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	church_n	key_n	4,079	5	9.8284	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41813	A letter to a friend in answer to a letter written against Mr. Lowth, in defence of Dr. Stillingfleet	Grascome, Samuel, 1641-1708?	1688 (1688)	Wing G1573; ESTC R19845	27,414	34

discoursing about the State of Men in the Isle of Pines And he gives a reason of his Assertion to this effect That as no Man ought to limit God's Power and Mercy in extraordinary Cases so neither ought any to enlarge them where God by his revealed will hath set bounds and limits and consequently that the promises and assurances of Salvation ought to be given to none out of the Church where God hath a Church as to her Offices and Administrations in actual Being and Settlement But quite contrary hereto upon this supposition of antecedent Belief the Dean infers That a Man may be in a State of Salvation in his single and private Capacity apart and out of all Church Society and Ecclesiastical Communion though he live where it is to be had which utterly overthrows any necessity of attendance to Ordinances and all Church Communion And to prove this Mr. Lowth cites several passages out of that Book Now if this Author will not see how this Opinion can be destructive of Church Power he must be blind still for me but then he will be very ill able to disburthen the Dean of those consequences wherewith Mr. Lowth hath loaded him and indeed supposing the Truth of the charge the Dean himself can never be able any other ways to do it than by quitting the Opinion And thus this Book not doing the Business is laid aside to make way for The Answer to several Treatises wherein the Dean as our Author saith has reduced the Authority of the Governours of the Church to three Heads And to much purpose if it be arbitrary whether men shall enter or continue in any such Society But we will suppose them obliged which is so much more than I need grant to the foregoing Principle that it is rather directly against it and then the first Two Heads may be easily allowed only it is objected that what the Dean gives with one Hand he takes away with the other and by his unconstancy both in Opinion and Practice hath undermined his own Positions To this the Author says nothing nor will I urge it further but quietly take what is at any time well given The Third Head is An Authority of proposing Matters of Faith and directing Men in Religion And this is such a cautious mincing Expression that I cannot tell what to make of it nor where to find any distinct Authority in it For as for proposing I do not know but that any private Person upon a just Occasion and in a lawful manner may do the same And if any thing of that nature be pretended to be peculiar to the Clergy yet Proposals in their own Nature are so far from inferring an Authority to command their Reception that they rather imply a Power in those to whom they are proposed at Discretion to reject them and so in the issue gives the Authority to the People But that I may do him no wrong besides the proposing Matters of Faith there is also mentioned an Authority of directing Men in Religion And truly this is a very liberal Grant which allows as much to the Church as was given to the Statues of Mercury which of old were set up to direct Passengers in their Way and leaves men much at like Liberty to regard either I think this far from a Power to make her Declarations Law. And yet our Author with his accustomed Confidence affirms That it is plain that here is an Authority to Command attributed to the Church and a Power to enforce her Commands by inflicting of Censures c. But to what matters this Authority reacheth he durst not acquaint us for fear this great Mountain should dwindle into a Mole-hill For as the Matter is here laid the Exercise of what he calls the Power of the Keys must be limited to the Churches Authority in making Rules and Canons about Order and Decency For in other matters she can only propose or direct which is so precarious a sort of Authority that I see not how her Censures can be justifiable where it extends no farther And thus he hath made some kind of Fence about the Church against Schismaticks but laid her open to all manner of Hereticks And thus far I cannot find that abundant Satisfaction which he tells us we must be convinced has been made for any former Mistakes For as for what he repeats concerning the Treatise of the unreasonableness of Separation it hath received its Answer already and I am not willing to follow this Man through all his Vagaries who is willing to say any thing but to the Purpose We are now come to the last thing which is Episcopacy as to which it seems Mr. Lowth had charged the Dean that he had not asserted it in the number of those Institutions and Practices Apostolical which are perpetual and immutable To prove the contrary we are bid to look into the Discourse of the unreasonableness of Separation But why should he send us to look that which he could not find himself And I have another Reason why I shall not follow the Advice because I have looked long ago and could not find it Though otherwise I had no mean esteem of the Book And here it is very observable that all the Dean's Treatises fail our Author We may if we please go pore out our Eyes in the unreasonableness of Separation but not one word is thence cited and no other Book so much as mentioned And for his last Refuge he is forced to fly to the Ordination Sermon and Epistle which ought not to be admitted for Proof the Controversy being what was done before and the Performance of that acknowledged And had the Dean's Wrath suffered him to have the Ingenuity to acknowledge what he had the Honesty to retract and had he not disparaged so excellent a Sermon with that inconsiderate angry Epistle I am apt to think he had heard no more of Mr. Lowth unless in respect and kindness But when he endeavours to agree with Mr. Lowth in the Sermon and loads him with Crimes and Reproaches in the Epistle I think he gave him a just Provocation in that manner to defend himself And yet here Mr. Lowth hath granted more than our Author knew how to prove For he is so unlucky that he would tempt one to think that he had rather a design to expose than vindicate the Dean In the Epistle Dedicatory which he is mightily pleased to call the Two-Penny Paper the Dean as he saith tells us That he does now think much more is to be said for the Apostolical Institution of Episcopacy than he at that time apprehended that is when he wrote the Irenicum and I believe the Dean did mean honestly but our Author did unadvisedly to write this passage because it comes not up to the Case For how much that more was or whether it was enough to prove Episcopacy of Apostolical Institution is not expressed And it is well known that very much is often said for

it doth not follow hence that Episcopacy and Presbytery stand upon equal terms and though both proceeding upon the same su●position do equally complain yet that part which really suffers wrong doth justly complain And if he please now to set his Tables right again I am apt to think that he will give it on the Episcopal side But there is something farther for which the Presbyterian my justly complain though this Author had cast such a mist before his own Eyes that he could not see it For the Presbyterian in the general Notion asserts a great Truth and it is not his fault that he pleads a divine right of Church Government but that he takes it out of those Hands wherein Christ and his Apostles left it to commit to those to whom it was never intrusted and thus licks up Aerius's Vomit Now in this case Mr. Lowth had proved the Presbyterian concerned as well as the Episcoparian For when the Author of the Irenicum to avoid the Argument from the Superiority of the Apostles and their Jurisdiction over the Pastors of the Church by an Act of Christ had pleaded That it must be farther proved that it was Christ's intention that Superiority should continue in their Successions or it makes nothing to the purpose To this Mr. Lowth replies That at this rate of Arguing though the Apostles by an Act of Christ were invested with the ministerial Authority yet it must be farther proved That it was Christ's intention that the same power should continue in their Successors or it makes nothing to the purpose for a setled Ministry and the same Argument which overthrows a Superiority of Churchmen for want of an express of Christ's intention overthrows the very Ministry it self both having the same bottom and alike promises And here the Episcopal Man was not left alone to complain but the Presbyterian might honestly put in for a share And this indeed was a fatal Argument for it overthrew the whole project of the Irenicum for if you well observe you will find the Scheme of that Author to lie thus He asserts in general a divine Right of Government or that it is the Will of Christ that his Church should be Governed one way or other but then as for any particular Form of Church Government he doth not think that Christ or his Apostles erected any with an Obligation of its continuance but that it was left to some body I know not who to establish the particular Form according to the necessity convenience and circumstances of Times Places and Persons and from time to time to new mould and change the same as they should find cause yet always containing themselves within the bounds of what the Author thinks lawful I grant that he is not always true to this but the whole Work seems to be bottomed upon this supposition and for his inconsistencies he himself may take care of them Now the Argument here used hath undone himself and is levelled not only against the divine Right of any one particular Form but against the divine Right of a Ministry and all Church Government whatsoever Neither do I know to what purpose we should wrangle whether the House shall be built in this or that Form or Shape when it doth not appear that we have any Right or Authority either to build any at all or to enter any formerly built And now let any man judge whether this was an effectual way of arguing either for the re-establishment of the Church of England or for mens complying with it But tho this be enough to prove what Mr. Lowth hath alledged yet it is untruly said of the Letter-maker that this is all For Mr. Lowth had accused the Author of the Irenicum that notwithstanding his Pretence of the Mutability of Church Government he had invested the Presbyter with the full Power of Order and Jurisdiction and that he had perpetually fixed him by divine Right unalterable and he there proves his Charge p. 29. and you may find several other things in Mr. Lowth's Letter to this purpose to which I refer you for they having received no Answer I am no further at present concerned for them only I think this a very unlikely way of perswading the establishment of the Church under Bishops and leave you to judge let the Author's Design be what it will whether the Book do not carry on the Design which Mr. Lowth pretends I fear I grow troublesom to you but now my Hand is in I am resolved to follow this Author to see if he have done the reverend Dean any better Service in the remaining part of his Letter And the next thing he falls on is the Business of a Recantation And here supposing what I had read in the former part of the Letter would have been of the same piece with what followed I expected to have met with strange tragical Exclamations and that the unreasonableness of the Demand should have been bitterly cryed out against But I was quite disappointed and he is clear too quick for us for he saith That a Recantation hath been already made and that as publick as the Error Scandal and Offence and too before the Demand was made This Language I confess surprized me It seems then that Mr. Lowth and the Dean were agreed and did not know it What pity is it that such a Noise should be made all over the Kingdom and such Disturbance among Church of England Men about a Quarrel between Two Peasons who are both become of the same Mind But is it not a stark Shame that when Mr. Lowth is acknowledged to be in the Right and the Dean hath receeded from his former Tenets to come up to an Opinion which Mr. Lowth hath always maintained he should be reviled and exclaimed against in all places for this with as much Fierceness and Bitterness as if he had set the Church on Fire At least those who confess thus much ought to condemn the Practice as Unreasonable And if this be true I think the Quarrel ought to be at an end But now I am afraid to read on least in looking after the Proof of this I should meet with a second Disappointment and I find all to amount to little better than a meer Say so And indeed much thus it happens For tho I am willing to perswade my self that the Learned Dean is really and truly of another Mind and hath quitted many of the loose Opinions of the Rector of Sutton yet this Author is so Unfortunate in the Proof of it that he hath done him no small Diskindness And the First thing which he cites from the several Conferences is so far from a formal Retractation as he would bear us in hand that it is indeed only a scurvy Palliation of the matter and I am sorry there to find this Assertion That what Proposals he makes about tempering Episcopacy they were no other than what King Charles 1st and Mr. Thorndike had made before him How No