christian Religion in the several Parts of the World there was onely one Bishop in a Country as at first in many Countries there was onely one if that one had been banish'd for Rebellion pray what should the Christians there planted have done Should they have liv'd without any Bishop during all his Life that was banish'd or ought they not rather to have got a new one to govern 'em to supply the Church with inferiour Clergy and the like Here Sir I shall put you in mind of those words of the great St. Chrysostom which are urg'd in the Preface to the Oxford Antiquity when he was unjustly banish'd he charg'd his People That as they hop'd for Salvation they should be obedient to that Bishop who should succeed him as to himself For the Church says he cannot be without a Bishop And yet it is certain that that great Man did never resign his Bishoprick but continued to act as a Bishop of the Catholick Church during all the time of his Banishment that is as long as he liv'd I shall onely add that if the Banishment of a Bishop be not design'd to be perpetual as that of St. Chrysostom was but onely for a Time then there may not be any Necessity that another should be plac'd in his See And this was the Reason why when St. Athanasius the Patriarch of Alexandria was banish'd by the Emperour Constantine there was no new Patriarch created That He was banish'd onely for a Time and that the Emperour Constantine intended to recall him and to restore him to his Bishoprick is expresly attested by the Younger Emperour Constantine in his Letter to the Church of Alexandria by which he restores him to his See Who adds that he himself by restoring him did onely fulfil his Father's Will who he says would have done it himself if he had not been prevented by Death And Pope Iulius in his Synodical Epistle to the Synod of Antioch concludes That the Emperour Constantine did not fully and perfectly condemn Athanasius because there was no one put into his Place during the time of his Banishment If says he He had fully condemn'd him his See would have been dispos'd of to another The Solution Sir of these Queries which I have propos'd will prove if I am not mistaken a Work of no great Ease I should gladly see the Knot fairly untied without any Cutting and Violence We will see on the contrary if you please how easily those Knots may be loos'd which our Adversaries are wont to present us as the greatest effects of their Skill Ob. 1. How does it consist with the Safety of the Church and of Religion if the Secular Governour has Authority to turn out a Bishop Then all Bishops may depend on his Sentence and the Church and Religion be precarious An Orthodox Bishop may be depos'd and a Heretick placed in his See Ans. It cannot be avoided but that the Church and Religion must be always in some measure Precarious and depend upon the Civil Magistrat If the Governour be an Enemy to Religion there is no avoiding Oppression wheresoever we lodge the true Power of Depriving a Bishop Now to answer directly the Objection If the Civil Governour should turn out our Orthodox Bishops and put in Hereticks in their Places or put in none at all in their places then the Church is obliged to adhere to the old Ones turn'd out or if there be a necessity to procure new Ones that are Orthodox Thus if the Civil Magistrat should forbid the Christian Religion to be preach'd in his Country he is not to be obey'd because it is the Will of our Saviour that his Gospel should be preach'd to all Nations as far as the Preaching of it does consist with those Rules that are truly essential to Government And when Decius the Emperour aim'd to root out the Christian Religion in the City of Rome by destroying the Bishop Fabianus and forbiding that any new Bishop should be Created in his Place there was no Obligation on the Christians of that Church to obey his Will or Decree since they did not pretend to choose such a Person

as refus'd to submit to his Government And therefore tho they defer'd the Election of a new Bishop for above Sixteen Months for fear of the Emperour who then resided ar Rome Propter rerum temporum difficultates as the Clergy tell St. Cyprian in a Letter yet as soon as the Emperour was engag'd in a Civil War and had therefore remov'd from that City they set about an Election and plac'd Cornelius in the Chair This Principle will secure Religion from depending on the Will of a Governour no less than that of our Adversaries who would have Bishops to be Deprivable onely by Bishops That likewise may have its ill Consequences for what if those Bishops who are suppos'd to Deprive another should themselves be Heretical or no true Friends to the Church This Rule is still to be observ'd that neither the Civil nor the Ecclesiastical Power may so far usurp upon one another as to lessen that Authority which is necessary for the Subsistence of Each Where on either side their Pretensions exceed their due Bounds there all there Authority ceases We must neither erect a Protestant Popedom nor yet an Erastian Kingdom Not so interpret one Text as make it fall out with another There is as in other Things so likewise in this a sort of an Analogy of Faith As they both proceed from God so they cannot in their own Natures disagree in the least Neither must there such Maxims be advanc'd as may make 'em wage War with one another So to order the Temporal Government as not to have Regard to the Spiritual is Prophaness Irreligion and Atheism and to lay down such Rules in Favour of the Spiritual as that it may Top upon the Temporal is no less a Crime than it is a Vanity In a Word He cannot give to God all the Things that areGods that does not give to Cesar the Things that are Cesars Ob. 2. But it is not in the power of the Civil Government to take away that which it could not give the Orders and Character of a Bishop Answ. This Objection supposes that when a Bishop is depriv'd of his particular Bishoprick his Orders are taken away and he is not any longer a Bishop If the thing be so look they to it who refuse to submit to the Civil Government which God has set over ' em It appears from what has been said that our Saviour has given no Commission to exercise the Office of a Bishop in such a particular Place but to such as submit to the Government of that Country in which they reside and if they are not Bishops but in that one Place where first they were design'd to preside if they have not I say any larger Commission then whenever they refuse to acknowledge the Civil Government their whole Commission is void and they are not any longer Bishops They are not depriv'd of their Orders by the Civil Power but their Commission which they receiv'd from Christ to exercise the Office of a Bishop in that particular Place is of it self void as being given only on Condition as soon as they appear to be Enemies to the Government and are so declar'd Look they I say to that But it is not our opinion that a Bishop is utterly Degraded whensoever he is justly Depriv'd Neither is it agreeable to the Notions and Practice of our Church For if the Character of a Bishop does depend upon the having a Bishoprick how can a Bishop remain a Bishop after Resignation How can he be restor'd after lawful Deprivation without a new Ordination How can he be translated without a new Ordination from one Bishoprick to another if when he was Ordain'd he was only Ordain'd to this or that particular Bishoprick How can he Ordain or do the Offices of a Bishop out of his own Diocess If the People of his City or Diocess should be all destroy'd by Wars or be utterly disperst and lost how can he remain invested with the Character of a Bishop And as it is not agreeable to the Doctrine and Practice of our Church so neither to the general Notions and Practice of the Ancients as shall easily and plainly be made out as soon as Occasion is given At present it will be enough to remind you of what is above observ'd concerning St. Chrysostom Tho it be not my Design at present to enter upon the Authority of the Antients yet I cannot forbear to take notice of a very strange Weakness of Judgment for so I must call it which Lucifer Calaritanus has discover'd in his Books to the Emp. Constantius in behalf of St. Athanasius He affirms amongst other things that another Bishop ought not to be put into St. Athanasius's Place as was done at that time because Athanasius was living By which he seems to intimate that a Bishop could not be at all Depriv'd but his meaning is that he could not be Depriv'd by the Emperor So he says But how does he prove it He does not pretend to Tradition or to lay it down as the Doctrine of the Ancients but so he thinks fit to say as being too angry to allow the Prince any Prerogative and he proves it from hence that Ioshuah did not succeed Moses till Moses was dead What a strange Demonstration that is Yet so bad as it is it holds as well against a Deprivation by Bishops and likewise against a Deprivation by the People of the Diocess which Lucifer himself in another place owns to be lawful as against a Deprivation by the Prince and so bad as it is it is full as good as a great many other Arguments which are urg'd from the Scripture by that over Passionat tho Orthodox Bishop It is true that the Emperor did very ill in turning out St. Athanasius unjustly and in putting a Heretick into his Place This we know It is likewise true that our Author deserv'd very well for his Zeal against the Arian Hereticks But this however I must say that he manages the Cause with much more Heat and Irreverence than Iudgment We may dare to affirm he had no great stock of the latter And it is not at all to be wonder'd at that He afterwards prov'd a Schismatick T is further alleg'd by the same Author against the said Persecuting Emperor that instead of being a Judge in the Cause of a Bishop he ought by the Law of God to be Condemn'd to Death for not submitting to the Doctrin of the Catholick Bishops And this he proves from that place in Deuteronomy where God commands that they that did not obey the Priests should be put to death tho the Text be no other than this Deut. 17.12 And the Man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the Priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God nor unto the Judge even that man shall dy and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel After all I must add That the Cruelty of that Emperor Constantius to the Catholick