Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	authority_n	bishop_n	presbyter_n	4,112	5	10.2023	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55307	The Samaritan shewing that many and unnecessary impositions are not the oyl that must heal the church together with the way or means to do it / by a country gentleman who goes to common-prayer and not to meetings.	Polhill, Edward, 1622-1694?	1682 (1682)	Wing P2756; ESTC R3092	63,931	131

Head of the Church it will be enquired whether they claim their Title Jure Divino or Humano If Jure Divino they must prove it which will not easily be done If Jure Humano I hope they will grant the King Superior to them and that they are but His Officers and Delegates which is the same thing that I desire and which is agreeable to the Opinion of our First Reformers as is apparent in Dr. Burnet's History of the Reformation For Cranmer took a Commission from K. Edward by which he held his Bishoprick and exercised his Jurisdiction Vid. Par. 2. pag. 6. And so Bonner had done before him from King Henry the Eighth Vid. Par. 1. l. 3. p. 267. And this is the same thing that hath been lately proposed by that Thoughtful Man Mr. Humfrey in the End of a Discourse written by Himself and Others and dedicated to the Right Honourable the Earl of Hallifax that great and sagacious Statesman I know some Men are Deaf Adders who will not be brought to regard it let a Man have Charmed never so wisely but These I take it are such only who are Enemies to Peace and will part with nothing for the sake of it And why now these Tolerated Churches should not be accounted true Churches and Parts of the National-Church whereof the King is the Head I do not imagine In my Apprehension they look very like the Churches we read of in the New Testament which no Man doubts were of Divine Appointment For although I do not know but that some particular Persons from among the Clergy fittest for it As St. Paul chiefly imployed himself in Preaching the Gospel and meddled but little with Baptism may be lawfully and prudently chosen and employed chiefly in the Government of several Congregations even as many as they can personally know and be acquainted withal and if they be called Bishops and have a peculiar Consecration and nothing be done in Ordination Censures and Absolutions but with their Knowledge Direction and Approbation I would have no Controversie with them about it Yet I do professedly avow that I can find no such thing in the Scripture nor in the Practice of the Church for 200 Years I know 't is said That the Apostles were Diocesans and that they governed all or most of the Christian Churches whil'st they lived but I see no Proof of it and there 's one Argument against it which I cannot tell how to answer and 't is this If the Christian Churches in the Apostles days had no Governours but themselves 't is certain that for the most part they had none at all for they never fixed in any place but having preached the Gospel planted Churches and settled Officers amongst them they left them and went to other Places and Countreys 'T is true they did sometimes return and visit the Churches that they planted but who Governed them in the intermediate Periods of Time Or were there no Ordinations Censures or Absolutions performed in them or none but by their Direction and Command That some Acts of Discipline were performed by their Direction and Command I do acknowledge but that all were so and that none ought to be performed without it I see no reason to believe Touching the Practice of the Church after the Apostles till the end of the Second Century I must say That I can find no Evidence of Diocesan Episcopacy or of any Churches bigger than some single Congregations among us at this day I think the Churches of Corinth Ephesus Antioch c. single Congregations and that they all Communicated at one Altar and that there are many Congregations in England as numerous and some much more numerous than they Yea I will add after all that hath been said of late to the contrary that I am not convinced that the Church of Carthage in Cyprian's days which was Two hundred and fifty Years after Christ was any bigger than some of our Parochial-Congregations In an Epistle to the Clergy of Carthage he tells them That from the beginning of his Episcopacy he determined to do nothing by his own private Judgment nor without their Counsel and the Consent of his People A primordio Episcopatus mei statuerim nihil sine Consilio Vestro sine consensu Plebis meae privata sententia gerere Ep. 6. ex Edit Goulartii What doth St. Cyprian mean by His People in these words Doth he mean the whole or Major Part of a Diocess in the Modern sense of the Word Did he assemble his Diocess and take their Consent in all things that did concern them Credat Judaeus Appella Many Passages of like nature might be produced from this great Saint and Martyr and are by Learned Men which I will not repeat And for ought that I can perceive Diocesan Episcopacy was unknown in this Nation for several hundreds of Years after Christ Jesus The Culdees were the great Preachers of the Gospel and Promoters of Christianity in Scotland Those Culdees were no Bishops nor had any Ordination but such as was performed by the Monk or Abbot of the Monastery in the Island Hii This Monk who was himself no Bishop and his Pressters gave them their Orders and from thence came Aidan and Finan into England and are called Bishops but had no other Ordination than that abovementioned Wini was the first Canonical Bishop in Britain as Bede reports Non erat tunc ullus excepto Wini in tot a Britannia Canonice Ordinatus Episcopus Lib. 3. cap. 28. Which was near Six hundred Years after Christ The Prefecture and Jurisdiction of Bishops in England seems to me of Humane Institution and derived partly from the Favour of Princes and partly from the Usurpation of the Pope and thus gotten and obtained they enjoyed and exercised it for many Hundreds of Years even till the days of Henry the Eighth who reassuming the Authority that had been granted by former Princes and usurped by the Pope obliged them to acknowledg their Jurisdiction by derivation from Himself and subjected them to a Premunire in case of refusal And of this Opinion those Bishops seem to be that took Commissions from K. Henry the Eighth and K. Edward the Sixth for their holding their Bishopricks and Exercise of their Jurisdiction as I have signified already Let our present Diocesans therefore as such acknowledg themselves the King's Officers and by Deputation from Him let them exercise such Authority circa sacra as appertains to Kings Let them enjoy their Honour and Revenues as a Reward of their Service Let the Powers granted by Christ to such Bishops as I have above conceded lawful and their Presbyters be left inviolable And let our Diocesans supervise them in the Exercise of them and see that they neither neglect nor abuse them And all our Controversies about Church-Government will come to an end Such Churches as should be thought worthy of Toleration as well as those that have the Approbation of Authority would submit to such an