Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	church_n	communicate_v	communion_n	1,771	5	9.7997	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56388	A discourse sent to the late King James, to persuade him to embrace the Protestant religion by Dr. Samuel Parker, Late Lord Bishop of Oxford ; to which are prefixed two letters ; the first, from Sir Leolyn Jenkins, on the same subject, the second, from the said bishop, with the discourse ; printed from the original manuscript papers, without observation or reflection.	Parker, Samuel, 1640-1688.; Jenkins, Leoline, Sir, 1623-1685.	1690 (1690)	Wing P461; ESTC R5913	25,687	36

within themselves Of which there were great Numbers in the World and some of as large Jurisdiction as the Patriarchates especially in Asia But as for the Patriarchate of Rome it never extended its Power beyond Italy and its adjacent Islands And therefore it is very observable that the Writers of the Church of Rome care not that it should be known to the Christian World So that hereafter all their Brags of Universal Pastorship when they come to make it out their Manuscripts still fail them Carolus à Sancto Paulo hath taken most Pains of any in this Argument and hath done well enough in other Parts but when he comes to the Church of Rome there his Manuscript is so worn out and defective that it was not worth publishing Now doth not this look oddly that their Books should fail them thus only in their own Cause and doth it not rather give suspicion that themselves are too well aware that they would do them no real kindness However it is a very preposterous thing for a Man to pretend to a Title to a great Estate by virtue of some antient Writings and yet when he comes to try his Title should only plead that indeed such Writings there once were but that they are now so impair'd that they are not legible And yet this is the very Case of the Church of Rome here All Christendom at least the Western Empire ought to be subject to him as their Patriarch Why so Because he ever was so How doth that appear By the ancient Notitiae of the Church Produce them So we can for all the other Patriarchates but those that concern the Church of Rome are unhappily lost Are they so Then you have lost the Evidence of your Title and for ought you do or can know never had any But instead of this shifting and prevaricating that we meet with in the Writers of the Church of Rome there is not long since publish'd by a very learned and a very honest Gentleman of our own Church and Nation an accurate Description of all the Patriarchates out of an ancient and authentic Manuscript which reckons to the Patriarchate of Rome only Italy and the adjacent Islands but not a syllable of Spain or Germany or Gaul or England or any other of the large Territories in Europe which if they had belonged to this Patriarchate at that time could never have been omitted in this exact Catalogue that hath so carefully set down every petty City in Italy In this posture stood the Government of the Church for many Years without any considerable Alteration For tho some of the Bishops of Rome would have been usurping upon the Churches of Africa by pretending to a Right of Appeals from them they were repulsed with great Shame and Dishonour And were it not that I am unwilling to trouble Your Highness with any more Disputes than what concerns our own Church with the Church of Rome there is nothing more easie than to shew that this Controversie with the African Churches is a notorious Instance of both the Frauds of the Roman Church and of other Churches abhorring his remotest aim at any Supremacy But tho he missed his design at that time his Successors were ever after watchful of all other Opportunities to compass it And to that purpose they happen'd to have two very lucky Advantages the first was the fatal Division of the Empire into East and West from whence S. Gregory Nazienzen a Man both wise and pious foretold a more fatal Division in the Church and accordingly in a little time it came to pass that the whole Body of it was divided into East and West as well as the Empire and the Division was quickly heightned by the mutual Jealousies of the Emperors who would not suffer the Bishops under one Government to repair to Councils conven'd under the other And that in a short time grew to alienations of Minds so that they kept their Councils apart and if any Bishop of the East repair'd to a Synod of the West and so for the contrary He was look'd upon as a Betrayer of his own Church And this was the occasion of the after-greatness of the Church of Rome in these Western Parts because that alone of all the five Patriarchates happen'd to go along with the Western Empire For having no Competitor for the Supremacy or so much as the equality of Power in the Western Church it was no hard matter to advance it self to any degree of Power that it pleased to challenge especially when the Western Churches were forward enough of themselves to advance its Dignity for the Honor of their own Patriarchate in opposition to that of Constantinople which being the Seat of the Empire and enjoying the Favor of the Emporors soon over top'd all the other Eastern Patriarchates so that all the Competition that remain'd was between Rome and Constantinople Till at last in the Sixth Century Iohn Bishop of Constantinople first obtained of Mauritius the Emperor the Title of Universal Bishop which very Title was quickly and vehemently oppos'd by Gregory Bishop of Rome as a Piece of Antichristian Pride and Insolence But Mauritius being murdered by Phocas and Cyriacus then Bishop of Constantinople being fallen under the new Tyrant's Disfavor for declaring against his execrable Murder the Bishop of Rome seizes that Opportunity to flatter and caress him in all his Wickedness for which Civility the Usurper takes the Title of Universal Bishop and settles it upon the See of Rome And when once they had obtained the Title they resolv'd to make it good by gaining the Power too Tho by what degrees they encroach'd upon other Churches it is not at all to my purpose here to represent it is enough to have shewn the late Original of the Title which was never given them till above 600 Years after our Saviour This then being the true and real state of all the Christian Church the Conclusion plainly makes it self as to any English Christian's Obligation to communicate with the Church of England or the Church of Rome For as it is the indispensible Duty of every Man to joyn in visible Communion with the Society of the Church so is the first visible Society of the Church settled in the Communion of the Bishop of the Diocess And thence evident it is that the first Duty of every Christian as to external Communion with the Church is to joyn in Communion with the Bishop of the Place where he lives For if our Saviour setled the Government of the Church in the Apostles and if the Episcopal Order succeeded them in their Office then hath every Bishop Apostolical Authority And then is every Christian Man bound to submit to his Bishop as to an Apostle from whence the Bishop derives the Succession of his Order and Authority So that the Episcopal Society is the first visible Communion of the Christian Church and a Man becomes a Member of the Church-Catholic by joyning in visible Communion

without but against our Savior's Commission who hath appropriated that Power to another Order of Men and if the Priest challenge any temporal Jurisdiction as deriv'd from our Savior he in effect disclaims him in that he becomes our Savior purely by Virtue of his spiritual Power and Supremacy over his Church and therefore to pretend to any other Power deriv'd from him as Head of it is another way of turning Christ into Mahomet But tho the Civil Magistrate have no share of spiritual Authority yet hath he a Sovereign Supremacy over the Ecclesiastical State otherwise he would abate of his Power by the coming of Christianity into the World which contradicts the first Principle of a Christian Church that it makes no Alteration as to Civil Rights but then this Power over the Church is purely civil too and relates only to the Ends of Peace and Government in this Life and is the same that every Prince would have had tho our Savior had never come into the World but as for that which he hath peculiarly granted as he hath granted no part of it to the Civil Magistrate so it is plain that he hath designedly setled it upon another Order of Men and it is they alone that have any Right to exercise it But notwithstanding this new Power they are never the less Subjects than they were before and therefore all Christian Princes have the same Supremacy over all the Powers of the Church as to the Ends of Civil Government and as far as concerns the Affairs of this Life as they could have had if there were no such Powers at all The grand Difficulty in this Case is the Danger of Competition between these two Powers for if they happen to contradict each other as they too often do Which shall over-rule If a Man obey his Prince contrary to the Prescription of his spiritual Guide he may endanger his Soul if he obey the Bishop he disobeys his Prince and so deservedly forfeits his Neck to Justice But this Difficulty as big as it may appear is clearly remov'd by this one Consideration That the Christian Church and all the Authority in it is founded upon the Cross of Christ and that not only claims no Power in this World but obliges to an entire Submission to all the Powers of it so that no Opposition can lawfully be made even to the most unlawful Commands of Sovereign Princes but all Christians are still bound to do as they did in the Primitive Times to lay down their Lives with all manner of Meekness if their Governors whether right or wrong require it This is the true and honest State of the Christian Church That every Christian Man be faithful to the Laws of his Religion and if he suffer for it he shall be compensated for it with those Rewards that his Religion promises So that in all Cases of Competition both Powers so prevail as to attain their respective Ends. The Civil Power over-rules as to all Effects of this Life and being thus gently submitted to secures the Peace and Quiet of this World and that is the End for which it was instituted And the spiritual Power attains its Effect as to the World to come the Salvation of the Souls of Men by their conscientious Loyalty to their Religion and that is all that it aims at or pretends to and every Man that professeth Christianity takes it up upon this Condition So that all Resistance to secular Powers upon pretence of Religion is a direct Contradiction to the nature of the Christian Faith and another open Apostacy from Christianity to Mahumetanism And that I am afraid will prove a gross Blemish upon the Church of Rome that it pretends to a Power not only equal but superior to Princes so that the Popes as the Vicars of Christ may not only contend with them by force of Arms but may in some Cases depose them from their Thrones which if truly consider'd is no less than rank Blasphemy against our blessed Savior by turning his pure Religion into an Artifice of secular Interest But beside this this Point of Competition is to be chiefly determin'd by the Matter about which it is employ'd If the Contest be about an Article of Faith or any Fundamental Rule of Religion and the Prince will interpose his Power tho no Man is oblig'd to obey him because it is certain he never was entrusted with any such Power by our Saviour yet is he to be submitted to with all Meekness by virtue of the former Principle that requires peaceable Submission to Government from Christians in all Cases for the quiet of the World But if the Contest be about a Ritual of Worship or an emergent Rule of Discipline about which the Governors of the Church have a Power in themselves to make Canons and new Provisions yet are they indispensibly bound to submit the Exercise of it to their Prince because that 's the first Principle of Christianity as far as they can without Violence to the Laws of their Religion to comport with Civil Government so that tho this Power be seated properly in the Church yet out of that great Respect and Duty that the Christian Law requires to Princes they are bound to make use of it with all Deference to Sovereign Authority especially because the Church is accountable to it for its peaceable Behavior in the Commonwealth and therefore ought to give Security that it will neither disturb the State nor invade the Sovereign Prerogative upon this Pretence which because it is possible for them to do and some have done they are concern'd both in Duty and Modesty to submit all their Proceedings to his Judgment And this as far as I understand is the true State of the Church of England in the Act commonly called the Submission of the Clergy in which they do not alienate ar grant away their Power of making Canons but only for preventing all future Jealousies in the State against them they give all the Assurance they can that they will not presume to publish their Decrees without their Sovereign Lord's Consent and Approbation This short Account is the true State of the Bounds of Civil and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and that being setled the next thing to be considered is to find out what was the true and original Settlement of the Christian Church and by that we shall be able to inform our selves of the good or bad state of any present Church as it agrees or disagrees with it First then there is no one thing more clear and evident in the Christian Religion than that our Saviour vested the whole Apostolical Order with a Supremacy of Power over his Church and that they in pursuance of this his Divine Institution ordained Bishops to succeed them in their Supremacy of Power through all following Ages That the Apostles were superior to all other Officers in the Church is out of question and granted on all hands and that the Bishops succeeded them is as

only a Member of it and in that Station it is as large a Church as any were in the Primitive Times Neither then did the Communion of the Catholick Church consist in an Union of all Churches under one Head but in brotherly Love and Correspondence with one another and for that the Church of England is ready to offer it to the Church of Rome or any other upon the old Condition that they will give her leave to admonish them of their Faults and Miscarriages as Churches did one another of old But this is a Civility that the Church of Rome is too proud to accept of it must be all Churches or it will be none at all It allows no Equals in Communion and condescends to no Treaty but upon Terms of absolute Subjection neither is it content to enslave all its Neighbors to its own imperious Decrees unless they be submitted to as the infallible Dictates of God himself Now this seems too much for Men to swallow that have any sense or care of their Salvation for by this means the whole Faith of Christendom shall be left entirely at the Disposal of one single Person and the Pope alone shall be the whole Catholick Church This I say seems too much to venture upon one single Security especially unless it were confirmed by some clearer Commission than those remote and obscure Texts of Scripture that are alledg'd for the Papal Supremacy But to return from the Pope to the Church As the first Constitution of Churches was conform'd to the civil Government so indeed no other is practicable For upon that Supposition that Christianity makes no Abatement as to the civil Rights of Men especially of Princes provincial Churches cannot be justly extended beyond the Dominion of the State because in that case if Metropolitans or Patriarchs have power to call their Subject-Bishops to Councils the King's Subjects may be summoned out of his Dominions without his leave which is not only to diminish but to destroy his Power over his own Subjects for when they are out of his Dominions they are none of his So that the very State of Christianity naturally implies as it would not be inconsistent with it self the Conformity of the Church to the State in its bounds of Jurisdiction And this is the true meaning of that known Saying of one of the Fathers That the Church is in the Commonwealth and not the Commonwealth in the Church for the Civil Government being first constituted and the Church being afterwards taken into it it must for that Reason keep it self within it otherwise it breaks down its old Bounds of Settlement But beside that the Nature of Government confines every Church within the Prince's Dominions in which it is so it is highly convenient if not absolutely necessary to the due and effectual Exercise of Discipline that the Society of the Church be confined within some moderate Circuit of Government for great Governments are slow and unweildy in their Motions the very distance of Place makes all Proceedings uneasie and Determinations difficult and of this our Nation was sufficiently sensible when all Ecclesiastical Appeals were carried to Rome the Journey was tedious and chargable and by reason of the distance of Witnesses and other Inconveniences Proceedings infinitely dilatory I might say endless Causes depending there from Age to Age this is too notorious from the sad and open Complaints of those Times and I my self enjoy a small Office in this Church wherein my Predecessors had a Suit for a Privilege belonging to it hanging in the Court of Rome for some hundreds of Years till the very time of the Dissolution of the Pope's Power These are intolerable Grievances to Mankind and heavier Burthens than were ever imposed upon them by the most barbarous civil Government If therefore his Holiness will challenge a Supremacy over all Christian Churches let him not exercise his Jurisdiction in ordinary Causes that is contrary to all the Canons of the Church and Quiet of the World We will not contend with him about his Patriarchical Preheminence if that would give him Satisfaction tho we know he hath not the least pretence of any claim to it over us But when under that Pretext he takes to himself the Office of Universal Bishop that is to be all the Bishops of Christendom 't is that exorbitant Usurpation that is not our Complaint alone but the universal Complaint of Christendom it self And therefore if he would keep within his Patriarchical Bounds and Privileges which yet he enjoys not by divine Right but humane Institution we would give him all that Respect and Reverence that is due to the Primacy of his See But if instead of Brotherly Communion with us nothing less will serve his Turn than absolute Dominion over us and if Submission to that must be made our only Title to the Catholick Church as if we had no Right to Christianity but by Subjection to the Bishop of Rome these cannot but seem too hard Terms of Communion or if they are not it is enough that they are unwarrantable or if they are not so it is enough that they are not necessary And that they are not is evident from the Premises where I have demonstrated that the first Duty of every Christian as a Member of the Christian Church is to joyn Communion with his own Bishop as the first Political Society of a Church And that the next is a Combination of all the Bishops within one civil Government under one Metropolitan That this Polity was set on foot by the Apostles themselves and every where put in practice in the Primitive Church that the Ecclesiastical Province cannot extend beyond the Precincts of the Civil without infringing the Authority of Sovereign Princes and therefore that no foreign Prelate can have or exercise any Ecclesiastical Power over his Majesty's Subjects because that would give them Power to command them out of his Dominions So plainly doth the Nature of Civil Government set Bounds to Ecclesiastical Societies which one thing if duely consider'd must cut off all Claims of Papal Supremacy over this Church because by virtue of it he would have such a kind of Power over His Majesty's Subjects as the Christian Religion doth by no means allow any its Officers And as this was the Settlement of National Churches from the beginning of Christianity so is it the present Constitution of the Church of England that is or would be govern'd by its Metropolitan in his Synod of Bishops subject to one Civil Government And as this is all the Political Society that a Christian Church is capable of so all the Communion that it can have with other Churches consists in brotherly Love and mutual Correspondence And this way was the Christian Church in the first Ages of it preserv'd in competent Peace and Unity And whatever other Power was afterward erected in the Church was founded upon humane Institution and therefore is alterable in it self at least not necessary to the