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
A76079	A declaration demonstrating and infallibly proving that all malignants, whether they be prelates, popish-cavaleers, with all other ill-affected persons, are enemies to God and the King: who desire the suppression of the Gospel, the advancement of superstition, the diminution of the Kings prerogative and authority, with the oppression of the subject. All which is evinced by strong proofes, and sufficient reasons. By John Bastwick Dr. of Physick.	Bastwick, John, 1593-1654.	1643 (1643)	Wing B1061; Thomason E101_8; ESTC R1900	48,987	64

defendant there said if they commanded nothing contrary to the will and Word of God that he for his part out of the reverence duty and loyalty to his Prince would obey it The Words in the Originall are these Verum de Episcoporum autoritate locutus à bonis bene intelligi cupio Non enim litis litem moveo quatenus ab Imperatoribus Regibus Principibus Terrae quorum interest salutem civium tueri potestate Ius Imperiii in socios totumque Dei gregem adepti sunt Nam si Romani Episcopi immensam illam nullus limitibus circumscriptā autoritatē indulgentiae Principū acceptā ferrem voluntati Episcopali nihil voluntati divinae inimicum jubenti obtemperandū putem ob reverentiam Principi si volenti debitam c. So that the Defendant having thus plainly set down his minde before and knowing that all the jurisdiction that the Bishops in England now exercise over others is from the King he thought himself not onely secure from danger but expected favour at least from the Bishops and their helping hand especially when the opposing the Popes Authority in England is a thing that the King and State have ever so well allowed of And that this honourable Court may yet be farther informed of the speciall cause for which the Prelates are so displeased with the Defendant it was for the truely and narrowly disputing and discussing of the second question to wit whether the Pope of Rome if he be a Bishop as he is a Bishop have Authority and Jurisdiction not onely over his fellow brethren but over Kings and Emperours which the Defendant there denyed for many warrantable Arguments the summe of which he desireth here to relate unto this honourable Court for his just and necessary defence and justification For by the very light of nature and unanswerable reason it is evident and manifest that where there is an equality parity amongst men there the one doth not exceed the other in power or Dominion Paris enim in Parem non esse imperium inter Naturae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est Now Divine constitution hath made Bishops and Presbyters or Elders a like and equall which that it might the better appeare the Defendant propounded three things to be proved The first was that Bishops and Presbyters were by the Word of God one and the same Secondly That Presbyters had equall Authority of Government Ordination Excommunication with Bishops wherein only consists their preheminency and Authority above their brethren which things being proved it will necessarily follow That the Pope of Rome as he is Bishop doth no way exceed other Bishops and Presbyters they being in all things alike and equall unto him much lesse hath any Authority and power over Kings and Emperours And for the proofe of the first position the words Presbyter and Bishop do sufficiently evince it which is holy Scripture though diverse in sound signifie one and the same thing as not to cite the words themselves which would be large The Apostle Paul to Titus in the first Chapter doth sufficiently shew where the words Bishop and Presbyter are confounded And likewise in the first Epistle of Peter and the fift Chapter there Presbyter and Bishop signifie one and the same thing And the Epistle to the Philippians the first Chapter and the first verse doth apparently demonstrate it and divers other places might be produced dilucidating the same thing But the 20. of the Acts puts all out of controversie where Presbyter and Bishop signifie one and the same thing for office honour and function so that the idenity of their office is signifyed by those two expressions Neither is there a confusion of their names with a difference still of their functions and administrations as some would cavill for in these places where Presbyters are called Bishops the disputation is not about the title but about the office signified and specified by the title For when Saint Paul exhorts the Presbyters to have an eye to their duty and charge he useth this reason that the Holy Ghost hath made them Bishops and the truth of this is so evident that the Rhemists themselves as learned men as any Bishops in England and as able to maintaine an error are forced ingeniously to confesse it saying in expresse words in their Notes upon the 28. vers of that Chapter That in the Apostles times there was no difference between Presbyter and Bishop so that for the first position it is not onely by the Word of God clearly evident but by the very confession of the adversaries of the truth granted as a thing without controversie Now for proofe of the second position that Presbyters as well as the Bishop of Rome have the power and right of Government Ordination and Excommunication by which in these times Bishops onely exceed Presbyters the Defendant will here briefly demonstrate it referring those of this honourable Court that have a desire to search into the full truth of it to his book And for the proofe that the Government was committed unto them and that they exercised the same it is most perspicuous out of the first of Timothie 5. where the Apostle saith the Presbyters that rule well are worthy of double honour especially those that labour in Word and Doctrine By this testimony it is evident that they had rule and government in their hands And that they had power also of Ordination and imposition of hands it is likewise apparent out of the first Epistle of Paul to Timothy the first Chapter For the Apostle speaking to Timothy saith Do not neglect the gift that is in thee which is given thee for prophesie by the imposition of the hands of the Presbytery Here also the Presbyters had the right of imposition of hands And that they had the power of Excommunication and Absolution it is likewise manifest from the fifth of the 1. of the Corinthians and the second Chapter of the second Epistle where the Apostle gives them the power of casting the incestrous person out and upon his repentance receiving of him in againe By all which Authorities of Sacred Writ it is sufficiently cleare and evident That the Presbyters had the Authority and power of Government and rule in the Church with the faculty also and ability of Ordination and Excommunication and all this by Divine institution and expresse words of holy Scripture howsoever this right and their due was through the fraud and deceit of the Bishop of Rome and Romish Bishops afterwards taken away from the Presbyters Wherefore the Defendant concluded That if there were any difference between Presbyters and the Bishop of Rome which he denied that then the Presbyters in dignity and honour exceeded and that greatly the Bishop of Rome and Romish Bishops for all these Priviledges of government Ordination and Excommunication are in formall words given unto the Presbyters and no where granted unto the Bishops And for farther illustration and proofe of this the Defendant

Bishops and with their owne Arguments wounded them And therefore he could not but take it unkindly that when in this combat they should have helped him against the common enemy they defending him fell upon the poore Defendant to his perdition saying that he meant them that he was erronious and factious in his opinions Now if the Defendant hath erred in the discussing of these truths the Scripture that word of life hath brought him to it which were blasphemy to thinke and therefore when they adjudged this booke to be burnt they might as well have burnt the Scripture also yea all antiquity and the gravest and learnedst of ancient Fathers whose testimonies also he hath made publicke for the greater vindication of the truth against errour and cruelty But that the integrity of the Defendant may yet more clearly appeare he most humbly entreateth this Illustrious Tribunall to heare how the businesse was carried against him at his Arraignment before the Prelates Barre at Lambeth and how submissively he demeaned himself these and how superciliously they carried themselves towards the Defendant on the contrary side When it came to his part to speake for himselfe the Advocate having formerly denied to plead his case any farther then about the witnesses testimonie which he also did very jejunely being an Advocate of such excellent parts of learning and eloquence as he was and also at the Bar renouncing it saying That the Defendant should plead himselfe which when it was put upon him he then first related unto the Assembly the Theame of the booke which was the maintenance of the Kings Prerogative royall Then he told them the occasion of his writing of it that he was provoked thereunto by a Pontifician who often had dared him into the list of dispute which at last he could not deny as he was a Christian and as he was a Subject for by the Word of God he told them and by the Law of the land and his speciall oath he was bound unto it which oath he also read at large in open Court the which also all the Bishops of England and all the Judges of the kingdome had taken and were equally bound with him to observe Then before he entered into the combat with the adversary he showed what caution he used that being to write against the Bishop of Rome and Italian Bishops it was onely as they arrogate their authority over their brethren and the Church of God yea over Kings and Emperours jure divino against such Bishops onely he affirmed he did dispute and read the words of exception formerly cited at the Barre as for such Bishops as acknowledge their jurisdiction power and authority from Kings and Emperours he said he had no controversie against them as he there againe and againe declared himself in the number of which he the Defendant said ours were for all the Bishops of England and in his Majesties Dominions had and received or at least wise ought so to do their authority and jurisdiction over their brethren from him For proofe of which he cited and read publickly the Statutes and Acts of Parliament as follow First that of the first of Queen Elizabeth of famous memory wherein the Oath of Allegiance was ratifyed in the which Statute there are these words That all jurisdiction all Superiorities and all Priviledges and preeminencies spiritual and temporall are annexed to the imperiall Crown which by Oath he being bound to maintaine could do no lesse being provoked by an adversary of regall dignity He read also the Statute which was inacted in the 37. of Henry the eight which is That Archbishops and Bishops and all other Ecclesiasticall persons have no other Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction but that which they received and had by the King from the King and under his Royall Majestie He read also the Statute made in the first of King Edward the sixt in these words That all jurisdiction and Authority spirituall and Temporall is derived and doth come from the Kings Majestie as supreme head in the churches and Kingdoms of England and Ireland and that by the Clergie of both the Kingdomes it ought no otherwise to be held or esteemed of and that all Ecclesiasticall Courts within the said Kingdomes ought to be held and kept by no other power and Authority either domesticall or forrain then that which comes from his most excellent Majestie And that whosoever did not acknowledge and venerate this authority that the same men are ipso facto in a praemunire and under the Kings high displeasure and indignation as the words of the Statute run and the mouth of the law speaks and then with some reason also which the Defendant produced besides the Word of God he shewed That no Romish Bishops had authority over their fellow brethren nor could jure divino challenge it much lesse over Kings and Emperors and therefore so long as the Defendant had the word of God the Laws of the Kingdom and reason it self on his side he told them he thought himself reasonably secure from all danger in that place And then applying his speech unto the right Honourable and noble Lord the Earle of Dorset then present the Defendant told his honour that he could not but wonder that he should stand there at the Bar as a Delinquent for maintaining the Religion established by publick Authority the honour of the King and the glory of his Majesty and that one Chouny a Sussex man a laick as well as himself should write a book and set it forth by publick authority maintaining the Church of Rome to be a true Church and never to have had so much in her as the suspition of error in fundamentall points and that this book should be dedicated to the Prelate of Canterbury and patronized by him which book the Defendant both read and exhibited in Court by which notwithstanding the King himself and all his Subjects were made Shismaticks and hereticks to the infinite dishonour of God our Gracious King and King Iames of blessed memory and our most holy profession and Religion This as the Defendant told the Lord of Dorset struck an amazement in him and especially when the authour of it must be favoured and countenanced by Canterburie and for the defending of the honour and dignity of our church and the honour of the King the Defendant should stand as an evil doer Now when the Defendant was come thus far was then approaching more closely unto them all intending more fully in the pleading of his cause to have set forth their unjust dealing they told him that he railed and Imperiously commanded him to hold his peace which was the reason of his Apologericus ad Praesules Anglicanos where he took liberty to write that and publish it to the view of all the world which he would have then spoke But after they had silenced him they then fell a thundering against him every one as he pleased all of them joyning in this one onely excepted that

they censured him onely for his Booke and in their censure they unanimously agreed that the Defendant should pay the costs of suit a thousand pounds unto the King for a fine be debarred of his Practice that his Booke should be burnt and that the Defendant should lie in prison till recantation and in the meane time be delivered unto Satan And thus did the Sublime Court deale with the Defendant for doing his duty But here the Defendant craveth favour againe of the honourable Court that he may briefly letting the puny Judges and their nonsense die in silence say something of the Prelates haranges because they onely were the men that found themselves agrieved at his writing and to say the truth all the other are Officiers under them and are the Prelates hang-byes he meanes the Doctors to do what they would have them as hourly experience teacheth all men And so much the more earnestly he desireth this liberty because it wil make much for the demonstration of the justice of his accusation against the Prelates both in respect of the dishonour they have done unto God by it the dishonour of the King their Master and King James of precious memory and the wrong done to himself in particular Now the first that entred this combat was Francis White Bishop of Ely who in the first place most blasphemously and with many contumelyes reproached the holy Scriptures making nothing of their divine Authority as all the standers by can witnesse for he revising the Defendant said That he had nothing in his book but Scripture which was as he tearmed it the refuge of all Heriticks and Schismaticks openly averring withall That the Scriptures could not be known to be the Word of God but by the Fathers and Saint Augustine would not have beleeved the Scriptures to be the Word of God had not the Church told him so Further he said That the Scripture could not be known and distinguished from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers nor the meaning of the Scripture found out but by the Fathers and that all the Fathers from all antiquity which is most false as the Defendant in a speciall book hath sufficiently shewed made and proved a vast difference between Bishops and Presbyters and that there was ever a greater excellency and Authority in the Bishop then in Presbyters and this with an unaminous consent they all agreed in till a base fellow Calvin for so he tearmed that ever to be honoured Divine rose up in an obscure corner of the world and violated and overthrew all order and authority in the Church and would also have demolished the authority of the Magistrates And then turning his speech to the Defendant unhumanely he called him base fellow brasen faced fellow base Dunce and said in the face of the Court that if he could not maintaine his Episcopall Authority to be Iure Divino he would sling away his Rotchet And so concluding with those that had gone before him in his censure he sat down in a very great fury and passion After him came forth the Bishop of Yorke and in that numerous Assembly proclaimes That Jesus Christ made him a Bishop and the holy Ghost consecrated him and that he had not his authority from the King for Bishops were before Kings and that Bishops held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads and so peremptorily averring that the Defendant ought to be knockt down with club-Law for his ignorance assenting with the rest in their Censure he fell asleep In the third place the Bishop of London advanced forwards speaking very loud and temerarious words against the holy Scriptures saying that he had thought to have found some great matters in the Defendants book seeing him so confident and so peremptory but diligently reading of it he met with nothing in it but Scripture which as he said was the refuge of all Schismaticks and Hereticks and so according with his predecessors in their opinion and censure he concluded his part of speech But last of all came forth the Prelate of Canterbury who with a frontlesse boldnesse avouched his Episcopall authority and preeminency over his brethren to be onely from God very much blaming Calvin for his factions Spirit saying That their Ecclesiasticall Authority and the power they exercised was from Christ Jesus and produced Timothy and Titus to prove the same assertion and that Bishops were before Christian Kings and they held the Crownes of Kings upon their heads For no Bishop no King and those that would have no Bishops sought to overthrow all Government and in his censure he jumped in all things with the rest saving in the Fine which as he said he thought too little and therefore ought of meere conscience as he told the other Judges he fined the Defendant a Thousand pounds more But he had one thing more to speak as he said concerning the Church of Rome and about that he resolved publickly there to declare himself in regard the Defendant had cast Chounyes book unto him in open Court and of the Synagogue of Rome he spake very honourably affirming That she was a true Church and that she did not erre in fundamentall points and all this he spake in that publick Sessions All which the Defendant hath been forced to recite because it makes very much for the justification of what he writ in his Apology and that he had good ground greatly to blame the Prelates aswell for these as for many other of their proceedings as afterwards this honourable Court shall well perceive And now that the Defendant may come to the things that he is charged with the Information as to have accused the Bishops of in his Apology which by the informers is termed a Libell though it conteineth nothing but a true Narration of the passages of the High-Commission Court which he never spake nor writ against but onely against the abuses of the Iudges in it who have turned that Court which was of purpose appointed by the State for the suppressing of Heresy Popery and vice to the beating down of the Religion established by Authority and the promotion and advancement of superstition and the molestation and undoing of the Kings faithfullest Subjects and the deare servants of God as dayly experience teacheth us and the whole Kingdome can witnesse In the writing of which booke he the Defendant thinketh himselfe so far from being a Delinquent as he conceiveth he hath done good service to King Church and State having in it vindicated and maintained regall Authority against the Tyranny of the Pope discovered also the Prelates lawlesse usurpations with their ungratitude to the King and cruelties against their brethren maintained the honour likewise of the Lawes of the Land and the dignity of sacred Writ both which they slight and make nothing of and by innumerable testimonies of learned men proved the assertion for which he is thus traduced and envyed to be neither novell nor hereticall but according to both the Divine Scriptures and