Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	humane_a	law_n	positive_a	2,470	5	10.9031	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31666	The foundation of popery shaken, or, The Bishop of Rome's supremacy opposed in a sermon upon Matth. XVI. 18, 19 / by William Cade.	Cade, William, 1651 or 2-1707.	1678 (1678)	Wing C194; ESTC R24760	20,539	40

Instruct the People in the Principles and Duties of Religion to Administer the Sacraments to confer Orders by the Imposition of Hands to constitute and appoint Guides and Officers who should Bind and Loose Sinners by Ecclesiastical Censures and finally to exercise the Discipline and Government of the Church And in these they are Succeeded by the ordinary Rulers and Ecclesiastick Guides who are to super-intend and discharge the Affairs and Offices of the Church to the end of the World It is not my Business at present to defend the different Orders of the Church from the Cavils of those whose Interest or Malice would bury it in Confusion Neither am I concerned to prove the Succession of Pastors against them who by pretence of an immediate and extraordinary Call leap into and invade the Offices of the Church These are not the men with whom I now intend I shall prove That the Pope as St. Peter's Successor hath none of those Extraordinary Gifts which will qualifie him for the Oecumenical Pastorship For granting not only that St. Peter was at Rome but that he was Bishop there that for Five Twenty years together tho the Antients attribute the founding the Episcopacy and Government of that Church equally to Peter and Paul making the one as much concerned in it as the other yet what would this make for the unlimited soveraignty and universality of that Church unless a better Evidence could be produced than this Succession to St. Peter for its uncontroulable Supremacy and Dominion over the whole Christian World For had not the same Peter a Successor at Antioch and the other Apostles in their several Sees and yet none of these pretended tho they seem to have equal Right to this Power But here we are told That immediate Vocation the seeing Christ in the Flesh power to write Canonical Books of Scripture and other priviledges extraordinarily conferred on the Apostles were fitting to the first beginnings of Christianity and so not of Perpetual use and Necessity But that Universality of Jurisdiction and a kind of Infallibility of Judgment are perpetually necessary and therefore these were to pass from Peter to Others tho the rest of the Apostolick Pre-eminencies were not Which I shall examine and then conclude That the Roman is a Patriarchal Church and the Bishop of it hath Prime Place amongst other Bishops of the World would never be denyed him would he rest contented with that But it must by no means be granted that he is an Universal Bishop having Jurisdiction over the whole Church that is such a Bishop in whom all Episcopal Jurisdiction Power and Authority is Originally Invested from whom it is derived to Others and who may Limit and Restrain the Use of it in Others as seemeth good unto Himself For every Bishop hath in his place and keeping in his proper Station the Episcopal Power and Authority immediately from Christ which is not to be Limited and Restrained by any but by the Company and Suffrages of Bishops Wherein tho one be Chief for Order sake and to preserve Unity in the Church yet he can do nothing without the Concurrence of the Rest When the Constantinopolitan Patriarch affected this Title as I before hinted Gregory then Pope compares him to Lucifer who despising the Angels his Companions sought to climb up to that Heighth that he neither might seem to be Under any nor any be found Over whom he was not As for Infallibility of Judgement pretended to as perpetual and necessary in the Church and as they would have it derived down from St. Peter to his Successours at Rome If it be granted to them that there is a kind of Infallibility or Non-deficiency rather in the Universal Church they presently confound the Notion and apply it to whom they please Accordingly there is this Distinction of a Church 1. A Church Essential which is the whole Multitude of Believers 2. The Representative The Assembly of Bishops in a General Council representing the whole Body of the Church from the several Parts whence they come 3. The Virtual Church by which they understand the Bishop of Rome who being by Christ's Appointment as they suppose Chief Pastor of the whole Church hath in himself Eminently and Virtually as great Certainty of Truth and infallibility of Judgement as is in the whole Church upon whom dependeth all that Certainty of Truth that is found in it Of these we affirm That the Church in the first Notion cannot erre or fall away In the Second That it may Erre In the Third tho we also deny the Notion That it doth Erre And against Matter of Fact as I take it there can be no Proof Of which I could give many Instances were it not Loss of Time to do so The Supremacy of the Pope so much contended for and so meanly supported is the greatest Intrenchment in the Exercise of it that was ever made upon the Prerogative of Princes and the Authority of Bishops The Crown and Mitre being swallowed up in this Plenitude of Power So that it is the Interest as well as Duty of Church and State of Prince and People of Pastors and their Flocks to oppose what is so much against the Wellfare of all Civil and Christian Societies I shall not urge the Inconveniencies only but the Injustice of such a Subjection whereby all Bonds Natural Civil and Christian are broken if it please him who usurps such a Supreme Power over Mens Consciences It is the Prerogative of God alone to set up his Throne in the Conscience of Man and by the Laws of right Reason to lay such a Restraint upon it as all Humane Powers cannot be able to gain say or resist to cancel or disanul Nothing but an express Dispensation from God himself can acquit the Subject or Child from the Obedience he ows his Prince or Parent Nature which is God's Law being herein so plain and positive must never upon the Interposition of any Humane Power be transgrest So that we must be very earnest to assert our own Liberty and our Superiours Authority against that Forreign Prelate who by his Emissaries doth dayly disturb the Peace of this our Syon and draw off many from their Duty and Obedience to God the Church their Country and their Prince Our own Nation is at present the Theatre wherein most Hideous Villanies are Plotted and Designed and it is much to be feared that the Actors are not yet gone off the Stage And all this not without a manifest Respect to and in direct Pursuance of this most Pernitious Doctrine Which is a strong Argument to us how far blind Zeal can transport and what a wicked Principle can inspire into their Breasts who thus obstinately adhere to it For if by such a pretended Power a King be declared an Heretick upon that Declaration be Excommunicated upon that Excommunication be deprived of his Dominions and Condemned to Death And if his Subjects at the same time be not only absolved from all Allegiance to him but bound in Conscience to Depose and Destroy him and Execute that direful Sentence against his Life What Security can any Prince or People expect from those that maintain such Principles as tend in so direct a Consequence to the Confusion and Subversion of Church and State when-ever it shall please this Supreme Power to pronounce such a Sentence But some have gone farther and absolved all Subjects from their Allegiance if they are resolved in Conscience that their Prince is Heretical The other is bad enough I need not trace this any farther This Doctrine which by them that maintain it hath been sometimes accounted Scandalous is not confined to Theory but hath been often reduced to Practice It hath not only been Disputed of in Schools but Preach't in Pulpits maintained in Press and confirmed by Actions From hence is apprehended all our Danger and from hence springs all our Mischief That the Subjects of any Prince or whoever else shall come under the Protection of his Laws and Government who for the time are to be reckoned Subjects shall presume to own any Power under Heaven Superior to him and by vertue of Commission from that Forreign Power shall endeavour to disturb and subvert the Laws and Government Establisht This is the First Mover in the Roman Sphear that hurryes all Inferior Orbs The Spring that gives Motion to the Papal Machin When this is swallowed down there is nothing can oppose or hinder any of the Designs of Rome Wherefore tho other Doctrines are pitcht upon as more Absurd yet in my Judgement and I think I have the Experience of this Nation to confirm the Truth of it this is of most fatal and pernitious Consequence And with its Infallibility annext throws down all that can oppose it self against the Holy Chair The latter makes Men stick at no Absurdities The former encourages and commands them to commit all Villanies Let us therefore fortify our Reason against the One and strengthen our Arms against the Other Let us put on the whole Armor of God and with them joyn our Prince's too that we may be able to stand against these Adversaries of both And then we shall not only fight with Honour and Praise but come off with Success and Glory FINIS