Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	ordain_v	ordination_n	presbyter_n	4,289	5	10.5064	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55307	The Samaritan shewing that many and unnecessary impositions are not the oyl that must heal the church together with the way or means to do it / by a country gentleman who goes to common-prayer and not to meetings.	Polhill, Edward, 1622-1694?	1682 (1682)	Wing P2756; ESTC R3092	63,931	131

as it is now by Law Established which are really equivalent with the Declaration of Assent and Consent to the Vse of the Book and it is to no more than to the Vse of it the Declaration is required to be made by the Act it follows that to take away One of these injunctions and not the Other could be of no Signification Upon notice hereof therefore given to some Members of the House it was moved at the Committee to take away the whole Subscription as well as the Declaration and it being carried in the Affirmative the Bill as it is here presented hath that Amendment There are some few Additions more inserted as necessary thereunto for the obtaining its end the reasons whereof appear in their own light yet is it Judged fit that publick notice be given of two or three of them The One of them is the Parenthesis about the Beginning where the Thirty-Nine Articles are imposed on every Minister to Subscribe which notwithstanding the Exception of Three of the Articles do yet require more Caution Whosoever have read a Book called A part of a Register wherein there is a Relation of several things in reference to the Nonconformists in Q. Elizabeths days they will find that there was nothing so greivous to them and exasperated them then against the Bishops so much as the Subscriptions of those times and the Subscription to the Articles was one among the rest which makes me wonder what our good men did now mean to impose the Subscription of these Articles so rigidly upon all for the enjoyment of the benefit of either of their Bills of Vnion or Indulgence They know not really what it is they were a doing for if the Persecuting Spirit should be raised hereafter about this Subscription and the thing be so pressed that all who Subscribe not shall be Prosecuted by the Law there were like to arise greater troubles to tender Consciences and scruples more unanswerable then could be about the Cap and Tippet the Surplice and Cross in those dayes The doubtfulness of many about the Ceremonies is not to be compared to a Conviction of Conscience that a man must not Subscribe to any point which he believes untrue By this means therefore should these Articles of the Church intended for Peace become the instruments of Torment and be had in the greatest Detestation which consequently will defame and then ruine the Protestant Religion There will be Persecution in the Church that 's certain for the Devil will have it so There will be Tender Consciences that 's certain for God will have it so When there are no other things then to trouble Mens Consciences but this Subscription Exceptions and Scruples will be raised against these Articles and it a Parliament do not prevent them in their Bill by a present mitigation they Act not like wise Men and do not see Ten Years before them The only remedy against this evil is to provide a liberty in both the Bills that every Consciencious Man that really scruples any of the Articles may explain his sense which if it shall not pass unless it be allowed to be Orthodox by the Bishop or by two other Bishops in case the Diocesan be partial there can be no harm in it at least none in comparison of this mischief which is to be prevented hereby Another of them is about the Middle concerning Orders In the late Times when the Bishops were down many were ordained by Presbyters and the House was willing to allow those Orders as good in a Case of Necessity upon which account only the rigid Episcopalian will allow of the Ministry of the Reformed Churches beyond the Sea but there being others that have been Ordained since the return of the Bishops the House made no provision for such in the Bill being not willing we may suppose to countenance a neglect of the Bishops out of that case And what then shall such do There is an Ordination to the Office or Ministry it self and he that is Once Ordained to that whether by Presbyters or Bishops cannot receive the Spiritual Power or Character or be made Ministers Again But there is a laying on of hands to the Work of that Office in regard to a new Charge as Paul and Barnabas who were Ministers before and yet are separated to that peculiar Work unto which they were called by the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the Hands of those who are named Act. 13. Such an Ordination now as this may be repeated and is the only Medium for resolution of this dimculty The Third of these Insertions is the last whole Clause concerning the Common-Prayer the due consideration whereof is the very main hinge upon which the whole matter of this Comprehension does turn If Union it self be necessary it must be necessary to know what is the Bottom upon which we can be United In all Reconcilements between different Parties the first thing that is to be found out is a Medium for their Agreement When we have found this it must be considered how far each Party can come up to that Medium and then we can make the Accommodation The Medium of Reconciliation in this Business at this time between the Conformist and Nonconformist is the Common-Prayer Some Persons as is said before do hold that a stinted Form of Prayer and our Parish-Churches are unwarrantable by God's Word who though they may be Indulged are thereby uncapable of Comprehension Others are ready to maintain the Lawfulness of both these and the Enquiry about such is How far they can do that which is enjoyned That is How far they can Read the Common-Prayer and how far they cannot Conform to it This is the Critical Point in regard to this Bill between the Conformist and Nonconformist The One can Read all the Other so much only as will serve for Union The Nonconformist now who hold a Form of Prayer and the Parish-Churches lawful are for the most part of them able through Providential Merey to Conform to the Ordinary Lord's Day Service their Exceptions which make the Liturgy to them unlawful lying in other Parts or Moments of the Book And consequently if the Bill may be hemmed up with the Clause here offered it will do Without that Clause it is apparently imperfect With it it will be what we may call Perfect that is Perfect in its kind so far as to answer its end and bring in All of the Willing and Many of the Vnwilling that go under the Name of the Presbyterian Perswasion This being premised the Bills the Titles only as they were in the House being voluntarily omitted are as followeth THE Bill for Comprehension WHereas the Peace of the State is highly concern'd in the Peace of the Church Therefore at all Times but especially in this Conjuncture it is most Necessary to be preserved In Order therefore to remove Differences and Dissatisfactions which may arise among Protestants Be it enacted by the Kings most Excellent

Head of the Church it will be enquired whether they claim their Title Jure Divino or Humano If Jure Divino they must prove it which will not easily be done If Jure Humano I hope they will grant the King Superior to them and that they are but His Officers and Delegates which is the same thing that I desire and which is agreeable to the Opinion of our First Reformers as is apparent in Dr. Burnet's History of the Reformation For Cranmer took a Commission from K. Edward by which he held his Bishoprick and exercised his Jurisdiction Vid. Par. 2. pag. 6. And so Bonner had done before him from King Henry the Eighth Vid. Par. 1. l. 3. p. 267. And this is the same thing that hath been lately proposed by that Thoughtful Man Mr. Humfrey in the End of a Discourse written by Himself and Others and dedicated to the Right Honourable the Earl of Hallifax that great and sagacious Statesman I know some Men are Deaf Adders who will not be brought to regard it let a Man have Charmed never so wisely but These I take it are such only who are Enemies to Peace and will part with nothing for the sake of it And why now these Tolerated Churches should not be accounted true Churches and Parts of the National-Church whereof the King is the Head I do not imagine In my Apprehension they look very like the Churches we read of in the New Testament which no Man doubts were of Divine Appointment For although I do not know but that some particular Persons from among the Clergy fittest for it As St. Paul chiefly imployed himself in Preaching the Gospel and meddled but little with Baptism may be lawfully and prudently chosen and employed chiefly in the Government of several Congregations even as many as they can personally know and be acquainted withal and if they be called Bishops and have a peculiar Consecration and nothing be done in Ordination Censures and Absolutions but with their Knowledge Direction and Approbation I would have no Controversie with them about it Yet I do professedly avow that I can find no such thing in the Scripture nor in the Practice of the Church for 200 Years I know 't is said That the Apostles were Diocesans and that they governed all or most of the Christian Churches whil'st they lived but I see no Proof of it and there 's one Argument against it which I cannot tell how to answer and 't is this If the Christian Churches in the Apostles days had no Governours but themselves 't is certain that for the most part they had none at all for they never fixed in any place but having preached the Gospel planted Churches and settled Officers amongst them they left them and went to other Places and Countreys 'T is true they did sometimes return and visit the Churches that they planted but who Governed them in the intermediate Periods of Time Or were there no Ordinations Censures or Absolutions performed in them or none but by their Direction and Command That some Acts of Discipline were performed by their Direction and Command I do acknowledge but that all were so and that none ought to be performed without it I see no reason to believe Touching the Practice of the Church after the Apostles till the end of the Second Century I must say That I can find no Evidence of Diocesan Episcopacy or of any Churches bigger than some single Congregations among us at this day I think the Churches of Corinth Ephesus Antioch c. single Congregations and that they all Communicated at one Altar and that there are many Congregations in England as numerous and some much more numerous than they Yea I will add after all that hath been said of late to the contrary that I am not convinced that the Church of Carthage in Cyprian's days which was Two hundred and fifty Years after Christ was any bigger than some of our Parochial-Congregations In an Epistle to the Clergy of Carthage he tells them That from the beginning of his Episcopacy he determined to do nothing by his own private Judgment nor without their Counsel and the Consent of his People A primordio Episcopatus mei statuerim nihil sine Consilio Vestro sine consensu Plebis meae privata sententia gerere Ep. 6. ex Edit Goulartii What doth St. Cyprian mean by His People in these words Doth he mean the whole or Major Part of a Diocess in the Modern sense of the Word Did he assemble his Diocess and take their Consent in all things that did concern them Credat Judaeus Appella Many Passages of like nature might be produced from this great Saint and Martyr and are by Learned Men which I will not repeat And for ought that I can perceive Diocesan Episcopacy was unknown in this Nation for several hundreds of Years after Christ Jesus The Culdees were the great Preachers of the Gospel and Promoters of Christianity in Scotland Those Culdees were no Bishops nor had any Ordination but such as was performed by the Monk or Abbot of the Monastery in the Island Hii This Monk who was himself no Bishop and his Pressters gave them their Orders and from thence came Aidan and Finan into England and are called Bishops but had no other Ordination than that abovementioned Wini was the first Canonical Bishop in Britain as Bede reports Non erat tunc ullus excepto Wini in tot a Britannia Canonice Ordinatus Episcopus Lib. 3. cap. 28. Which was near Six hundred Years after Christ The Prefecture and Jurisdiction of Bishops in England seems to me of Humane Institution and derived partly from the Favour of Princes and partly from the Usurpation of the Pope and thus gotten and obtained they enjoyed and exercised it for many Hundreds of Years even till the days of Henry the Eighth who reassuming the Authority that had been granted by former Princes and usurped by the Pope obliged them to acknowledg their Jurisdiction by derivation from Himself and subjected them to a Premunire in case of refusal And of this Opinion those Bishops seem to be that took Commissions from K. Henry the Eighth and K. Edward the Sixth for their holding their Bishopricks and Exercise of their Jurisdiction as I have signified already Let our present Diocesans therefore as such acknowledg themselves the King's Officers and by Deputation from Him let them exercise such Authority circa sacra as appertains to Kings Let them enjoy their Honour and Revenues as a Reward of their Service Let the Powers granted by Christ to such Bishops as I have above conceded lawful and their Presbyters be left inviolable And let our Diocesans supervise them in the Exercise of them and see that they neither neglect nor abuse them And all our Controversies about Church-Government will come to an end Such Churches as should be thought worthy of Toleration as well as those that have the Approbation of Authority would submit to such an