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	queen_n	22,548	5	7.7438	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46641	An apology for, or vindication of the oppressed persecuted ministers & professors of the Presbyterian Reformed Religion, in the Church of Scotland emitted in the defence of them, and the cause for which they suffer: & that for the information of ignorant, the satisfaction and establishment of the doubtful, the conviction (if possible) of the malicious, the warning of our rulers, the strengthening & comforting of the said sufferers under their present pressurs & trials. Being their testimony to the covenanted work of reformation in this church, and against the present prevailing corruptions and course of defection therefrom. Prestat sero, quàm nunquam sapere.	Smith, Hugh.; Jamieson, Alexander.	1677 (1677)	Wing J446; ESTC R31541	114,594	210

and not to be the head of that Society to which any is such Now to the Minor that the Prelats and their Curats have their power from and in its exercise are subjected to a supream Architectonick power is beyond disput clear from the act of restitution formerly mentioned and other acts to be mentioned afterwards and will be so to any that consideratly peruse the same of which we are to speak at more large under the last head but for the time we propose these three from these acts for making out of this argument 1. They are expresly made to have a dependance upon and subordination to the King as supream to them in their Church judicatories and administrations 2 The government of the Church in its ordering and disposeing is annexed to the crowne as one royal prerogative thereof which not only suppons the government to be in him as the fountaine thereof but to be exercised with that dominion that is suteable to his regality 3 The giving of Church power to Church officers is supponed to be the effect and deed of his lawes and acts without which all power in the Church is declared to be null and void Objec Although the Kings Majesty be supream governour in all causes and over all persons Ecclesiastical yet he is not head to and of the Church Ans If he be supream governour in such causes and over such persons in Linea directa no question he is the head political to the Church for GOVERNOUR HEAD are equipollent terms whosoever is supream Governour to any society in this sense is a proper political head to it it is needless to quarrel about words if the thing be granted And that this subordination or supremacy is direct or in Linea directa is we judge clear from the fore mentioned acts seing they not only make the King the fountaine of Church power but moreover in the act anent the the National Synod he is made the All of the same and without him it is nothing The like of these the sun never shined on except these made by King Henry the 8. of England which being scrupuled at by all sorts of persons at home abroad they were in Queen Elizabeths time forced to alleviat the mater by removeing the title head and some mitigating explications allowed and ordered to be given to the subjects at the taking of the oath of supremacy but no such explications allowed here Arg. 3. If the Ministers and Churches required by law to receive and submit to the Prelats and their Curats thus thrust in upon them were constitut and setled in Christs way as Pastors and flocks in the just possession and actual use of all ordinances conforme to the rules of the word then it is no sinful separation for Churches in adhering to their Ministers not to receive nor submit to the Prelates and their Curats But so it is that the Ministers and Churches required by law to receive and submit to the Prelats and their Curats thus thrust in upon them were constitut and setled in Christs way as Pastors and flocks in the just possession and actual exercise of all ordin●●ces conforme to the rules of the word Therefore it is ●●●o sinful separation on their part not to receive and submit to the Prelats and their Curats in hearing and receiving of ordinances from them We suppose the consequence of the major proposition is evident and will not readily be denyed by any and if it shall happen to be we prove it thus If there be divine obligations on Ministers and their Churches to the performance of the mutual duties of Pastors and flocks then it can be no sinful separation for Churches in adhering to their Ministers not to receive nor submit to the Prelats and their Curats But so it is that the Ministers and Churches required by law to receive and submit to the Prelats and their Curats were under divine obligations to the performance of the mutual duties of Pastors and flocks Therefore it is no sinful separation for Churches not to receive nor submit to the Prelats and their Curats The consequence of the major proposition leaneth upon these two and is infallibly made out by them first that th●●e is a divine relation of Pastor and flock betwixt Ministers and the Churches over whom they are set and secondly that they are bound by divine commands to do the mutual duties of such contained and prescribed in the word of God none that acknowledge the Ministery to be an ordinance of divine instution and the Scriptures to be the rule of religion and righteousness will be able to refuse these We conceive none even of our Antagonists will deny the Minor if they do will it not follow that the Church of Scotland before and at the Prelats introduction was no Ministerial political Church which is false as we undertake to prove when ever our opposites give their reasons to the contrare But we know the greatest debate will be about the Minor proposition of the first argument to wit that Ministers and Churches required by law to receive and submit to the. Prelats and their Curates were setled in Christs 〈◊〉 as Pastors and flocks in the just possession actual exercise of all ordinances of divine appointment This for mater of fact is beyond all denial for the Churches of Christ in Scotland before and at the Prelates late entry among us in the Year 1662. were for the generality of the furnished with Pastors and in the possession of all ordinances The debate then will run upon the jus of that constitution that was existent and in being at the Prelats introduction against which there is nothing that can with any colour of reason be objected but one of these three Obj. 1. Prelacy was wanting in that constitution which it should have had Ans 1. To the validity of this objection it must first be made out that Prelacy as it is established by law and in use and exercise among us at this day is of divine right or an office institute in the word of God which is not yet done and for any thing we have yet seen never will Let our adversaries in this great debait consider the reasons and exceptions we have given in against i● and answer them yea we undertake to prove that it is not only without but against the word of God 2 We ask at the Patrons of Prelacy whether they judge it essential to the constitution of the Ministerial political Church If they judge it essential doth it not necessarily follow that all the Reformed Churches of France Holland c. are no ministerial Political Churches and that all ordinances dispensed in them are Nullities yea that the Churches of the vallyes of Piemont called the Albigenses which by all historians have their original deduced from the Apostles were not such seing 〈◊〉 the confession of all they never had Prelacy from their begining of Christianity to this day which is contrare to

is there not here a reciprocal subordination and superiority of persons with a coordination of powers as is hinted above We plead no more for the Ministers of the Gospel and the Government of the Church commited to them We grant a great difference in other respects betwixt the Magistrat and Ministers they act as meer servants without all dominion in them He with dominion and Magistratical authority over the persons of Ministers yet for all this the powers are coordinat and in their exercise not directly subject to one another 2. These powers their exercise and respective objects becoming reciprocally the object of one another as the Ministry and its objects being one part of the Magistrats power the Magistrat and the objects of his power being likewise a part of the object about which Ministers exercise their power under different formalities and specifications there arises or results not only a sweet harmony and a mutual subserviency to one another in advancing of their respective ends but likewise an indirect subordination to one another in the exercise of their powers without any dependance of these powers upon one another But this subordination is only of the persons and not of the powers which by being the mutual objects of one anothers powers does not subject the power and its exercise but only the persons for any thing or power becoming the object of another does not subordinat it to that power the Word Ordinances c. are not by being the object either of the Ministerial or the Magistratical power subordinated or subject thereto so that the Ministerial power its exercise and the maters about which it converses are not by being the object of the Magistrats power subordinated to it This breaks the force of our adversaries Argument which lyes mainly in this Obj. 6. It is only this sort of Supremacy and subordination that the act of restitution does mean Ans It is not so as is clear from the words and frame of the acts for it is the Church assemblies their proper maters their constitution the intrinsick obligation of their conclusions that are subordinated to the Magistrat so that all is nothing without him Obj. 7. All Divines even the Presbyterians and independents in the Church of England grant the Magistrat to be Supream in all causes and over all persons Ecclesiastical none of them scruple to take the oath of Supremacy as it is established by law in that Kingdom Ans All Divines do not grant this as is to be seen in the writings of many and for any thing we know it is not yeelded by the Presbyterian and Independants in the sense controverted among us neither can it seing it quyt overthrows all Church Government in its distinction from and independency on the civil Government of the Magistrat which is contrare to the known principles both of Presbyterians and Independants and if the Prelats themselves durst speak their minde conforme to their owne principles they would not in this differ from us as Thorndike more free and engenuous then the rest of his party does declame and cry out against the oath of Supremacy as the great crying sin of the Church of England but to an excesse would assert all and much more then we do in this mater were it not for fear of offending the Magistrat on whom now they wholly depend and whose Creaturs they only are● which hath in our times reconciled the Prelatical and Erastian principles at least in appearance that are most contrare to and distant from one another yea more then theirs and ours And although the Presbyterians and Independants in the Church of England do take the oath of Supremacy yet it is with such explications allowed assented to by the Magistrat that give it a sound sense which was stumbled and scrupled at both in Queen Elizabeth and King James times till its sense was explicat and allowed as is to be seen in the instructions given to justices of the peace by Queen Elizabeth for administrating the said oath Bishop Ushers explanation of it approven by King James In which sense it is understood taken to this day among them But to understand this mater aright and to avoid the labyrinth of generalities ambiguities with which some divines perplex intricat it it would be considered 1. That there is a two fold proper supremacy one civil and another Ecclesiastical about Church power meetings and maters 2 There are two Kinds of Causes of those they call Ecclesiastical some that are only extrinsically such but in their nature immediat ends and use civil that for their more remote ends and respects to things truely and properly sacred are called Ecclesiastical as lawes made for the Church her concerns outward liberty and peace external rewards and punishments c. Againe some causes Ecclesiastical are intrinsically and formally such as who shall preach the Gospel be invested with the Ministery or who shall be deposed from it who shall be rebuked admonished and excommunicated or received and admitted into the Church c. 3 The terme CAUSES is not here to be understood in a physical but moral and juridical sense that is for questions to be decided by those who are impowered either by God or men to this work 4 Causes or questions as they are the object of power its exercise are either proper and immediat or els improper and remote Hence we say 1. That the Magistrat is Supream Governour in all things or causes properly civil relating to causes and persons Ecclesiastical the judicial cognition and definitive judgment of these belong to him and not to the Church in this sense we admit the oath of Supremacy declared ourselves willing to take it which was refused us 2 That the Magistrat is not the supreme Governour in Causes and over persons formally Ecclesiastical This we assert belongs to Christ Jesus only and not to the Magistrat as hath been proven above This is the supremacy we deny to the Magistrat and for which we have declined to take the oath anent it that is now established law being perswaded for the reasons formerly given that this is the supremacy granted by law and understood in this oath But3 That causes and persons formally Ecclesiastical are not the proper and immediat object of the Magistrats power but only improper and remote and the reason is becaus in the execution of Christs law given to the Church the judicial cognition and definitive judgment about these belongs not to the Magistrat but to the Ministers of the word as for instance it is not the Magistrats part to cognosce and determine who is to be received into the Church and who not this is proper to the Ministers of the Gospel and so of other causes and questions of the like nature Obj. Then the Magistrat in protecting countenancing and furthering of the Churches acts and sentences by the sword must be a blinde executer of them Ans This must be said