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
A27050	A treatise of episcopacy confuting by Scripture, reason, and the churches testimony that sort of diocesan churches, prelacy and government, which casteth out the primitive church-species, episcopacy, ministry and discipline and confoundeth the Christian world by corruption, usurpation, schism and persecution : meditated in the year 1640, when the et cætera oath was imposed : written 1671 and cast by : published 1680 by the importunity of our superiours, who demand the reasons of our nonconformity / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing B1427; ESTC R19704	421,766	406

they forsake him or refuse to use him and Excommunicateth a man when they avoid his communion and declare him unmeet for communion In all which the Church useth her own right but taketh not away another mans Then for the Canonical Enquiries after faults and impositions of Penence or delays of absolution he sheweth that both the Canons and Judgments by them being but prudential Determinations of Modes and Circumstances bound none but Consenters without the Magistrates Law except as the Law of Nature bound them to avoid offences He should add and as obedience in general is due to Church-guides of Christ's appointment And how the Magistrate may constrain the Pastors to their duty Chap. 10. He sheweth that there are two perpetual Functions in the Church Presbyters and Deacons I call them Presbyters saith he with all the Ancient Church who feed the Church with the Preaching of the Word the Sacraments and the Keys which by Divine Right are individual or inseparable Note that And § 27. He saith It is doubtful whether Pastors where no Bishops are and so are under none though over none are to be numbered with Bishops or meer Presbyters § 31. His counsel for the choice of Pastors is that as in Justinian's time none be forced on the People against their wills and yet a power reserv'd in the chief Rulers to rescind such elections as are made to the destruction of Church or Commonwealth Chap. 11. § 10. He sheweth that Bishops are not by Divine precept And § 1. That therefore the different Government of the Churches that have Bishops or that have none should be no hindrance to Unity And § 10 11. That some Cities had no Bishops and some more than one And that not only in the Apostles ●ays but after one City had several Bishops in i●●tation of the jews who to every Synagogue had an Archisynagogus Page 357. He sheweth that there have been at Rome and elsewhere long vacancies of the Bishops See in which the Presbyters Governed the Church without a Bishop And saith that all the Ancients do confess that there is no act so proper to a Bishop but a Presbyter may do it except the right of Ordination Yet sheweth p. 358. that Presbyters ordained with Bishops and expoundeth the Canon thus that Presbyters should Ordain none contemning the Bishop And p. 359. He sheweth that where there is no Bishop Presbyters may Ordain as Altisiodorensis saith among the Schoolmen And questioneth again whether the Presbyters that have no Bishops over them be not rather Bishops than meer Presbyters citing Ambrose's words He that had no one above him was a Bishop what would he have said of our City and Corporation Pastors that have divers Chapels and Curates under them Or of our Presidents of Synods or such as the Pastor of the first Town that ever I was Preacher in Bridgnorth in Shropshire who had six Parishes in an exempt Jurisdiction four or five of them great ones and kept Court as ordinary like the Bishops being under none but the Archbishop And § 12. He sheweth that there was great cause for many Churches to lay by Episcopacy for a time And p. 360. he saith Certainly Christ gave the Keys to be exercised by the same men to whom he gave the power of Preaching and Baptizing That which God hath joyned let no man separate But then how should Satan have used the Churches as he hath done And he sheweth of meer ruling Elders as he had done of Bishops that they are not necessary but are lawful and that it may be proved from Scripture that they are not displeasing to God and that formerly the Laity joyned in Councils Only he puts these Cautions which I consent to 1. That they be not set up as by God's command 2. That they meddle no otherwise with the Pastoral Office or Excommunication than by way of Counsel 3. That none be chosen that are unfit 4. That they use no coactive power but what is given them by the Soveraign 5. That they know their power to be mutable as being not by Gods command but from man And Chap. 11. § 8. He delivereth his opinion of the Original of Episcopacy that it was not fetcht from the Temple pattern so much as from the Synagogues where as he said before every Synagogue had a chief Ruler 14. As for J. D. and many other lesser Writers Sir Thomas Aston c. who say but half the same with those forementioned it is not worth your time and labour to read any more Animadversions on them 15. But the great Learned M. Ant. de Dominis Spalatensis deserveth a more distinct consideration who in his very learned Books De Repub. Eccles doth copiously handle all the matter of Church-Government But let us consider what it is that he maintaineth In his lib. 5. c. 1. he maintaineth that the whole proper Ecclesiastical Power is meerly Spiritual In cap. 2. that no Power with true Prefecture Jurisdiction Coaction and Domination belongeth to the Church In c. 3. he sheweth that an improper Jurisdiction belongs to it Where he overthroweth the old Schoolmens Description of Power of Jurisdiction and sheweth also the vanity of the common distinction of Power of Order and of Jurisdiction and maintaineth 1. that Power of Jurisdiction followeth ab Ordine as Light from the Sun 2. That all the Power of the Keys which is exercised for Internal effects although about External Matters of Worship or Government belongeth directly to the Potestas Ordinis 3. That the Power of Jurisdiction as distinct from Order and reserved to the Bishops is but the power about the Ordering of External things which is used Principally and Directly for an External Effect that is Church order § 5. p. 35. 4. That it is foolish to separate power of Order from any power of Jurisdiction whatsoever that is properly Ecclesiastical it being wholly Spiritual 5. The Episcopal Jurisdiction not properly Ecclesiastical he maketh to consist in ordering Rites and Ceremonies and Circumstances and Temporals about the Church and about such Modal Determinations about particular persons and actions as are matters of humane prudence which have only a General Rule in Nature or Scripture 6. By which though he hold Episcopacy Jure Divino that it is but such things that he supposeth proper to the Bishop which the Magistrate may determine and make Laws for as Grotius and others prove at last and himself after and as Sir Roger Twisden hath Historically proved to have been used by the Kings of England Histor Def. Cap. 5. 7. That all Ecclesiastical power whatsoever is fully and perfectly conjunct with Order page 36. 8. That this plenitude of power is totally and equally in all Bishops and Presbyters lawfully Ordained and that it is a meer vanity to distinguish in such power of Order Plenitudinem potestatis a parte solicitudinis 9. That this equal power of the Bishop and Presbyter floweth from Ordination and is the Essential Ordinary Ministerial

power 10. That this vain separating Power of Order and Jurisdiction is the whole Foundation of Popery § 7. p. 36. passi●● 37 c. 21. He frequently calleth that the Essential power in which Bishops and Presbyters are equal and so taketh the rest but for Accidental 12. He thus describeth the Bishops power of Jurisdiction c. 3. p. 39. § 13. About those things which are constituted in the Church only by Humane Ecclesiastical Right there is in the Church true Jurisdiction not necessarily depending on the Sacred Order it self if there be any at all separate from Order Such as Licensing a Bishop to Ordain in anothers Diocess c. For these acts are not Actus Sacri neque spirituales neque attingunt directè quicquam supernaturale sed sunt merè temporales circa rem externam temporalem qua est mera applicatio c. These are not Sacred nor Spiritual nor touch any thing directly that is Supernatural but are meerly Temporal and about an External and Temporal matter Et his solis verum est c. So that it is most evident that as God hath left to Humane Prudence the Ordering of some Modes and Circumstances of Worship and Discipline and Church Order and by his General Laws so Spalatensis thought that all the Bishops proper Jurisdiction lay in these things which were of Humane Right and that all things of divine appointment were equally belonging to the Presbyters Where again I desire it may be observed 1. That Magistrates may determine of such things and so make void or needless such an Episcopacy 2. That it is most certain that many things of External Order belong to a Presbyter to determine as to one that is the Conducter of the Sacred Assemblies As what Text to preach on what Method to use what Chapter to read where and at what hour the People shall meet how long they shall stay what Tune to sing a Psalm in and abundance of the like So that even that Jurisdiction which he excepeth to the Bishop is common to him with the Presbyter that officiateth And all that can be pretended is that it belongeth to him to determine such Circumstances as equally belong to many Churches which yet Synods of Presbyters may do as effectually for Concord 3. That indeed there is no true Ecclesiastical act which tendeth not to Internal Spiritual effects Publick Admonitions and Confessions as well as private are for the humbling of the Sinner and the exercise of Repentance and Excommunications and Absolutions in publick are not only nor chiefly for the external Order of the Church but for the preserving of the peoples souls from sin and for the warning of others and for the preserving in their minds a due esteem of the holiness of our Religion and the necessity of holiness in us and to convince those without that God's Laws and Ways and People are more holy than those of the World This is a clear and certain truth and therefore according to Spalatensis Presbyters must in publick as well as private Admonitions and Absolutions and Excommunications have equal power with Bishops except as to the ordering of the Circumstantials of it Which though he sometime seem to reserve for the Bishop yet to do him right when he doth so he ●●th that it is a mixt power As it is the exercise of the Keys it is Essential to the Sacred Office common to both but as it is a prudential determination of Circumstances according to Humane Right directly and principally for outward and not for inward effects it is the Bishops Jurisdiction So that really he maketh the Bishop as such to be but the Master of Order and Ceremonies where the Magistrate doth not do it himself and where it belongeth not to the Officiating Pastor as such His cap. 4. is to prove that the power for Internal Effects of Grace in the Church by External acts is exercised only Ministerially by Ministers as such Instanced cap 5. in Baptisme cap. 6. in the Lords Supper cap. 7. in Confessions and Penance and cap. 9. in that Fxcommunication which is the exercise of the Keys for he mistaketh in excluding Baptism from the Keys which indeed is the first use for intromission Cap. 12. He again purposely sheweth who are the Ministers of each Ordinance And first again Vindicateth his Uniting of Order and proper Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical as before § 4. p. 465. He confidently saith that to him it is a most certain thing that the power of Order is of the Word Sacrament and Keys and that it is plena tota integra fully totally intirely in every Bishop and lawful Prosbyter § 22. p. 472. He saith that Confirmation is neither a true Sacrament but a part of the Ceremonies of Baptism nor is it at all of Divine but of humane Ecclesiastical Institution nor doth it suppose any special power given by God to him that administreth it for any special supernatural effect But the Church for honour reserveth this Ceremony to the Bishop And § 24. He saith And why are Bishops so rigid that they will not permit to their Parish Ministers the Faculty of Confirming specially when they themselves come very seldome into those Parishes to visit And verily those Bishops which have large Diocesses of Christians in the Turkish Dominions as my Arch-Bishoprick of Spalato ought if this Ceremony were of any great account to give their Parish Ministers there living free power of Confirming Yea if the Bishops deny it them the Parish Ministers may and ought to exercise this Ceremony by their own Authority And here I will tell Posterity that if we could have but got our Prelates c. to have Confirmed to us but one Word which the King granted us pre tempore only in his Declar. of Eccles Affairs viz. that Confirmation as a solemn Transition from Infant Church-State into the Adult should be but by the Ministers CONSENT as knowing his People better than the Bishop that never before saw them or heard of them or examined them it had healed one of the greatest of our Breaches But our Concord was not thought worth this little price Though there is not in all the places that ever I lived in one Person of an hundred if five hundred that I can hear of that ever was Confirmed or ever sought it or regarded it And yet their Rubrick saith that we must not give the Lords Supper to any that are not Confirmed or ready for it Yet have we no power to require of any Man a Proof or Certificate of his Confirmation nor can we know whether he be Confirmed or not Nor can we refuse any at the Lords Table that refuseth to be examined by us whether he be ready to be Confirmed save Infants And in that 12. chap. § 25 26 27. p. 473. Spalatensis again sheweth that the Power of the Keys for binding and loosing belongeth to Bishops and Presbyters as Ministers And though he reserve the Publick use of