Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	henry_n	king_n	pope_n	16,586	5	6.9376	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30479	A vindication of the ordinations of the Church of England in which it is demonstrated that all the essentials of ordination, according to the practice of the primitive and Greek churches, are still retained in our Church : in answer to a paper written by one of the Church of Rome to prove the nullity of our orders and given to a Person of Quality / by Gilbert Burnet.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1677 (1677)	Wing B5939; ESTC R21679	101,756	245

authority to what Offices they will have made Saints and added devotions to them as they pleased All persons in that Communion must either by a blind resignation accept of every thing in their Worship which the Pope imposes believing him infallible or if they are not of that perswasion but give themselves leave to examine the Offices whether they do it by the Scriptures the Fathers and Tradition or by the Rules of Reason they must needs see there are many injustifiable things in their Offices many Saints are in the Breviary about whose Canonisation they are not at all assured And in a word one shall not speak with one of these Principles but they will acknowledg there is great need of Reforming their Offices Yet they must worship God according to them as they are otherwise they are Schismaticks and fall under that same condemnation for which they are so severe upon us Therefore it must either be the merits of the Cause that makes a Schismatick or if a Condemnation for separating from Authorised Offices does it then they must resolve to be guilty of it or worship God contrary to their Consciences They have no rules for their Offices but the Popes pleasure for Councils never made any and indeed it is the most unreasonable thing that can be to put the direction of the whole worship of God in one Man or a succession of Mens power unless they be believed Infallible The last thing I shall mention to shew how unreasonable they are who deny the Popes Infallibility and yet condemn the Reformation so severely is in the point of Government which though it be not of so high nor so universal a Nature as the two former are yet it must be acknowledged to be of great Importance And that the Prelates of that Church are fast tied to the Pope without any Reserves or Exceptions unless it be that of saving my Order the sense whereof is not fully understood will appear from the Oath they make to the Pope before they are Ordained From the consideration of which it was that King Henry the 8th laid it out to his Parliament that they were but half his Subjects and by the Oath then taken by the Bishops of England as is set down by Hall it appears that since that time there are very considerable Additions made to that Oath which any that will compare them together will easily discern If men make Conscience of an Oath they must be in a very hard condition that believe the Pope to be Infallible and yet are so bound to him by such a Bond. If the Superior be Infallible the Subject may without any trouble in his Conscience swear Obedience in any terms that can be conceived But when the Superior is believed subject to error and mistake then their swallow must be very large that can swear to preserve defend increase and promote the Rights Honours Priviledges and Authority of the Holy Roman Church of our Lord the Pope and his Successors foresaid The Decrees Orders or Appointments Reservations Provisions or Mandates Apostolical I shall observe with all my strength and make them to be observed by others And I shall according to my power persecute and oppose all Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebells against the said our Lord and his Successors And I shall humbly receive and diligently execute the Apostolical Commands Which words being full and without those necessary and just reserves of the Obedience promised to Ecclesiastical Superiors in all things Lawful and Honest all the Prelates of the Roman Communion are as fast tied to the Pope as if they believed him Infallible for if they believed him such they could be tied to nothing more than absolute and unlimited Obedience Therefore they are in so much a worse estate than others be which hold that opinion because they have the sa●… Obligation bound upon them by Oath And let the Pope command what he will the●… must either obey him or confess themselve●… guilty of breach of Oath and Perjur●… And I hope the Reader will observe wh●… mercy all whom they account Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels again●… their Lord the Pope are to expect at their hands who make their Bishops swear 〈◊〉 persecute all such according to their power so that we may by this be abundantly satisfied of their good Intention●… and Inclinations when ever it shall be i●… their power to fulfil the Contents of thi●… Oath for let any of them speak ever 〈◊〉 softly or gently if he comes to be Consecrated a Bishop he must either be Perjured or turn a persecuter of all Protestants wh●… are in their opinion the worst sort of Hereticks and Schismaticks And certainly it is much more reasonble to calculate what in reason we ought to expect from the Prelates of that Church if ever our sins provoke God to deliver us over to their Tyranny from the Oath they swear at their Consecration than from all the meek and good natured words with which they now study to abuse some among us which is so common an Artifice of all who aspire to Power and Government that one might think the trick should be tried no more but some love to be cheated a hundred times over From these Instances it is apparent that the Pope has every whit as much Authority in that Church and over all in it as if he were believed Infallible since both the Doctrine Worship and Government of their Church are determined by him to whose award all must not only submit but be concluded by it in their Subscriptions Worship and other practices So that the opinion of the Popes being fallible gives such persons no ease nor freedom except it be to their secret thoughts but brings them under endless scruples and perplexities by the Obligations and Oaths that are imposed upon them which bind them to a further obedience and compliance than is consistent with a fallible Authority And therefore their Principles being so Incoherent that they cannot maintain both their charge against us of Heresie and Schism and their opinion of the Pope●… Fallibility and keep a good Conscience withal There is one of three things to be expected from men of that Principle either that they shall quite throw off th●… Popes tyrannical Yoke and assert their own liberty reserving still their other Opinions as was done in the days of King Henry the Eighth or that they shall joyn●… in Communion with us or that they shall continue as they are complying with every thing imposed on them by the Court o●… Rome preferring Policy to a good Conscience studying by frivolous Distinctions to reconcile these Compliances with their Principles which any man easily see are Inconsistent That those of the Port-Royal have done the last is laid to their charge both by Calvinists and Jesuits and as I am credibly informed by some of their own number who do complain of their subscribing Formularies and every thing else sent from Rome which they have opposed as long

Pool to have been a righteous Arch-Bishop and so confesses Catholick Ordination and Jurisdiction to be lawful valid and good which was necessary by the Laws of England as appears from her Mandate in which she supplies any Defects they might have been under Now all the Authority the Queen had flowed from the Parliament which annexed all Jurisdiction Spiritual or Temporal over the Ecclesiastical State of this Realm to the Crown by which they made her Pope So that by the very words of the Act Matthew Parker had his Jurisdiction from the Queen and she hers from the Parliament Therefore the Protestant Priests and Bishops are only Parliamentary Priests and Bishops and are not from Christ and his Church but from their Kings Queen and Parliaments Here is such a heap of things so unjustly and weakly said that it must needs grieve all honest men to see a company of Priests going up and down the Kingdom studying to abuse weak and unlearned persons with such disingenuous Stories or Writings Which I hope will appear more fully if you consider the following particulars First It is certain that King and Parliament have the Supream Legislative Authority in this Realm and this they have from the Laws of God Nature and Society confirmed by the Gospel which commands us to be subject to the Higher Powers Therefore whatever they Enact that is within the Limits of their Jurisdiction is Law and if it be not sinful is to be obeyed if it be sinful it is to be submitted to For instance if they set up a false Religion by Law it does not make it a true Religion but adds the sanction of Law and is the civil Warrant and Security for the Subject therefore the Civil Power cannot change the nature of things to make Good Evil or Evil Good but only gives Authority and Security and in this they are restrained in things Civil as well as Spiritual for if they make unjust Laws in Civil things the case is the same with their unjust Laws about Spirituals Therefore it is to be concluded as the Fundamental Maxim of Civil Government that whatever may be done lawfully and without Sin ought to be done when the Supream Civil Authority commands it and that the Subjects ought to obey Secondly Whosoever is empowered by the King and Parliament to execute this their Supream Authority has a full Right and Title to apply that Power so given or committed to him having the execution of that Law put in his hands and if any shall without their Warrant or Authority from them usurp or assume any sort of Power or Jurisdiction within this Kingdom they are Intruders and Usurpers and the success they have in it does no more justifie that Force than a Robber's does his Title to Goods unjustly taken And although some weak Princes in hard times did yield it up to the Pope yet both the Clergy themselves and the Parliaments did often assert their own Authority which was most eminently done by King Edward the First and King Edward the Third So that the Popes power here had no just Title but was a violent Invasion for that they neither had it from Christ nor Saint Peter nor by any Decree of General Councils and that for 800 years after Christ it was never allowed them that they never had it in the Eastern Churches and that what they had in the Western Churches was only extorted by force and fraud from the Princes and States of Europe and that they had no Law for it in England are things so certain that for proof of this I shall refer my self to the Writers of their own Church De Marca Launoy and Balusius with many others And at this very day the Pope has neither more nor less power in the other Kingdoms of Europe than the Connivence of Princes or the Laws give him Therefore the Pope had no power in England but what was unjustly usurped from the King and Parliament Thirdly When the Supream Authority the King and Parliament have long endured an Encroachment upon them that gives no just Title to it nor hinders them from asserting their own Rights when they find a fit opportunity for it and neither devests them of their Authority nor the Subjects of their due Rights and Freedoms Therefore the Government of the Kingdom and all the exercise of coercive Jurisdiction being inseparably annexed to the Supream Authority it was incumbent on them to shake off all Forrein Jurisdict they should have done it sooner but could never do it too soon Fourthly The King and Parliament asserting their Authority in this Particular and condemning the Popes Usurpations they might commit the execution of it to whom they would Therefore they putting it into the Queens hands and her Successors she had a good Right to exercise it having a Law for it This then being annexed to the Imperial Crown of the Realm by the Supream Authority of King and Parliament the King hath the power of exercising it fully and only in his hands and is to be obeyed in all his Injunctions that are not sinful by the Laws of the Supream Authority in this Kingdom which comes from God and is confirmed by the Gospel Fifthly Though the power of the Ministers of the Gospel comes only from Christ yet the exercise of that Power and this or that person being put in this or that Living or Preferment and having the right to the Tythes and all the Jurisdiction of the Spiritual and Prerogative Courts being things not appointed in the Gospel the King having the Supremacy over the Ecclesiastical State does not exceed his Limits when he reserves to himself such power that no person shall be vested with the Legal Authority for those things but by his knowledg or upon his Order It is true he cannot make a man a Bishop or a Priest nor can he take away Orders for if Bishops should Ordain or Consecrate without or against his pleasure he may proceed against both the Ordainers and Ordained and can hinder their exercising any Function in his Dominions by Banishing or Imprisoning them but ●…he cannot destroy or annul their Orders So that the power of Ordination comes from Christ and has a Spiritual Effect whatever opposition the King may make but the exercise of that power must be had from him If the King commands an Heretick or a Scandalous person to be Elected or Ordained Churchmen may well demur and offer their reasons why they cannot give Obedience not for the want of Authority in the King but because the matter is Morally evil As they must also do if the King should command them to commit Theft or Murther So that all Consecrations in this Land are made by Bishops by the power that is inherent in them only the King gives orders for the execution of that their power Therefore all that the Queen did in the Case of Matthew Parker and the Kings do since was to command so many Bishops to exercise a power they