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	presbyter_n	2,629	5	9.7095	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42255	An answer to Mr. Lowth's letter to Dr. Stillingfleet in another letter to a friend.	Grove, Robert, 1634-1696.	1687 (1687)	Wing G2147; ESTC R31522	34,417	38

this Letter and which does sufficiently signisie how different their apprehensions were from His. But an extraordinary Good-will is extreamly sagacious and by the help of this Mr. Lowth has been inabled to spy out more than any man before him could do After a diligent search in that large Volume he has happened upon a little piece of a sentence which he conceits has a very ill Aspect upon Church-Power And it is this The being of a Chureh supposes this antecedent belief or assent to the Doctrine of Christ in Christians This is Pag. 66. no such Paradox but that 't is likely a far meaner man than the Dean might be able to defend it But he when he has been at some pains to misunderstand it loads it with no less than five and twenty of the most monstrous Consequences that he could think of and at the same rate a man of such a fruitful Imagination as He is might have easily increased the number to five and forty more and after all he gives up the Cause by yielding that Believers in some sense are antecedent to the Church Pag. 69. Which is a Proposition so very like that for which he quarrels the Dean that the most if not all the Objections that are made against the one may be returned with equal force upon the other and as he explains himself not without the Addition of some peculiar Difficulties upon Him. But I will not insist upon them because I cannot perceive how either of the Opinions can be destructive of Church-Power since it is a part of the Antecedent Belief which is granced on both sides that there is a Church and that it is the duty of every one to unite himself unto it and to be obedient to the Governours of it The Dean in his Answer to sever al Treatises has reduced the Authority Answer to several Treat p. 267 c. of the Governours of the Church to these three Heads 1. An Authority of inflicting Censures upon Offenders which is commonly called the Power of the Keys or of receiving into and excluding out of the Communion of the Church 2. An Authority of making Rules and Canons about matters of Order and Decency in the Church 3. An Authority of proposing matters of Faith and directing Men in Religion If you please you may see in that place how every one of these is farther explained the passage is so express and so very apposite to the matter in dispute that Mr. Lowth could by no means wholly avoid it But he strives to hide the Evidence of it as much as may be he only refers to the Pages where it is but dares not trust the Reader with the sight of one word of it for fear he should be convinced by so clear a Testimony that the Dean's opinion of the Authority of the Church was sound and Orthodox Therefore without mentioning what had been said he puts in a blind exception to the whole in gross and affirms considently that notwithstanding all the Dean had spoken in this place yet he Has left the Church without Power to make her Declarations Law. But this he Pag. 76. does not so much as attempt to prove I wish he had for it is plain that here is an Authority to Command attributed to the Church and a Power to inforce her Commands by inflicting of Censures upon all those that will not obey and if this be not enough to make a Law I should be glad to be informed what is But the Authority of making Rules and Canons about matters of Order and Decency was so plainly asserted that there was no denying of it yet he tryes to shift it off by saying that it is no more in effect than what had been said before in Pag. 77. the Irenicum and suppose it be what then That does not any way lessen what is said here but only shew that the very Irenicum it self by his own confession is nothing so bad a Book nor such an irreconcileable Enemy to Church Power as he would make it Upon this he starts out of the way if he were ever in and runs into a Digression full of nothing but vain surmises little to the purpose and never returns to the business in hand till he comes to the Treatise of the unreasonableness of Separation and that he allows to be Competently well done so far as it reaches as I have told you before but then least Pag. 78. any thing of the Dean's should escape without a mark of his displeasure he thinks that All is left still as matter of Dispute c. But that I have shewed already is not so and that there is an obligation to Obedience laid upon the Subject And whosoever shall peruse that whole Discourse without Prejudice must certainly be convinced that the Dean has given abundant satisfaction for any former Mistakes about church-Church-Power The last thing is Episcopacy and here the Charge is but short but it is very vehement and pathetical You have made no satisfaction at all to the Church of God for that Irenicum Doctrine which equals the Presbyter Pag. 83. with the Bishop What None at all No There is not any thing like amends for it in all your Writings that I have met with Then I guess there may be some which have not yet fallen into his hands But let us see what he has met with It is true you often speak of Episcopacy as the most Antient Government deriveable from the Apostles Sure this too is Competently well done so far something like amends at least But what should there be wanting to make it compleat why this You have not any where asserted it in the number of those Institutions and Practices Pag. 84. Apostolical which are perpetual and immutable And until you say this all you can say besides is to no purpose Well since it is resolved that nothing else shall serve the turn pray do but look into the Discourse of the unreasonableness of Separation and consider whether there be not enough said in that Book to make it appear than it was really the Dean's Opinion that the Episcopal Government was unalterable Or if this will not suffice I think there is something in the Two-penny Paper that may For in that the Dean 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 when he wrote the Irenicum Here Episcopacy is acknowledged to be of Apostolical Institution and that implies it to be perpetual and immutable For though some things of meer Apostolical Practice may those that are of Apostolical Institution cannot be changed whatever they appointed to be observed in the Church no Power upon Earth has Authority to alter But if this be not enough yet then I desire you to consult the Four-penny Sermons in which Mr. Lowth cannot deny some Errors which he imputes to the Dean to have been Retracted and in

Truth and Honesty to be sure For he picks out whatever he thinks is for his purpose and slyly passes over what he pleases And when he has by this means mangled the Discourse he makes most passionate Invectives against the horrible mischievous Design of it and when the guilt of this false and unjust Dealing slyes in his Face he indeavours to palliate all and put it off with a slight Evasion and only saying I answer My business is not to reconcile every contradiction in your Book That were impossible he thinks But though I verily believe indeed his Business was not to Reconcile Contradictions or any thing else yet certainly it was his Business to give a fair and impartial account of the whole matter and not to lay together the worst he could find on one side and conceal every thing that had been said on the Other Now because he has done this by his own Confession I leave it to you to Judge which is the most probable That the Design was for the Church of England as the Dean professes or against it as Mr. Lowth pretends and seems resolved to maintain Right or Wrong But whatever your Opinion be of the Design of the Irenicum or whatever any one may suppose it was Let us now see whether the Dean hath not since given sufficient Satisfaction for any material Errors and Mistakes that might be in it This Mr. Lowth imagines he has not and this I will indeavour to shew the Dean has effectually done To this purpose it will be necessary to inquire what satisfaction will be accepted I answer in Mr. Lowths words it must be A Recantation as publick as the Errour Scandal and Offence This I say had been done a considerable time before ever that Imperious Demand was made For that was in Mr. Lowth's first Letter of May the first 83. and the exceptionable Passages of the Irenicum had been formally retracted in a Book that was Licensed May the sixth 79. It consists of several Conferences and when the Romish Priest had put the Question in one of them What say you to his Irenicum in the first place The Dean under the Person of the Protestant Divine replies thus I will tell you freely I believe there are many things in it which if Dr. Stillingfleet were to write Several Conf. p. 148. 149. now he would not have said For there are some things which shew his Youth and want of due consideration Others which he yielded too far in hopes of gaining the dissenting Parties to the Church of England but upon the whole matter I am fully sacisfied the Book was written with a design to serve the Church of England And the design of it I take to be this that among us there was no necessity of entring upon nice and subtle disputes about a strict Jus Divinum of Episcopacy such as makes all other Forms of Government unlawful but it was sufficient for us if it were prov'd to be the most ancient and agreeable to Apostolial practice and most accommodate to our Laws and Civil Government and there could be no pretence against submitting to it but the demonstrating its unlawfulness which he knew was impossible to be done And for what proposals he makes about tempering Episcopacy they were no other than what King Charles 1st and Mr. Thorndike had made before him and doth T. G. think they designed to ruine the Church of England And as long as he declared this to be the design of his Book both at the beginning and conclusion of it suppose he were mistaken in the means he took must such a Man be presently condemned as one that aimed at the Ruine and Destruction of the Church This place is so clear and remarkable that I wonder how it could escape Mr. Lowth's notice I have transcribed it intire as it lyes because it contains a general Recantation of whatever was amiss in the Irenicum For here the Dean frankly acknowledges There are many things in it which if he were to write now he would not have said That there are some things which shew his Youth and want of due consideration Others which he yielded too far This is a free and open Confession and as much I think as could be reasonably expected Then he confirms what I have shewed already that the Design was to serve the Church of England And he indeavours to excuse the Mistakes of it upon that account For what he had mentioned about tempering Episcopacy he defends it by the Authority of King Charles 1st and Mr. Thorndike The words of King Charles he repeats again in the Epistle Dedicatory to My Lord of London they are for the Reducing Episcopacy and Presbytery to such a well-proportioned Form of Superiority and subordination as may best resemble the Apostolical and Primitive times These words Mr. Lowth takes no notice of but seems extream Pag. 55. 56. Angry tells the Dean he had slandered all our Princes and Bishops since the Reformation c. and that his Friends of the Presbytery cannot take it well at his hands that he should attempt to perswade the World they brought that Glorious Martyr to the Block for being a Presbyterian It is hard to imagine what should make a Man talk at such an extravagant rate If the Words be in the Paper as they are then they can be no Slander whatever they be And how can they ever make their Royal Author a Presbyterian when they expresly mention a superiority and subordination which directly overthrows the Presbyterian Party which is the very Life and Soul of that Government But if he please to inquire further into the matter I believe he will find that King Charles and Mr. Thorndike and the Dean too meant no more but that the Bishops retaining all their Antient Rights the Presbyters should be admitted of their Council whose Advice and concurrence might be had in some Cases This is very consistent with the Practice of the first Ages and this I take to be the same that is by Law established in our Church For in the Execution of some parts of the Episcopal Power the Assistance of Presbyters is required and the Canons and Constitutions by which the Bishops Govern are to be passed in both Houses of Convocation as well in the Lower where are none but Presbyters as in the Upper where the Bishops only have Right to sit And let this be as Mr. Lowth thinks from a particular Law of this Kingdom however it is Ours And Pag 74. if he had thought of it he might have made the Church of England Presbyterians upon the same reason that he pretends the Dean had done King Charles for that passage he cited from him This therefore is not yet Recanted but yielding too far in some other Points is And besides this in the very Epistle which occasion'd the Letter we are now considering there is an acknowledgment of Errors and Mistakes that were in it the Irenicum And we are