Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	ceremony_n	church_n	rite_n	2,845	5	10.3412	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26154	The rights, powers, and priviledges, of an English convocation, stated and vindicated in answer to a late book of D. Wake's, entituled, The authority of Christian princes over their ecclesiastical synods asserted, &c. and to several other pieces.	Atterbury, Francis, 1662-1732.	1700 (1700)	Wing A4151; ESTC R16535	349,122	574

Canons of the most General Councils have been confirmed by the Civil Power and confirmed at the Instance and Petition of the Synods themselves * P. 80. And from hence he infers therefore that their Definitions are no farther Obligatory than as they are ratified by the Civil Authority † P. 79. And this Point he is so sure of that he conceives it to be allowed on all hands whereas I on the contrary conceive that it is allowed on no hands and is a Conclusion I am-sure that neither agrees with the Principles of our Church nor can ever be drawn from the Premisses on which he pretends to establish it If this Doctrine be good then is that of our Twentieth Article stark naught which determines that the Church hath Power to decree Rites or Ceremonies and Authority in Matters of Faith But how has she Power and Authority to this purpose if her Synodical Decisions are in no case farther Obligatory than as they are ratified by the Civil Authority The Magistrate at this rate will have Power but the Church her self can have none For she speaks only by her Synods in matters of this nature and if therefore her Synodical Decrees have not any Authority of their own till confirmed by the Prince then under an Heathen or Heretical Prince the Church has not I say any Authority tho' the Article expresly says that she has It is very observable that Dr. Wake has not in either of his Books mentioned this Article which yet surely in a Controversie of this nature deserved to have been taken notice of Such an Omission could not be by chance and we must believe therefore that he is of the Opinion of those Back-friends of ours in Charles the First 's time who would allow the former part of the Article no more Authority than Dr. Wake allows to the Church but said it was deceitfully inserted by Archbishop Laud and wanting in the Original He might be ashamed to take up with this Reproach after that Solemn Appeal which the Archbishop in his Speech in the Star-chamber * Anno 1637. See Heylin 's Life of Laud p. 339. made to the Records of Convocation for the disproof of it If he have any Suspicions still left in this matter my Lord of Sarum in his Late Exposition † P. 26. will clear them In the mean time let me put him in mind of the Fate of Dr. Mocket's Book de Doctrinâ Politeiâ Ecclesiae Anglicanae ‖ In 4 to London 1617. which tho' writ by Archbishop Abbot's direction yet was Burned publickly and that chiefly on the account of this very Omission if Dr. Heylin's History ⸫ Life of Laud p. 76 may be relyed on But how comes he to dream it to be allowed on all Hands that Synodical Definitions are no farther Obligatory than they are ratified by the Civil Power What Church upon Earth ever determined or allowed this Doctrine Because the Fathers of many Synods desir'd the Prince under whose Direction they met to inforce their Decrees by Civil Sanctions and Penalties does it follow that therefore these Decrees without the Addition of the Civil Sanction would have had no Authority no Force to oblige the Consciences of Christians Does the Subsequent Authority destroy the force of the precedent one Is the one of these lost and swallowed up in the other At this rate what will become of Excommunication when confirmed as it is here with us by a Civil Penalty Has the Church Sentence in this case no Authority because the Writ de Excommunicat● capiendo is linked to it and issues out upon it Such arguing would have become a Disciple of Erastus much better than a Son of the Church of England But he will tell me Canons lose no Authority in this case which they ever had because indeed they never had any the Great Priviledge of the Church being only to prepare Draughts of Canons and Dead Matter as it were for the Royal Stamp afterwards to put Life into But if so How shall we account for the Acts of Church-power exercised by Synods from the first Planting of the Christian Religion till the Empire turned Christian It is plain that the Governours of the Church for three hundred years before the Civil Power came in to assist them met in Synods and made Laws which were universally submitted to not only as Councils or Advices proceeding from Men whose Character was had in great Reverence but as the Commands of Lawful Superiors towards their Spiritual Subjects and as such they were understood to oblige the Consciences of all good Christians in those Ages And if they had such an Authority before Constantine's time how came they to want it afterwards As the Church could get no New Power by coming under the Protection of the State so how does it appear that she lost any Old one The Emperors indeed by turning Christians gained something to wit an Interest in the management of Ecclesiastical Affairs but their Gains were not built on the Church-Governours Losses the Power that by this means accrued to 'em was Accumulative not Privative i. e. it gave them some Authority which they had not but it took not that away which the Spiritual Pastors and Governours had A Distinction that I am not afraid to make use of notwithstanding the Quarter it comes from If Dr. Wake therefore denies the Definitions of Synods held under the Civil Power to have any other Authority than what they derive from that Power he by consequence denies that the Anti● Nicene Fathers assembled in Synod had any Right to prescribe Rules to those Christians that lived within the District over which they presided or that those Christians were bound to obey 'em He affirms in effect the several Canons that these Assemblies passed the Censures that they pronounced all the Acts of Synodical Authority which they exercised to be in themselves Null and Void and mere Usurpations upon the Liberty of Christians And whether he will take up with these Scandalous Notions or not we shall see when he blesses the World with his Next Performance Sure I am that without 'em his Scheme cannot be consistent and of a piece Agen Dr. Wake is also very faulty on this Head when in order to depress the Power of the Church he promiscuosly enumerates all the Laws framed by Princes about Ecclesiastical Affairs without informing us which of those Laws only traced the steps of precedent Canons and which of them proposed New Matter of Obedience beside or contrary to those Canons which would in this case have been a very Material and Pertinent Distinction He is full of the Edicts relating to Church-matters that are to be met with in the Code of Theodosius the Code and Novels of Iustinian c. * P. 11. But it would have been very honest of him here to have told us as the Truth is that there were scarce any of these Edicts to which some Canon had not

191. The Canons made in the Convocation of 1597. bear this Title Capitula sive Constitutiones Ecclesiasticae per Archiepiscopum Episcopos reliquum Clerum Cant. Provinciae in Synodo c. congregatos tractatae ac posteà per ipsam Regiam Majestatem approbatae confirmatae utrique Provinciae tam Cant. quam Ebor. ut diligentiùs observentur eàdem Regiâ Authoritate sub Magno Sigillo Angliae promulgatae † Sparrow p. 243. L. M. P. has been guilty of a piece of slight of hand in producing this Title for he has remov'd the Comma which should be after the word Tractatae backward to Provinciae omitting the Words between those Two that so tractatae may seem to belong to the Sentence which follows it and the Reader be by that means led into a belief that the Original Treating it self was as much from Royal Condescension and Grace as the Passing and Promulging afterwards I need not say how absurd this is and how contrary to the Rules of common Construction and common Sense It is true and Truth being the only thing I seek I shall not conceal it that in the Manuscript Collections of a Learned Man who liv'd before the Convocation-Registers were burnt I have seen a Memor in these following Terms Lib. Convocat ab anno 1584. usque c. 1597. Fol. 195. The Queens Letters Patents to confirm the Canons a Recital of the Writ of their Desire the Canons Confirmation and a Command to have them observ'd in both Provinces Which shews indeed that the Synod in 1597 desir'd and had leave for the Canons they pass'd and implys further that both their Request and the Answer to it were very probably in writing since it could not else have been recited in the Ratification of them But what this Leave was ask'd and given for whether only for the passing these Canons or even for the Previous Treating about them appears not from this Memorandum and must otherwise therefore be determin'd Our Publick Records will not ease us of this Doubt among which I am told this Instrument is not now to be found and the only way therefore we have left of clearing it is by a Recourse to the Title of the Canons which if it may be depended on evidently shews that their Desire was for Leave not to Treat but to Enact only And how Authentick and Significant the Titles of Canons are to this purpose our Adversarys in the next Instance will tell us for they produce † Appeal p. 24. L. M. P. p. 37. the Title of those in 1603. as a manifest Proof that that Synod had a Commission to treat We allow it had and it is the first Synod that ever had one from the 25 H. VIII down to that time L. M. P. indeed has found out one somewhat Elder for he tells us that a Proclamation on came out 5. March 1. Iac. 1. for the Authorizing of the Book of Common Prayer c. which recites that the King had issu'd out a Commission to the Archbishop and others according to the Form which the Laws of the Realm in the like Case prescribe to be us'd to make an Explanation of the Common Prayer c. So that in those days says he this Independent Freedom of Debate was not esteemed amongst the Libertys of the Church † P. 41. But had that Writer seen the Commission it self and not guess'd at the Contents of it from a Recital in a Proclamation he would have known that it was directed not to the Clergy in Convocation for they met not till some Months after the Date of it but to the High Commissioners in Causes Ecclesiastical authorizing the Alterations they had made in the Common-Prayer-Book by vertue of a Proviso in the Act of Uniformity 1 ● Eliz. How is this to his purpose or what possible use can he make of it It is indeed to my purpose to observe from hence how high the Prerogative then ran and what Unreasonable Powers were claim'd by it The Book of Common-Prayer was establisht by an Act of the 1 st of the Queen in which it was provided that if there should happen any Contempt or Irreverence to be used in the Ceremonys or Rites of the Church by the misusing of the Orders appointed in that Book the Queens Majesty might by the Advice of her Commissioners or of the Metropolitan ordain and publish such further Ceremonys or Rites as might be most for the advancement of God's Glory the Edifying of his Church and the due Reverence of Christ's Holy Mysteries and Sacraments * Cap. 2. In vertue of this Proviso King Iames in his first Year gives Directions to the Archbishop and the rest of the High-Commissioners to review the Common-Prayer-Book and they accordingly made several Material Alterations and Enlargements of it in the Office of Private Baptism and in several other Rubricks and Passages added five or six new Prayers and Thanksgivings and all that part of the Catechism which contains the Doctrine of the Sacraments Which last Additions would not I conceive have been in the least warranted by that Proviso had the Powers there specify'd extended to the Queens H●irs and Successors but as they were lodg'd peresonally in the Queen there could I presume be no Colour for K. Iames's exercising them in vertue of it The Drawer up of the Commission was aware of this and supplys therefore what was wanting in this Provisional Clause by some General Words and by a Recourse to that Inexhaustible source of Power the King 's supreme Authority and Prerogative Royall which it seems was at that time conceiv'd to extend so far as to enable the Crown to make Alterations of Great Importance in a Book establish'd by Act of Parliament to authorize the Book thus alter'd and to forbid the Use of the Other I question whether such a Proceeding would now be thought Legal but then it went down quietly and in vertue of it the Common Prayer-Book so alter'd stood in force from the 1 st of K. Iames till the 14 C. II. when upon a new Review it was again confirm'd by Parliament I shall place this Commission in the Appendix † N. XVIII that the Reader may have an Instance what the Doctrine of that time was concerning the Extent of the Prerogative in Church Matters and from thence cease to wonder that a Formal Commission to treat c. should be first granted to the Convocation a few Months afterwards I say first granted for there is no Suspicion of any preceding License of this kind but in 1597. only and that rises no higher than a Suspicion there being stronger Probabilitys against it than for it And thus I hope I have effectually remov'd Dr. W's Argument about the sense of the Act taken from the Constant Practise of All Convocations ever since the framing it which he appeals to so frequently and with so much Calmness and Security that one less acquainted with him than I am