Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	pastor_n	spiritual_a	temporal_a	6,645	5	9.7032	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69195	Certaine demandes with their grounds, drawne out of holy writ, and propounded in foro conscientiæ by some religious gentl. vnto the reverend fathers, Richard archbishop of Canterbury, Richard bishop of London, William bishop of Lincolne, Garvase bishop of Worcester, William bishop of Exeter, & Thomas bishop of Peterbourough wherevnto the said gentl. require that it would please their lordships to make a true, plaine, direct, honest and resolute aunswere.	Bancroft, Richard, 1544-1610.	1605 (1605)	STC 6572.5; ESTC S112734	57,418	70

as that not only they content not thē selves by eating flesh themselves to grieve to offend a weak brother to give him an occasion to sinne but also cōmand a weake brother to eate that meate by eating wherof he can not but fal but stumble but grieve but offend but sinne and but destroy him selfe This kind of charitie may deserve vnhappely the name of some Synodal or Provincial charitie but certes it can neverworthely deserve to be called an Apostolicall charitie But Sirs you mistake the matter very much you deceive your selves draw not the cases rightly The vse of Crosses Copes Surplices Cappes kneelings are cōmanded by the christiā Magistrates soveraigne authority only as things indifferēt for orders sake not that men should be grieved and offended or that they should fall stumble sinne destroy them selves Touching the christian Magistrates authoritie about ordering rites ceremonies in the church we have somewhat at large argued before which we had thought might have fully satisfied your Lordships but because it pleaseth you still to presse vs with the same we must once againe plainly signifie vnto you that we beleeve that your selves do not attribute any more spirituall authoritie vnto the King to make constitute and ordeine canons constitutions rites or ceremonies then you give vnto him spirituall power to preach the word administer the Sacraments and excommunicate For we beleeve that your selves with the residue of the clergie assembled by the Kings writt in your convocation doe chalendge all spirituall power vnto your selves to make ordeine and decree all maner of canons constitutions ordinances ornaments rites and ceremonies in the Church Yea and this spirituall power we beleeve that you pretend to be derived vnto your selves and the rest of the clergie in the convocation not from any spirituall power invested in the person of our soveraigne Lord the King but onely from the spirituall power of our Saviour Christ alone And this is manifest by your Cxxxix canon for so are your words Whosoever shall hereafter affirme that the Sacred Synode of this nation in the name of Christ and by the Kings authoritie assembled is not the church of England by representation let him be excommunicated c. These wordes wee say of your canon viz. Sacred Synod is assembled in the name of Christ and by authoritie of the King plainely testifie that you hold your Synode not to be assembled by authoritie of the King in the name of the King or in the name of Christ and the King but only in the name of Christ And therefore by your owne wordes wee are inforced to beleeve that you attribute vnto the King none other authoritie then such as you attribute to the godly Kinges of Judah namely an authoritie to assemble and command your persons as they assembled and commanded the persons of the Priestes What to execute the rites and ceremonies of the Kinges of Iudah No but to execute the rites and ceremonies of God And so we beleeve your persons being assembled by authoritie and commandement of the King that your selves by your owne authoritie and that in the name and by the power of Christ and not in the name and power of the King doe ordeine decree and make canons constitutions rites and ceremonies as if they were sent vnto vs by your handes from God And thus much doe the very first words of your first canon and some words in your 140. 141. canons clearly prove For howsoever in the title of your book you vse these words Constitutions and Canons treated and agreed vpon by the Bishop of London c. Yet both in the proheme body of your first canō you affirme as followeth In your proheme or title you say thus the Kings supremacy over the church of Englād in causes ecclesiastical you say not over the church causes but over the church in causes and in the body of the same canō you say we first decree ordeine that the Archb. of Canterbury c. and in the Cxl. canon your words are these Whosoever shall affime that no maner of person c. are to be subiect to the decrees therof speaking of the Synod eccllesiasticall made ratified by the kings Maiesties supreame authority c. let him be c. your words also in your last canō are these whosoever shal hereafter affirm c. that the sacred Sinod assembled c. was a company of persons c. in making canons cōstitutions in causes ecclesiasticall c. ought to be despised c. the same being ratified confirmed and inioyned by the regall power supremacie and authoritie lett them be excommunicated Now by all these your owne words and sentences we decree ordeine decrees of the Synod making canons by the sacred Synod ratified confirmed inioyned by the regall power c. by all these words we say we can not but beleeve that you chalendge your ecclesiasticall power of ordeining decreeing making decrees canons constitutions rites and ceremonies to be invested in your owne persons assembled by authoritie of the King from the authoritie and power of Christ and not from any spirituall or ecclesiasticall power invested in the person of the King and derived and conveighed vnto your persons assembled by his regall writt For then how should we not beleeve also but that you iudged the Kings writt to be no civil but an ecclesiasticall and spirituall writt But howsoever as yet wee beleeve not this latter yet still we beleeve that you appropriate vnto your owne persons assembled by the Kings writt a sole power and that from our Saviour Christ to give vnto your decrees canons constitutions rites and ceremonies their first being and their first birthright and that you assigne vnto the King none other power but a power of their after birth of ratifying and confirming of that life being which your persons have first put into them So that the King is in this but as it were an executioner of your canons and not you the executioners of the Kings decrees Yea thus much M. Doctor Bilson in his Book intituled True difference betweene Christian subiection vnchristian rebellion Pag. 243. avoweth testifieth whose words are these We never said that Princes had any spirituall power it is a false collection of yours it is no part of our cōfession the sword which they bear we never called but external tēporall Againe to devise new rites and ceremonies for the Church is not the Princes vocation but to receive and allow such as the Scriptures and canons commend and such as the Bishops Pastours of the place shall advise not infringing the Scriptures or canons so for all other ecclesiasticall things causes Princes be neither the devisors nor directors of them but the confirmers and establishers of that which is good and displacers and revengers of that which is evill which power we say they have in all things be they spirituall

ecclesiasticall or temporall ibid. pag. 252. Yea and moreover we beleeve if any should impugne or gaine-say this your power of making spirituall and ecclesiasticall decrees in your convocatiō not to belong properly to your ministeriall power which you have by your divine offices in the church that you would then fly for the interpretation of the statute 1. Elizab. to our late Queenes iniunctions wherby it is declared that nothing was is or shal be meant or intēded by the oath required to have any other duety allegeance or band then was acknowledged to be due to the most noble Kinges of famous memorie K. H. the eight hir Maiesties Father or to K. Ed. 6. hir Maiesties brother And that the Kings and Queenes of this Realme may not challendge authoririe and power of any ministery of divine offices in the Churches But vnder God to have soveraintie rule of all maner of persons borne within hir Realmes so as no other foreigne power shal or ought to have any superioritie over them vpon this iniunction we say we build our former credence that your Lordships iudge your only persons and the persons of the rest of the Clergie not the ministerie of your divine offices or any parte thereof to be vnder the obedience of the Kings power vnto which ministerie also of divine offices you attribute right of ordeyning and making canons rites and ceremonies in the Church as a right properly incident and appertaining to that ministery not of doctrine but of divine governement which you challendge to be due vnto you as vnto Ministers and Officers appointed to rule and governe the Church vnder Christ by the holy Scriptures And therefore we pray your Lordships henceforwards to put vs vnto no more paine to answere this your argument of Kingly and supreame authoritie For we beleeve assuredly if Archbishops Bishops Deanes Archdeacons and the rest of the clergie assembled by the Kings writt by their deliberate counsaile voluntary and vnconstrayned will had not in their Synod decreed the vse of Copes Surplices Crosses square Cappes Tippets and such trash or if they had not by the president of their assembly most instantly supplicated the King to command the vse of these things thus ordeined by them selves we perswade our selves assuredly that the King by his absolute regall and supreame power would never have constrayned Archbishops Bishops Deanes Archdeacons c. to have vndergone the yoke of these ceremonies for the King right well knoweth that in so doing he should not have walked in the wayes of the Godly kings of Iudah then whose holy example to followe his Highnes hath protested to desire nothing more Neither for any other purpose as it seemeth vnto vs by your late speaches in the eares of the King no ceremony no Bishop doe your selves presse these ceremonies then that they should be in your owne hands as crosier staves to stay vp from falling the tottering walles of your Lordly Iurisdictions And yet because we never read in holy Writt that any ceremony was ever planted by our heavenly Father to bee a leanetoo for any Bishops of Gods planting or that the vnplanting of an humane ceremony would be the vnplanting of any of Gods Bishops what should we gather from hence but that your Lordships bee no Bishops of Gods planting for Bishops planted by the hande of God in the Vineyard of Christ be so fast sett and so deeply rooted that by no blast or storme of humane ceremonies they can be blowne vp And thus much touching your argument of the Kings cōmandement for orders sake As for the indifferencie of the things commanded the same hath already bene handled in an other place but touching the last part of your exception that the vse of these things is not commanded to the end that men should be grieved offended fall stumble sinne destroy them selves we reiect this as an impertinent insufficient answere to our demand for our demand tendeth not to insinuate that we think that these things be commanded to the end that every man by the vse of them should sinne but our demand concerneth the vncharitable commandement of the vse of these things imposed vpon a weake brother which weake brother by the vse of these things notwithstanding the commandement can not but full but stumble but give an offence but sinne What because of the commandement No but by reason of his weaknes which the commandement hath not power to ridd and take from him And therefore vnles your Lordships by some learning taught you in holy Writt can informe your selves our Christian Magistrate that your Synode in the Apostles absence is placed in the Apostolike chaire and being so placed hath also received by the Apostles doctrine an Apostolike authoritie to commande those thinges in his absence which he expresly forbade in his presence wee doubt greatly whether your convocationall assembly can charitably by Gods Law command the weake in faith to eate meate sacrificed vnto Idols and so by consequence to weare a Surplice a Cope a square Cap a shaven Crowne a Fryers Coule or a Monckes Hood yea or no Nay sithence the Apostle hath directly and in plaine termes forbidden the strong in faith the eating of meate sacrificed vnto Idolls because of him that shewed it and for the conscience not of thine but of that other which sayeth this is sacrificed vnto Idols and if withall hee have taught that it is evill for a man to eate with offence we demand by what rule of holy Writt your Lordships can assure the conscience of our Christian Magistrate and the soules of your assembly in convocation that his Highnes and they shall doe charitably vprightly and not sinne in the sight of the Lord in case by a commandement ye impose a necessitie of eating meates or vsing things of like indifferencie vpon the weake which the weake by the Apostles doctrine have free libertie nay rather which by the Apostles doctrine they be taught so longe as they be weake not to vse Besides if eating drinking appareling crossing or kneeling doubtingly without faith or with offence be sinnes against the soule defilements of the soule we then pray your Ll. to deale plainly with vs divinely to teach vs whether it be an Apostolike charitie to cōmand the doing of a thing which can not be done either by the weak in faith but doubtingly or by the strong in faith without offence giving an occasion to fall or putting a stumbling block before his brother But Sirs by your patience the Christian Magistrate doeth not inioyne neither doeth the Clergie in their convocation decree that the Ministers or people should weare a Surplice make a Crosse or kneele doubtingly and without faith only his commandement is that they kneele that they make a crosse and that they weare a Surplice Yea by your Lordships favour we demand whether such their doubting such their being without faith can either be purged by any glister or be dispensed

the abandoning of sectes divisions and vnquietnes among his people if he shall allow no factious ministers in their obstinacie But if the Archbishops and Bishops have not endevoured much lesse not indevoured to the vttermost of their powers as by the king they are required by conferences arguments perswasions love gentlenes clemencie and weight of reason to reclayme al ministers to the obedience of the church lawes then wee can not see how any civill Magistrates Gentlemen or others of vnderstanding can be intended by the proclamation to be favourers supporters or contenancers of factiousnes or obstinacie in the ministers which are not conformable As for those two and twentie thousande Ministers if possible there could have bene so many who without any conferences argumentes perswasions or weight of reason vsed by the Archbishops or Bishops have turned their heeles and as Gedeons tymerous and fearfull soldiours have returned and departed early from mount Gilead before the appointed tyme came we leave them to the Lord vnto whom in this case they have stood or fallen And who is able to rayse thē vp though for a tyme they be downe Nay if of the tenne thousande if possible there were so many which bee left there should nine thousande seven-hundered bowe downe their knees to drinke water at the Bishops poole and but 300. only should stand vp to lapp water with their tongues as a dogge lappeth in that well of water which springeth to eternal life yet by these 300. only is the Lord able to save Israell and to deliver the Medianites into Gedeons hand Nay if of these 300. but two only shall stand vp clothed in sackcloth to be witnesses yet in the end shall these two witnesses bee two Olyve trees and two Candlestickes standing before God who governeth the earth out of whose mouth if any will hurt them shall fire proceed and devoure their enemies And thus much have we thought necessarie to be spoken touching our vnderstanding of the Kings pleasure and commaund declared by his Highnes proclamation yea this also have we done not onely in regard of our loyaltie vnto our christian King but also in regard of the clearing of ourselves from every vniust imputation of being favourers supporters or countenancers of factious ministers in their obstinacie praying your Lordships to cary a favourable construction of these our Demaundes Because our desire is to be fully satisfied by holy Writt and not rest our iudgementes vpon humane authoritie especially sithence both your Lordships and our selves by the experience of full fiftie yeares have both heard and seene how vnprofitably and to no good purpose this salve of humane power hath bene applied vnto the church surfeted with drinkings and eatings of that romish strumpet yea and for our parts we can not but be hartily sory that after so long a time of triall your Lordships should still remayne so vnperswasible as not once to make experiment of the powring in of some more sweete and medicinable oyle to this so deadly and desperate a wound Especiallie the sore being at this day as deepe as noysome and as full of dead flesh as the same was the very first moment that your predecessors began to stoppe the issue thereof with this kinde of humane tente And so wee will proceed to our last ground drawne out of holy Writt for the resolutenes of our iudgementes wherevpon and wherein we yet stand The third ground If thy brother be grieved for the meate now walkest thou not charitably destroy not him with thy meate for whom Christ dyed It is evill for the man which eateth with offence It is good neither to eate flesh nor to drink wine nor any other thing whereby thy brother stumbleth or is offended or made weake Let vs not therefore iudge one an other any more but vse your iudgment rather in this that no man put an occasion to fall or a stumbling block before his brother From which grounds we demand First whether your Lordships iudge not all godly Ministers true beleevers within your iurisdictions to be your Christian brethren And whetherye and they bee not all sonnes vnto one Father and servants vnto one Lord Whether your Lordships be not of opinion that the putting and not putting on of a Surplice the making the not making of a crosse vpō the childs forehead in Baptisme the wearing not wearing of a square Cap and kneeling and not kneeling in the acte of receiving bread and wine at the Lords Table be not things in their owne nature of like indifferencie as were the eating and not eating of meates drinking and not drinking of wine or any thing in the Apostles time Whether your Lordships can prove by any place of holy writt that these rules and precepts given by the Apostles of not greeving a brother for meate of not walking charitably by eating meate of not destroying him for whom Christ died with meate of not doing evill by eating meate of not eating or drinking whereby a brother stumbleth is offended or made weake and of not putting an occasion to fall before a brother by eating meate We demand we say whether these the Apostles commandements in the not doing of all things of like indifferencie with that of not eating meate and not drinking wine do not aswell bind your Lordships at this day as they did the Bishops Pastours Elders and Brethren of that time And therefore we demand If any of your Ll. had bene Archbishop of Ephesus or of Creete had bene Bishop of Ierusalem Rome or Colosse in the Apostles time whether vnder the title of order vniformitie or by right of superioritie power you might without breach or cōtradiction of the Apostles doctrine have cōmanded any brethren within your charge being weak in faith to have eaten meats forbiddē by the law or sacrificed vnto Idols Againe if any of your Lordships in the Apostles time had bene an Archbishop or a Bishop and by your Archiepiscopall or Episcopall authoritie had commaunded the Pastours Elders and Brethren vnder your chardge being weake in faith by example of the strong in faith and for conformities sake to have eaten meates sacrificed vnto Idols or forbidden by the law we demand whether such your commandement had bene a charitable commandement yea or no Yea and we demand whether the same your commandement vnder what pretence of canonicall obedience vnitie or conformitie soever might have excused the weake in faith from sinning against Christ if at your commandment they being not fully perswaded in their minds had eaten of these meates doubtingly And if the Apostles charitie were so great as that he would never have eaten flesh while the world stādeth rather then he would greeve or offend his weak brother or give him an occasion to sinne we demād how small charitie the men of our age may seeme to have who be so far frō not greeving not offending a weak brother of not giving him an occasion to sinne