Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

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

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91392	The true grounds of ecclesiasticall regiment set forth in a briefe dissertation. Maintaining the Kings spirituall supremacie against the pretended independencie of the prelates, &c. Together, vvith some passages touching the ecclesiasticall power of parliaments, the use of synods, and the power of excommunication.	Parker, Henry, 1604-1652.	1641 (1641)	Wing P428; Thomason E176_18; ESTC R212682	61,943	101

THE TRUE GROUNDS OF Ecclesiasticall Regiment SET FORTH In a breife Dissertation Maintaining the Kings spirituall supremacie against the Pretended Independencie of the PRELATES c. TOGETHER VVith some passages touching the Ecclesiasticall Power of Parliaments the use of Synods and the Power of Excommunication LONDON Printed for Robert Bostock 1641. The Divine Right of Episcopacie refuted IN this Controversie about Episcopacie by reason of many mistakes of either side much time hath beene spent to little purpose and the right and truth is yet as farre imbosked and buried in darknesse as ever it was Me thinks the case is as if two well imbattail'd Armies had marched forth for a mutuall encounter but both not taking the same way there never was yet any meeting in any one certain place where this great strife might bee decided These mistakes and misadventures on both sides as I conceive have happened for want of an exact and adequate definition of Episcopacie first set downe and agreed upon by both and then by both equally pursued It shall be therefore my care at this time to begin with a definition of Episcopacy and that such a one as I shall take out of Bishop Hall one of the greatest asserters and in that the noblest of Episcopacy and that which hee indevours to maintaine as being of Divine right I according to my power shall indeavour to disprove The first definition given by the same Bishop is this Episcopacy is an holy Order of Church-government for the administration of the Church This definition I hold to be too large and unadequate for the determining of this doubt for Calvins discipline may according to this definition be called Episcopacy and it may be affirmed that Episcopacie has bin in all ages since God had never yet any Church wherein was not some holy Order of Church discipline for better ruling of the same And by the way I must here professe to shake off and neglect the mentioning or answering of any thing which the Patrons of Episcopacie have alledged and stuft their volumes withall in defence of Order and disparity in the Church for let our Adversaries be never so clamorous in this point yet it is manifest that no Church was ever yet so barbarous as to plead for anarchy or a meere equalitie neither did Calvin ever favour any such parity as was inconsistent with Order and government neither do we see any such confusion introduced into Geneva it selfe as our Hierarchists seem to gainsay To let passe all impertinent vagaries our dispute must be not whether Church politie be necessary or no but whether that Church policy which is now exercised in England be necessary unalterable or no And not whether such parity as is the mother of Confusion be politique or no but whether such parity as now is at Geneva amongst presbyters be politique or no but my present scope is not to defend the Presbyteriall discipline in all things it is only to maintain against the necessity of such an immutable Episcopacy as is now constituted in England so far to defend parity as our Hierarchists take advantage against it for the upholding of their own side To this purpose I caÌ„not chuse but say that in nature that seems to be the best parity which admits of some disparity in Order and that seems to be the best disparity which prevents confusion with the most parity And therefore we see that our Saviour recommended as unlordly a disparity as might be not unlike that of marriage for there is a great and sweet parity in the tie of Wedlocke between man and wife and that is not maintained without some disparity yet that disparity is as little as may be and that only for parities sake Non aliter fuerint foemina virque pares But of this no more I come to Bishop Halls next more exact definitions and they run thus Episcopacy is an Eminent Order of sacred function appointed in the Evangelicall Church by the Holy Ghost for the governing and overseeing thereof and besides the Word and Sacraments it is indued with power of Ordination and perpetuity of jurisdiction Or thus A Pastor ordained perpetuall moderator in Church affaires with a fixed imparity exercising spirituall jurisdiction out of his owne peculiarly demandated authority is a Bishop Or thus Adde majority above Presbyters and power of jurisdiction by due Ordination for constant continuance and this makes a Bishop take away these and he remaines a meere Presbyter It is to bee observed now that foure things are here asserted First Episcopall power is such as none are capable of but only men within Sacred Orders A Bishop must be a Presbyter indued with power of Ordination and spirituall jurisdiction by due Ordination and without these hee remaines a meere Pastor Secondly Episcopall power is such as is wholly independent upon temporall Rulers Its institution was from the Holy Ghost in the Evangelicall Church It must rule out of its owne peculiarly demandated authority Thirdly Episcopal power consists in Ordination and spiritual jurisdiction and in majority above Presbyters Fourthly Episcopal power is unalterable by any temporal authority it is perpetual by divine right As it was fixed and where it was settled by Christ and his immediate successors so and there it must continue unchanged til the worlds end In briefe the summe of all these definitions is this Episcopacy is a forme of Ecclesiasticall policy instituted by Christ whereby a Superiour Order of Presbyters is indued with a perpetual independent power of Ordination and spiritual jurisdiction and with majority above Presbyters and this power as it appertaines to all that Order so it appertaines only to that Order And those things which we oppose herein are chiefly two First we see no ground in the word of God why Bishops should arrogate to themselves such a peculiar independent perpetual power of Ordination spirituall jurisdiction and such a majority above Presbyters as now they injoy excluding from all such power and majoritie not only all Laymen and Princes but also Presbyters themselves Secondly if power of Ordination and spirituall jurisdiction and preheminence above all the Clergie bee due only to Bishops yet we complaine that now in England that power and preheminence is abused and too farre extended and to such purposes perverted as the Apostles never practised or intended Of these two points in this Order but for my part I am no favourer of extreames some defend Episcopacie as it is now constituted in England as Apostolicall others withstand it as Antichristian my opinion is that the government is not so faulty as the Governours have beene and that it is better then no government at all nay and may be better then some other forms which some Sectaries have recommended to the World And my opinion further is that it is not alike in all respects and that it ought to be severally examined and ventilated and that so it will probably appeare in some things unprofitable in some things

Reign of wicked Emperours to whom in Ecclesiasticall affaires more might be denied then to ours for though Reges in quantum Reges serviunt Deo as Saint Augustine sayes yet in quantum pii Reges they serve God the more gloriously and have a neerer accesse to God and in that respect it may bee more truly said of them that they are Ã Deo secundi solo Deo minores and if so how awfull and venerable must this render their persons and with what submission must we prostrate our selves at their sacred feet and that it may not seeme strange that meer power and rule in an unbelieving or wicked Prince should be so sacred and inviolable wee must take notice that the wickednesse of Princes in ill commands though it discharge us as to those ill commands yet it does not discharge their power or rule either in those or in any other For when Princes rule well they are to be obeyed when ill they are to be endured and this very indurance is an effect of obedience and subjection Peter as a Citizen of the Common-wealth is a servant to Nero and though in the meere consideration of a Christian Hee has not dependance upon Nero further then is to be testified by suffering under him in ill commands yet in all civill things and things indifferent his dependance remayns undissolved If Nero forbid Peter to preach contradicting God herein whose power is still transcendent this prohibition binds not Peter but if Nero use the Sword hereupon against Peter this sword is irresistible because though in this it be injurious in other things it is still sacred This one violence of Nero is tyrannous but the authority whereby this is done is not tyranny For the same sword which offends one defends many still and if one here be defended many must be offended and the good of many is to be preferred before the good of one And yet if God had made Peter supreame Judge of such cases and had given him a power independent it had been necessary that he had given him withall some remedie and sufficient means to support the same Supremacy independent right for God gives no man an absolute right without some proper remedy appertaining to the same The use of power is not to intreat or perswade only for these may bee done without power but to command and commands are vaine without compulsion and they which may not compell may not command and they which cannot command may not meddle at all except to intreat or perswade Power then there must be and that power must be somewhere supreame that it may command all good and punish all evill or else it is insufficient and if all then in religious as well as in civill cases for Supremacie may be severally exercised but the right of it cannot be severally enjoyed if Peter may doe more then perswade Nero the Scepter is Peters not Neroes if hee may doe no more he is as meer a subject as any other Layman but in whethersoever the power of commanding rests it cannot rest in both the Scepter cannot be shared independence cannot be divided the people cannot obey both as equall Judges whilst their judgments remain contrary nor serve both as equal Lords whilst their commands are contrary To perswade and intreat in Ministers are the offices of a blessed vocation but they are not properly Ensigns of Royaltie and power and if the spirits of men are somtimes moved won by the perswasions of Ministers as they may by other means yet captivated and commanded they cannot be and therefore if this be called power it is but imaginary and improper and such as ought not to enter into any comparison or rivalitie with that solid sensible coercive binding power wherewith God has invested his true Lievtenants upon earth That power which is proper must include not only a right of commanding but also an effectuall vertue of forcing obedience to its commands and of subjecting and reducing such as shall not render themselves obedient The supreame civill Magistrate has this power grounded upon the common consent of Mankinde and as strong as is the politicall consent of humane nature in its supream Law of publike conservation so vigorous and invincible is this power Had Priests any such power or sword we should soon see it and feele it and voluntarily stoop under it but since they can pretend to none such the meere noyse of an imaginary spirituall power and sword must not deceive us The sword must be of sympathy and proportion answerable to those commands for which it was ordained if the commands be externall and politicall the sword must not be invisible and meerly spirituall If the Pope can impose an oath upoÌ„ us to stand to his laws and to obey his awards our obedience being here politicall his power of imposing Oaths must be the like for if he pretend a right and have no remedy that is no power if he have a remedy that is not of the same nature with his command it will prove no remedy it will be found vain and uneffectuall Wee cannot thinke that God has given the Pope any power but for good and wee cannot think that power good whereby the Pope may destroy Millions of souls and yet cannot reclayme or convince one The Popes commands seeme to mee unreasonable unnaturall impious the Pope herein ha's no spirituall power to rectifie mee or to discover my errour to me or to procure obedience from me that power which he ha's over my soule is only to exclude it from heaven and to give it as a prey to Satan for not attributing more to him then to my own conscience and naturall light Can wee think that God gave this new Power never before knowne to these latter days out of mercy that all except one handfull of men should perish by it and none at all receive benefit by it It cannot be said that the same keys which shut heaven to so many open heaven to any one for those few which obey the Pope obey him either voluntarily or by constraint and they which are constrained obey him as a Prince not as a Priest and bow under his temporall not spirituall yoke howsoever it be otherwise pretended Voluntary obedience also is such as is rendred without any externall influence from the Pope For the will is capable of no compulsion and if it were my will would be as lyable to the same as any other mans and if the Pope may compell my will and so open Heaven to me as it were by his spirituall keys and will not t is his crueltie not my contumacie It s no glory to the Pope that some few by blinde voluntary obedience acknowledge the power of his keyes in this hee has no advantage of Mahomet that sword which was so victorious in the hand of Mahomet was as spirituall and as universally prevalent as the Popes So much of the imaginary rule and spiritual sword of

have been more free from these controversies and disturbances at this day Counsellors of State were by a wise King of Spaine compared to Spectacles and so may Prelates also but as the same King well observed those eyes are very wretched which can see nothing at all without them T is as much wisdome in Princes to look into the particular interests of Counsellors and not to be too light of beliefe as t is to do nothing without counsell and to suspect their owne imaginations If we did attribute to our Iudges a freedome from all fallibility and corruption and so intrust all Law into their hands this would be as dangerous as to allow Iudges no credit at all The Anabaptists which rely only upon their own private Enthusiasmes are not mislead into greater idolatry and slavery than the Papists which renounce their owne light and reason to cast themselves wholly upon the directions of their Ghostly Fathers Our Prelates at this day have not so rigorous an Empire over our beliefe as the Papists grone under yet they have given us a taste of late what Canons should be held most religious and fit for us if we would admit all to bee indisputable which they thinke fit to bee imposed upon us And truely when Clergie men were confessed to be the only Oracles and infallible Chaires of Divinity in the world t was but a modest Law my thinkes that all Lay-men being on Horse-backe and meeting Clergy-men on foote should perpetually dismount and resigne their horses to Clergie-men sure those times which thought this reasonable and just were prety modest times and Lay-men did not deserve so good In the second place also admit Clergie-men to be only and alwayes learned yet the learnedst men are not alwayes the wisest and fittest for action Sometimes where great reading meets with shallow capacities it fumes like strong Wine in their heads and makes them reele as it were under the burthen of it it causes sometimes greater disquiet both to themselves and other men In our Ancestors dayes when all learning was ingrossed by the Clergie and thrust into Cloysters and Colledges from the Laity yet there were many grave and wise States-men that were as an allay to the insolent and vaine excesses of the Clergie or else this State had bin often ruined But admit in the third place that Clergie-men are alwayes more learned and wise than all Lay-men yet we see they are not more free from errors heresies and jars amongst themselves than other men but rather lesse When Schismes rise amongst Divines as they doe almost perpetually Divines being thereby banded and divided against Divines what can the poore Laicke doe both sides he cannot adhere to and if he adhere to this that side condemnes him and if to that this condemnes him if hee make use of his judgment herein than hee trusts himselfe more than the Priest and if he use not his judgment at all He commits himselfe meerly to fortune and is as likely to embrace the wrong as the truth if he apply himselfe to the Major party that is hard somtimes to discern and if it be discernable yet it is many times the erroneous party The Papists are not the major part of Christians Christians are not the major part of men The orthodox amongst us are not the major part of Calvinists Calvinists are not the Major part of Protestants Before the Law the Minor part worshipped the true God and amongst those which worshipped the true God the Minor part were heartily his servants and made a Conscience of their wayes After Moses also when the Iewes began to mingle with the Canaanites and other bordering Heathens in the manner of their sacrifices and high places a very small part sometimes kept it selfe pure from those pollutions and innovations And in that great rent under Ieroboam ten tribes of twelve estranged themselves from God set up a new spurious false worship in Bethel And we reade long before the Captivity that Ephraim was divided against Manasseh and Manasseh against Ephraim and both against Iudah Iudah also it selfe was never wholly untainted for from the Captivity sundry sects and factions had distraited it in so much that when our Saviour came into the world there was scarce sincerity or truth to be found and that that was was not most eminently amongst the greatest Scribes Pharisees or Priests In all those times if there was such an infallibility in the Chayre of Moses as the Papists dreame of it did but little availe the world for he that then would have sought for the true way to walke in disclaiming utterly his owne light and understanding He must not have sought it amongst the multitude and if he had sought it amongst the Priests he would have seene divisions there and if amongst Prophets Hee would have found the same there also God did not deliver Oracles nor inspire Prophets at all times upon all occasions for the ceasing of differences and contestations He did appeare in love but not without all Majesty He did shew grace but not according to obligation After our Saviours Ascension a blessed Spirit of infallibity did rest upon the Church to direct in intricate debates and to prevent schismes till a perfect Gospell was establisht but this Spirit in those very times had not residence in any one mans breast at all times to give judgment in all things The greatest of the Apostles might severally vary and dissent in points of great concernment and therefore they had consultations sometimes and when consultations would not satisfie they did assemble in a greater body and when those assemblies were the wisdome of the Spirit did not alwayes manifest it selfe in those which were of highest order but sometimes the inferior did reprove and convince the superior and the superior did submit and yeeld to his inferior But after one age or two when the Spirit of God had consummated the maine establishment of Religion though it preserved the Church from a totall deviation it secured not all parts thereof from all grosse prevayling rents and Apostasies neither did it affixe it selfe or chuse any certaine resting place in any one part of the world more than an other Three ages being now runne out heresies of a foule nature beginning to spring up and increase with Religion it pleased God to send Constantine to ayd the truth against error and impiety in his power now it was to congregate Bishops of the best abilities for the discussing and discovering of truth and for the upholding the same being discovered When Bishops contended against Bishops and Presbyters against Presbyters and when Arianisme was defended by as great a number of Divines as it was opposed so that from the wisdome of Divines no decision could be expected then doth the power and policy of one Emperor by Divines remedy that which a thousand Divines by themselves could never have remedyed From the Bishop of Rome the Orthodox party could obtaine no succour till Constantines Scepter proved

Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Text snippets containing the quad