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	ecclesiastical_a	jurisdiction_n	7,102	5	9.4747	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29881	Some reflections on a late pamphlet entituled, A vindication of Their Majesties authority to fill the sees of the deprived bishops, &c in a letter from the city to a friend in the country.	Browne, Thomas, 1654?-1741.	1691 (1691)	Wing B5179; ESTC R2122	15,967	23

vast Difference if he pleases between these two Cases in respect of the Manner of the Procedure Athanasius had the Justice done him of being heard and try'd and had Liberty to answer for himself But our Bishops are condemn'd indictâ causâ without a formal Process unheard untry'd and without Liberty to answer for themselves Athanasius had the Honour and Deference paid to his Character to have his Case referr'd to and examin'd in a Synod But our Bishop's are unsynodically and uncanonically deposed and censur'd and condemn'd by an illegal Convention Athanasius was censur'd and condemn'd for a Crime which as 't was supposed though not proved he had committed But our Bishops were censur'd and condemn'd not for a Crime past but to come not for a Fault that they bad committed but for an Offence which 't was expected they would be guilty of Athanasius liv'd under a more Arbitrary Government and was Subject to the Will of an absolute Prince who yet allow'd him the Favour customarily due to Christian Bishops But our deprived Bishops have the Happiness to live in a Kingdom where they have a Right in common with others to the Benefit of Magna Charta which provides that no English Subject shall lose Life Limb or Estate for any Offence unless he is tryed by his Peers which is the inalienable Privilege and Birth-Right of an English Subject Which not a Lawyer in England will deny But Video Meliora proboque Deteriora sequor I am not I thank God either so Popish or Fanatical as to deny that the Supreme Power has Authority or Jurisdiction over Ecclesiastical Persons who are Subject as well as the Laity to the Laws of distributive Justice and that both in respect of Rewards and Punishments I will allow to use our Author's Words Pag. 23. the Supreme Power of a Nation to judge who shall be Bishops in their Dominions and enjoy the Revenues of the Church which are the Gift of the State but by his leave not such a Gift as is that of civil and military Offices of a Judge or a Captain which they are to hold ad placitum or quam diu se bene gesserint but it is such a Gift as when once given and legally settled on the Person on whom it is bestow'd cannot be arbitrarily taken away at pleasure it being for his Life and as much his Free-hold as any Land in England is the Purchasers who buys and pays for it And then as for Punishments there is no doubt but that Ecclesiastical Persons of what Degree or Figure soever they be are under the Authority and Jurisdiction of the State who may inflict Punishments according to the demerits of the Offenders If the Crime is Capital the Ecclesiastical Person may be try'd and if found Guilty condemn'd in a Court of Justice by Criminal Judges without a Synod or Council But if it be an Offence against the State of a lesser and more inferiour Nature as was that of St. Athanasius it has been usual and customary as I said before in Regular Orthodox Christian States I hope our Author will not insist on the Instance of the Parliamentary Deposition and Deprivation of Bishops in pursuance of the Holy Covenant in the late Civil Wars or rather Rebellion if it will not offend our Author to call it so which was indeed a Deposition of Bishops without a Synod or Council and which perhaps may be sutably rankt under the second Branch of his aforesaid Distinction of a State-Deprivation and that out of Deference to the Episcopal Character to consult a Synod or Council in case of the Deposition or Deprivation of Bishops from their Episcopal Jurisdiction and the Revenues of their Sees And though the great Kindness and Indulgence of Christian Emperors to Bishops reserving Causes but not all Causes as our Author falsly speaks without distinguishing between Offfences against the State c. Witness the intended and appointed Tryal of Athanasius before Dalmatius the Censor at Antioch as aforesaid and his Examination before the Emperor upon a Charge of High Treason reserving I say Causes relating to Bishops to the Cognizance Id. p. 76. of their own Synods was in process of Time abused and by Degrees grew into the Omnipotent Power of the Bishop of Rome as our Author speaks Pag. 26. which domineered over Emperors themselves and set the Church above the State yet the abuse ought not to abolish the use of that which is necessary convenient and laudable But our Author seems to be one of them who out of their just Zeal against the Extravagantcies of those who scrued up Church Power to so high a Peg that it was thought to make perpetual Iren. 2 Edit with Appendix pag. 418. sect 2. Discord with the Common-wealth could never think themselves free from so great an Inconvenience till they had melted down all Spiritual Power into the Civil State and dissolv'd the Church into the Commonwealth to use the Words of the Learned Dr. Stillingfleet Who whatever might unadvisedly drop from his Pen in his Irenicum derogatory to the Honour and Power and Privilege of the Church which might owe it self to his Juvenile Heat and too long and familiar Converse with Erastian and Republican Principles with which perhaps his Mind was * There is certainly a kind of E●riety of the Mind as well as of the Body which makes it so u●stable and pendulous that it oft-times ree●s from one Extream to t●e q●ke contrary So that whi●e they that at an Appari●●on 〈◊〉 so much d●ead they 〈◊〉 ●o these untrodden P●●hs wherein they lose both themselves and the T●●th 〈◊〉 p 418. s●ct 1. 〈◊〉 p. 418. sect 2. inebriated which made him reel to dangerous Extreams yet has honestly made Amends in his Appendix apologizing for himself in a lucky Parenthesis Which Hypothesis says he is the only rational Foundation on which Episcopal Government in the Church doth stand firm and unshaken and which in the former Discourse I am far from undermining of as an intelligent Reader may perceive And he must be a very intelligent Reader indeed that can perceive it And therefore to expiate his Offence which was taken if not given and prevent all Mistakes and undeceive and fully inform the less discerning intelligent Reader he speaks plain in his Appendix to which I will refer my Author for a fuller Answer to his accurate Distinction between an Ecclesiastical and a State-Deprivation in which perhaps being the Authority of a great Man he may acquiesce and for the sake of my Reader who may not have the Book I will transcribe a few remarkable Passages wherein he t●lls you That the World may see he has not been more forward to assert the just Power of the Magistrate in Ecclesiasticals as well as Civils than to defend the Fundamental Rights of the Church he has taken this Opportunity more fully to explain and vindicate that part of the Churches-Power which lies in reference to Offenders and therefore endeavours